This past Friday, Anya and I went for our annual Toronto Comicon excursion. The years are catching up with me, I’ll tell you. My kid, now a teenager, no longer holds my hand as we comb the aisles of Artist Alley. Instead, she cosplays with her friends and while I stroll the aisles on my own, wondering where the time has gone. Anya has a phone, should I need to reach out. And she would. When she needed a bit of money for some of the exciting stickers, posters, and acrylic stands on display.
Oh, the humanity of aging.
Toronto Comicon was great for my kid, who has definitely found a world of belonging whenever we go to conventions. Anya is happy to complement cosplayers of all sorts, and appreciates it when she get a compliment back. This time out, Anya was cosplaying as her namesake from the Spy x Family anime and really looked fantastic. Of course, I’m biased. So comfortable was Anya that she even walked the Cosplay Red Carpet and went to the Spy x Family meet-up!
As for me, well, it was hard not to walk around the North Building of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre and not feel like something was missing. Specifically, it was missing comics. Yes, there were big name creators like Joe Quinones available for autographs and commissions, and Artist Alley was full of aspiring creators selling their wares; I picked up the first issue of The Evil Things: Red Assembly by writer/artist Charlotte Forrester because it’s a murder mystery and her art style reminded me instantly of Alex Maleev’s, which I hope Charlotte takes as a compliment.
However, one of the things I used to love doing was finding deals on trade paperbacks and hardcovers. You’d think at a comicon, those would be readily available, but you’d be incorrect. There were a few places that had some HCs and trades for sale, but at no point did I see anything where I thought,
“oh, THIS is a deal.” That’s just the way things have gone the last few years, and that’s ok. I think the large majority of people who are attending Toronto Comicon are looking to cosplay and meet likeminded folks, and/or add to their Funko collections, because there was no shortage of sellers devoted to those.
While the merchandise aspect of Toronto Comicon may have passed me by, by and large the event itself continues to be a well-oiled machine. Friday is always the day to go, as it’s definitely less crowded than Saturdays and Sundays. You get the full-on vibe without the shoulder to shoulder crowds. And you know, my kid had a blast, and that’s all that really matters.
Toronto Comicon continues through the weekend at the North Building of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.
