Comic-Con South Africa: Thousands flock to multi-genre entertainment festival

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This year, South Africa is playing host to Comic Con for the first time. The first international comic convention was born in San Diego back in 1970. Almost 50 years later, it has finally come to the African continent. Thousands of people attended the event in Johannesburg, as CGTN's Julie Scheier reports.

Comicon Africa was a chance for South Africans to dress-up and transform themselves into their favourite comic characters.

"The inspiration came from Alice in Wonderland, the Johnny Depp one because, Johnny Depp's like one of the best actors I know. He fulfilled that role so well that I just wanted to become that Mad Hatter. And here I am at Comicon, being a Mad Batter."

"I'm Darth Vader. I'm a big Star Wars fan. So, well Darth Vader is like my favourite character."

"I dressed up as Mrs. Vader because I guess we both Star Wars fans, and we decided that we wanted to be Vaders."

JULIE SCHEIER JOHANNESBURG "Comicon has finally arrived on the continent. It's the first one in Africa and it's uniting all the superheroes. Everyone is here. Even this one. How are you doing Spidey? 'I'm well and you?' I'm good, thank you. So, everyone under one roof, enjoying what they love most - superheroes and comic books."

"I think it's very well organised and it's really a coming together of everything that people want from Comicon and it's about time that it came to Africa."

Local superhero Kwezi joined a line up of international artists and also came out to play.

KWEZI SOUTH AFRICAN SUPERHERO "It's the first South African superhero. It says a lot about our culture. You know, it's a young black kid from the hood, who discovers that he has powers. So, for me, the message is don't look around you, look inside, look for that thing that burns in you. And, one day it will spark and it will all make sense."

TRAVIS FIMMEL ACTOR "It's amazing. Comicon in Africa 2018, has been so good and the fans are so good and everybody's having fun. It's been a great time."

The event also attracted comic book artists from far and wide.

JENNY FRISON ARTIST "I just do covers. Right now I do Wonder Woman and X-Men Red that's like a team book so Jean Grey. Storm, Night Crawler, Wonder Woman is my favourite, ever since I was a kid. She's the reason that I was interested in Comics."

KUDZAI NGUNDU ARTIST, AFRO TOKYO "I learnt how to draw online and I learnt about comic books online and I guess pop culture online I think anyone can be here. It's just patience, mindset I guess and just resources. Before it used to be a lot but now with this new digital age, you don't even need to buy pens, pencils, Copec markers that cost like hundreds of dollars."

ELISHA NASH NGUNDU ARTIST, AFRO TOKYO "I think as Africans we are used to the Americans, this and that, so then we don't really have an identity of ourselves. So, that's why we're here. We want to create African stories for Africa."

The inaugural Comic Con Africa has been a real treat for fans, who are hoping the geek fest will return again next year. JS, CGTN, JHB, SA.