Montreal Comic Con 2013

Last year was my first Comic Con and while small compared to the scale of San Diego's, there were a lot of people and the venue was packed on the biggest day of the con last year (being Saturday).  Highlights last year included Patrick Stewart, Shatner, and Wil Wheaton with Wheaton and I having a brief chat about old school gaming and C&C.  There was so much to see and do that both Mariosl (my significant other) and I decided then to do it again this year.

So... the events kick off today at noon if you are a VIP or Deluxe pass holder, and 3:00pm for everyone else.  We part of the 'everyone else' crowd this year.  We went deluxe last year and, while the earlier access is nice (really nice actually if crowds annoy you and you want to do some shopping), it was harder to justify this year.  Sure you also get a tote-bag and a limited edition comic book produced for the con (last year was a tote bag and t-shirt), but I found it harder to justify the $20 per ticket difference between regular and deluxe passes.  For that same price difference, the $40 (plus taxes) we save essentially pays for most photo-ops or autographs.  Besides, money has been tight for me (and Arcana Creations) for a few months now -- I have to tread carefully where my finances are concerned.  ;)

This year's Montreal Comic Con seems to have an interesting array of guests though there were quite a few lineup change the past 4 weeks.  The final lineup includes Gillian Anderson, George Takei, Christopher Loyd, Jason Mamoa, Sean Astin, a bunch from the Battlestar Galactica reboot/refresh, and a whole bunch more.  Honestly, there seems to be more celebrities this year than the last which is, no doubt, due to this con's continued success in the few years it's been in operation.

However, because of the many line up changes in the past few weeks, the schedule they've finally nailed down is, well, less than adequate IMO.  Like last year, it was pretty much released at the last minute.  A PDF version was released last Friday and there is an app which provides scheduling information which was released a bit earlier this week.  In the few days since the release of the PDF, there are ALREADY schedule changes and discrepancies.  Makes planning your weekend a bit more difficult.  Marisol and I took over an hour looking at the schedule, descriptions of events, and checking out movies trailers to decide what we were doing exactly to maximize our weekend.  Simply put, we haven't had a chance to do much as far as trips are concerned, so Comic Con is one of the highlights we focus on instead.

It will be great though and I'll be sure to post some pics and give a post-con report once the weekend is behind me.

M