Fan Expo - Part 1, the celebrity!

In my mind, there is generally two things that mainly attract someone to a comic convention, such as Toronto's Fan Expo, 2012 edition. One is the great costumes that the vistors wear (see part 2), but mainly its to see the stars. They range from tv and movie stars, to famous authors, and well known artists. Here is some of those I've encountered this year.

First up is Christopher Lloyd. Everyone knows him from the Back to the Future franchise, and if you ever need the wild scientist type, he is your man!

Now this is a man you probably wouldn't recognize without his most famous costume. This is David Prowse, who played the tower Darth Vader in the Star Wars films. I love the fact that considering the character he played on screen, he has a bugs bunny tie on!

A very popular show with the fans is Flashpoint, on CTV. Here cast meembers David Paetkau, Sergio Di Zio and Olunkie Adeliyi sign there very own hockey cards! Now this autograph sesion had a few hiccups, as some were told to wait in line, only to be told later that unless you went to the earlier Q&A sesion, you were out of luck. But, CTV stepped up and provided them with some free t-shirts, so good on them for trying to blunt the situation with some free swag!

 

Devon Bostick and April Mullen were on hand from the new "Dead Before Dawn 3D" movie, which is of the spoof genre of movies, in this case about zombies!

David Finch was a popular guy, and is doing the new Batman the Dark Night comic.

And who didn't grow up with Bob and Dot from REBOOT! I loved that show, and creator Gavin Blair was on hand to talk about the groundbreaking computer animated show.

Fans of the show Angel will recognize James Masters, who played Spike in the hit show.

As a fan of both versions of Battlestar (BSG and TOS), it was great to see it being represented with the new Apollo, Jamie Bamber.

Another great show was Atlantis, which was one of many spinoffs of the orginal motion picture, Star Gate. Here is Joe Flanigan, who played John Sheppard.

And speaking of John's, this is John Carpenter, who is a legendary creator of many a sci fi and horror (and even sci fi horror) movies in his long career. Who can ever forget "the Thing"!!

John Barrowman was a character in Dr Who, who also stared in a spin off series, Torchwood.

John Ryes-Davies is probably now known mostly for his character Gimli the dwarf in Lord of The Rings, but I always remember him in the Indiana Jones movies!

Julie Benz stared in both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff Angel, and more recently in Dexter.

Another star of those two vampire shows is Juliet Landau.

Levar Burton. If your old enough, he was Kunta Kinte in the TV mini series Roots. But if your newer on the scene, he is of course Geordi La Forge on Star Trek the Next Generation.

The Green Man himself, Lou Ferrigino. Who would believe this guy is 60!!

Oh, and this is what he looks like if you piss him off!!

Another spinoff from Star Trek was Deep Space Nine. One of the major characters, Kira Nerys, was played by Nana Visitor

Nelsan Ellis stars in the vampire show True Blood.

And speaking of blood, here is Norman Reedus, who encounters lots of blood and gore in the great tv series the Walking Dead!

This is a guy you will see in every Marvel movie, the creator of many comic characters like Spiderman! He has a cameo in pretty much every movie done in the Marvel universe!

Tom Noonan was the original "bad guy" in the Hanibal Lector world, playing Francis Dolarhyde, a serial killer in the movie Manhunter.

Oh no, its the Candyman. Or, William Bludworth in the Final Destination movies, again, depending on your age! Its Tony Todd.

   

The X-Files was a show that had people staying at home on a Friday nite!! And no one was more sinister than the Cigarette Smoking Man, played to great effect by William B Davis!!

I always remember Alan Tudyk as the very angry cohort of Heath Ledger in the movie A Knights Tale. Others know him as Wash from Fireflie and Serinity.

Chris Sarrandon (yes, he was married to Susan) will always be Prince Humperdinck in the fantastic Princess Bride movie! Oh how he wanted to marry Buttercup!!

I missed out on Saturdays line up, but Sunday brought three beautiful women of TV.

First up is Amanda Tapping. She is the famous Sam Carter from SG1, but I always remember her as the very nice looking woman working in the doctors office and talking about the pain relief of Advil!! She just keeps getting better every year.

Gillian Anderson, to me one of the first Nerd guys babe. Something about Scully created a buzz across the internet, and she became the best looking FBI agent out there! And here she is, looking even better in real life!

I used to watch the show Prison Break, and Sarah Wayne Callies played the prison doctor Sara Tancredi. The show was great, but in my mind, it had to end. Once they got out, the show must end, otherwise its just a waste of time. And unfortunately, once they got out, it just kept going, only now they were in a Mexican prison. And on top of that, Sarah (the person) got pregnant (in real life), and they wrote her out of the show!! What the hell! So I stopped watching. She is now Lori, the wife of Sheriff Rick Grimes in the show the Walking Dead. I didn't know she was at Fan Expo, but was nicely suprised to see her!

Part 2 will concentrate on the fan part of "FAN EXPO"!

Navy of 1812

A trip down to the waterfront on Friday found a squadron of British war ships. Of course, they were based on the War of 1812, with rigging and sails. The ships included the St Lawrence II, the Faire Jeanne, La Revenante and Caledonian. These ships were recently at the Kingston event, and for this event, were joined by the Toronto Brigantine Ships Playford and Pathfinder, docked together on the waterfront.

Down at H2O beach, the tall ships are lined up aong the dock.

Two sailers walk towards the waiting ships.

Its amazing how much rope is involved in sailing a tall ship.

Which just means that someone has to go up there is there are any problems!

The ships are all part of "The Navy of 1812: Sailors on the Lakes" event, a War of 1812 Bicentennial event. The event took place at Parks Canada's Fort George Historic Site, in Niagara on the Lake.

The Fort was an important site during the war. At the start of the war itself, the americans were actually having dinner at the fort. They finished, and headed back to the US, and for the next 3-4 years they were enemies. And during that time, the US had a series of invasions, and ended up holding the fort for a large part of the war.

Many of the buildings were open, with displays of information on the war, as well as representations of life during the war period. This was the barracks, where the men slept and kept their personal goods.

While one soldier explains how the Brown Bess is loaded and fired, the squad marches into place to do a musket drill.

Also on hand were a British soldiers encampment, and down near the water, a Naval encampment. Between both was a Merchants Area. And many of the merchants build their business on the re-enactors, with knives, muskets and pistols for sale.

While others were selling typical period items like candles and cups.

At miday, the first phase of the demo began, which would see a reproduction of what would be a naval exercise, in which British soldiers would both attack and defend, teaching both the issues involved in attaching and defending a beach head.

The longboats, ready to carry the troops onto the beach.

You can almost imagine a family saying good bye before their father heads off to war.

A Naval Officer on his way to his tall ship.

Soldiers carefully make there way onto the longboats.

 

as  Sailors get ready to sale the longboats.

 

Naval sailers row hard to deliver the troops to the beach.

Soldiers are advancing up the beach.

 

Artillery troops watch the tall ships prepare to send troops to the beach.

And then fire at the fleet.

 

 Back at the fort, at the end of the day, there was a ceremony where the flag is lowered, and the troops (inlcuding the band) troop the colours.

Some of the re-enactors were playing Dragoons, with colourful helmets, including an animal skin fur covers.

After the naval event, there was a break in the action, which gave many of the visitors and chance to enjoy the small time charm of Niagara On the Lake. Back during the war, it was known as Newark, and during one of the many US invasions, the US soldiers burned the town down. This changed the "Gentlemens War" quite a bit, and lead to the sacking of Buffalo and of course the famous taking of Washington, where British troops burned the White House!

At 7, the second phase of the demo began. The idea was that the US soldiers would have to hold the fort, as the British troops began an attack to retake the fort.

US Forces try to defend the fort, firing on the advancing british soldiers.

A Dragoon fires back towards the enemy.

A close up of a Dragoon, generally a horse soldier, firing his smaller length musket.

The British, led by their officers, advance into the Fort, firing in volley's to drive the US from the fort.

US soldiers still fight to hold the fort.

The cost of war. As the colours advance, the field is littered with the dead of battle.

A large scale view of the size of the battle that Fort George held. This is one of the larger actions I have seen for War of 1812 events.

A special thanks to Peter Martin of Parks Canada!