On February 2, 2025, Little Rock, Arkansas became the epicenter of a pop culture tremor that rippled far beyond the banks of the Arkansas River. The Statehouse Convention Center, usually home to civic banquets and business expos, was transformed into a pulsing, neon-lit temple of fandom—where anime collided with pro wrestling, vintage comics danced with TikTok-era cosplay, and the ghosts of Saturday morning cartoons mingled with the living avatars of sci-fi royalty.

This wasn’t San Diego. It wasn’t New York. It was Little Rock Comic Con—a one-day, high octane celebration of everything weird, wonderful, and wildly nostalgic. And it didn’t need a three-day schedule to make its mark. It was a Southern-fried spectacle, compact and kinetic, like a firework that explodes all at once and leaves you blinking in the afterglow.

Cosplay as Communion
By 10 a.m., the cosplay parade had already turned the convention floor into a living storyboard. A fully articulated RoboCop clanked past a glitter-drenched Sailor Moon, while a group of Silent Hill nurses moved like a slow-motion horror ballet. One attendee, dressed as SpongeBob SquarePants, had hand-stitched every pore and square inch of his costume,
turning heads and winning hearts.

The cosplay contest, held mid-afternoon, felt less like a competition and more like a ritual—a communal offering to the gods of fandom. The crowd roared for a Chainsaw Man duo, gasped at a Predator with animatronic mandibles, and gave standing ovations to a local teen who recreated Princess Mononoke with bark-textured armor and hand-dyed wolf pelts.

Legends in the Flesh

The celebrity lineup leaned heavy into wrestling nostalgia, and the fans leaned right back.
Mick Foley, Kurt Angle, and Jake “The Snake” Roberts didn’t just sign autographs—they held court. Foley’s panel was part stand-up set, part therapy session, as he recounted the infamous Hell in a Cell match with the kind of raw vulnerability that made the room go silent. Roberts, ever the enigmatic storyteller, spun tales of locker room chaos and redemption arcs that felt Shakespearean in scope.

Elsewhere, voice actors from cult anime series and retro cartoons gave intimate Q&As, pulling back the curtain on the industry’s quirks and heartbreaks. One panel on indie comic publishing turned into a spontaneous pitch session, with creators swapping zines and business cards like jazz musicians trading riffs.

The Bazaar of Memory

The vendor hall was a sensory overload—rows of vintage comics, bootleg VHS tapes,
enamel pins, and hand-painted figurines. A local artist sold prints of Arkansas cryptids rendered in manga style. A vendor from Texas hawked rare Dragon Ball Z cards like they were sacred relics. And tucked in the back corner, a table of retired librarians sold discarded sci-fi paperbacks for a dollar apiece, each one a portal to a forgotten future.

It wasn’t just commerce—it was communion. Fans traded stories, debated canon, and bonded over shared obsessions. A father and daughter duo, dressed as Ash and Pikachu, spent twenty minutes talking Pokémon lore with a stranger who turned out to be a retired biology professor. These were the moments that made the con feel less like an event and more like a living archive of pop culture’s emotional resonance.

Southern Soul, Global Pulse

Little Rock Comic Con didn’t try to be everything. It didn’t sprawl. It didn’t dilute. It concentrated. It pulsed with the energy of a city that knows its roots and isn’t afraid to
remix them. The Southern hospitality was real—staff were helpful, signage was clear, and the vibe was inclusive without being performative.

For mc, this con could thread beautifully into themes of communal ritual,
regional spectacle, and Americana reimagined. It’s not just about the costumes or the panels—it’s about the way a city like Little Rock can hold space for memory, myth, and modern fandom in a single day.

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Louisville Palace

Louisville, KY

March 28, 2024

By Shrithik Karthik

ONEUS came to Louisville on March 28, 2024, to perform at the Louisville Palace and they put on an unforgettable show. The choreography, the music, the energy, and the excitement from the crowd were electric. Playing a mix of their music that was slow-paced and then fast combined with the intense visuals and lasers created such a vibrant energy through the venue.

The show started sharp at 7:30 which I thought was such a nice touch, there were no openers, but starting on time is quite rare nowadays. Instantly they danced, they sang, and they went crazy. All the artists were wearing headsets and with all the dancing they did that was the right decision. They were insanely active on that stage, but when they took breaks, they knew to make it as interactive as possible. After a few minutes of incredible dancing, they stopped to interact with the audience and talk to us directly. This was cool to experience from the crowd and during these breaks the group would talk to us in Korean and the translator would speak back to the crowd in English to understand them which was very nice. They would talk about how hard they worked with the choreography, their time on tour, some inside jokes about the group, and more. The audience loved hearing them speak so intimately and it was a nice touch as well. 

The crowd was by far one of the funniest parts of the show, they were so reactive to the group. Since it was a primarily female audience, whenever one of the members of the group did a seductive dance move the audience would scream, and at the end of the songs they would even bark which I thought was very funny. They ate everything up no matter what the group did. Having a very devoted audience is important because it makes the artists perform so much better. After all, they feel like there is a real purpose behind it. I’ve gone to shows where the audience was so bored and the artists wouldn’t give it their all. This however was nothing like that, ONEUS gave it their all the entire time from start to finish which was so fun to see

This being my first K-Pop show I didn’t know what to expect, but wow was it fun. It was so cool to see such a lively and devoted fanbase go crazy at everything the group did and they put on a fantastic show. Can’t wait to go to more shows just like this one. They have a few more shows on tour so make sure to check them out if they’re coming to a city near you.

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