Soto creator of Capitán México. (Luisana Duarte/Borderzine.com)

Fantasy, flair and geekdom blur the lines at this year’s comic book convention

EL PASO — A man in a panda costume walks lazily into a conference room where other people are dressed up as Storm Troopers, Iron-Man, and Pokémon characters and sits down with leisure waiting for the next panelist to arrive. Costumes are a regular sight at a comic book convention, however the panda still elicits an “Oooh! A panda!” comment from a small girl in the crowd. The conference room, located in the El Paso Convention Center was part of this year’s El Paso Comic Con (ep-con). Hosted September 14th through 16th, EP-CON gathered people in El Paso for the third consecutive year to celebrate both comic books and pop culture.

(Courtesy of Jaime Portillo)

The borderland becomes comic book fantasy as gunslingers and vampires stalk the high desert

EL PASO – The blazing sun was so hot here Saturday that the mean old Texas gunslinger Dallas Stoudenmire could have strutted right out of pages of the western comic book Hell Paso into the desert morning in a barrage of gunfire. But the scoundrel stayed pressed into the pages of the colorful comic written by Jaime Portillo, which tells the adventures of the Old West marshal who lived in El Paso in 1891. Instead of outlaws and gunslingers the streets of Hell Paso teemed with comic book enthusiast anxious to meet their favorite comic book celebrities. The El Paso Comic Convention helped network local artists to the national comic book community. Such was the case for Portillo, author of other comic books such as Gabriel (2004), The Railroad Killer (2009).