Fan Expo Canada

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Fan Expo Canada (FANX) (formerly the Canadian National Expo) is a multigenre convention covering the sci-fi, comic book, anime, horror, and gaming genres. It is held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto and has taken place since 1995, when it was named The Canadian National Comic Book Expo. It is the largest pop culture convention in Canada, and at FANX 2005, 36,753 fans attended from Friday, August 26th to Sunday, August 28th [citation needed] and at FANX 2006, 42,947 fans attended from Friday, September 1st to Sunday, September 3rd [citation needed].

Cosplay is popular at the expo, and every year the convention centre is filled with hundreds of colourful and elaborate costumes from different anime, science fiction, and comic book titles. Con-goers who wish to show off their work on stage may do so in the Masquerade held on the Saturday night of the convention at the John Basset Theatre, where the Canadian Idol competition was held.

[edit] Guests

The convention has seen many well known actors, actresses and artists from all media aspects of the event, including William Shatner (Captain James T. Kirk, Star Trek), Patrick Stewart (Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Professor Charles Xavier, X-Men), David Prowse (Darth Vader, Star Wars) Margot Kidder (Lois Lane, Superman), Kevin Sorbo (Captain Dylan Hunt, Andromeda), Scott McNeil (Duo Maxwell, Gundam Wing), Kia Asamiya, (Silent Mobius, Slayers) Clive Barker (Hellraiser series) and Elijah Wood (Frodo Baggins, The Lord of the Rings, Kevin, Frank Miller's Sin City).

[edit] Criticism

Hobby Star Marketing (HSM) organizers of this event have been criticized for previous and continuing harmful practices to fans and various other conventions alike to make a commercial profit. For the last two years they have sabotaged a competing organizers event by launching a similar event during the same week in the same city even using a similar name (Paradise Comics Toronto Comicon vs. Hobby Star's Toronto ComiCon 2006).[1] Hobby Star events have been criticized in the past as being poorly organized, understaffed, over crowded, and over priced for the content offered. Hobby Star has also advertised events as being well rounded in term of content from the comics, movies, anime, etc, industries, but then having disproportionately unbalanced guests and distributors attend, leaving some fans with little catering to their interests. Some distributors have also complained of Hobby Star using strongarm tactics to keep them from attending the events of competitors. [2]

Hobby Star has made few responses to these criticisms, none through official channels such as their official websites or publications. They refute claims that they have sabotaged Paradise Comics events by claiming their events where planned well in advance, just not officially announced, and dates for the facilities they wished to use were limited. Responses to the quality of the events have been even less forethcoming, simply stating "The fans, the dealers, the guest and Hobby Star all win...". [3]