Labour Day weekend may mean the end of summer sun and cottage fun, but for local geekdom it’s that sweet time of the year known as Fan Expo Canada. Everything you could possibly want concerning comics, sci-fi, horror, anime, and gaming happens over three days at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. This year’s expo was dedicated to the 40th anniversary of Star Trek and featured a special appearance by William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. Nearly 50,000 fans maneuvered their way through 18,000 square feet of vendors and exhibits to buy vintage comics and collectibles, play a round of their favourite game, attend a sketch off between two big name comic artists, see a fan film or anime screening and, of course, get an autograph or two or three…
But one didn’t have to be as big as Carrie Fisher or Alice Cooper to gather a crowd at the expo; Tommy Tallarico of Electronic Playground had a small group congregate around him to talk video games and the line to get an autograph from Hypaspace host Kim Poirier was as about as long as any other. Even I was not immune completely as I took off my reporter hat for but a brief moment to get my copy of Decoys signed by Ms. Poirier, who’s every inch as adorable in person as she is on TV.
Comics
The Fan Expo has more to offer than name value though; many independent artists attend hoping to break through and catch the eye of a distributor or just get some buzz going on their latest creation. While many lined up for hours to get autographs from Marvel and DC All-Stars like Jim Lee and Brian Michael Bendis, it’s worth remembering that a lot of small and independent comic book publishers and artists are just a few tables away.
Sal Abbinatti is the artist of Atomika, a superhero tale that takes place in the Soviet Union. “He’s basically a metaphor for the god of the 20th century, which is technology, and he’s battling the mythological gods of Russia that are all dying out. It’s not political or religious, but rather a more alternate universe kind of thing,” Abbinatti said of his co-creation with writer Andrew Dabb. For Abbinatti and Dabb, these conventions provide essential exposure for their self-published titles.
Another comic artist looking to make an impact at the expo is J.S. Kociuba with his book Devil’s Mask, which is about an assassin possessed by the spirit of God in what the artist calls a “reverse Exorcist.” Devil’s Mask is Kociuba’s first published work, and he’s anxious to see what the public at large thinks of his pet project. “I wanted to get some feedback on it, and I wanted to see how people react to it. Right now I just want to tell the story and get it out of my mind.”
But the writers and artists of the big four comic companies are still the ones that bring the people in, and they’re easily the most accessible celebrities at the Fan Expo. Along with autograph sessions, there were panel discussions and workshops. One of the most highly anticipated panels of the expo had to be Marvel’s Civil War Confidential, which brought together on one stage some of the major talent involved with the crossover. Brian Michael Bendis, Olivier Coipel, Mark Morales, Humberto Ramos, Yanick Paquette and C.B. Cebulski fielded questions from the audience about the nuts and bolts of creating Civil War, while trying to sidestep potential spoilers and hints as to how the war will end. Civil War penciller Steve McNiven was also supposed to be there, but he was swamped with autograph seekers down on the dealer floor and couldn’t make the session.
The panel discussion began with a little play acting as Bendis posed as an audience member in order to ride the Marvel staff about the mass killing of Canadian super team Alpha Flight. It all just turned out to be an elaborate way to announce that Marvel planned to launch a title in 2007 about an all-new Canadian super team called, appropriately enough, Omega Flight. After that, it didn’t take long for someone to ask about the one-month delay of Civil War #4 and the two-month delay of issue five; and while everyone on the panel appreciated fan frustration with the delays, it was more or less agreed at Marvel that ‘tis better for the fans to get the best product possible rather than rushing and farming out McNiven’s work to another artist.
A lot of the discussion centred on how Marvel writers chose which side each hero would be on; Bendis called their discussions “the biggest Internet argument about superheroes ever” and mentioned how Joss Whedon arrived at a staff retreat just in time to hear a ridiculous argument between writers about who’s stronger: Hulk or Thor? With all the artists on the panel, there was also a lot of talk about difficult things to draw and writer/artist cooperation. The panel also promised that next year Marvel was going to do two or three smaller events as opposed to one huge crossover. Bendis told fans to keep an eye on big changes in Ultimate Spider-Man.
Interactions with comic creators are an important part of the Fan Expo, and there was no shortage of it in this year’s program. Green Lantern and 52 writer Geoff Johns held a “Comic Writing 101” clinic for aspiring auteurs to give them advice on writing and breaking into the business. While many people were deeply interested in any insight that Johns had to offer on writing for comics, others wanted to know about his forthcoming collaboration on Action Comics with Richard Donner, who was on the hit list for Infinite Crisis and what’s going on with Wally West. I hope Johns’ tips weren’t lost on anybody, at least the people who came to learn. He emphasized giving your story ideas a lot of thought and just focusing on writing a good script and not worrying about things like continuity.
Of course comics are huge at this expo, but Artists’ Alley is mixed media and there was more to see than just sketches and panels. Artists like Rea of Universal Design demonstrated the painstaking detail that they put into every custom made costume they design. “We handle everything that has to do with costume making, from sculptures to mold making, cast rubber pieces, leather boots, gloves, the whole nine yards,” said Rea as he worked on a clay mold of a Batman cowl. Some of the examples of work that Rea and his colleagues brought with them included complete Batman and Spawn costumes and a bust of Darkness from Legend. Rea needs about three months to put together a costume, so while you might be thinking that it’s too late for this Halloween, it turns out Rea is booked through September of 2007 anyway.
Science Fiction
The set-up was the same for the sci-fi portion as it was for the comic portion, with guests like Jeffrey Combs (Re-Animator), Julie Landau (Buffy and Angel) and Paul McGillion (Stargate Atlantis) signing autographs and doing a one-hour Intimate and Interactive with the fans en masse. And while I didn’t get to talk one on one with Robert Picardo, I was able to get a chair in his I&I on Friday night. Picardo played the Doctor on Star Trek: Voyager for seven years, but he is equally known for his time on the Vietnam drama China Beach and as the voice of Johnny Cab in Total Recall. Lately, Picardo has had a recurring role as one of the civilian advisors to the Stargate program on SG-1 and Atlantis.
While the I & I's took the form of a Q & A, Picardo seemed to have come to deliver a one-man stage show. He did comedy (“The first rule of showbiz is check your fly”), and he sang no less than three songs from his albums, Basic Bob and Extreme Bob. The songs are basically Star Trek parodies done to the tune of golden oldies like “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes” and “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow”, but Picardo belted them out impressively to the cheering crowd.
He did eventually get around to answering some questions. He talked about the recent cancellation of Stargate SG-1 and how its deal with Sci-Fi in the United States may prevent the show can be picked up by another network. He was asked if people ever come to him for medical aid, to which he quipped, “Yes, they die.” He also went on about how his Doctor action figure ended up riding shotgun in his daughter’s Barbie car, how he confuses Starfleet and Stargate on the SG-1 set, and why the China Beach DVDs were taking so long to hit store shelves. (The answer is because all the rights to the 60s-era soundtrack haven’t been cleared yet.)
But the Fan Expo is not just a place to talk about film; it’s also a place to watch films. Whether they’re fan films like Star Trek: New Voyages or Star Wars: Reign of the Fallen, or full-blown original productions like Sidekick: The Movie. Sidekick is a Canadian film that has been creating a nice little buzz for itself at film festivals and comic conventions across North America, and it’s being released on DVD this coming November through Maple. “The challenge was trying to convince people that you can make a superhero movie for $35,000, that it’s not about the big action sequences,” says Michael Sparaga, writer and producer of the film. “The real fans of the genre love the conversations and the nuances about what makes someone a superhero.”
Sparaga credits the welcoming embrace of the fan community as the primary reason his low-budget superhero movie has become the toast of the comic hero constabulary. “It’s one of those lucky things where you make something and it works out; we should have failed long ago.”
Still looking for distribution is independent filmmaker Mark Morgenstern, who set up a table at the Festival of Fear to sell his first movie, The Vampire Conspiracy, which he wrote, produced, directed and funded himself. The movie follows a centuries-old vampire that puts a group of humans through a night of horrors to test their will and see who is worthy of survival, sort of like Saw meets Underworld. “It’s funny that you should say that because we tried to get into the Toronto festival the same year Saw premiered at the Festival and they took Saw over ours,” said Morgenstern with a shrug. “We actually put it up on October 30 last year and had a huge response, and now we’re doing the trade-show route trying to get some distribution and hawking the DVDs.”
Other Film
The expo also had several booths dedicated to upcoming film festivals. The Midnight Madness program of the Toronto International Film Festival was highlighting what it had to offer this year, but a few booths over, a new festival was trying to covet some of the attention. Shannon Skinner, Director of Development and Communications for the Fantasy Worldwide Film Festival, happily told me about her festival, which is celebrating its second year of operation. And while the program for this year’s festival won’t be released until mid-September, last year’s program featured a film by Nightmare Before Christmas director Henry Selick. “We discovered that there wasn’t a festival we could find in the world that really focused on fantasy unique to the genre like world mythology, mysticism, magical realism, historic fiction, archetypes and legends; we do not screen horror and that’s what makes us different, we built a film festival that focuses on these areas of film.”
For anyone more interested in creating their own film than watching someone else’s, the expo provided a recruiter from the Vancouver Film School. Naturally, if one wants to get into film in Canada, Vancouver’s extraordinarily hot right now as a location for production and a breeding ground for emerging talent. “This is our third year participating as an exhibitor, and this is definitely our market,” said Janet Cacchioni of VFS, who appeared absolutely giddy as she talked about all the people she was meeting at the expo.
Cacchioni was eager to point out to anyone interested that the VFS was giving out a million dollars in scholarships this year to celebrate the school’s 20th anniversary. According to Cacchioni, theconventions are an ideal place to find the next generation of talent in all areas of film, “This is a chance for me to get to see these young people in their element, I do get to see them in their high school settings, but they’re there in their chairs being told what to do. Here, I’m seeing them for the first time as the real people that they are and it’s been the most thrilling thing for me to experience them; I remember now what it was like to be 14 and 15 and 16.”
For those whose interests in film are more myopic, like, let’s say being a make-up artist, then the Toronto Make-up School Complections was ready to assist you with demonstrations ranging from how to apply a simple vampire bite to turning a person into a full-blown zombie. Lynda Ing talked about how an eight-month program at the school will teach students all facets of make-up from fashion to theatre and prosthetics and special effects. “Students leave with a working portfolio and a DVD of their animatronics project and then they can go out and fully market themselves in the industry,” says Ing.
Miscellaneous Exhibitors and Vendors
In the “one of these things is not like the other” category was an information booth by the Ontario Science Centre touting their latest exhibition; of course, that exhibition is about the science of superheroes. “We figured everybody here is interested in comics so why not get it out here and promote it,” says Nicole Cavalluzzo of the Science Centre, which will host the only Canadian stop for this exhibition. “We’ll have ten thousand square feet of exhibit space featuring 60 different Marvel characters and 30 interactive stations, and it’s basically recommended for all ages, so it’s really good for young kids, but I’m sure the people who are addicted to comic books will get a lot out of it too.”
Speaking of things that stand out, the sight of a young woman in a lucha libre Mexican wrestler mask hardly goes unnoticed, not even amongst the costumed collective at a comic book convention. “The Pillow Fight League is based right here in Toronto,” says professional pillow fighter Wynn Cognito with a smile, “we’ve got 20 women, and we’ve basically been going for over a year now. It has all the rules of wrestling; we will lose to surrendering, pinfalls, or judge decides after the five-minute limit.” The league held its first bout on New Year’s Eve 2004 and is currently gearing up for their next live event.
The backbone of the Fan Expo, however, is the merchandisers and the vendors who offer such a mind-boggling array of items; you can’t help but feel like a kid in some kind of a store. One such vendor was a Waterloo company called Stortz and Associates who enthusiastically showed off their line of novelty items. One of their staff members practically grabbed me by the arm in excitement to demonstrate the board game Deflection: an inspired by chess strategy game that involves lasers and mirrors. Other Stortz inventions include the Marshmallow Shooter, its big brother--the Marshmallow Blaster, and the Smoke Ring Gun, which is exactly as it sounds.
Glynis of Punchbrand was at the expo offering her company’s unique Crazy Head toques. Although they’re based in Toronto, Glynis and her associates have been to conventions and shows all over the United States and Canada for the past two years. Glynis actually got the idea from conventioneers and a comic book about a chicken and a rabbit. “I just took my inspiration from the bunny character and came up with the bunny hat based on that and expanded from there,” says Glynis, who has since expanded her line to ten hats, all of which she sews herself with the help of a few friends. Business was very good for Punchbrand as she’d sold out of cat and panda hats by the end of business on Saturday.
Another accessory that moved well at the expo were the Guy Fawkes masks from V For Vendetta; one of the dealers selling the masks was Comic Age Wholesalers, who make fifty percent of their yearly business at these conventions. “It depends on what we are doing,” says Joe, “sometimes we pack it all up and we do the whole series, and in a year like that it’s more like 60 or 70 per cent from the shows.”
With this article I hoped to highlight the greater degree of variety at the Fan Expo beyond getting things signed by people with celebrity names. Of course, I’d be a hypocrite to say that I was immune to that siren song and beside the point, the past two-thousand, eight hundred some-odd words prove that I wasn’t entirely. I did get a chance to talk to a few of the celebrity faces at the expo. For that, click on The Conversations portion of the coverage, if you haven’t already. When I left Fan Expo ’06, it was after two full, rich days of getting up close and personal with some people I admired, as well as meeting some new friends whose infectious enthusiasm offset the weariness that came from wandering around the Convention Centre.
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