Surprisingly enough, it wasn't super busy that day. My main goal was to find Kathleen and hang out with her for awhile. Didn't end up meeting up, but I was able to see what the con looked like on the Sunday. I searched around for people I knew, the LEGO display and just last minute deals in general, but like the people I hoped to run into, they were no where to be found.
Fun story I heard from the con (I haven't confirmed this myself, so feel free to correct me) that Todd Mcfarlane got Stan Lee to come to the Expo despite Stan Lee deciding last year that he didn't want to do comic cons anymore. The stipulation was that since Todd got Stan Lee for the con, he could call the shots at his autograph booth. He mandated that all of his autographs would be free for the fans. So, as far as I am aware, for the whole weekend, fans got free autographs. His line-up was huge every single time I walked by while he was there. Seems like a decent thing to do to let fans see Stan Lee and at the same time give the man a break (especially since he agreed to come).
This is an awful picture of me, but I was trying to subtly take a picture of a mysterious gathering of cosplayers all standing in a circle. Occasionally a couple would be in the centre of the circle, but they weren't dancing or anything just...standing there or fixing costume elements. It was a HUGE circle too, so you wouldn't be able to talk to someone on the other side. I'm just going to assume it was a cosplay cult ritual to banish furries to the shadow realm (there was a furry in the centre of the circle at one point).
Wandered around a bit more afterwards. I ended up getting stuck in a mass of about 100 people in one hall where one guy decided that a stressful, claustrophobic situation was the best time to hit on me and try to strike up a conversation. Like...good job trying to start a conversation I guess, but what about my stressed and strung-out face in the middle of a bunch of sweaty, smelly people screamed "hi I'm interested"? I pretended not to hear him with the excuse that he couldn't possibly be talking to me and escaped to pet a cute pit bull at one of the animal rescue booths. I was also an animal that needed rescuing so it was fitting.I went outside to get some air and to avoid having a panic attack and ended up sitting next to a group of kids whipping tiny Pokeballs at each other as hard as they could. I watched a Batman cosplayer climb onto a statue and pose as a Joker cosplayer screamed at him until a group of people started smoking next to me.
Lessons learned for next year at this con. A lot more planning is required beyond the Thursday night, I need a person to distract me from the chaos, and I apparently can click and drag photos to wrap text around them. Why haven't I thought of this before...
Overall, mixed feelings about the con this year. Was super fun initially, but it definitely lost traction for me as the weekend carried on. I don't know if it was my attitude or just me getting old, but it was...different for me this year. The Expo volunteers and staff were excellent. They finally have a lot of the processes down to a science and the crowds are a lot better managed. I will be returning in future years, but hopefully they have more media guests I'm interested in seeing next year.
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