Comment on Six months out, Denver Comic Con 2018 looks to strike balance between celebs and education

The wildly popular Denver Comic Con has always touted its educational mission — being the single-largest event of its nonprofit parent, Pop Culture Classroom — as well as its old-school emphasis on sci-fi and fantasy authors and, naturally, comic-book creators. But for a heroic chunk of the 115,000 total attendees at last year’s gathering, the celebrity autographs and panels, cosplay contests and gaming held much of the shiny, pop-culture appeal. That’s why most of the ink for the 2018 event has thus far gone to film and TV names, such as the newly announced Matt Smith (“Doctor Who”), Bonnie Wright and Matthew Lewis (“Harry Potter”), Alanna Masterson (“The Walking Dead”), Luke Perry (“Riverdale, “Bevery Hills, 90210”), Jason Lewis (“Midnight, Texas”), Graham McTavish (“The Hobbit” trilogy, “Outlander”), Gaten Matarazzo and Noah Schnapp (“Stranger Things”), and Pom Klementieff (“Guardians of the Galaxy”). But as the clock runs down on the seventh annual event, June 15-17 at the Colorado Convention Center, this careful mix of candy and vegetables has gotten a bit easier to measure. “The educational component is really the one that we’re proudest of, and something that we see more large cons investing in or featuring in some way,” said Sam Fuqua, executive director of Pop Culture Classroom.