End Result? Freakin Blast. It was ridiculous. The scale of this event compared to the few I go to in Edmonton is 10 folds. Takes up the entire BMO center and line ups upon line ups circle around mid day.
Since going and coming back, I've been hearing a lot of smack about the show in regards to bad organization, late guests and the fire marshal announcement causing thousands of people to miss the show or be rejected entry. Unfortunately, these have tarnished the good feeling that the show has brought the thousands of other people in attendance. I do feel your sympathy, I got locked out midway through too. But I finished everything I wanted to see. Why? I woke up at 5 fucking am to drive down.
I forced all my buddies to wake up at 5 too, because I'm an asshole. Piled us all into the Honda Accord and blitzed down to Calgary in 2.5 hours. We got there 2 hours early.
Why did I need to be there 2 hours early. One Reason:
Meeting the MAN. The LEGEND. STAN LEE.
I had purchased an autograph opportunity with him for Saturday at 10 am. I heard horror stories of 300 guest line ups from the day before and him showing up late with the result of them cutting off the line much earlier. I'm not gonna take risks like that. We were the first 100 people in line for the show. When they opened up at 10, I ran through the barriers, through the "this is not an entrance" entrance and between the black curtains straight to his booth.
I had purchased an autograph opportunity with him for Saturday at 10 am. I heard horror stories of 300 guest line ups from the day before and him showing up late with the result of them cutting off the line much earlier. I'm not gonna take risks like that. We were the first 100 people in line for the show. When they opened up at 10, I ran through the barriers, through the "this is not an entrance" entrance and between the black curtains straight to his booth.
I brought my copy of Tales of Suspense #59 (1964). Oldest book I own. This things gonna be half a century old in 2 years. But it doesn't even compare to Stan Lee. At 89, he's the nicest guest I've ever encountered at an Expo. He genuinely cares about the fans and I feel like he appreciated everyone who showed up and enjoyed all the weird articles people were bringing him to sign.
Some short background on my book. I'm not sure this is 100% accurate, so if any of you guys spot something weird, give me a shout. Tales of Suspense was before Iron Man or Captain America had their own runs. Iron Man was created by Stan Lee in Tales of Suspense #39. Cap was created during the times of WW2, but fell out of popularity a few decades later. Tales of Suspense #59 (the one I brought) was a continuation of featuring Iron Man and #59 they added Cap to make it a split book format and try to get Cap back on board with the fans. It proved to be successful and when Tales of Suspense hit #99, #100 became Captain America's own line and Iron Man getting his own in "The Invincible Iron Man." Pretty important book to me. Another side note, Tales of Suspense #59 is the first time Jarvis is introduced, Iron Man's loyal butler.
Snapped some pics of my book going across to him. He looked up and smiled after I gave him my rehearsed spiel about how even though I was too young to read any books he wrote, the characters he created have played a huge part in my child hood and they continue to inspire me today.
There I am. Look at that fat ass grin.
In hindsight, I should have also gotten a close up of the book after signing, since it wasn't coming back with me after the show. I went to the CGC booth to get it slabbed, so you guys are gonna have to wait just as long as me to see a close up of the book when I receive it after CGC gets it's shit together. They say 2 months, but it's probably going to be 4.
"The trick is the second you forget about the book, it will show up at your doorstep" That was the advice I was given. Well shit, I'm never going to forget about this book. I freakin met Stan Lee. So i'm never gonna get it.
But to everyone who's still feeling the blues because of the bad parts of the show. If you were really hardcore, and really wanted to see the shit you were planning to see. Don't show up at 2 in the afternoon. Wake up at 5. Wake all your buddies up. Force them go early. Buy all your tickets early. Then when you get locked out of the show, you won't feel any regrets.
