Fan Expo Vancouver, BC Feb. 17-19, 2024 Giancarlo, Travis Charest, Dan Slott, Tom King, Jae Lee, Kevin Maguire 0

[aardvark88]

Annual Fan Expo Vancouver (FEV) downtown Vancouver, BC, Canada Convention Centre Sat. February 17 to Monday Feb. 19, 2024 (BC Family Day). Sat. admission $50 for adults. About 8 artists/inkers including locals have cancelled but most of the headliners for comics intact. Only the 3rd time in 24 years that artist Travis Charest has visited Vancouver comic cons. ASM and FF writer Dan Slott is from the far suburbs of Vancouver.

https://fanexpohq.com/fanexpovancouver/comic-creators/

Some of the exciting vendors:

Anthill Books and Comics sharing an island of dealer's booths.

Comic Kingdom usually has at least 2 booths.

Cdn. Comics has 3 booths, not sure why House of Markus not confirmed yet for his 2 economy tables.

Comics Scene has Pokemon, hockey sports card wax packs, anime dolls, recent comic back issues.

Imperial Hobbies and Toy Traders will bring a warehouse of Funko Pops, action figures, puzzles, board games, bit of comics overstock, and statues.

VIP Pressing will offer anime/art book overstock.

Please come see the corp. booths including Arthur Murray Dance, Netflix, blood drive, paintball, cutlery, 3D printing machine, lasers and cosplay. Centrally located with excellent access by skytrain rail, local buses, sea bus or park for about $18/hour downtown.

 

Edited February 12 by aardvark88
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[aardvark88]

Sorry, Marvel's DD /Netflix actor Charlie Cox and the Kingpin actor have both cancelled. Rest of the media guest list including Giancarlo: FEV celebrities

[aardvark88]

Sat. day 1 jam packed. Vendors and I seemed to think the aisles were at least 1 foot narrower than usual thus funneling the cosplay, Pokemon, Funko Pop crowds. Jae Lee was announced on City Vancouver morning radio news that he would not be able to attend FEV due to illness. Did not see Phantom Eclipse Comics or VIP Pressing's economy tables anywhere: poor location? House of Markus Comics unable to book his 2 economy tables.

Writer Dan Slott charging $10 Cdn. to sign raw ASM, Spider-boy comics. Stephen Platt raw signing fee $15 or about $45 for a cover remarque (Moon Knight, Image Comics). Keen interest from young female animators /artists to buy artist signed storyboard booklets or sketch books for their own  education or inspiration. I did not buy any original comic art this time.

Decent $4 BA Marvel/DCs/Disney, copper age Disneys from Jigglypig's 9 long boxes. Lots of BLB's and variety of BA hard bound Marvel comics available at booth #123 Anthill Books. Did not see Imperial Hobbies's comic selection but they usually bring a few short boxes of good girl art modern comics, ltd. edition comics.

Some collectors had USD so must have drove north from Seattle or Bellingham, WA, USA. FEV continues to stat BC holiday Monday Family Day Feb. 19, 2024.

[aardvark88]

Waiting for greggy's FEV market report for day 2 Sunday.

 

[aardvark88]

Anthill Books sold Batman vs. Ra's al Ghul Cgc 8.0 Saturday for a reasonable price. CGC Sports Cards at 1 booth accepting cards, comics but not pulps for slabbing.

 

[aardvark88]

Legit TV and movie used prop displays not for sale. Saw 2 Time mag covers for Oppenheimer faux aged.

 

[aardvark88]

Slabbed comics selling slowly so were packaged for discounts at Canadian Comics .net.

 

[aardvark88]

Vancouver is a beautiful city in February but projected attendance for 3 day FEV is a modest 25k. Used to be 30k for 2.5 day Fan Expo when they first started about 10 years ago.

 

[aardvark88]

Glad to hear that greggy's stamina for FEV lasted 2 hours on Sunday due to the limited # of comic back issue dealers. About 5.5 vendors: Jigglypig Chad, Anthill Books, Comics Scene with Yugioh & sports cards, Cdn. Comics, dealer from Nelson, BC, and Abbotsford comic/toy store.

I also bought 13 comics from a local colorist to support his work on day 1 Sat.

[lou_fine]

On 2/18/2024 at 10:17 AM, aardvark88 said:

Vancouver is a beautiful city in February but projected attendance for 3 day FEV is a modest 25k. Used to be 30k for 2.5 day Fan Expo when they first started about 10 years ago.

Absolutely no surprise that attendance is dropping, with the only real surprise being that it has not dropped even more considering this:  

On 2/18/2024 at 1:09 PM, aardvark88 said:

limited # of comic back issue dealers. About 5.5 vendors: Jigglypig Chad, Anthill Books, Comics Scene with Yugioh & sports cards, Cdn. Comics, dealer from Nelson, BC, and Abbotsford comic/toy store.

 

[aardvark88]

On 2/18/2024 at 9:06 PM, lou_fine said:

Absolutely no surprise that attendance is dropping, with the only real surprise being that it has not dropped even more considering this:  

 

What I found surprising was that Jigglypig, Cdn Comics, and House of Markus Comics all invited me to vend at FEV 2025. They said more comic dealers was good for synergy and would draw more BC collectors willing to pay $40-$50/day adult admission in Feb, 2025. Retail sales strong at Fan Expo after the Covid-19 2 year lull.

[rlextherobot]

On 2/19/2024 at 8:49 AM, aardvark88 said:

What I found surprising was that Jigglypig, Cdn Comics, and House of Markus Comics all invited me to vend at FEV 2025. They said more comic dealers was good for synergy and would draw more BC collectors willing to pay $40-$50/day adult admission in Feb, 2025. Retail sales strong at Fan Expo after the Covid-19 2 year lull.

@aardvark88 speaking personally, I would love it if you had take Chad, Evan or Markus up on it. More dealers would have been great, as much as I enjoy spending with those folks, I do get to see them regularly at the PNE shows and the Main Street Comicon.