Just thought I'd give an advance heads up. The Canadian FanExpo is August 22-24 in Toronto, Ontario and is Canada's largest Expo with over 25,000 sq feet of expo space.
The Expo is a combination of the Comic Book Expo, The Sci-Fi Expo, The Anime Expo, The Horror Expo, and the Gaming Expo. Last year it even hosted the Championship of Video Gaming. The Expo over the course of the 3 days is also said to bring in over 50k fans if memory serves me correctly.
When I get a little more information on guests to the expo I'll post them here. I've attended the show for the last 5 years and plan on attending on both Friday and Saturday this year as well. I don't know if he'll be there this year as well, but Bobby Chui of ImagineFX fame has also had his own booth at the Expo the last few years that I've gone.
If anyone is planning on going to the expo or is thinking about it leave a post here.
I think the IFX should come over and put a booth up.
"Live life like a fantasy. Reality is only in your mind!" - Fabledgoat
Just a heads up to any of the Canadians out there, or anyone in the Toronto area. This weekend is FanExpo 2008. Some of the stars there are going to be IFX regulars as well. Marko D, Bobby Chui are both going to be there. Adam Hughes is also going to be there amongst other major celebrities and artists!
If anyone is going. I'll be walking around with some hot curley haired girl and I'll probably be wearing a black golf shirt that has the Ghostbusters logo as a small crest on the chest. Like that's gonna help you find me amongst 70,000 people but hey you never know.
"Live life like a fantasy. Reality is only in your mind!" - Fabledgoat
Thats this weekend? Do they run it at the same time as that giant fair/ expo thing thats close to Union on purpose?
and I doubt I'll be going, much as I'd like to, my little newly immigrated ass(yes, kaz gave me a little ass complex ) doesn't think thats a good place to spend cash... just yet... but, mmm.. next year...
My ass are evil? ... first its too small to be sexy.. now its evil too? ... when will this abuse stop! LOL
So... after much deliberation... that would be me staring at the Expo website when I should be working, and to my surprise, finding out that Blind Ferret Ent. would be there.... My hubby is a web comic maniac.. he has about 7 odd he follows, the blind ferret guys happen to make two of his favorites.... the hubby and I sat down for an earnest disscussion.
<walks through the door after returning home from work .... "Honey, the Looking for Group people are going to be there selling mini Richard figurines... we're going.... "
So like... We'll be there on Saturday... looking at all the pretty shiny things... and if you see a short girl with dark curly hair walking around with a really tall lanky guy thats trying very hard to maintain his personal space and cuddling a mini Richard.... It could be anyone Lol.
Lol.. with the amount of people who are gunna be there, I doubt I'll find a black shirted guy with a ghostbusters logo... or that said guy will spot a short sh*t amongst the masses
This is just a copy/paste of what I mentioned up in the comments forum about this con.
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Part 1
well....ummm.....ah......well.....lets just say I don't really have much nice to say about mister Marko now.
I
bought the more expensive ticket which got me into the convention 2
hours before most of the crowd so I decided my first stop would be at
Djurdjevic's table. There were only three of us there, first people to
see him in the convention hall and no-one else was in line. He signed
our stuff but didn't feel like talking to any of us, despite joking and
laughing with the artist beside him.
When it was my turn, I
had 4 things I'd brought to get signed (2 comics and 2 IFXs). He
started signing but didn't really seem like he wanted to talk or even
notice me. When I mentioned that Claire from IFX said hi he really
didn't respond much. When I mentioned she'd like to contact him to do
another workshop he scoffed and said 'well I won't do it. it's too much
work and I'm too busy.' When I said she'd no doubt be calling he just
scoffed again and shook his head. The messenger definitely got shot
there.
When
he was done signing my stuff I asked if I could get just a small 30 sec
sketch (something very common at conventions) on a board and I got a
snicker and "uh....no" while he looked at the other artist beside him,
laughed and gave a look that made me think I was an idiot to have even
asked. I guess I had a blank expression of shock at that point cause he
further explained he was too busy to do a sketch cause he was working
on the image of the hulk that he was sketching on his own board.
The
whole time I was there he was rather short with me, I felt rather rude
and he seemed to have no patience for me or the two fans who were
before me.
Further more, I'm usually in Artist Alley 3-4 times
during the 7 hours I'm at the convention and usually for extended
periods of time. I kept a watch out to see how popular he was and to
see if my impression of him was maybe misplaced. Unfortunately whenever
I looked his way, he rarely had anyone at his table and when I did see
people there it wasn't usually more than one or two at a time. At one
point he had what looked like a younger guy there who just wanted his
poster signed. The guy was having a bit of trouble unrolling the bottom
of the poster though and instead of helping; Marko just had a look of
impatience on his face and looked up and around. He then signed the
poster, sat back in his chair and continued to sketch on a second of
his own sketches. The Hulk sketch he was doing earlier when I was there
was just sitting on his table for show at this point. Couldn't help but
feel a little sorry for the guy with the poster.
So ya. I
hate to say it, but given the hype I was feeling before going I can't
help but relate the poor experience I had at his table. I kept watch
just to see if my impression was misplaced but unfortunately it seemed
spot on the first time with what I saw afterwards. Not so sure I'll be
stopping by his table tomorrow. Most likely not.
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On a nicer note, I have a couple of people that I really would like to give a good note to.
This
was J.Scott Campbell's first con in Canada. He was cheery and in good
spirits. Though he wasn't supposed to he even signed a few of my comics
at his table instead of making me go into the signing line he was going
to have later on at night. Not to mention this was after he got in
trouble for signing at his table which he wasn't supposed to be doing
(because they didn't want a big line which he would have gotten). It may have been due to me buying a copy of his hardcover book he was selling that I got my comics signed but still. All in all I came out feeling good and I felt he enjoyed talking and joking with his fans.
Bobby
Chu. I can never say anything bad about Bobby. I always drop a lot of
money at his tables and though this year the guys he had 'selling' his
stuff were a little too forward, I still picked up 4 of his prints and
got some sketches and signings. Bobby and Kai are great and love going
by their booth each year.
The last one for day one is
Alberto Ruiz who I met last year and usually has his booth next to
Bobby's. Alberto impresses me more each time I see him. He's full of
energy, he absolutely loves his fans, and he wants the fans to have a
good time and he has no problem talking to everybody and he's always
joking. I got talking to him and he even opened his personal sketchbook
and showed me what he was working on. It's just a pleasure being at his
table. He loves to show his work, his proud of what he's working on, he
loves to see peoples work and he just loves art in general. When I was
leaving he told me to make sure that I bring something for him to
sketch on tomorrow and that he'd do me up a personal sketch. In the end
he impressed me last year, impressed me this year, and he promised he'd
see me again at the show next year. I'll definitely be going back to
his booth tomorrow.
Not to mention I only wore the Ghostbusters shirt on Friday.
----------------
Part 2
Well, here it is the end of Day 2. Though it's a 3 day event I won't
be going back tomorrow. My parents are coming up to visit and it'd
probably look pretty bad if I disappeared. "Hey Ma, I'm just heading to
the store for a minute!" Returning 3 hours later with comic books and
art stuff would not look good. That and as you can see below, I've spent enough for my 2 day trip.
As
for the con itself. Today was the 'walk around and enjoy the show' day.
Left my camera at home, though I probably should have taken it. Show
was twice as packed and with ten times the number of costumes running
around, including the 501st Legion which is a star wars club. It was
kind of kewl, if you stopped by their booth on your way in they'd give
you a red ticket. You wore the ticket throughout the show but if one of
the storm troopers found you with the red ticket they'd stop you and
take the ticket. If you made it to the end of the day without being
spotted you'd get a prize. I didn't get in on it but I did watch some
people get stopped and my friend who had a booth told me how it worked
and what was happening.
Talked to Peter David for a minute as I got some comics signed. Great guy, good sense of humour.
Met
a couple who were selling photographs of abandoned places. Apparently
they travel around and get into hard to get to places and take some
fascinating images. My fiance ended up buying 3 of them to put on the
wall in our hallway. For the past year we've had three empty picture
frames hung in the hallway.
Marko
was still alone at his table. He just sat there sketching on his
boards. He had the two sketches from the previous day on his table and
his laptop was cycling on a loop of previous works. That was it though.
He really didn't have anything at his booth to sell, show or attract
anyone. When I saw him he was alone and Gabriele dell'otto who was
sitting beside him had a huge line up at his table. I didn't bother to
stop by this time.
Stopped by Alberto's table again and got him
to do a quick sketch in my sketch book for me. He also signed a couple
books I had with me and drew a second sketch on the inside of the red
book shown in the image below. He remembered me and my fiance from
yesterday and for a minute even wondered if I was with the same girl
this time. My fiance had straightened her hair which is naturally
curley and was wearing a very fancy victorian top with a leather skirt
this time. He definitely noticed and we had a good laugh.
Though I didn't get in line to see him, I also saw Buzz Aldrin and the girl...Swanson? who played Buffy in the original movie.
So
yah, that sums up a lot of the con on Day 2. Day 2 is usally just a
relaxing go about the con, a good look at all the vendors and a nice
easy time. Spent a lot of time today going through comic bins and
looking for stuff. Just to re-itterate my comment on why I only go to
one convention a year, just take a look at the image below. Lots of
comics, including Batman #272, #301 and a couple of other early ones,
and 4 more artbooks to add to the ones I got yesterday.
All in all a very good weekend.
"Live life like a fantasy. Reality is only in your mind!" - Fabledgoat
) doesn't think thats a good place to spend cash... just yet... but, mmm.. next year... 
... first its too small to be sexy.. now its evil too? 
