Last weekend was a lot weekend, just ask my wife.
I disappeared on Friday afternoon into downtown Toronto to meet up with my niece, my sons and I took along my daughter for the opening bell of Toronto's Fan Expo 2010. I love that so much of my family goes, and really does enjoy it for a wide variety of reasons. More on that later though. Really, I just wanted to get the blog back up and running after a slowdown of epic proportions in August, so let's get it started by hitting on some of the key points of my observations last weekend.
THE GOOD
Stan Lee! The Expo's premiere guest was none other than the builder of all things Marvel, and in my opinion the man who did the most to further the cause of comic books as an art form and literary medium in the twentieth century. With the inability to meet Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, Jack Kirby or Bob Kane, Stan Lee now sits alone as the crown jewel in any comic geeks wish list.
BOOM STUDIOS Always happy to see a publishing house that isn't one of the big two out there doing great public relations work with their fans, and that's exactly what Boom did. Would I have preferred if they had brought Mr. Waid to the show? Absolutely. But we can't have everything. They had a nice booth, and the people working in were very accessible and engaging.
Adam West & Burt Ward Holy dynamic duos Batman! As if having these two icons of yesteryear there to do signings wasn't cool enough, the event organizers also had Julie Newmar - she of Catwoman fame from the worst (and best) Batman show of all time. It was a nice trip down memory lane, and I loved it.
The SHAT I could talk about other guests in attendance, some of whom probably meant a great deal more to other people, but as I get a little older, and a little bit more proud of my heritage in the great white north, I find myself really enjoying William Shatner and his proudly Canadian roots more and more. I'll watch Trek, but I was never a Trekkie (yeah, I said Trekkies NOT Trekkers!) so my appreciation of Bill has little to do with that. The man's just iconic as a Canadian, and I love that tens of thousands of people showed up to shower him with love.
Prices Some of the vendors understood that the con was a chance to divest themselves of excess stock and things that don't move, and they priced accordingly. Buying unappreciated trade paperbacks for $1 each was awesome. Even if I might not read half of them.
Thor I saw a guy dressed up as Thor who was easily 6'10". The costumer was OK, but being a GIANT certainly helped sell it.
Jude The cartoon Network runs a show called 16 which I got hooked on while watching it with my pre-teen daughter. It's about a group of young friends who work, hang out and basically grow up in a mall. The show's funny, smart and engaging, but I was never so impressed with it as I was when I watched the voice actor who portrays Jude (the lovable and in my house most popular cast member) introduce himself to my daughter. The guy just gets it. He immediately understood that she was smitten and treated her like gold. Best moment of the show, and I'm very impressed with the young man. Very.
Sketch-Offs I only went to one of them, but the idea was very cool and it was the first time I'd seen it. In a room downstairs I sat in to watch the assembled fans challenge Oliver Coipel and Gary Frank to do an 40 minute rendering of NightCrawler, while fielding questions and engaging the audience. The result was a lot of jocularity, witty reparte (largely from Frank) and 2 wonderful sketches which were given away to lucky audience members. Great idea!
THE BAD
Stan Lee Yes, it was in the GOOD, but it's also in the BAD. The people who handled Stan's signing period made the entire experience clinical and sterilized, sucking from it any chance that people might actually connect with Stan in any personal way. I could have just paid my $40 and sent the comic into some facility where they could have had Stan's stamp handy and slapped the signature on the book. Even asking them for the extra six letters to write "To Jeff" on it was too much for them. They offered up a lame and completely fabricated excuse for why that wasn't a reasonable request (despite the fact that the question/answer sequence took longer than the six letters would have.) To go to all the trouble of bringing in Stan and then make the experience that stale and vanilla? What was the point?
Prices How do people set up shop right next to a competitor and not bother to at least undeerstand that just being there wasn't good enough to get sales? When the guy next to you has product on at 50% off the US cover price, how do you have the nerve to put up "save the tax?" Some people only got money from stupid shoppers!
Administration Whomever organized the show should be shot. If I had paid $150 to get a pass that allowed me to get in at 2pm on Friday when the event wasn't scheduled to open until 4pm, and the lineup was so long that I didn't get in until well AFTER the people who bought their pass at the gate at 4pm for much less than I did, I would be talking to a lawyer. How hard is it to know how many people ordered the pass online, and plan a better execution so that they got in when you told them they would get in? In fact the lineups all weekend long were a strong sign that the event's execution was subpar. Add to that the fact that all exits but one were closed and everyone was expected to exit through 1 set of doors, and you have a recipe for epic stupidity.
Artists Ally Always one of my favorite places to walk, wander and shop, I didn't do much of it at this show because the space was so narrow that it was like doing a constant grind with ugly people you wouldn't touch after 15 beers and a year's supply of crack.
THE UGLY
There were lots of people in costumes, but a few simple rules should always be understood at such events.
1. The less clothes they're wearing = the more clothes you want them to be wearing
2. For every attractive person dressed up as a character from their favorite comic/movie/game there will be 10 really (REALLY!) unattractive people dressed up as the same.
3. Single, old men should NOT be asking teenage girls if they can take their picture regardless of what costume they appear to be wearing (or not wearing). It's just creepy.
Pictures soon folks, and I'll be back to talk about some of the personal experiences I had, what I bought and who I talked with.
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