Flame Con, the World’s Largest Queer Comic Convention, Announces Tenth Annual Expo
Tenth Anniversary Expo to Take Place in New York City at The Sheraton Times Square Hotel on August 17-18, 2024
New York, New York – February 5, 2024 – Flame Con, created and produced by the LGBTQ+ non-profit Geeks OUT, celebrates its tenth anniversary this year. The tenth annual Flame Con expo will take place on August 17 - 18at the Sheraton Times Square Hotel in New York City. Featuring a comics, arts and entertainment expo and showcasing creators and special guests from all corners of the LGBTQ+ community of fans, the two-day venture will include thoughtful discussions, exclusive performances, cosplay and more.
Tickets for the con are now available HERE.
“For years, the constant refrain we’d hear attending other conventions was ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if..?,’ says 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 ten 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."
Flame Con is excited to announce Molly Knox Ostertag as the first of its special guests for this year’s expo. Molly Knox Ostertag is the acclaimed 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 by Netflix.
To celebrate the expo and its special anniversary, Fireball: The Official Flame Con After Party will be held on Saturday, August 17 at Hell’s Kitchen’s Industry bar. The event will be hosted by Megami, cast member in the current season 16 of RuPaul’s Drag Race.
Get tickets for the tenth annual Flame Con and the Fireball After Party HERE.
Last year’s con featured many queer-oriented vendors, creators, and special guests including Maia Kobabe (Gender Queer: A Memoir), Terry Blas (Rick and Morty, Steven Universe), Alyssa Wong (Star Wars: Doctor Aphra, Batman: Urban Legends), and Stephanie Williams (Nubia and the Amazons). Among the panels and presentations held last year were “Demystifying Game Design,” “How to Make Your Independent Queer Comic,” and “What A DRAG!: A Panel on Drag and Cosplay.” The expo also featured a live edition of host Connor Goldsmith’s CEREBRO podcast and a special LGBTQ+ comedy showcase with a lineup that included Calvin Cato (Netflix) and Veronica Garza (MTV, NPR).
“Flame Con is always my favorite convention of the year!,” says 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.”
GLAAD Award-winning author and film programmer Anthony Oliveira (Steven Universe) shares, “Flame Con is easily my favorite comic convention. 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 will feature daily and weekend passes, as well as passes to the official 2024 Flame Con party. Tickets can be purchased at flamecon2024.eventbrite.com.
Exhibitor table sales dates will launch later this month. Stay tuned for announcements.
For more information on Flame Con, please visit www.flamecon.org and for more information on Geeks OUT, please visit www.geeksout.org
D’Arcy Releases New, Highly Anticipated Single “Crazy”
Today, NYC singer-songwriter D'Arcy shares a brand new single entitled "Crazy," alongside a music video and live video performance.
Speaking on the track, D'Arcy wrote:
"'Crazy' is about falling in love with someone and being transported into a different world where just the two of you exist. It is about wanting to feel that intense emotion no matter the cost, which sometimes can result in darkness. I really wanted the lyrics to capture what it feels like to really fall in love for the first time, where your whole world becomes this other person and you would do anything to keep that feeling alive."
On its accompanying music video, she continued:
"We spent a whole night and day shooting this video in and around Los Angeles. Is it a dream ? Is it real ? The character in the video is based on the female lead of a movie script I’m currently developing. Collaborating with director Mynxii White, she really helped me capture the fantasy elements that show the intensity of emotion the character is experiencing."
D'Arcy's debut EP, Hard to Kill, came out last year. The EP consists of six tracks, including three that are new: "Forever Numb," "Dangerous," and title track "Hard to Kill." Thematically, the EP focuses on self-empowerment, young love, addiction, and heartbreak. At times dark and moody, and at times strong and powerful, Hard to Kill is imbued with honesty, attitude and confidence, taking the listener through a range of emotions, sounds and narratives.
D’Arcy is a new alternative artist most recently deemed “our favorite thing to come out of NYC” from the ultra hip indie music outlet When The Horn Blows. Her debut EP Hard To Kill, released Aug 6 2021, has over 500k streams, and coincided with her 40 city tour across the US. The EP was also a success at college radio being spun at 65+ radio stations, and making the top 20 on over 10 stations.
“Mulit-Dimensional” and “Alluring,” D’Arcy has received incredible praise from Grimy Goods, EARMILK, Flaunt, and Under The Radar.
