[Comic Con Revolution ’25] Persian Bites Never Heal

A gem of the Inland Empire fandom, Comic Con Revolution is a fan favorite. Southern California has two major comic cons that celebrate celebrity and Hollywood – Los Angeles Comic Con and San Diego Comic Con. One look at the Comic Con Revolution’s exhibit hall gives you a glimpse of comic vendors outnumbering the Funko Pop and Lounge Fly vendors. In an era where comic cons are the pop culture FOMO event, this event truly goes back to its printed roots. 

My cosplay group, Cosplay Wrestling Federation, was invited to be a part of the show’s programming. This is our second turn at at comic con having come from the anime scene. This group is no stranger to the Ontario Convention Center; this used to be the home of Anime Los Angeles during their bout in the Inland Empire. 

The location is not my favorite; parking can be a pain in the butt especially when you bring in a ton of people. On Saturday, my con-buddy and I parked right across in a dirt field. Parking costs shot up from $10 in 2021 to $20 in 2025. However, on Sunday, we were able to park in the lot across the street. Early arrival on Saturday is a must to get a prime parking spot.

The weather on Saturday was cloudy with a downpour at the end of the day. However, it did not stop the amazing costumers to grace the halls. The conventions’ events were mainly indoors. However, the sunshine came back on Sunday morning. 

Comic Con Revolution is a family friendly event. It’s cool to see families coming out to Comic Con Revolution all cosplaying together. My friend, Fairytale Connection, was hosting the kiddie room where kids can play games and listen to bedtime stories. I did that last year as part of my, “Hey Eri! I need help with this!” and I answered that call. I had so much going on at Comic Con Revolution, that I wasn’t able to help this time around. 

I’m always grateful anytime I present “In My Y2K Era” to discuss what anime fandom was like in the late 90s and 00s through the eyes of a teenager. My purpose for this panel was to talk about what it was like to access anime on a very limited budget in an age where you had to put in the effort to find VHS tapes that had your favorites before you could open up Netflix. While this was originally on the panels waitlist, this was a very well attended panel. I even found someone in the audience reading my book, “The Fangirl Diaries.” “I’m on the part about AniMagic,” the attendee said. 

There were panels I was curious about but I had to focus on my Cosplay Wrestling Federation prep. John Barrowman had a panel at 1PM, but he’s a regular at lot of the conventions I go to, but always has a fun story to tell. The guys in CWF got starstruck with Mick Foley, Booker T, and Saraya. My friend paid $100 for Mick Foley’s autograph.

The convention center was selling Japanese food on Saturday. We also had a few food trucks and vendors outside. Expect convention center prices. I typically bring coffee and salad at these events to keep going. 

The exhibit hall had a plethora of comic book vendors. My con buddy, Geki, was pointing out all the cover variants inspired by Marvel Rivals. I was on the hunt for the new Dazzler comics, but alas, no luck. For modern comics, you will find a lot of collected volumes. For retro comics, you will find a lot of individual collector issues. They even had Viz’s first run of Pokemon single issues going for $50. 

If it wasn’t Funko Pops, the exhibit hall also had a ton of Labubu vendors. I’m not really into this fandom of collecting (though I do collect Pop Mart’s League of Legends series), but every other kawaii themed booth had the blind boxes of the trending toothy monster. 

I was able to see some snippets of the cosplay contest hosted by Ming from The Comic Book Men and Dare Taylor from backstage. Cosplay Wrestling Federation was invited to do the halftime show. I saw a lot of amazing costumes go past us in the backstage area. I wished I was able to get photos, but I had to be in my performer zone. We had a great time doing halftime show as Persian from Pokemon with my team. An extra shoutout to David, Kat, Angi Viper, and the rest of the cosplay events team for giving ups the opportunity and helping us out!

Our show on Sunday went fairly well. Going into comic con territory is still new for us. Even though we had a 11:00am time slot, we still managed to do what we do best. We got the crowd riled up, the hype from inside Room 100AB drew curious minds in. We may have been slotted as the same time as Mick Foley’s panel, but we still managed to teach Comic Con Revolution the ways of Cosplay Wrestling Federation. 

Comic Con Revolution is an event that I normally file under, “I’ll see how I feel like that weekend” as my deciding factor if I’m attending. May ended up being a busy month that included Anipop in Escondido and coscrunching for Fanime. I generally do like this convention. It’s not as overwhelming as larger comic cons. It’s also nice to see a comic con celebrate its primary roots (with a side of pop culture – there were a ton of wrestling themed vendors at the event). I recommend this for families and those who are looking for a much more laid back pop culture event. 

Of course, the best part of the con was Cats and Comics Rescue having a kitty petting zoo in the dealers hall. These cats were looking for their furever homes. A few people at the booth were thinking about taking a cat (or two) home.