Calgary Comic Expo 2011

The 2011 Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo marked the fourth time Caitlin and I have attended, Rini's third, and Bronwyn's first! We had our hands full for the past few months putting together our entries for the Costume Contest, hence the lack of posts. Thought it was a massive amount of effort, a substantial amount of money, and countless hours to get it all together, we had an absolute blast and are already planning for next year.

The Expo is a two-fold event for our family. Not only do we get to cosplay and meet some celebrities, but we also get to visit with my sisters and their families. This year we went down earlier, and spent a bit more time with them. Although we don't live that far away, the expo is about the only time that we get to visit at all.

This event has begun to be a bit of a family tradition for us. Every year I've gone with Rini, we get a picture with R2-D2. Originally, I wanted to get a picture with just R2 and Rini, but the first year she was too scared to be near him by herself. Now, the both of us crowd in the shot without a second thought. In hindsight, I should have got a picture with Bronwyn as well, but she's only nine months old right now! Back in 2008, when Caitlin and I went by ourselves, and left Rini in the care of my sister, she was just over a year old. The next year, Rini was walking around. The year after, she wanted to be in the stroller all the time. This year, it was a bit of both.

We didn't attend many panels this year due to having our girls with us, but there was one panel I was determined to go to, Cartoon Voices 1. I wanted to go to the second one, but we slept in and there was no room by the time I got there. Despite William Shatner and Jonathan Frakes in attendance, I really wanted to see the panel with Jess Harnel, Maurice LaMarche, and Rob Paulson. I seem more drawn to the voice actors, because two years ago, I was bent on attending the panel with Scott McNeil regarding voice acting.

I was very grateful to have attended Cartoon Voices 1, because they talked about how they create characters and stay competitive. Borrowing voices is not a bad thing, oftimes the actors they borrow them from aren't using them anymore! At the end of the panel, Rob Paulson told a story about a child he met with Muscular Dystrophy. The kid asked for an autograph, but Rob didn't have anything with him at the time. But he was wearing a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles jacket, as he was doing the voice of Raphael in the original series at the time. He took off his jacket, signed it, and gave it to him. Later on he discovered that this same kid was so attached to the jacket that he refused to go into surgery without it, such to the point the hospital staff sterilized the jacket, put it in a plastic bag and had it in the OR during the operation!

But that's not the end of the story. The doctors expected that he would only have a year or two left to live, not much longer past fourteen years old. But he still had that jacket, and everyone in the room could attest to that, BECAUSE HE WAS IN THE AUDIENCE. Rob finished the story with the simple but powerful statement, "You can't tell me it's just cartoons."

I wish that I had some time to talk to him, or at least listen in on the conversation that Rob had with him after the panel. The only thing I heard as I was exiting the room was when Rob told him, "Meeting you changed my life."

The rest of Saturday was spent in the Costume Contest, which I will talk about tomorrow. For now, I need sleep. Didn't get much of that over the weekend!

Next year, I think I might book off Friday and Monday. Friday to travel; Monday to recover.