Garden State Comic Fest is New Jersey’s coolest comic con and it kicked off 2022 with ‘Winter Fest’ at the Rockaway Townsquare Mall on February 5 & 6. Last year their Winter Edition show was the first in the area to safely bring back in-person comic cons and this year’s event continued the tradition of making sure everybody had a safe and great time.
Many fan favorites returned like cosplay guests Father Evil, Barbie Chula, the Mandalorian Mercs, and the Legion of Super Villains. But Winter Fest also upped the ante by bringing in wrestling stars Jake the Snake Roberts (pictured above), Tito Santana, and Vicious Vicki! Fans were able to line up for meet & greets, autographs, and even photo ops!
Held inside the mall’s old double-floor Modell’s Sporting Goods store, Winter Fest housed almost 100 tables of vendors, artists, and guests. You could browse the wall books and long boxes of a dozen comic book vendors like Dewey’s Comic City, Moving Pictures Comics, West Village Comics, Ex Illusionary Comics, and Komic Knights… or find some unique collectibles from vendors like Digital Delightz Video Games, Snips & Co., Collectors Crate, or Geek Boy Press with his geeky apparel, posters, etched glassware, and enamel pins:
But that’s not all! Other vendors carried a variety of merchandise that might better suit your favorite fandom whether it’s Lego minifigures, roleplay & cosplay materials, jewelry, Funko Pops, action figures, or even graded Pokemon cards!
Meanwhile, upstairs was the unofficial home to Artist Alley for over 20 creators. We’re talking about a really impressive list including Reilly Brown, Amy Chu, Tom Cook, Keith Williams, Bob Sharen, Scott Hanna, Fernando Ruiz, Chris Campana, Nick Justus, and so many more!
Artist Alley is where you can score art prints directly from the creators, along with opportunities to walk away with original art like sketch commissions, quick remarques, and even original comic art pages! If you’ve got books drawn and/or written by creators, bring them and get them signed! Winter Fest this year even had CGC Signature Series facilitators Agents of Slabs onsite so that you can get the signatures witnessed & submitted for grading and encapsulation.
Anthony Marques and The Kubert School (above) were also back this year to introduce attendees to their various art programs. On both days, Kubert students were regularly rotating at the booth to exhibit their art, some even offering sketches as well! It was incredible to see so many styles coming from these up & coming artists!
Winter Fest 2022 even hosted their first charity art auction to benefit Eleventh Hour Rescue Adoption Center! All this and so much more at Garden State Comic Fest makes it a bullseye every time! Be sure to check out additional photos here as well as the video recap below… and don’t forget to come out to Garden State Comic Fest‘s main event from July 9-10 at the Mennen Arena in Morristown, NJ this summer!
LesDudis 
One thought on “Garden State Comic Fest: Winter Fest 2022”