After a few years on hold because of that whole pandemic thing we’re dealing with, this weekend brings the return of Toronto Comicon, the little brother to the city’s Fan Expo Canada. The latter is a pop culture extravaganza that takes over both buildings of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, the March tradition is housed solely in the South Building, with less big name celebrities selling photos and autograph opportunities.
It’s worth noting that usually the Princess and I will do a preview for the event in advance, but the unfortunate cancellation of some of the highest profile guests, notably actor John Cusack and famed Marvel Editor-In-Chief Jim Shooter, led to my post needing constant editing. So instead, I thought I’d recap the experience the Princess and I had on our Toronto Comicon visit on Friday.
Now, even though Toronto Comicon is the smaller of Toronto’s two big yearly events, it doesn’t mean you won’t find a crowd. Far from it. The Princess and I arrived on the floor a little after the 10 am opening, and there were already lots of people filling the aisles. I’m happy to say that apart from one or two people, the masking policy was being adhered to by everyone I saw. While the mandates may be going away after this weekend, being in a horde of people like a convention brings out still made me nervous, and it was nice to see my fellow convention goers respecting each other. There were a few moments where the aisles felt a little too packed for my personal liking, but the Princess and I managed to weave through them relatively quickly.
For me, the person I was most excited to see was writer Jed MacKay. If you read my From the House of Ideas column, you know that I’ve become a huge fan of MacKay’s work on Moon Knight. It was great to be able to talk to him in Artists Alley and compliment his him to his (masked face). With the Princess standing quietly beside me, MacKay and I had a nice chat about the character and the fantastic prison story that came out last week for Devil’s Reign: Moon Knight. MacKay is a hard working writer, currently managing four monthly titles, all of them well worth reading. While all my comic reading is done digitally these days, I was more than happy to pick up the Moon Knight: The Midnight Mission collection from MacKay and get it signed to me. This guy is doing amazing work, and I highly recommend reading anything with his name on it.
For the Princess, she was all about finding Nintendo amiibos and, wouldn’t you known it, almost as soon as we got on the floor, we came across a video game vendor who had a bevy of both new and used amiibos. The Princess managed to score three used amiibos – the Green and Orange Inkling Girls from Splatoon, and the Green Inkling Squid as well. Luckily, they all work fine, since when we arrived home I was quickly informed that ”they needed to be wiped because they already had owners and nicknames.” I hope someone reading knows what that means, because I needed it explained to me.
Even though we found the Nintendo stuff we came for within minutes, there was still a lot of walking through the aisles to be had, and doing so led us to some other cool finds. The Princess found two Demon Slayer keychains, featuring Tanjiro and Nezuko Kamado that look great. We also revisited an artist who has created some amazing pins featured characters from Gravity Falls, Splatoon, and Pokemon, where the Princess got a replacement for her Dipper Pines pin, two Pokemon pins, and a Splatoon pin.
”I really like the art style and the artist,” said the Princess.
The final big purchase we made came when we picked up a Bill Cipher standee to go with the Dipper Pines one we got at the Fan Expo. These look great together in the Princess’ room.
As you no doubt see, this Toronto Comicon was really about the shopping rather than anything else. If there’s anything that left me a little disappointed, it’s that, while there were countless booths full of folks selling Funkos and various anime offerings, it felt as though there weren’t nearly as many comic/book vendors as I would have liked, and I spent little time perusing for a good deal because of that.
Ultimately, if you’re wearing a mask and making use of the hand sanitizer you’ll find at booths and at stands, you can’t really go wrong heading out to Toronto Comicon for a few hours this weekend. There’s lots to stop and look at, and you’ll no doubt find at least a few things that will make your wallet a little lighter. However, even with so many safeguards in place, if you’re not comfortable in crowds, especially as we’re still living in a pandemic world, this might not be the place for you, and instead you might consider taking a pass until the summer and the return of Fan Expo.
Thanks as always to everyone for Touchwood PR for their support of Biff Bam Pop! and for always making us feel so welcome! You can get all your Toronto Comicon information here.
