Flame Con 2024 to Celebrate 10 Years of LGBTQ+ Comics & Pop Culture
Last year I had the privilege of attending my first ever Flame Con and the experience BLEW me away! You can read about my full experience, but let me just say that I have never been surrounded by so much love and acceptance in one room. The entire event was a celebration of comics, pop culture, and community where anybody could come as they are and feel a part of it all.
As the final day of last year’s event ended, I was already counting down the days to Flame Con 2024. This year’s event will mark the 10th anniversary of what has become the world’s largest and longest-running queer comic con. The festivities will take place August 17 - 18, 2024 at the Sheraton Times Square Hotel in New York City. Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased here. I hope to see you there!
“For years, the constant refrain we’d hear attending other conventions was ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if..?’, says Nic Gitau, President of Geeks OUT. “‘Wouldn’t it be cool if… there was a safe space for LGBTQ+ fans to connect?’ or, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if… there was a show that proved audiences were hungry for unapologetically queer storytelling?’. Over the last ten years Flame Con has become a home for queer fans, championed queer stories, and celebrated queer creators as their careers have sparked and exploded. We're grateful for a community that's grown exponentially each year and we're excited to gather the best of LGBTQ+ comics and pop culture once more, in what will be a standout 10th anniversary show."
Official Press Release
New York, New York – February 5, 2024 – Flame Con, created and produced by the LGBTQ+ non-profit Geeks OUT, celebrates its tenth anniversary this year! The tenth annual Flame Con expo will take place on August 17 - 18 at the Sheraton Times Square Hotel in New York City. Featuring a comics, arts and entertainment expo and showcasing creators and special guests from all corners of the LGBTQ+ community of fans, the two-day venture will include thoughtful discussions, exclusive performances, cosplay and more.
“For years, the constant refrain we’d hear attending other conventions was ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if..?’, says Nic Gitau, President of Geeks OUT. “‘Wouldn’t it be cool if… there was a safe space for LGBTQ+ fans to connect?’ or, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if… there was a show that proved audiences were hungry for unapologetically queer storytelling?’. Over the last ten years Flame Con has become a home for queer fans, championed queer stories, and celebrated queer creators as their careers have sparked and exploded. We're grateful for a community that's grown exponentially each year and we're excited to gather the best of LGBTQ+ comics and pop culture once more, in what will be a standout 10th anniversary show."
Flame Con is excited to announce Molly Knox Ostertag as the first of its special guests for this year’s expo! Molly Knox Ostertag is the acclaimed ABA Indies and New York Times bestselling graphic novel author-illustrator of The Deep Dark, The Girl from the Sea, and the Witch Boy trilogy: The Witch Boy, The Hidden Witch, and The Midwinter Witch, as well as a writer for animation. An animated musical adaptation of The Witch Boy has been announced on Netflix.
To celebrate the expo and its special anniversary, Fireball: The Official Flame Con After Party will be held on Saturday, August 17 at Hell’s Kitchen’s Industry bar. The event will be hosted by Megami, cast member in the current season 16 of RuPaul’s Drag Race.
Last year’s con featured many queer-oriented vendors, creators, and special guests including Maia Kobabe (Gender Queer: A Memoir), Terry Blas (Rick and Morty, Steven Universe), Alyssa Wong (Star Wars: Doctor Aphra, Batman: Urban Legends), and Stephanie Williams (Nubia and the Amazons). Among the panels and presentations held last year were “Demystifying Game Design,” “How to Make Your Independent Queer Comic,” and “What A DRAG!: A Panel on Drag and Cosplay.” The expo also featured a live edition of host Connor Goldsmith’s CEREBRO podcast and a special LGBTQ+ comedy showcase with a lineup that included Calvin Cato (Netflix) and Veronica Garza (MTV, NPR).
“Flame Con is always my favorite convention of the year!,” says Josh Trujillo (Blue Beetle, Hulkling & Wiccan), Flame Con guest and comics writer and designer. “It’s a unique opportunity to meet with friends, peers, and fans in a more intimate setting. The stories we share as queer people can be so personal, and it means the world to know that readers connect with it.”
GLAAD Award-winning author and film programmer Anthony Oliveira (Steven Universe) shares, “Flame Con is easily my favorite comic convention. Nowhere else feels so much like home. It feels like someone took all the best parts of a con and just kept those, like if you made a whole con out of the weird queer section of every other expo’s Artist Alley!”
Tickets to Flame Con are available through Eventbrite and will feature daily and weekend passes, as well as passes to the official 2024 Flame Con party. Tickets can be purchased at flamecon2024.eventbrite.com.
Exhibitor table sales dates will launch later this month. Stay tuned for announcements.
For more information on Flame Con, please visit www.flamecon.org and for more information on Geeks OUT, please visit www.geeksout.org.
