I attended Toronto Comicon for the first time in my life this past weekend, and what I experienced was beyond my wildest fantasies.
Let’s get one thing clear right off the bat: I was not excited to go to Comicon for its opening day on Friday, March 14.
As I got myself ready to go, throwing on a black leather jacket, which I’d soon learn was rather drab compared to the chosen attire of my fellow attendees, I readily lamented the sunny, warm day I was soon to spend within the cavernous confines of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.
Pair that with the fact that I really know quite little about a vast majority of the franchises, series and games celebrated at the annual convention, and you’ve got a girl who’s feeling entirely out of her depth. Prior to today, the closest I’d ever come to Comicon was seeing cosplayers on the subway while I was on my way to work.
Nevertheless, I’ve always been deeply intrigued by the whole thing, and figured this year was as good a time as any to find out what all the fuss is about.
For decades, Fan Expo, the largest producer of comic conventions in the world, has brought their epic, weekend-long celebration of fandom to Toronto, flooding the city centre with cosplayers, comic collectors and nerds galore.
Growing up in Toronto, I’d always been aware of its existence, but it never really felt like my thing, and so I never went.
Check out the best things we saw at Toronto Comicon in this photo gallery.
Don’t get me wrong; I’ve always had my fair share of nerdy persuasions. I enjoy the Harry Potter movies, was forced to watch every Star Wars installment at the behest of my older brother growing up and managed to maintain an above-average level of passion for the Twilight saga throughout my teen- and early adult years.
Theoretically speaking, Comicon should appeal to me, at least in some small way.
Upon entering the Convention Centre, gently elbowing my way through throngs of expo-goers congregated outside, ascending the elevators and getting spat out into the main hall, though, I’m instantly overwhelmed.
In all of my imagining of the event, I had utterly failed to grasp the sheer physical scale of the event.
The main floor of Comicon was larger than I ever imagined.
The bulk of the event takes place across nearly 200,000 square feet of exhibition space in the convention centre, with retailers, the artists’ alley, comic creators and the celebrity autograph zone all holding court in the same cavernous space.
Despite the expo only being open for about two hours at that point, it’s already totally full of people, rifling through stacks of comic books, testing out dummy (I hope?) swords, and pausing to chat with the creators of their favourite comic books.
“Do you remember me from last year?” someone dressed as Aayla Secura from Star Wars asks a member of the Toronto Steampunk Society as they sit down for what I’ve now learned is called Tea Duelling.
“Yes,” he responds, “only last year you weren’t blue.”
Members of the Rebel Legion Canadian Base raise funds for Make A Wish.
A number of booths in the artist’s alley offer photos with cosplayers as they collect donations for various charities, like the Ontario Order of the Phoenix, who boast a Dobby puppet that particularly warms my heart, or the Rebel Legion Canadian Base, who, amongst their ranks, count my favourite cosplayer of the day: a froglike alien that appeared on The Mandalorian.
After about an hour of perusing the floor, we had really only just begun to scratch the surface of everything there was to discover there, and no celebrities had even yet graced the autograph area.
I quickly found myself overcome with memories of a particularly claustrophobic visit to Halloween on Church last year, sure that the arrival of a major fan favourite would undoubtedly end in a similar body crush, and we decided it was time to venture elsewhere.
Some cosplays are more inviting than others — but the people behind them are all cool.
We then made our way to an open foyer-like area in pursuit of some impressive cosplays, which we absolutely found, alongside a slew of more half-hearted attempts. Still, though, in my leather jacket, I had no business judging the level of anyone else’s commitment to the con.
All of a sudden, an electric violinist seemingly spawns out of thin air and begins to play alongside a DJ. A circle forms around the two, and, with apparently no social negotiation whatsoever — just vibes — folks begin entering the circle to show off their own moves one by one.
Little kids, young adults and more elderly attendees alike get in on the action, always receiving the same degree of unabashed support from the surrounding crowd.
Patrick Star from Spongebob gets into a dance-off with one of about 12 Spidermen I’ve seen so far today when, out of nowhere, I’m overcome with chills. Like, the type of chills I get when a little kid has an unexpectedly beautiful singing voice on Canada’s Got Talent.
Patrick and Spiderman duke it out.
And here I was two hours ago, dreading coming here.
Somehow, outside of the formal programming and big names of the expo, I realize that I get it; and all it took was a dance-off between two cartoon characters.
Admittedly, I didn’t engage with any of the decidedly more convention-esque elements of the event, like the panels and celebrity meet-and-greets.
Partly, this was because nothing happening that day particularly appealed to my specific nerdy interests tendencies, and I didn’t feel like it was worth it to make the line longer than it needed to be for people who actually care a lot about meeting Jared Padalecki or the cast of The Boys.
Moreso, though, it was because I started seeing Spiderman masks behind my eyelids when I blinked, and I knew it was simply time to go home.
I do feel like I got what I came for, though; an understanding of why, exactly, Comicon has one of the largest celebrations of fan culture in North America year after year. You don’t need panels, Q&As and meet-and-greets to find out what that is.
Ad-hoc activities pop up at the expo.
Comicon and events like it carry their own sort of gravity. The Eras Tour and its accompanying events spring to mind when searching for comparable events that are a little more up my personal alley. While the content is different, the sentiment is the same.
Especially as we grow up, we become increasingly aware of our own behaviour and the way we’re perceived in the world and, as a natural response, we tend not to want to be perceived as falling too far outside of the generally accepted norms of our world — norms which become increasingly more restrictive the older you get.
As a kid, which, for many, is when passions for certain characters, games or shows are first seeded, no one blinks twice when you wear a Spiderman costume outside of the house on a random Friday morning. When I was a kid, I insisted on being called Mike Wazowski (the one-eyed green fellow from Monsters Inc.) for months, and everyone thought it was only a little bit strange, but if, at 25, I were to do the same thing, the response might be a little different.
That doesn’t mean that we ever stop seeing ourselves in our heroes, though, and we don’t stop discovering content that speaks to us, either. I wanted to dress up like Taylor Swift just as much when I was eight as I do now.
What’s so special about Comicon, then, aside from the tangible things like rare comic books and superhero actors, is the fact that it’s an environment that’s wholly supportive to anyone and everyone who wants to loudly, proudly and enthusiastically be a fan.
Comicon is for everyone: heroes and villains alike.
At Comicon, you can dress up however you like, you can have a full-fledged dance party wherever you like, and you can connect with other people on a playing field that feels somehow more level than it ever would in the outside world — even if you come from totally different galaxies.
Overwhelming though it may be, Comicon, I realized, is kind of wonderful, too. Now to get to work on my Twilight cosplay for next year…
