PopStitch creators Hannah and Nikki Bird of Hurricane show off their creations. Hannah holds a cross stitched portrait of Castiel from the “Supernatural” series, and Nikki holds a brightly colored crocheted lizard.

HerdCon, Marshall University’s very own pop culture convention, brought fans of comics, anime, gaming, and cosplay to the campus this past weekend.

Friday afternoon offered a preview of what the convention offered, with live podcasts, film screenings, trivia contests, and a sing along contest in the basement of the Memorial Student Center.

The main event was held all day Saturday, with booths, activities, and game rooms on all three floors of the student center. Some of the highlights of the day included a demonstration by the Marshall University Fencing Club and lightsaber fights with Star Wars performance group Outer Rim Praxeum, as well as informative panel discussions on a variety of topics, podcasts, film screenings, live music, video games, and tabletop roleplaying games.

Two Putnam County-based businesses were represented among the 200 plus vendors at the convention. PopStitch, the mother-daughter team of Nikki and Hannah Bird of Hurricane, offered a variety of cross-stitched portraits of popular television characters, crocheted superhero and villain dolls, and assorted small crocheted and needlecraft items.

Element 304 Printing and Miniatures, operated by Tim Bailey and Chris Francis of Scott Depot, brought a large collection of miniatures to be used for Dungeons and Dragons games, as well as fantasy figurines and jewelry. This year’s HerdCon was the first time that Element 304 has been a vendor at a convention.

Having come into existence in 2019, HerdCon is in its third year. The 2020 convention was cancelled days before the official COVID shutdown brought the entire country to a halt in mid-March, and continued concerns of the virus ruled out the event in 2021.