Superman, the Fantastic Four and Darth Vader aren’t just for the big screen.

Rod Library is holding a mini comic con March 29, and leading up to it will be other events related to this genre of literature.

“The day of the event will have a kids’ coloring contest, a photo booth, we are working on a “Magic” tournament, artist/author alley, costume contest, trivia competitions, video gaming room, table top gaming room, exhibits, vendors and a visit by Darth Vader,” said Linda McLaury, access services coordinator.

This will be the first time Rod Library has put on a mini comic con. Libraries such as the Chicago Public Library and the Burlington Public Library have held similar events before, McLaury said.

“So far we have a speaker for ‘The History of the Comic Book Industry, Up and to Including Graphic Novels Today’ (Paul Siddens), a speaker for ‘“Flame On!”: Nuclear Families, Unstable Molecules, and the Queer History of The Fantastic Four’ (Ramzi Fawaz) (and) Phil Hester will do a presentation and be in the artist’s alley,” McLaury said.

Other confirmed discussions are “American Censorship of Anime and Manga,” “Censorship in Comics” and “Racism in Disney,” McLaury said. She said the library is continuously accumulating more as the date grows closer.

Rod Library is teaming up with the Cedar Falls and Waterloo public libraries for the event, and the date was carefully selected.

“We’re sponsoring this event to coincide with a Panther Up-Close weekend and the overall message we want to send is that the University of Northern Iowa is a wonderful school with a lot of great things to offer prospective students,” said Annalee Hollingsworth, senior history major who works at Rod. “And as a part of the university, the Rod Library is proud to serve our students as well as the larger community.”

The first event is a film at 7 p.m. Feb. 12 in Rod Library Room 324. To go along with Black History Month, the film will be “White Scripts, Black Superman: Black Masculinities in Comics Books.” Sade Barfield, communications professor, will lead a discussion afterward.

A panel will also be held for Women’s History Month. “Representations of Women in Comics: How Women are Portrayed and Used” will be held at 3 p.m. March 12 in Rod Library Room 324.

Two of the panelists are Annette Lynch, applied human sciences professor who has researched Halloween costumes and gender performance, and Mike Welch, a 2011 alumnus who wrote about women in comics for his master’s paper. Another panelist is being looked into but has not been confirmed.

“This event is meant to open the Rod Library up to the Cedar Valley. The services at the Rod are available to everyone, not just the students and faculty, and we want the community to come in and see what we have to offer,” Hollingsworth said.