June 13, 2025 • 10 mins
CoolKay and Countyfairgrounds.net interview the upcoming - Comic Con upcoming on. June 20 - 21 - 22 @ Mississippi Trademart - Jackson, MS - with Joey Mills. of Media Relations for VXV Events, hosts of Iron City Comic Con
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, this is cool, Okay from County fair Grounds in Denver.
Do I have the Joey Nills, who's in charge of
the Mississippi Comic Kind coming in?
Speaker 2 (00:09):
I don't know if i'd say I'm in charge, but yes,
otherwise you're right on.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Hi, You're in charge of public relations, right? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (00:16):
I do the press stuff and I'm the lead MC
for the event.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Okay, So it's June twentieth, twenty first, Mississippi Trademark, Jackson.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Actually it's twentieth, twenty first and twenty.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Second, right, Okay, I thought that's what I said, But yeah,
it's at the Mississippi Trademark. Do these events go on
all over the country? How when did this Comic Kind
thing start?
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Do you know? Specifically in Jackson in Mississippi. Last year
was our tenth year anniversary, so this will be year
number eleven for this particular show.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Yeah, you know, I think I've interviewed you guys before,
but it's been quite a while. I've been interviewing for
a long time. So okay, so about how many do
you have?
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Do you know? It depends year to year. Our attendance
has continued to grow year after year, so I would
anticipate this year. Based on pre sales ticket sales, we're
probably looking at somewhere in the neighborhood of around twenty
thousand people.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
How is the parking.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
It's good. There's ample parking there. We've never had any
issues with people getting in getting parked. There's not only
is there ample parking on site, but there are some
empty lots that are open to us to direct people
to if for some reason the venue parking gets fulled.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Okay, do you know how many vendors you have?
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Oh? I don't. I know the last count, and it's
a wide range, and I apologize for not having a
more tight range for you, but it was somewhere in
the neighborhood of eighty to one hundred. But I don't
have a final confirmation. Yeah, it's fine.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Okay, So I'm coming in the front door. What's the
first thing I should do?
Speaker 2 (01:56):
When you come in the front door, You're going to
go through security. First of all, we bag checks. We'll
make sure if you have like a prop that looks
like a weapon, like swords, nerf guns, that kind of stuff,
we check all those. We put a zip tie on
them to show that they've been approved through security. Then
then you go right to registration. Depending on if you
bought your ticket online ahead of time or if you're
(02:16):
just buying one at the door, you'll get in different lines.
Once you get through registrations, the floor is yours. It's
wide open, so you can go right to the vendors.
You can go to the celebrities, you can go to
the photo ops, you can come to the Q and
A's or the panels. I mean, it's once you're in,
you're in, and that pass. If you got a one
day pass, you can come and go throughout the day.
If you buy a week in pass, you're good to
(02:38):
go all three days. And again we encourage people. Yeah,
if you've especially if you've got like kids, and I
believe me, I know I've got three of them. Sometimes
they get tired in the afternoons. Go get them a nap,
get them something refreshing to drink or whatever, get them
to relax a bit, and then come right back. Your
wristband that you get is good for the entire time.
So if it's a one day pass, you come and
(02:58):
go throughout the day. It's to weekend past here, you're
good to go all weekend. Come and go as you please.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Well, you know, I've never been to one of these events,
and like I said, I think I've interviewed you before,
and I know you've been going on for a while.
So you have celebrities. What are the celebrities doing? What
goes on with the celebrities.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
So most of the time, the celebrities will be at
their table, signing autographs, meeting fans in a one on
one or if you have a friend two on one
tuch situation. We have photo ops, so some people will
get like a professional photo with the celebrity where to
them against the fairly neutral background. And then every not
every most celebrities will do a Q and A, a
(03:38):
one hour Q and A at some point during the weekend,
depending on the others the rest of their schedules. So
there's opportunities to meet celebrities one on one. There's opportunities
in a group setting to sit have a Q and A,
listen to some stories they can tell you, or like
I said, you can get the autographs, photos, all of
that stuff as well.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Okay, having that attended one of these events before, why
is it comic time?
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Is it?
Speaker 1 (04:00):
What's comic orientated here?
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Well, a lot of our guests are in properties that
are either like TV shows or movies that are based
on a comic book, or kind of a genre adjacent
if that makes sense, Horror, sci fi, fantasy, that kind
of stuff. We also have comic book creators there, so
there'll be artists and writers of comic books. You can
come in and talk to them about their craft, or
(04:22):
you'll bring your comic books with you. A lot of
people will bring a rolling cart of comic books that
get signed by some of the different creators. So that's
where it all kind of started originally way back when
it was really focused on comic book creators. But as
comic book culture has kind of become pop culture, it's
broadened to the more of the celebrities and the cosplayers
(04:43):
and all that kind of stuff as well.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
So you got a whole bunch of old comic books there,
do you.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
There will be folks there are that have a ton
of old comic books. There will be some newer stuff
just kind of depends on what you're looking for, but yeah,
a lot of our vendors bring like action figures, like
you know, Spider Man toys and stuff from the vintage
hard to find type stuff they'll have comic books, they'll
have old comics, they'll have comic books that were signed
by folks at other conventions that maybe you couldn't get to,
(05:09):
but you really like that guy's work, Well they may
have that for sale as well. So yeah, the comic
book is kind of, like I said, it's where the
foundation rests of the whole thing, and so kind of
everything we do centers around that idea of comic books
and comic book culture and again, now pop culture that
was based on comic book type properties. So let's see
(05:32):
that goes on for three days. You must have a
pretty big attendance. Yeah. Yeah, we're expecting around twenty thousand
for the weekend, so it's a good number of folks,
but the venue itself accommodates that many people without a problem.
We use the trademark side is where the vendors will be,
That's where the photo ops will be, That's where the
celebrities will be at their tables, that's where our comic
(05:54):
book creators are, cosplay guests. All of that will be
kind of on the trademark floor. Some of the smaller
side rooms, one of them will be set up for gaming.
So if you want to go play arcade games. They'll
have arcade games set up so you can go there.
Sometimes people need local folks want to do an hour
presentation on something that they're passionate about. Sometimes it's local
(06:14):
filmmakers showing off, you know, a demo of the film
they're working on to get some feedback from an audience.
Sometimes it's people just wanting to talk about whatever they
want to talk about, whatever they kind of have that
passion for. And so folks, if you're interested in that
as well, they can go sit there for an hour
and enjoy a panel. A lot of them are interactive,
so the audience gets to participate. And then in the
(06:35):
arena itself, which is attached to the trademark, that's where
registration is because it's a big, open arena space. That's
also where we'll have like local fan groups. There're you know,
like a lot of a lot of a lot of
the cities we go to have like a local Star
Wars group where they all dress up in Star Wars
costumes or Star Trek or Ghostbusters or whatever. We'll have
them out there on the arena floor as well to
(06:56):
welcome folks. And that's where we'll also set up our stage. So,
like I said, a celebrity has a Q and A
you can come sit in the arena. The stage will
be right there in front of you. You can ask questions,
you can talk with you the celebrities to hear the
stories of all of that kind of stuff there.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Okay, is it a good event for kids under twelve?
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Yeah? Absolutely, we have folks from some people will bring
really small kids in all the way up to you know.
In some cases we had one group I think they
said they had like four generations there. They brought like
great grandma and grandma and the you know, the parents
and then their kids. We also encourage people to show up.
We keep it family friendly and with every adult paid ticket,
(07:37):
you can get two children ten and under in for free.
We don't charge for the young ones to come in
because again I know a lot of times they're going
to wear out at some point during the day, so
you know, yeah, let them come in, have some fun.
If you need to step out for a while, feel
free to do so, and then bring it back later
in the day if they you know, if they want
to get back in and see it some more.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
So there's I take it. You have a lot of
food venders then too.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Yes, there will be food vendors on site as well,
so you don't have to leave, but if you choose to,
if you don't see what you land, or if you
have special dietary needs or whatever. Like I said, that's
why we allow the come and go policy where you
can just kind of pop in once you get your
wristband tim and go as you please.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
So your organization puts down a lot of these events
across the US. Where's the next one coming up? So
after the Mississippi Comic Con, we are back in Jackson
in July for as the first year show for US,
so we're kind of building it as we go. It's
going to be a Mississippi card show, so like trading cards,
(08:36):
baseball cards, some of the Pokemon cards, that.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Kind of stuff. It's going to be a lot of vendors.
We'll have some athletes and voice actors from some of
those Pokemon type shows that you can talk to again
as well or have Q and a's with. And then
after that in August we go to Tulsa, Oklahoma for
a show. We've got a couple in September, I know
we're in Little Rock and Mobile Alabama in September. October
(09:01):
were in Springfield, Missouri for a kind of a horror
type convention. Since October, and I think we finished out
our season in the weekend before Thanksgiving in Peoria, Illinois.
So a lot of shows left to go this year.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Okay, Yeah, I know you guys have been around for
a while, so you must be doing okay. So okay,
And it's a different kind of a concept.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Sounds like fun for the kids, absolutely, yeah. And you know,
like I said, we've had people that the first time
they've went to one of these was when they were
bringing a grand kid, Like I've got the grand kids
for the weekend. They wanted to go do this thing,
so I brought them. And we had one lady who
you know, was almost in tears because she was just
so it was she wished she had known that these
(09:45):
types of things took place, you know, for much sooner
she was in her I think she said, she was
like in her mid sixties, but she's like, I wish
we had these types of things or they were this
big or this public, you know, since you know, when
I was an adult, a young adult, when I was
twenty five, I would have loved to have gone something
like this, I would have kept going for the last
forty years. But now that I'm here, it's awesome. I'll
(10:07):
be back next year for sure.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
So well, I'll try to get you some publicity and
we'll post our interview all over and maybe it'll help.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Yeah. Absolutely, we appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Okay, thank you, Joey. I've enjoyed talking to you.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Yeah, you too, talk to you later. Thanks night, Thank you.
Hi, this is cool, Okay from County fair Grounds in Denver.
Do I have the Joey Nills, who's in charge of
the Mississippi Comic Kind coming in?
Speaker 2 (00:09):
I don't know if i'd say I'm in charge, but yes,
otherwise you're right on.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Hi, You're in charge of public relations, right? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (00:16):
I do the press stuff and I'm the lead MC
for the event.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Okay, So it's June twentieth, twenty first, Mississippi Trademark, Jackson.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Actually it's twentieth, twenty first and twenty.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Second, right, Okay, I thought that's what I said, But yeah,
it's at the Mississippi Trademark. Do these events go on
all over the country? How when did this Comic Kind
thing start?
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Do you know? Specifically in Jackson in Mississippi. Last year
was our tenth year anniversary, so this will be year
number eleven for this particular show.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Yeah, you know, I think I've interviewed you guys before,
but it's been quite a while. I've been interviewing for
a long time. So okay, so about how many do
you have?
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Do you know? It depends year to year. Our attendance
has continued to grow year after year, so I would
anticipate this year. Based on pre sales ticket sales, we're
probably looking at somewhere in the neighborhood of around twenty
thousand people.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
How is the parking.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
It's good. There's ample parking there. We've never had any
issues with people getting in getting parked. There's not only
is there ample parking on site, but there are some
empty lots that are open to us to direct people
to if for some reason the venue parking gets fulled.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Okay, do you know how many vendors you have?
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Oh? I don't. I know the last count, and it's
a wide range, and I apologize for not having a
more tight range for you, but it was somewhere in
the neighborhood of eighty to one hundred. But I don't
have a final confirmation. Yeah, it's fine.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Okay, So I'm coming in the front door. What's the
first thing I should do?
Speaker 2 (01:56):
When you come in the front door, You're going to
go through security. First of all, we bag checks. We'll
make sure if you have like a prop that looks
like a weapon, like swords, nerf guns, that kind of stuff,
we check all those. We put a zip tie on
them to show that they've been approved through security. Then
then you go right to registration. Depending on if you
bought your ticket online ahead of time or if you're
(02:16):
just buying one at the door, you'll get in different lines.
Once you get through registrations, the floor is yours. It's
wide open, so you can go right to the vendors.
You can go to the celebrities, you can go to
the photo ops, you can come to the Q and
A's or the panels. I mean, it's once you're in,
you're in, and that pass. If you got a one
day pass, you can come and go throughout the day.
If you buy a week in pass, you're good to
(02:38):
go all three days. And again we encourage people. Yeah,
if you've especially if you've got like kids, and I
believe me, I know I've got three of them. Sometimes
they get tired in the afternoons. Go get them a nap,
get them something refreshing to drink or whatever, get them
to relax a bit, and then come right back. Your
wristband that you get is good for the entire time.
So if it's a one day pass, you come and
(02:58):
go throughout the day. It's to weekend past here, you're
good to go all weekend. Come and go as you please.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Well, you know, I've never been to one of these events,
and like I said, I think I've interviewed you before,
and I know you've been going on for a while.
So you have celebrities. What are the celebrities doing? What
goes on with the celebrities.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
So most of the time, the celebrities will be at
their table, signing autographs, meeting fans in a one on
one or if you have a friend two on one
tuch situation. We have photo ops, so some people will
get like a professional photo with the celebrity where to
them against the fairly neutral background. And then every not
every most celebrities will do a Q and A, a
(03:38):
one hour Q and A at some point during the weekend,
depending on the others the rest of their schedules. So
there's opportunities to meet celebrities one on one. There's opportunities
in a group setting to sit have a Q and A,
listen to some stories they can tell you, or like
I said, you can get the autographs, photos, all of
that stuff as well.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Okay, having that attended one of these events before, why
is it comic time?
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Is it?
Speaker 1 (04:00):
What's comic orientated here?
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Well, a lot of our guests are in properties that
are either like TV shows or movies that are based
on a comic book, or kind of a genre adjacent
if that makes sense, Horror, sci fi, fantasy, that kind
of stuff. We also have comic book creators there, so
there'll be artists and writers of comic books. You can
come in and talk to them about their craft, or
(04:22):
you'll bring your comic books with you. A lot of
people will bring a rolling cart of comic books that
get signed by some of the different creators. So that's
where it all kind of started originally way back when
it was really focused on comic book creators. But as
comic book culture has kind of become pop culture, it's
broadened to the more of the celebrities and the cosplayers
(04:43):
and all that kind of stuff as well.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
So you got a whole bunch of old comic books there,
do you.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
There will be folks there are that have a ton
of old comic books. There will be some newer stuff
just kind of depends on what you're looking for, but yeah,
a lot of our vendors bring like action figures, like
you know, Spider Man toys and stuff from the vintage
hard to find type stuff they'll have comic books, they'll
have old comics, they'll have comic books that were signed
by folks at other conventions that maybe you couldn't get to,
(05:09):
but you really like that guy's work, Well they may
have that for sale as well. So yeah, the comic
book is kind of, like I said, it's where the
foundation rests of the whole thing, and so kind of
everything we do centers around that idea of comic books
and comic book culture and again, now pop culture that
was based on comic book type properties. So let's see
(05:32):
that goes on for three days. You must have a
pretty big attendance. Yeah. Yeah, we're expecting around twenty thousand
for the weekend, so it's a good number of folks,
but the venue itself accommodates that many people without a problem.
We use the trademark side is where the vendors will be,
That's where the photo ops will be, That's where the
celebrities will be at their tables, that's where our comic
(05:54):
book creators are, cosplay guests. All of that will be
kind of on the trademark floor. Some of the smaller
side rooms, one of them will be set up for gaming.
So if you want to go play arcade games. They'll
have arcade games set up so you can go there.
Sometimes people need local folks want to do an hour
presentation on something that they're passionate about. Sometimes it's local
(06:14):
filmmakers showing off, you know, a demo of the film
they're working on to get some feedback from an audience.
Sometimes it's people just wanting to talk about whatever they
want to talk about, whatever they kind of have that
passion for. And so folks, if you're interested in that
as well, they can go sit there for an hour
and enjoy a panel. A lot of them are interactive,
so the audience gets to participate. And then in the
(06:35):
arena itself, which is attached to the trademark, that's where
registration is because it's a big, open arena space. That's
also where we'll have like local fan groups. There're you know,
like a lot of a lot of a lot of
the cities we go to have like a local Star
Wars group where they all dress up in Star Wars
costumes or Star Trek or Ghostbusters or whatever. We'll have
them out there on the arena floor as well to
(06:56):
welcome folks. And that's where we'll also set up our stage. So,
like I said, a celebrity has a Q and A
you can come sit in the arena. The stage will
be right there in front of you. You can ask questions,
you can talk with you the celebrities to hear the
stories of all of that kind of stuff there.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Okay, is it a good event for kids under twelve?
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Yeah? Absolutely, we have folks from some people will bring
really small kids in all the way up to you know.
In some cases we had one group I think they
said they had like four generations there. They brought like
great grandma and grandma and the you know, the parents
and then their kids. We also encourage people to show up.
We keep it family friendly and with every adult paid ticket,
(07:37):
you can get two children ten and under in for free.
We don't charge for the young ones to come in
because again I know a lot of times they're going
to wear out at some point during the day, so
you know, yeah, let them come in, have some fun.
If you need to step out for a while, feel
free to do so, and then bring it back later
in the day if they you know, if they want
to get back in and see it some more.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
So there's I take it. You have a lot of
food venders then too.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Yes, there will be food vendors on site as well,
so you don't have to leave, but if you choose to,
if you don't see what you land, or if you
have special dietary needs or whatever. Like I said, that's
why we allow the come and go policy where you
can just kind of pop in once you get your
wristband tim and go as you please.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
So your organization puts down a lot of these events
across the US. Where's the next one coming up? So
after the Mississippi Comic Con, we are back in Jackson
in July for as the first year show for US,
so we're kind of building it as we go. It's
going to be a Mississippi card show, so like trading cards,
(08:36):
baseball cards, some of the Pokemon cards, that.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Kind of stuff. It's going to be a lot of vendors.
We'll have some athletes and voice actors from some of
those Pokemon type shows that you can talk to again
as well or have Q and a's with. And then
after that in August we go to Tulsa, Oklahoma for
a show. We've got a couple in September, I know
we're in Little Rock and Mobile Alabama in September. October
(09:01):
were in Springfield, Missouri for a kind of a horror
type convention. Since October, and I think we finished out
our season in the weekend before Thanksgiving in Peoria, Illinois.
So a lot of shows left to go this year.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Okay, Yeah, I know you guys have been around for
a while, so you must be doing okay. So okay,
And it's a different kind of a concept.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Sounds like fun for the kids, absolutely, yeah. And you know,
like I said, we've had people that the first time
they've went to one of these was when they were
bringing a grand kid, Like I've got the grand kids
for the weekend. They wanted to go do this thing,
so I brought them. And we had one lady who
you know, was almost in tears because she was just
so it was she wished she had known that these
(09:45):
types of things took place, you know, for much sooner
she was in her I think she said, she was
like in her mid sixties, but she's like, I wish
we had these types of things or they were this
big or this public, you know, since you know, when
I was an adult, a young adult, when I was
twenty five, I would have loved to have gone something
like this, I would have kept going for the last
forty years. But now that I'm here, it's awesome. I'll
(10:07):
be back next year for sure.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
So well, I'll try to get you some publicity and
we'll post our interview all over and maybe it'll help.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Yeah. Absolutely, we appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Okay, thank you, Joey. I've enjoyed talking to you.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Yeah, you too, talk to you later. Thanks night, Thank you.
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