Spring has finally arrived in Vancouver; con season is here and I thought I would just take the time to do a little recap of last years West Coast Comic Con!
West Coast Comic Con hosted their 2nd annual Comic and collectibles trade show in 2022, at the newly renovated Croation Cultural Centre in Vancouver. This small, one-day event was held on August 7th with opening hours being 11am-6pm. Tickets were $10 on the door and children under 12 were allowed in for free!
Me and my
partner arrived at the event at 2pm and were surprised to find a que to get inside.
There was a heatwave and not much shade, so it was a little uncomfortable
waiting to be allowed in, but it was still nice to see how successful the event
had been!
It was actually so busy, that they ran out of tickets and were having to write out new tickets on scraps of paper. They did also have some troubles with the card machine which slowed us down a little bit getting in. But the staff were very friendly and welcoming, plus the Tim Hortons donuts for sale at the front desk certainly kept my partner happy! HA-HA!
West Coast
Comic Con is definitely the place you want to visit if you love to read and/or
collect comic books. I would say more than half of the vendors were comic book specific,
with rows and rows of comics to flick through, including some rare/limited editions!
If you’re not a comic book reader, like me, there was still plenty of other items to browse through. I loved reminiscing at all the collectible toys like Hot Wheels, Lego, Transformers, Funko’s, as well as all the old school video & board games (browsing through all the N64 games made me feel so nostalgic!)
Artist Alley
has always been one of my favourite parts about any Comic Con. I love the
creativity and uniqueness of each table and it is always nice to support local
artists.
There were
several artists who had booths on the day and seeing as it’s one of the
smallest conventions I’ve been to, I really noticed how much more time you have
to talk to them about their work, which was really nice.
One artist in particular, Altruist Comics, spent a lot of time with us explaining the details of how he created his comic book called Bullet, the origin story of a Silver Age superhero speedster. He explained how one page could take up to 9 hours to finish and that was just to shade the illustrations!
It was
awesome to be able to speak to all the artists and learn about how much hard
work they put into their creations. This is something that is hard to do at
larger cons, because it’s often too busy, so I’m grateful for that experience.
I didn’t
make many purchases on the day, but one thing I just had to buy was a pack of
Pokémon cards!
(You can
watch me open them here > Pokémon card reveal!)
I knew I
probably wasn’t going to know any of the Pokémon in the pack…I started to lose
concentration after Gen 1 lol but none the less, I couldn’t resist reliving my
youth! 😉
I also purchased some super cute Kawaii stickers from artist Pocket Puff! here’s the link to their Etzy page: https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/PocketPufff
One thing I
feel was lacking at WCCC was cosplay presence. There were a few small kids who
had made the effort to dress up, so it would have been nice for them to have more
adults join in the fun and to show that cosplay is for everyone and you’re
never too old to cosplay!
Maybe there
were more people cosplaying in the morning, and I just missed them? But it
would have been really great if there were more cosplayers present to give the
place a bit more of a buzz!
I think a way around this would be to reach out to local cosplayers and organise something like a cosplay parade, or cosplay photobooth. Most cosplayers I know would be more than happy to do this for free, especially to support a smaller con.
Apart from the vendors and artists, there wasn’t really much else going on at West Coast Comic Con. No guests, special events or food/drinks stands. They did provide a photo wall with their logo on, which was a nice touch. But I’m hoping this year they will look into offering more experiences to help make the day more memorable.
West Coast
Comic Con will be returning this year on August 13th at the Maritime
Labour Centre. I am hoping that this new venue will provide more space to allow
many more artists & vendors. I would also love to see potentially an Artist
Q&A, cosplay parades or maybe even organise some special guests!? Plus,
some food and drinks stalls wouldn’t go amiss, even if they are placed outside
the venue.
Although we were ready to leave after an hour, I would say it was an enjoyable afternoon and worth the visit and I look forward to checking out the new venue this August!
I reached out to local cosplayer Brightest_day_cosplay for their opinion on West Coast Comic Con:
“This con
was nowhere near as big as Fan Expo or Anime Revolution but still felt very
pleasant.
Despite
being held in a small hall, there was a good turnout with attendants. It was a
great opportunity for some of the most passionate cosplayers to elevate it to
new heights.
With only 2
major conventions a year in Vancouver, it is pivotal for local cosplayers and
artists to make their presence felt at such mini cons in order to get the
organizers to promote it more for the next ones and attract more businesses,
patrons and pop culture lovers.
Pros:
Raffles
Air
conditioned on a hot summer day
Cheap ticket
price
Variety of
comic & other merchandise vendors
Photo banner backdrop with con logo
Cons:
Small venue
No
professional photographers on site
No food and
beverages for ticket buyers
Very inactive social media pages
Review by Arthur Kaz
I’m excited
to see what improvements will be made to WCCC if they return to Vancouver next
year!
Thanks for
reading,
Sammy <3
Writer
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