LumaCon coming to Petaluma

Once held in suburban garages, gatherings for fans of comic books and comic strips have become an industry, popping up all over the map.

The annual San Diego Comic Con has become a leading venue for previewing major films based on comics characters, and Northern California has had its share of comics conventions, including an event at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds in Santa Rosa held the past two years.

This weekend, Petaluma will present its own celebration of comics, LumaCon 2015, at the Sonoma-Marin Fairgrounds in Petaluma, featuring some local talents with national reputations:

Stephan Pastis of Santa Rosa, creator of the syndicated comic strip “Pearls Before Swine,” devoted to outrageous puns and the antics of Rat and Pig, has launched an additional career as a children’s author and illustrator with several books in the “Timmy Failure” series.

Tom Yeates of Jenner, a veteran professional comic book artist for Marvel, DC and other major comics publishers, has worked since 2012 as the artist for the “Prince Valiant” newspaper feature, originally created by Hal Foster in 1937.

Brent Anderson of Windsor, another comic book pro with a long list of credits with top publishers, illustrates the long-lived cult favorite “Astro City,” written by Kurt Busiek.

Other local artists to be featured at the convention, running from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 17, include Maia Kobabe (“The Thief’s Tale”) and Paige Braddock (“Jane’s World.”)

The day will include artists’ demonstrations, comics displays and opportunities for fans to meet a dozen and a half professional comics artists. The event’s “Shadow an Artist” program allows students to sit by side with a professional artist or writer for half an hour.

In the early decades of comic books, the colorful booklets were vilified by some critics as the enemy of literacy.

But the organizers of LumaCon hold the opposite view.

Conceived by the Sonoma County Library and local high school librarians, the convention aims to encourage young readers by recognizing and respecting their passion for comics, graphic novels and other pop-culture publications.

For fans of the unique combination of words, pictures, imagination, color and fun that comic art can capture like no other medium, here’s a chance for a day of guiltless pleasure.

Suggested donation: $5-$15. Information: lumacon.weebly.com.