247
{# Rendered ALWAYS and hidden below the threshold, never omitted. An
element that is absent at 0 cannot be repainted when the reader
makes it 1 — that is why the card's count used to sit stale until
a reload. falkorPresence (base.html) owns the text from here. #}
0 saved
May 22 – May 23, 2027
Ontario Convention Center, Ontario…
Somewhere in the artist alley there is a table with your favorite book on it, and the person who drew it is sitting behind it, waiting for someone to say the right thing. That is the whole reason to go. The Inland Empire's comic weekend stays small enough that you can actually reach that table — no wristband lottery, no line that eats your morning, no security walking the queue with a clipboard. Panels run all day for the people who want to hear how the work actually gets made. The exclusive merchandise moves early, which the regulars know, which is why they walk the floor before they do anything else. Pop culture at large is here too, but comics are still the spine of it. Ontario Convention Center, in Ontario. Bring the friend who has been quietly drawing in the margins since middle school and has never shown anyone.
This Happened
237 Gathered
237
{# Rendered ALWAYS and hidden below the threshold, never omitted. An
element that is absent at 0 cannot be repainted when the reader
makes it 1 — that is why the card's count used to sit stale until
a reload. falkorPresence (base.html) owns the text from here. #}
0 saved
May 28 – May 31, 2026
Ontario Convention Center, 2000 E …
Pokemon, One Piece TCG, Magic: The Gathering, and sports cards all in the same building for four days. The West Coast Card Show TCG Edition at the Ontario Convention Center brings live grading services, influencer appearances, competitive tournaments, and a vendor hall drawing sellers from across the West Coast.
The Ontario edition is distinct from the larger Anaheim show - it has a sharper TCG identity and a more competition-focused energy. If you are hunting specific singles, looking to grade a collection, or want to compete in open-bracket formats across multiple card games in a single weekend, this is the show that makes the trip worthwhile.
The Ontario Convention Center is easy to reach from across the 909, LA, and the South Bay. Free-to-attend areas are available throughout the show floor, and competitive registration varies by game and bracket.
Most of these vendors and graders work the Anaheim edition and the rest of the circuit too, so the stranger you end up elbow to elbow with over a quarter bin is someone you will see again three shows from now.
This Happened
99 Gathered
99
{# Rendered ALWAYS and hidden below the threshold, never omitted. An
element that is absent at 0 cannot be repainted when the reader
makes it 1 — that is why the card's count used to sit stale until
a reload. falkorPresence (base.html) owns the text from here. #}
0 saved
May 16 – May 17, 2026
$20-35
2000 E Convention Center Way, Onta…
At the big conventions you queue for a photo. At this one you sit down across from the person who drew the thing, and they have time.
The floor is built around direct creator access — meet artists and writers face to face, commission original work while you wait, pick up independent titles shelved next to the mainstream publishers, and dig through a dealer room genuinely packed with back issues, figures and collectibles. Cosplay runs the whole weekend without anyone treating it as a competition.
Saturday draws the bigger crowd. Sunday moves slower, which is when the browsing gets good and the conversations get longer.
Ontario Convention Center, 2000 E Convention Center Way — off the 10 and the 60, parking on-site. Weekend passes are the better value if you are coming both days.
Bring cash and a list. You will leave with something signed by a person whose name you now know.
This Happened
24 Gathered
24
{# Rendered ALWAYS and hidden below the threshold, never omitted. An
element that is absent at 0 cannot be repainted when the reader
makes it 1 — that is why the card's count used to sit stale until
a reload. falkorPresence (base.html) owns the text from here. #}
0 saved
Sep 20 – Sep 22, 2024
Ontario Convention Center, Ontario…
Creep I.E. Aftermath is a horror convention featuring haunted attractions, celebrity guests, panels, vendors, and cosplay. The event celebrates all things horror and provides a spooky experience for attendees.
1/2
2/2
This Happened
19 Gathered
19
{# Rendered ALWAYS and hidden below the threshold, never omitted. An
element that is absent at 0 cannot be repainted when the reader
makes it 1 — that is why the card's count used to sit stale until
a reload. falkorPresence (base.html) owns the text from here. #}
0 saved
Jan 31 – Feb 2, 2025
Ontario Convention Center, Ontario…
Creep I.E. Con is Southern California's ultimate horror and pop culture convention, bringing together fans, creators, and celebrities from across the spooky spectrum. Held at the Ontario Convention Center, this immersive event features panels, meet-and-greets, cosplay, vendor booths, and exclusive merchandise. Whether you're a fan of classic horror films, true crime, paranormal investigations, or gothic art, Creep I.E. Con has something chillingly exciting for everyone.
This Happened
18 Gathered
18
{# Rendered ALWAYS and hidden below the threshold, never omitted. An
element that is absent at 0 cannot be repainted when the reader
makes it 1 — that is why the card's count used to sit stale until
a reload. falkorPresence (base.html) owns the text from here. #}
0 saved
The Inland Empire does not usually get things like this, which is exactly why people drive in from across the region and treat a Saturday in Ontario like a holiday.
A comic convention out here is not a scaled-down version of the big one down the freeway. It is the one where you can actually reach the artist tables, actually get a question in at a panel, actually stand in front of a guest long enough to say the thing you rehearsed in the car. The floor is walkable. The lines end. Nobody is fighting you for a badge, and nobody is too cool to talk about the run they have been collecting since middle school.
Exhibitor booths, panels, special guests, and a full day of it at the Ontario Convention Center on Convention Center Way.
Bring the kid who is just old enough to start having favorites. This is where a person finds out their thing has other people in it.
This Happened
{# Rendered ALWAYS and hidden below the threshold, never omitted. An
element that is absent at 0 cannot be repainted when the reader
makes it 1 — that is why the card's count used to sit stale until
a reload. falkorPresence (base.html) owns the text from here. #}
0 saved
May 17 – May 18, 2025
Ontario Convention Center, Ontario…
Somewhere in the artist alley there is a table with your favorite book on it, and the person who drew it is sitting behind it, waiting for someone to say the right thing. That is the whole reason to go. The Inland Empire's comic weekend stays small enough that you can actually reach that table — no wristband lottery, no line that eats your morning, no security walking the queue with a clipboard. Panels run all day for the people who want to hear how the work actually gets made. The exclusive merchandise moves early, which the regulars know, which is why they walk the floor before they do anything else. Pop culture at large is here too, but comics are still the spine of it. Ontario Convention Center, in Ontario. Bring the friend who has been quietly drawing in the margins since middle school and has never shown anyone.
While you are lookingDifferent scene, same night out.
Coming Soon
99 Gathering
29 days away
99
{# Rendered ALWAYS and hidden below the threshold, never omitted. An
element that is absent at 0 cannot be repainted when the reader
makes it 1 — that is why the card's count used to sit stale until
a reload. falkorPresence (base.html) owns the text from here. #}
0 saved
Nov 6 – Nov 8, 2026
TBA
Pasadena Convention Center, Pasade…
The thing nobody says out loud about the giant conventions is that you go for the artists and then spend the whole weekend failing to reach them. Six people deep at every table, a crowd that carries you past what you came to see, a morning of your life spent in a badge line.
This is the other version. The vendor hall is the argument: importers with inventory that never appears on domestic sites, small publishers stocking titles nobody else carries, figure dealers holding real stock, and artists who skip the bigger shows entirely. The cosplay skews toward builders — people who spent months on a prop and want a room where you can actually stop and look at it. Friday evening hours let the weekend breathe instead of compressing.
Three days at the Pasadena convention center, free parking, weekend passes cheap by convention standards.
Send this to the friend who came back from Anime Expo saying they saw nothing.
Coming Soon
🌎 Nation's Best
169 days away
6
{# Rendered ALWAYS and hidden below the threshold, never omitted. An
element that is absent at 0 cannot be repainted when the reader
makes it 1 — that is why the card's count used to sit stale until
a reload. falkorPresence (base.html) owns the text from here. #}
0 saved
The oldest and largest anime convention in the Pacific Northwest was started by a group of college students in the mid-nineties, back when liking this at all required explaining yourself, and it is still run entirely by volunteers. That fact shapes everything about the weekend. Nobody is extracting margin from you. The programming is built by people who wanted it to exist rather than by a department, which is why the schedule is full of things no commercial convention would ever green-light.
What that produces is a convention with an unusually high proportion of actual content — panels running past midnight, a serious concert program, a masquerade that people prepare for over months, and a video programming track that still shows things on a screen in a dark room to whoever wanders in. There is a formal ball. There is a chess tournament. The dealer hall is large but is not the center of gravity, which at an anime convention in the current era is genuinely unusual. The crowd skews younger than the older-guard conventions and the atmosphere is closer to a very large school event than to a trade show, in the best possible way.
Worth it? If you want a convention where the programming rather than the shopping is the reason to be there, this is one of a handful left in the country, and it is the best of them on the West Coast outside of Los Angeles. If you are coming primarily for big-name industry announcements, the larger shows will serve you better. Sakura-Con is for people who want to spend three days inside the thing rather than adjacent to it.
What to know before you go: registration opens early and the price ladder rewards buying well ahead. Late March in Seattle means rain, and the walk between the convention center and most hotels is short but unsheltered. The concerts are included with a badge and fill up, so line early for the ones you care about. Bring cash for artist alley. And the volunteer staff will genuinely help you if you ask, because they are attendees too.
It belongs on this list because a thirty-year-old, volunteer-run, still-thriving convention is evidence that a community can build something durable without anyone monetizing it, and that is worth knowing exists. Sakura-Con 2027 runs March 26–28, 2027 at the Seattle Convention Center.
Coming Soon
172 Gathering
233 days away
172
{# Rendered ALWAYS and hidden below the threshold, never omitted. An
element that is absent at 0 cannot be repainted when the reader
makes it 1 — that is why the card's count used to sit stale until
a reload. falkorPresence (base.html) owns the text from here. #}
0 saved
May 29 – May 31, 2027
Riverside Convention Center, 3637 …
An hour to Los Angeles for the big convention, an hour back at one in the morning — that is what being an anime fan out here has always meant. This is the year that stopped. There is a real pride in a room full of people from Riverside, San Bernardino, Temecula and Redlands who finally did not have to leave home to find each other. It is the whole format at a scale you can actually walk: panels, an exhibit hall, artist alley, gaming rooms, and a cosplay contest judged by a crowd that recognizes the characters without being told. No airport-terminal sprawl. That trade was made on purpose — less distance between you and the thing you came for. The convention takes over the Riverside Convention Center downtown, with dates confirming at animeriverside.com. Bring the friends who made that drive with you one too many times.
Coming Soon
810 Gathering
266 days away
810
{# Rendered ALWAYS and hidden below the threshold, never omitted. An
element that is absent at 0 cannot be repainted when the reader
makes it 1 — that is why the card's count used to sit stale until
a reload. falkorPresence (base.html) owns the text from here. #}
3 saved
Jul 1 – Jul 4, 2027
Los Angeles Convention Center, 120…
You will be tired in a way that feels earned. Four days, a hundred thousand people, and not one of them needs you to explain what you are talking about.
The largest anime convention in North America takes the Los Angeles Convention Center over Fourth of July weekend and spills into the JW Marriott and the Ritz-Carlton beside it. Industry panels, screening rooms, autograph sessions with voice actors and composers, concerts that sell out weeks ahead. Studios from Japan use this as their main North American announcement stage — if a sequel or adaptation is being revealed, it often happens in a room you could be standing in.
The exhibit hall carries imported merchandise and collaboration exclusives that surface nowhere else on the continent.
Los Angeles Convention Center, 1201 S Figueroa St. Thursday through Sunday. Badges run from top-tier early-access down to single-day passes.
Book the connected hotel corridor months out. Everyone who tells you that learned it the hard way.
Coming Soon
304 Gathering
91 days away
304
{# Rendered ALWAYS and hidden below the threshold, never omitted. An
element that is absent at 0 cannot be repainted when the reader
makes it 1 — that is why the card's count used to sit stale until
a reload. falkorPresence (base.html) owns the text from here. #}
0 saved
Jan 7 – Jan 10, 2027
Long Beach Convention Center, 300 …
Some knowledge you cannot buy: which panels are worth lining up an hour early for, which guest signings empty out fast, which late-night rooms never make it onto the printed schedule. Regulars hand that down to each other here, and it is the real inheritance of a convention that has been meeting for over two decades.
The tradeoff for running smaller than Anime Expo is access. To the guests, who trend toward voice actors and fan creators who build their year around Southern California cons. To the programming, which you can actually get into. To each other — the dealer room and artist alley run at a scale where you can move without turning sideways.
Four days at the Long Beach Convention Center, January 7-10, 2027, and they open the convention calendar for the whole region.
Send this to whoever you stood next to in line last year. They are already planning.
Coming Soon
184 Gathering
22 days away
184
{# Rendered ALWAYS and hidden below the threshold, never omitted. An
element that is absent at 0 cannot be repainted when the reader
makes it 1 — that is why the card's count used to sit stale until
a reload. falkorPresence (base.html) owns the text from here. #}
0 saved
Oct 30 – Nov 1, 2026
Los Angeles Convention Center, 120…
The big one down the coast takes all the attention. The people who come to this one prefer it that way, and they are quietly glad you have not worked it out yet.
Three days at the Convention Center — celebrity signings, panels, and an exhibitor floor that runs independent publishers alongside the major houses. Fifty thousand people who grew up on the same stories, turning a hall into a reunion.
The character is different on purpose. This is the industry's own convention, the one people attend in costume because they want to rather than because the press is watching. Comics, sci-fi, gaming, horror, anime, fantasy, across all three days.
Los Angeles Convention Center, 1201 S Figueroa St. October 30 through November 1.
The mythology is still being made in that room, and some of the people making it are sitting at a table waiting for someone to say hello.
Want personalized recommendations?
Create a free account and we'll surface events matched to your taste.