DAY ONE

Okay, here is what went down on day one of the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo, be warned there are lots of pictures. The doors opened at 10am, but we left the house at 10am which was still early enough. There was lots of other stuff going on at the Stampede Grounds like the Women's Show, so parking was filling up even though it was still early. We had pre-bought our tickets, so we wouldn't have to wait in line or anything. The thing was I just walked right past the booth got my free baggie and that was it! Nobody asked me for a ticket and I didn't even show it to anybody, I swear I had one though. Cody played by the rules and showed his ticket and got his hand stamped and all that. What a square!

After passing the entrance we came upon a huge line up and had no idea what the hell it was for. We waited in it for a minute out of reflex until some guy said that it was the line for George Takei photo ops and then I delcared "Forget that! Let's go." After being pointed in the right direction was walked into the show. It was still pretty early, so there weren't that many people there so you could actually walk around and look at what you wanted to. We walked around just to see what was there and what was going on before talking to anyone.

The first guy I went and saw was director David Winning who has done movies and TV. A Canadian originally from Calgary he's directed stuff like Stargate: Atlantis, Andromeda, Sweet Valley High, Are You Afraid of the Dark? and Friday the 13th the TV series.

And he also directed Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie. I had bought this a long time ago from Cash Converters for like $5, but never bothered to get around to watching it. When I read David was coming to the show I figured that I'd better watch it if I was going to get him to sign the cover for me. Actually, the movie is co-directed by David Winning and Shuki Levy and David said he did 9 weeks of shooting and then Levy (also the producer/writer) came in and shot the last week and then gave himself a directing credit. That's pretty cheap. I'll be honest, the movie was horrible, but I didn't tell him that. I did saw they did stray from the basic Power Rangers formula and he said they wanted to try something different. Don't they know that different is bad!

After that I went to Fiona Staples' table to get my Hawksmoor issues signed. Fiona is a local artist from Calgary that is currently drawing the Wildstorm book Secrets of the Authority: Hawksmoor and has another Wildstorm book lined up after that.

Then I went over to see another Canadian artist Stuart Immonen. Immonen is currently drawing Ultimate Spider-Man and has done other stuff for Marvel like X-Men and Fantastic Four.

The little book there is called "50 Reasons to Stop Sketching at Conventions" and it's real stories that have happened to Immonen as he did free sketches at comic cons. It's pretty funny and well worth the $5. BTW he doesn't do sketches anymore.

After I went to the Udon Studios table where they had Omar Dugan, Jim Zubavich, Alvin Lee and Jo Chen. I bought the Udon 2007 sketchbook with a Streetfighter Sakura headsketch from Omar.

Then I went on over to the other side of the table where I had to wait in line to get a couple books signed by Jo Chen. Jo usually just does covers and posters, but still her line was pretty huge.

She also had some prints for sale and they all looked really nice, and I couldn't really decide on which one to get. I got a Nico print from Runaways and of course it was the last one and had crinkled corner. Still cool though.

I keep getting all these cool posters, pictures, and art but I got so much stuff that I'd need an art gallery just to hang it all up. It sucks when I buy something I like, but I got nowhere to put it, so it just sits in my rubbermaid container with all my other stuff.

I bought a artbook from Canadian artist Matt Stewart and yes, it is all girly art. He did a rough head sketch on the front page which looks nice.

More interior art.

After that I went over to Bill Pressing's table to get my Rex Steele Nazi Smasher book signed and get his Cheesecake: Belle Du Jour sketchbook re-signed. I say I got it re-signed because I had ordered it off his website about a year ago. He did a quickie sketch in it and also signed and o did a quick Rex Steele head sketch in my other book for me.

He had the French editon of Rex Steele on hand and it looks nice. The original Rex Steele book is black and white while the French version is color and has added stories to it as well. Hopefully, this make bookshelves here soon.

On the way out I stopped by the candy booth that sells homemade chocolate pops of cartoon and movie characters. I've written about these guys before when I bought some Star Wars pops at a small comic thing a couple years ago. I wrote about how I let my Chewie pop sit around for like 9 months before I ate it and when I did, I got sick. This time I will eat them!

As you can see I got Superman, Power Ranger and Darth Vader choco pops. In case you don't know that one on the right is the Darth Vader pop. If you look at the close up of it you can see his feet and the lights on his chest. After the show we went to Bianca Amor's Liquidation Superstore and the Vader melted while we were inside. The corner of the Red Ranger was a bit melted and the Superman symbol is cracked a bit. Since the Vader was a melted glob I ate it and it was good! I was thinking the chocolate wouldn't be that good and might taste a bit waxy, but it was really good.

It was after 12pm by now and was getting busier and harder to get around and look at stuff, so we left. Since we were in the area we went and checked out Bianca Amor's. It was the usual cheap tacky crap with the exception of tons of DVDs priced at just $5 each.

I think I got a sweet deal of the Teen Wolf/Teen Wolf Too double feature, John Carpenter's The Fog special edition, Exit the Dragon Enter the Tiger, and Kids in the Hall season one for $20. Kids in the Hall season one for only $5?! That is insanely cheap, I love it.

We returned home and since I had barely eaten all day I made some Kraft Dinner, but not just any Kraft Dinner, Scooby-Doo Kraft Dinner imported from the United States of America. It just as bad as the Kraft Dinner in Canada.