I’ve been waking up every morning this week expecting to find myself in a downtown Toronto hotel room.
I guess my mind hasn’t totally adjusted to the fact I’m no longer at Fan Expo, which ended Sunday.
Blogging the four-day pop-culture shindig for lfpress.com was fun, but also challenging: I got into a reporting-and-writing groove and I haven’t been able to mentally climb out of that particular groove just yet.
With that in mind, here are a few final random thoughts about this year’s Fan Expo.
As many of us in the media reported, the 2013 event was different because it took place in both the North and South buildings of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre (it was limited to only one or the other in the last few years).
Before I got to Toronto, I thought the convention’s expanded footprint might make a difference when it came to crowd-control issues, for which Fan Expo is notorious.
If anything, it felt to me like the place was more packed than usual — especially on the busiest day, Saturday.
Just getting to the escalator leading to the skywalk between the two buildings was an experience in wading through bodies. Heaven help those who didn’t pack their patience (and/or elbow pads).
And at one point on Sunday morning, there was a line — maybe the length of a couple city blocks —just to use the escalator to descend into the North building’s basement, where Firefly star Nathan Fillion was holding a town-hall session.
So I understand the complaints of fans. But frankly, I don’t think it makes any difference to the organizers when attendees say they were so frustrated and disappointed they won’t be coming back.
Since the only thing you can control is your own actions, you either have to learn to live with the madness that is Fan Expo, or you stay home. It’s only going to grow.
“Tomorrow will be a nightmare, I assume,” I overheard Mike Mignola, the creator of Hellboy, say on Friday when he was signing autograph at his table in Artists’ Alley.
A high point this year — as they are every year — were the costumes worn by fans.
You’d think by this point I would have seen it all, yet the creativity of the masses continues to amaze me.
Fan Expo draws a smart bunch of people with a great sense of humour.
There was no better example of this than the fan who dressed as a parody Batman, literally the day after it was announced that Ben Affleck will be the next actor to play the Dark Knight on the big screen.
This particular fan’s costume had one important modification: Over the stylized bat symbol on his chest was taped a picture of Affleck with a line through the performer’s face. What comedy!
Whether you dress up or not, my advice to potential convention-goers is to wear comfy shoes, stay hydrated, pack extra patience and be prepared to make the most of your time in line. I saw a couple people who thought ahead and brought their own foldable chairs to the convention centre. Very smart.
And remember, Fan Expo is not just about fandom. It’s also about life.
Actor Zachary Quinto — the new Spock — actually got a little inspiring during his talk on Saturday.
He discussed how he laboured for eight years as an unknown actor before being cast on Heroes as Sylar, his breakthrough role.
“Perserverance in this field is something that can’t be underestimated,” he said. He was referring to acting, but the same is true of any pursuit — as Woody Allen once said, 80% of success in life is just showing up; or, as my favourite writer, Charles Bukowski, puts it: “Endurance is more important than truth.”
So if you’re only expecting fandemonium from Fan Expo, be careful — you just might learn something about life over the weekend.
One area where the organizers have learned some lessons, in my view, was in the distribution of talent over the whole weekend.
If anything, the convention was back-loaded. On Sunday, Fillion, Karl Urban and Carrie Fisher all held town-hall sessions. That’s a lot of star power for a Sunday. Stan Lee headlined Thursday’s schedule, so those who showed up for all four days got a decent overview of the latest developments in the sci-fi, comic, anime and horror worlds.
It’ll be interesting to see if the sports section, new this year, lasts.
Did the sports-memorabilia vendors make enough to justify coming back next year, Fan Expo’s 20th anniversary? It’s an open question, since from what I saw the sports section was sparsely attended.
Myself, I was just pleased that there was a focus on Canadian comic news, from the relocating of the Justice League of America to our home and native land, to the upcoming republishing of the adventures of Nelvana of the Northern Lights.
With the graphic-novel column I do in the print edition of The London Free Press, my mandate is to cover Canadian books first. So the convention schedule made my job a lot easier.
I would love if Fan Expo could put Canadian creators and publishers in the foreground every year. More representation from other cities and provinces would be a huge bonus.
If I could make only one change to Fan Expo, it wouldn’t be to eliminate all the lines — I actually had a lot of fun lining up this year. I made a lot of new friends that way.
Instead, I would give an advance seminar to every ticket-buyer on the etiquette of escalators.
I don’t mean the whole moving-to-the-right side thing.
What bothers me is when attendees, costumed or not, get off at the top or bottom of the escalator — and then just stand there.
They seem not to understand that there are hundreds of people crammed in behind them who can’t get around them if they remain motionless.
So if you need to get your bearings, quickly step to the side so you don’t create a human bottleneck.
Got it?
