L.A. Comic Con CEO Keeps Fans First!

This year, fan-focused, fan-powered pop culture convention L.A. Comic Con will return to the Los Angeles Convention Center in Southern California for Halloween weekend. From October 30 to November 1, L.A. Comic Con 2026 attendees can explore the show floor, meet and greet pop culture celebrities, and enjoy immersive experiences fine-tuned for fans. In anticipation of L.A. Comic Con, I reached out to the LACC team and reconnected with CEO Chris DeMoulin, who has been running the show since 2012, for an interview. If LACC is brand new to you, I recommend reading my L.A. Comic Con 2026 preview first, then returning to this for further insight into the show.

In my previous interview with L.A. Comic Con CEO Chris DeMoulin, we discussed what attendees could expect from the 2025 show and delved into how LACC caters to its fans and best represents its namesake city. In this interview, Chris DeMoulin dives into LACC’s history, how it has evolved since its first show, and the main attractions and talent 2026 attendees can anticipate. We also discuss how L.A. Comic Con has stayed true to its original mission as a fan-focused convention, how the team stays connected to fans and plans the next show, and how first-time attendees can make the best of their Comic Con experience this year.

Keep reading to learn about L.A. Comic Con directly from its CEO!

Chris, L.A. Comic Con has often landed on or near Halloween weekend, but never on October 31st itself. What determines the show dates each year? With this year’s show falling on Halloween day, can fans expect LACC’s hair-raising Horror Hall to be bigger?

As a consumer convention, we have to take what dates are available at the convention center. We’ve been as early as the middle of September and as late as the first week in December. We love being in October — we think the fans really seem to like the show in October. So the honest answer is we took the best weekend that was available to us, which happened to be Halloween. 

In the last 15 years, this is the fourth time we’ve been either directly on or directly adjacent to Halloween weekend. It’s a great opportunity for people to get one more use out of their costumes and one last cosplay experience. In the past when we’ve done this, we give free candy to all of our exhibitors — from 12 until it runs out, there will be free trick-or-treating for the kids in all 6 or 800 exhibitor booths.

As for the horror area itself, it’s in the same basic space. There’s construction going on in the convention center right now, so it was in the Concourse Hall last year — the hall that’s sort of in between South and West that you walk along the concourse, hence the name. It’ll be in that same area again, so it’ll be as much spooky fun as we can pack into that area.

Can fans anticipate more horror-focused programming at this year’s show?

The programming is really a function of — most of our panels are suggested by fans and run by the fans. So there’s probably a little bit more than usual because of the nature of the weekend. I wouldn’t say we’re consciously trying to load up on more horror stuff. There are so many great horror options around LA for Halloween weekend that we’re not trying to say “don’t do any of that, do this instead.” 

It’s more that we want to make sure there’s enough of a flavor of what’s going on to celebrate the weekend and the horror fan at the show. I wouldn’t say it’s going to be three times what it normally is — it’ll be great. There will probably be 40,000 to 50,000 square feet of horror activations, and my guess is some fans will lean into their horror cosplay a little more than usual, which will be great to see. But we’re not trying to make that take over the show. The show wants to be what the fans want it to be, which is fairly eclectic in nature anyway.

Los Angeles is already an insanely popular destination for Halloween weekend. How does L.A. Comic Con compete with the other city-wide attractions?

I never really think of what we do as competing with anybody. There are so many passionate fans of different things in Los Angeles, and the important thing is that during the course of the year, we listen to them in terms of what they want to see at the show, and we try to deliver that. People are going to choose how they want to spend their time with their friends and family over the course of Halloween weekend, and we hope a bunch of them will choose us. On Halloween itself, Saturday, we do free candy and free trick-or-treating for all the kids — we’ll make that available earlier in the day, so if people want to do that and then go do other Halloween stuff later, they can fit it into their schedule. For fans, a rising tide floats all boats — we don’t think of ourselves in a competitive context, and we’ve been fortunate that enough Angelenos have chosen to spend time with us over the years that it’s been fun for everybody.

This year’s show marks L.A. Comic Con’s 15th anniversary. Compared to its first show in 2011, how would you argue this convention has evolved and grown into what it is now?

I’ll start with what’s the same, which is that what the fans want to do and are interested in is at the center of every single decision we make. Being relentlessly fan-centric, we do surveys every year, find out who they’d like to see, and try to get those people to come — sometimes it takes a couple of years. Fans ask why our main stage is in the middle of the show floor, see it as kind of chaotic. We put it there because I had an experience at another show once where everybody had to leave and wait in line for three hours to see a panel they wanted to see. I thought that’s horrible for the fans — they spent their money and time, came down, and spent three hours in a hallway waiting in line. That’s not fair. So when I got involved in 2012, we moved the main stage right into the middle of the show floor. 

That fan-centric nature has been the same all along — it’s what Stan Lee saw back in 2011, and it’s why he wanted to get involved, and why when talent comes to the show, they definitely feel there’s a slightly different vibe in terms of our grounding with the fans. What’s evolved is that we’ve needed more space — as more fans have said “I want to see more anime, more of this, more gaming,” we’ve had to take on more space. There’s nothing good about being big just for the sake of being big — we’re bigger than we were because the fans want to see more stuff and we’ve been fortunate enough to give it to them. 

If somebody hadn’t seen the show since 2011 or 2012, it would feel totally different in one sense — because we’re now in all of the South Hall, the West Hall, the conference hall, the Kentia Hall downstairs, and spilling outside — but I hope it would feel the same in that it’s chill, easy to get into, fun, and easy to get around and intuitively figure out where the things you want to see are. We always try to keep that healthy balance between not growing for the sake of growth, but growing to deliver more experiences for the fans — while never getting so big that you don’t feel like you’ve come home when you come to it. It stays a manageable size.

LACC 2026 already has an impressive talent lineup, with stars from Breaking Bad, KPop Demon Hunters, and Outlander. Can fans expect more special guests as the show approaches?

We’re always open to last-minute surprises. One of the things we try to do — you saw with the Breaking Bad panel, where Aaron Paul and Dean Norris were coming, and as we got closer we were able to reach out to Bob Odenkirk and Giancarlo Esposito and have them join. We did the same with Hayden Christensen and Rosario Dawson on Ahsoka, and then we were able to add Natasha Liu Bordizzo. Once we have somebody coming in, we reach out to the rest of the cast and see if we can have more fun with it — we’ll never rule out adding people up until a week or two before the show if someone suddenly becomes available, because it’s fun for the fans. Photographs — especially cast photos — have become a more and more popular and unique experience for fans. 

In terms of big major announcements, I don’t have anything huge up my sleeve that we’ve been holding out this long for, but stuff happens — there might be somebody who had to say no six months ago because of a filming commitment, and that can change. We’ve been known to add even a fairly large celebrity with a week or two to go, if we think fans will enjoy it and we can accommodate it. So never say never — but we’re not holding out on you.

Last year, Akiba Station made its debut as L.A. Comic Con’s immersive anime and Japanese pop culture destination. What will Akiba Station offer to attendees this year?

If you’ve been to Tokyo, the Akihabara district is where a lot of the anime culture happens, so the idea of Akiba Station is to create a microcosm of that experience here. The fan reaction last year was great — we had about 30,000 square feet, and this year it’s 50,000 or so square feet. It’s intended to give anime a home at the show, because there are so many different kinds of anime and so many anime fans in and around Los Angeles, while retaining its own specific experience. 

I’ve been to a lot of anime events, big and small, and what we’re trying to do is make it almost feel like you’re entering a separate world. Last year we had the torii gates framing the entrance, and this year there will be cherry blossoms everywhere, spilling out into the lobby. There are all sorts of fun things to do — collecting stamps and other activities reminiscent of what would happen at an anime festival in Japan. We work with a partner to make it as authentic and fun as possible, and bring in anime talent so people can meet them, whether that’s voiceover talent or, on the main stage, KPOP Demon Hunters, which exploded last year — we were fortunate to get all three of them to join us this year. 

Anime is an area our fans have asked us to do more and more with, so a very large part of the West Hall will be devoted to anime, and we’re even adding a whole trading-card-game area this year, given the crossover between anime storytelling and trading card games. As long as the fans want it, you’ll continue to see it grow.

As an annual fan-focused convention, how does your team stay connected to fans year-round and best implement their feedback?

We have a very active dialogue with our fans all year long, and a large database of fans in LA. We send out a lot of post-show surveys — what did you like, what didn’t you like, what would you like to see next year — and we also survey people who didn’t make it, asking why, and what we can do next year to make them want to come back. We have a very active social media presence all year long. Some shows, particularly those that are part of large event companies, really only focus on their fans for a couple of months before the show and then move on. 

We consider ourselves part of the fan community, so we talk to people all year long, and that dialogue is a hugely important part of how we program the show. When we do these surveys and ask who the top 10 people are that fans want to see, if we don’t get two or three of the top five in the next two years, we’re really disappointed — we feel like we’re not doing our jobs. There are still certain guests we haven’t gotten yet — we almost got someone we really wanted this year, but they had a commitment appearing in a play in London, so we’re already talking about booking them for next year. It comes back to who people would like to see.

We also work with groups in the local fan community — we call it “Nerd Night Out,” where we’ll do something with Dave & Buster’s, with another local organization, or with the Pantages Theatre, promoting something they’re doing and inviting our fans to meet up and have fun — we’ll get four, five, six hundred fans to go do that. It’s why I love organizations like yours [TGON] — we saw this so much during COVID — we need things to keep us connected as a community all year long. Our event only happens in one place, at one time, one weekend a year, but our community is here all the time, so anything we can do to keep that community connected, let people know about exciting new things, and give them an opportunity to see friends old or new — that’s what we’re here for.

As fan conventions continue to rise in popularity, how does L.A. Comic Con plan to keep growing and stand out? How can fans support its growth?

Last year we did a fan fundraiser where we actually offered stock in the company, and I think three or four hundred fans are now shareholders. For us, we’re always looking at what’s the right way to expand. Up until now, the right way has been to continue adding more content to the one event we do here at LA Comic Con. But I wouldn’t be surprised if in the future you saw us get involved with another show — whether launching one, partnering with one, or acquiring one — both in the LA community, which we know pretty well, and potentially elsewhere, though as I’ve said, it wouldn’t be the same cookie-cutter show; it would be appropriate to that location. 

Everybody in a lot of industries hunkered down during COVID and came back afterward, and what we’ve seen in the last couple of years is an explosion of fan interest in real-life experiences, memories, and things they can do with friends and family. There will come a point where LA Comic Con can’t sensibly grow that weekend anymore — we could go to four days at some point, who knows — but I think you’ll eventually see us branch out and potentially get involved with other events, in LA or even outside of it. 

We’ll only do that if the fans want us to — fan events exist to serve a fan need, and without the fan there is no event. I’ve seen people try to launch an event idea that doesn’t have a fan base, and that generally doesn’t work. If you genuinely understand what fans want and can simply give it to them, that tends to be the right formula in this industry.

Do you have any advice for first-time LACC attendees? How can they make the best of their Comic Con experience?

Absolutely, download the [Los Angeles Comic Con] app — we put a lot of time and effort into making sure it helps you navigate everything. Look at the things you want to do and plan accordingly. First-time attendees might come for just one day, Saturday or Sunday, but we see many of them come back the following year for the whole weekend so they can pace themselves better. 

Planning is really important, and so is hydration. I strongly recommend people take public transportation or ride-sharing, because parking fills up by 8 o’clock in the morning and then you’re getting further and further away. Start by really understanding what you’d like the day to be about, then use the information on the app to know what’s where and when — it’s a little bit like planning a day at Disneyland: which rides you want to go on first, when you’ll get a fast pass, and so on. 

But don’t forget to drink water and don’t forget to eat. In the convention business, you never turn down water, you never pass a bathroom, and since you’re going to be walking 30,000 or 40,000 steps no matter what you do, always take an elevator or escalator if it’s available instead of a flight of stairs. Pace yourself — you’re in for the long haul. 

Chris, is there anything else you’d like to add or tell our readers about L.A. Comic Con?

I would say there are two groups of people who come to comic conventions. There’s the really hardcore, dedicated fans who go to two or three a year and know what to expect, and then the first-time fans. LA Comic Con is somewhat unique in that a little over 40% of our attendees every year are coming to this kind of event for the very first time. A very large percentage of them come with their kids — about a third of everyone who attends brings kids with them. We try to make sure it’s a great experience both for the knowledgeable, hardcore fan and for the first-time fan. 

With everything going on in the economy this year, we decided to make all tickets for kids 12 and under free — the 7-to-12 year old tickets have been something we’ve charged a nominal amount in the past, but we felt everybody has enough to deal with right now, and if that makes it a little easier to come, then so be it. We’ve seen a really nice response, with a lot more pre-registrations from people with kids. I always try to assure people that if this is a great first-time experience — if you have a kid who’s a super-fan of any one fandom — coming to spend four or five hours will capture memories and experiences that last a lifetime.

Don’t be daunted by not being a hardcore fan. As I said, over 40% of the people who come to our show are attending their first show ever, and they’re coming because there’s some aspect of the fan experience or content there — whether their kid loves Star Wars, KPOP Demon Hunters, or whatever — that they can come find and really enjoy. By making those tickets free this year, we’ve made it a little more accessible for everybody to spend time with us.

Fans can still purchase L.A. Comic Con Weekend and One-Day Passes, and kids 12 and under can attend FREE accompanied by a badge-holding adult. Get your ticket and get hyped! Comic Con is coming back to Los Angeles!