Calgary Herald

Spock helped to propel Expo into warp drive

Comic convention’s Nerdapaloo­za is now a really big deal

- STEPHEN HUNT shunt@calgaryher­ald.com Twitter: @ halfstep

Spock did it.

Up until 2010, the Calgary Comic Expo was a nice comic book collector’s event. They brought in a few actors from time to time such as Peter Mayhew — Chewbacca in Star Wars — but the event could definitely have been described as nerd niche.

Then in the summer of 2009, Calgary Expo founder Kandrix Foong tracked down Leonard Nimoy.

“I guess I had made some pretty good contacts in the industry,” Foong says. “I had actually met with Leonard in August 2009 and said, ‘ here’s some things I want to do with his appearance’ ( such as visiting Vulcan, the namesake home of Nimoy’s Mr. Spock Star Trek character) and it just — I guess you could say it just took off.”

“That’s the one that really put us on the map,” he says, “That generated huge media all over North America, let alone Calgary.”

Now, as the Calgary Comic Expo launches its 10th anniversar­y show April 16- 19 at Stampede Park, the event has grown into a really big deal, both locally and on the comic con circuit, routinely drawing more than 50,000 visitors, and filling many city hotels, bars and restaurant­s.

Following Nimoy’s appearance in 2010, there was a 2012 Star Trek reunion that caused attendance to explode ( and also created havoc, with the venue filled to overflowin­g and ticket holders being forced to line up for hours to gain entry into the event).

In 2014, there was an Aliens reunion, led by Sigourney Weaver. Stars from shows such as Orphan Black, Doctor Who, the Walking Dead, Once Upon a Time, films such as The Lord of the Rings and other fantasy features and dozens of others now descend upon the city, along with a unique assortment of profession­al wrestlers, special effects artists and comic book illustrato­rs to sign autographs, hawk merchandis­e, participat­e in panel discussion­s and shmooze with adoring fans.

There’s a parade, featuring scifi celebs, and even more dramatical­ly, hundreds of fans ( including, usually, Mayor Nenshi) dressed in superhero costumes — cosplay — who will turn downtown Calgary into a kind of Mardi Gras for nerds Friday at lunch.

And the capper to it all, for a legion of Marvel Comics fans eagerly anticipati­ng the May 1 release of Avengers: Age of Ultron, will be a weekend appearance by 90- something Marvel creator Stan Lee.

It’s a Nerdapaloo­za Foong never saw coming. “The first three years were definitely ( spent) figuring a lot of stuff out,” Foong says, “trying to prove we could actually do an event. For myself, I also had a career elsewhere — 2010 was also when I left that, to dedicate my time full- time to the event. So I think it was a combinatio­n of factors that led to the show being able to grow to where it is now.”

Much like a high schooler who sprouts four or five inches over the summer and doesn’t have time to adjust to his new height, there have been a few bumps along the way, Foong admits, most particular­ly 2012, the year of the Star Trek reunion.

“From a business standpoint,” says Foong, in a bit of understate­ment, “the Expo has grown a lot faster than we were able to handle from an operationa­l standpoint.”

The event has transforme­d in other, surprising ways, as well. For one thing, its demographi­c base is pretty much a 50- 50 split between male and female. It turns out there are as many girl geeks out there as there are guys, which has caused Foong and his colleagues Emily Expo and Shayne Henkeman to reconsider what constitute­s a desirable Calgary Comic Expo attraction.

“The first couple of years, it was like a 65- 35 ( male- female) mix,” says Foong, “and then as we started to bring in those other elements to round out our other offerings, our overall product, that’s when we saw the equalizati­on between the two numbers.”

Maybe what’s evolved more than anything are the fans who attend the Expo. The role of cosplay — fans who dress in costumes — has exploded over the last decade along with the growth of comic expos, creating an entire new culture that slots nicely into what he’s built, says Foong.

“I’m surprised in general how that’s done in North America, just as an industry thing, not just for Calgary,” he says. “There’s now profession­al cosplayers as a thing — and if you had talked to me 10 years ago, I’d have been like profession­al cosplayers?

“It’s a very, very interestin­g thing,” he adds. “But there’s definitely a lot of things that are happening in our entertainm­ent ( industry) that are quite groundbrea­king, I guess you could say.”

However, a decade in, it doesn’t get any easier. The day before he chats with the Herald, Foong receives word that an actor from The Walking Dead has cancelled, due to a conflict with shooting a film.

For an event that now features upwards of more than four dozen actors and other show business personalit­ies, each Calgary Comic Expo has an almost limitless number of ups and downs — heartbreak­s and, every once in a while, thrills.

“It’s a giant ( emotional) rollercoas­ter,” Foong says. “There’s some extreme lows. And some of the people ( attending) will come up and say, ‘ You know, we really like what it is you have done. This ( event) is awesome and I look forward to this every year.’ Those are the moments I look back and remember very well, because those are the reminders that yeah, this is actually something cool that a lot of fans get into.”

 ?? GAVIN YOUNG/ CALGARY HERALD ?? Kandrix Foong, left, Emily Expo ( Lindsay Thomas) and Shayne Henkeman are behind the Calgary Comic Expo, 2015.
GAVIN YOUNG/ CALGARY HERALD Kandrix Foong, left, Emily Expo ( Lindsay Thomas) and Shayne Henkeman are behind the Calgary Comic Expo, 2015.
 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Canada