Last fall, the inaugural Uncanny Experience, an immersive convention for fans of the X-Men, was held at the historic Minneapolis Club in Minnesota. This year, the show is returning for year 2 on the final weekend of September, featuring more Chris Claremont, more animated X-Men voice actors and more twists on the traditional convention experience. ComicsXF sat down with Chandler Poling, one of the producers of the Uncanny Experience, to talk about the show’s sophomore year, favorite experiences from the first year and more.
The following interview has been lightly edited for clarity and content.
ComicsXF: Let’s start with the easy plug. Tell us what’s new and different this year compared to last year’s show.
Chandler Poling: What is similar is we’re bringing back Chris Claremont because he was such a hit last year. So Chris Claremont will be returning this year and he will be doing his usual autographs and appearances and he’ll be handing out our diplomas during the graduation ceremony.
What’s new this year is we are bringing in Gail Simone. Gail Simone, of course, is the current writer of Uncanny X-Men, and it is a nice kind of bookend to have Claremont and Gail at the same event. I feel like it appeals to both new and old fans. And we have all sorts of additional guests that are new this year. We have Tyler Kirkham, who is a popular cover artist for Marvel, done many, many X-Men covers. And we have Leah Williams, who is the writer for the Krakoa era X-Factor and X-Terminators.
We have different voice actors coming in from X-Men ’97 and X-Men: The Animated Series. We have the voices of Storm, Beast and Sunspot. I know that’s a huge popular milestone for a lot of people. So we are always excited to bring in those actors so people can meet them.
That’s on the guest roster. But as far as the immersive quality of the event, what’s new this year is we are introducing something called the Institute Houses. So like a boarding school or any sort of place where you would go and be sorted into a group or a house. We are trying to introduce that sort of mythos into X-Men. And we have introduced House Xavier, House Hellfire, House Pryde and House Morlock. And what that means is you can kind of further identify into the immersive X-Men world that we are building at the Uncanny Experience.
So if you feel a little counterculture and you want to be a Morlock for the weekend, you can join House Morlock and kind of interact with people that are of that same ilk. And if you feel like you’re more of an introvert or a bookworm, so to speak, and you want to be in House Pryde, you can be with your people there. That was designed in a way to just allow people to make more close friendships and also make it our world. You know, this is our kind of immersive world that we’re building. Within the institution of the Xavier Institute, it felt like it fit because this exists within the kind of boarding school educational structure it’s drawing on. So we said, what if Xavier’s school was like that?
Plus, every house has their own logo. It’s got their own merch. It’s a fun way to immerse yourself into the world.
ComicsXF: What challenges did you face last year, and how have some of those challenges impacted this second year?
Chandler: We took this event on with all of our passion for the X-Men and didn’t realize that we needed more help. So what we realized is that we did not have enough hands and bodies to help make this event run smoothly. And so we had to basically grow additional arms and limbs to make the event happen. And thankfully, people had a great time [at the first show]. Internally, I was screaming, but externally, everybody was having the best time. And when Sunday came around, and I’m rushing around, just making sure that everything’s running smoothly, and everyone’s having a good experience, people would grab me and just say, this is the best weekend of my life. Like, thank you so much. And they’re like, I can see you’re stressed, but please do this event again, because I can’t have this just happen once in my life, it needs to happen again. So I realized, OK, it’s working.
What we’re doing this year is we’ve got all sorts of new help. We brought in a whole bunch of new people to help with programming, with audio-visual, with all of those little elements that can pop up in an event that you don’t quite foresee. And so we are going in with a fully beefed up staff, and we’re really excited to make the event just kick off.
ComicsXF: Has round two been easier than round one in terms of putting it all together?
Chandler: Well, I will say it’s harder but not in the sense of a negative way. We make it hard on ourselves. We try to challenge ourselves and up our ante, so that people that are returning get a newer experience and then all the newcomers, of course, just get an elevated experience.
So it’s definitely worthwhile work because I think what we’re doing is really fun. And I keep telling this to all the people I speak to, I just wish I could go to this event. I just wish I could buy a ticket and go and not have to worry about it.
ComicsXF: What was one of the best interactions that you had at the first show?
Chandler: Oh, my gosh. As I was saying, the people that were grabbing me saying that they were having the best experience. But I don’t know, I think one of my favorite things that I witnessed rather than an interaction was watching how happy Chris Claremont was.
Chris Claremont is, obviously, responsible for so much of what we like about the X-Men, and we essentially brought to life this world that he built. And watching his face and his happiness was something. I was not expecting that he would just be so joyful during the whole weekend, to the point of where he’s like, please, I want to come every year. I don’t ever think that I won’t want to be here.
ComicsXF: What were some of the best cosplays that you saw in that first year?
Chandler: We bring in — or I should say we invite in — all sorts of cosplayers as guests. And so I don’t want to call them out because they’re all fantastic. But of the people that attended year one that were not our official cosplay guests, I loved seeing a cosplay of the mutant DJ, which is just a really random mutant from, I don’t know, maybe five, 10 years ago.
And then I really enjoyed seeing a Nightcrawler so much that we invited him to come as an official cosplay guest this year. Aline Diaz is his name.
ComicsXF: You mentioned earlier that you’ve got some more X-Men ’97 guests coming this year. Now that it’s this huge zeitgeisty hit, would you say that making the cartoon a larger part of your show than an average convention/fan experience has paid off?
Chandler: I would agree with that in the sense that when I listen to people on podcasts or interviews talk about X-Men, 90% of the people say that they were introduced to the X-Men because of X-Men: The Animated Series, including myself. So as a 40-something-year-old person who has disposable income to attend an event like this, it’s one of those things where I’m appealing to people like me that want to interact on that level with the animated series, the voice talent and creative talent.
Returning this year we have Eric and Julia Lewald, the showrunner and writer of the original show. So there’s a way to kind of honor the past show and then celebrate the new show and have this new energy around the property overall. I feel like a lot of nostalgic people who maybe aren’t caught up on comics, but like the X-Men, are able to be brought back into the fandom.
ComicsXF: The other big kind of X-Men happening between the last Uncanny Experience and this one, in addition to X-Men ’97, is the end of the Krakoa era and the launch of From the Ashes. How are you feeling about the end of Krakoa? How are you feeling about the little bit of From the Ashes we’ve gotten so far? Do you have a favorite From the Ashes title so far?
Chandler: I was a huge fan of the House of X, Powers of X Krakoa launch. For a good many years, I was very deep into the storytelling. It kind of lost me around “Sins of Sinister,” I feel. And then, as far as saying goodbye to Krakoa, I was OK with it. I feel like we all got to move on. Everything’s got to evolve. And so I was personally ready for it. And I am excited about From the Ashes. I will say I’m behind on reading, so I’m not fully caught up. I have read Gail Simone’s Uncanny X-Men relaunch title, and it’s fantastic. I loved her short story in the Free Comic Book Day issue. And I loved issue #1 of Uncanny X-Men.
We really lucked out in having her as a guest because we invited her under the assumption she was taking over the title, before they announced it officially. We talked to the reps, we booked her and, you know, with a wink and a nod of like, we think that this is a good idea for you, too, that she’s going to be a guest at an X-Men con. I’m so excited that Gail’s going to be there and that she’s writing a title that I think is really great.
ComicsXF: Let’s do a few quick hits. You mentioned DJ. What’s one of your favorite obscure mutants? Not the Nightcrawlers and the Rogues of the world, but the DJs of the world.
Chandler: Well, you know, ironically, music related as well, Lila Cheney is one of my favorite mutants. I feel like she’s very underutilized, but she always pops up every decade in some sort of storyline.
And though she’s not a mutant, I love Lilandra. I think Lilandra is such a fantastic character. I was glad to see her in X-Men ’97. Everyone’s got their Z-lister that they will fight for online; Lila and Lilandra are top on my list.
ComicsXF: Was there a particular bit of modern continuity or characterization that you saw Chris Claremont kind of gripe or complain about at the first show?
Chandler: He brought up that he was disappointed that Kitty became such a heavy drinker. Just for some reason, he was like, I don’t know why her character would go in that direction. She doesn’t seem to be the person that would want to be inebriated or get drunk, you know, though everybody of course has their spells. I remember him talking to me directly about that, just saying I wish I had better understanding other than she’s friends with Logan and he drinks, too. He just felt like as a character choice that it didn’t make sense to him.
ComicsXF: Which member of the X-Men voice cast sounds the most like their cartoon counterpart?
Chandler: That’s a funny question because we actually interact with them on all sorts of levels outside of the Uncanny Experience. I would say Lenore Zann [Rogue] has that kind of, you know, smoky Southern voice kind of always. So it’s always fun.
The complete opposite of that is Cal Dodd, who I feel like doesn’t sound anything like Wolverine, but he puts it on in such a way where you’re like, oh, my gosh, that’s him. That’s Wolverine.
ComicsXF: If Tim Walz was an X-person, who would he be?
Chandler: Ooh, well, uh, that’s a good question. I mean, he comes across like, you know, Xavier-ish in a way, like very much head of house and caring and wanting to, you know, be the best kind of father figure he can. But he also has Beast qualities. I feel again, more, you know, smart and verbally dexterous. I’m going to have to say an amalgam of Beast and Xavier.
ComicsXF: Last question: what is the future of the Uncanny Experience?
Chandler: Well, we’re one year at a time here. We’re still brand new, and every year we’re just seeing how it goes. Thankfully, this year we have increased attendance. We had to raise our ticket prices to match the venue costs as they raise their prices on us. So if people are monitoring that, just know that the venue is expensive.
So, looking ahead, we’ve already announced that we’re going to be doing year three, and we’ll be announcing the dates coming up very soon. And we will be launching ticket sale announcement information pretty soon as well. But I will say this as a teaser, that they are moving us out of September, and we are going to be having summer school.
ComicsXF: Finally, if people want to attend this year’s show, where would they go to do that?
Chandler: General admission tickets are still available. We have unfortunately sold out of VIP and Omega levels, but you can still attend this event with general admission. You go to TheUncannyExperience.com, and there’ll be a ticket link and you can purchase your tickets to join us for a two-day pass of Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 28 and 29.
ComicsXF: Thanks so much for taking the time to talk to us. We’re looking forward to seeing how year two goes and what comes next.
Chandler: My pleasure, thank you so much.
Austin Gorton also reviews older issues of X-Men at the Real Gentlemen of Leisure website, co-hosts the A Very Special episode podcast, and likes Star Wars. He lives outside Minneapolis, where sometimes, it is not cold. Follow him @austingorton.bsky.social.
