2013 Ottawa Comic Con

I'm sure I could write more, but that would be impractical for a blog....

This past weekend was the second Ottawa Comic Con; and I attended as well as my girlfriend, her sister, and her sister's boyfriend. Last year's was pretty cool, as it was my city's first Con, and had great guests, displays, and all that fun stuff that makes a con a con. but it wasn't organized too well - wrong line-ups, staff not sure what's going on where...this year was more enjoyable. And I'm looking forward to next year's to experience it again , and to see what guests will be coming.

So, what were the highlights for me?

First and foremost, seeing the panels are cool. It all depends on the questions asked, what mood the actor is in, etc, and whether or not you like what they've been in. The panels I attended were Nathan Fillion & Jewel Staite (together, as well as a video apology and brief Skype-session with Summer Glau), Michael Shanks (I'm looking more forward to watching Stargate as well as Stargate Atlantis now), Burt Ward and Julie Newmar, and James Marsters. All were enjoyable in their own ways, but due to my 'fandom' I enjoyed Nathan & Jewel's panel the most. Seriously. I consider Firefly one of my favourite TV shows (ended, sadly. Worse - cancelled) as well as among the best starship / outer space sci-fi in the company such as Star Trek: TNG and Battlestar Galactica) Not quite a 'panel' but there was also a small scale one with Ross Mullan, most known for 'the' white walker at the end of season 2 of Game of Thrones..and I managed to ask him two questions.

After the panels, my other main highlight was asking Ross my two questions and meeting and getting Nathan Fillion's signature (on mySerenity DVD insert - basically took the cover out of the plastic). He complimented me on my brown Serenity t-shirt, and when I said "I hope to see you fly again someday soon" he replied with "Thanks, brother!" and gave a thumbs up / wink combo, then took the next fan.

In terms of celebrities autographs, pictures etc, I was 'small scale' this year. I thought "If I'm only going to get one signature, might as well make it the captain of the firefly class ship, Serenity, who is cooler than Han Solo by a long shot". It was cool that there were others, but given time and budget, I had to make some sacrifices though :( Also, I didn't watch X-Files (not against it, just something I never checked out), so it was cool that Gillian Anderson was there, but since I didn't watch the series.....

The amount of merchandise on display was also quite neat - a good five or six (or more) vendors of comics and trades, and oodles of t-shirts. Probably the two best selling items were comics and t-shirts. There were Daleks from Dr Who on display...and patrol. There was the '60s Batman Batmobilie (the car was my favourite part of the show). And let's not forget the costumes! I don't have much 'geek' stuff to wear. I'm thinking of potential ideas for next year. My emergency / last ditch attempt will be a Tony Stark light up arc reactor t-shirt from the Iron Man films. for an 'actual costume' (not a Darth Vader mask and a lightsaber only..that doesn't count those are parts of costumes), I'm going to keep my eyes open. Battlestar outfit? Star Trek uniform? a Death Eater from Harry Potter? (or a Hogwarts student). A few ideas.

It was a great time, and much better, for me, this year than last. I'm looking forward to next year - both for the experience and to see who's coming. It's like....dressing up for Halloween, mixed with the excitement and goodies of Christmas.

Who knows, maybe some day you will see me selling copies of my book there...I will be sure to keep you posted, of course.