It was the moment I saw the line-up for Fan Expo going around the block outside of the convention centre that I knew geekdom was a big deal in our fair city of Vancouver. Overhearing from the Expo’s staff and volunteers that they had been expecting an audience of around 20,000 people, only to open the gates Saturday morning to over 80,000 eager fans only re-affirms my belief – Vancouver is a city for the geeks.
Luckily, with press badge in hand I was able to slink guiltily past the never-ending lines of fans, and into the convention proper without a hitch. Despite a life-long love of video games, super heroes, and all things crazy, this was to be my first real experience at a large comic convention. And I can’t recommend it enough. While walking past the Batmobile from the original Batman TV series my eye was caught by an artist selling beautiful watercolour prints of video game and cartoon scenes from the likes of Portal 2, Super Smash Bros, and The Venture Bros (some of which now adorn my bedroom wall), while only moments later I’m chasing down a full-suited Master Chief in order to get his photograph; these are the kind of moments one can’t really experience outside of a comic convention.
The first thing you notice walking into the convention space is just the magnitude of the space itself; you could easily fit (if you’ll pardon the overused reference here) a couple of football fields in the space, only in this case it’s chock-full of stands hawking action figures, SNES cartridges, and ironic Spongebob Squarepants t-shirts. There was a complete section of the convention designated for various artists, and though I’ve never managed to jump into comic books with the same…exuberance as I have with the world of gaming, seeing what can only be described as goddamn amazing art from a variety of artists, while at the same time getting to meet and talk to the artists themselves, is a rare and awesome experience.
A short walk from artist’s alley is the celebrity autograph centre, where you could stand in line to get your picture taken (for a modest-to-ridiculously-steep fee) with the likes of Adam West, Lou Ferrigno, or Michael Dorn, who I have to say without the klingon ridges looks so unrecognizable my childhood almost died right then and there. Maybe I’ve just never understood the cult of celebrity, or I guess in this case “celebrity”, but the entire idea of “(pay to) meet and get your favourite celebrity’s autograph” has always struck me as deeply cynical, almost depressing. While I’d love the chance to get a beer with John Di Maggio, the voice actor behind Bender from Futurama and Marcus Fenix from Gears of War, and discuss with him his career and how he got to where he is today, there’s not a damn hope you could convince me to hand over twenty dollars so he could sign my Bender action figure. Again, maybe I’m just cynical.
TOWER OF TEES!
What I had been most looking forward to throughout the entire day, Saturday’s “Video Game Super Panel”, which brought in a number of big-name local developers to talk about their craft, instead turned out to be something of a large disappointment. While the panel did have some developers from big-name institutions, including EA Burnaby, Radical Interactive (the gentlemen behind Prototype), and Slant Six Games, there was very little of substance actually discussed. Though likely it was just me being too naive as to what the crowds at Fan Expo would want from a video game panel, but after hoping for it to be a discussion on making games in Vancouver or the experiences they had making their latest games, it all boiled down to a two-hour advertising campaign for the game whichever developer was currently talking had worked on. Yes, Prototype 2 looked incredible, and I love the dubstep in SSX as much as the next guy, but I didn’t need to sit and watch someone play these games and go “Look how cool this is brah!” for two full hours.
The level of detail for some costumes was inspiring
What I did find most exciting about Fan Expo’s, however, wasn’t from the panels or the seller stands one would come to expect at a convention, your comic book or action figure sellers for example, but rather the more off-kilter booths showing off what one wouldn’t initially expect to see.
From nerd rock bands selling their albums, to indie movie teams making films based on LARPing and cosplay culture, to the Suicide Girls(who seem to have realized their target demographic, nerds, and are more than willing to get their attention), the variety of content on the Expo floor was actually surprising for one who didn’t know what to expect. I even spent a bit of time talking to a group of young researchers from SFU who were conducting a psychological survey from their own booth, in an attempt to try and figure out correlations between the real life moral actions of individuals and their gaming actions in an MMO setting. I’m looking to get in touch with them in more detail at some point in the future for a potential future article, so keep on the lookout for that as well.
And I couldn’t possibly get away with talking about Fan Expo without discussing the cosplay; though I was only able to get some images from the event, rest assured the costumes were a sight to behold. From the bizarre, to the impressive, to downright “that lady’s barely even wearing clothes!“, there was always something ridiculous just out of the corner of your eye. While there were a number of impressive costumes, including a near-photo-realistic Master Chief and an impressive troop of Storm Troopers (from cosplay group The 501st). What easily won the day for me, both visually and thematically, were the hip-hop Iron Men. Combining an incredibly detailed costume, with working electronics, and then attaching a boom box and blaring loud hip-hop everywhere you go? That’s inspired.
everytime I hear hip-hop from a distance, I will not think that Ironman has something to do with it.
It wasn’t all positivity though at Fan Expo, with a couple of truly aggravating things getting in the way of the day’s festivities. First and foremost was just the never-ending onslaught of people; though not necessarily the expo’s fault they were vastly under-prepared for the number of people hoping to get in. While the idea of being stuck in an over-crowded, hot and stiffling room and having to squeeze past a sweaty and fragrant gentleman wearing paper-mache horns and a shirt reading “Rogues do it from behind” may be enticing for someone out there, the experience equates to one of the lower circles of hell for me.
As a plus, you’d get to experience this after having to wait in what I could only call one of the most ridiculous line-ups I’ve ever witnessed. At its worst one would have to wait in the blocks-long wait outside the convention centre, to get a chance to wait in the pre-line line inside the centre itself, to be then shepherded into the actual line-up area, to be finally let downstairs (where if God help you you didn’t have tickets you’d have to wait in another exceedingly long line). The entire show didn’t seem ready for the number of people hoping to attend, which I suppose in a weird way is a positive thing. While I fully expect to the Expo’s producers next year to be more prepared for the deluge of Vancouver’s geekiest, it was a visible issue on this first, inaugural run.
the line outside the expo. OH HEY! It's ME!
Despite these faults though Fan Expo was definitely an amazing experience, especially for a convention virgin such as myself. If you didn’t have the chance to experience it this past week, but you’re enticed by what you’ve heard, then you should really consider going for the weekend next year, as I can only imagine it getting bigger and better next year, with all the positivity surrounding their first run through. And I haven’t even started talking about the Canadian Videogame Awards, which were also had at the convention centre Saturday night, that I was lucky enough to attend as well as live-tweet the entire event from our official Geek Badge twitter.
Wyatt's Favorite CosPlay on Sunday.
Wyatt's Saturday Best!
