A shout out for Toronto Comicon

Some hard-core fans are already gathered at the Metro Toronto Convention Center tonight, for Toronto Comicon. A few things you should know about the con. It’s not affiliated with San Diego Comic-Con (the BIG one,) and really it’s a spin-off Spring show from the company behind Fan Expo, the big for-profit Canadian multifandom expo that hits Toronto late in August. So it’s pretty commercial compared to fandom-organized cons, but still a good opportunity to meet cool genre celebrities, pick up some cool graphic novels, see people in great cosplay costume and maybe dress up myself.

I was pretty excited about Toronto Comicon because they’d booked Morena Baccarin from Firefly – she was a cancellation at Fan Expo last year, and they try to get guests who had to cancel for Fan Expo at Toronto Comicon–last time Patrick Stewart made up for missing Fan Expo by bringing along a bunch of TNG castmates. 😉 So I bought a ticket for Saturday online and figured that I’d figure out if I wanted to go Sunday once the schedules were out, or after seeing how Saturday went.

Unfortunately, a week ago, they announced that Morena had cancelled again on account of filming commitments for Warriors. And when I checked the schedule on Sunday night, I didn’t see anything I was interested in for Saturday. The Q&A with Eliza Dushku, panels for Bitten and Continuum were on Sunday. I was really disappointed and felt that if I went on Saturday, I wouldn’t have much fun.

Well, it took a little while to get the details sorted out and confirmed, but I’d like to thank the people behind Toronto Comicon for helping me out. I have my ticket for Sunday, and they were able to process the refund for Saturday, which they didn’t have to do, because the small print does warn, ‘no exchanges, no refunds.’ But I’m grateful and looking forward to the show on Sunday. Whatever you’re doing this weekend, especially if you’re heading out to the Convention Center too, have a great time!

Toronto Comicon with TNG

Hey, friends and followers. I’m a bit tired after my day at Toronto ComiCon featuring most of the cast of “Star Trek, The Next Generation”, but I’ll share some of the highlights and some pictures. 🙂

Got to the Convention center around ten minutes to 11am, which was when the Con was supposed to start. It was at least 11:30 by the time I finally got onto the Dealer’s floor, and I spent nearly half an hour waiting outside. It wasn’t bone-chillingly cold today, but it wasn’t really warm either, and I hadn’t wanted to lug a heavy winter jacket around with me. Luckily, my “Can’t Stop the Serenity 2012” zippered hoodie was pretty good at keeping me warm.

I wandered around the Dealer’s room a little, picked up a flyer for the November TCON Doctor Who convention, said hi at the Toronto Browncoats fan booth, and found the one comic vendor who regularly stocks a good supply of Dark Horse graphic novel collections. Picked up Buffy Season Nine, volume 2, which I’ve been looking forward to, at a great price, and then I hurried off to a talk on “How to write a graphic novel in an hour.”

That was a great talk – there wasn’t much graphic stuff in it, except for a bit of discussion of ‘set pieces’ – scenes where the setting is important to both the plot and the character. But the guy talked a lot about fiction and plot in general, and mentioned some interesting stuff about the four other kinds of fiction other than plot – Tale, Monograph, Character Study, and Sketch. The audience really loved it, especially when he called for volunteers to judge the plots we worked out on 6 criteria: sex, violence, suffering, wickedness, comedy, and novelty.

After the Graphic Novel talk, I planned to go in for the Innerspace taping, but was tempted away by the next line, where people were lining up early for the Brent Spiner / Michael Dorn joint Q&A session. So I hurried off to the food court first – because I knew that if I joined that line, I’d be busy with Q&As for a few hours, and would need some pizza to keep up my strength.

Important Con Note: Always remember to double-check what a line is before you join it. There was a couple who got the Innerspace line mixed up wht the Brent and Michael line, for instance. I also saw a line of people mostly pointed at the food court, and figured that there was actually a long line for pizza or something else. Turned out that it was Patrick Steward photo ops. 😉

So I got into the Brent and Michael line with my pizza, ate it up quickly, and got some fanfic editing done on my Palm Tungsten – the first time I’ve used it for revision in many years now, but I think it went well. Then I got back up and they brought the lines in, and I got a pretty good seat. Michael and Brent played off each other pretty well, talking about how many hours they spent in makeup chairs over the years, and Brent did this really really good impression of Patrick Stewart.

Toronto Comicon wrapup

So, I’m feeling a bit under the weather this afternoon – combination of a cold coming on, lack of sleep with the Spring Forward, and tiredness from the convention weekend. But still I’m really pleased that I went, and in general satisfied with my choice of strategy for Toronto Comicon.

A little background – since I first started going to conventions in Toronto, two years ago, I’ve always made reservations for hotel rooms close to the venue, to stay in the big city for the duration. And I usually tend to pack heavy, both for what I take to the hotel, and even what I take from the hotel to the convention itself, though I’ve been trying to moderate the latter, since lugging around too much as I hurry from panel to panel or make my way across a busy sales floor is really tiring.

This spring, I decided to break all of those patterns. I didn’t stay overnight in Toronto at all, and I tried my best to restrict what I put in the messenger bag that I took with me on the bus each day – a half-dozen digital gizmos, including iPhone, work blackberry, and ipod nano, some handy snacks, sunglasses, and a clipboard with my tickets and the con schedules. That was pretty much it.

The days were on the long and tiring side – I had a lot of fun, both at the convention and watching videos while on the move, but leaving my apartment around 8:30 and getting home around 8 in the evening made for a long day – and then, I was struggling to log some NaNoEdMo time and do a few other things while I was home.

I still think it’s better than taking out a hotel room for a little two-day convention at least, so I’m going to try the same strategy next month for Wizard World. (There’s a Browncoats shindig the Saturday night of Wizard World weekend, and so I’ll probably be rushing to order my food quickly, pay quickly, and get home so that I can get up to bus back in on Sunday morning.)

Oh, the sacrifices that you have to endure while saving up for a car. 😉

Let’s see, what other memories from Comicon can I share with you since Saturday’s post?

Toronto comicon by hobbystar, day 1

I am typing this entry into my iPhone while waiting in line for a Nicole Deboer and Robert Picardo Q & A session, in the Metro Toronto Convention Center.

Con season for 2012 has officially begun.

I waited in my first line at 10:15 am this morning, for people who bought their tickets online to be let in.

It’s been crazy fun so far, emphasis on the crazy. So far I have:
Gotten two autographs from Charisma Carpenter, and one each from Robert Picardo and Kristanna Loken.
Bought my ticket for the Can’t stop the Serenity 2012 screening
Found two Angel graphic novels that I didn’t already have at the dealer stalls.
Spent eight dollars for a slice of pepperoni pizza and a bottle of water
Bought a ticket for Charisma’s photo op

I’m running low on cash, but have enough to grab some munchies before the photo op

Six Sentence Sunday is tomorrow, but I’ll have more of a Comicon report on Monday!