With L.A. Comic Con fast approaching this weekend, I had the opportunity to reconnect with Chris DeMoulin, the CEO of Los Angeles Comic Con, who has been running the convention since 2012!
Founded in 2011 as a fan-driven and community-oriented convention, Los Angeles Comic Con has made its home in the city of its namesake and has been through several rebrandings. For over ten years, LACC has been providing enjoyable and memorable experiences for fans, friends, and family, and has become one of the largest independent conventions in the United States. Like previous years, attendees can expect to meet A-list pop culture celebrities, exciting and insightful panels, and fun activations to explore and enjoy, so stay tuned to the LACC social media channels for the most up-to-date information and consider uploading the official (and free) LACC app for the best means to navigate this year’s show!
In this interview, Chris elaborates on his extensive experience as an event planner and what it takes to put on this large-scale event annually. He explains how the Los Angeles Comic Con best represents its namesake city and caters to fans and fandom yearly. Chris also details what longtime attendees can expect this weekend, and what first-time attendees can do to prepare for their initial LACC experience. Keep reading to learn directly from the L.A. Comic Con CEO!
As an event planner with over twenty years of work experience, what goes into planning for a large-scale, fan-centric event like L.A. Comic Con?
The funny thing is, we actually start planning the show way in advance. We’re already discussing next year’s show. And one of the most important things we do is send out surveys to the attendees and the exhibitors to learn what they thought of the experience, what they particularly liked, what they’d like us to do differently from a fan standpoint, and what they’d like to see in next year’s show. A lot of the information that we collect from the attendee surveys goes to form the foundation of the goals we set for the next show. We also always have a sort of top five or top ten dream guests we want for future shows, and every year, we try to get one or two of them. We’ve been talking to some of them, like Elizabeth Olsen, for years, and the same with Ewan McGregor.
Guest planning and really understanding what went well, what people liked, and what could be improved is extremely vital for planning the following show, so we greatly encourage attendees to answer the surveys and provide feedback. On-site, we’ll also talk to exhibitors, give them the opportunity to rebook for the next show at the lowest possible rate, and a good percentage of them book for next year. This year, we’re expanding into anime and bringing in a partner to establish Akiba Station, since anime is such an important component of pop culture.
As we get closer to showtime, we explore adding certain exhibitors and brands to the showroom floor. For example, fans always wanna more Funko Pop Figures, so we talk to Funko and bring in exclusives for sale. The first months are about planning, the second six months are about execution, and tickets usually go on sale four months before the show. We plan ahead, but also want to be flexible enough for new talent.
Unlike other conventions, we also put our main stage in the middle of the show hall for the fans. It promotes some chaos, but it’s a fun chaos, where you can be exploring the show floor, hear the announcements, and see who’s on the main stage without arriving extra early, securing a spot, or waiting two hours in line. It’s part of the commitment we make to the fans, to make the best stuff accessible to everyone and not something you have to leave the show and wait in line for.
Can fans, who have been attending LACC for years now, expect anything different from this year’s show? What advice would you give to first-time attendees?
We always try to bring in new headliners every year. Last year, we had a lot of guests who were affiliated with the Star Wars universe, such as cast members from the television series Star Wars: Ahsoka and The Mandalorian. This year, we’re leaning more into Marvel with Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, and the Daredevil cast. Year to year, we focus on major fandoms, so if you’re a fan who likes all sorts of different things, you’ll always have an opportunity to see something new.
We diversify panels, always try to have a mix of new exhibitors, and introduce new activations and areas, such as adding the Horror Area last year and the Akiba Station this year. We constantly try to evolve that way. One of the main differences you’ll see this year, we’ll be moving Artists Alley and autograph and photo opportunities downstairs into the Kentia Hall, to open up space and arrange bigger, better activations. Each year, we try to have a very broad and eclectic mix of guests, exhibitors, activations, and experiences. I highly encourage new attendees to download the official app to better develop a manageable plan for navigating this weekend.
Marketed as an event for fans, by fans, how does LACC cater to the fans and encourage them to come back year after year?
Unlike a lot of conventions, we have a dialogue with the fans year-round. We have a couple of hundred thousand people on our mailing list, and several hundred thousand following our social media channels. We launch contests, offer discounts, and interact with fans year-round because, as new things come along, their tastes evolve. With that, we have a healthy percentage of attendees who come back year after year.
Over time, we see returning attendees become weekend attendees as opposed to one-day attendees. We’ve seen a big increase in the number of purchased weekend passes and the total number of attendees set to attend each year. In my opinion, the returning attendees form a core fanbase of the show and keep it running. But at the same time, we also reach out to casual fans because pop culture has become a part of everybody’s life in one way or another. Families and parents who come with their kids make up thirty to thirty-five percent of our attendees, often because we have a guest or activation that is affiliated with a brand or property that their kids love. And so they choose to come to us on Friday or Saturday, instead of going to the movies or Knott’s Berry Farm for the dozenth time. Oftentimes, the feedback we get from parents who attend is that they didn’t realize how many fun things there were for kids to do at Comic Con, especially if you come on Sunday, set with the Kids’ Costume Contest, activations, activities, and more.
Concerning returning attendees coming back year after year, we have noticed that the weekend pass holders tend to commit to us earlier in the show cycle, sometimes way in advance of the scheduled show. Whereas, the last month or six weeks before showtime are often people who plan to attend more spontaneously. When it comes to marketing and messaging, we try to reach out equally to hardcore fans who want to spend seventy-two hours with us and casual fans who are looking to come only for a few hours of the day. Overall, from a business standpoint, we want to understand different fans and learn what matters to them.
As a convention that originated in Los Angeles, how does LACC best represent the city and vice versa?
I love this question because I always say, “If you picked up our show and moved it to Dallas or Denver, it wouldn’t make sense.” Los Angeles is such a wonderfully unique and eclectic market. There are so many creative forces here in the movie, television, streaming, gaming, and music industries, and it’s that mashup of creative energy that is part of what L.A. We want our show to be a celebration of all the fandoms that are intrinsic to being an “Angeleno,” so we try to bring in local artists.
We have the largest Artists Alley, I think, of any show in America. This year, we probably have 650 to 700 artists, and that is partially because we have such a great creative community here in L.A. We want to give them a platform, a springboard, and a spotlight to meet potential fans and show them what they do. In L.A., we have knowledgeable and quirky fans. We can have a cast reunion of an animated TV show from the 80s that will draw almost as big a crowd as Ewan McGregor or Hayden Christensen.
What’s wonderfully special about L.A. is that here we love what we love, and we want to lean into it and celebrate it. So when we create the programming, market the show, and all the rest, we want it to feel like an L.A. show. Over the years, we have tried to get more into the community of L.A. and interact with different fan groups across the city. For example, we have been working with a Whovian fan club, but we try to be synonymous with all the fan groups in L.A. As I said at the start, our show wouldn’t make sense in another city.
In June, it was announced that the cast of Scream, Doctor Who, and Baldur’s Gate 3 will be attending L.A. Comic Con this year. Can fans expect more special guests to be announced? What goes into cultivating the special guests list each year?
Unless somebody surprises us, at this point, we have made most of the major guest announcements. When it comes to cultivating our guest list, we just ask the fans who they want to see in future shows. With movie stars and other A-list celebrities who are super, super busy, we talk to them, even when we know that they are not available for the next show. We reach out to them and their agents to let them know that we’d love to have them on for a future show, and a lot of the time, that conversation will go on for a couple of years.
For example, we first reached out to Elizabeth Olsen for our show in 2022, but she was interested but couldn’t do it. She was almost able to attend in 2023, but no go. Most of the time, it is just important to keep a steady dialogue and an open line of communication with the talent and their representation to remind them that our fans would love to see them guest-star at future shows. And each year, I make a point of thanking them profusely for their time and being grateful for their attendance. When we had the Back to the Future cast last year, for example, I went directly up to Michael J. Fox, thanked him personally, and said along the lines of “I know you don’t do this a lot, but you and this cast have been on our top five guest list for ten years, and today, you’ve created lifetime memories for our fans by coming here.”
We genuinely couldn’t be more grateful, and most of the talent that comes to our show really appreciates the energy of our crowd. We strive to make it extremely easy for them to attend and navigate the convention. We also have the most amazing fans, so it becomes a two-way street where we reach out to them well in advance and cultivate genuine relationships with the creative community.
As the CEO of LACC and a longtime comic book collector, what do you personally look forward to most this year?
Honestly, I try to keep my personal taste out of it, but I am a lifelong fan of Star Wars, Avengers, and The Lord of the Rings. So whenever we have anything that involves those, I do like taking an hour out of my day to explore and watch a panel or two. Starting from the age of ten years old, the books were super important to me, and I loved the movies.
For a while, I actually worked in the movie business and worked for the company that made The Chronicles of Narnia movies. As a kid, I would take the bus with my best friend and go downtown in upstate New York, where I grew up, for comics at the secondhand stores and flea markets. At one point, I spent five or six years working with Stan Lee, fifty years after I fell in love with his Marvel characters. And that was really just amazing. Stan’s approach to storytelling, his integrity, and his honesty created a legacy. For a time, he was a business partner of ours; we had a license with his company, and our convention was rebranded as “Stan Lee’s ComiKaze Expo” and “Stan Lee’s L.A. Comic Con.” We take the legacy of being Stan Lee’s hometown con very seriously, and always put on a show that Stan would be proud of. For me, that’s probably what resonates the most personally.
If YOU want to attend, after reading this, click here to purchase your ticket(s) for L.A. Comic Con 2025 coming up this weekend, and tell us in the comments what you are looking forward to most!
