Flame Con is pretty much all we could want out of the world. It's NYC's first queer comic con, dedicated to celebrating LGBT writers, stories, and superheroes. But it's not just about revelling in the kickass world of queer comics, it's about bringing the LGBTQ community together. As the event description beautifully states:
"The LGBTQ community is separated into different groups that all too often don’t mix or learn from each other’s experiences: gays, lesbians, and bisexuals, cisgender and trans people, aces and bears… But comic cons are all about mixing! People of every size, gender identity and expression, age, color and type come to comic conventions to get geeky, expressing what makes each of us different, special, and awesome. A queer comic con is a great way to bring us all together under one roof. We'll learn about ourselves as a community, and explore topics that haven't already been paneled to death at other cons. We want to end the con having brought queer people from different parts of the rainbow closer."
How awesome is that? Not to mention, woah are these reasonably priced tickets. And still available, so if you're free tomorrow, get you to the Grand Prospect Hall at Prosect Avenue, Brooklyn to get in on this clearly kick-ass action. Discussion pannels include "Queering Comics for Kids (and Kids at Heart), "Secret Identities: Transgender Themes in Geek Culture," "Women Creating Awesome," and "Diversity in New Media," just in case you needed moe insentive. There will also be an inspiringly epic amount of exhibitors being featured, and you'll definitely want to take a moment to check out what these artists have to offer. Even better, we got to chat a bit with one of the creators of The Demon Hotel and their comic "Kid Riot," which tells the story of a young gay latino who convinces his favorite team of superheroes to come out of retirement. Read on to know find out all about the amazing awesomely LGBTQ world of "Kid Riot," and why you absolutely need to check them out at Flame Con this year!
So, tell us a little bit about The Demon Hotel and "Kid Riot!"
The Demon Hotel is our webcomic imprint currently offering "Kid Riot," the story of PJ Behr, and his heroes, Riot and Riot Diva, along with a spin-off title, The Adventures of Kid Riot and the Evolution, about a futuristic adventure PJ gets wrapped up in.
"Kid Riot" is the story of a young gay latino, PJ Behr, from Old Brunswick, NJ, who convinces his idols, The Riot Squad, to come out of retirement and train him. The Riot Squad is made up of Riot, a gay black entrepreneur, and his partner-in-stopping-crime, Riot Diva, who was known as the Trans Superwoman before being injured in battle and assumed dead. Through the course of training him, The Riot Squad come back into prominence following their retirement after Diva's injury.
What makes Kid Riot different from other comics out there?
"Kid Riot" is a comic that isn't afraid to be about people. The characters are diverse, and their adventures are as well. PJ stumbles upon his childhood hero, but he doesn't get handed his cape - he fights to earn the right first. In a world where we're celebrating different real life heroes, the biggest superhero comic title seem to only celebrate one kind of person and that limits storytelling. By keeping our characters original and different, we keep on telling fresh stories.
How did you get the idea to start working on comics featuring LGBT characters?
Well, honestly, we all are gay. It's part of our world, and it's part of THE world. We're telling stories about the kinds of people that are real to us, to our lives, and LGBTQ culture is a big part of that. That's even part of why we chose to set in NJ - the culture and environment is great for storytelling.
Why do you think people need to be reading more comics with LGBT characters?
People should be reading more comics with LGBTQ characters because it really shouldn't matter if they're LGBTQ or not. Stories are stories, characters are characters, We relate to fiction on multiple levels - we don't need to completely line up in every sense with our counterpart to connect. Inclusion, then, cannot hurt, but exclusion can. We shouldn't be using comics to hurt.
Tell us a little bit about yourselves! How long have you been working on Demon Hotel?
The Demon Hotel is primarily Nico J Vasilo, Kevin Risse, & Taryn Inglima. We've all been friends about 10 years and had every intention of collaborating on creative projects since discovering our shared interests. It just never seemed to line up right - Nico and Kevo married, everyone moved (sometimes to separate states). But in 2014 we made a decision to forge forward with our dream to make comics. We began looking at the projects we'd discussed and developed, but it wasn't until we all realized we wanted to tell a different kind of the familiar superhero story that "Kid Riot" began to come together.
Why are you excited for Flame Con?
Flame Con is an LGBT-centric Comic Con in Brooklyn which makes it an AWESOME opportunity to connect with our audience. We'd been looking for conventions and other ways to connect with fans and when we saw Flame Con, it seemed like what we'd been looking for. We were so interested in the project, we helped support the Kickstarter. What's been amazing has been the reaction - LGBTQ or ally, everyone has been SO POSITIVE about this con, and been telling us we're gonna see them there. It's that kind of encouragement that has us excited .
