Astana Hosts Central Asia’s Largest Comic Con, Uniting Global Pop Culture Icons

ASTANA — Astana hosted the largest geek festival in Central Asia, Comic Con Astana 2024 on July 25-28. The event gathered over 50,000 visitors and united popular culture professionals, including actors, cosplayers and bloggers from over 30 countries. 

Percy Hynes White taking a selfie with his fans. Photo credit: Comic Con Astana’s press service.

These include countries such as Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, China, Montenegro, the United States, Canada,  the U.K., France, Poland, Georgia, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Russia, Armenia, Estonia, Cyprus, South Korea, Thailand, Paraguay, Qatar and other countries. According to the organizing committee, the guests of the festival visited the event more than 100,000 times during the four days of the festival.

“This is my favorite Comic Con I have ever been to,” said Percy Hynes White during his exclusive meeting with The Astana Times. 

The international festival is dedicated to the comics industry, cinema, video games, anime, and other directions of modern popular culture. 

Hynes White, a Canadian actor renowned for his roles in “The Gifted” and “Wednesday” TV series, was one of the Comic Con Astana headliners. During his autograph sessions, participants and Hynes White’s fans had the opportunity to meet him, get autographs and take photos. 

Percy Hynes White & The Astana Times Reporter. Photo credit: The Astana Times.

“Kazakhstan is a wonderful country. To fans, thank you very much for coming and supporting me, bringing me gifts and saying the nicest things ever. I got to meet so many people and the Cosplay is great. It is a dream,” said Hynes White.

He also mentioned Kazakhstan as a potential filming location. 

“Everyone here has been so nice that I could only imagine how collaborative and great the film crew would be. They are so hospitable,” said Hynes White.

During a Q&A session, Hynes white revealed that if he had an unlimited budget and opportunities, he would create a series about a detective who travels back in time to solve the unsolved murders of celebrities. 

One of his latest premiers is the “Winter Spring Summer or Fall,” a romantic drama where he reunites with his Wednesday co-star, actress Jenna Ortega. The film premiered on June 6 at the Tribeca Festival.

In “Wednesday,” Hynes White portrays Xavier Thorpe, a psychic student, talented painter and a skilled archer. He shared that he trained intensively for nearly two months to master archery for specific scenes, noting that he might have lost the form after the show. 

Percy Hynes White during press conference. Photo credit: Comic Con Astana’s press service.

Hynes White expressed his eagerness to revisit Kazakhstan for the Fifth World Nomad Games in September. “If you are going to visit, you should visit when the World Nomad Games are on in September. I would love to, and I hope that I get to,” he said.

A highlight of the festival was the international cosplay contest, boasting a prize fund of 12,000,000 tenge (US$27,000). Over 140 professional cosplayers participated in the contest. 

The cosplay contest jury featured notable figures such as Trine Cordes Berg, a Danish cosplayer and costume designer, Sonia Grillet known as Cinderys, a French cosplayer and a multiple winner of international championships, and Ekaterina Keller, a Russian cosplayer with eight years of experience in the industry and the winner of the Comic Con Astana 2023 cosplay contest.

“It is a real honor for me to be here from so far away. I see so many beautiful costumes. Thank you for showing me your artwork,” said Cordes Berg. 

Aigerim Dunamis, a Kazakh cosplayer, esports professional and the host of the cosplay contest. Photo credit: Comic Con Astana’s press service.

Aigerim Dunamis, a well-known Kazakh cosplayer, esports professional and the host of the cosplay contest, shared her enthusiasm for the event.

“I am very happy to be at the Comic Con. It is a great honor to host it. It is an association of like-minded people, particularly in the geek industry. The most important thing is that the fans get an opportunity to meet and talk with their idols, as people from around the world gather here,” said Dunamis.

Fans of “The Witcher” were thrilled by the presence of Geralt Bensheim from Germany, known as Maul Cosplay. He portrayed Geralt of Rivia from “The Witcher and Vincent (V)” from the Cyberpunk 2077 game at Comic Con Astana.

Bensheim shared a humorous life story related to his cosplay career.

Geralt Bensheim, known as Maul Cosplay. Photo credit: Comic Con Astana’s press service.

“When driving back from a comic book convention, my wife and I came across a car accident. Although no one was seriously injured, we decided to help people involved while waiting for the ambulance. The twist was that we were still in our cosplay costumes and makeup, covered in fake blood and my wife had a fake wound on her head. When the ambulance arrived, they asked why we were covered in so much blood and if everything was alright. We really wanted to leave, because were too tired to explain that we are cosplayers and why we do this,” he said.

“We are really impressed by Comic Con this year. It took an enormous scale. We had a chance to meet and chat with famous cosplayers like Maul,” shared Ayumi Cosplay, a professional cosplayer from Kazakhstan.

Professional cosplayers from Kazakhstan. Photo credit: Comic Con Astana’s press service.

Comic Con also featured autograph sessions, special screenings and presentations, esports tournaments, show programs, games and sponsor lotteries throughout the convention center. 

The festival included a geek fair area with themed goods, exclusive merchandise and handmade products. It also featured lecture halls with master classes from famous local and foreign authors of books and comics, bloggers, actors and artists. Additionally, a special Otaku Zone exhibition area was dedicated to Asian pop culture, including anime, manga, J-pop and K-pop.