Monday, August 27, 2007  
Fan Expo 2007: The Day After

:: Posted by Bryan @ 8/27/2007 05:59:00 AM

Despite the last minute pull-out of some big-name sci-fi tv and movie guests, the 2007 Toronto FanExpo seems to have been keenly anticipated and enjoyed by large numbers of attendees. I wasn't there myself but I met someone at a yard sale on Saturday who was going and looking forward to getting autographs from David Prowse and Malcolm McDowell since both appeared together in Clockwork Orange. This same person's child was apparently a big hit at a previous Fanexpo when dressed up as Superbaby. We should all be so lucky.

Overview:
FanExpo is owned by Aman Gupta's Hobbystar and is made up of several genre cons -- billing itself as the third largest North American convention after San Diego and Wizard World Chicago. In Canadian terms, FanExpo is a big deal for fans, retailers, and maybe for artists hawking their wares and networking --not so much for publishing news. There are a few snippets in the links below but mostly the event is a cultural phenomena that celebrates consumerism, technology, spectacle, and cosplay. I urge you to join with me in negating this culture in order to preserve its meaning.

FanExpo is made up of the following:

The Canadian National Anime Expo (CN Anime) since 1998
The Canadian National Science Fiction Expo (SFX) since 1999
The Canadian National Horror Expo (Rue Morgue's Festival of Fear) since 2004
The Canadian National Gaming Expo (GX) since 2005

In 2006, FanExpo claimed 42000 attendees. No official word yet on this year but I expect to read that it hit 50K, despite how absurd that seems.

Of all the subcultural-types who attend, the tightest social networks (and the greatest component of cosplayers and bloggers) belong to the anime and manga fans, judging from the links below.

Please send Sequential your photos, links, videos and comics about FanExpo 2007. To see all of our posts about the 2007 con so far, click here.

1. citytv video, includes short interview with "event coordinator" Jamie Armstrong and throws around the 50 thousand attendees number

2. an artist alley manga fan artist reports that drama was kept to a minimum

3. a full report by a female cosplayer and fan of Lar DeSouza and Ryan Sohmer's Least I Could Do/Looking for Group webcomics

4. Tara Tallan spends the weekend with J. Torres and Scott Chantler

5. Alphabetizing graphic novels at a con? No fun!

6. All yer Marvel Comics news rom the con

7. Anime cosplayers video

8. This film studies student and knitter reports brisk sales of hats

9. Some photos, including the soon to be ubiquitous Super-chihuahua!

10. The long line-up is always an issue --expect several videos of people trying to find the end of the ticket line.

11. Photos: lots of Reboot cosplay

12. Gatekeeper's Blog

13. 26 photos

14. Photos from Movie Blog

15. photos and pillowfight vid

16. ctv tech blogger's photo parade

17. tons of photos (slow?)

18. photo blog with lots of trains (?)

19. Apparently, there was a dearth of Christian comics

20. Flickr: photos, photos, photos, and more photos.

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1 Comments:

Blogger Neo said...

I like the 50,000 number that gets tossed around. Must be that special "new math" where attendees are counted 3 times for attending Friday, Saturday and Sunday

Friday, September 7, 2007 3:31:00 PM EDT  

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