It’s finally here! The thrilling conclusion to my adventure at Ottawa Comiccon 2015! Okay, maybe it wasn’t that thrilling, but it sure was fun.
Since it was Mother’s Day, before heading to the convention I decided to make pancakes for my wonderful wife, Sarah. I don’t want to brag, but they were pretty delicious.
Anywho, fairly early in the day I ran into another of my favourite cosplayers, Becky McKercher, who was dressed as Princess Bubblegum. She was accompanied by her friend Katie. Here is a picture of all of us together.
I don’t know Katie, but I think I have now been in two pictures with her at Ottawa Comiccon, which pretty much makes us best friends.
Later on, I ran into my friend Sarah again, who this time was dressed as John Constantine. Here’s a picture of her and I chillin’ like villains… or maybe, more accurately, anti-heroes.
Right after this picture was taken I dropped my wife’s camera on the ground. The lens wouldn’t retract back into the camera, and I was pretty sure I broke it. But when I got home my wife was able to fix it (because, as I have said many times before on this Blog, she’s the greatest). Disaster averted!
It was on the third day of the con that I saw what may be my favourite cosplay of all time. Two parents were dressed as Lara-El and Jor-El and they dressed their baby up as Superman. Being a parent myself, I now have a newfound appreciation for parents dressing their kids up in costumes.
In terms of activities, I spent most of the day bouncing around from panel to panel. I sat in on a session where comic creators Bob Layton (Iron Man, Hercules), Mike McKone (Exiles, Fantastic Four) and Ian Churchill (Marineman, Cable) talked about some of the more controversial things that have come up in comics lately, like the Rafael Albuquerque Batgirl cover, and the Milo Manara Spider Woman cover. Their views were pretty much the same as mine: Artists should be able to create whatever they want to, but it’s up to editors to make sure that only appropriate things get put on the shelves. It doesn’t seem too complicated to me. Bob Layton went off about all the things he doesn’t like. Believe me when I tell you that it isn’t a short list.
I finished my con experience by partaking in two panels in a row. The first was a panel on writing female characters in horror. In my writing thus far, I have made a conscious effort to give my female characters (what few there are) a little depth, but I thought it would help to learn from someone who knows what they’re talking about. As a quick aside, it was in line for this session where I had the “pleasure” of speaking briefly with a guy who said he didn’t qualify for the VIP pass for the con because he showered on a regular basis. Thanks for believing in the stereotype, douche. But in his defense, it did get pretty ripe under tent when people were lining up to see celebrity Q&As. Anyway, the session on writing female characters was pretty good. It taught me to be a little more cognizant of some of the tropes that often befall female characters. And as an added bonus, I got a cheat sheet so I didn’t have to memorize everything!
The second, and final, panel I attended was about misrepresentations of minority groups in geek media. While I really wanted to learn something about groups of people I know almost nothing about, I had a difficult time understanding what the panelists were talking about. I don’t know if it’s because I was exhausted or because you needed a pre-existing knowledge in order to understand what was being discussed, but I found myself getting lost a lot of the time. In the future, I think it would be useful to explain things a little more to those of us who know very little about this sort of thing so that we can fully appreciate the topics at hand. That said, it was still very interesting.
So that is it for Ottawa Comiccon 2015! I also bought a bunch of stuff, and normally I would share pictures with you, but I am feeling way too lazy. So you’re just going to have to imagine what a bunch of Funko Pop Vinyl figures and two comic books (Marvel Zombies 5 and Challengers of the Unknown) look like. That’s it! Use your imagination!
Until next year, Ottawa Comiccon…
BAMPF!!
Chris Lackie 