Comic Con Craze: Midland Mall hosts largest Comic Con yet, drawing an estimated 9,000 to 10,000
5th annual event took place March 7-9
By Max Milne,Community News Editor
Parking lots surrounding Midland Mall were packed over the weekend as cosplayers, creators, and collectors from all walks of life gathered for the fifth annual Midland Mall Comic Con, held March 7-9.
With the addition of a third day this year, Midland Mall declared 2025 the largest Comic Con it has hosted so far.
"I’m happy for the big turnout of Comic Con this year," said mall owner Jordan Dice, who estimated a total of 9,000 to 10,000 attendees over the three days. "It was a lot for the mall to take on internally, but as a team we did it, putting on the largest Comic Con event that has happened here.”
In a social media post on Saturday, the mall said, "We NEED a bigger parking lot."
"We had people parking in the Meijer lot and walking over (on Saturday)," said Beccah Billmeier, operations manager for Midland Mall. "We estimate that we had over 7,000 people just through (Saturday)."
This year marks the first year that Midland Mall itself has organized Comic Con, after deciding to part ways with the former organizers. The mall received help from 35 volunteers through Life Church in Saginaw. Life Church Pastor and founding member of the Midland Mall Comic Con, Jonathan Herron, led the event volunteers.
"Because the event has grown so much, you need a solid team of volunteers," Herron said. "Back in 2020, when we started (Comic Con), we only needed a handful of volunteers - now we have people handling crowd control, helping with contests and activities."
Although the mall was equipped to handle security, Billmeier stated no incidents had been reported as of Saturday night. She believes security was not an issue in part due to the event schedule the mall had in place.
"There was so much going on that people didn't have time to be bored," she said.
In addition to more than 130 vendors, visitors could participate in or watch multiple cosplay contests, gaming tournaments, and other activities throughout the weekend. Vacant store spaces, including the BatCave and the old Men's Warehouse store, were opened to accommodate more vendors.
Stores throughout the mall, as well as food court tenants, reported record sales on Saturday. Some event vendors even sold out of products.
"I am so happy that Sarah (Thomas, Midland Mall event coordinator) invited me this year," said vendor Heidi Abbey, owner of Simple Treasures Handmade Crafts. "I've done the Midland Antique Festival for about 10 years now, but this is my first time doing Comic Con. I'm doing really well and meeting and making a lot of new friends with the other vendors and customers."
Other businesses, like Kakes the Great Popcorn Co. — another first-time vendor — were embracing the Comic Con culture.
"We're sort of new to the area and very new to (Comic Con)," said Kaylynn Martin, owner of Kakes. "It's a great treat to take pictures of the people all dressed up that walk by."
Cosplayers had plenty of photo opportunities and contests to participate in at Comic Con. There was a Kids Cosplay Contest on Friday, a Fursuit Contest on Saturday, and Individual and Group Cosplay Contests as well as Cosplay Parades on both Saturday and Sunday.
Additionally, cosplay panels were held on Saturday, including Ladies of Cosplay and The World of Competitive Cosplay.
"A lot of people said they didn't know what to expect - being that we are a mall - but that they were blown away and are already excited for next year," Billmeier said. "We didn't quite know what to expect because this year is our first year taking it over, but it has surpassed all of our expectations and then some."
The Midland Mall intends to make the Comic Con bigger and better next year, but has not yet announced the dates.