The Montreal Centre of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada will be attending Con*Cept. Weather permitting, there will be telescopes day and night! Yes, the sun is a star, and can be observed through specialized telescopes. Two Center members are planning to bring their hydrogen alpha and calcium K solar telescopes.

Programmation pour les Fans du Futur

Sam. 10h00-12h00: Il était une fois...
(activités à nature historique et géographique incluant la présentation de fossiles)

13h30-18h00: Terre de contes (ateliers créatifs, un ou deux invités spéciaux, et préparation des costumes de nos fans du futur avant la mascarade)


Dim.
09h30-12h30: Explorations spatiales (un autre invité spécial, jeux et ateliers sur la galaxie)

13h30-18h00: Fou de la science (expériences amusantes et autres activités)

We have a tentative schedule for the Young Fans programming.

Fans in Training

Sat. 10:00 to 12:30: Long Ago and Far Away (activities of a historical and geographical nature including a fossils exhibit)

1:30 to 6pm: Land of Make-Believe (imaginative crafts, a very special Guest or two and preparation for the Fan in Training fashion show before the Masquerade)

Sun. 9:30 to 12:30: Spatial Explorations (another special Visitor, galactic games and crafts)

1:30 to 6pm: Mad About Science (experimental fun and other activities)

All our Guests of Honour will be visiting our young fans!

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• What "mainstream" U.S. superhero comics and related news there was at the show seems to have been largely reported by Comic Book Resources. They also have an interview with artist Pia Guerra, who was not at FanExpo, about a new Dr. Who comic book.

• Many photo galleries are already online, of course, including this one focusing on the horror side of the con (that is, the intentionally horrific Rue Morgue "Festival of Fear", not the everyday horrific spectacle of masses of sweaty people rubbing against each other in a confined space). As well, the ace photogs at the Anime London blog have two separate, cosplay-heavy galleries up, focusing on costumes from Saturday and the Saturday evening masquerade.

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CRYSTAL FRACTAL COMICS DEBUTS WITH PARADISE TORONTO COMICON PREVIEW EDITION OF "CRYSTAL FRACTAL UNIVERSE 0.0"


- Special CGC "Signature Series" will be available -

Crystal Fractal Comics [ED: not a great web site, their Myspace page has more art] launches at the July 12 & 13, 2008 Paradise Toronto Comicon with a special Paradise Toronto Comicon preview edition of "Crystal Fractal Universe 0.0."



"Crystal Fractal Universe 0.0" provides a glimpse of the upcoming line of comics including "Doctor Twilight", "Magus Rex" and "Project Epsilon London Town" and includes two short stories including "CFU The Crossing" written by Derrek Lennox with Jeffrey Haas and art by Jian Yi. This printing will be limited to less than 2000 copies, with less than 133 set aside for the CGC Signature Series program. The exact print run will be released at the Convention.

"We are extremely excited to release this preview edition at the Paradise Toronto ComiCON," says Derrek Lennox, founder and Editor-in-Chief of Crystal Fractal Comics, "and of course to see the response and reaction to featured writers from the US and Canada, as well as renown artists from China, Argentia and Canada – artists from around the world that will be showcased as the comic series are released."

Crystal Fractal Comics is a Toronto, Ontario; Canada based comic book and character property company.

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I talked with a variety of retailers and pros at the end of the convention to see how they did. Most of the responses ranged from slow to okay. One unhappy dealer said he only made his table costs. Nobody seemed particularly enthusiastic about the show. One dealer said the entire market is slow right now. He says people have money and they're seeing stuff they're interested in, but they need some enticing to spend it. He was giving discounts in order to do that. That dealer was selling TPBs only. Another dealer who was only selling back issues said pretty much the same thing. He said he dropped his prices by half, something he very rarely does, but it did move a lot of stuff. Overall there was a bit of disparity between retailers and dealers. Retailers that participated in the 10 dollar voucher to promote the con got their tables for free, while dealers had to pay for them.

Almost every retailer/dealer I talked to gave me a different answer for what moved well for them. One said the expensive wall comics, another Captain America books, another Bronze/Modern bins, another Hardcovers, another Golden Age books, another Manga and 1-2 dollar bins, a few said Trades. Some of those with a mix said everything sold equally well. I noticed a lot of sellers seemed to be specializing. Some come with only back issue bins, some come with only trades. Even with the back issue bins it broke down to dollar bins with bronze to moderns, some silver-bronze, some gold.

I talked to a handful of pro's and they were split about Saturday or Sunday being better for them. My general impression was that Saturday drew out the die hard readers willing to spend some money. The "Free" Sunday attracted a different crowd, likely a more budget conscious group. Some of them appeared to be more casual readers or still quite new to comics.

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• Ty at Grendel33's Place has a full report including attendance figures with photos of the sales floor and artist's alley.

• Jason Truong keeps it together.

• Danny Truong has the Heavy, including notes on the widespread trend of marking down hardcover comics collections to $10.

• Con organizer Kevin Boyd has his own report and notes that attendance was way up over the previous show.

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