Con Report: Fan Expo Canada 1 1

[TheRealVenom]

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!

 

 

[TheRealVenom]

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.

 

Edited September 7, 2017 by TheRealVenom

[TheRealVenom]

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

 

[TheRealVenom]

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.

 

[TheRealVenom]

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

[TheRealVenom]

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!

[TheRealVenom]

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

[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.

 

 

[TheRealVenom]

Right after the Jim Lee signing I had to meet LIGHTS

Most of you dont know her haha Shes a Synth pop signer and also the creator writer and artist for a new Comic book Called Skin & Earth by Dynamite comics.

Ive been a HUGE fan of her music for years. Its not often, to almost never that I FANBOY out at all but I totally fanboyd hard meeting her. Shes a beaut!

It was bad tho. Stumbled over my words, took a terrible pic, I think I may have said something about how much I like her comic but it was a blur for me.. 

I didnt even do my pointy thing right.. two fingers? oh god i was a mess.

Got this signed and sent to cgc tho!

 

 

[TheRealVenom]

These guys were cool. After I took the pic I went up to the guy in handcuffs and called him Rebel Skum!  the storm trooper thanked me for supporting the Empire

[TheRealVenom]

Sunday was finally the first day I could enjoy the con for myself. All my customers order were filled and the crowds werent too terrible.  (Saturday was a gong show)

Decided to finally walk around a bit and go look for some books for my collection and meet up with some boardies.

First stop was Jim and Erics booth (Guardian Comics and ER Comics) I sold a Gold spiderman 1 cgc 9.8 to Eric. Both of these dudes are some of the nicest guys ive ever met. and their wall books rivaled anything ive ever seen Harley bring. To say it was impressive was an understatement!

I didnt end up doing a whole lot of buying as I was just looking for something I couldnt live without but these dudes had a ton of amazing stuff!

Was a pleasure meeting you both and I will see you next march and toronto comic con!

 

[TheRealVenom]

Walked over to Andys booth as well. (Forest city Coins) His setup was impressive! Saw a couple books I would have loved to get but they were pipedreams for me! That Chromium Spidey 1 double signed by McFarlane and Stan lee left me drooling a little. Andy was a super nice guy and look forward to seeing him again soon in march as well!

[TheRealVenom]

After walking around I decided to go to the North building were the celebs are to grab a couple quick signatures for some friends.

The crowds there were disgusting as usual. But having the VIP pass there helps with not waiting in line!

Met Bruce Campbell from Army of Darkness who was by far the biggest A hole ive ever met. Wouldnt sign with a quote. Had to be personalized and was just not friendly. 

Jessica Nigri was great! and beautiful! Got a print signed by her!

Justin Roiland the Creator of Rick and Morty was a Gem! Super funny guy. Sang get schwifty to me as he signed some pictures haha

Famke Janssen on saturday was looking amazing as well. Didnt realize how tall she was! Got a Phoenix book signed from her!

Wasnt else much to see in the north building. Lots of junk dealers and celebs. The celeb guest list was by far the worst ive seen in years but I guess people still really love Meatloaf and Richard Dryfus haha

[TheRealVenom]

Last thing I had to do sunday was pick up a couple of commissions I had done.

Got one from Dan Mendoza from Zombie tramp and one from my good friend the lovely and tallented Dawn McTeigue.

Dawn asked me if she could use my commission to be turned into an art print so im really excited for that!!

This is the first time one of my books will be made into an art print!

Pics below. Warning the Zombie tramp is NSFW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I asked Dan Mendoza for a Sexy Janey doing catwoman Cosplay and this is what I got. Suffice to say this is one of my favorite commissions ever!

Spoiler

 

And my X-23 commission from Dawn McTeigue. The splattered X background is so sweet!!!

[TheRealVenom]

Lastly I finally got to meet Humberto Ramos. Ive been working on getting this books signed for 4 years now and im finally happy to have it done and hanging on my wall with my Original art from him!

 

[ADAMANTIUM]

Glad you had a good time!! @TheRealVenom

That's a lot to do  glad you were able to get all done and without too much hassled  That's an awesome catwoman by hughes, the jim lee isn't looking too bad either. 

[revat]

this is all very cool

[TheRealVenom]

Closing thoughs:

Great con this year for us comic guys. Lots of killer artists for signatures!

there were a fair size amount of retailers selling a lot of quality stuff. But with that quality stuff came quality prices.... Prices were ASTRONOMICAL this year. I really feel like some guys were just there to show off their collection and not sell. There is no way you can justify a 600$ price tag on a batman 608 2nd print... im just not going to pay that much... It wasnt even worth trying to haggle over because Id have to offer you close to gpa for a book youve priced 10X higher than GPA.

Now, this is going to cause a storm I know.   Comic sketch art booth.... Dougs booth.

Doug had the best guys there! Adam Kubert, Capullo, Snyder, King! it was awesome. But the way they handled the signing times of these guests and how the lines were handled was a complete JOKE. Doug, im not sure who the guy is with the mohawk glasses and beard but he should not be in any way shape or form dealing with customers or guests. He was one of the rudest abrasive arrogant jack asses ive ever met in my life. He cost you money because we wouldnt allow me to use my vip pass in your lines. I had Mulitple books for King snyder and Capullo to sign and artist fees I would have gladly paid. After dealing with this other guy 2 or 3 times I just walked away. 

When Doug was at the booth he allowed my VIP pass in his line as was the agreement with the fan expo organizers. I got Kubert at least... 

Next year if youre going to be bringing these A list guests you have to do a signing in the signing areas. The backup, disorganization and general clusterF**k that happened needs to be avoided.  Its a shame as I bought 4 sets of Comic sketch arts Dark knight metal exclusives to get signed and they couldnt come thru.

All in all though thats my only complaint. Show ran smooth and was a bunch of fun. Really enjoyed it. Im unsure if I will attend yet next year. but we will see.

to Kevin, Andy, Eric, Chris, and any of the other boardies I met there it was nice to finally put some faces with some names! Was kinda sad I didnt get to see the legendary Greggy but hey.. Maybe in Vancouver!

thanks guys! Hope you enjoyed!

 

 

 

[TheRealVenom]

7 minutes ago, ADAMANTIUM said:

Glad you had a good time!! @TheRealVenom

That's a lot to do  glad you were able to get all done and without too much hassled  That's an awesome catwoman by hughes, the jim lee isn't looking too bad either. 

It was a lot of work. Had about 18 customers to fill orders for. It can be a headache at times. But the show was still a lot of fun!

[Azkaban]

thanks for the report