Last weekend marked a HUGE start to a jam-packed convention season, with WonderCon in Anaheim, Sakuracon in Seattle, and Fan Expo in Vancouver all running concurrently from Friday through Sunday.

As I’ll be heading down to San Diego for Comic-Con in July, another trip across the border wasn’t in the cards for me this month (I’m located on Vancouver Island, Canada, if you weren’t already aware). So, I hopped on a ferry, grabbed a bus, and ended up here: the Vancouver Convention Centre. My ever-growing-in-geekiness girlfriend joined me for this one, as she’s never been to a convention before, and was super interested after hearing my many stories from last year’s SDCC and Stan Lee’s Comikaze. She even cosplayed (which you’ll learn all about in her special guest post which should be up in the next day or two).

I don’t spend much time in Vancouver, so I’d never actually had the pleasure of seeing its convention centre before. The building was absolutely incredible, to the level of possibly being the nicest building that I’ve ever entered. Seriously, check out the photo gallery on the building’s official website, and you’ll see what I mean.

Of course, I wasn’t here for the building. I was here to see what Fan Expo Vancouver’s 162,000 sq. ft of booths, exhibitors, artists, guests, panels, and more had to offer.

There were also a few specific single issues that I planned on hunting down:

1) The very first issue of Y: The Last Man, especially since series artist and Vancouver native Pia Guerra had a table in artist’s alley. – I failed on this front… apparently there wasn’t a single retailer on the show floor that had a copy. Y is my favourite comic book series, and so this is an issue that I’ve wanted for years.

2) The first issue of Vol 1. of Ultimate Comics Spider-Man. Spidey has been my favourite hero since I was a small child, but this is the series that got me really into comics. I’ve always wanted a copy of the first issue, and artist Mark Bagley was also at the convention. Sadly, I failed here too.

3) Saga chapter one. I read the first issue digitally before adding the book to my physical pull list. Of course, at the point chapter one was impossible to find a first print of. I succeeded here, got a great deal on the issue, and it was signed by artist Fiona Staples too.

Tickets for the Expo went on sale a couple of months before the show opened, and for such a well put together event, I was quite impressed with the price of entry. A pass for the entire weekend ran just $69, while a ‘premium’ pass was $99 and included a t-shirt, bag, collectible badge, and lanyard, along with entry through an exclusive entrance (which exited right by the mini-donut stand) and entry two hours before regular ticket holders. Have kids? They got in for free with your ticket purchase. Very cool.

Once we picked up our tickets, we walked through the premium (and press, apparently) entrance and were welcomed by a spacious, well laid out show floor. The celebrity autograph and photo op area were wide open, meaning that even if you weren’t interested in paying an autograph fee, you could still get a glimpse of any of the many celebrities in attendance. Those lines got very long, very fast, which meant that there was plenty of room to peruse through the 98+ exhibitor booths (and that’s not including artist’s alley). The aisles were wide, and even at the expo’s busiest times (read: the entirety of Saturday), you had room to move, which is more than you could expect from SDCC and Comikaze. I loved this aspect, as there was never a moment of Fan Expo that wasn’t calm, relaxed, and fun (or maybe it’s just Canadian), while the other aforementioned cons can be outright confusing and overwhelming at (most) times.

Interested in looking at the layout or seeing what events Fan Expo had to offer? Click here for the official schedule.

I spent the majority of the first day following my ecstatic girlfriend while she obsessed over Pop! figures (her newest addiction), studied each and every item at each an every booth (or at least what seemed like it), and excitedly talked to nearly every artist in artist’s alley. It was awesome to see, and reminded me of the perplexed awe that I felt both at my first convention (Emerald City Comic-Con in 2009), and especially last year at my first SDCC.

Once the show floor closed for the night, we walked around Vancouver’s famous Robson street in search of a neat dining experience unlike one that we’d find on Vancouver Island. We ended up at a Mongolian BBQ, which boasted a ridiculously affordable healthy meal that basically had us filling a dish with vegetables, meats and sauces in whatever portions we desired, before the restaurant’s chef cooked it up in front of you. The food was delicious, and more than filling, all for under $10.

The next morning we left our hotel, grabbed some delicious (especially since I’d never had one before) Belgian waffles from a small cafe fittingly titled Waffles N’ Berries, and then headed back to the show floor. Today, we (of course) spent a lot of time on the floor (I did the lion’s share of my book hunting… and failing, today), but also decided to see what Fan Expo’s panels had to offer. Hayley donned the cosplay garb that she’d been working on for the last month (again, look for a guest post about that soon), and it looked great, and a ton of people asked her for photos, so while she was absurdly nervous while dressing up, she was nothing but confident when she arrived.

First we went to a Sailor Moon 20th anniversary panel. This one wasn’t my idea, as I’ve never really read (or watched) anything from the Sailor Moon universe. I’m very glad that I attended it however, as it was one of the best examples of fan community and passion that I’ve ever witnessed.  The panel started with the somber announcement of the passing of a 7 year old Sailor Moon superfan named Dawn. Dawn was diagnosed with Stage 3 cancer, and one of her final wishes was to be visited by the Sailor Moon team. Here’s the video of the visit:

Dawn passed away just a few weeks before Fan Expo. It was extremely heartbreaking to see the group member, who was a full grown man who looked as though he could easily take me in a fight (not that it would be particularly hard), break into tears and simply find himself too overwhelmed to continue speaking. It brought the entire room to tears, and was truly an inspirational moment of realization of just what fandom and community mean.

The multimedia panel continued with video clips from the multitude of Sailor Moon musicals (which I didn’t know existed, but they actually looked pretty cool), and the little known revelation that a new musical is in the works. Then we were shown some godawful footage from Toon Maker’s version of Sailor Moon. It was an animated/live-action hybrid, and it almost existed, here’s the video:

During the video, the room filled with Sailor Moon fans and cosplayers gasped and laughed at the worst imaginable version of the thing that they loved so much. It was pretty hilarious, but also extremely scary that something so bad nearly existed.

After the panel we grabbed some lunch (FatBurger, naturally) and went back to the show floor. This time we met WolfCop (check out the hilarious trailer here), and then split up for a bit so Hayley could look for more Pop! figures and so I could flip through long boxes. Good fun.

Before the show closed, we headed up to Ballroom A, where the Fan Expo’s first Masquerade was being held. This was essentially a cosplay contest with a hilarious MC, and for the most part it was a fantastic way to see some of the convention’s best costumes. Costumers walked the stage for the better part of 90 minutes (including the opening children’s group, which was ridiculously cute). There were some amazing costumes here, and I wish that I’d had a better camera on me at the time to snap some photos of them. The were just two issues that I had with the Masquerade; first being that a substantial portion of the entrants didn’t show up (why the hell would you sign up if you weren’t planning to make it), and second being that following the final entrant walking the stage, the judges left to talk about who should win… and then they didn’t return for over an hour. We actually left before the judges returned, as the room was reduced to non-performers heading onstage to sing terrible renditions of hit songs.

We were pretty tired that night from a 12+ hour stint at the Convention Centre, so instead of searching from another unique restaurant, we grabbed a few slices of pizza from a nearby Fresh Slice… which was possibly the worst pizza that I’ve ever had in my life. It came out of the ‘hot case’ ice cold, and I’m not overly sure that these doughy pieces of trash were ever blessed by heat.

The third and final day of the expo arrived, and we took it pretty easy this time around. We split up again so Hayley could look at more collectibles and I could yet again flip through longboxes. Being Easter Sunday, the floor wasn’t nearly as busy at this time, so I used the opportunity to go and meet The Walking Dead co-creator and original artist Tony Moore. Being a huge The Walking Dead fan, I obviously love his work, and Tony had for sale a variety of gorgeous TWD and non-TWD prints, and some incredible decked out sketch covers like the one below. I very nearly picked up one of these covers, but it was $600 I thought better put towards my San Diego trip.

I instead picked up a great print (though my first choice was sold out), and also got to grab a quick photo (see below). We chatted about the television series for a few minutes, and essentially agreed on the fact that the show does a lot of things right, but also does a lot of things wrong. He was really nice and approachable, and getting to meet and chat with Tony was probably the highlight of the convention for me.

Aside from looking at a lot of expensive comics that afternoon (I very nearly picked up a 9.9 CGC copy of The Walking Dead #1, but then realized that I just cleared my Visa, and I definitely don’t need to max it out again so soon), we did our rounds a few more times, grabbed some more mini donuts, and checked out more phenomenal cosplay. The show floor closed one last time, so we hopped on a sea plane back to Vancouver Island (which was much bumpier than usual), and went for Easter dinner.

Overall, Fan Expo Vancouver was a stellar and affordable convention, and was an absolutely fan-tastic (ha) time. If you’re anywhere near the west coast of Canada next April, I wouldn’t hesitate to spend my weekend there. I did snap a few cosplay photos (among others) during the weekend, so check those out below, and let us know what you think!