COEUR d’ALENE — It's not every day a badger-dragon battles a knight on the Coeur d'Alene Public Library's lawn.

But when Coeur d'Con is going on, it's to be expected.

"It’s a lot of fun," said JD Smithson, co-leader of Coeur d'Con. "People love being here."

The third annual Coeur d'Con — the local spin on a comic book and entertainment convention — attracted visitors of all ages and fans from every universe to the library on Saturday. Many donned creative costumes to represent their favorite characters, such as Batman or Link from the "Zelda" franchise, and others came as characters they created, like Allison Wier's furry badger-dragon, "Ashaeda."

"It’s just having fun," said Wier, of Sandpoint. "It’s a loose, free environment and it’s just a lot of fun to go out and fool around for a day."

“We get asked two things: ‘What are you?’ and ‘Is it hot in there,’” said Wier's boyfriend, John Hartney of Corvallis, Ore., who attended as his badger-dragon persona, "Arctonyx."

"Another thing we get is, ‘Well, badgers don’t have horns,'" Wier added. "But these ones do!"

From "World of Warcraft" to "Star Wars," a diverse array of genres, books, films, graphic novels and more were merrily celebrated throughout the day. Activities included gaming tournaments, "cosplay" (character costume) contests, crafts, live action role playing, artist exhibits, vendor booths and trivia challenges.

“It’s sort of an en vogue thing to have at libraries," said Smithson, branch manager of Lake City Public Library, a branch of the Coeur d'Alene Library. "It’s supposed to be about comic books, so it does let people know about our comic book collection, and also about all of our services. We have video games, we have DVDs, we have all of the graphic novels. We have everything these days."

Smithson said she expected to see well more than the 1,300 attendees who came through last year.

"There are a lot of people who come in and say, ‘We’ve never been here before,'" she said. "It lets people know we’re here and we do fun things."

Sean Spencer, 18, of Post Falls, dressed as Rick from the cartoon sitcom "Rick and Morty," right down to the white lab coat and wild blue hair. His friend, Sydney Morgan, 17, also of Post Falls, painted her skin purple to attend as a "World of Warcraft" character called a "draenei."

“It’s kind of an alien-like creature that has some elements similar to a goat, like hooves and horns,” she said, showing off the hooves she made for her shoes. "This is actually only my second cosplay ever."

The friends agreed that Coeur d'Con was the place to be, especially for those with exceptional "inner nerds."

"I really like being able to express myself and create different characters,” Sydney said with a smile. "It’s a lot of fun to see all these nerdy things come together."

“I just enjoy being nerdy in general," Spencer said.