Halloween Night

The last 3 years Christina and I have dressed up and stayed home on Halloween night to give out candy at her/our place. Tonight on All Hallows Eve (aka - the night before my brother Richards birthday) we continued the tradition.  

Chrissy dug deep into her closet of toys and pulled out a Batgirl costume from a few years ago. Here she is standing guard in front of her beloved Gotham City. 

For those of you who are nerds like me, you may be asking: Which Batgirl is she? The costume is non-committal. Is she Barbara Gordon, Cassandra Cain, or Stephanie Brown? Clues to follow.

My costume is way lamer. I grabbed some facepaint at 5pm and threw on a Gwar t-shirt to become a walking member of the undead. Be afraid as I stumble out of the office with a sinister note pad.

 Cheetos and Chocolates for the kids.

Vigilantly standing at the ready for the door to ring. (The silent watch is very Cassandra Cain)

 Success - And then a Marvel (the Hulk) and DC (Batgirl) standoff.

But the whole night is not all fun and games. There is super hero laundry work to be done (Seems like a Stephanie Brown thing to do).

And slow cooked brain soup to be spiced just right.

Musical playlists to be made by the light of the laptop. I quite like how Chrissy captured the deathly pallor of my skin off the computer.

In between chores and treat demanding kids Chrissy and I sat on the stairs and played angry birds to pass the time.  Chrissy is pretty adept and also addicted (Similar to Oracle era Barbara Gordon).

It was a bit of a slow night with approximately 65 kids, down from the triple digits of warmer Halloweens past. That being said, it was a fun night with my favorite hero.

What a sweet couple!

Final Verdict on which Batgirl...Stephanie Brown. Basically, like Chrissy she is blond, modest, and looks good in purple. Plus, I miss her in the New52. IMHO - They should have left Babs as Oracle. 

Edmonton Entertainment Expo

This weekend I decided to volunteer for the Edmonton Entertainment Expo. I've attended these type of shows on occasion down in Calgary before (here & here) and have enjoyed them quite a bit. Partly, one of the reasons for me deciding to be a volunteer is that I hate lineups. So for a bit of service, I got to skip right by these folks.

 So I could rummage around the stacks of comics looking for deals on Trade Paperbacks.

Or taking in some gory costumes. The Silent Hill nurse is enough to give you nightmares.

Over the last few years I have noticed that Steampunk has become huge.I really appreciate some of the great imagery and DIY style of the cosplayers but overall I just don't get it. That being said - this gun was cool.

When I wasn't wandering around aimlessly I was working the VIP line for celebrity autographs. My job was to escort VIP pass holders to the front of individual celebrity autograph lines, keep people moving around the exits and tell people to turn off their 'flash'. The celebrities in attendance included:

• Misha Collins from Supernatural - I had never heard of him but the ladies loved him. He was at the far side of the line from me and for the first two hours of my shift I thought Misha was a woman due to the name.

• Lee Majors the Six Million Dollar Man - Seemed nice but getting a little rickety and in need of a tune up.
• Julie Newmar - The original and best Catwoman. She is looking her age and had a bit of trouble getting around but she was fantastic with the fans and by all accounts a very nice lady. Plus, she wore some cat ears the first day which everyone loved. The old pictures of herself that she were signing were pin-up style and were exceptionally hot.
• Burt Ward, the original Robin, smiled a lot and wore a Hawaiian shirt. 
• Jewel Staite from Firefly and Stargate Alliance. Meh...She ran about an hour late at all times. 
• Billy Dee Williams who rocks a purple cape better than any man as Lando Calrissian.
• Charisma Carpenter from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. Holy Crap she looked good. Especially for 42. She was hard to take your eyes off of. I couldn't get a picture of her as she really didn't like all the cameras around. I had to continually tell people, "No pictures of Charisma". I don't think anyone was confused thinking that they couldn't take any pictures of my undeniable charm. Also, she could seem a little stand offish but she was quite nice with young kids and even stomached an especially creepy dude who had an empty baby stroller full of knick knacks and a copy of her Playboy issue. That dude gave even me the creeps.
• Nichelle Nichols, Lt. Uhura from Star Trek the Original Series. I spent the majority of my time volunteering about 5 feet from her. She was a very nice and very accommodating lady. She ended up signing a lot of weird and cool stuff. When requested to sign the Mr. Potato Head version of herself I could hear her giggle and proclaim that she had forgotten all about them. For her age she looked great, almost regal. She was easily the most recognized and appreciated of the fans at the show.

My spot at the show. 

I wore a Red Shirt in front of a Star Trek Original Series veteran on a "Away Mission" for multiple hours and managed to walk away and tell the tale. Much better than these Star Fleet rejects...

When you start walking the floor of the show you quickly start to realize who the real stars of the show are - the Cosplayers.  One shopkeeper/cosplayer from CanadaCosplay.com had all of the guys talking - she was the most realistic/enhanced human of Jessica Rabbit you will ever see. Gravity has a new opponent.

Here she is leading a pack of kids in a dance party of Gangnam Style.

Costumes from the crowd.

Batman and Zatanna (Z is probably my favorite cosplay costume ever)

Storm Troopers, Deadpool (lots of him this year) and Spidey.

Hello Kitty + Samurai = Awesome

Superman, Ghostbuster, Wonder Woman

Iron Man and Elektra (such a cute little assassin)

A completely badass Red Skull complete with the Cosmic Cube.

Catwoman, Harley, Bane (lots of him in the movie costume), Batman

I have no idea - but I love it.

I usually come away from these conventions with a couple of small purchases and I am happy with my hall this year.

 Good deals on some hard to find comics by Alan Moore, Garth Ennis and Matz.

 A lovely signed picture of Lt. Uhura.

My new favorite shirt. Fing Fang Foom whose name means "He whose limbs shatter mountains and whose back scrapes the sun".

Well done to the organizers of the Expo. Can't wait till the next one.

Calgary Comic

For the second year in a row now I attended the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo in June (Last years post). It was a fantastic time with tons of great creators, comics, celebrities, and cosplay.

This year I was lucky enough to attend the event with my friends, the Bells. Matt, Jessie, Andrew and I gathered in the rental vehicle and took the journey down the QE2 together. It was Andrews first expo so his mom got him dressed appropriately.

At the show there were a ton of C & B list celebrities. I could really care less about meeting any of them so instead I tried to snap a couple of pictures to poor affect.

A couple of my geeky favourites.

Diamond Dallas Page

 Gail Simone - the writer for Birds of Prey, Secret Six, Batgirl  @GailSimone

Of course these two pale in comparison to meeting the great Christopher Hastings of Doctor McNinja fame.

http://drmcninja.com/newreaders.php

But really, no one cares about my geeky celebrity meetings. People want to see some cosplay.