Calgary Comic Con 2014 thread

[eglove]

gawker coverage

http://io9.com/the-most-sensational-...-fa-1568088819

[taemo]

damn!
expo2014 29 by Official Calgary Expo Photos, on Flickr
expo2014 30 by Official Calgary Expo Photos, on Flickr

[SilverGS]

Originally posted by DeleriousZ



!!!!! nice! Is she as pretty in real life? lol

She is shorter than I thought lol.

She was dressed down quite a bit and in a hat to look a bit inconspicuous. Had a coffee in hand so I think she just wanted to walk around and check out downtown Calgary.

Didn't want to bother her so I just confirmed who she was said hi and told her welcome to Calgary.

Pretty cute if you like red heads with freckles.

[flipstah]

Well, that was neat!

This is majority of my experience,

"Who's that?"

"That's Adrian Paul from Highlander"

"What's that?"

"TV show that cuts people's heads off"

"AWESOME"

Only one I recognized was Draco and Gus Fring. Other than that, I bought t-shirts and looked at cool art but didn't snag any. I wanted to get the Star Wars art drawn by the graphics guy for the movie but not enough of a fan to go for the prices.

[Vagabond142]

So... day 3 has come and gone. A very good day, panel-wise, for me, although it seems my hunt for Days of Future Past will either mean I go completely broke or luck out on a bad condition copy in one of the tables of boxes. The cheapest I have found them, in 8.0 condition, is $70 per issue.

First panel of the day for me was the Dr Who panel, Matt Smith and Karen Gillan, during which Matt Smith made fun on, teased, and otherwise was a complete dick to Karen... in a good way The two pretty much fired back and forth at each other the entire time, and both made fun of Arthur Darvill, who is somewhere in England without knowing he's been made fun of :P


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Then, as people have been asking and I'm still getting into the vibe of actually taking people's pictures, I got some better cosplay pics today.

In 6 straight years of going to the Convention.... this is the first CyberSix I have ever seen cosplayed:


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(for those wondering what the hell CyberSix is, go here for the opening animation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z22seoMxgpI )



A very good Booker from Bioshock: Infinite with a decently small Elizabeth (she was something like 4 foot 11 o_O, absolutely tiny). They were really nice people though, we talked about the game, the DLC, what the future of the ***Shock universe looks like (bleak)... just geeks being geeks


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Do I REALLY need to write anything about this picture?


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People that wear full body lycra are either very cold, very sure of themselves, or like Ms Marvel a lot ;P


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Random group shot:


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After all that, I went and got my X-Men books signed by Clay Mann (X-Men, A+X), Nick Bradshaw (Wolverine and the X-Men), Kieron Gillan (Uncanny X-Men, AvX, AvX Consequences, A+X), and Terry Dodson (all of the above XD)

Then, it was time to hit up the TMNT voice actors panel. No shortage of awesome there. Rob Paulsen stole the show as he usually does, and things were BARELY kept PG-13 with some of the jokes and innuendo's being thrown about by the cast (All 4 original turtles + original April O'Neil). Sadly, as there was no flash allowed and there were lights shining on the crowd, all my pictures from that panel are washed out or blurry. The highlight was the voice actors singing the TMNT theme with the crowd at the end, including all their lines in the song ("Parrrtyyy!" "Get a grip!" etc)

All in all, a very successful day. Tomorrow, Dwarves panel, commissions, and the final table hunt for Witchblade #3 and Days of Future Past. If I can't find either, I'll probably go buy an original Dodson or Bradshaw page

[Mar]

You missed the naked chick! I saw a girl wearing nothing but a thong, the rest of her body was painted blue and she had little circle stickers covering her nipples. Great body too.

My weekend is still going strong. I checked out a panel yesterday about Udon Entertainment, they're the publishers of all things Capcom. Though I did think it was going to be about the NES games but instead it was about their comic books and I was a little pissed about that because I missed an Anthony Daniels (C3PO) panel to see that. It's all good, my mistake.

I did get to see a panel with the legend known as George Romero:



This morning I got there before noon and barely caught the Kevin Eastman panel, he's one of the creators of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It was awesome, he was showing the original comic book illustrations as well as the prototypes for some of the toys and telling stories about how the characters came to life, why they chose Renaissance painter names, and much more information, it was great. I didn't take any photos of this.

Then I caught my favourite panel of the weekend, the man himself, Bruce Campbell! It was a hilarious show, Bruce is a really funny guy and kept the crowd entertained the entire show. I was a little upset about this though, we walked into the Corral and the girl working there told us to find a seat and sit down if we wanted to. I asked her which panel was on and she said it was Doctor Who. I have no idea about anything Doctor Who so I grabbed my girlfriend and we left to go find where Bruce Campbell was going to be. We walked out a set of doors, stopped and I looked at the map. I realized he was going to be back in the Corral right after Doctor Who so we turned around and this guy on the door told us it was exit only. We had to walk outside, stand in a huge ass line in the snow and freeze for 30 minutes after just being inside where we were lined up to go. And I was wearing shorts and sandals. Fuck.



Then we made out way over to see Alfonso Robeiro (Carlton from The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air) and that was also very funny.



Again I got a little pissed off because we lined up super early for this so we had front row and center seating. This ended at 4:15 and at 4:45 the next panel was starting in the exact same room so we just stayed in our seats. If we went back outside we'd have to walk to the back of a huge ass line and stand in the snow again. One of the organizers came over and told us we had to get out so they could clean up the place, WTF? So we had to go out the exit and walk ALLLLLLLL the way around to the back of the huge line. As if that wasn't bad enough, as we exited the doors, we passed people coming in, they had already started letting the line up come inside. So if we stayed another 30 seconds we would have just been able to stay. But no, we had to give up our seats, go to the back of the line, wait outside, then get shitty seats. What a fuck up. Then at the beginning of the next panel the guy made an announcement that we're not allowed to stay after the show's over......that's because I bitched him out so badly I must have upset him or something. My girlfriend gave me the frowny face and angry eyes.

Anyway, the next panel was the 4 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle voice actors and the woman whom did April O'Niel. It was an amazing panel, very funny. The actors for Raphael and Donatello actually sounded just like their turtle characters but Leonardo and Michealangelo didn't until they modified their voices. From left to right, it's Donatello, April, the moderator, Leonardo, Michealangelo and Raphael.



I also managed to find some other Transformer figures I was specifically looking for at the show. Sparkplug, Spike and a Quintesson. These are 3 characters from the 1980s cartoons but had never gotten an official toy so a third party company called Impossible Toys made them independently and here they are.

[Vagabond142]

Two panels and a lot of comic hunting today Too bad it's a short day (10-5)

[drtoohotty1]

Originally posted by Mar
You missed the naked chick! I saw a girl wearing nothing but a thong, the rest of her body was painted blue and she had little circle stickers covering her nipples. Great body too.

Ya that mystique had the ballsist costume I saw, I talked to her for a bit when she came by my booth. My hands down favorite was the girl dressed up as Gozer the Gozerian favourite costume I have seen in awhile.

[googe]

So this Jessica Nigri person, basically she is famous for being female? And this gets her a booth and lines out the door?

[taemo]

went today for a couple of hours to check the expo out, first time I've been to a comic expo since I was a kid back in '96, not really into comics and sci-fi so i thought it was ok. i wish there were more japanese manga/anime and TCG.

ended up buying the first 3 Serenity Firefly Class 03-K64 comics though, anyone read them?

pretty cool seeing George Romero and Alfonso Ribiero!

next year I might just volunteer as a photographer for fun

[That.Guy.S30]

Met Jessica Nigri, she threw her pen at me. Good Laugh
Met J Scott Campbell, didn't get the commission. Darn
Cyanide and Happiness, got a commission. Yup

Had a good time, the lineups for all the good stuff was really long.

[BigMass]

I don't even know anybody you guys are talking about. When I looked at the guest list the people I was most excited about was Bruce Campbell, Lance Henriksen and the Alien's cast with Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Bill Paxton, etc... maybe im just old or something...

[Vagabond142]

Originally posted by googe
So this Jessica Nigri person, basically she is famous for being female? And this gets her a booth and lines out the door?

She's famous for being one of the leading forces in cosplay culture. Costuming and costume play is a large part of comic cons. Without trying to sound pervy, there is also the fact that she is not hard on the eyes at all XD

Originally posted by That.Guy.S30
Met Jessica Nigri, she threw her pen at me. Good Laugh
Met J Scott Campbell, didn't get the commission. Darn
Cyanide and Happiness, got a commission. Yup

Had a good time, the lineups for all the good stuff was really long.

Sounds like a good day!

[Graham_A_M]

I would literally go EVERYday and stay a good while if I could see more of this sort of thing, hot diggity damn.





Do want.

[Vagabond142]

So, day 4:

Today was hunting day and I have to say... I succeeded with another of my grails!

Witchblade #3 in NM condition (best edition I saw all weekend, was an instant buy. Only other one I found had a ripped cover and guy wanted $40 for it o_O This one cost me a haggled $35)

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I now own Witchblade #1 through #120. I need 120-168 and I will have the full run


Sadly, I was not able to get X-Men 141 and 142. However, in the back corner of one of the booths, where no one else seemed to be looking....


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(it's much brighter in actuality, lighting in my room is a bit poor. Last day 50% off sale = $10 for this book ^_^)


In the same pile, 50% off last day sale...


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Those were my big buys on the day. Witchblade #3 in, to my eye, 8.5 to 9.2 condition is an amazing find for me. Took me 3 days, but I got one!


Also, I managed to score an original Wolverine and the X-Men page from Nick Bradshaw. W+XM Issue 42, page 28. And it was $$$$ but $ well spent:


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Panels:

Being Dwarvish: Really great panel, lots of fun and poking at each other by the panelists, and they ended with Misty Mountain (hip hop version), which was a riot

Voice actors: All the voice actors from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, except in a panel about voice acting, not turtles. Rob Paulsen singing Wacko's World at the end = win. My question for them had the room in stitches when they answered it: "Of any character you have played, what was your favorite laugh and would you please do it for us?" Townsend Coleman laughed as the Tick, Rob Paulsen did pinky ("hahahaha NARF! hehe"), and I forget who the other three did. Funniest panel all weekend, my face hurt afterwards

[Vagabond142]

Commissions from the entire weekend:

I got three commissions done, although one is more a "me only" type one. Nothing sick or twisted, just a character from one of my novels in development

My Nick Bradshaw cover sketch:

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Dude is a gigantic man (as in a hard working, big guy that you would not want to piss off), but loved to talk about Wolverine and the X-Men, New Brunswick weather vs Calgary weather, why there are no maritime hockey teams (verbatim: "They'd be too drunk to play"), and all things geek. Absolute pleasure dealing with him, epitomizes the friendly Canadian stereotype.


Siya Oum Fathom: Kiani sketch:


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Tiny little woman, but as with Nick, she loved to talk about all things geek, and loved my choice of character. "Really? I've always wanted to do Kiani for someone! Thank you thank you!" To give you an idea of how good she is, from pencils to finished sketch was just over 60 minutes. I literally went to have lunch when she started inking, thinking "meh, inks will take a while." Come back, she's halfway done shading o_O

[Vagabond142]

And lastly.... cosplay today was VERY reduced. I think people were there today more for perusing and last minute buys, not to dress up as much. Still, stumbled across a really good Lara Croft and Zelda combo:


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And that's it for pictures from the con


My final thoughts:

This year, in my very objective and personal opinion, was THE best organized convention to date. 2013 had its hiccups, 2012 was a major stumble... but 2014 learned from the past two years and made this Con feel smooth and well run. WAY more volunteers out on the convention floor to help keep traffic flowing in big traffic areas, wider lanes, good panels spaced far enough apart that a person could run from one to the other, the panels were not "umm... we're 5 minutes in, any questions?" but were "here are the stars, here are some well thought out questions from the moderator for 20 minutes, then open the floor once people have had time to think of good ones." They fixed the audio issues from the Corral last year (I could actually HEAR people this time), and all in all, it was just a pleasant experience.

My criticisms would be that they could have made the line delineation from Boyce and Corral a bit more clear. The Boyce theater line lined up at the Corral entrance, and the Corral lineup lined up around the back of the Corral o_O??! As well, the Expo Pavillion (the outdoor tent) had a confusing entrance system, as there were no signs to tell between the Pavillion and the Kids Zone. Both criticisms were solved by actually asking a volunteer, but some better signage would be appreciated.


On a scale of 1 to 10, this years convention was a definite 9.5

[Vagabond142]

Oh, and for you LoL fans, my buddy snapped this yesterday:

[DeleriousZ]

Originally posted by Vagabond142


She's famous for being one of the leading forces in cosplay culture. Costuming and costume play is a large part of comic cons. Without trying to sound pervy, there is also the fact that she is not hard on the eyes at all XD

She played Juliet Starling in lollipop chainsaw (game) before her fame really took off. I believe she also was a character in a japanese game, killer is dead or something. She either is or is really good a playing, a nerdy gamer girl, at least she seemed genuine before becoming super famous.

[ZEDGE]

Calgary Expo 2014 Cosplay Music Video - Feat. Jessica Nigri & Monika Lee

Originally posted by BigMass
I don't even know anybody you guys are talking about. When I looked at the guest list the people I was most excited about was Bruce Campbell, Lance Henriksen and the Alien's cast with Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Bill Paxton, etc... maybe im just old or something...

lol

I'm old and I am pretty familiar with most of it, but I am a huge nerd.