Fan Expo 2009
By Angela Roberts
So, last weekend I attended Fan Expo in Toronto. Since it's impossible to relay all my thoughts and impressions in one post, I will just lay down some highlights of my weekend.
Friday:
I started with the exclusive Tron: Legacy Preview. It was sweet. Tron: Legacy is the sequel to the ground-breaking film from the eighties. It will be in theatres for the 2010 holidays and will star Jeff Bridges, Bruce Boxleitner, and Garrett Hedlund. The preview consisted of a Powerpoint presentation of artist renderings, a test clip, a live-action scene, and the concept test you can see at the site in the link below. The updated light-cycles are awesome enough, but the creative team has also redesigned and fleshed out the entire virtual world to look more real and way cooler. They even consulted with the practitioners of an incredible martial art to create the movements of the characters in the gladiatorial games. The whole thing looks amazing, and I can't wait!
Later, I attended the DC Nation panel and Walter Koenig's (Checkov) Q&A. The DC panel was interesting and worth going to. I think I'll be picking up some back-issues of Flash: Rebirth after all. ;) Walter Koenig is so charming and so funny. He does some scarily accurate impressions of his Trek co-stars.
Saturday:
Completely missed Leonard Nimoy due to the convention center being massively swarmed by people that morning. The convention staff took their blessed time weeding out the people (like me) who already had passes from the ridiculous line going down the block. When I finally got in, I browsed the show floor, grabbed a bunch of free stuff from the DC booth, got some signed pictures from the Space hosts (all very nice), and then went to the sketch duel between Ethan van Sciver and Ivan Reis. Entertaining and cool. Got a delicious smoothie afterwards and headed off to the Bruce Campbell Q&A. He is very funny, very charming and knows how to work a crowd. And a crowd he had. He filled up the large hall. Went to the Space panel afterwards. If you're Canadian and haven't visited the Space website, do so soon. There are several new shows and returning ones that will definitely keep my PVR busy this fall. Enough to make you squee! ;)
Sunday:
My shopping day. Loaded up on graphic novels, manga, and picked up the Green Lantern: First Flight movie (which is quite good, by the way). Also attended Len Wein's workshop on writing for comics. Very interesting. Among his many kernels of wisdom were some that are true for all writers; study and read, know your medium, know your parameters (what your client wants), and challenge yourself. The last thing I did was attend a panel on vampires. Very interesting and plenty of fun.
Well, that was my weekend. The only disappointment was that it was over too soon.
Links in this article: