This weekend I’ll be attending Fan Expo Vancouver 2013. Held at the older portion of the Vancouver Convention Centre, the show brings together fans of comics, anime, mange, sci-fiction, fantasy, and garden tools. Special guests will include comic book artists, writers, actors, and other personalities. If you want an idea of how the whole show will look like, you can watch the video above, which features footage from Wondercon Anaheim. Though no disrespect to Fan Expo, Wondercon is probably an order of magnitude larger and grander at this point.
I’m excited about going since this is my first real con. I know that might be a big surprise to some of you as my towering stature as geek and nerd would indicate I’d be a con veteran. Unfortunately, there aren’t that many decent conventions to my own specific tastes that are local to Vancouver. There is Anime Revolution, which seems extremely well-organized and attended, but I’m not a big fan of anime. Fan Expo seems general enough that I decided to plunk down my dollars.
The initial thing that got me interested in attending was the list of guests at the con. The highlight, at least for me, was to be Norman Reedus, who plays Daryl on The Walking Dead. He was going to be the only actor who is currently on a huge hit TV show, which makes him a hot commodity. Most of the other guests are years removed from their most famous roles. Unfortunately, Reedus had to cancel, which disappointed many ticket buyers. Yes, they did get Michael Rooker to replace him, who played his brother Merle on the show, but Merle is now dead. There have been several other cancellations as well, including Tom Felton, known for his role as Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies.
These cancellations are disappointing and you can bet such things wouldn’t happen at Comic-Con San Diego but Fan Expo is nowhere near the scale of that. I’m hoping I’ll still have fun nonetheless. Ok, I need to put the finishing touches on my Jem costume. See ya on the convention floor!
I will be at the Calgary Expo again this year. I am the muscle at the photo ops booth again, and I am kinda excited to meet Kristina Lokken. Too bad Jessica Nigiri cancelled, even though I had no idea who she is. I like her outfits.
The guests for the Calgary Expo is a million times better than Fan Expo Vancouver. It’s a shame they couldn’t bring more stars for this show, quite sad really. I am envious of the Walking Dead panel, I wish I could see that!