The Cosplayers

"You don't know the power of the collectibles side. It is useless to resist." ~ Darth Vader, Star Wars Episode V and a Half: The Fans Strike Back

Back in May, I attended the Ottawa Comiccon, an annual event down at the EY Centre near the airport. It's a big event as Ottawa events go, though not like it is at the big San Diego event each year. And it was busy. There were plenty of cosplayers around. I could have gone as Lex Luthor. Perhaps next year.

Some people attend to see various celebrities who come for the event. Others come as cosplayers. I came to photograph cosplayers, buy some shirts, and pick up some art along the way. I did pick up some poster art from an indie illustrator pair, as well as two well established artists in the industry, Mike Zeck and Geof Isherwood. I thanked Mr. Zeck for his work in what I still consider to be the best comic book story I've ever read, a Spider-Man story titled Kraven's Last Hunt. I bought four shirts from one vendor (and got two mystery freebies in the bargain, fortunately neither of them featuring Wolverine, or as I call him the Drunken Hobbit), and two from another that I'll show tomorrow. And I bought one more item of merchandise that appears at the end of this post. Here we have a wide view of one of the corridors. The building is a large one, and probably more convenient for load-in and out than the convention centre downtown.

I know these are Dr. Who related items, but admittedly I've never seen more than a few minutes worth of the show, enough to convince me that you'd need a big bag of weed to figure out that convoluted mess. Fans of The Doctor may strangle me at their leisure.

The Canadian War Museum had a presence this year, as they had last year. The temporary exhibit Highland Warriors is on now at the museum. I'll stop by on Canada Day.

Thor's Trinkets is the name of an independent artisan shop in Brockville, Ontario. I chatted with the artist and bought one of these beer mugs- the empty space in the first shot is the one I bought. I've seen her work before at the farmer's market here- a teddy bear outfitted in Thor chainmail armour, complete with hammer.

Here's mine at home. Of course when I saw the Ministry of Silly Walks, I had to pick it up. For those of you in the UK, there'll be a Monty Python retrospective on British television in the fall. It'll apparently include a shot or two of a Silly Walks sign that was here in Ottawa that I took for the blog. I have more from here tomorrow.