Marshall County Public Library's 2025 Mini-Con
Get your geek on and fuel your fandom with this free event! Join us on Saturday, July 12th, 2025 at MCPL for our 2nd annual Mini-Con!
MCPL's Mini-Con will be everything you love about a larger con in a setting that you know and love...your local library!
Check out our schedule, discussion panelists, authors, vendors, artists, food trucks, and other guests!
PLEASE READ IMPORTANT INFO BELOW!
This year's Mini Con will be held at the Benton branch of the Marshall County Public Library; however, multiple events on the event schedule will be offsite at the Children's Art Center in Benton, KY. MCPL Staff will be present and will be managing the events being held here. This is within walking distance of our Benton branch. On the schedule below, events marked with (CAC) will be held at the Children's Art Center, not at the Benton branch.
Schedule of Events
We may continue to update this page up until the day of the convention. Please check back for the latest details!
10am-4pm (All Day)
- Door prizes
- Vendors, authors, artists (Meeting Rooms A&B)
- Costumed characters, photo ops
- Scavenger hunt (Teen & Fiction Areas)
- Mario Kart (Teen Area)
- Tabletop games (KY Reference Room)
- Realm of Relaxation (Learning Lab)
- Retro Games (Birdsong Study Room)
- Children’s crafts/games (Children's Program Room & Area)
- Face Painting (Middle Section of First Floor)
- MCPL's Temporary Ink Lab (Middle Section of First Floor)
- Button Making (Middle Section of First Floor)
- Ghostbusters Car
10:15am - 10:45am
- Paranormal 101: Gear Up & Get Spooked with Billy Winsett (CAC)
10:30am
- Dungeons & Dragons - Session 1 begins (Conference Room)
11am - 11:45am
- From Pantry to Prosthetics: Special Effects on a Budget with Katie Underwood (CAC)
12pm - 12:45pm
- Fandom trivia (CAC)
12pm - 1pm
- Cosplay signups/judging (CAC)
1:30pm
- Dungeons & Dragons - Session 2 begins (Conference Room)
1pm - 1:45pm
- Your Fantasy, Your Way: Writing and Publishing on Your Own Terms with JJ Park (CAC)
2pm - 2:45pm
- Bring Your Heroes to Life: Drawing Iconic Characters from Your Favorite Fandoms with Johnny Jones (CAC)
3pm - 3:45pm
- Cosplay Contest (CAC) *check Cosplay Contest section for more info!
4pm - 4:45pm
- Con Karaoke Cool Down (Outdoor Classroom)
Matt Schorr
King Panda Studio
MC Loop & Co.
Xek Rychtevorik
Tiny Dubu Homemade
Majestic Monkey
Polka Dots and Paislees
West KY Wizarding Events
The B.A. Bookish Boutique
Embroidery by Mallory
Willow Wood Wands
Greyhawke Gamers Guild
Dice Alliance
Events to be Held at the Children's Arts Center
Registration is required and will be held from 12pm-1pm at the Marshall County Children's Arts Center. You must be in costume to register! A portion of the judging will take place upon registration.
Judging criteria will be rated on a 1-5 scaled and will include the following...
Accuracy - resemblance of cosplay in it's entirety to the intended character
Craftsmanship - quality of craftsmanship of entire cosplay, including sewing, prop construction, wig, accessories, etc.
Difficulty/Complexity - attention to detail with respect to original character's design complexity and difficulty
Portrayal - resemblance of cosplayer to original character, in-character acting, and character knowledge
The contest will be divided into three age brackets. Kids 0-12 years old, Teens 13-17 years old, Adults 18 or older. The winners of each category will receive an honorary medal, which was made in the library's makerspace.
Check our Facebook page for more info!
Katie Underwood
From Pantry to Prosthetics: Special Effects on a Budget
Katie is the Teen Librarian at Marshall County Public Library and has worked in libraries for 15 years. During this time, she participated in cosplaying for work events, Comic Cons, and even for her film friends and 48 Hour Film Festivals, where she gained experience in acting, makeup, and character building. Katie self-taught herself special effects makeup and did a Special Effects Makeup on a Budget class for the teens this past October.
JJ Park
Your Fantasy, Your Way: Writing and Publishing on Your Own Terms
JJ Park is a Kentucky native who hordes yarn and plays Dungeons & Dragons. Having made an enemy of brevity, JJ has played the long game since she wrote an essay in the fifth grade about her favorite place in the world. Writing was always seen as a creative hobby for those around her and rarely deemed as a responsible career choice. JJ's first novel was considered by Sheldmedia as "top 100 indie novels of 2024", also an American Fiction Awards finalist for Fantasy/Sci-fi category, and winner of the Storytrade Awards for the Fantasy/Romance category.
Johnny Jones
Bring Your Heroes to Life: Drawing Iconic Characters from Your Favorite Fandoms
Johnny Jones is the art teacher at Marshall county High School. He has helped with the drama department for 18 years and has his Master of Fine Arts degree in sculpture and design from SIU. In his spare time, he likes to create his own costumes from characters such as the Mandalorian (Star Wars), Rick Grimes (Walking Dead), and The Wolverine (Marvel).
Billy Winsett
Paranormal 101: Gear Up & Get Spooked
Billy had his first paranormal experience over 20 years ago and has always been interested in the subject. Billy and his wife Jill founded Night Vision Paranormal in 2017 and have been researching and investigating ever since. They are a family run group out of Western Kentucky. They do it all, from ghosts and aliens to bigfoot and other cryptids. Billy has several experience stories to share and will also introduce and show many of the tools used to investigate the paranormal.