This is it, comic book fans, especially for those of you living in the Los Angeles area. We are months away from the inaugural Comikaze Expo at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Come November, Comikaze promises to deliver the best in comics, anime, gaming, sci-fi, horror, and fantasy to its attendees over the weekend of Nov. 5-6. Because the people in charge of Comikaze take such pride in it being a community event — an event that aims to please all of its fans and attendees — they are taking huge steps to make sure their fans’ voices are heard. They want to know what it is you want to see at Comikaze.

If you have a certain comic book artist or writer you want to see there, they want to know. If you want to see a certain video game creator or creative team at the event, they want to know. Do you have a favorite horror actor or director? They would like to know who. Authors, artist, creators, companies ... they want to know what it is you, the fans, want to see so they can go out there and try to bring them to you at Comikaze.

And to that extent, the people at Comikaze have introduced a few new features at their website, www.ComikazeExpo.com, that will ensure their fans’ voices can be heard.

First on the new additions to the site is the Forums page in which fans of the event can go in and discuss all the latest news concerning the event, as well as talk with each other about what they are anticipating to see at the event.

In addition to the forums, they have also opened a suggestion page, Let the People Speak, where you can go in and leave a comment directly on their website about who you would like to see at Comikaze. Whether it be someone as mainstream as Jim Lee or Cliff Bleszinski, to someone as obscure as Damien Colletti or Bob Burden, the people at Comikaze want to know. So they invite you to leave a comment on their site, letting them know what you want.

Of course, you can always leave your suggestions on their official Facebook page as well (where they are always updating news and interacting with their fans), or drop them a message on the Twitter account (@ComikazeExpo), and they will make sure to take notes on what it is you are suggesting.

Speaking with Comikaze Expo CEO Regina Carpinelli, I wanted to get to the root about why she feels so passionate about involving the community in the creation of this expo. 

“We hope to have people come [to the forums] and hang out and talk about what they want to see at Comikaze," Regina said. "Whatever the people want, we will work our hardest on to make sure we can do it. We want it to be as interactive as possible. Everything and anything that is Comikaze-related will find its way to the forums. And as we get closer to the show, more things will appear there.

“We are trying to be a different type of convention," she said. "We really want to make something that the community wants to see. Comikaze is not just for me personally, but for everyone in Los Angeles, especially every comic book, anime, and gaming fan out there. We want to be tailor-made for the community. We want to be for the people — the fans.”

When I asked Regina about the type of special guests she and the people at Comikaze had planned for the event, she revealed this much to me: “We have a lot of panel guests booked that we will reveal later in the year that are quite unique and will really represent what we are doing at Comikaze. We will be announcing some guests sooner rather than later, but as for some of the unique panel guests ... sorry to be coy, but you will just have to wait.”

She stressed they are still trying to get as many guests attendees of Comikaze want to see there and emphasized that going to the site and commenting on who you want to see will really make a difference on who we will see at the expo come November.

“We want to have a nice diversification of guests in attendance," she said. "They are a big and important part of Comikaze, and we want people who will really represent who we really are.”