I remember Comic Con. The original one to be exact, not the holy grail of cons: San Diego, but a smaller distinctly Torontonian event that was the predecessor to the monster I attended this weekend.

Back then it was called the Paradise Con. It was eponymously named for Paradise Comics who staged the thing. Paradise Comics is a small albeit successful little place up at Yonge and Lawrence (Toronto). I used to go to school in that area and naturally that’s where I bought comic books. I checked out the con with a friend and found it to be a generally well-put together event. There were plenty of vendors hawking the kind of goodies you would expect and some really decent panels. I attended those having to do with webcomics which were at that point somewhat of an obsession for me.

Years have passed and the Con has been sold to Wizard who have re-dubbed it “Toronto Wizard World Comic Con”. There seems to be a trend in attaching the word ‘con’ to just about any event in an attempt to raise it from the mediocrity it currently resides in, but I digress after all there is nothing to worry about here cause’ Toronto Comic Con delivers the goods. It’s not the absolutely insane scale of Fan Expo but it does a fantastic job emulating it and its offerings.

What I look for in a con is good panel programming and a big artists’ alley. After all, Comic Con for me is about interacting with my favorite comic book creators: artists, writers and publishers. Spending a couple rubles on some original artwork is something anyone would be hard pressed to regret, it is art after all. Sitting in an auditorium as industry vets and pros shoot the shit is fantastic and if you’re lucky you might get in a question or two. Of course Hollywood shows up to force feed you whatever summer blockbuster they have coming up and as long as it’s done in a creative way I welcome it. A chance to win a TV just for visiting the Cabin in the Woodswebsite sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me and hey the movie actually looks ok.

Vampire Diaries stars are great for pulling in tweenage girls and while it seems like a sell out move I actually enjoyed the hell out of that panel. Who would have known that Paul Wesley aka Stephen Salvadore is a pretty funny guy.