Fan Expo Vancouver 2012 - Features

On April 21 and 22, 2012, the inaugural Fan Expo Vancouver took place. Aaron provides some highlights!

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Fan Expo Vancouver 2012

Master Chief looks for something to kill. And the Ghostbusters of BC made an appearance.

As an inaugural event Fan Expo Vancouver 2012 hit all the right beats as they relate to comic book/fan conventions.

There were plenty of costumed fans wandering the floor among comic book fans, kids with parents in tow (and parents with kids in tow), the celebrity fringe like Adam West, Burt Ward, and Lou Ferringo, and a ‘60s era Batmobile. There were tables and tables of comics, new, old and rare; action figures, swords, and other

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collectibles; and a literal tower of t-shirts. And there was this amazing positive undercurrent to the whole thing.

There were lines everywhere the day I was there, but there didn’t seem any dimming of enthusiasm for the event -- just being there was enough.

I would have liked to spend more time just

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taking it in, flipping through comic books, and trying to finagle some deals like I did for the single piece of merchandise I bought: a Donkey Kong action figure for my 3-year old son. (He fell asleep with it next to his pillow.)

Toy Traders is one of my favourite places on Earth and it was there in mobile form! And there there tons of comics!

The Batmobile -- atomic batteries cooling off -- was available to sit in. And my three-year old isn't out of focus. He's vibrating with excitement for t-shirts. (Really!)

As soon as one left the confines and immediate area of the convention -- where the real world and Nerd Land intersect -- there were these awesome moments of tourists and gawkers just stopping and staring, trying to figure out what they were looking at and trying to make sense of it. At the nearby food court a trio of X-Men -- Wolverine, Mystique, and the Ice Queen -- got coffee from Starbucks and you could tell some people were just waiting for Rod Serling to come into frame and launch into “You open this door with the key of imagination.”

Should Fan Expo return next year, it’ll probably be a little bigger, maybe a little louder, and that will be a good thing because this first step was a darn good one.

- Aaron Simmer

(May 8, 2012)