New comic con event at Eden Court to champion Scottish art

First Highland Realms Comic Con event to champion Scottish art at Eden Court

ByRamsay Banks- ramsay.banks@hnmedia.co.uk
Published: 16:00, 08 September 2026
 | Updated: 16:10, 08 September 2026

The organiser of a new event at Eden Court is looking forward to platforming artists from “every corner of Scotland.”

The first Highland Realms Comic Con is set to take place on October 17, organised by Abigail Carey of Loch & Lore Events.

Over 40 Scottish artists and vendors will be at the event, in addition to panelists, which will include a show from some of the brains behind Game of Thrones spin-off House of the Dragon.

Highland Realms follows in the footsteps of Inverness Comic Con, which has taken place four years in a row and is already scheduled for July next year.

Abigail, who hails from the USA but has lived in Scotland for 10 years, shed some light on what the event will look like and how it came to be.

She said: “At the end of May last year, my husband and I helped out with a little teeny anime convention.

“We had noticed the lack of a full comic con with panels, performances and workshops in the Inverness area. We decided to fill that gap.

“We took some money out of savings and booked Eden Court – a fantastic venue.”

Abigail is excited about the chance to support Scottish artists, both locally and from other parts of the country.

She also notices the increase in comic con events outside of major cities, in places like Elgin and the Caithness region.

“This area has so much to offer and Scotland in general has such an amazing range of artists,” she said.

“We’ve tried to concentrate on local Highlands vendors as much as we could.

“We’ve got Thingvoll and Plunder from Dingwall and people coming from Elgin and Nairn. There are also vendors from Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh.

“It’s really fantastic to see more of these events coming up. A lot of them are quite small and they’re focused on very local artists which is amazing and something I’d love to see more of.

“It would be great to get more people up here from the south to see the amazing work that we have available in the north of Scotland.”

Another consideration for Abigail is the rise of generative AI, with more people trying to profit off of AI art.

Highland Realms Comic Con has a blanket ban on all AI art, a policy which has proved popular with the artists attending the event.

“We’ve been to multiple events where loads of stuff is made with AI. My husband and I are both very passionately against generative AI.

“It’s trained on people’s stolen artwork, which hurts artists who should have made money for their work. It’s not OK.

“We’ve had so much really positive feedback from people saying, ‘we’re so glad you’ve banned AI, we’re so happy to see a con taking this seriously’”.

Attractions Highland Reams Comic Con will include panels from someone who works on Commando comics, an artist who created Scotland’s first black superhero, and someone who focuses on work in queer spaces.

There will also be a live Dungeons and Dragons session, and Martin Macalistair, Glasgow pro wrestler, will be the MC for the whole event.

Click here to buy tickets for Highland Realms Comic Con.

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