Date: August 20th, 2006
Place: Hilton Hotel, 145 College Street.
Attendance: 582 paying customers and approx. 67 children (kids under 12 got in free).
The con started at 11am, I showed up a little after that and there was
no line up and quite a crowd was already inside. It remained busy for
most of the day, dying off a bit towards 4:30-ish. Volunteers said new
people were still coming in after 4:00. There were a lot of women and
children at the convention, a seemingly higher percentage than the
bigger conventions. Virtually nobody was in costume, except for a couple
of creators.
Retailers were selling a mix of graphic novels, golden, silver and
modern age books. A couple of retailers told me the 1 dollar bins were
doing better than anything else. A friend of mine who is an experienced
collector spent a lot of money at the show, saying golden and silver age
books were generally cheaper than what they regularly go for on Ebay. I
saw some Golden Age books there I didn't think I'd see outside an
auction site. Graphic Novels were often at US cover. Somewhat
surprisingly, there wasn't much manga at the convention.
Some retailers said they didn't know what to expect for this con, as
it's not a regular yearly convention. Most retailers said they did good
or fine. A dealer from my hometown said it was great and sold 2 long
boxes worth of dollar comics alone. Another dealer said it was a little
slow. Jokingly, Kevin Boyd (convention organizer) said he had a horrible
con as he bought tables and was trying to sell off some comic sets of his.
Most artists I talked to said they had an okay con as well. Among the
conversations I overheard was Ty Templeton talking about how the Planet
of the Apes comic has been declared official canon by the people who run
that stuff. Phil Jimenez talked about how he enjoyed drawing scenes with
minor characters, in hopes of establishing a scene or shot that makes
people care about them. Liana K talked about her love for Jack T. Chick
tracts because they are so blatantly wrong and offensive, also her love
and detailed knowledge of role playing games. James Waley of the Joe
Shuster Awards told me they were planning on putting out a double DVD
set of the 1st and 2nd JSA awards. He had last year's Schuster Awards playing in the background
and I could see the flashes from the camera I used last year.
Phil Jimenez reportedly flew in and out of Toronto the same day to
attend the convention, which is pretty impressive. I was told Dave Sim
would have attended the con, except that it was being held on Sunday.
Dave doesn't work on Sunday in accordance with his religious beliefs.
Listed guests that weren't there included Sean Ward (injured his foot),
Kalman Andrasofsfzky (sick) and Rob Coughler (had to work).
There was a camera crew there, a puppet named Faze was doing
podcast interviews with various creators like Liana K.
The day prior to this con the Toronto Star did a story about the
convention controversy going on in Toronto. Daryl Collison, the owner of
3rd Quadrant Comic store, made public that he was phoned by the
HobbyStar people and told to choose between one convention or the other.
He was walking around with a sign saying "Toronto's Biggest Liar" in
response to the article where HobbyStar's Aman Gupta denies making such
phone calls. There was some talk around the convention regarding this
topic with people choosing sides or trying to stay out of it. At one
point Daryl said jokingly "can't we all just get along?"
While I did see some familiar faces at the con, it was clear the lower
price brought in group of collectors who aren't willing to pay the
higher price and wait in the long line ups the big cons typically offer.
The high turnout showed there is a market for a cheaper, no frills
convention. The con ended at 6pm, I left around 5:30ish. My only
criticism is I wish the aisles were a bit wider. I had a good time at
the con and would go to another one.
Pictures of the con can be found here.
Regards,
Jamie Coville
http://www.TheGraphicNovels.com
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