Every year (barring those when the in-person event was canceled during the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic), our intrepid man in the field Matt Lazorwitz goes to New York’s Flame Con and collects interviews with some of the guests there. As such, it’s given him the opportunity to talk with great LGBTQ+ creators like James Tynion IV, Josh Trujillo and Stephanie Williams.
You can listen to the WMQ&A Flame Con 2023 special here, and the 2022 special here.
Flame Con is coming back this year for its 10th anniversary, so when their organizers sent over the release, we were happy to signal boost. Check out an edited version of the announcement below, including early guest announcements and ticket information.
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Flame Con, created and produced by the LGBTQ+ nonprofit Geeks OUT, celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. The tenth annual expo will take place Aug. 17 and 18 at the Sheraton Times Square Hotel in New York City. A comics, arts and entertainment expo showcasing creators and special guests from all corners of the LGBTQ+ community, the two-day venture will include thoughtful discussions, exclusive performances, cosplay and more.
“For years, the constant refrain we’d hear attending other conventions was ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if…?’ said Nic Gitau, president of Geeks OUT. “‘Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a safe space for LGBTQ+ fans to connect?’ or ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a show that proved audiences were hungry for unapologetically queer storytelling?’ Over the last 10 years, Flame Con has become a home for queer fans, championed queer stories and celebrated queer creators as their careers have sparked and exploded. We’re grateful for a community that’s grown exponentially each year, and we’re excited to gather the best of LGBTQ+ comics and pop culture once more, in what will be a standout 10th anniversary show.”
The con on Wednesday announced Molly Knox Ostertag as the first of its special guests for this year’s expo. Ostertag is the ABA Indies and New York Times bestselling graphic novel author-illustrator of The Deep Dark, The Girl from the Sea and the Witch Boy trilogy: The Witch Boy, The Hidden Witch and The Midwinter Witch, as well as a writer for animation. An animated musical adaptation of The Witch Boy has been announced on Netflix.
Fireball: The Official Flame Con After Party will be held Aug. 17 at Hell’s Kitchen’s Industry bar. The event will be hosted by Megami, cast member in the current season of RuPaul’s Drag Race.
“Flame Con is always my favorite convention of the year,” said Josh Trujillo (Blue Beetle, Hulkling & Wiccan), Flame Con guest and comics writer and designer. “It’s a unique opportunity to meet with friends, peers and fans in a more intimate setting. The stories we share as queer people can be so personal, and it means the world to know that readers connect with it.”
“Flame Con is easily my favorite comic convention,” GLAAD Award-winning author and film programmer Anthony Oliveira (Steven Universe) said. “Nowhere else feels so much like home. It feels like someone took all the best parts of a con and just kept those, like if you made a whole con out of the weird queer section of every other expo’s Artist Alley.”
Tickets to Flame Con are available through Eventbrite and include daily and weekend passes, as well as passes to the official after party. They can be purchased at flamecon2024.eventbrite.com. Exhibitor table sales will launch later this month.
For more information on Flame Con, visit flamecon.org, and for more information on Geeks OUT, visit geeksout.org.
Dan Grote is the editor-in-chief of ComicsXF, having won the site by ritual combat. By day, he’s a newspaper editor, and by night, he’s … also an editor. He co-hosts WMQ&A: The ComicsXF Interview Podcast with Matt Lazorwitz. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, two kids and two miniature dachshunds, and his third, fictional son, Peter Winston Wisdom.
