Fan Expo Canada recently made its annual stop in Toronto, drawing thousands of costumed pop culture buffs from across the country. From August 23 to 26, fans of comic books, anime, movies, video games and cartoons flocked to the Metro TorontoConvention Centre for four days of unique fun. THE MAGAZINE was lucky enough to attend, explore and see what this year’s Fan Expo had to offer.
Fan Expo Canada started out as a small comic book convention. However, the single genre exposition quickly expanded to include sci-fi, gaming, horror and anime. Fresh off its 18th year, Fan Expo has remained the third largest pop culture event in North America!
A tradition at Fan Expo is for everyone to dress up as their favourite fictional character. The cosplays lived up to their intrigue,with many Batmans, Spider-mans and even some Star Wars characters. Many of the costumes were homemade, elaborately detailed and naturally, crowd magnets.
Iron Man Cosplay. Photo courtesy of TSE_J
With the process of creating and assembling a costume taking weeks or in some cases, months, people who dress up are eager to be acknowledged. It is quite entertaining to see people act and pose like their favourite characters, too!
On top of dressing up and shopping, fans could also meet a few famous celebrities at Fan Expo. This year’s amazing line up of stars included Stan Lee, Gillian Anderson, Matthew Gray Gubler, Billy West and Devon Bostick.
Criminal Minds Q&A Session. Photo courtesy of TSE_J
Television and movie stars, such as the cast of CTV’S CRIMINAL MINDS and the crew from the upcoming film, A LITTLE BIT ZOMBIE, also came to see their fans. Most of the celebrities did question and answer sessions, where they interacted with their fans and addressed audience questions.
A Little Bit Zombie Cast. Photo courtesy of TSE_J
This year’s Fan Expo was special, as it marked the 50th anniversary of SPIDER-MAN. Creator Stan Lee came out on the first day of Fan Expo to cut a SPIDER-MAN cake and greet his fans. There was a massive turnout and thunderous applause throughout the show.
Spider-Man Cake. Photo courtesy of TSE_J
Stan Lee. Photo courtesy of TSE_J
A big part of the expo is the shopping. This year, the retailer booths and Artist Alley offered fans of any genre a chance to purchase accessories, comic books, stuffed animals, clothing, stickers, drawings, prints and more. The Artist Alley offered a special edge, as each booth was occupied by the artists or creators themselves. Each of them had their own interesting style and displayed their handcrafted items for purchase.
Pins from the Artist Alley. Photo courtesy of TSE_J
After chatting with a few local clothing companies in the Artist Alley, including 1% TALENT and CARSON-DREW-IT, we discovered that the designs were drawn and printed by the artist themselves. The retailer booths sold similar things, but the products were not created by local artists. Most of the products in the retailer booths were imported and more expensive than the merchandise in the Artist Alley.
Shirts from the retailer booths. Photo courtesy of TSE_J
Last but not least, this year’s exhibitors were fascinating. Standouts included CTV, MARVEL, UBISOFT, PS3, EB GAMES, DISNEY INTERACTIVE STUDIOS, ALLIANCE FILMS and HASBRO. Once again, LEGO did not fail to impress. The exhibit featured a range of famous icons that were sculpted using thousands of LEGO pieces.
Lego HULK.Courtesy of TSE_J
DISNEY also had a display for the upcoming film, FRANKENWEENIE. With multiple display cases filled with puppets and props from each scene, Tim Burton fans had a chance to get up close to the director’s stop-motion creations.
Frankenweenie.Courtesy of TSE_J
Fan Expo Canada has been enchanting attendees for nearly two decades. Each year, exhibitors manage to capture the attention of people from all age groups. While the first time at the Expo may be overwhelming, due to the large number of people, exhibitors and booths, it is well worth a visit. This year was no exception. From Spider-Man enthusiasts to zombie nuts, Fan Expo Canada offered four days of over-the-top fun to truly unite pop culture fanatics from across North America.