Wednesday, August 29, 2012

FanExpo Canada 2012: Information & Photos

This past weekend was FanExpo Canada. Considered the third largest comic-con in North America, this year's show was chock-full of great guests and lots to see and buy. My personal highlights include snagging two legendary autographs that has previously eluded me: Stan Lee and Neil Adams. 
The Marvel: Avengers vs. X-Men panel from left to right: C.B. Cebulski, Steve Wacker, Nick Lowe, Axel Alonso & Arune Singh. 
Unfortunately, I only got to one day of the four day event, so I can't report on much. There were, however, a few nuggets of information I managed to gather from the two Marvel panels I attended. If you haven't seen them on CBR, etc, here they are. From the Marvel: Avengers vs. X-Men panel we learnt:

1) There's an important death at the end.

2) The Hulk will be showing up in the final issue of A v X.

3) Ed Brubaker is leaving Winter Solider to be replaced by relative newcomer Jason Latour. I’ll let you know what I think of his first issue.

4) Characters from Alpha Flight will be appearing in Wolverine and the X-Men #19.
The Marvel: A Pint o' CB panel with from left to right: Axel Alonso, Dan Slott, Steve Wacker, Nick Lowe & C.B. Cebulski
The second panel I attended -- Marvel: Pint o' CB didn’t just star its namesake con stalwart but also Axel Alonso, Dan Slott, Steve Wacker and Nick Lowe with Arune Singh moderating. This was a more free-flowing conversation and the Marvel team used much of the opportunity to talk-up this fall's Marvel Now
The Marvel team made clear that this was not a 'reboot' but a 'relaunch'.
Throughout the discussion it was made clear that Marvel Now will be, to quote Axel Alonso, ‘not a reboot but a relaunch’. Indeed, the Editor-in-Chief spoke frankly about the entire process and it sounds like creators have been given carte blanche to 'profoundly change' and make ‘hostile takovers’ of their new books. It sounds interesting and I'll be reviewing the new books as they come out.
Nick Lowe as game show host at the Marvel display.
So there you go: some quick notes on FanExpo. It was another good show and I'm already looking forward to next year. Hopefully, I'll be a little better at planning ahead and be able to get in more than one day of the show. Below are some random photos from the event for you to enjoy. Thanks for reading!

Space, Canada's sci-fi channel, had a huge presence at this year's FanExpo.
More of Space's display.
Non-comic fan favourites like as electronic games were also huge presence at the show too...
...as were promotions for upcoming films such as Peter Jackson's The Hobbit...
...and television's Game of Thrones.
DC Comics also had a serious presence...
...as did the Daleks.