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Fan Expo Vancouver, November 10-12, 2017
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128 posts in this topic

Harley's at a comicon in the USA so his staff had his B-list back issues in Vancouver. His regular back issues in long boxes were 25% off sticker price. I think all his wall comics and any vintage back issue in a magazine box u add 30% exchange rate. I think his oversize mags and treasury editions were as priced.

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I noticed half of last year's Fan Expo vendors did not renew like the retailers and vendors from Montreal, Toronto, Abbotsford and Hope, BC. Don't think I saw the tower of t-shirts either.

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Jigglypig Chad had an excellent location with bright lighting for his $2 bins. Canadian Comics.net brothers had their normal prime location across from the main entrance for the weekend hordes:

R4UsJQz.jpg

Best value may be $50 for Fonzie's signature as he is a cultural icon from the 1970s for those that grew up on 'Happy Days.' Was glad to chat with my buddy Wayne J. who I had not seen in Vancouver in 8 months.

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2 hours ago, aardvark88 said:

Excellent Friday for original art and sketch collectors as there were not long line ups and folks smashing into your knapsack full of comics, graphic novels, sketchbook. Artist Tony Moore (Walking Dead) had a camera mounted so that it would project his sketching technique onto the display screen behind him so that folks farther back could watch him draw:

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but a bit aggressive to charge $125 to sign Walking Dead comic #6. I paid Zeck and Beatty $15 total to sign my Zeck Marvel Stories Artist Edition hard cover art book, and Zeck was kind enough to do a quick Capt. America side profile head sketch.

 

I wanted to say something about this earlier but I'd actually forgotten his name, Tony Moore, at the time. I thought the blown up projector was such a cool thing. I watched him sketch for a bit. I get it that this is his job and all but some of those prices...yeesh...

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Highlights of going to the Fan Expo : 

some of those anime outfits...made me really like anime

Seeing Greggy in his natural habitat just tearing through boxes finding the gems.

The HMCS Vancouver sitting pretty in the water next to the convention centre. 

The star wars gear some people were wearing was very awesome.

Not being at work today and it didn't rain.

Seeing Mr Magik Woo argue with a few CGC employees about whom their parent company is. lol  That was funny. He says the same company that owns Heritage owns CGC and they're like nope, not true, he says no thats true, they say nope and so on than something about a comic that came back graded less than it should have been with an defect etc lol I think I tuned out at that point.

Dropped off a few things at the CGC booth. Very friendly and polite. Called me sir more than once lol They said they were flying back on red eye to Florida right after the fan expo. Poor guys and gal. C'MON CGC ! Give your guys and gal a lil more time to enjoy Vancouver! 

Lowlights :

Not enough comic vendors but you know what, fair enough, they run the show and can do what they want, if they're making enough money than whatever, this whole thing is really more about tv show actor, actress appearances and people dressing up 

parking downtown is a ripoff

admission price could be a bit less   

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6 hours ago, DarkKnightReturns said:

Highlights of going to the Fan Expo : 

some of those anime outfits...made me really like anime

 

Lowlights :

 

Seeing Greggy in his natural habitat just tearing through boxes finding the gems.

 

Not enough comic vendors but you know what, fair enough, they run the show and can do what they want, if they're making enough money than whatever, this whole thing is really more about tv show actor, actress appearances and people dressing up 

parking downtown is a ripoff

admission price could be a bit less   

Hey, I see where you made a mistake. Fixed this for you  xD

Yes ... parking downtown had always been a ripoff.  I took Skytrain from my home to there. Each side of the trip for me is a 5-10 mins walk.

Honestly, I get it that Fan Expo HQ likes Canada Place to host that comic con there. But I do still think they could do a better job to find other locations with better (and cheaper) booth rates. At the rate if they continue keeping the same location, it won’t be a  comic con for long. It might as well be a “cosplay/pop culture” theme. But hey, as long they are happy with how they run the show. 

 

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7 hours ago, DarkKnightReturns said:

Lowlights :

parking downtown is a ripoff

admission price could be a bit less   

I feel a bit sorry for the vendors paying over $30/day to park their vans downtown. I will take skytrain to Fan expo this morning to scoot around the comic art alley again. Some downtown roads (e.g. Abbott St to Howe St along E. Hastings/Cambie St) will be closed off for Remembrance Day assembly making parking even tougher.

fyi, free admission at Golden Age Collectables Sat. Nov 11/17 to get comics signed by good writer Rick Remender (Black Science, 7 to Eternity, Uncanny X-force) btwn 1 to 3 p.m.

imho, attendance at Fan expo must increase by at least 10% this year as I think this is their best media and comics guest list in the last 5 years else I can see them pulling out of Vancouver and concentrating on building up Calgary and Edmonton (Fan) :x Expos where they are more supported by vendors, fans, collectors with their ca$h. 

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I'm glad I only paid for Friday admission instead of wasting my time on Saturday.

I only bought from a dealer that I can buy from at any time. 

At least I can enjoy my Saturday. 

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4 hours ago, greggy said:

I'm glad I only paid for Friday admission instead of wasting my time on Saturday.

I only bought from a dealer that I can buy from at any time. 

At least I can enjoy my Saturday. 

Is that Greggy speak for not enough comic vendors?

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UCsYGgW.jpg

There were actually 4.5 different comic vendors. Big Pete's booth was in a strange location and I did not see him over 2 days. Hammer3 seemed to be sharing a booth with his buddy but they did not design/bring a comic wall rack to maximize their display potential.

That is greggy speak for leaving his sloppy seconds for aardvark88 to dig to the bottom of the long box to find something, anything to buy to justify leaving the office early. Best thing I bought was a Kirby homage OA to Capt America cover logo box drawing by Mike Perkins (Iron Fist) from Tampa, FL, USA. Spoke to local artist Stv Skroce who said all his drawing is on computer now so no more OA to sell. Perkins still hand-draws and inks his own bristol board:

 

Edited by aardvark88
sp.
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7 hours ago, aardvark88 said:

I feel a bit sorry for the vendors paying over $30/day to park their vans downtown. I will take skytrain to Fan expo this morning to scoot around the comic art alley again. Some downtown roads (e.g. Abbott St to Howe St along E. Hastings/Cambie St) will be closed off for Remembrance Day assembly making parking even tougher.

fyi, free admission at Golden Age Collectables Sat. Nov 11/17 to get comics signed by good writer Rick Remender (Black Science, 7 to Eternity, Uncanny X-force) btwn 1 to 3 p.m.

imho, attendance at Fan expo must increase by at least 10% this year as I think this is their best media and comics guest list in the last 5 years else I can see them pulling out of Vancouver and concentrating on building up Calgary and Edmonton (Fan) :x Expos where they are more supported by vendors, fans, collectors with their ca$h. 

As in bold line, meaning me going to Calgary. After Christmas holidays, I am going all out to seek some books :sumo:

Comic book vendors, take heed and make Calgary Comic Expo Great again!

tomorrow I will go for one sketch duel and then that is it all wrapped up for Vancouver Fan Expo. I had asked a few comic artists if they will go to Calgary in April, they all said yes. :golfclap:

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Hope they talk to me first since I book them for Calgary now.

FEV is what it is, comic vendors in Vancouver want cheap tables and do multiple one day events leading up to this one, so I get why it’s a hard sell to pay Expo prices for a show like ours - it ends up being a disappointment for people looking for books, and while I do think our team can work on rebuilding some bridges and trying to get some eastern dealers over but if everyone spent their money at the other shows conveniently scheduled the weeks prior to this one, then it ends up being a better show for the toy vendors, et al. Nice to see CGC, I have some books to drop off with them tomorrow.

i will continue to work on bringing great comic guests to Vancouver and taking people’s suggestions as well as your grief. 

Edited by Kevin Boyd
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On ‎11‎/‎10‎/‎2017 at 10:14 PM, aardvark88 said:

Jigglypig Chad had an excellent location with bright lighting for his $2 bins. Canadian Comics.net brothers had their normal prime location across from the main entrance for the weekend hordes:

R4UsJQz.jpg

Best value may be $50 for Fonzie's signature as he is a cultural icon from the 1970s for those that grew up on 'Happy Days.' Was glad to chat with my buddy Wayne J. who I had not seen in Vancouver in 8 months.

What's the grade on the CBW #10?

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13 hours ago, Kevin Boyd said:

Hope they talk to me first since I book them for Calgary now.

FEV is what it is, comic vendors in Vancouver want cheap tables and do multiple one day events leading up to this one, so I get why it’s a hard sell to pay Expo prices for a show like ours - it ends up being a disappointment for people looking for books, and while I do think our team can work on rebuilding some bridges and trying to get some eastern dealers over but if everyone spent their money at the other shows conveniently scheduled the weeks prior to this one, then it ends up being a better show for the toy vendors, et al. Nice to see CGC, I have some books to drop off with them tomorrow.

i will continue to work on bringing great comic guests to Vancouver and taking people’s suggestions as well as your grief. 

and Thanks for bringing comic guests Kevin!  See you at the show today

Malvin

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9 minutes ago, malvin said:

and Thanks for bringing comic guests Kevin! 

The comic artists, inkers, writer guest line up for me was the best in 5 years so props to Kevin for all his hard work. ^^

In terms of finding cheaper location to move Fan expo to near downtown Vancouver (skytrain, bus, seabus access), there are no options. The East side convention ctr Fan Expo Vancouver is in this weekend is less expensive than newer West building Convention Ctr.

BC Lions football or some men's and women's soccer teams playing out of BC Place in Nov, 2017 weekends. New Parq casino and convention ctr's main ballroom is too small (about size of all 3 Croat Cultural Ctr halls), and even adding all side breakout rooms is only 60,000 sq feet. PNE Coliseum is still iced for the Vancouver Giants team in November (or even April if Fan Expo Vancouver needed to move back to original Easter dates) so can't be rented. 2 large halls at PNE are too old with mediocre lighting, and no skytrain access.

Airwalker: CBW #10 might have been around vg+ but I did not look at that comic/genre closely.

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6 hours ago, aardvark88 said:

The comic artists, inkers, writer guest line up for me was the best in 5 years so props to Kevin for all his hard work. ^^

In terms of finding cheaper location to move Fan expo to near downtown Vancouver (skytrain, bus, seabus access), there are no options. The East side convention ctr Fan Expo Vancouver is in this weekend is less expensive than newer West building Convention Ctr.

BC Lions football or some men's and women's soccer teams playing out of BC Place in Nov, 2017 weekends. New Parq casino and convention ctr's main ballroom is too small (about size of all 3 Croat Cultural Ctr halls), and even adding all side breakout rooms is only 60,000 sq feet. PNE Coliseum is still iced for the Vancouver Giants team in November (or even April if Fan Expo Vancouver needed to move back to original Easter dates) so can't be rented. 2 large halls at PNE are too old with mediocre lighting, and no skytrain access.

Airwalker: CBW #10 might have been around vg+ but I did not look at that comic/genre closely.

The comic artists, inkers, writer guest line up for me was the best in 5 years so props to Kevin for all his hard work. ^^

i second that, that was the best in the last few years I had seen (since I had moved back to Vancouver). Kudos to Kevin. 

On the topic of relocating the FEV.  I have noticed with here and other major cons over the country and the States. Many appears to be located right in the heart of each city (the downtown area). I wonder if that is a requirement of The HQs of all comic/entertainment expo cons?

aardvark88, sorry to point out about your comment of “mediocre lighting, and no skytrain access” with PNE large halls being too old. Did not the Calgary big 4 buildings also are old and seems have good lighting, yet did well with their show there? Toronto fair ground (like PNE) is also old by age, and has done good with their show there. 

I had worked at PNE large halls for 2 seasons years ago, and had seen them in daytimes many times with my father when he was in employment. I think lightings seems fine to me.  True, while there is no Skytrain access but the pro is that it does have plenty of parking spaces and not at $30/day! Maybe charge each one at $5.00 for the day, I guess? 

Translink could accompany in providing express long bus shuttles for that event? 

Biggest con I know is where to provide all comic/media guests a place to sleep and for their needs?  Canada Place has that all covered so that makes sense. 

Whatever how the FEV HQ decides for the next year’s show ... it is their call.  I will wait until I see the artist list then I will buy a ticket.  I got my special sketch project in process this year. I am sure Kevin will do a good job for next year! 

But I am not holding my breath for comic book vendors to return again. That I have to see, it is up to them. 

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22 minutes ago, Fan Boy said:

On the topic of relocating the FEV.  I have noticed with here and other major cons over the country and the States. Many appears to be located right in the heart of each city (the downtown area). I wonder if that is a requirement of The HQs of all comic/entertainment expo cons?

But I am not holding my breath for comic book vendors to return again. That I have to see, it is up to them. 

Fan Boy: you are right in that some huge antique/collectibles conventions like Portland, OR are :blush: held out of their downtown core and north near their race track and older exhibition halls with good lighting. Can't comment on the Toronto con locations, as have never attended a con there but I have been to Toronto and Montreal corridor.

Re: the PNE

I find the lighting in their first hall nearest corner of Renfrew/Hastings St too dim. The middle building has brighter lighting and a large sportscard show was held out of there in the heyday circa 1991 before the hockey card crash.

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46 minutes ago, TheCollector2016 said:

The convention centers for most major U.S. cities are located in their downtown area -  ;)

Actually there are some large comicons that are successfully held outside of dense downtown cores but along major monorail or express bus routes. e.g. Chicago Wizard which is actually near the Blue line rail station before O'hare airport in suburb of Rosemont, and Calgary Expo (attendance btwn 86k to 100k) next to urban rail station, fairgrounds, ice rink.

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1 hour ago, aardvark88 said:

Actually there are some large comicons that are successfully held outside of dense downtown cores but along major monorail or express bus routes. e.g. Chicago Wizard which is actually near the Blue line rail station before O'hare airport in suburb of Rosemont, and Calgary Expo (attendance btwn 86k to 100k) next to urban rail station, fairgrounds, ice rink.

 Exactly where my thoughts were on this. I am seeing why the HQs like with FEV are looking in finding where to host the Comicons.  They are trying to find the sweet balance of sq footage, public transport close enough for majority of fans, accomandions for the media/comic guests’ needs, etc. Not a easy task!

 

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