Supervillains beware: Comic Con Nebraska holds inaugural event at CHI Health Center

Candice Foster had never been to a comic con before, but when she heard about Comic Con Nebraska at the CHI Health Center in Omaha, she knew she had to go. Foster said she grew up with comics.

“I got it from my dad. I got his collection,” said Foster. “So he's a huge, like, he has first edition(s) of a lot of stuff, and I know, like he had first edition X-Men and all that other stuff, and he passed it down to me, so I just kind of kept with the tradition.”

Her favorite comics are the West Coast Avengers, specifically the character Tigra. Foster said she came to Comic Con Nebraska because she wanted to meet one of the featured artists, Kristal Adams, as well as see if there were people in cosplay.

Cosplay is when someone dresses up as a character from a movie, book or video game.

Foster saw someone in a Skeletor cosplay and exclaimed, “That's so dope. You look amazing! Can I take a picture with you?”

Skeletor was one of many characters represented by people who came to cosplay. Ashley Mejstrik and Mark Novotny came dressed as the Invisible Woman and Mr. Fantastic. The friends have been cosplaying together for years. Mejstrik said she has been to at least 25 to 30 comic cons, and Novotny is close behind.

“I'd say probably, this is probably 15 to 20. This will be three of four for the year for me, and probably five or six for you,” Novotny said to Mejstrik.

“Probably, well, you're coming along to another one [in] late September, which I'll tell you about later,” Mejstrik replied.

“Okay, so three of five,” chuckled Novotny

Novotny said it's fun to pretend to be someone else for a weekend.

“Who do you want to embody? Who is your favorite character,” Novotny asked. “You're gonna, someone is gonna recognize you, and it's euphoric. It's just, it's fun…Before you go back to [your] nine to five, answering phone calls, and, yeah, on the weekend you get to be a superhero.”

Mejstrik brought her brother and father out, and of course they cosplayed as well. Her father was dressed up as the Mysterious Stranger from the Fallout video game series, while her brother was dressed as Dale Gribble from the King of the Hill television series. She said one of her favorite parts of comic cons is the community that exists within them.

“I just think really, like the sense of community,” said Mejstrik. “Like local artists really need to support, like, there's an artist here who I am now friends with that I met at other cons that we hung out, and they have the best art ever. Its just fun being able to promote your friends, because these are just random people that you meet here.”

A large part of comic cons, especially Comic Con Nebraska, is the artist alley; a place where artists and writers can set up a booth, meet people and sell their work. Anna Muri, aka Shubie Art, was one of those artists.

“I love sharing my art with people,” Muri said. “The whole reason that I started doing this was because the, like, excitement that people get on their face when they see something that they recognize, it's just like the greatest feeling in the world.”

Muri began attending comic cons and art events about two years ago and stays primarily within the Omaha area. She said cons can offer a space where people can really nerd or geek out about their favorite media, a sentiment that is shared among many who attend cons like Comic Con Nebraska.

“It's important because having just like that safe space where all of us nerds can get together and just, like, geek out,” Muri said. “There's nothing like a convention, just being around other people who are into the same thing as you and like sharing that one interest with someone and making new friends. And it's just so exciting to be around other people that are also geeky and nerdy and a little bit weird, like me.”

A few booths over from Muri were Ben Craine and Al Garrison, the founders of OMUG Comics, an independent Omaha comic company. Their primary story is called “Lenny Vernon, Bad Ass Trucker,” Lenny Vernon being a character they created. They have been making comics together since about 2011, with Garrison being the main artist and doing some writing, while Craine handles the rest of the writing.

Craine said local cons are good for independent and local artists, in part economically.

“Cons are good because [it allows you to] support a local artist. Support somebody who doesn't normally have a way to get their stuff out there. Because we don't, you know, we don't have a store to sell our stuff, and some of the local shops carry our stuff, but we don't have our own personal store or gallery or anything like that. So these shows are how we get our book out to the masses.”

They both work separate full-time jobs, but Garrison said they create comics for the love of the craft.

“There's been times where my wife and I have been out and people have come up to me and said, ‘hey, you're the guy from OMUG comics,’” Garrison said. "It's motivation when you have, you know, because it's such a lonely task. Most of the time when I'm drawing and working on a book, it's three months locked away in my basement by myself. So it is nice when you have people actually recognize it and want, and want more. There's a couple people here who have already told us they want the next issue.”

Both of them agree cons are a great place to meet new people, and get to talk shop about comics.

“It's a great way to connect and just get your stuff out,” said Garrison. “Even if we don't sell anything, just the conversation we have [with] people and getting that validation just one on one is rewarding. And just, you know, do it because you love it.

The comic con attracted people of all types – young, old, cosplayer, hardcore collector, etc. David Schram, a comic book seller and collector, has been a fan since he was a small child. Having spent most of his life in east-central Nebraska, around Osceola, he said he had to make due with what was sold at the local drugstore.

“All the drugstores and grocery stores had the spinner racks, so you'd talk your mom into an allowance, which was like $1 a week, and then you'd talk her into taking you to town,” said Schram. “We’d go to town and, you know, comic books were 20 cents, and I never had money for tax, so I would always go up there with five comics to the pharmacy, and they'd be like, $1.02 and I'm like, I've only got $1 there…Okay, we'll pay the two cents. And this went on for years.”

Eventually he started mowing lawns, and could afford the tax. Schram went to college in Minneapolis but eventually decided to move back to Osceola and opened up a comic book shop called Dave’s Cards and Comics in nearby York. It ran from 1991 to 2007, and then he decided to run it online and at cons.

“Being able to get a new generation to come in and feel, hold, touch, see the comic,” said Schram. “Nothing against buying them on their Kindle or something like that, but there's something different about holding that comic and reading it. For me, this will sound really weird, smelling the old comic. Open up the bag. You could smell the comic. You can't get that…It's just something about being able to see it, and it promotes the culture.”

First-time con attendee Foster was perusing all of the different booths, even having bought something already.

“I think it's important now, because I've been here, been in Omaha, all my life, and so just to have like, this kind of community is really nice to kind of see this. It gets my inner nerd going,” Foster said laughing.

Those putting on Comic Con Nebraska have already made plans for the second year, planned for Aug. 8-9, 2026. As the first day was coming to a close, application sheets for Comic Con Nebraska 2026 were being passed around. Community was the word of the day, and those who want to go to the next one have an entire year to plan what they will wear.