Buffalo's 11th annual ComiCon

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - Where can kids and adults go together and share common interests? The Buffalo ComiCon.

It is the 11th year for the event, and with the turnout they had Sunday afternoon, it was the biggest one yet.

Promoter of Buffalo ComiCon Emily Novak says, "This type of culture is fun, it's enjoyable. I think with all the stress out there they need a little bit of an escape and I think these ComiCon's do that. It's part of just going away for a little bit, having a little vacation world."

It was Chris Shello's first year at the ComiCon, and he told News 4, "It's wonderful. I grew up reading comics my whole life. It's such a great innocent thing to do to read about superheroes and things like that, and to share it with the girls is great."

It's locally driven, so there are local artists and film makers featured including East Aurora's own Graham Nolan who created the character of Bane in the Batman series that was featured in the Dark Knight rises.

"I loved what Tom Hardy did as Bane in the movie. He was different than our Bane. They captured Bane's character, this imposing, intelligent, thuggish guy and that's all that counts," says Nolan.

What has helped drive the popularity is success of shows like Walking Dead and The Big Bang Theory, along with the success of The Marvel Movies.

You can find plenty of people in costume including the Northridge Star Wars Fanclub who make appearances to help raise money for chairities like Compass House.

A lot of the costumes are custom made and very detailed.

Bryan Patrick Stoyle from the North Ridge Star Wars Fanclub says, "It actually depends on each costume. You have things like the Jedi Knights where there are patterns out there and you go buy fabric and sew them, or there's things like Darth Vader where you have little armor pieces where you have to go find somebody who can make those masks, and pieces, and metals. We have people who are stitching hair to make the Wookie costumes. It's fun learning new skills that are interestingly practical for nothing other than our nerdiness."