While of course there was way too much at the convention for me to cover all on my own I did take the time to try and meet the people, talk to the artists and take some shots of what I thought to be some of the cool people, unique art or whatever else I felt like blowing some space on my digital camera’s memory on, so here they are folks the rest of the best of Toronto Fan Expo 06.
Let me open with some very cool clay sculpting and foam core replicas from Universal Designs. (http://www.universaldesigns.ca/) I ended up shooting a fair bit at this modest booth as I could not get enough of the amazing scale Batman sculptures.
Next was a stop at the Space Channel (www.spacecast.com) booth for a meet and greet with Natasha Eloi who is a personality on the show Hyperspace where she generally covers stories on comics, movies and collectables with an entertaining flair. Natasha was kind enough to provide a personalized autographed photo to the crew here at Heroic Arts and a picture with me for the site as well, while the whole time being quite funny and easy going as she tired to get her brother to leave the space station booth as he was heckling her throughout the signing with remarks like “Hey I’m keeping an eye on you to make sure your not giving out your phone number”.
Next up is a quick picture of everyone’s favorite evil clone Verne Troyer of Austin Powers and Surreal Life fame, and yes, I did not actually wait in line for this picture, rather like a crafty paparazzi I snapped a shot that is not that good when the moment was just right ;)
Next up is Peter Repovski comic artist / inker. Peter was kind enough to smile for the camera holding his favorite convention exclusive numbered board of the Fantastic Four’s Thing. I then proceeded to purchase several off his well inked numbered boards, while he joked with an associate for some fans at this show they could scribble on paper and people would buy it, I won’t take that personally Peter ;)
Next is a quick picture by the Complexions International booth of a pretty convincing Green Goblin head that I figured needed to be shared. They also had a pretty cool 2 booth setup where they were offering free makeup jobs to passers by transforming them in to everything ranging from Zombies to gunshot victims, impressive when done on the fly and before your eyes.
Next is a candid shot of David Finch hard at work on a fans sketch book, it was pretty impressive to just stand back and watch the man draw right before your eyes and with a speed and precision that is just amazing, and necessary with the long line of fans waiting to have their chance next.
Last but certainly not least, Ramon Perez and Rob Coughler of Butternut Squash fame (www.butternutsquash.net). True to form as I approach their booth I found Rob happily bending the ear of a fan of his tales working in a local sex toy shop “The Condon Shack” and how that environment lends to some of the hilarious storylines of their comics, while Ramon has a comic board on his lap and his head down in concentration as he sketches breaking his focus only long enough to stand up and give me quite the money shot of the duo. Congratulations to the two of them for coming back from what has been a long break for the fan’s with their summer break from the online comic. Guys please know full well the crew at Heroic Arts will be looking forward to your new comic strips each week Thursdays on butternutsquash.net
Well that’s pretty much the round up of my travels at the Toronto Fan Expo 06, it was a very long day of talking to the people in the industry and the fan’s that adore them and all and all it turned out to be a pretty good show despite that of the issues as explored in my rant in Part 1. Many thanks to all the people that took the time to talk to us and we look forward to seeing you at the next one.
Posted: Sunday, September 10, 2006