Comic Con will bring thousands to Elkhart

ELKHART, Ind. -- The second annual Hall of Heroes Comic Con will have a super economic impact for Elkhart this weekend.

This weekend thousands of people, including major Hollywood celebrities, will be heading to downtown.

Elkhart is home to the only comic book and superhero museum in the country, making it a perfect destination.

Mayor Tim Neese explained the importance of large events to the city.  “Restaurants usually do about 20-40% increase business… Other stores will be open longer, or they’ll have additional people come in.”

Hall of Heroes creator Allen Stewart has been in the comic book industry for over 25 years. He organized the event.  

He explained the improvements that will be made after last year’s events.

“Last year it was huge. We were expecting 3 to 4 thousand people. 10 thousand people showed up,” Stewart said.

This year, organizers are expecting over 15 thousand visitors.

This year, the venue has tripled in size, and the vendors have doubled.

Hundreds of vendors, countless cosplayers, and fans in attendance will spill outdoors into 3 blocks of downtown for a weekend packed with events.

Something never attempted before.

“To my knowledge, no other comic con has done an outdoor comic book carnival festival like we’re doing. So this is very new. It has not been done by any national comic con,” Allen said.

This single weekend event makes a super impact on the Elkhart economy.

“But the big fish is getting the museum moved,” said Allen.

The one-of- a-kind museum is running out of space, much like the city’s first comic con.

There have been multiple multimillion dollar offers to move the museum to a larger city, but the creator is determined to keep it in Elkhart.

“We really do need to move and we need to keep it up by the toll road.” “we could bring over 100 thousand people off the toll road to Elkhart which is going to business for all the hotels, all the restaurants, all the businesses in the area.”