Inside Giant Sized Productions’ X-Men Art Show: Where Fandom Finds Its People

There are X-Men conventions, there are art galleries, and there are fandom meetups.

Then there is whatever happens when you fill a coffee shop with original mutant artwork, build a Krakoan portal inside it, break out X-Men Monopoly and invite a community that usually exists across Discord servers, group chats and thousands of miles to finally meet each other in person.

On Thursday night, that was Moby’s Coffee & Tea in Los Angeles.

Giant Sized Productions’ ongoing X-Men art exhibition became home to the first live RomyCon gathering, bringing together artists, cosplayers, collectors and fans celebrating Rogue, Gambit and the larger X-Men universe — just as renewed excitement around the mutants continues to spill far beyond the screen.

But underneath the art, games and themed drinks was something considerably more X-Men than any one character hanging on the wall:

People finding somewhere they belonged.

Giant Sized Productions Turned Moby’s Into an X-Men Experience

Walking through the exhibition with Giant Sized Productions’ Chris Riley quickly makes one thing clear: this is not simply X-Men artwork hung inside a coffee shop.

The space is packed with pieces pulling from nearly every corner of mutant history, from X-Men: The Animated Series and X-Men: Evolution to contemporary comics and X-Men ’97.

There are original pieces, limited-edition prints, sculptures, custom figures and work from artists directly connected to the franchise. One wall even challenged participating artists to combine X-Men with coffee, resulting in mutant-themed mugs, visual jokes and character interpretations built specifically around the venue.

Elsewhere, a recreation of the famous moment Magneto rips the adamantium from Wolverine’s body sits alongside playful pieces like “Wolverine Heights,” while an original Goth Rogue work connects the exhibition to X-Men: Evolution.

Riley said the team received submissions from more than 200 artists around the world while assembling the show.

His own connections helped begin that process. After previously working with Artist Alley at Los Angeles Comic Con, Riley reached out to artists he had worked with before and expanded the search through collaborators including Upper Deck talent coordinator Matt Dunford.

From there, Riley and co-curator Adrienne Jimenez narrowed the enormous submission pool.

Jimenez said the goal wasn’t simply to find the biggest names.

“We were looking for kind of like a cohesive voice in their art,” she told The Nerd Wire, explaining that they wanted work that represented what each artist does while still connecting clearly to the X-Men.

That also meant intentionally creating room for artists at different stages of their careers, with an emphasis on uplifting BIPOC creators and artists from the Los Angeles area.

“Do you love the X-Men?” Jimenez said of the philosophy behind the selection process. “Does your work evoke what the X-Men means to you? Is that apparent in your work?”

Building an X-Men ‘Third Space’

That philosophy carries beyond the artwork.

Jimenez described the exhibition as an attempt to create a “safe space to experience the fandom” — something more relaxed than the massive conventions and crowded activations that often define fan events.

“Something like a third space, like a coffee shop, where you can come in and enjoy the art on your own time, on your own terms, was really important to us,” she said.

Moby’s was transformed accordingly.

Fans move from the working coffee shop into rooms lined with X-Men artwork, passing through a Krakoan portal installation created by Secret Forest LA along the way. The exhibition has also hosted panels, artists, podcasts, comedy, drag performances and other events throughout its run.

For Jimenez, the goal was to make entering the space feel like stepping somewhere else entirely.

“You’re surrounded by art of your favorite characters based on decades and decades of history,” she said.

And the community has responded.

Jimenez said even the organizers were surprised by how quickly artists rallied around the project and by the reception the exhibition received after opening, including visits from performers connected to X-Men ’97.

The show has also benefitted its host. During our tour, Moby’s staff talked about discovering that some of their existing customers were comic artists — something they hadn’t known before the exhibition brought those parts of their lives into the same room.

That crossover between everyday life and fandom may be one of the exhibition’s biggest successes.

RomyCon Goes From Discord to Real Life

Thursday brought another community into that space.

RomyCon began as what one of its organizers, Meg of Gambit Spotting, affectionately described as “a passion project of a group of four nerds.”

There was one problem: those nerds were scattered everywhere.

With organizers and community members spread across the United States, the United Kingdom and beyond, simply getting everyone into the same convention hall wasn’t realistic.

So they built their own convention online.

RomyCon launched on Discord during “Romy Week,” the annual celebration surrounding Rogue and Gambit’s comic-book wedding anniversary. Rather than limiting participation to fan art or fanfiction, the organizers wanted a convention where virtually every kind of fan could participate.

The first event drew 173 people.

According to Meg, attendees represented roughly 27 countries during that inaugural year. The following RomyCon expanded to around 30.

And its guest list started looking remarkably like one belonging to a physical convention.

A.J. LoCascio, the voice of Gambit in X-Men ’97, participated in a Q&A for the first RomyCon. Lenore Zann, who voices Rogue, joined this year. Comic creators including Gail Simone and James Asmus have also participated in Q&As with the community.

Each day brings a guest conversation, while the rest of the virtual convention includes cosplay competitions, fan creations, conversations and — perhaps most importantly — an open door for people trying to find other fans.

Thursday at Moby’s marked something new:

RomyCon Live.

Fans who normally meet through screens were suddenly playing X-Men games together, entering raffles, watching previous RomyCon interviews, showing off cosplay and preparing for a Jeopardy-style trivia competition in the same room.

“It’s just a way that everybody can kind of get together and do nerd stuff,” Meg said.

‘We’re Not Gatekeepers. We’re the Exact Opposite.’

That accessibility also drives Gambit Spotting.

The site and its related podcast track Gambit appearances, convention guests, fan art, cosplay and other news surrounding Remy LeBeau. A newer Rogue Spotting project does the same for Rogue.

But following the arrival of a new wave of fans through X-Men ’97, Gambit Spotting took on another role: helping newcomers figure out where the hell to start with decades of comics.

The podcast walks listeners through Gambit’s history and reading order several issues at a time, giving newer fans context without expecting them to arrive already knowing everything.

“We’re not gatekeepers,” Meg said. “We’re the exact opposite.”

That might also be the best explanation for why RomyCon works.

Meg talked openly about finding that community herself after growing up feeling like she didn’t always quite fit with the people around her.

“There’s a lot of that kind of in the X-Men fandom,” she said. “You just don’t feel like you kind of fit in with the day-to-day kind of groups of people.”

First came bonding with the X-Men.

Then came bonding with each other.

“It’s just been a lovely community since I’ve been in it,” she said.

Why Gambit Still Works

For a convention centered around Rogue and Gambit, there was also an obvious question:

Why has Gambit held onto fans for this long?

For Meg, it comes down to contradiction.

“He’s a hero, but he’s kind of got that mysterious, dark, might-not-be-a-hero side to him,” she said.

His history with the Thieves Guild, his questionable decisions and the sense that Remy LeBeau can never be entirely predictable are part of the appeal rather than something fans need to overlook.

“It’s a flawed hero,” she said. “But he’s such an amazing character.”

She first latched onto Gambit watching X-Men: The Animated Series as a child and has effectively grown up alongside Rogue and Remy — although she joked that despite their head start, she still managed to get married before they did.

And if Rogue and Gambit themselves walked into RomyCon?

Meg suspects Remy would have precisely the reaction you would expect.

“I think Remy LeBeau is enough of a showboat that he’d be like, ‘I got a whole convention to myself.’”

Correct, cher.

X-Men Fandom Is Having a Moment — Again

The timing of the exhibition and RomyCon Live feels particularly fitting as X-Men ’97 has once again pushed the mutants to the center of pop-culture conversation.

Jimenez said the series has created a new wave of excitement while reigniting something that never really disappeared.

“It’s always been there,” she said, “but I think now it’s just kind of pushed to the forefront again.”

For the artists involved, that renewed attention also arrives at a moment when Jimenez believes supporting human creativity matters enormously.

“It’s more important now than ever to keep that human creativity alive,” she said, pointing to the increasing presence of generated artwork. “It’s important to boost up human-made creations with that human voice.”

The exhibition does exactly that.

Every Rogue is somebody’s Rogue.

Every Storm, Wolverine, Gambit or Nightcrawler hanging on the wall has passed through another person’s history with those characters first.

And then Thursday night added another layer.

Fans who had met through podcasts, Discord servers, cosplay pages, conventions and friends of friends were suddenly standing together inside the artwork.

That is perhaps why an X-Men show feels particularly suited for an event like this.

For more than 60 years, these stories have been about people who discover that the thing making them feel different doesn’t necessarily have to leave them alone.

Sometimes they even find a school full of people like them.

Sometimes, apparently, they find a coffee shop.

And if Thursday’s RomyCon Live proved anything, it’s that mutant found family is doing just fine.

Giant Sized Productions’ X-Men exhibition continues at Moby’s Coffee & Tea, with additional programming leading into its closing celebration. Giant Sized Productions is also preparing for The Uncanny Experience, its immersive X-Men fan convention that transforms its venue into Xavier’s Institute and invites attendees to step into the experience as mutant students.

RomyCon is expected to return online next June, with cosplay and Artist Alley applications planned to open in January.

The X-Art Show at Moby’s Coffee & Tea runs through Saturday, August 15, culminating in a closing-night party from 7–10 p.m. featuring music, cosplay, burlesque performances and more. Partial proceeds from the event benefit NerdsVote.