TheRealVenom

Ended up leaving early on friday as i knew saturday was going to be my hardest day yet. 

I finally got to meet the LEGEND Jim Lee. I purchased the Ultimate CGC Jim Lee signing experience and it was very cool! 

Kevin Boyd was on hand to answer any questions and help anyone out if they didnt know how to fill in their forms. Comic Sketch art was on hand to handle the witnessing for CGC and Voldemort was there in the other corner. Kind of funny seeing about 95 people line up for cgc and 5 people for the other guys! haha

Jim Was a little late but not much. 10 mins or so. He spoke for a bit then we proceeded with the signing which included 3 CGC witnessed autographs, A selfie with Jim and this Giant, and I do mean Giant art print signed by Jim. The thing was a huge PITA to carry around all day haha

the signing went fast but Jim was very pleasant the whole time. Total Pro.

I do this pointy thing in pics..  dont ask me...

I didnt have the BEST or most EXPENSIVE books for him to sign but I did get 3 of my favorite covers of his so im not sad one bit.

After all the crazyness of Fridays artist ally i decided to grab a quick smoke break outside.  I found it to be really warm in the south building this year.

Anwways, looks like I wasnt the only one thinking it as I bumped into Artgerm again. He was telling me how much he was enjoying Canada and how nice the people here are.

Even grabbed a quick selfie with him haha

This dude was amazing BTW if you dont watch Rick and Morty you are missing out!

Pickle Rick!

If you are looking for pix of hot sexy cosplay babes, you wont find em here haha As i approach 40 next year I just dont feel like I should be asking half naked girls half my age if I can take their picture  getting old sucks!

After Hughes I had to get Adi Granov, whom ive met before but its always a rare treat when he comes to Toronto. I had snapped a pic of him and his beautiful wife but somehow I accidentally deleted it

Also Adi was Right Next to Adam Hughes. That little corner of Artist Ally got really congested. Wasnt fun.

Highlight of my signings from granov was this little beauty. Adi was same as Hughes. 3 Free sigs then 5$ after. Cgc witnessed sigs were $10

Next on my list was Adam Hughes. I cant remember the last time he has come to Canada so I knew his booth was going to be packed.

Again, Adam was top notch. A real treat for me to meet. Incredibly nice guy as well. His fees were 3 free sigs after that 5$ a sig. 10$ for CGC witnessed sigs. He wasnt taking commissions at the show but every now and again would take a few mins to do some head sketches for people. I was super lucky enough to be around when he was sketching and got a beaut Catwoman head sketch. All subbed to cgc for grading too.

Friday was a crazy day.

Normally the crowds are larger on friday but this year was an exception. The South building was jam packed by noon. Shoulder to shoulder in places. A tougher day for me as fridays consist of me getting books signed and sent off to CGC for people.

Kevin Boyd and the Fan expo team did one hell of an amazing job assembling some of the BEST artists out there this year. Easily outside of NYCC the best artsit ally ive ever seen.

Was nice to have CGC on hand to witness and take your submissions as they werent there last year. Huge Kudos to Molly for handling my paperwork and to Chase for being one hell of a great witness who never complained about a wait and always kept up with me as I darted in and around the slow moving lookie loos.

First on my sigs list was ArtGerm. This was my first time meeting him and I gotta say he is one of the nicest guys in the business.

Ive never had an easier or more pleasurable time getting a bunch of books signed than with him. And his prices were very reasonable. Art prints were 20$ Canadian. Sigs were free and CGC witnessed sigs were only 5$

Was really happy to get a bunch of these signed and CGCd

Thursday:

Usually my favorite day of the con. Smaller crowds are always nice. Thursday for me consisted of picking up show exclusive comics for my customers.

Weather was great!

Below are some of the many exclusives Fan Expo had. 

The Aspen store was my firs stop to try and snag a few sets of the Dark Knight metal series with the crazy low print run.

Well just got home from another eventful Fan Expo canada.

This thread is a quick report of the 4 day con held in Toronto ontario, Fan expo Canada is north americas 3rd largest con, only behind NYCC and SDCC

Thread will also be fairly pic heavy!

Wednesday:

Arrived in the 6ix! Love this city. My brother lives downtown so its nice to not have to pay for a hotel! Million dollar view from his condo!

It was my birthday last wednesday so my bro was nice enough to take me to Red Lobster for dinner!

Didnt last more than 8 mins before I crushed that!

Home to bed to get ready for Day 1 on thursday!

32 minutes ago, SquareChaos said:

CGC refusing to slab a comic book from a major publisher is ridiculous as far as I'm concerned - I don't care what content it has. They seem perfectly fine slabbing war-time issues with racist depictions right on the cover, but they find cartoon lady bits too disagreeable? I hope they ended up slabbing that copy from Fan Expo that @TheRealVenom mentioned, please do keep us informed. 

From what I was told they have an anti-penetration policy. There is none on this cover so shouldn't be an issue as far as I'm concerned. The books by boundless tho they won't touch.

Got these done at Fan Expo Canada. 

All these are with cgc back to Florida for grading. I couldn't be any happier!

Iv'e wanted a sketch from Adam Hughes for years but he won't sketch on blanks so I lucked out and got a quick catwoman head sketch from him!

Also been a huge Zombie tramp fan since the begining. This is the second piece iv'e gotten done by Dan. I asked for a sexy Janey in catwoman cosplay and well he delivered! NSFW!!! Children look away!!

Third piece I got was from the ever talented and extremely beautiful Dawn McTeigue. This is my 3rd sketch from her now. I asked for a sexy but savage X23 and left a lot of creative freedom up to her. Suffice to say I'm beyond happy. She is actually turning this piece into an art print to sell and should be available at NYCC this year. This is the first time one of my sketches has been picked to turn into an art print. 

Again scroll down at your own risk! NSFW zombie tramp below!!!

done

My friend had Larson sign a SD 225 at fan expo. We talked to the cgc rep there in charge and were told ultimately it's up to the grader. He took a chance and subbed it anyways. So I'll know in a couple weeks if it hits graded status I suppose.

Hey roach glad you got some cool bill McKay stuff! I went with dan Mendoza myself. Just love his art. I'll be posting pics of all my commissions on Thursday. If anyone wants a sneak peek Check out dawn mctiegue's Facebook. That's mine  she's turning it into an art print to sell at future shows! 

It was a good show for me. Filled orders for a lot of customers, got a lot of books signed and sent out with cgc and got a couple commissions from Adam Hughes, Dan Mendoza and Dawn McTeigue. Pictures to follow in my con report when I get home Thursday. Nice meeting some boardies and Jim Eric and Andy. You sirs are all top notch. 

Have a few gripes but every show can't be perfect I suppose. Huge kudos to Kevin Boyd and his team for assembling one of the greatest artist guest lists I've ever seen.

going to enjoy a little vacation time in the city now and be a tourist for a bit!

2 hours in and I'm pooped already. ton of exclusives bought tho! I'll be making a sales thread later this week for anyone who wants them.

met Eric and Jim at their booth! Awesome dudes! Con report and pics coming later this week!

I'm in the 6ix and ready to rock! See everyone there tomorrow! Hope everyone has a great show. I'll be taking lots of pics and doing a con report when I get home next week. 

I don't pretend to be any kind of event organizer haha but if I could make a suggestion I would flip that entire block of tables so they are facing the signing areas aa and bb. It would give you an entrance lane, vip lane and exit as well. That block contains realisticly the most sought after comic guests, doing so would also dispel some of the heavy congestion that corner of artist ally usually gets. 

just my unasked for 2 cents  

Nice! i'll make sure to stop in and grab some trades!

Anyone know who stocks the biggest amount of blank covers? i have commissions set up with 4 artists and need some HQ blanks.

Also just to confirm Kevin, there will be a vip line for the Comic Sketch art table?

Just go to the fan expo website and click on the sched then click floor map. everything is perfectly laid out where all the pro artist ally guests are. or just scroll back about 2 pages and you will see Kevin already posted that list. #Reading 

4 hours ago, Kevin Boyd said:

Ari, I don't know what those opening issues are, but it should be open at 2pm on Thursday. 

Snyder/Capullo Event is a special ticket, not a wristband. You can pick it up anytime at the special ticketed events counter.

 

The issues with the fan expo store last year were kinda bad.  I know I was really frustrated. Pretty sure Dre was there laughing at me haha 

So VIP's got in early, I know myself just walked right in the vip entrance shortly after 1, the tables were all set up and ready to go. When 2 pm hit we were told that the kiosks would not open until 4pm. After that I had assurances there would be no buying restrictions only to find out that you were limited to one of each book per person. 

I hope those issues get resolved for this year, the show is open at 2 for VIP, Premium and deluxe ticket holders and so should the kiosk. 

Tony bought some books from me and paid straight away! My favorite kind of buyer! Was nice enough to let me know they arrived safe and sound as well. Thanks for your purchase sir! look forward to doing business with again!

I can't even... I need to change my pants. May have just crapped myself...

Not seeing any info on Drew Struzan. Will he be in the Celeb section or in the south building? His name isn't on the floor map anywhere.

Hey Kevin,

Looking at the finalized floorplan, it appears to me there is a vip line for booths p210-p220 is that correct? so I would have front of line for the likes of arterm, snyder, capullo, king, ramos and kubert singings? That would be stellar! I like not having signing area cc there now!

4 hours ago, combiner1 said:

I don't know if I believe that.... it sounds too gimmicky 

No. I personally know the owner of CMS. If he's advertising 4 left, theres 4 left.

5 minutes ago, Kevin Boyd said:

I think the person on the FB page was unaware of the VIP lanes in AA, BB.

There is no CC this year, although in a sense it is the Comic Sketch Art section.

Fanstastic! so no issues using my vip pass for Lights then? 

Also no CC? that makes sense. I was wondering why I couldn't find P215 on my map haha