Probably one of my favourite weekends ever, ComicCon was upon this great city once again and it paid off in spades.
For years, I have been going to the comic conventions at the Ottawa Civic Center. Here, we found tables of longboxes or sports collectables and I sifted through them all looking for some cheap comics to fill in the holes of my collection since I stopped collecting for ten year period before getting back into it when I met Vero. (strange timing?)
After awhile, these comic conventions weren’t offering anything new to me. The same people were at the booths with the same merchandise. I needed something more!
Last year, the Comic convention exploded as the organizers of the popular Montreal ComicCon decided to try one out in Ottawa. This wasn’t just the normal convention, this was chock full of celebrities, Q&A sessions, artists, etc. It was fantastic!
This year, Benoit, Trish and I opted for the Deluxe pass. It allowed us to go to the convention for three days as well as get in early on the Friday and Saturday. In hindsight, this was a fantastic choice for us. For an extra $20, Benoit and I waltzed right in on the Friday while the other regular pass holders (I call them suckas) remained in line for two hours. The same thing happened on the Saturday when I brought Nat and Vero and left them in line. I have to give big props to the organizers this year as the lineup didn’t seem as insane as last year (we waited three hours to get in whereas Vero and Nat were in the building fifteen minutes after the door opened.)
Friday afternoon was a fantastic time for Benoit and I to scour the booths for some good comic book finds. I was overwhelmed by the beast at first but realized if we methodically go down each aisle, we’ll figure the place out. I scored some great old Star Comics Thundercats issues (big thanks to Ben for stumbling upon that in a $1 bin) and found some key issues to fill in the gaps in my collection.
I was glad that after four hours, it was time to go to some Q&A panels and take a breather from the rest of the convention. They Q&As were well organized but I don’t think Benoit cared for stepping outside into the rain to wait in line again to go into the massive Hall 4 where the Q&A panels were happening. That’s how the system worked…line up for a panel, go in, leave the hall (even if you want to stay for the next one) and line up again. It’s only fair in case someone didn’t make it into the last panel…they at least have the chance to get into the next one. However, Hall 4 is massive so I don’t think there was a time where people didn’t make it in. The Firefly panel was jam packed and we were worried we wouldn’t get in, but in the end, we found tons of seats so it wasn’t as bad as the volunteers were making it to be.
Before I get into a review of the panels, I have to say that I appreciated a big group of us going to ComicCon together. It was fun times and we had this great photo with the Batmobile along with our custom made Batman sound effect shirts! Special thanks to my wife for suggesting this. She knows that I don’t like having a cumbersome costume on when all I want to do is sift through comic books. This is why I will never wear my Trooper armour to a show. If I do, it will be for one day only because the entire day would be spent having pictures taken.
Panels:
Billy Dee Williams: I was excited…the moustachioed wonder…Billy Dee Williams! However, he had lost the moustache. Also, they started the panel by saying “Don’t ask questions about things that he filmed thirty years ago…he won’t remember any specifics.” Way to put a damper on the types of questions coming at you. In the end, I was underwhelmed by this panel and I hope this isn’t indicative of the majority of his Q&A sessions.
Cosplay Dating Game: This was a ridiculous panel which Benoit left after five minutes and I followed soon thereafter. It was a play on the old dating game where someone is behind a curtain trying to get matched up with three eligible people. But the people were a mix (two women, one guy) for one girl…so unless she’s bi-sexual, here choices were limited. It was a little ridiculous.
The gang with the Batmobile. Note that they gave me the Shark Repellant from the Batman movie! I was stoked.
Anime 101: I didn’t go to this panel but I heard it was a bunch of anime geeks just talking of their love of Anime. Benoit, Vero and Sebastien left super unimpressed. It was more like an advanced class in Anime.
Levar Burton: Geordi LaForge took the stage to a huge applause and we had some good laughs at his love of Canada. He broke down Canada into three topics…hockey, beer and boobs! (referencing the allowance of topless women in Ontario…if not other provinces? I would have to check). It was a great panel with some good stories of Star Trek. There were a LOT of questions about his time on Reading Rainbow which is one show I never grew up with.
Firefly Cast (Jewel Staite + Nathan Fillion): This panel was packed to the gills but totally worth it. Nathan is freaking hilarious and I was cracking up during the entire panel. Some great questions and Nathan + Jewel make a good panel duo. I would have to say that this was probably in my top three panels this weekend. I may as well mention that the next day I went to the Nathan Fillion solo panel with Trish which turned out to be a duo with Jewel again, but it was completely different because they receive different questions. Favourite moments: When Nathan starts talking about the film Much Ado About Nothing…”Well Joss invited his favourite actors…” and realizes Jewel wasn’t invited, so he continues with “…who were available at the time.” Ha ha! He also told a story of how the night before he was out to dinner with a bunch of others from the Con and someone taps him on the shoulder asking him to take a picture with his family and Wil Wheaton! This story comes up in the Wil Wheaton panel as well which is hilarious considering Nathan Filion is definitely the bigger TV star (or is he?).
Felicia Day – Don’t know much about her, but the panel was entertaining.
Batman 1966 Cast – There weren’t too many people out to see Burt Ward and Julie Newmar but it was an entertaining panel with stories of the old times of the Batman show (did you know that when Batman and Robin walked up the side of the building and it looked vertical, it was actually filmed at 45 degrees? I also assumed it was filmed horizontal!)
Steampunk 101 – An excellent primer for those wondering “What the heck is Steampunk?” I quite enjoyed it.
Gillian Anderson – Even though I was tired on Sunday morning, this was a great panel and Gillian is pretty funny at these things. Someone asked her if she believed in aliens and what would first contact be like. She didn’t know how to answer at first and responded “For all I know, I might be having first contact with one right now, talking with you.”
Mike Grell & Chris Claremont: A decent discussion about creator owned comics and ageism in comic books. I had to leave when they were getting to the good stuff about Wolverine’s age in the X-Men! Disappointing to miss out on a discussion from the master writer himself!
Wil Wheaton: I am aware that Wil Wheaton has made a huge comeback since his Star Trek days but I had no idea how big it was. He is essentially a figurehead for geeks everywhere which I thought was…weird? It’s cool on one hand, but I thought at the end when he talked about some principles in life that we should adhere to, it was strange. But I guess I don’t know enough about his resurgence in popularity…perhaps he feels that he has to speak for the geeks out there that don’t feel comfortable speaking for themselves.
Some great stories about Star Trek as well as this fantastic story about Toy Soldiers (TOTALLY forgot about this excellent film).
Benoit and the Baronness from GI Joe. Staredown city. Look at the sad Spidey in the background!
David Prowse: Even though I loved the Nathan Filion and Jewel panels for the sheer hilarity of it all, I adored the David Prowse panel. He was the actor who played Darth Vader…only the biggest villain of all time! He started out with a lengthy and interesting overview of his life leading up to Star Wars (he had to drop out of the Mr. Universe competitions because he had ugly feet!) and then had some fantastic stories about Star Wars and other topics. Here are some highlights that I never knew about.
Voice of Darth Vader: Supposedly he was supposed to be the voice of Darth Vader but when Lucas had to return to America to work on the special effects, it was cheaper to get another actor to voice his lines over in America than to bring David over.
Darth’s Face: in Return of the Jedi, you get to see the face under the helmet. But Alec Guinness asked George if his friend Sebastian Shaw could have a role in the new Star Wars film so he put him as the face of Darth Vader! David didn’t even realize this scene existed until seeing the film! What a travesty! Imagine being the actor for all three films and when it comes to the part where the mask comes off, they bring in another dude! Not cool Lucas!
Superman: He was trying to get into the Superman film but they wouldn’t let a British actor become Superman. But he did end up training Christopher Reeves as he was a skinny guy when he auditioned. David did end up getting fired by Christopher after he left him for a week with his other trainers to go to Saudi Arabia. Supposedly Christopher because quite the dick when he got the Superman part. Too bad!
Fantastic panel by a living legend and I was super happy we went to see him. Two thumbs up.
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed the ComicCon and I felt the Deluxe pass was worth it. There isn’t much time to go through the booths while the panels are going on because you end up standing in line to get in, watch the panel and line up for the next one. So I enjoyed having the Friday afternoon to look through some comic books. Was I super impressed with the lineup of celebrities? I would say that while I had fun, I think last year’s Star Trek heavy lineup was a little more entertaining for me. But that’s what ComicCon is all about…you never know who you’ll get year by year.
I did end up standing next to some guy that spent $2,000 on some old X-Men comics. I was drooling a little, but also was going to mention that I picked up a few of those in the same condition at a fraction of the price a few weeks ago on Ebay. But the booth owner was right next to him so I felt I shouldn’t pipe in.
Until next Con…