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Cosplay, gaming, hyperrealism and other expressions of pop and geek culture drew a crowd to Comic Con Panama 2022, the third edition of this event, which was paused for two years due to the pandemic.

“My hobby is cosplay, I’m passionate about it… It’s a lifestyle,” Panamanian Yarisel confessed to Efe, who accompanied by her young son attended the Panama Convention Center this Saturday imbued in the skin of Draka, the brave warrior of the Warcraft video game.

Adults and children packed this Saturday the majestic new convention center of Panama City, located on the shores of the Pacific entrance of the interoceanic canal, to expand on cosplaying, the most visible face of the enthusiasm that these meetings of fictional characters arouse. .

Thus, walking through the center in search of the video game section, the hyperreality tour or the virtual reality room, he found himself on the way to a Batman in a metallic suit, multicolored, playful and sometimes hypersexualized anime characters, or Darth Vader, a mandatory character in these events.

Peruvian artist Walt Wizard, an exponent of hyperrealism, told Efe of his happiness at being, for the second time, as a guest at Comic Con Panama 2022.

“Hyperrealism is an artistic current in which one seeks the best material and technique to make a character that seems to have life, straight out of a movie,” explained this industrial engineer who now travels the world developing “his artistic passion.”

Comic Con Panama 2022, which will run until this Sunday, has invited international artists, including Spanish actor Enrique Arce, from the series “La casa de papel” and American actor Mason Dye, from the series “Stranger Things”.

It also has the Artist Alley, with thirty Panamanian artists exhibiting their works; academic workshops, where talks and conferences by invited artists and experts are held; a Collectors Zone with an exhibition of action figures and collectibles, and a space dedicated to non-fungible tokens (NFT, for its acronym in English).