What do you get when you have Star Wars, anime, Toy Story, Pokémon, Spiderman, and a whole lot more pop-culture memorabilia and events? You have StocktonCon, a staple in this community for more than two decades.
Thousands filed into the Stockton Kings basketball court-turned convention floor at Adventist Health Arena on Sunday to dress up as one of their favorite characters, listen to panels with voice actors from their favorite childhood movies, and experience StocktonCon, including the couple, Frank, who lives in Tracy, and Judith, from Stockton.
"I dress up just because I like Spiderman," Frank said. "I like what he stands for and I want to represent him and give people happiness, joy, and try to live up as him, kind of just make me more confident, in a way."
This is a shared hobby for Frank and Judith, to dress up or cosplay.
"There's a lot of kids here, so I feel like being able to cosplay someone that they look up to is pretty significant," Judith said. "So, just seeing them smile, seeing them be happy, makes me happy."
It's moments like these that are StocktonCon founder Mike Millerick's favorite after he launched this in 2012, originally at the University of Pacific. Millerick wanted to build something for the Stockton and Lodi community. It's grown into four events in Stockton and Lodi throughout the year, where kids under 12 attend for free with an adult.
"I think my favorite part is when you can see a family walking around and then one of the little kids or the boy or the girl looks up and goes, 'Hey, look, Dad or Mom, it's Spiderman.' And then they take a picture with him. And it's just a really cool experience. I mean, when I was a kid, I grew up reading comic books. That's what helped me learn how to read."
Three-year-old Camilo met someone dressed as Pokémon's Ash Ketchum. His dad, Eddie Bedolla, has been coming to StocktonCon for years and is excited to share his favorite childhood characters with his son. Eddie wants to make this a tradition of bringing Camilo here.
"Honestly, it's a good event for Stockton. It's been good for the community, I know with the whole negativity, but just with it just being here, it's a big huge [positive] for the community," Bedolla said.
It's an event that helps bring people together, including Julian Hernandez, who dressed up as Pikachu and came from Sacramento. Hernandez said a little girl was also dressed up as Pikachu and her mom asked if they could take a selfie together and that another guy dressed as Ketchum (maybe the same Ash that met Camilo) also wanted to take a picture with him.
"I love conventions like this because it brings people together," Hernandez said. "Because my family doesn't really understand comic books and things like that, like everyone else here does, and that's why I feel like this is like my second home because everyone here feels relatable to each other, like we're all connected."
A second home in Stockton.
"We have a lot of beautiful people over here and we just wanted to go ahead and enjoy the atmosphere," Jomar Rivera, with Basic Designs and Photography, said. "We have a lot of these great collectibles and merch and stuff, so hopefully people can come by and check us out."
One of the collector's items Rivera is passionate about: a Jollibee figurine.
Millerick also said they are raising money for the child abuse prevention council with a silent auction.
This year, he is remembering his dear late friend Andy, who was the United Way president, who he says was a very big part of their community.
"I'm a big fan of all things pop culture," Millerick said. "I've been going to San Diego Comic Con since about 2008, 2009, and I just had this idea to talk to one of our local charities, the United Way. A friend of mine, Andy Prokop, was the president. So, I just mentioned to him, I was like, 'Hey, is there any way we can just maybe do… bring a small part of Comic Con to Stockton and raise some money for charity?' 'Absolutely.' That was his response. And so, unfortunately, Andy passed away last year. Very, very, very big part of our community for many years, but he's always going to be a big part of this show."
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