Calgary Comic Expo Review:
So my friend and I kicked in to Calgary on a Sunday for the show- we'd only ever gone on Friday or Saturday before this, so this was different.
* The grounds are basically identical to the last year's, with the same set-up (though I forgot which building gave us our passes, so we had to re-trace). The crowds are much lighter than Saturday ones, and three of the big celebrity guests weren't appearing then (Kevin Smith, John Cusack & the current Doctor).
* The biggest lines: The Asian guy from
The Walking Dead, Stan Lee (who was supposedly retired from the Con circuit), and Todd MacFarlane. Jeremy Renner was always away, as he had a panel around this time, and was the only celeb to be "hidden away" behind a thing you couldn't photograph through.
* There was a sad moment as we craned around looking for Jason Mewes at his booth (which had a line). We were watching the a lady off to the side have a conversation with some sketchy-looking trashy guy, and at the same time went ".... OH." Yeah, don't do drugs, kids. Age will not be kind to you.
* Some guys at smaller booths had tremendous lines. Patrick Warburton's was huge the entire time we were there. It's funny to see him in person, since I've been watching him since I was a kid (I remember him from
Dave's World first, oddly enough). But HOLY GOD is he trying to look younger. The guy is definitely dyeing his hair dark brown, and it looks hella-unnatural in person.
* Wallace Shawn came to this Expo, too (his Edmonton booth was a HUGE success with lines all day long; his beat Carrie Fischer's by a ways), but I only saw him once. Kevin Sorbo maintained a decent line. James Marsters was here, and holy SHIT is this guy using the wrong plastic surgeon. His face looks like he's injected it with cortizone, and it's all puffed up unnaturally, like he's desperately trying to maintain his youth. Dude is popular, but is ALWAYS at these Expos- he apparently doesn't do much else (not a bad living for an actor). Nathan Fillion (another local) makes another appearance with a solid line, but I think everyone who wanted an autograph has already gotten one at this point.
* Guys who had pretty small lines: Adrian Paul (from the
Highlander TV show), Garrett Wang (who lives in Alberta, so is CONSTANTLY at these things, to the point where he's basically the Canadian equivalent of Lonely Virgil), Billy Dee Williams (disappointing, as his Edmonton Panel appearance was REALLY full), & Kenny vs. Spenny.
* Who the f*ck is Bob Morley and why was his line HUGE the entire time? I swear his line was near the top-tier, and I've never heard of anything he's in.
* I feel like a million actors from
Arrow and
The Flash were here- basically every attractive woman who I didn't recognize was from one of them.
* We almost got ran over by the giant dude from
Game of Thrones. He even talks kinda like that in real life, and has a prominent limp. Dude's at least 6'7" in real life.
* Linda Larkin (Jasmine from
Aladdin... but only the spoken lines, not the singing) had a pretty solid group the one time we saw her there. She doesn't look that old, either, considering that movie is... holy shit... about twenty-five years old. Jasmine is also the only credit they even mention for her.
* Seeing Rider Strong & Will Friedle from
Boy Meets World was fun. Both are CLEARLY trying to look younger than they are (both are my age or older, but dressed like college kids and had "cool kid" facial hair). They didn't have a lot of guests lining up to meet them, but usually had one or two people. They were more joking and talking with each other as much as anything. Friedle's odd in that he's done like THREE big "nerd things" (
BMW, Kim Possible, Batman Beyond), so I'd have figured he'd be more popular. I'd have gone up... but I honestly have nothing to say to some of these people. Especially because I'm not actually getting anything signed (fifty bucks each? No thanks). Both of them nearly bumped into my friend and I walking away from their booths- some random guy was like "You made my sister's room look REAL GOOD!" Rider (*sigh*... SHAWN....), and one kind of laughed and went "yeah, YOU SUCK, but my sister loved you!" with the other going "yeah, I've heard THAT before".
* How can you tell the Retro Gaming Market has exploded? Because all of a sudden, 25% of the retail booths were selling retro video games at disgusting prices (some game called
Ninja Warriors cost hundreds of dollars. I saw one SNES game I've never heard of for *$2500*!!!). Similarly, the Toy Scalpers, ruiners of children's dreams everywhere, have bought out the Toys R Us stuff and thoroughly jacked up the prices on everything.
* Dan Parent from Archie recognized me, though he was sadly alone this time, with no other Archie guys.
* Jim Shooter had a booth there, selling signed prints for ten bucks each (which was the discount price). As he.. didn't actually do more than Edit those, it was odd, but I wanted to hear him talk. Alas, he was a bit soft-spoken and was generally going on about the business side of things, so I didn't have much to say. MAYBE if my friend hadn't been there, I'd have stuck around and asked him stuff, but he always had a line, so it was difficult to really find the excuse. All I was really gonna say was "hey, your blog is AWESOME!" because it's generally good reading. I promise I wasn't gonna tell him what Bob Layton said about him
.
* The most Fan-Art Award was easily won by
Overwatch once more, though I swear to God
Sailor Moon has made a hell of a comeback all of a sudden. I guess it's a combination of the DVD re-releases, the
Crystal re-make, and the fact that her core fanbase has now hit the "Nostalgic Nerd" age where you both remember stuff and have a disposable income while also not having a family to support. I was actually expecting
Steve Universe to be the big thing, based off of how much I see it in fan-art online, but no- almost nothing.
Rick & Morty is probably #3. Oddly very little of the Disney stuff this time around.
* The Most Cosplayed award is pretty handily won by Harley Quinn, to no one's surprise. It's actually snowballed since the
Suicide Squad movie, as the Edmonton Expo only featured a small handful. Now there were lots- one girl REALLY had the walk down, basically making every possible effort to draw attention to her fishnetted butt-cheeks. I'm pretty sure that's why my friend had us following behind them for a bit. I think she mortified a much younger, more innocent Harley cosplayer. The #2 Most-Cosplayed was easily Belle, who had three Gold Dresses and one Peasant's Outfit. Disney as a whole was well-represented, with most Princesses having at least two examples.
And GOD do I hate Cosplay when the girl has a tattoo. I generally hate tattoos on women anyways, but it's so WEIRD to see a good Poison Ivy costume or whatever and then a big ugly green mess on someone's arm. Totally ruins the look.
Cosplay is definitely lesser on Sunday compared to Fri & Sat, though. I think less eyes are on them. There was very little really OUTSTANDING stuff. though one group had some of the Gods from
Hercules down pretty well.
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Overall it was pretty good, though this is easily the least amount of swag I've ever bought at one of these things. I considered a couple of prints, but the prices are insane now (EIGHT BUCKS for one the size of a postcard? Even for ELSA, that's a no!).