The enticing smell of freshly popped corn wafted over the inaugural RGCon as more than 200 comic book fans flocked to the Sul Ross State University campus in Eagle Pass on Saturday to celebrate their passion for the games, characters, and stories they enjoy.

Many guests showed up in costume and the cosplay contest featured a variety of characters including anime, manga, furries, Disney, horror, Star Wars, and Harry Potter. Winners in the 15 and under cosplay contest included first-place winner Penelope Gonzalez as Fancy Nancy, Banky Palomo in second as Freddy Fazbear, and third-place winner Cecilia Ortiz as Max Mayfield. In the 16 and over category, Thery Cardenas took first place as Luna Lovegood, Marcel Delgado received second as Red Guy, and Emilia Méndez placed third as Junko Enoshima.

The 16 vendors on hand offered games, posters, trading cards, pins, and other fan merchandise as well as baked goods. The Kra-z Cakes face painting booth stayed busy creating art on children and adults and the Eagle Pass Digital Arts Society offered virtual reality headsets for people to try. Dr. Gina Stocks and Dr. Verónica Méndez welcomed children to create arts and crafts and encouraged them to enter the contests. National Honor Society students from Eagle Pass High School volunteered throughout the day, helping where they were needed.

Dr. Audrey Taylor and Dr. Michael Ortiz worked tirelessly to plan and run the event. Others who made the day a huge success include Bianca Vela, Tammie Sinclair, Victor Munoz, and Joseph Olan with big shoutouts to Miguel Contreras of Never Give Up Collectibles in Eagle Pass for helping and donating some of the prizes.

Guest speakers discussed various topics throughout the day either in person or via interactive video with two joining from Sweden and France. SWTJC’s Victor Munoz, helped run one of the game tournaments, and the SRSU Mobile STEM Lab provided hands-on science displays. Guests also enjoyed trivia games, free snacks, and camaraderie with people sharing the same interests.

Don’t feel sad if you missed it; plans are already underway to make next year’s RGCon bigger and better! Meanwhile, see photos from the day on the SRSU Flickr site at https://flickr.com/photos/sulrossstate/albums.