Toronto HobbyStar FanExpo - Aug. 2007
Report By Jamie Coville
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Toronto HobbyStar FanExpo Report Date: August 24-26th Location: Toronto Metro Convention Centre, south building. Attendance: 50,000 Con Report by Jamie Coville I went to Toronto with some friends of mine who had bought advanced tickets to get in at 2pm. We got to the convention just before 2pm. Due to there being only 1 person manning the advanced ticket booth, it was 2:30 before they got in. People who did line up early were able to get it shortly after 2 as the convention actually opened within 5 minutes of the advertised opening time, which is a big improvement over previous conventions. The press on the other hand, had to wait until 4pm for the media room to open. We were treated as non-paying fans and were punished with a 2+ hour wait to get into the convention. Press were also banned from Adam West's spotlight panel and from taking pictures of him (he was charging $50 dollars for a picture). All of which was a bit dumb, as I illustrated here:
West was also charging $50 for an autograph which had to be personalized or he wouldn't do it. I can understand personalizing for free autographs as celeb's don't like people making money from their generosity. But I did hear about some people wishing to sell their autographed stuff and thought for $50 West would give a straight signature if asked, but he wouldn't. Malcolm McDowell was supposed to start his signing at 4pm, but it was 5:30 before he showed up. He gave a big apology to his fans for the wait. A number of big name comic and celebrity guests had canceled at the last minute before the show. Among them, Star Wars Hayden Christensen, Lord of the Rings Sean Astin, Zachary Quinto (the new Spock and Heroes villain Sylar), Heroes Hayden Panettiere. On the comic end, canceled creators included Chris Claremont and Ed Benes, but added was Steve Niles. Inside we couldn't help but notice they were selling comics that were free convention giveaways at previous conventions. The convention had a 5 book signing limit for everybody to help move the lines along. Plus I don't believe sketching was allowed at signing times but many of the artists were sketching at the Hero Initiative table. Some artists were sketching at their regular tables too. Inside the aisles were wider, something one retailer said they've been asking HobbyStar to do for years. It wasn't as crowded inside as it had been in previous years due to security controlling the flow of traffic into the convention. The space was much, much bigger than last year. Most of the new space went to the video game section which took up about a 3rd of the entire convention floor. There was lots of people playing a wide variety of games. There were RPGs, First Shooters, Tetris, Dance Dance Revolution and even some old classic quarter machines in a far away part of the con. There was also a large Guitar Hero competition with judges, scorecards and American Idol like commentary. I took a walk around with my camera on record and made two movies of the video game section and what was going on there.
The cafeteria was much improved with more variety of meals. Pizza slices seemed to be popular as was the ice cream. The cafeteria was actually inside the convention doors which was unusual, but there was plenty of space. There was also a small but rarely used food setup near the video game section as well. The artists alley section was filled with many of the usual guests. Rather than take photos of them all, I ran through the section with my camera on record:
And of course there were many, many, many people in costumes. I used my camera again to record the front lobby during the sign up for the masquerade. You can see a bunch of people in costumes and get the general idea of the chaos of this convention.
On Saturday afternoon there was a big signing for World War Hulk creators Greg Pak, John Romita Jr, David Finch and Mark Paniccia. Short video of what it was like here:
Saturday Night was the Masquerade show, which is always entertaining. Before the show started the camera person was having fun focusing in on people standing up holding dolls in the air. People did some funny stuff with the dolls to get everybody laughing. Then the show started with a showing of the Star Wars 501st Legion, which is a *massive* amount of cosplayers in Star Wars related costumes. Video of it is here:
The host was very funny as he usually is and should be commended for his job on the event. I've got 40 videos of various comic book, pop culture and anime cosplayers doing skits. Some are simple walk ons, others are elaborate skits involving fighting, dancing, humor and more. You can see them all, (and every other video I've uploaded) by clicking here. On Sunday I attended and recorded 3 panels and here they are. Romita Sr and Jr Sketch Off / Q&A Panel. (58mb, 63:03) John Romita Sr. and Jr. do sketches but also answer question from the audience. The range of questions touched every base, from John Sr.'s earliest days with Stan Lee, Joe Maneely and Bill Everett, to John Jr.'s emotions while working on the 9/11 Amazing Spider-Man book. DC Comics Panel. (47mb, 51:15) Moderated by Blake Bell, the panel includes a variety of talent working for DC. Included is Dale Eaglesham, Frank Quitely, J. Torres, Karl Kerschl, Chris Sprouse and Paul Dini on the dais for a fun-filled hour of talk about the "Company Event" syndrome, deadlines, crowd scenes, and Zuda comics! Marvel Q&A Panel. (44mb, 48:07) Moderated by CB Cebulski and a short appearance by World War Hulk writer Greg Pak. They opened up the floor to the audience for general Q & A. Many answers were given including some interesting information about the level of involvement that Brian Michael Bendis and Warren Ellis have in their books after they've written the script. At the end of Sunday I went around asking retailers and creators how the show went for them. Most of the retailers said the show didn't do quite as good as last year, but it was still a good show. I was told that because last year had a bunch of big name Marvel & DC freelancers they show did extremely well. This years guest list wasn't quite as impressive so sales were down a bit. How much they were down depended on the retailer and in some cases where they were located. One major retailer that was close to the front doors said sales were about 75% of last year. I should say there was a couple of retailers reported their sales were the same or higher than last year. The row that was directly across from where the Guitar Hero contest was didn't do very well at all. One dealer bluntly said "It Sucked!" I can imagine the loud music chased away customers that wanted stick around and browse. It also made talking very hard as people had to holler at each other to be heard over the music. Elsewhere on the Internet there was complaints of hearing the same songs (Freebird in particular) repeatedly throughout the weekend. I did notice most dealers were selling trades at US cover price which was disappointing as that's pretty standard at most comic shops. Some were giving small discounts beyond that. Due to the huge increase in floor space, most of which was devoted to gaming the comics section felt really small. There was 3 or 4 rows devoted to comic dealers and some of them selling exclusively Manga. Unless you were into some of the other stuff going on (Signings, Gaming, Horror, Celebrity autographs) there wasn't a lot there to do. I noticed a number of the same creators from the previous weekends TCAF at the show. Most that I talked to said sales weren't as good as TCAF, but there was 1 that said it was better. Most of them said Saturday was good, some mentioned the show wasn't as good as last year. For a fan the show was likely much improved from last year from an experience standpoint. The show opened much closer to the advertised time, there were wider isles, autographs lines went much quicker, there was wide variety of food and it was much better, the peak time crowds were more tolerable, etc.. I'm pretty sure regular con goers are used to big names canceling at the last moment. As press the show was a big step back from previous shows. Besides the 2+ hour wait to get in, I wasn't allowed in the Adam West panel and the staff gave press a hard time about photographing celebrities. At first it was just Adam West, then it was close photographs of anybody. There didn't appear to be much newsworthy stuff going on either a lot of people promoting themselves but that was it. Right now it's a toss up if I go again next year. We'll see.
Regards, http://www.TheGraphicNovels.com News and discussion on a free, Delphi like forum.
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E-mail: jcoville@kingston.net
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