Fan Expo Vancouver: Year One

Last weekend my wonderful wife and I attended the first day of the inaugural Fan Expo Vancouver in sunny Downtown Vancouver! Every word in that sentence is true, even the "sunny" bit. It was a beautiful day, not too hot for those of us in costume, but more importantly, not raining.

For a "Year One" event, the organizers did a fantastic job lining up some incredible guests. Claire was thrilled to be able to say "hello" to Marina Sirtis, the actress that played Deanna Troi in Star Trek: The Next Generation, as well as voicing Matriarch Benezia in the first Mass Effect game. I got to chat to one of Star Trek's supreme beings, Q, in his form of actor John de Lancie, possibly my favourite Star Trek... erm... antagonist? Enemy or villain sounds too strong. Mostly he ended up just being hilarious and annoying. I also said "Hi" to Aaron Douglas, who, had I known in advance that I'd get to meet him, I would have asked to sign my BattleStar Galactica: The Board Game piece*! I missed out getting to meet David Hayter and Jennifer Hale (I even had my steel case copy of Mass Effect 3 in my bag) due to a hungry, hungry tummy, and I regret not saying "hello" to Michael Dorn (who you can currently catch in the latest season of Castle, folks!**) when I had the chance.

Most of the guests I was interested in meeting had a table covered in glossy, high quality images on sale that they would sign for you. This usually ranged from $20 to $30. Unfortunately, what with the whole "between work permits" thing that we're on right now, we couldn't afford to buy any, so we didn't really get any autographs. We felt a little embarrassed talking to some of the celebrities, knowing that we wouldn't be buying their merchandise, but we made sure not to take up much of their time. There's always next year.

The Fan Expo once again also gave me the opportunity to show off the amazing gift my amazing wife and amazing friends bestowed upon me, and dress up in costume as The Rocketeer! This is the second time I've had the joy of appearing as my number one all-time favourite movie hero, the first being back in August of last year at PAX Prime. I never did get around to uploading photos of that event, so I'll see about rectifying that soon.

I was delighted at how many people of all ages recognised the costume, and spent all day getting stopped for photos. Once Claire and I had decided to head out for food, it took us over 30 minutes to cross the main floor, as I couldn't move ten feet without getting stopped. Of course, I loved it, and delighted in letting people hold and even try on the helmet. It's great to be able to make someone's dream come true, and there were a lot of Rocketeer fans at the Fan Expo, but only one Rocketeer. Actually, there were two, but I'll get to that in another post.

The first Fan Expo Vancouver was, as far as this convention attendee is concerned, a roaring success. I have no doubt it will be back, bigger and better, next year, and I'll be there.

Post Script: But that's not all, dear Reader! There are two very special guests I haven't mentioned here and want to talk about, but each deserves their own post, and so they shall get it. In both cases, it was a chance to meet someone I never thought I would ever have the chance to meet. In one of those cases it was the chance to fulfill a lifelong dream, in the other, the chance to say "Thank you". Coming soon!

*- Admittedly I'd have needed to know far in advance, as it's still back in Ireland with friends. 
**- "Who", or "Whom"?!? Usually I know, but this instance has me stumped.


Some more photos from the convention floor:

Some photos were more enjoyable to pose for than others...

It's Matt Wagner's Mage! It's like he stepped off the comic page into real life!

Two of the greatest pulp heroes, together at last! This guy was hilarious and great to meet.

I got some amazing and treasured photos with incredible people, but this is probably my favourite photo of the convention. I didn't know he was doing this, as my vision is severely restricted in that helmet. Hilarious!

I asked to get a photo with these guys, as Joe Johnson directed both The Rocketeer and the recent Captain America movie. Very cool.

This was an entirely homemade costume! It was beautiful! Fantastic job. He had the mask, but it was getting too stuffy to wear, which I could sympathize with.

Yo Joe!

This is easily one of the best videos I've seen in a long time! Fantastic!

The Ballad of G.I. Joe from Olivia Wilde

Just look at that cast list!! Alan Tudyk, Julianne Moore, Billy Crudup and Vinnie Jones, to name just a few! Even WWF legend Sgt Slaughter makes an appearance! He had a GI Joe action figure back in the day, and got to voice his own character in the cartoon. Awesome!

Resolute

Some of you may be aware already that I am a big fan of G.I. Joe. As a kid, the 3"3/4' scale Joe action figures made up the vast bulk of my toy collection, aided by the fact that both myself and my brother collected them religiously. Birthdays, Christmas', Communions, any excuse we could find was channelled into the Joes. I still have my first two Joe figures, General Hawk and Lifeline. Back then they were called Action Force over here, but while they started differently, they quickly became the same thing. We had the best comics as well. While Marvel produced the superb GI Joe monthly comic by legendary Joe writer Larry Hama, Britain, and thus Ireland too, got a weekly series with a bunch of extra material to make up the page-count, and even got an awesome black'n'white 2000AD styled series, Battle Action Force.

My memories of the G.I. Joe cartoon as a child however are non-existent, as my first experience with it was in my late teens. Cheesy, flashy and simplistic in every way, the cartoons were the usual 80's stuff, fantastic when you were a kid, but absolutely dreadful now. The animated movie, released around the same time as the animated Transformers movie was marginally better, benefiting from a larger production budget and increased freedom with its plot.

In August of this year, just a few short months away already, we'll have GI Joe's first run at a live-action movie. I personally can't wait, but admit to my huge love as a strong bias for enjoying anything with the name G.I. Joe. That said, the trailer looks awesome!


But before that, we have what prompted me to write this late night meandering waffle of a love letter to a childhood toy line. G.I. Joe: Resolute is the newest effort at an animated G.I. Joe in recent years. Prior to this we had the poorly received animé inspired G.I. Joe: Sigma 6, which was probably still better than the 80's version but I'm older and wiser now and have no nostalgia for it. Also, it starred characters with the same names as the toys I played with, but with very little resemblance beyond that, either in design or attitude. Resolute on the other hand is clearly made for fans of the old series and toy line. No, this doesn't mean that Cobra will be pulling the Arora Borealis down to earth to melt the polar icecaps and flood the world (actual episode plot! "Haul Down the Heavens", episode 115, circa 1985). It's written for the fans that grew up with these characters, and are now all my age! Thus, it has cool technology, kick-ass ninjas, action, adventure, violence, and all the stuff we did in our games but never saw on TV! And it's written by Internet Jesus himself, Warren Ellis! In fact, he seems to be as excited about it as I am, which is fantastic!

Looks awesome. But will it have the same opening theme? My heart can only hope!

It's A Good Time To Be A Nerd

Or, as a friend of mine used to call me, a "naird". I like to think that naird is a nerd with sufficient communication skills, divergent interests, alternate hobbies, social graces and personal hygiene to pass among norms as not being a big nerd fanboy geek. I also realise that he considered it a term for someone that was a nerd in a limited scope, in my case, Marvel super-heroes and comics! Honestly, considering the alternative, both are good!

While musing over the body of my next blog entry, I happened across an interesting article on Newsarama. The focus of the piece is related to how Paramount and DreamWorks have announced a July 1, 2011 release for Transformers 3, months before Transformers 2 even hits cinemas.

But it was the very end of the article that caught my attention. A handy calendar of the upcoming comic-based and "major genre" films for the next few years, reprinted here for your pleasure, and my commentary.

Iron Man 2: May 7th, 2010
Twilight: Eclipse: June 30th, 2010
Inception (Christopher Nolan’s next film): July 16th, 2010
Jonah Hex: August 6th, 2010
Green Lantern: December 17th, 2010
Spider-Man 4: May 6, 2011
Thor: June 16th, 2011
Transformers 3: July 1st, 2011
The First Avenger: Captain America: July 22nd, 2011
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 2: July 15th, 2011
The Avengers: July15th, 2012.

Courtesy of Newsarama.com

First of all, I love how the term "major genre" has come to include the fantasy and cult movies the geek community have been enjoying for decades. Seems the phrase "and the geek shall inherit the earth" is closer to reality then even I expected!

Marvel are filling up five of the eleven slots, four of which are part of the Marvel Studios shared universe line, building toward the Avengers release. Harry Potters release date has forced Marvel to push the Avengers movie back a full year, but now gives them the opportunity to allow Iron Man director Jon Favreau direct what will presumably be their biggest, most daring, most expensive movie to date. Favreau seems to have become Marvel Studios golden boy when it comes to their movie line, and thankfully that is backed by a huge level of fan approval.

Sony's date for Spider-Man 4 has, according to some sources forced Marvel to move things around for their own line as well. The Spidey movie francise is the single biggest comic based money maker in Hollywood, and even Marvel aren't willing to go up against it. They're not without reason; despite glowing reviews, strong casting, stunning visual effects and an all-ages appeal, last years Speed Racer tanked, almost exclusively because it opened a week after Iron Man.

While DC has two movies on the list; Jonah Hex and Green Lantern, it's really only Green Lantern that people are going to recognise, and even then, he's no Superman, or even Flash.

All this and this years X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen and G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra are not even mentioned. (Observation: This year seems to be the year of the movie title format "Franchise Title, Colon, Subtitle") Truely it is a great time to be a nerd.

Even better, perhaps, to be a naird!