Cosplay Convention Stage
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Maui Comic Con is back for its tenth year, taking over the University of Hawaii Maui College campus in Kahului for a free two-day celebration of comics, cosplay and local art on Oct. 24-25. Organizers expect more than 4,000 attendees to pass through the Kahului campus, with the convention running from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. both days.
The event, founded in 2016 by Alika Seki of Maui Comics and Collectibles and comic book fan Kenneth Gardner, has grown into a free annual gathering, according to The Maui News. Seki said the event is intended as a gathering for people interested in or creating comics, and he has pointed out that comics encourage literacy and can motivate young readers to pick up a book. Maui Comic Con has described itself as a free-to-the-public comic convention since its early days, according to themauicomiccon.com.
The convention didn’t start at UH Maui College. It moved there in 2017 after its initial run elsewhere, and became a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit in August 2018, per the organization’s own account. Seki now serves as co-founder and president of the nonprofit’s board of directors, and the event is run by a volunteer board, per the organization’s site.
Horror Artists Headline a Halloween-Weekend Lineup
This year’s special guests include Dan Brereton, Jackie Kong, Michael Bair and James Silvani, with the Halloween-weekend timing proving especially fitting for two of them. Seki said the holiday theme suits Marvel artists Michael Bair and Dan Brereton, both of whom work on horror titles. Brereton is known for Batman: Thrillkiller, Legends of the World’s Finest, JLA: Seven Caskets and Legends of the Dark Knight, while Bair has illustrated Marvel’s Hellstrom, Spider-Man/Dr. Strange and X-Men, along with Harris Comics’ Vampirella.
Jackie Kong, a director, producer and screenwriter known for comedies and horror films, created a comic based on her latest movie concept for this year’s event. James Silvani, a Hawaii-based cartoonist and illustrator, brings a portfolio spanning Disney comics, children’s books and fine art. Cat Staggs, best known for Smallville Season 11 and the graphic novel Love Is Love, rounds out the roster of guests.
Cosplay Contest Draws Crowds From Across the Islands
The Night Darling Cosplay Competition, organized by Lynn Quiocho, who goes by Night Darling, has attracted as many as 60 contestants in past years and typically draws around 30 to 40. Quiocho has been cosplaying for more than seven years and also helps run the Kauai Comic Convention. Seki said the Maui contest can end up larger than some events on Oahu, a notable claim for an island convention competing for attention against the state’s bigger population centers.
Beyond the main floor, the convention’s weekend programming has historically included local and Hawaiian artists, vendors, live panels and interviews, and screenings of locally produced films, according to kaiaulu.ksbe.edu. That same account notes that local and Hawaiian artists are given free exhibition space, a detail consistent with the nonprofit’s stated mission of supporting island-based creators.
A Classroom Day and a New Sister Event in the Works
The convention has also built out an educational component aimed at Maui County high schoolers. In past years, students have been bussed to the UH Maui College campus for a day of arts-based programming designed to encourage enrollment at the school, according to the same kaiaulu.ksbe.edu account. Workshops covering watercolor, graphic design, character and story development, and creative storytelling have been offered as part of that push, per manoa.hawaii.edu, with the cosplay competition in past years split between individual contests and group and keiki, or children’s, contests across the two-day event.
Seki’s reach is also expanding beyond Maui. He is identified as a co-founder of the Hawaiian Islands Comic Art Festival, a new invitation-only gathering set for Jan. 15-17, 2027, at the Outrigger resort and spa in Kona, according to downthetubes.net. That event is described as an intimate gathering of renowned comic artists with no convention floors or crowds, focused solely on the art of comics rather than the broader fan-convention format Maui Comic Con has built over the past decade.
More information on the October event is available at themauicomiccon.com. Maui Comic Con remains organized as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit run by volunteers, continuing the model that has carried the free convention from its 2016 founding to an event now expecting thousands of attendees each fall.
