Meet the 9 Celebrities Coming to Boise’s Gem State Comic Con

Over the last few years, Boise's struggled to hold onto a mainstream comic convention. That's why cosplayers, comic lovers and pop culture addicts are so excited to see Gem State Comic Con return for its third year! 

In 2017, the Nampa Civic Center hosted the incredibly successful Treasure Valley Comic-Con. The first-year con attracted 4,000 attendees and featured guests from Stranger Things, The Walking Dead, Breaking Bad, The Flash, Different Strokes, Shameless and more. The next year, a national convention announced they were coming to Boise the week after Treasure Valley Comic Con's 2018 dates. They decided the yield and let that convention do its thing.

The national convention was Wizard World and they hosted their event at the Boise Centre in Downtown Boise. Guests included William Shatner, Jason David Frank, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Ron Perlman and more. Their event was also well attended and they planned to come back in 2019. The 2019 dates were announced and tickets went on sale, but the convention ultimately ended up refunding customers and canceling the Boise show. Many believe it's because it was planned for the same weekend as the gold standard for pop culture conventions, San Diego Comic-Con.

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Gem State Comic-Con originally planned its first event for April 2020. After postponing it several times due to COVID-19, they hosted their first event in April 2021. 

The convention returned for year two in 2022 and it quickly became apparent that to see it all, they’d need to expand to a two-day event!  The third annual event is taking place Saturday, April 1 AND Sunday, April 2 at Expo Idaho. We travel to a lot of comic conventions all over the country and we'll tell you that Gem State's a great value for their ticket prices. Ticket prices are:

• Saturday Only: $15 in advance/$20 at the door
• Sunday Only: $10 in advance/$15 at the door
• Both Days: $25 in advance/$35 at the door
• Saturday Only/4-Pack: $40 (Advanced tickets only)
• Sunday Only/4-pack: $35 (Advanced tickets only)
• Both Days/4-pack: $75 (Advanced tickets only)

Kids 12 and under are free with paid adult admission.

Comic-Con goers can expect to see tons of creators, artists, exhibitors, fandom groups, arcade games movies/tv shows, cosplay content and of course panels from this year’s celebrity guests! 

So who’s going to be there in 2023? Gem State’s line-up gets bigger every year and this year’s guests will certainly stir up a lot of memories for ‘90s kids and Star Wars fans!