Plunge Pop Culture Convention in Whangārei for fourth year

Aruneshwar Singh is excited about the Plunge Pop Culture Convention on July 9 in Whangārei. Photo / Tania Whyte

The Plunge Pop Culture Convention is coming to Whangārei for the fourth consecutive year, and organisers are excited about another surprise.

Moerewa-born and bred Plunge director Aruneshwar Singh, through the annual event, wants to promote Northland talent and nurture the next generation to keep the torch of the comic and anime world burning.

The event celebrating art and literature through comic books, anime, and pop culture will take place on July 9 in Whangārei.

For the first time, the Plunge convention will also be going to Kerikeri on February 4 next year.

The first convention in 2019 attracted 150 pop culture and anime fans, while in 2020 more than 350 people attended. Last year, about 500 fans walked through the convention doors, Singh said.

"It means there are more people enjoying what we do and making Whangārei a bit more central spot on the calendar for people to come to.

"It is also about maintaining connections with the fans of the comics world."

Plunge Enterprise designed the graphic books in collaboration with local artists from Northland. Photo / Tania Whyte

With the convention, Singh wanted to make sure youth got to see their work and nurture them in the field.

"We have schools providing students as volunteers to look after kids, sales, and ticketing.

"While some get to work as salespeople and do ticketing, others are really interested in art and when they come here, they get involved and hone their creative side.

"My whole thing is to make sure we are nurturing for the next 10 years."

Singh said he wanted to see an animation, comic, and game development school in Whangārei, using local people who were working in the field now.

"The whole point is to make sure we have something of our own because everyone is running off to Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, or Dunedin to do things they can do here. I feel that money and tourists should come to Northland."

Singh previously wrote and worked on stage performances before studying a bachelor of arts in digital media-digital filmmaking at the Southern Institute of Technology and making his student feature film The Circle.

He later converted the movie into six graphic books, and soon it was his new full-time job.

Plunge Enterprise director Aruneshwar Singh's feature film The Circle that he converted into six graphic novels. Photo / Tania Whyte

Singh, along with art director Shane Evans and personal assistant Jason Read, started their company in Whangārei, with a vision to support and promote local art.

"We started Sunspot magazine, which was basically to promote our local talent, along with other international talents.

"It is a 68-page magazine, and you have got local people involved in it, featuring their artwork and promoting them internationally.

"That meant that we could actually showcase good 40-45 pages of good comic stories."

However, due to the Covid-19 hiatus in 2020 when the magazine was planned to kickstart, the company made it digitally available and Singh hoped to get it printed by next year.