Fan Expo 2008

So, last weekend was Toronto's 2008 Fan Expo and I had the pleasure of working there at the booth of my old store (from my comic manager days), Planet X. It was a fun weekend, though quite tiring. This is a large convention, covering comics, gaming, sci-fi, horror, anime. There were many guests, including:

• Buzz Aldrin - One of the first men on the moon
• Brent Spiner - Data from Star Trek TNG
• Kate Mulgrew - Capt. Janeway from Star Trek Voyager
• Edward James Olmos - Commander/Admiral Adama from Galactica (new series)
  
• Henry Winkler - The Fonz himself
• Sean Astin - Sam from Lord of The Rings
• Jeremy Bullock - Boba Fett from Star Wars
• Alex Ross - Of comic book fame
• Michael Rosenbaum - Lex from Smallville
• Wes Craven - Of horror movie fame

I met and shook hands with Commander Adama! Awesome! Also, Alex Ross came to our booth looking for an action figure. Good times.

The crowds, shot from our booth.


Me, advertising the Marvel Ties we were selling.

Anyhow, it struck me that there were fewer costumes this year. There was an awesome Ghostbuster! (whose backpack lit up and everything!)

The anime population seemed to have their usual representation, but the comic costumes seemed way down this year. There were A LOT of people with Joker makeup from The Dark Knight, as to be expected, but most didn't bother dressing as the Joker wearing only the makeup with their regular clothes. Weird. I saw a very well done Nightwing (current costume), and a Catwomen (again, current costume).

More Viper pilots from Galactica this year too. I also noticed several Watchmen costumes, something I've never seen before. I guess the hype from the Watchmen movie next summer is having an affect. I saw several Rorschachs, and an Ozymandias.

Star Wars was as usual well represented, especially with the 501st Legion, who usually have a Saturday night march in costume (though there seemed fewer of them than last year).

Getting ready for their march

TIE fighter pilot playing video game.

Sunday night pack up with long. We brought in 7 skids of stuff Thursday night, restocked roughly 5 over the weekend, and left with 6 (repacked boxes, so left stuff than 6 sealed boxes), so that took a while to pack and return to the warehouse.

I got free dinner both nights (Vendor dinner Saturday, and my boss Sunday), and had a great time. Look forward to next year.