Toronto ComiCon 2015

Another convention has come and gone, and I continue to be hopelessly addicted to them. I find myself in a weird situation where I want to sell my jewellery at every convention I can find, but I also want to see and do everything at the convention, which I can’t do with a booth… So I think I may try to attend a few cons without a booth (I’m cringing at the thought already), and take in as many activities as possible.

ComiCon was a very interesting experience. It was in the same location as Fan Expo, and run by Fan Expo, but I knew that it was much smaller, so I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect. It looked a lot like Fan Expo inside the Vendor/Artist Alley area, but it was certainly a different con. It was wonderful, of course, and it was a bit easier for me to stay at my booth, since there were fewer guests and panels that I was dying to see. I also had some amazing helpers at my booth, which made the time fly by, and meant that I was well fed throughout the weekend, which has a HUGE impact on my convention experience, and just generally made the experience more pleasant. 

I finally picked up some artwork from Sugarmints, after eying her pieces for months. I now have one larger piece and one small piece framed on my wall, and I Have a gorgeous notebook and bookmark from her. She offers deals for combos, so you can pick up multiple prints, or an assortment of different kinds of items for a great price, so that was amazing. 

I got items with these images on them (I got a combination of posters, postcards, bookmarks, and notebooks):

https://www.etsy.com/listing/220327570/anime-art-print-poster-moon-child

https://www.etsy.com/listing/220324078/how-to-train-your-dragon-poster-brand

https://www.etsy.com/listing/226352828/anime-art-postcard-pieces-of-you-cherry

https://www.etsy.com/listing/226003633/space-art-poster-paradox-world-universe

 I also picked up an adipose plushie to go with the Tardis and dalek pillows I already had.

And then this happened with a dalek:

And I love that this girl is running full speed toward the dalek here:

I did a double take as I walked by the best Spock impersonator I've ever seen, and had to get this photo with him. He saw my jaw drop as I spotted him, and laughed at me.

I only attended one event, Q & A session with Karen Gillan. I had been looking forward to seeing her last summer at Fan Expo, but she cancelled, so when I heard that she was going to ComiCon, I vowed that I would see her this time! And I did! And it was glorious.

*Sigh* Karen Gillan. Amy Pond. I was in the same room as Amy Pond. And last summer, I was in the same room as the 11^th Doctor and Rory (and a ton of amazing people from other shows and movies. My life is pretty frakkin glorious.

Karen was a joy to watch. She’s funny and witty and beautiful. I barely made it into the room because the line was so long, and I wasn’t willing to leave my table for an extra 2 hours to line up, but I made it inside, and a very kind man gave me his aisle seat and took the seat next to it, so that I could get better photos.

I spent the hour taking an excessive amount of photos while barely looking at my camera (most of the photos turned out awful, but I’m fine with that), and just being in awe of Amy Pond. She told stories about working on Doctor Who, Guardians of the Galaxy, and several other projects. She invented new episodes she would like to be in on Doctor Who. She declared that she should be the next Doctor. She spoke with her wonderful Scottish accent. It was wonderful.

Other than my fangirling over Karen Gillan, the rest of the convention was very fun too. There were some amazing cosplayers, as always, and my simple cosplays/outfits were very well received. Dressing as the 11^th Doctor always goes over well, and allows for plenty of Doctor Who bonding during the con.

I have realized that the only reason I am able to communicate so easily at conventions is because I can talk to people about the things I am obsessed with. If you put me in a room full of strangers in almost any other setting, I probably wouldn’t say a word. But at a convention, you can hardly shut me up. Everyone is displaying their love of fandoms so obviously that there is always something amazing to talk about.

Here are just a few of my favourite cosplayers from the event:

And these cosplayers all came separately, and ended up at my booth together, so I had to get them to pose together:

And this Beetlejuice cosplayer was amazing:

So overall, my Toronto ComiCon experience was pretty great, and now I can’t wait to check out my next convention in Toronto! I will be writing more about my upcoming convention schedule soon!