THE GEEK-END STARTS NOW
IT TAKES FANS OF ALL KINDS TO MAKE MONTREAL COMICCON
Let’s dispense with the easy opening to a comic book convention article, in which we pretend to be surprised by the rise of the geek. The new acceptance of the geek isn’t a revolution, it’s not an uprising, it’s not Toddlers & Tiaras being eaten alive by Morlocks. Geeks aren’t taking over popculture. They are pop culture, and have been for years. And there’s no better proof than the 30,000 geeks expected to descend on this weekend’s Montreal Comiccon at the Palais des congrès.
According to co-organizer Alex La Prova, this should come as no surprise. “The comic book business has really (grown) over the past decade,” he explains, “when The Avengers … is the thirdor fourth-highest grossing movie of all time; there has to be a following somewhere.”
And it’s not just comic books. With shows like The Big Bang Theory drawing huge audiences and even Hello Kitty starting to dress like Velma from Scooby Doo, perhaps the cliché of the high school nerd tormented by jocks will soon be inverted.
La Prova and partners Oscar Yazedjian and Elisabeth Jutras held their first con five years ago, drawing 800 fans to an event focused solely on comic book. “We were testing the market, just to see what we would get,” La Prova says. Satisfied with the turnout, they expanded the following year’s event to include gaming, anime and other elements under the general geek umbrella. Last year’s Comiccon drew almost 20,000 fans.
The secret, says La Prova, is providing a diverse experience. “The key to success is to … offer something for everyone” La Prova explains, “whether it’s a child that wants to dress up and participate in a masquerade, or an adult who wants to network with (comic book) artists.”
That’s why this year’s event features an even wider range of guests, from headlining Star Trek captains William Shatner and Patrick Stewart to horror effects icon Tom Savini. Wandering amid the hundreds of vendor booths will likely be legions of cosplayers, who create elaborate homemade costumes of their favourite characters. And then there are the comic book legends, who La Prova promises will not be drowned in the pop culture melting pot. “We incorporate all levels of pop culture, video games, anime, card gaming … but every year, we still have legendary comic book guests,” he says, pointing out a guest-list that includes Hellboy creator Mike Mignola and La Prova’s own childhood idol, artist George Perez, perhaps best known for his work on Teen Titans and Avengers.
As for the programming and panels — which La Prova identifies as a focus for this year’s con — they’ll span everything from the dearth of gay superheroes to tips on creating steampunk costumes, which is basically a primer on dressing like a clockwork version of the Planters Peanuts mascot. A mini-horror fest will feature a number of screenings, and the prestigious Joe Shuster Awards, honouring Canadian comic book creators, now in its eighth year will be presented at the Comiccon.
Despite the varied interests represented, cons like this are often defined by their sense of tight-knit community. “I always think that conventions are more of a Grateful Dead concert or a Burning Man festival,” says James Marsters, an actor embraced by the geek community for a variety of genre roles. “Everyone can dress as they want, behave as they want, be as weird as they want.”
Marsters, who attended
“Everyone can dress as they want … be as weird as
they want.”
ACTOR JAMES MARSTERS
last year’s con, found fame on Buffy the Vampire Slayer as Spike, a British punk rock vampire who blended roguishness and visceral horror like a GQ cover used to bandage an infected wound. “(Buffy) was about people who were outsiders, not the popular kids at school … but even within that group, Spike was an outsider … and that’s what people responded to.
“I think there’s something about genre (films and television) that attracts cool people,” he says, “I’ve met the most interesting people through (conventions). I have a couple (of) friends that work in NASA, I have a few that helped design the Mars Rover, I have a friend in the CIA … and they all came to me dressed as Stormtroopers and Vulcans to ask for an autograph.”
Featured guest Adam Baldwin agrees. “We learn so much from the people that we meet at these conventions,” he says. And to him, the word “geek” is anything but pejorative. “I think that nerd or geek has become a loving term. I mean, I aspire to be a geek or a nerd. It just means … you’re passionate and you care about something. And in this case, it’s the sci-fi world.”
Outside of fan conventions, Baldwin may best be known as Animal Mother, who personified testosterone-fuelled aggression in Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket. But at con- ventions, it’s his genre work in X-Files, Chuck and especially the cult sci-fi show Firefly. And his fans often have plenty to share with him about the character, from homemade role-playing games to slashfiction, fan-written stories that mash fictional characters together romantically. “(Geeks) are probably one of the more intelligent collection of fans in the world … and (conventions are) an outlet for very creative people who have regular jobs out in the real world, that came come together and share their fantasies,” Baldwin says.
To Baldwin, the creative element of conventions is what makes them so appealing. “It can take the place of live theatre. You do panels, you interact,” he explains, “and then you wander around and involve yourself in the show floor, you get to see (fans’) work, their costumes, their comic books. Even their samurai swords.”
One of the most popular guests will no doubt be actor and writer Wil Wheaton, who played the young Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation and has found continued success as writer and actor, including a popular recurring role on The Big Bang Theory. An unabashed geek, Wheaton has experience on both sides of the convention floor. “I’ve been going to conventions since I was 10 or 11 years old,” says Wheaton, “I can’t recall a time in my life when I didn’t love the things I love today, like comic books and board games and science fiction and fantasy.”
That dedication and passion, says Wheaton, is what helps sustain the geek community. “It’s enthusiasm that kind of pulls this community together and keeps it (whole),” he says, “being a nerd is not really about that particular thing you like, it’s how you like it.” And if anything, that approach to fandom is spreading: “My friend went to the movies when Sex and the City came out,” says Wheaton, and “he saw a group of women all ordering cosmopolitans while dressed up like characters from the show … they were cosplaying the way that we would at a Star Trek movie. They were nerds for Sex and the City.”
This, he posits, is proof that the geek world view has taken over. “We’re everywhere. Just not necessarily in places people think to look.” Though this weekend, the Palais des congrès might be a good place to start.