The Whirlwind of Calgary Expo

Saturday we spent the day at Calgary Expo and man oh man, it was a whirlwind!  We dedicated ourselves to walking the floor to lap up as much as we could.  While sitting in panels would have been nice for our feet, we just didn’t have time to dedicate to them.  Next year it’s on my must do list however.

Instead, we walked and walked and walked and soaked up all we could see.  There were so many costumes that I couldn’t even take photos of them all but here are a few of my favorites.  These are incredible get ups and the people who wear them are serious about the task.  It can’t be comfortable to wear something like that all day long in huge crowds!

Aside from costumes, there were of course – comic books!  One of my favorite parts of Calgary Expo is walking through these areas and looking at the old gems.  I saw books going for hundreds and thousands of dollars.  It’s so interesting to me how the market for these books works – there is such a passion for them in the collecting community, and not just for their value but also for the significance each lends to geek culture.

This year we didn’t wait in line for autographs and photos but I did sneak a few shots.  I wish I’d been able to spend time with Felicia Day (below right) as she has built an incredible career from online geekery.  Alas, she wasn’t doing interviews and her line for autographs was always HUGE.  She had a spotlight running Sunday but I wasn’t able to make it down.  It might be running as I publish this – if I find some youtube links later I’ll add them here.

Part of the fun at Comic Expo is meeting creative people and watching them do what they do best.  We ended up chatting with GMB Chomichuk of  The Imagination Manifesto– a pretty new and interesting Canadian graphic novelist.  His style was incredibly unique and we walked away with book 1 of his series in which he did a custom werewolf illustration!

I stood in line forever to see the guys from Cyanide and Happiness.  They did a custom sketch for me (video below) and it was the highlight of the day.  Just watching them work and listening to them be ridiculous was a good laugh and good laughs are hard to come by.  While my Expo experience may not have been filled with celebrity photos, it was exactly what this internet geek wanted and I can’t wait until next year so I can do it all over again.