Wisdom, Courage, Power: Fan Expo Canada

So I sort of missed Comic Saturday #3 because I was away from the house from 6am-10pm yesterday. I hauled myself all the way from Bridgenorth to Toronto to attend Fan Expo Canada.

It was the first time I had ever gone to an event like that and if I had to describe it in one word it would be “Overwhelming”! It was just simply sensory overload for the first couple hours I was there until I was able to filter out enough noise to get a hold and focus on only one or two things at a time.

There were thousands of people milling about, some in elaborate costumes, some wearing nearly nothing, and a few just in plain clothes. I opted for a minimal type of outfit, just my Superman Under Armour shirt under a dress shirt, you know, all Clark Kent-ish.

I wandered around the show floor for the first while just looking at all the art of various forms for a while trying to gauge what I wanted to buy and who I wanted to buy from. I had scheduled out a few things I wanted to attend and my first thing was coming up, a panel where some of the writers and artists from DC were discussing what was coming up in their titles and what has them really excited about it all.

From there I went back to the floor and bought a few pieces of art. The first thing I got was a print of Dead Pool for my friend Matt. I found it much easier to buy something for someone else than for myself. This indecision on my part was amplified by the fact that I wanted to spend some money on some original art, not just prints. There were a lot of comic artists there with the pencil and ink pages from their current work, those interior pages cost anywhere from 80-600 dollars! Covers for books ran as high as 3000!

I have just finished reading Flash Volume 2 and Marcus To was there still with room on his commissions list. I hmmmed and hawed about it, I chatted with Marcus for a while while he drew a picture of Robin eating ice cream for someone. I eventually threw down $100 and asked for a picture of the Flash. I was excited about it. I often go into Silver Snail (a comic shop) and think about spending that kind of money, but never do, I always walk away feeling mixed about it. Not this time. Marcus was awesome enough to finish the drawing by the time the floor closed that day too!

While Marcus worked on my picture and a couple others I toured the show floor again and played the Batman: Arkham Origins Demo that Warner Brothers had set up there. It did not disappoint! The play is very much like Arkham City and it was cool to get the chance to play it ahead of the October release date.

I then went to another DC panel where the same group as earlier discussed how they got interested in comics and what their break was in getting into the business and their thoughts on what it takes to make it in the business.

After this I toured the show floor some more and got a few more prints that artists were selling. Earlier in the day I picked up a couple of games, one DC comics card based game and Argricola, that Amber wanted. I also got my Detective Comics #1 signed my Tony Daniel, the Artist.

Right at about 7 Marcus finished my drawing and I picked it up, we had the chance to chat a bit as he was working, I didn’t want him to feel like I was standing over him though so I would chat and then wander and then come back. It was very cool to see him work though, I would have loved to just sit and watch the whole time. It reminded me of when I used to watch my dad draw when I was a kid.

Here are a few select pictures, click on the album to see more!