Comikaze Expo

Not to be confused with Komikazen.

Stan Lee's Comikaze Expo

Status	Active
Genre	Multi-genre
Venue	Los Angeles Convention Center
Location(s)	Los Angeles
Country	United States
Inaugurated	November, 2011
Attendance	65,000 (November 2014)
Website
http://www.comikazeexpo.com

Stan Lee's Comikaze Expo is a three day event held during the fall at the Los Angeles Convention Center, located in downtown Los Angeles, California. Comikaze Expo embraces a diversity of genres, including comic, horror, sci-fi, anime, gaming, and pop culture, with a large focus on the LA community, making Stan Lee's Comikaze LA's ultimate comic-con and pop-culture experience. The annual event was first held on November 5–6, 2011 with a total of 35,000 attendees throughout the entire weekend.^[1]

In 2012, CEO Regina Carpinelli announced that veteran creator Stan Lee and his company, POW! Entertainment, as well as Cassandra Peterson (better known as Elvira), would form a partnership with Comikaze Expo, rebranding the convention entirely. Comikaze Expo was renamed Stan Lee's Comikaze, making Comikaze the only pop culture convention owned by two industry icons.^[2]^[3]

In June 2012, Advanstar, one of the world’s largest producers of trade shows and events and the parent company of Licensing Expo, teamed up with Stan Lee’s Comikaze Expo for a strategic and operating partnership intended to expand the Comikaze show and brand around the world. The announcement was made by Chris DeMoulin, executive vice president of customer development and president of licensing, Advanstar; Regina Carpinelli, founder and chief executive officer, Comikaze Expo; and Stan Lee; with a special appearance by Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (Cassandra Peterson).^[4]

In September 2013, a reality show, Fangasm, premiered on the SCFI Channel. The show's premise: "Seven extreme pop culture fans move into a Los Angeles apartment complex to live together and intern at Stan Lee's Comikaze Expo while attempted to contend with each other's personalities and win opportunity to work with Lee. Credits: Regina Carpinelli (Host), Cassandra Peterson (Host), Andrew Duvall (Participant), Dani Snow (Participant), Kristin Hackett (Participant), Mike Reed (Participant), Molly McIsaac (Participant), Paul Perkins (Participant), Salvatore Fringo (Participant)."^[5]

Origins

Comikaze Entertainment Inc. was founded by Regina Carpinelli and her two younger brothers of Temecula, California. As children the Carpinelli's were immersed in geek culture and were avid attendees of San Diego Comic-Con International.^[6] After moving to Los Angeles, CEO Regina Carpinelli decided that the city needed a large-scale comic book convention of its own.^[7]^[8] Comikaze Expo is becoming one of the largest multi-media, popular culture conventions on the West Coast of the United States. After its sophomore show in 2012 with over 50,000 attendees, Stan Lee's Comikaze became one of the top 5 largest conventions of its kind in the USA, with Forbes magazine stating that Stan Lee's Comikaze " Was definitely a huge success, and it will no doubt continue to grow into one of the premier comic book conventions in the country."^[9]

Events

2011- Comikaze Expo was held in the Kentia Hall of the Los Angeles Convention Center. The show featured a large floorspace for exhibitors. These include several vendors such as local artists, tattoo artists, comic book dealers, comic book publishers, press vendors, designers and collectibles merchants. Amongst Artists' Alley are autographing areas where celebrities and artists sign autographs and sell portraits. Traditional contests and gaming tournaments include the Cosplay Contest, the Masquerade, Magic The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh, Warhammer, and several original Nintendo games.^[10]

The event also includes panels featuring various celebrities, reunions, upcoming feature films, and artists. In September 2011, Comikaze Expo announced it would host horror icon Elvira's last convention appearance.^[11]

2012- Stan Lee's Comikaze was held in the South Hall of the Los Angeles Convention Center with a large exhibitor space with over 600 artists and vendors, Gaming publisher Activison was present and was the first large corporate gaming publisher to attend the event, launching several new games. Comikaze introduced several interactive features to its floor plan, a 75,000 sg ft Zombie Apocalypse obstacle course, filled with zombies, A Quidditch pitch where fans could play the game made popular by the Harry Potter series and a NERF dart battle hosted by Chronicle (film) creator Max Landis . The show also had a 14 ft jumbotron and stage placed in the hall, where the shows key panels were held allowing all fans to see headlining actors and announcements, including Kevin Smith and a live version of Fatman on Batman with Adam West, A version of the Dating Game with Adrianne Curry, and a Q&A with Stan Lee and Todd McFarlane.^[12]^[13]^[14]

In 2014 BleedingCool.com called Stan Lee's Comikaze One of the Coolest, Hippest Shows In The Country and included a free Cosplay Dance party to all attendees at Club Nokia.^[15]

Dates	Location	Attendance	Featured Guests
November 5–6, 2011	Los Angeles Convention Center	35,000	Stan Lee, Elvira, Mark Hamill, Tony Todd, Ernest Borgnine, Tippi Hedren, Morgan Fairchild, Robert Venditti, Marina Sirtis, Garrett Wang, Robert Beltran, Cast of Nickelodeon's All That (Kel Mitchell, Josh Server, Lori Beth Denberg, Katrina Johnson, Alisa Reyes, Angelique Bates, and Lisa Foiles), Cast of Bad Kids Go to Hell, Cast of Police Academy, Select Cast of Star Trek Voyager&Deep Space 9, and Jhonen Vasquez
September 15–16, 2012	Los Angeles Convention Center	45,000	Stan Lee, Elvira, Adam West, Burt Ward, Todd McFarlane, Kevin Smith, Mark Hamill, Norman Reedus, Tony Todd, Felicia Day, Tara Strong, Dana Snyder, Julie Newmar, Neal Adams, Marv Wolfman, Zak Penn, Lou Ferrigno, Daphne Ashbrook, Ron Glass, Amber Benson, Cast of Nickelodeon's Salute Your Shorts: (Michael Ray Bower, Danny Cooksey, Kirk Baily, Venus DeMilo, Trevor Eyster, Erik MacArthur) Kevin J. Anderson, J. Scott Campbell, Tony Moore, and Marc Silvestri
November 1–3, 2013	Los Angeles Convention Center	55,000	Stan Lee, Elvira, "Weird Al" Yankovic, Bruce Campbell, Michael Rooker, Cast of The Powerpuff Girls (Catherine Cavadini, E.G. Daily, Tara Strong), LeVar Burton, Tony Todd, Cast of Nickelodeon's The Adventures of Pete & Pete (Mike Maronna, Danny Tamberelli), Edward James Olmos, Dean Cain, Alyssa Milano, RuPaul, Louie Anderson, Lou Ferrigno, James Hong, Lynne Marie Stewart, Lori Petty, Paris Themmen, Cast of AMC's Comic Book Men (Mike Zapcic, Ming Chen, Robert Bruce), Naomi Grossman, Lisa Foiles, Michael Ray Bower, Phil Moore, Jon Schnepp, Richard Horvitz, Rikki Simons, Jim Cummings, Bill Farmer, and Jhonen Vasquez
Oct.31 - November 2, 2014	Los Angeles Convention Center	65,000	Stan Lee, Elvira, Kevin Smith, Kevin Conroy, Burt Ward, Gwendoline Christie, Alfie Allen, Stephen Moyer, Kristin Bauer, Barbara Eden, Mindy Sterling, John Barrowman, Jewel Staite, Tara Strong, Howie Mandel, James Hong, Eric Roberts, Original Power Rangers (David Yost and Walter Emanuel Jones), Cast of AMC's Comic Book Men (Bryan Johnson, Mike Zapcic, Ming Chen, Robert Bruce), and Tommy Wiseau
Oct.30 - November 1, 2015	Los Angeles Convention Center	70,000	Stan Lee, Elvira, Carrie Fisher, Todd McFarlane, Grant Morrison, Rob Liefeld, Summer Glau, Nichelle Nichols, Jon Schnepp, Cast of Nickelodeon's All That (Kel Mitchell, Josh Server, Lori Beth Denberg, Katrina Johnson, Alisa Reyes, Angelique Bates, Danny Tamberelli and Lisa Foiles), Cast of Nickelodeon's The Adventures of Pete & Pete (Mike Maronna & Danny Tamberelli), and Grumpy Cat

References

External links

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