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My first comic convention, it was a *hell* of a trip. I'm going to the con
just to experience it, pick up some back issues, and do a face to face
interview. Done plenty of e-mail interviews, a couple of phone interviews as
well, but I want to try doing an off-the-cuff face-to-face one. I really
don't read many superhero books and most of the comics I do read are older
TPB's that the creators have been interviewed to death by the time I get to
them. But just the Wednesday prior, Ty Templeton's original graphic novel
came out. It's called Bigg Time published by DC Vertigo. I bought it and
read it the night before the con. My main goal of the con is to interview Ty
Templeton.
Well, actually it was to interview Joe Kubert. But I e-mailed him ahead of
time and he wrote back saying he would only be at the con for a few hours on
Saturday. Since I'm going up on Friday and Sunday that interview wasn't
going to happen. So Ty became my main goal.
Last time I took my car for a long drive it began to shudder as I was
driving back home. But I managed to get back home by putting in some fuel
line clearer and by getting off the freeway and doing about 90 kilometres an
hour. Since then my car hasn't acted up and I had been driving all week, I
was hoping the fuel line stuff might have fixed whatever problem there was,
but just to be on the safe side I decided to take the highway (instead of
the freeway) on the way up doing about 90 klicks (kilometres) an hour.
I stop by at a Pizza Pizza joint on the way up and grab some food. It's
Friday now and I have a dentist appointment on the coming Monday. I eat
something soft (chicken nuggets) but still it bothers my teeth for the rest
of the day. A consistent, low feeling of discomfort is the best explanation.
I leave at around 10:30am, about 3 1/2 hours later I'm maybe 2/3rds way to
Toronto to the convention. If I had taken the freeway I'd be there by now
and since there is a bunch of city traffic going into the surrounding Toronto
cities I decided to get on the freeway.
The freeway in Canada is called the 401. I should let you know in Canada we
have something called graduated licensing. Basically you have to take two
driving tests, after passing the first one you can drive only with one
(sober) passenger in your car that has at least 4 years of driving
experience. You cannot drive on the freeway or at night. After a year you
can take the 2nd test and if you pass it you can drive like any normal human
being. My second test will be in September some time, so I'm breaking
several laws by going up to Toronto on the freeway by myself. The least
among them is speeding. This is nothing new though, I do it every day on the
way to work with a carpool.
While on the freeway I get into my very first accident. For some unknown
reason the freeway comes to a dead stop. This is how major pile ups occur,
thankfully this time the only accident was me sliding into another car. My
fault, I had my foot on the brake but did not realize all cars were coming
to a dead stop until it was too late. The woman in the other car comes out,
gets all my drivers licence and insurance information. Says they aren't hurt
and there is no apparent damage to the car, but she'll have to have the rods
underneath checked. If they are damaged she'll contact me, otherwise we'll
just pretend it didn't happen. After she leaves I discover she left me her
name, plate number and address, but didn't leave me with her insurance info.
So if I find out later my car has problems I'll have to hunt her down.
I later realize that the airbag in my car didn't go off, leaving me both
happy and worried. I'm happy it didn't go off, because I was able to
continue driving after things were sorted out. But now I wonder if it will
go off if I get into a major accident.
We then continue driving, I get off where I'm supposed to be and go through
the city. One of the major streets (Eglinton Ave) is three lanes but due to
construction it's narrowed down to one lane. This delays me even more. I
start zig zagging my way through the city looking to eventually hook up with
the famous Younge Street.
Younge Street is the major city street of Toronto that leads to downtown.
Upon finding it and driving on it for a while I discover it's reputation is
well deserved. It has 4 lanes but no turning lanes. Along the way there are
people trying to turn either one way or another and can't due to oncoming
traffic or people, so you're constantly swerving from lane to lane with
people giving your very little room to manoeuvre. Making matters worse are
the aggressive drivers doing the same just so they can zip down the road
like it's a freeway, and then there are the cyclist doing the same thing but
tapping on your windows as they go by so they can swerve in front of you.
I make it downtown and I'm close by to where the convention centre is. A
buddy of mine named Adam says the most expensive parking is about $20 and
that's an underground lot under the convention centre. A few blocks away
it's as low as 4 dollars. Searching for a parking lot I find the Air Canada
Centre (where the NBA Toronto Raptors play). Parking there? $29 dollars if
your there after 6pm, which I am going to be because the convention ends at
9pm. I pay the fucking thing because I'm supposed to meet somebody and it's
already 4:15 and I'm supposed to meet somebody at 4:30. I still have to walk
and find the convention centre and get myself booked in.
I go for a walk and find it okay, getting out my map I see where the press
people are and get in okay through there. From there the maps don't tell you
where to go, my first time here so I'm clueless and I'm sure everybody can
see that by the way I'm wandering around. It's a little after 4:30 and I
can't find where I'm supposed to meet up with an online buddy. He gave me
his cell phone number so I go to a pay phone to call it. The fucking pay
phone wants *4 fucking dollars* to fucking phone to the guy and he's right
in the same building as me, probably within rock throwing distance. Fuck
that, I'll just run into him somewhere.
I go to one line-up and ask if that's where the convention is. All I know
it's "upstairs" somewhere but only escalators I see are roped off and are
going down. I ask one volunteer and he tells me it's around one way, which I
discover it is not. Two others I ask don't know. Finally I go back to the
way I thought it was the first time, where there is a fast moving line-up
and discover down the hall there is the upwards escalator and find out
that's where I'm supposed to go. The first fucking volunteer guy was trying
to put me into a massive line-up for fan registration when I showed him my
press pass. Idiot.
I go up and wander around. See lots of comics for sale, lots of toys, anime
DVD's and so forth. I'm looking for 3 people that are supposed to be there
and can't find any of them. I also look for my goal of the con, Ty
Templeton. He's the one I'm here to interview. I've heard Fridays are the
best time to do interviews because that's when the pro's are still "fresh"
and come Saturday or Sunday the chaos of the con wears them out. But I
search for him at his table several times and I can't find him. I also
discover I should have brought my camera. There are lots of people in
costumes. I kick myself for not thinking about this before hand.
I go to the bathroom, take some headache pills, then realize it's 5:25pm and
there is a Session (or Panel in US speak) in 5 minutes. I search around to
where the session room is and finally found it probably about 5 minutes
after the panel was supposed to start. Lucky for me the panel was about why
80's toy revivals so popular. The panel was hosted by the PopImage.com
people and I got to meet Ed Mathews.
He and I both hang out on the Warren Ellis Forum, we talk about maybe
meeting and going out for a brew afterwards, I agree to it but because he's
busy hosting the panels we don't get together.
At the session was Dan Didio from DC Comics. Other panel members where late,
this included the Dreamwave (Transformers) people and Devil's Due (GI Joe)
people. They tried getting the people to announce the session over the PA to
get more people to come, but they couldn't do that. Plus it wouldn't have
made much of a difference, there was still a long line up of fans still
waiting to register to get in.
Ol' Rich Johnson rumour columns have an effect on these panels that's for
sure. Dan Didio says right off the bat they are not going to do a Smurf
comic. When asked why DC is getting into the licensed toy properties, he
laughingly admits it's for the money.
Dreamwave said that when they were beginning Transformers they were hoping it
would break even with sales at 25,000. They didn't expect it to become the
#1 book.
The GI Joe people said they wanted to do GI Joe like they remembered it.
The group talked about battling with the licensers over the comics. In
making Battle of the Planets the licenser and the creators agreed that they
should make the comic more edgy and violent than the US cartoons. Then hard
core fans complained that it was too violent and now the licenser wants them
to tone it down.
The GI Joe people had problems with the way the penciler was drawing Flint.
Said to them "Make Flint look more like Flint."
Dreamwave did two Transformers books with two different markets. The first
one for the traditional transformers fans, the second one called
Transformers: Armada was for the younger crowd, more specifically today's 10
year olds. They will be doing a 3rd mini comic with games that will go along
with the Transformer toys, in it will be the Diamond 1 800 comic shop
locator number.
Regarding the mass market, they think trade paper backs through bookstores
is the mass market and that's where they are hoping to reach non-traditional
comic readers who might be interested in their books.
They said there is no GI Joe / X-men crossover in the works. This is a
response to the rumours Rich Johnston had in his column around this time.
The GI Joe people think all comics are retro comics. The group jokingly said
they didn't want comic readers to grow up and move out of their parent's
basements. They said if they did that they would have wives and houses and
wouldn't be able to afford comic books. Dan Didio said DC is looking at what
they did in the 80's that was popular and looking to bring it back. That's
why they did DK2 which was their biggest selling book last year. They want
to do something with Watchmen but a certain British writer (Alan Moore)
won't work with them.
Dreamwave people attribute the success of Transformers on the idea of things
turning into giant robots being such a cool original idea. They also note
that Transformers cartoons hadn't really gone away as they were still doing
new cartoons for them. Both GI Joe people and Dreamwave talked about
deciding not to use certain characters because of the headaches involved in
getting rights to them. They say the company only licensed out certain
groups of characters and it's somewhat vague on which characters they can
and can't do. Some they know they can't do and simply don't bother with them
because it would take 2 months of negotiation just for a minor appearance in
the book.
At one point during the panel a female reporter asked repeatedly about why
the companies are not doing female toy revivals. Almost everyone on the
panel agreed that females don't obsess about toys and cartoons the way men
do. That said Dreamwave said they are seriously thinking about doing some
female toy properties but wouldn't say which one. Doing Jem and the
Holograms was a continued joke throughout the panel. They also joked about
how someone gave the Dreamwave people a very serious proposal about doing a
My Little Pony comic book.
Overall they think cartoon/toy based comics will help erase the stigma of
comic books being for kids, as cartoons are now being made for adults both
in US and in Japan. They pointed to the con itself as anime drew in a lot of
female convention audience. They hope as the stigma from cartoons dwindle so
to will the stigma against comic books.
End panel. On Monday I discover a lot of this stuff is at All the Rage.
The panel was right about a lot of females at the convention, most of them
drawn by Anime no doubt. I'd say on Friday the crowd was roughly 60/40 in
male to females in attendance.
After the session I went back upstairs to look for my friends that were
supposed to be there. No luck. Also looked for Ty Templeton, I could see his
stuff on the table but he was away. I then decided to look for some back
issue holes I wanted to fill. Found some, went to pay for them and realized
I didn't have my wallet with me. First thought that went through my head was
"Pickpocket." Convention being a perfect spot to do it, lots of people with
cash to spend and people bumping into each other is small crowds. I asked
the security guard there if anybody reported a lost wallet (hey, we live in
Canada - it does happen). The guard said she didn't hear anything about that
and doubts somebody would. I go back to the session room, interrupt a well
attended and recorded session with an anime cartoonist of some nature. There
were some people speaking in Japanese and an interpreter. I look around for
my wallet as non-interrupting as I can, but it's not there so I head out
again.
At this time it was 7:30pm and I was debating about just packing it in and
calling it a day. My headache will still bugging me as were my teeth. I go
to the car and thankfully I find my wallet there. I decide to go back and
try to find Ty again. Along the way I noticed they were still doing
registration forms for people wanting to get into the con. While looking for
Ty I find George Broadrick Jr. I talk to him a bit as he pitches me his and
his buddy's new comic books. I tell him I enjoyed his Stardust and Thor and
read and reviewed a bunch of his Comics Library International for the site.
I find Ty Templeton, he's got a group of people around him. People asking
for sketches, one guy wants Elektra, which he forgets her costume and has a
hard time drawing. He tells the guy Elektra is going to end up looking like
Huntress because he knows how to draw her, and mentions that he drew her
very first appearance. Another guy said he had that exact comic and pulled
it out and pointed out the first panel where Huntress appears.
Then the big moment. I introduce myself and ask Ty for an interview. He
shakes my hand and gives me a friendly but serious look telling me to e-mail
him and offers his e-mail address. I tell him I know it by heart and he says
just to e-mail and pester him repeatedly and he'll do it. The serious look
lets me know he's not willing to do a face to face interview at the con.
Dejected I go back and decide to buy the books I was going to before, at
least I'll get that from the con. I get them and get the fuck out of
Toronto. I'm starving as I hadn't eaten anything prior to my stop at a pizza
joint around 10am, and it's now 9pm. I figure I'll get something on my way
home.
Driving out of Toronto is no less fun than driving in. Because of the
zig-zag way I took into the city I knew I couldn't go back that route, as I
would have a hard time finding it in the dark. As it was I was hoping that I
could simply go up Younge Street and find Eglinton again. Thankfully I was
without any problems as Eglinton is one of the few streets they put up a big
enough sign for.
I get out on the 401 and just outside of Toronto my car begins to act up
again. As I'm driving it shudders and hesitates likes it's constantly being
hit from behind. I pull over once and put some Slick 50 gunk in my gas take
that is supposed to stop this from happening and drive it some more. The 20
dollar gunk doesn't do a damn thing and it's shuddering again. I head off
the 401 freeway middle of nowhere road, no clue where I'm going just that
there are some lights that look like they belong to a city somewhere. I
decide to drive towards them and look for something to eat. I figure while
I'm eating the car can cool down.
The road I'm traveling on leads me to the 5th Wheel Truck stop which is
right beside the freeway. I go inside and order some food. Chicken Fingers
and fries, my usual, and as I eat I'm being careful not to eat the crunchy
fries. While there I sit and think. Is my car going to be okay to drive
after 30/45 minutes? Probably not. It's 10:30 at night and I'm tired. I
don't want to be driving a fucked up car on a freeway at night while drowsy.
I decide to ask how much the rooms are at the truck stop. 67 dollars and
change for double bedroom as they don't have single bedrooms. I pay it, go
into the room drop off my shit and give my folks a call letting them know I
won't be there tomorrow when they wake up - that way they won't be freaked
out.
But I have to go to work tomorrow and I've got 3 people in my carpool that
depend on me to take them to work (some of them don't have another way). I
ask for a 4am wake up call so I can get back to Kingston in time to pick
them up. I worry about whether I'm going to be able to go to sleep, my teeth
are still bothering me and I just drank a bunch of caffeine at the
restaurant. But by 11pm I'm asleep.
The next morning I wake up at 3:45am and get up for a bit. I answer my wake
up call, get myself cleaned up a bit. I'm on the freeway by 4:45am and I
drive home. As I drive I find the car only acts up if I'm going *under*
120 kph, which is 20k over the speed limit and a 100 dollar fine if you get
caught. So I drive home doing between 120 - 130 kilometres per hour hoping
to God a cop doesn't bust me.
I managed to make it home by 6:30am. Tell my Dad about the car problems and
the fender bender on the 401. I have a shower, but while doing this somebody
is fucking around with the water giving me mixed water temperature.
Yesterday I'd be cursing under my breath about this, today I barely notice
it. The inconvenience is so minor compared to what I've been through.
I go to work (a call centre) where I discover that the computer software we
use is down. Nonetheless, we are busy all day and take a record-shattering
39,000 calls. This is more than the rest of the companies' call centres
combined. I myself take over 100 calls (my usual average is about 40).
Afterwards I go home, crash, and later get ready go to Toronto the early
next day.
I wake up at 5:30am, rush around so I can leave at 6:30am to be at a friends'
house by 7am. I get there and realize I forgot my press pass. Thankfully my
friends are understanding and let me rush back to get it. My car is still
acting up, by the way, but I force it to take me there and back.
When I get back, I find out there are 4 of us going up to Toronto in a small
Chrysler Topaz. These are very small cars with little leg room. Despite
being cramped all the way up there, it's a relaxing drive as it's the first
time I had to relax in the last 2 days.
We get to Toronto taking a much easier route through the city than I did. It
being early Sunday morning helps. They park across an intersection from the
front doors and pay 12 dollars, I shake my head. We're there early at 10am
and the con doesn't open until 11.
I discover my friends like to butt in line both for getting their tickets
and for getting into the con. I notice some people going up early and I try
to see if my press pass will let me up early or not. No go, as the only
people allowed up there are guests and exhibitors. As a group, we actually
try to get up their early by taking a service elevator. When the elevator
opens we come face to face with a big black security guard. I tell him I'm
from the press and he says we don't get in. Back down we go. Then the
friends just settle for butting in line and complaining about how badly they
organized the con.
Which is true. I discover one of the reasons there was such a long line-up
for Friday's opening was they only had 1 person doing the registrations. Or
at least that's what my friend in the long line-up told me afterwards.
While waiting in line I take out my disposable camera and take some pictures
of people dressed up costumes. Virtually all of them are anime fans. Some of
the other costumed people are sci-fi fans, either Star Wars or Star Trek.
Also, while we are in line we hear a crowd of anime fans singing "meow, meow,
meow, meow" over and over again, driving us nuts.
At the con we split up, I still can't find anybody else from Kingston that
said they would be there. I go through the various bins and look for back
issues to fill some holes. I also go and look up some TPB's. There are
plenty of those being sold at discount prices, although they aren't always
the latest greatest sellers. I'm more interested in older non-superhero
stuff but there isn't a lot of that to be found.
The crowd for Sunday is about 70/30 men to women. There was a long line-up
for Dale Keown. My friends all decide go grab some lunch around 2pm. We
originally wanted to go to Hooters but decided against it for whatever was
local and quicker. We split up, some getting pizza inside the place for
$3.50 a slice. My friend Rob and I go outside and get a jumbo hot dog and
fries for 4 bucks.
Back inside we split up again and I again go through the bins looking for
some back issues, I managed to fill my Byrne FF run with the exception of
#243, which is okay as I've got my friends issue to read. I'll find it
either at the local comic shop or somewhere else. I was able to make a few
deals here and there for books, some were being offered at 50 percent off.
One dealer I talked to wouldn't budge much on a deal for some old Avengers
comics, so I didn't buy them. My friends say they saw DK2 go from 8 bucks at
several tables, one said he saw them for 6 dollars.
While going through artists' alley I picked up some freebies. One guy tried
to give me a signed place mat type ad thingy, which I told him no thanks. I
think I crushed him by refusing, he looked so disappointed. I felt sorry for
the poor guy unable to even give away his signed color prints.
I got together with my friends around 4:15pm and we decided to head home
early. They showed me their sketch books and their original artwork.
Everyone agreed that Stuart Immonen was a great sketch artist. Overall they
noticed the quantity and quality of the sketches were better than 2 years
ago when they were last at the con.
On the way back it was 5 people squished in the Topaz as we had picked up
our friend Rob. He flew in from Chicago and it was agreed earlier that we'd
drive him back to Kingston (well, he actually drove himself back to Kingston
in the car). I got stuck in the middle of the back seat where there was no
"seat" to sit on. Going back was an uncomfortable squished-up ride most of
the way back from Toronto, thankfully a friend took over for me in the
uncomfortable spot part way down.
I got back to Kingston, and relaxed for the night. Thankfully my car didn't
act up while driving home. Tomorrow was a new day. I had a dentist
appointment next morning at 9:30am and then I'd go to work.
Overall I did enjoy going to the con, I'll go again next year - but only on
Saturday or Sunday.
Epilogue: I have my Ty Templeton e-mail interview also at Collector Times
this month. It will be in Coville's Clubhouse in the Comics Section.
Con Freebies: There was a bag with ads for Mylar comic bags and Diamonds
Online Previews.
There were some photocopied comics and mini's. Titles include:
- The Unforgiven #1 by Lightning Strikes Publishing
- Help Independent Comics Magazine #1
- InsidesOut
- Medusa Oblongata the minicomic #1
You can read about them in the Comics Section of this website.
Pictures of fans in costumes and Ty Templeton are also available in this
month's edition.
Regards,
Jamie Coville
2002-08-24
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