Comic Con Africa opens in Joburg with four days of fandom, gaming and screen stars

Comic Con Africa is open again at the Johannesburg Expo Centre in Nasrec, running from 24 to 27 September and turning the Heritage Day long weekend into four days of comics, gaming, anime, cosplay, film and television fandom.

Doors run 09:00 to 18:00 daily. Tickets are sold through Howler, with separate paid autograph and photograph sessions for selected guests. For South African fans who mostly meet online, this is the week the feed becomes a physical queue at Nasrec.

What the 2026 programme is selling

Organisers are pitching the show as a broad pop-culture gathering rather than a single-medium convention. Artist Alley, esports, free-to-play and tabletop gaming, anime, collectibles and daily cosplay sit beside panels and meet-and-greets with international film, television and voice talent.

That mix is the commercial point. A convention that only sells celebrity photos runs thin by Sunday afternoon. One that also gives local illustrators, makers, cosplayers and independent creators a public floor keeps foot traffic moving between stages and stalls.

5FM is also broadcasting from the convention over the weekend, which extends parts of the show beyond the Expo Centre and into ordinary radio reach.

Guests that pull different audiences into the same hall

Christopher Judge is among the headline names. Television audiences know him from Stargate SG-1; gamers know the voice and performance work behind Kratos in the modern God of War games. He is scheduled for appearances from 25 to 27 September, including panels, autographs and photo opportunities.

Richard T. Jones joins the live-action television lane, with a career that includes The Rookie. The Rick and Morty voice cast — Ian Cardoni, Harry Belden and Spencer Grammer — is listed for 24 to 26 September, pulling animation fans into the same building as science-fiction and procedural viewers. Alison Sealy-Smith and performers linked to Netflix’s One Piece sit on the same guest board.

The guest list is not the whole story, but it is how Comic Con Africa sells tickets to people who would not otherwise spend a long weekend at Nasrec for Artist Alley alone.

Why Nasrec still matters for SA fandom

Comic Con Africa has become one of the few regular, large-scale spaces where South African digital culture — gaming, cosplay, streaming fandom, collectibles — gets a dedicated physical footprint in Johannesburg.

That matters for local creators as much as for imported celebrity traffic. Artist Alley and fan-led programming put illustrators, costume makers and small brands in front of an audience that usually discovers them through Instagram or TikTok. The convention is where those online followings get a chance to become sales, commissions and collaborations.

It also keeps Johannesburg visible on the continental pop-culture calendar. When international guests choose Nasrec for a September weekend, South African fans do not have to wait for a Cape Town or overseas date to meet them.

What is still open

Exact panel schedules, how fast photo-op queues move, and how much of the weekend’s energy sits with local creators versus imported guests will only be clear once the halls fill.

The verified frame is simple: Comic Con Africa runs at the Johannesburg Expo Centre from Thursday 24 September to Sunday 27 September 2026, with general access on Howler and a guest programme built to pull gaming, animation and live-action audiences into the same building.