Australian Movie & Comic Expo

Australian Movie & Comic Expo (AMC Expo) is an annual pop culture convention held in Melbourne, Australia. It is arguably the city’s ultimate entertainment event. The convention was formerly known as Armageddon Australia.

Armageddon is a New Zealand science fiction and comics convention. It was first held in Auckland in 1995. Two years later, the convention expanded to Wellington. The first Armageddon held outside New Zealand took place in Melbourne, Australia in 1999. The inaugural Armageddon Australia was held at the Melbourne Expo Centre. The event featured entertainment guests such as Frazer Hines (Doctor Who), Chase Masterson (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), Claudia Christian (Babylon 5) and comic artists Arthur Adams and Joyce Chin.

The first Armageddon convention in Australia turned out to be a one-time event. It was revived in 2007 and has been held every October ever since. It separated from Armageddon and became an independent event that has established itself as THE fan event that is run by fans for fans. In 2015, the show was renamed to Australian Movie & Comic Expo (AMC Expo), but the organizers insist that it is simply the new name of an established show. The convention’s spirit remains the same.

AMC Expo is a fan-run event that offers more non-guest activities than any other pop culture convention. Whereas most conventions (especially for-profit ones) mainly rely on panels, photo ops, autographs sessions and other events featuring celebrity guests to attract more attendees, the team of AMC Expo understands that fan conventions are not all about the big name celebrity attending.

Of course, AMC Expo does feature entertainment guests, but its Melbourne based team mainly focuses on non-guest activities, trying to put on the type of event that they would want to attend. This approach can be considered a kind of going back to basics. Originally, conventions were a meeting place for comic book fans where they could geek out, not autograph shows where fans line up for hours to interact with their idols for two seconds.

Australian Movie & Comic Expo programming includes a wide array of events and activities designed for attendees of all ages, many of them are family-oriented. AMC Expo is a place dedicated to fun, fans and family that features fantasy, gaming, multimedia and family events for everyone.