The third annual CoMeek was held on Monday, Sept. 23, 2024, at the Paul Meek Library first floor. This event was held from 5 pm to 7 pm by the English and Modern Foreign Language department, Gamer Hawks, Japanese Anime Research Society (JARS), League of Striving Artists, Order of the Skyhawks, and Visual and Theatre Arts Department. This is an event to have students, faculty and staff bond over anime and pop culture, and there were lots of different activities available for everyone to enjoy and discover.
First entering the library a combat class was held by Paul Pharris, assistant professor at UT Martin Department of Visual Theatre and Arts. He taught students the difference between stage combat fights for theatre and real combat techniques with a sword. Students held wooden fake swords to learn real combat skills on wielding the sword in combat.
In the room next over, Gamer Hawks hosted a Mario Kart Tournament for people to compete and win first place for a $25 Amazon gift card. There were two stations of switches that had the students compete with each other on different racing tracks. The winner of the Mario Kart tournament was UT Martin Student Jake Rainey.
In the media library, JARS was streaming anime or old Superman clips for everyone to walk in and watch. The club also provided coloring sheets of anime characters in booths for students to sit down and relax during this convention. The sheets consisted of mainstream anime like “Attack on Titan”, “Naruto”, “Soul Eater”, “Spy Family”, “Demon Slayer” and more.
Additionally, there was a Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) Character Sheet Workshop available for students to be introduced to the tabletop game and to further understand what it entails by starting their first character sheet. Ronne Cox, the Electronic Resources & Discovery Librarian who set up this event, reported that since the library now hosts D&D sessions every first Friday of the month, some new people do not know how the game works. This was the opportunity for beginners to create their own characters and be able to use them at these sessions! The next D&D meeting is Oct. 11 at 4:45 pm at the Paul Meek library.
Across from the Media Library was the Library’s version of a comic expo stand. The library faculty and staff wanted to use this opportunity for students to recognize that they do not have to purchase books like graphic novels on their own but instead can check them out at the Paul Meek Library and save money. There were sections like DC Comics franchise, Horror, LGBTQ+, Dark Horse Comics and manga that were on display for students to check out if a book caught their eye.
Furthermore, the library staff and faculty organized a mini figurine station for students to paint and were surprised to see how much students filled these tables. “We will have to bring this [mini figurine painting station] again next year. It seems to be a big hit,” said Cox. The students enjoyed their conversations while focusing on painting the figurines to their liking.
The event’s main attraction was the free food table, which was empty by the first hour. Sweet treats like frosted sugar cookies and slices of cake were up for grabs with light refreshments of lemon water for everyone to enjoy. In the comic expo section of the library, there was a popcorn stand for people to gather around to enjoy popcorn with their choice of seasoning. Napkins and plates were there to encourage students to walk around with food while checking out what the convention had to offer.
Trivia consisted of six categories of five trivia questions each with a few bonus questions sprinkled within. The rounds were superheroes, anime, girl power, artist/illustrations, banned/challenge and lastly comic history. The goal was to compete and answer the most questions correctly to win a $20 cash prize. Students were laughing and enjoying their time trying to answer the challenging questions.
To keep the tradition of a comic convention, students were encouraged to dress up for the costume contest. The students who dressed up in cosplay had their picture taken with a number and were displayed on a TV throughout the event. The winner of this contest was announced the next day, and UT Martin student Nicole Hawks-Young, who dressed up as Viper from the video game “Valorant”, received $20 for her cosplay.
