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 But for three days over the weekend, some 20,000 Saudis
decked out in costumes and face paint queued to get into Saudi
Arabia's first-ever Comic Con, where robots, video games and
giant anime figures filled a tent in the Red Sea city of Jeddah.
The global comics expo was held under the auspices of the Saudi
General Entertainment Authority, which has bucked some of the
austere Islamic kingdom's strict social codes to host a series
of festivals, comedy shows and concerts this year.
Saudi Arabia is trying to boost its entertainment sector as part
of an economic and social reform drive aimed at creating jobs
and weaning the country off its dependence on oil.
"The level of entertainment has risen so much from previous
years. There used to be no public places like this for families,
there was no gender mixing, there was no entertainment, there
were no shows," said Modah Al-Bakheet, a Jeddah resident.
Comic Con started in 1970 when a group of about 100 science
fiction fans in San Diego got together to swap comic books.
It has since grown into a globally recognized set of fantasy
celebrations, drawing over 130,000 fans to events in London,
Moscow, Delhi, Sydney and Dubai.
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The Jeddah version still had some distinctly Saudi quirks: men and
women queued in separate lines outside the venue, guarded by a heavy
police presence, and the show ground to a halt each time the call to
prayer was heard.
But inside the crowded tent, participants mingled around pop art
booths and competed in video game competitions together, an unusual
sight in a country that bars the mixing of men and women who are not
related.
Objections by religious conservatives who likened the event to
"devil worship" appeared to have had little effect.
For Obada Awad, whose Riyadh-based Time Entertainment organized
Jeddah's Comic Con, the green light from the government has opened
up new business opportunities he once only dreamed of.
"It was better than expected. We prepared so many scenarios for
every possible thing that could happen, but this was the best
possible turnout," he said, grinning.
(Reporting by Ismail Nofal in Jeddah; Writing by Katie Paul; Editing
by Andrew Bolton)
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