For Jesse Darby-Tillis II, HYPECON has been an enduring dream, one soon to be realized at the former Sears space in Texarkana's Central Mall.
Come March 17 and 18 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day, HYPECON 2018 aims to help youth progress every day, as the acronym stands for, with gaming tournaments, anime, comic books, art, cosplay, live panels and celebrity guests like Justin Cook and Cynthia Cranz, two of the top voice artists in the business with experience in anime, like "Yu Yu Hakusho" and "Dragon Ball Z."
"The whole idea of the concept of HYPECON started because me being a kid, being down here since I was 10 years old, graduated from Ashdown High School in 2008, I was bored," said Darby-Tillis, who came here from Chicago.
Texarkana's close to some bigger, cool cities like Dallas and Shreveport, so why do we have to go there for events, he wondered. Why not have these fun events here? Why can't people come to us? That was his idea.
"You don't want to travel three hours just to go do something for just a few hours and then drive three hours back," said McKayla Cox, his fellow HYPECON organizer.
The flipside of this HYPECON concept, too, is to give back to the youth here. He sees providing such events as a way to help youth progress earlier.
"More events brings more opportunity. It helps," Darby-Tillis said. He envisions establishing an awards system someday, even giving free tickets to graduates. For this event, they've given free tickets to a local orphanage.
"I feel like the youth is obviously the future, and we need to help nurture it," Darby-Tillis said, noting they want to get fandoms involved and make HYPECON interactive.
"It also gives you a chance to express yourself as an individual doing cosplay or just meet-and-greets with your favorite voice actors," Cox said. For cosplay, Darby-Tillis encourages people to dress as anyone they wish to, no matter who it is. It's about self-expression for all where all fit in. He's even dressed as Pee-Wee Herman.
Video game tournaments will be held for Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition, Tekken 7, Super Smash Bros., Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, Pokémon Ultra Sun, Pokémon Ultra Moon and Dragonball FighterZ. There's a pot bonus of $100 for the Dragon Ball and Smash Bros. tournaments.
Another aspect of HYPECON is the inclusion of YouTubers like Shenanigans n' Such and Super Mexican Bros, two local groups, said Darby-Tillis. Then there's Team Hotsauce, a pro gaming group that streams their games. In addition to local YouTubers, look for local cosplayers to also be involved, such as Velvet Rose Gaming, who will be a featured guest.
"We're trying to build a community within Texarkana for this stuff, as well as bring in the communities from all around to join in," Cox said.
The community for comic cons seems to be here. In addition to HYPECON and the already established Ark-La-Tex Comic Con, there's Texarkanime 2018 scheduled for July 28 and 29 at the Arkansas-side convention center. Darby-Tillis welcomes all this.
"The more the merrier and it grows," he said. He sees HYPECON's focus as more "new school based" right now compared to Ark-La-Tex Comic Con.
Tables for vendors and artists are $100, but two tables are available for $150 for a short time. Photo ops will be available with Cigainero Artistry.
(Tickets: $20 per day, $30 for a two-day pass. Children 10 and under get in free. Buy tickets at hypeconevents.com. Use the promo code "EarlyHype" for 25 percent off until Feb. 23.)