LUCIDMEDIA

Costumes, Comics, and a Very Young Professional Gamer

Written by Lisa M. Knapp Tuesday, 01 September 2009 14:21

Having never attended such a huge event as Fan Expo before, I did not have any idea what I was in for. As soon as I walked through the doors I was instantly overwhelmed by the amount of people wandering around the Expo floors, each floor layered with things to do, sites to see and seminars to attend. I really didn’t know where to start.

One thing that I did notice however, which was something that I’m not only attracted my attention, but also attracted many onlookers, was the plethora of costumed attendees that bombarded the floor like it was Halloween. From Halo 3 army costumes, anime characters, and body paint, cosplay has always been a major part of the Fan Expo. I think dressing up in costume is a fun activity that people will find any old excuse to partake in and Fan Expo is an entire weekend of some pretty brilliant make-up and costume designs for many.

Another part of Fan Expo that caught my attention was the comic area, specifically the artist ally which is, obviously, an area full of comic artists. Though many people often wander among the more famous artists in hopes of catching a glimpse of their favourite comic and grabbing signed memorabilia, since I’m not exactly a fan of any particular comic but a fan of the art involved, I wandered more among the independent artist and came across one in particular, Brian Evinou. Evinou had a table on which he had a sign that I’m sure attracted a lot of attention for him, a sign that stated that he was doing free drawings.
When I approached Evinou I asked him if he would do a drawing of me and he was more than happy. While he was drawing the comic version of me, I talked to him about his skills. Evinou has been doing comics for only about a year, his first book being a saga on a lady named Lucy, called the Lucy Legacy and his newest comic titled Jim and Jenn. He attended school for animation at Sheridan College for a year but because of tuition costs he decided to bail out and later finished his schooling in Ottawa.

From there, Evinou animated for about five or six years then decided to dabble in the world of comics. Now Evinou is on the road travelling from convention to convention, promoting himself and his work, including the more independently minded Toronto Comics Arts Festival (TCAF), which is a free annual festival in Toronto that ran this past May 9th and 10th. Next month on September 26th and 27th, Evinou is going to be making his way to SPX in Montreal, which is another, small independent cartooning and comic expo. Evinou actually has a sneak peek of his new Jim and Jenn comic on his blog found on http://brianevinou.blogspot.com/ Feel free to check it out along with updates on Evinou in action.

Another big part of Fan Expo in recent years is the Gaming Expo and I watched some of the action at the Rogers-sponsored competition of the video game, Halo 3. When I arrived at the pedestal for this competition there was a little boy all of 11 years old playing and beating competitor after competitor. The boy’s name is “Little Poison,” and he is the youngest pro gamer in the world.

Little Poison has been playing video games with his father since the very young age of 2 years old and has become quite the amazing player with nine years experience under his belt. I didn’t get a chance to speak to the youngster himself, but I did get a chance to speak to his father who was not at all shy to mention that he is very proud of his son’s success.

His father mentioned that Little Poison’s favourite game is the Halo series, but he is very good at every game he is introduced to. Apparently, Little Poison beats his father at games all the time and the elder Poison hates it and actually quit his own professional gaming career to manage Little Poison. So far,  Little Poison has participated in over 250 events since he was 4 years old with his first event being a tournament in his hometown, the New York Halo Tournament. The, to top it off, he was signed as a professional video gamer when he was just the tender age of 6.

This 11 year old professional gamer has been in a lot of media appearances to his credit, with outlets such as 60 Minutes, The New York Times, MTV, and more. As well on Inside Edition he was named 2007 Latino of the Year next to Jennifer Lopez, and he’ll be featured a documentary coming out for theatrical release next year. With what I’m sure will be years of gaming fun ahead for this young New Yorker, it’s hard to believe that he’s still just at the beginning of what I’m sure will be a successful career Lil Poison.

Check out his website for more information at http://lilpoison.com.