Gallery Pages begin HERE.
My day started quite early. Early to catch the 4am bus from London to Toronto. Since I wanted to unpack at the Bed & breakfast I usally stay at on Nina Street. It's alot nicer than other bed & breakfast places I've stayed at and it's host is quite nice.
After catching a few hours sleep, I headed to College Street to buy some more SD memory for the camera then headed to the con. It is a long haul to the south hall, I know the place so I took elevators where possible. Needless to say though late, a lineup greeted me.
Obviously everyone wanted first crack at the dealers room in spite
there were videos playing in theatre 1.
Thankfully the lineup for tickets was extremely shorter. Also outside
was the artist alley, sadly only three artists were available and even
more sad was most people ignored them.
Dragon Mango |
Heather Bruton |
DMF Comics |
I chatted with Mark from Dragon Mango and handed his choice of 4 Koma started by some of Japan's fan artists. While he worked his usual magic, I stepped inside the fray of the now packed dealer's room.
Typical scenes there... wall to wall of products, people and B.O. I
did nothing but look. Being at a con for two days allows me to see the
con while making purchases later on Sunday so I don't have to carry stuff
all weekend long.
wall of posters |
wall of people |
more than anything |
and even more people |
art books gallore |
eager shoppers |
trapped in the isles |
Sea of manga |
Once out of the dealer's room most graviated to theatre 2 and the con's
guests.
Michael Dobson couldn't make it but his brothers, Brian and Paul had some humourous stories. ;)
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Brian
Dobson
Brian list of parts are inpressive as the rest of his kin. Still he's up for a challenge.. even if it's his own line. |
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Paul Dobson
More laid back of the Dobson brothers, Paul is still entertaining. _
Hahahahha..
|
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Alexandra
Carter
The lone lady among the group. It was great to see some fair representation that voice acting wasn't just a 'Guys Thing,' Hopefully Alexandra influence will encourage the next generation of female voice actors from this crowd. _That's
where I saw... |
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Brad
Swaile
Brad was more entertaining this time as there was less competition like last year. Brad is also a graphic artist so later next day I asked him to draw something... _Ranma!
Shampoo!... |
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_
Lineup for autographs lasted for hours.
I decided to try the next day and allow others who may only be there
for one day a shot at getting an autograph. Since the guests were booked
for the entire Sunday with events, there was no worry of them having to
catch an early flight.
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Rather than being content with run of the mill costumes, she put out an effort to stand out in the crowd. I would be surprised she hasn't gotten a part is a play. |
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I wonder HOW I get myself into these things....
Conrad ( I assume his name) asked me to take some clips of his performance which was too long for Cosplay Idol. I thought 12 minutes was fair stretch for anything on stage, even if it's interesting. He had started performing when before I got there and I could see he was already in trouble. The attention span of a crowd is only long as the first individual with the shortest. Once one starts heckling, it draws the rest of the crowd's attention span even shorter. Periods in the act of what seems nothing happening made it worse. Finally I had to explain to Conrad that he lost the battle with the crowd and time to throw in the towel. Honestly, I told him the best I could do at that was maybe two or three minutes top. Frankly I must admit Conrad has courage to standup and perform in front of a crowd which I must admit, I lack. Still it wasn't entertaining at all. he needed to run this routine pass a few (more objective) friends before trying this.A crowd doesn't neccessary share the same humour as a close group of friends. It may have seemed funny when it was originally worked out.... but here amoung unknowns, it lost it's taste quickly. It must be noted that the winning routine of Cosplay Idol was about a minute and half which is the length of any anime show opening or ending. A time mark worth noting. |
I like spotting something different at cons. Particularly the dealer's room.
Adam Smith had gaunlets and other gear. His leather masks were some of the best I've ever seen of the craft. Still some of the prop swords managed to attract interest.
Enter the Cosplay Idol, I lucked out and got a single front roll seat for once......
...afterward there was more than enough incidents to dampen the spirit of this con goers. A girl was having a serious headache when some 'Triumph the Insult Dog' wannabe stepped up with camera man in tow. Thinking he was getting the best of the group hanging out, I made it very plain that they were ticked because of his antics were upsetting the girl's condition. He, realizing what was really going on, moved down the hall. It seems odd that every comedic act thinks con goers as jokes just because some other comedian picks on that target. Even my coworkers thought I was nuts going to cons until I showed them what was really going on and some of the stories. Heck, a few have attended cons since or have escorted their own kids to such.
The impression of cons being geekfests can only be combatted by acting responsible and sharing how cool it really is. So I thought, I turned around and saw the entire hall looking like a city dump. Garbage and shredded cardboard EVERYWHERE. I .... was not impressed to share a photo of that with friends. I headed back to my room for the night after stopping by an all-night internet cafe to burn off today's photos from SD card to CD.
Gallery Pages begin HERE.
