For a deeply nerdy town like Austin, it’s shocking that there’s no locally created mutli-fan culture convention in the heart of the city. That changes this weekend (Aug. 15-16) with the first-ever PCX Austin at the Fairmont Austin.
The city’s been without a regular major convention since the local stop for the traveling Wizard World wrapped up in 2019. Since then, PCX co-founder and promoter Miriam Kruger said, “The community is a little bit gun-shy. A lot of cons have come and gone, but we’re really committed to making this work for the long haul.”
Kruger didn’t grow up a convention fan, and she recalled that her only real experience was being “dragged” to the Motor City Comic Con in Novi, Michigan, by her sister. By 2009, she was working as an auditor in the financial services sector, and her then-brother-in-law was running MCCC. One of the other organizers dropped out, Kruger said, “and I happened to be available, and he was like, ‘Do you want to help out?’” While she’d attended the con before, working behind the scenes was a completely different experience. “I fell in love with it. I’d never been passionate about something like that. But look at all these different fandoms, and people are so passionate about [them].”
During her time at Motor City, she got to know many of the regular guests and booth operators, including comic creator, editor-in-chief of Zenescope, and founder of Austin-based Black Crow Comics Ralph Tedesco. Kruger said, “One day he called me and went, ‘There’s no con here. Isn’t that weird, that there’s no con in Austin? What do you think of putting one together?’ and I went, ‘Absolutely. Let’s do it.’”
Most event organizers have regarded the Austin Convention Center currently being a hole in the ground as a problem. By contrast, Kruger said, “I feel it’s the perfect time to come in and start growing something.” Hosting the con at the Fairmont, as Kruger sees it, is an opportunity to show Austin audiences what PCX is about and earn their trust: “It takes time, especially if you want to build a really good, strong con.”
For year one, the team is avoiding the scattershot programming approach that can be the bane of overambitious conventions. Alongside the traditional vendors, celebrity photo ops, and cosplayers, PCX programming highlights three celebrity guest groupings to excite different fandoms and give a taste of future plans. The Grand Line Docks at PCX Austin: A One Piece Reunion panel brings together both familiar voices from the English-language dub of the anime and stars of the Netflix live action series, like the voice of Dracule Mihawk, John Gremillion, and his live-action counterpart, Steven John Ward. They’ll share the stage with Ward’s co-stars, Mikaela Hoover (Tony Tony Chopper) and Jeff Ward (Buggy the Clown).
On the classic genre TV side, the big draw is a Buffy the Vampire Slayer & Angel reunion panel (The Buffyverse Lives On!) with Charisma Carpenter (Sunnydale High’s toxic queen Cordelia Chase), Julie Benz (bloodsucking instigator Darla), and James Marsters (punk vampire Spike), who will also be performing a special concert on Saturday night.
Rounding out the headliner panels is something for the city’s non-retro gamers, who have lacked their own major Austin event since Dream Con relocated to Houston in 2025. They’ll sit around the campfire with voice talent from the Red Dead Redemption franchise like Roger Clark (Arthur Morgan) and Kaili Vernoff (Susan Grimshaw). “I went a little wild with that one,” Kruger laughed. “I started with the major characters, but got such a great response that I went, ‘I want to make a bigger deal out of it.’”
This article appears in August 14 • 2026.
