I wrote this: ‘Fan Expo Vancouver builds on a strong and geeky scene’ in The Georgia Straight

Jaimmie Que as Dark Phoenix. Photo by Ally McGillivray

My article on the upcoming Fan Expo Vancouver is in this week’s Georgia Straight: http://www.straight.com/article-662866/vancouver/fan-expo-builds-strong-scene

The feature is an overview of the Expo, which is the first of its kind in the city. The basic premise is that, considering the strong comics, video game, and movie and TV industry connections here, the Expo is long overdue.

What’s strange to me a little is that, despite being a lifelong comics fan, I didn’t make it to the mother of all cons, San Diego’s, until last year, and I still haven’t made it to Emerald City Comic-Con, though I know I would love that.

So I’m looking forward to seeing if the organizers can pull off a decent con in Vancouver, and I’m hoping people come out for it. This could be a positive thing for the city, and for bringing people from all these disparate scenes together.

Also, we ran a cool feature by Rachel Sanders on The Snipe News (my online arts/entertainment magazine) about a local cosplayer, Jaimmie Que (pictured, above) and tips on what to wear at a comics convention: http://www.thesnipenews.com/books-comics/fan-expo-vancouver-cosplay/

San Diego Comic-Con costumes

As a first-timer, my favourite thing about the San Diego Comic-Con was probably the costumes.

It’s not just that there were so many wonderful, creative and sexy outfits (I’ll always have a thing for Zatanna and her fishnets), but there were some that were just so outlandish and obscure that I was continuously doing a double-take. Probably one of my favourites was Plastic Man. There were dozens if not hundreds of Green Lanterns. But Plastic Man?

Apparently though at least one person went too far – or so the police thought. I watched as two San Diego cops accompanied Adrianne Curry to her booth. Rather, they were following her butt – the former America’s Next Top Model model’s bum cheeks were hanging out of her Aeon Flux outfit. I didn’t see what happened next, but according to Gawker she was asked to leave until she came back as a more respectable Flux. (Curry has a reputation for dressing up in ways to make the fanboys drool – see this gallery of Adrianne Curry’s best Comic-Con costumes.)

Anyway, here are a few shots I took. For every one I got, though, there were another 10 I didn’t, and probably should have. Enjoy.