zeppelined
09-01-2004, 08:43 AM
I haven't seen anyone post con reports on this board, but I know I always like hearing about them from people who were there, so here's a quick rundown on my first time at this con.
First off, this won't be as interesting as many con reports, since I only went on the last day and I didn't go to any of the Q&A sessions or seminars. My wife and I were just there to look around, have some fun, and find good prices on issues we needed for our collection.
This con is billed as three or four cons in one (comics, sci-fi, anime, and horror), but that's misleading, since it's all in one hall, and it really just turns out to be a mix of all kinds of fun, geeky things. I could really do without the anime, but that's just me. Apparently, next year they will be adding a gaming con, so that should be cool.
In terms of back issues available, you could find almost anything but the most rare issues (no Action Comics #1 or anything). It just depended on what you were willing to pay. We were mainly looking for Iron Man and Avengers issues from the 70s and 80s. Found a few for $1 each. Got a few more at $2 each. Then the guy running the $2 booth points across the aisle - "That booth there was mine too, until about 5 minutes ago. I sold the entire collection to someone, I think he's selling them for $1 each."
He was selling them for $1, but if you spent $10, they went for 3 issues for $1. So for $10 you got 30 comics. And it was a treasure trove of 70s and 80s stuff! Keep in mind, these prices were in Canadian funds, so we got these old back issues for less than 30 cents each. And we got stacks and stacks of them. :-) Our Vol. 1 Avengers run now spans about 15 years (which is nothing to some of you, I'm sure, but we're pretty excited about it).
After a quick trip to the trunk of our car and a lunch break, we returned to look for some of the harder to find stuff. At some point, the raging storm outside killed the electricity, but luckily, the con was held in a hall with a giant glass window on one side. Between that and the emergency lighting, you could see well enough to tell what issue you were looking at and how much Canadian money you were handing over. Fortunately, the power came back on about an hour or so later, since the AC hadn't been working.
It took some digging, but we came up with the issues of Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty my wife has been trying to find for ages, plus some Thunderbolts fill-ins, and a few issues of my personal favorite, the old Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe. They cost a bit more, but we were within our budget. Then we tracked down some of the Dark Horse horror comics my brother had asked us to look for. It was a thoroughly successful collectors' outing.
In between, we found time to shake hands with Peter Mayhew, the actor who plays Chewbacca. His hands were twice the size of mine, and I'm not a particularly small person. He will be in Episode III, which we told him (somewhat facetiously) that we were looking forward to. He assured us that the movie will be excellent, so there you have it - straight from Chewbacca. We also saw, but didn't wait in line to meet, Tom Savini (SFX on pretty much every zombie movie ever made) and Kane Hodder (scary looking guy who plays Jason in the Friday the 13th movies). Oh, and the girl who plays Darla on Angel. Patrick Stewart's planned attendance was cancelled due to his heart surgery.
Overall, a good time, and we'll probably be back next year. The only major drawback was the hour and a half wait to get back into the U.S.
First off, this won't be as interesting as many con reports, since I only went on the last day and I didn't go to any of the Q&A sessions or seminars. My wife and I were just there to look around, have some fun, and find good prices on issues we needed for our collection.
This con is billed as three or four cons in one (comics, sci-fi, anime, and horror), but that's misleading, since it's all in one hall, and it really just turns out to be a mix of all kinds of fun, geeky things. I could really do without the anime, but that's just me. Apparently, next year they will be adding a gaming con, so that should be cool.
In terms of back issues available, you could find almost anything but the most rare issues (no Action Comics #1 or anything). It just depended on what you were willing to pay. We were mainly looking for Iron Man and Avengers issues from the 70s and 80s. Found a few for $1 each. Got a few more at $2 each. Then the guy running the $2 booth points across the aisle - "That booth there was mine too, until about 5 minutes ago. I sold the entire collection to someone, I think he's selling them for $1 each."
He was selling them for $1, but if you spent $10, they went for 3 issues for $1. So for $10 you got 30 comics. And it was a treasure trove of 70s and 80s stuff! Keep in mind, these prices were in Canadian funds, so we got these old back issues for less than 30 cents each. And we got stacks and stacks of them. :-) Our Vol. 1 Avengers run now spans about 15 years (which is nothing to some of you, I'm sure, but we're pretty excited about it).
After a quick trip to the trunk of our car and a lunch break, we returned to look for some of the harder to find stuff. At some point, the raging storm outside killed the electricity, but luckily, the con was held in a hall with a giant glass window on one side. Between that and the emergency lighting, you could see well enough to tell what issue you were looking at and how much Canadian money you were handing over. Fortunately, the power came back on about an hour or so later, since the AC hadn't been working.
It took some digging, but we came up with the issues of Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty my wife has been trying to find for ages, plus some Thunderbolts fill-ins, and a few issues of my personal favorite, the old Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe. They cost a bit more, but we were within our budget. Then we tracked down some of the Dark Horse horror comics my brother had asked us to look for. It was a thoroughly successful collectors' outing.
In between, we found time to shake hands with Peter Mayhew, the actor who plays Chewbacca. His hands were twice the size of mine, and I'm not a particularly small person. He will be in Episode III, which we told him (somewhat facetiously) that we were looking forward to. He assured us that the movie will be excellent, so there you have it - straight from Chewbacca. We also saw, but didn't wait in line to meet, Tom Savini (SFX on pretty much every zombie movie ever made) and Kane Hodder (scary looking guy who plays Jason in the Friday the 13th movies). Oh, and the girl who plays Darla on Angel. Patrick Stewart's planned attendance was cancelled due to his heart surgery.
Overall, a good time, and we'll probably be back next year. The only major drawback was the hour and a half wait to get back into the U.S.