One of the characters of Emerald City Comicon 2012 in Seattle over the weekend. (Annie Laurie Malarkey photo)

If the crowds felt bigger at Emerald City Comicon in Seattle this past weekend, it wasn’t a Jedi mind trick.

The 10th annual confab of pop culture and comic books set a new record with attendance of 53,000 people, organizers tell us. That was up from 32,000 in 2011, and it was also far beyond the 40,000 that had been expected.

It was “a huge success” says conference organizer Jim Demonakos in a Facebook post.

At that rate, the show isn’t that far behind the annual Penny Arcade Expo video-game conference, which attracted more than 70,000 people to the same location last year.

Next year, organizers say, Emerald City Comicon will take over the entire Washington State Convention Center, and offer expanded hours on Friday, the first day of the event.

(Thanks to Isaac Alexander for the tip.)

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