Fan Expo 2009

August 28-30 2009

It was time for Fan Expo which is the biggest convention that comes to Toronto. I always kinda like this con but it's never great. This year though was really good/almost great.

Friday we got our passes and walked around the floor a bit. Not too busy but we didn't spend that much time looking around. We went to a panel where James Kyson Lee (Ando from HERO'S) was talking. He was kinda boring and really didn't know how to handle the crowd. After that Liz and I went to see a special presentation of Disney's new movie TRON. I loved this movie way back when it first came out and am really looking forward to seeing the new movie. Liz never saw the original movie but she seems excited about the new Tron.

Saturday started out bad. When we got to the hall we were told we could not go in for safty reasons. WTF? We paid $50.00 to get into to this place. After the crowds inside had moved around we were let in and our day began. First up was a Q & A with Leonard Nimoy (Spock from Star Trek). He was fun and a living legend in my geek world. After Spock we went and saw Linda Hamilton from the Terminator movies/show. She was fun and had some great insider information on the Terminator movies which I love. So 2 big guests and the best was next! Mr Bruce Campbell of Evil Dead fame. What a great guy and a excellent talker! He really knows how to work a crowd. I would go see him again any day. Best Q & A of the weekend and just to see him was worth the $50.00. After Bruce we went to a space channel panel which sucked. Then we got in the car and had dinner at our restaurant - the Thai place - which was excellent as always.

Sunday we spent the day walking around the dealer's room. I also spoke with the author/film maker/friend Greg Lamerson and caught up with him. We really didn't buy anything but it was fun walking around seeing everything and everyone.

So all in all the Fan Expo was really good and we will be back next year 100%.

garry

This was a surprise to me as I didn't expect to enjoy myself too much at this one. Turns out I was wrong! Bruce Campbell was excellent. He poked fun at himself, the audience and all manner of things that you're not supposed to be mean about. Another pleasant surprise was the Q&A with Max Brooks who wrote a few zombie books that I like (World War Z, Zombie Survival Guide). He had a very similar attitude - nothing is sacred and the fact that you're actually here to hear me talk means I should do my best to chat, be entertaining and generally give you your money's worth. And he was and he did. Also I liked the Associate Editor of Rue Morgue magazine as a moderator on the discussion panels that I attended. The moderator can really make a discussion panel by encouraging discussion, filling in gaps in the talking and moving the whole thing forward. I liked her because it's not easy to do but she came prepared (refreshing in itself) and make it look like a walk in the park.

And the reason that Garry was so pissed on Saturday was only partially to do with the delay getting into the building. Although that was very annoying and poorly managed by the staffers at the con - they needed a few more people on the task. REally he was annoyed because he missed out on getting KISS tickets on-line that morning. Kiss have never played in Toronto and not been seen by Garry so when it became clear that the tickets were gone he was not impressed. I have to say that he handled himself pretty well but he was really disappointed to have missed out. But not one to be so easily defeated he has new plans to find a ticket - some where out there he knows there's a ticket meant for him.

Liz