MHPL’s Comic Con returns for second year, bigger and better

By ANNA SMITH Local Journalism Initiative on April 24, 2025.

After the success of the inaugural event, the Medicine Hat Public Library is excited to bring back its free comic convention.

Hosted on May 3 in the library, the event falls in line with Free Comic Book Day, says youth and community librarian and organizer Stephanie Kuhn.

“We’ve been celebrating Free Comic Book Day for the last five years and handing out free comics to the community,” said Kuhn. “Last year we ran our first library Comic Con event, and brought it back this year because it was such a huge success.”

Kuhn continued to say that they’ve built on the event significantly since last year, eager to keep momentum with the enthusiasm and increased community involvement, filling the day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. with a variety of activities.

“We have a very special guest from the Doctor Who Society of Canada. They are originally based out in Ontario, but we’re really lucky that one of the senior members is a former resident of Medicine Hat, and so he got the group’s blessing to come out here and represent their group here at our event,” said Kuhn.

With him comes various memorabilia and props from the show on display, as well as a miniature replica of the TARDIS from the show. In addition, this guest is running a mobile escape room for guests. The escape room has slots to pre-register on May 1, some of which are still available, as well as a first come, first served availability during the convention.

Another new offering Kuhn featured is a new card shop in town, the Cardboard Casket, which will be selling merchandise as well as hosting a Pokemon card trading event and tournament.

“We will have card trading all day, so people and kids can come in and meet other collectors and trade cards,” said Kuhn. “They are also going to be teaching how to play the card games in the morning and then running a tournament in the afternoon.”

While the tournament can be entered the day of, Kuhn encourages those interested to register by reaching out via email to graham.pahl7@gmail.com.

Alongside this is a board game room, a costume contest and a workshop for beginning artists, the latter of which can be registered for on the library website. Outside, members of the Society for Creative Anachronism will be returning to do demonstrations of both heavy armoured and rapier medieval combat, following the popularity at last year’s event.

“We have Spider Man and Darth Vader who will be walking around the library, posing for pictures with attendees,” said Kuhn. “We have raffles, prizes, it’s so much bigger than last year.”

This event is a passion project of Kuhn’s, and she’s thrilled to be able to see it come to fruition, both this year and hopefully for years to come.

A full schedule of Comic Con offerings can be found on the MHPL website’s event calendar.