Just spent two days at the WW Comic Con in Toronto ...very cool and a lot of fun.
I had never been to a con before so I have no basis for comparison an can't comment on how well it was run etc....seemed good from my standpoint...except for the fact there was little choice of food, only one place to get it and NO #%^%
#ing COFFEE!!!.
Met and talked to Greg Horn...who's pretty much a superstar and has been one of my favourites since his stuff started showing up on covers...a nice and very funny guy, You can see his sense of humour shining through in a lot of his work. I really admire the amount of work he'll put into what ends up being a visual (albeit a very hot in most cases) joke. He has a new Powergirl print which is a perfect example of this. (couldn't come up with a way to "sell" it to my wife so I didn't buy it. She wouldn't object to my having it, but there's no way it gets displayed anywhere.)
I bought his Wolverine/Wolverine movie print and my son bought his newest Batman/Catwoman print...which is both hot and hilarious. He's 17 so the image goes with the decor in his room, which is early Kim Kardashian at the moment. Greg signed them, asked us to join his facebook face - I'll post the invite here - and wished us well. I would have liked to hang longer, but there were s bunch of cosplay types (I hope they were) all done up as dead heroes from Blackest Night waiting to do business.
I have to say I was really impressed with how down to earth and engaging everyone was. We wanted to meet Clare Kramer, who was Glory in Buffy but she was calling us over before we ever got close her. Before we could even say "hi "she was complimenting my son's earrings (plugs)...she's a very nice person and still (she's 39) reaaalllly attractive.
Talked to a number of artists, creators and people trying to break in to the industry...many cool and enjoyable encounters.
Suckerpunch looks like it's going to be a lot of fun.
Some random thoughts:
Apparently I was hungover the day Steampunk took over the world, but it has. You'll get the message in a vacuum tube any day.
Roller Derby is not dead. There were some roller derby girls there (like an entire league) just tooling around in skimpy outfits on skates and adding to general sureality of the whole deal.
The Death Star was wide open for attack as every Imperial Storm-trooper in the quadrant was in Toronto...there were 100's of them. - Personal highlight: I actually go to ask "aren't you a little short for a storm trooper?" My son's was better: As two guys in ST outfits stopped to look at a life-size R2D2 he tapped one on the shoulder and said "that's not the droid you're looking for."
501rst Legion
www.501st.ca/en_index.htm was there in force. They were raising money for the Make a Wish Foundation and generally patrolling. For $5 you could blast an Imperial Storm Trooper with a nerf-dart machine gun Those who weren't in costume wore 501rst Legion hockey jerseys...only in Canada.
The Con featured David Prowse (Darth Vader), Ray Park (Darth Maul) Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) and Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett) ...all the guys from Star Wars who never got to speak.
Jake Lloyd (Phantom Menace - little Ani Skywalker) is now 23 and his metichrolans might be off the charts but he didn't get a whole lot taller.
Robert Maillet (The big guy in Sherelock Holmes and the really big ugly guy in 300) is, in real life...a really big guy...like friggin huge.
Is it wrong that I think a little kid dressed up as Deadpool is cute?
Things you'll only see at a comic con:
Thor lined up for pizza
a Sith cheerleader
Rorschach from Watchmen in a ren-fair style sword fight.
A guy with a life-size Darth Maul figure (6 feet tall on a dolly) lined up to get Ray Park to sign it.
Same guy, an hour later, lined up with a life size (3 feet tall) figure of Anakin Skywalker, waiting to get Jake Lloyd to sign it.
A 5'8 guy in the most realistic Predator suit you can imagine..except that it's 5'8.
A Steampunk Green Lantern
Ted DiBiase (WWE's the Million $ man) talking - very nicely - to a couple of teenage kids one dressed as Phoenix, the other as The Joker.
Scott Glenn has been playing old guys since Silence of the Lambs in 1991...he was 50 then.
Ideas that occurred to me
How to do a Flamebird pic
Wonder Woman's closet
what if some of these cosplay types were real?
Gantz hmmmm
If you are still reading this you deserve a reward...grin
