2019: Year in Review

2019 was another action-packed year at Level Up Entertainment. It was an absolute whirlwind of activity and we would like to take a look back on this past year as we are gearing up for an even bigger and better 2020!

An Eventful Year

We love giving our community fun things to do during the year so so like to host events as often as we can. We love that some of our events like Free Comic Book Day and Halloween Comicfest have become yearly traditions for our customers! Our Retro Challenge video game competition continues to grow and we’re already wracking our brains trying to figure out new challenges for 2020. Thanks to our friends at the Cape May County Library System we participated in Cape Con. The store also turned 12 this year and we celebrated in style. Oh, and how can we forget that we hosted the legendary DMC for a meet and greet!

More like Drunk Hunt

We bring our retro lounge to Beerfest every year.

Multiplayer Mayhem

The games we bring include Mario Bros/Duck Hunt and Mario Kart 64.

The Best There Ever Will Be

We also host a costume contest for each session with prizes.

Life imitates art

Sometimes they go hand-in-hand!

May the Fourth be with you!

The Force was strong with us this FCBD!

How many walls does this break?

Deadpool was one of the participants in the Pinball Tournament.

Classics never die

We turn our retro lounge into a full-on arcade.

Contest of Champions

Here are a few of the talented cosplayers who entered the FCBD costume contest this year!

The Final Smashdown

The finalists head compete in one final challenge!

Game!

Our Retro Challenge 2019 winner gets interviewed by our announcers from Stone Age Gamer.

Can't have a birthday without some cake!

Attendees got free cupcakes while supplies lasted.

Party with Harley

One of our favorite cosplayers, Emily’s Makeup Madness, was available for photo shoots.

Send in the clowns

Rudy from Lucky Duck Entertainment gave out free balloons to people who attended.

Choose your party favor

Local cartoonist Sean Fineran would draw any request for guests free of charge!

Level Up The Library

We brought some comics for purchase along with many free giveaways. There were a ton of games available to play including board games, video games, VR, Real Life Angry Birds, an escape room, trivia, and so much more!

Meet the makers

The creators of Star Savior Bunny were among the many local comic creators at Cape Con

Trek Talk

Ensign Harry from Hailing Frequencies: A Next Generation Podcast interviewed attendees for a special live episode!

Sharing the love

The ladies behind Cape Con talk about their passion for comics with the guys from WMQ Comics.

Such a good time, it's scary!

Our featured cosplay guests: South Jersey Jason, Carter Cosplay, Emily’s Makeup Madness, Moaglin

Back those issues up

We have so many sales during our events we have to bring them outside the store.

Welcome to Camp Crystal Lake

Photo opportunities with South Jersey Jason

He ain't afraid of no ghosts

This young man’s Ghostbusters outfit and trap with Slimer was amazing!

King of Rock

DMC’s signing in the store was easily one of the highlights in Level Up Entertainment history!

Walk This Way

DMC had issues of his comic available for purchase!

It's Like That

Our whole staff turned out to help with our DMC Signing event!

Giving Back

We are always looking for ways to help out the less fortunate and this year we made a special effort to have, and be involved with, more charity fundraisers. We did a 12 hour Mario Maker 2 stream and an all day Extra Life stream for the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. We participated in the Pain-in-the-Ass-a-thon to battle Colon Cancer. We joined forces with our friends at Starcade and Brian and Mark for another BAMPAM event. South Jersey Jason and us also raised money for the Humane Society. Finally we did our traditional gift and food drive for the holidays.

Making Mario

This summer we did a 12 hour Mario Maker 2 stream to raise money for the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia!

Geek Aid

Dean DeFalco, Kris Randazzo, and Evan GOldestien from Geekade. Every Year they put on a 24 Hour plus stream called Pain-in-the-Ass-athon to raise money for colon cancer research

Pains in the Ass

Here Kris and Dan are playing one of the games in the marathon. They specifically choose very difficult games for this charity event. They were able to raise $3.797.55 this year!

Earning an Extra Life

We did an all-day stream in store for Extra Life Day. Even though there were more than a few technical issues we still consider it a success!

Brian and Mark's Pinball Arcade Monsters

We sponsored BAMPAM again this year, hosted by our friends at Starcade.

Deciding a Champion

Scott and John are playing off in the final game of the tournament!

Winners Decided

Here are the top five placers of the competition. Everyone who attended or participated though walked away with a prize.

Giant Novelty Checks Are Always Fun

Gregg presented the money raised for the Arc of Atlantic County.

Scaring Up Some Charity

Our friend South Jersey Jason did a multi-store raffle to raise money for the Atlantic County Animal Rescue.

You Give a Gift, We Give a Meal

We ran our traditional gift and food drive for Catholic Charities again this year. If you purchased any item instore for a donation we would match its cost in a food donation!

Keeping it Local

There’s an amazing community of people in our area that we love interacting with and promoting. Besides our big events we also like to have local guests and artists throughout the year with things like our Summer Series and Holiday Market. We are looking to have more model building events and competitions too! But most exciting of all this year we started up our very own Pinball League!

Pinball League Begins

This year we started holding our own pinball league. We did two seasons in 2019 and are looking forward to doing many more in 2020!

TIME's Person of the Year

Erik Ryan’s gritty reboot of Gundam might’ve gone a little far in a few places!

Stick It To 'em

Our Summer Signature Series highlights our favorite local artists and creators during the balmy summer months. Here are some sticker sheets from Star Savior Bunny.

Creator Couple

Our Summer Signature Series highlights our favorite local artists and creators during the balmy summer months. Here are local artists Nina and Sean!

Put A Pin In It

Our Summer Signature Series highlights our favorite local artists and creators during the balmy summer months. These pis are from Dani Breckenridge!

Where We're Going We Don't Need Lines

During the holiday season, we invite a rotating group of creators on the weekends to provide unique Christmas gifts for our customers. Here is some art from Angela McKendrick.

Don't Be a Jerk

During the holiday season, we invite a rotating group of creators on the weekends to provide unique Christmas gifts for our customers. Rampy’s Beef Jerky brought out their locally created jerky!

Mythological Art

During the holiday season, we invite a rotating group of creators on the weekends to provide unique Christmas gifts for our customers. Geek Mythology Crafts dose a ton of great bead art!

Moasiac, Mo Problems

Mosiac Made brought their unique crafts to FCBD.

Cute Cats

Irene Lee made her FCBD debut this year!

Vampires of NJ

Alton Simpson, creator of Vampires of NJ, brought his comics and crafts to FCBD.

Sticks and Spells

Kat Kazmier is a FCBD regular!

I Saw The Sign

Our cosplay guests had special limited edition prints at HCF provided by STaples!

Dani Breckinridge

Local artist Dani Breckenridge chatting with her friend Becca.

Exploring the Audrameda Galaxy

Audra Cohen brought her unique horror creations to HCF.

Bob Petrecca

Local comic legend, Bob Petrecca, signing his work at HCF

Articles

We are so much more than just a store that will sell you stuff. We like to provide you with reviews, interviews, opinion pieces, and much more. So here are the articles we’ve written throughout the year!