FANeXpo

FRIDAY:
The trip to the con was perhaps even more eventful than the convention itself. First time I've really driven this long on the highway, but the traffic was pretty good. Changing over from the 400 to the 401 was an interesting experience. That's where the traffic was iffy, but I got through well enough. I'm pretty fucking good at highway driving.

I parked at the Yorkdale mall, as one usually does when getting on the subway at the Yorkdale station. However, I had no idea where I was going. Didn't know where to park, didn't know where the station was. It was pretty much a mess. I found a parking spot, but had no clue as to where the station was. I wandered around for quite a while before I got to the subway.

And then walking from Union station to the convention centre was weird. Apparently there's this "Skywalk" shit that takes you straight to the building, but I didn't know. I wandered the street, and finally found it. Thankfully I was going in the right direction, and didn't have to walk back or anything. Fucking Toronto is confusing.

Got to the Expo around 4:30. Wandered around a little bit, being overwhelmed by the size and chaos of the convention centre. It was pretty ridiculous. Then I tried to find where Brian Bolland (artist of 'The Killing Joke') was signing, and did so successfully. They weren't letting anyone in, though, because Tim Sale was still doing his session.

Eventually (frankly, I don't know how), I saw a friend of mine, Geekers, and met up with him. Wandered about with him aimlessly, until I was able to line up for Bolland. He went off to some panel, but ended up skipping or something. Gave me a copy of The Killing Joke to get signed for him.

After waiting in line for about an hour, I got my book signed. Brian seems like a really nice guy, though I think I may have seemed a little retarded as I had no idea what I was doing. I shook his hand and smiled, and gave him the books. I was going to ask for a sketch, but again, I'm retarded. I was totally overwhelmed and timid... *sigh*

Afterwards, I just wandered around until Geekers called, and then we wandered around some more. Talked about some comics, looked at some interesting booths, and just doddled around until about 8:00. And then I left. I missed out on some panels I was interested in, but oh well. It was a pretty good first day. I was fucking tired.

When I got back to Yorkdale, I was so fucking lost. I had no idea where I was going, where I parked, or anything. Like, when I parked there earlier in the day, I had a hard enough time trying to figure out where the damn subway station was. This was ridiculous. I don't think I actually found the car until 9:10. I wandered around the mall, a number of times, trying to find the exit from which I came. It took me fucking forever.

But I found the van, called my mom, and headed home. It was actually a much smoother trip home than it was in the afternoon. Less traffic, and just a calmer drive. It was fun. I was pretty tired, but I kept awake by singing and such.

Got home safely, and then went to sleep. Early morning ahead of me.

SATURDAY:
Jesus fucking christ. I wish I had relished in the relative calmness of Friday. Sure, I didn't get up to much, but compared to today it was a fucking ghost town. Saturday is fucking ridiculous. There were so many fucking people. It was retarded.

I can basically some up the entire day with one little sentence:
The best "waiting-in-line" convention I've ever been to.

Ri-fuckin-diculous.

So, here's the story. I went down with a couple friends, as expected. Early in the morning, as we expected a somewhat higher volume of people. His dad drove us to Yorkdale (and parked in the correct spot, and knew where he was going), and we took the subway down to the convention centre. We walk to the place, get inside, and on the ticket-merchant floor we could already see the chaos. His dad spouted some crude comments, and mentioned a few times how ridiculous and retarded it was. We got in line for tickets, gave us money, and left.

Now, I already had my ticket, but I didn't want to leave them alone in the long-ass fucking line. So I chilled with them. It was fun, we made fun of all the crazy fucking anime cosplayers, commented on some of the badass superhero costumes, and ogled the sexy ones (seriously, Black Canary... holy shit). Oh, and I couldn't tell you how many times I told the furries to "yiff in hell". Seriously, there were so many furries. It was gross... and the worst part was that I think they took pleasure in my mockery. I eventually just resorted to yelling "FUCKING FURRIES!" every time I saw one walking by.

But yeah, after waiting in line for over an hour (I'd describe the lines to you, but it was ridiculous), we finally get downstairs. We find that we have have to wait in line to actually get onto the show floor. Thankfully we were able to unknowingly cut in line (and no one said anything to us, so it was all good), and we got in. It was incredibly busy. Some of the paths were uncrossable. The main rows were shoulder-to-shoulder, sweaty geeky body pressed up against sweat geeky body. It was awful.

We walk around a little bit, but my friends want to see the people from Smallville (Lex and Kara were there), so we head over to the celebrity autograph tables. Sure enough, Michael Rosenbaum was sitting there signing autographs. Long line, but they were insistent on meeting him. I wanted to go see Victor Lucas at 1, so I told them I'd chill with them in line for a little while, and then head over and see if I could meet him. Well, Victor's line was pretty big too, so I just sort of caught a glimpse of him, and then headed back.

We waiting for Rosenbaum for a while. A long while. We got in line pretty much when we got in, so it must have been about 12:45. We were really close, and then around 1:40 one of the expo volunteers tells us that he is stopping for a little bit as he has a "photo-op" session at 2. Understandable, but kinda annoying as we were pretty much at the front of the line. They say Rosenbaum will be back around 3, and tells us that we can wait.

A lot of people left, but we decide to wait. I think at this point we were third or fourth from the front. They really wanted to meet him, and I didn't really want to wander the convention alone, so I stuck around. One of the brothers and I went off to get food, but even the food court was packed. We didn't even get to sit and eat, we just brought the food back and ate it in line. We waited the hour, and anxiously waiting for Michael to show up.

He didn't. We waited, and by this time we were first in line. They finally said to us at around 3:45 "he has a panel at 4, so he'll probably come back after that". Awesome, another hour of waiting. I actually wanted to see the panel, but I felt that all this waiting, I needed to meet him; I needed to get the autograph.

Laura Vandervoort (Kara) was signing autographs a couple rows down. My friends wanted to see her too, and they sent out a "last call" for her session (as she was heading to the panel too). Apparently her line was going really quickly, so I offered to hold fort at the front of the line while they went over to meet her. They were over there for maybe ten minutes. They talked with her a little bit, got the autograph, and a photo. It was crazy-fast.

The friends came back, and we kept waiting. I offered to take them one at a time quickly around the con, just so that their entire experience wasn't just waiting in some god-forsaken line. I got some pretty neat swag, about equal to Friday's. A DVD, a couple posters, and a few comics. Checked out some awesome booths, ogled at the cute girls, and fanboyed when we came across celebrity-like people walking around (Tim Sale, for example).

We got back, with about ten minutes before 5. We waited, again. I expected Rosenbaum to be late again, though I hoped he wouldn't be too late. We had to leave at around 5:15. Eventually, he showed up; it must have been like 5:10. He was rushed though, he was leaving at fucking 6. And there was a big fucking line. My friend wanted him to say his famous line "I am the villain of the story!" into the camera, but that sort of pissed off his agent, and they said no.

We shook his hand and got a picture signed (one, with all of our names on it). We were hoping to get a photo with him, but they were rushed, and so were we. Again, like with Bolland, I wish I was more assertive. I should have told him how long we waiting, and asked for the damn photo. Oh well, not much we can do now.

And with that, we left the con. Unfortunately I didn't get to do all of the stuff I wanted to do (or nearly any of it, actually), but it was still a fun and interesting experience. I had hoped to get Tim Sale to sign my "Long Halloween", but that didn't happen (we missed his morning session, and I didn't want to approach him at his booth in Artist Alley). Next year will be better; I can only hope that the guests will be just as cool, and we are more prepared.

I didn't get to go on Sunday, but it's not much of a loss. Kinda wish I had, but I can only imagine it to have been pretty crazy anyway. And even so, the highway was closed coming out of Barrie, so it would have been difficult anyway.