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SALT LAKE CITY — As he wrapped up a final day at Salt Lake Comic Con's latest star-studded event, the people James Carr was most excited to have spent time with were not celebrities, they were his teenage daughters.
"We drove up from Arizona for this. … It's been amazing," Carr said, relaxing with his 16-year-old daughters at the finish line of Saturday's Superhero 5K. "I work an awful lot, so it's just nice to get away from work and hang out with the girls. They're 16 now, they're going to be gone soon, and my oldest is already gone. It's been nice to be with them and have a good time."
Like the Carr family, as much as 25 percent of Salt Lake Comic Con's guests came from outside Utah, organizers said Saturday. That's an increase of out-of-state attendance by 10 percent.
Over three days, Carr and the teens chatted non-stop as they attended celebrity panels, perused endless geeky merchandise and snapped memorable photos. They planned the trip to celebrate their three September birthdays, Carr noted, and were especially interested in the fundraiser 5K for the girls, who are cross-country runners.
Both girls and their father finished in the top 100 runners, winning themselves tickets to attend "Captain America" star Chris Evans' overflowing panel Saturday.
"We thought it would be a fun side activity," Megan Carr said of the 5K. "We came just to see Comic Con because we have always wanted to come, and then as the weeks went on we kept finding out who was coming. … It just got more and more exciting to come."
Salt Lake Comic Con's third annual event since 2013 delivered the convention's strongest star lineup to date, led by Evans and his "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" co-stars Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie and Hayley Atwell (with Mackie and Atwell even joining Evans briefly onstage during his Saturday morning panel appearance).
Attendance at Utah's largest convention, which has already come to be regarded as one of the top three comic book and pop culture events in the country, also remained strong, Salt Lake Comic Con co-founder Bryan Brandenburg said as the event wound down. Attendance easily passed the convention's previous high of 120,000 guests, Brandenburg said, though final estimates were unavailable.
"If it wasn't for the fans and the community and the governor and all the entities that support us, there would be no Salt Lake Comic Con," Brandenburg said. "We're so happy we're able to create something that they can engage in and love, and they can support at the level that we can keep doing this."
Despite the crowds, extra-wide aisles kept traffic flowing through the event's massive expo hall, while an enlarged ballroom sat up to 4,500 fans for celebrity panels. While three video screens provided a view no matter where guests were seated, even the event's stars remarked on the surprising size of the room, Brandenburg said.
"It was like a rock concert, they were just going crazy out there," Brandenburg said. "The difference between the two ballrooms (used in the past) and the one large ballroom was night and day, it was so exciting."
Throughout its three-day run, Salt Lake Comic Con also met its fundraising goal for Saturday morning's Superhero Run 5K, where costumed runners raced on behalf of South Davis Community Hospital, and more than 1,700 costumed fans assembled Friday night to claim the Guinness World Record for gathering the most people dressed as comic book characters in one place.
Additional panels Saturday included a promotion and sneak peak of the new comedy "Con Man" by former "Firefly" stars Alan Tudyk and Nathan Fillion (also of "Castle" and "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog"), which outlines the post-star life of an actor who now spends his days appearing at comic book conventions. The crowdsourced series drops Wednesday on Vimeo.
If it wasn't for the fans and the community and the governor and all the entities that support us, there would be no Salt Lake Comic Con.
–Salt Lake Comic Con co-founder Bryan Brandenburg
Though the panel was headlined by Sean Astin of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy and "Marvel's Agents of Shield," and geek icon Felicia Day, star of "The Guild" and the founder of Geek and Sundry, with Tudyk presumably joining in via video stream, Tudyk brouht a roar of approval when he made a surprise appearance onstage.
"It was an extreme reception, it really blew me away," Tudyk said afterward. "The fan support on this project from the beginning has been overwhelming."
Tudyk said a loving appreciative reception from fans and efficient work by the show's organizers prompted his return to Salt Lake Comic Con. He also praised the convention's lineup, noting that he felt like a fan himself as he checked out the Captain America guest list.
"The convention itself is run very well," Tudyk said. "It's not the type of convention that I would put in 'Con Man' because there are no hangups, it's run well."
Both as they may check out his new series and as they return to events like Salt Lake Comic Con, Tudyk urged fans to find ways to be ready to laugh and find an escape from daily life.
"Conventions are places where fantasy is true. It's as true as people believe," he said.
