Escape Hatch Books, TEAM Jaffrey and The Park Theatre collaborated to bring a longtime dream into reality last week with what they hope will be the first of an annual Monadnock Comic-Con event.

On Friday and Saturday, Main Street hosted vendors with tables full of comics, collectibles and art, and both screens at The Park Theatre were featuring comic book films, animated shorts and pop-culture documentaries.

Steve Jackson, executive director of The Park Theatre, said that long before the theater was reconstructed and when the venue was still only a goal, he and Joe Bills, co-owner of Escape Hatch Books, dreamed of this kind of convention.

Comic-cons have been around since the 1970s, with perhaps the largest and most well-known being the San Diego Comic-Con, which brings in about $140 million for the local economy on an annual basis, and recently led to the opening of a new museum in San Diego’s Balboa Park on the history of Comic-Con. While not on the same scale, Jackson said the passion for the art of comic books is present in Jaffrey, with the comic and book store Escape Hatch entering its second decade of business on the street.

One of The Park Theatre’s goals has been to boost Jaffrey’s downtown, including bringing in customers for other Main Street businesses. Jackson said the idea of providing space for something like a comic convention was something that has been discussed for years.

“The stature of Escape Hatch Books is huge within the comic book community,” Jackson said.

Escape Hatch Books, along with TEAM Jaffrey, was already planning to run its annual recognition of National Free Comic Book Day and Star Wars Day the first weekend of May by running a comic giveaway, and Jackson said it seemed like the year to really get a larger celebration off the ground.

“We’ll start small, but hopefully the response will be strong, and it will grow it every year,” Jackson said.

As part of the celebration, The Park Theatre had showings of the animated features “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” and its sequel, “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” and the documentary “You Can Call Me Bill,” about the life of William Shatner.

In a last-minute addition to the lineup, the theater also showed a marathon screening of original “Superman” cartoons, showing the entire 1941-to-1943 run of the Max Fleischer series in technicolor on Friday morning through the evening.

In The Park Theatre lobby and outside on the Common lawn, vendors set up shop selling memorabilia and art, featuring face-painting and cartoonists. Tarah Castiglioni, executive director of TEAM Jaffrey, said that the organizers intend to bring the event back next year, and will continue to grow the event.

Jackson said it is the type of event that the theater has always intended to host.

“It’s one of these events that not only our own communities nearby will enjoy. It’s a draw, for people of all ages, and brings people into the businesses of downtown Jaffrey from Vermont and Massachusetts – and hopefully they visit the other businesses here in town while they’re here,” Jackson said.

Upcoming events for TEAM Jaffrey include the start of the Jaffrey Farmers’ Market, which opens on May 31 and will run through Sept. 27 on Fridays from 3 to 6 p.m. Concerts on the Common will begin July 10, and be held every Wednesday from 6 to 7:30 p.m.

Upcoming at The Park Theatre is “Dune, Part 2,” with showings beginning May 10 on the big screen, and a screening of the filmed production of “Macbeth” starring Ralph Fiennes on May 9. For information, visit theparktheatre.org.

Ashley Saari can be reached at 603-924-7172, Ext. 244, or asaari@ledgertranscript.com.