Introducing the Minnesota Comic Book Association (MNCBA)

On Saturday, the Bloomington Armory will host the Minnesota Comic Book Association’s FallCon comic convention. It’s the second convention for this new local comic fan association, whose inaugural event, SpringCon, took place at the same venue earlier this year.

If your reaction to that information is that you’re pretty sure SpringCon and FallCon are not, in fact, new conventions, you’re sort of right. The conventions aren’t new, but the organization hosting them is. Again. Sort of.

So what is the Minnesota Comic Book Association, and how is it different from the now-defunct Midwest Comic Book Association? Read on for the full rundown.

MSP ComiCon 2015 Spring convention at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds Grandstand. MCBA

The MCBA/MCBF/MNCBA Timeline

Here’s a brief timeline to help you understand the evolution of this community and its conventions with all of their name changes.

1988: The Midwest Comic Book Association (MCBA) is created by a team of volunteers lead by Paul Ewert and then by Cory Strode.

1997: Nick Post (part owner of Source Comics and Games) becomes involved and eventually emerges as a “larger than life” leader of MCBA.

1988–2014: MCBA runs comic conventions at smaller venues in the Twin Cities for its first couple years, then at the Thunderbird Hotel in Bloomington, then eventually SpringCon and FallCon at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds.

August 2014: Nick Post passes away, and the future of MCBA is unclear. A few longtime volunteers step up and continue running SpringCon and FallCon, which will go through a series of name iterations (including MSP ComiCon) before resuming their old names.

2019: The Midwest Comic Book Association (MCBA) renames itself Midwest Comic Book Fans (MCBF) and continues hosting SpringCon and FallCon under that name.

2021: After having to forgo comic conventions during the first year and a half of the pandemic, MCBF resumes hosting events—first FallCon XL at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds, then a series of Microcons at a smaller scale due to reduced budget and other factors.

December 2022: MCBF announces on its Facebook page (which has since been renamed EAKK Comic Book Shows) that Microcon III will be its last comic con and the organization will be dissolved. An April 2023 follow-up post explains the reasons were financial hardship and lack of volunteer resources and bandwidth, citing the desire of people involved to focus on spending time with their families.

March 2023: The Minnesota Comic Book Association (MNCBA) announces it has formed and will be taking up the mantle of the old MCBA/MCBF.

What to Know about the Minnesota Comic Book Association

I was able to connect with Mike Frigon, a member of the crew that came together to form Minnesota Comic Book Association earlier this year. Mike is a longtime comics fan who started volunteering with the former Midwest Comic Book Association when founder Nick Post recruited him in 1998. Other members of MNCBA’s leadership team include Paul Ewert, who had volunteered with MCBA since its first comic con in 1988; Steve Henninger, who has been volunteering with iterations of the organization for over 20 years; Michael Etten, who has been volunteering since 1993; Jen Bateman, a creator who is a longtime SpringCon and FallCon exhibitor; and a few newer faces as well.

When MCBF announced it was disbanding, Frigon explained, “Steve contacted me and said that he would get in touch with some of the other old volunteers for a lunch meeting to see what everyone thought about reforming the MCBA and keeping the shows going. About eight of us got together and decided that we should give it a shot. We put the word out to the other old volunteers, and everyone seemed very receptive.”

Left to right: MNCBA organizers Paul Ewert, Mike Frigon, Bri Davis, Michael Etten, Steve Henninger, and Matt Walkosz. MNCBA

MNCBA evokes almost everything that originally made MCBA well regarded in the comic fan and creator communities throughout the Midwest, but with added hindsight that comes from years of running a fan organization and seeing others run it. One of the main differences is that Midwest Comic Book Association and Midwest Comic Book Fans were never actually nonprofit organizations. One of the first things the MNCBA crew did was incorporate Minnesota Comic Book Association as a 501(c) Minnesota nonprofit. This will allow it to offer a tax deduction in return for donations, which previous iterations of the organization could not do despite their long history of comic con events and art auctions benefiting charities. It’s also the hope of MNCBA’s new board to leverage their nonprofit status to apply for grants. Among the volunteers they are currently seeking is someone who might be able to help them identify and apply for those grants. In Frigon’s words:

We don’t want this to be a one-man-band situation because it’s been demonstrated too often what happens if something happens to the one person who does everything. We’re shooting for redundancy, which not only gives us back-ups, but different inputs and more options, which is really fantastic.

The scene at SpringCon 2023. MNCBA

Frigon reports that MNCBA’s SpringCon 2023 was “very much a coming home kind of moment” for many volunteers who had been involved with MCBA/MCBF over the years. John Kentner ran the panel room, like he used to. Aesop’s Table catered food, like it used to. A lot of volunteers just fell into their usual roles, which made things very comfortable, and many local creators were guests of the convention. MNCBA had been anticipating about 300 attendees, but over 600 people came to last spring’s event. They also raised 300 pounds in food pantry donations. “Probably the best compliment we got was from the creators who said, ‘It felt like an old MCBA show!’” Frigon said. He notes that everyone involved is really looking forward to FallCon, where attendees can look forward to the return of the charity auction and more.

At the same time, MNCBA is making a few changes. Partnering with creative director Jen Bateman, the organizers have upgraded the online marketing and branding of the organization, launched an online shop where you can buy an MNCBA T-shirt, and adopted more robust conduct policies (which you can read on their website). They hope to bring more gaming back to the conventions. And they have instituted a modest fee for creator tables, which had always been free at MCBA/MCBF events. Frigon explained that the tables being free meant that sometimes creators would register but not show up. The team has found that even a small table fee helps ensure all tables have creators at them.

Creators Barb Schulz and Paul Fricke at SpringCon 2023. MNCBA

Frigon says that Minnesota Comic Book Association’s goal is to step up to holding the conventions at larger venues, including a possible return to the Minnesota State Fairgrounds if that is feasible, in order put on the scale of convention that MCBA was once known for. (At its largest, the two-day SpringCon would plan for up to 10,000 visitors.) Costs are definitely a concern—not only the cost of renting the Grandstand space, but also the costs of flying in guests, catering, and more. Another challenge is having enough volunteers to run a larger event without anybody burning out.

Supporting MNCBA

There are two main ways to help ensure the latest iteration of a beloved local comic book organization can continue meaningfully, and perhaps better than ever:

1. You can donate to help the organization afford its venue fees, travel costs for out-of-state comic creator guests, and more. Since MNCBA is a nonprofit, you can deduct any financial gifts on your taxes. You can donate online directly through PayPal or when you purchase your FallCon or SpringCon tickets.
2. You can volunteer to both keep the overall organization running and help make sure MCBA is never short on people to run comic cons. Moving back to a bigger venue such as the Minnesota State Fairgrounds will require many more volunteers. Email volunteers@mncba.org for more information on becoming a Minnesota Comic Book Association volunteer.

MNCBA FallCon 2023 is at the Bloomington Armory on October 28, 2023, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Admission for ages 10 and up is $6, and kids 9 and under are free. Find more information and get advance tickets on the Minnesota Comic Book Association website, www.mncba.org.

MNCBA