Montreal Comiccon: Day 3

Final day.

No convention is complete without dressing up in cosplay for at least one of the days. Today was my day. I'm used to dressing up for all three, but due to constraints this year, I had no time to make my costumes, so I went with a quick and simple solution: Sans the skeleton from Undertale. With my make-up on and hoodie zipped, I boarded the 105 and made my way to the Palais de Congres for the last time this weekend.

 

The first panel I got in to see was the Z'isle conference, hosted by Lateef Martin- who readers will remember from Day 2's panel on Diversity and Sexuality- and Isabelle Duguay.

Z'isle is best known for it's recycled weapons: bows made of bike parts, stop sign shields and bike gear maces. But what Z'isle is, is a comic series based in Montreal seven years after a zombie apocalypse, where the island is infested with zombies known as “Feeders” and the remaining boroughs “have restructured their neighbourhoods into fortresses against the onslaught of the undead and formed alliances with complimentary communities.” The recycled bikes make more sense now- because what else does Montreal have in abundance?

Martin and Duguay are currently working on turning the series into an RPG video game, which will be available on Steam upon completion, which will act as a prequel to the comics- having players survive the first seven years of the zombie outbreak.

The concept and story-line of Z'isle is truly inspiring, as it is essentially a Montreal-wide project. All of the characters that appear in the series, as well as the video game, are real people who live and work on the island. People are invited to help fund the story, and in return, are given a cameo in the series. So far, this has lead to Z'isle having over 136 unique characters.

People are also invited to contribute story ideas, and can write-in to Z'isles Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/zisleseries/.

The completed series will be a trilogy of seven to nine issues each. At the moment, the series is available only in English- save for some french curse words- but will be translated into french once all the issues have been released.

 

The second panel I attended was Tom Felton's Q and A.

Felton played in movies such as Get Him To The Greek, The Apparition and Rise of Planet of The Apes, but is most recognizable for playing Draco Malfoy in the movie adaptation of J.K. Rowlings series Harry Potter.

Unlike other Q and A conferences, Felton's was strictly Q and A. No anecdotal introduction, no garlic spare ribs, straight to business. Not completely surprising however, seeing as it was the actors first time in Montreal.

He answered questions such as what his patronus charm would be and what memory he would use to conjure it, whether he enjoyed playing a villain or would prefer to play a protagonist- to which he answered “its always better to be the bad guy”- and which of the Harry Potter movies was his favourite.

The sweetest moments were whenever children would come up to the mic to ask a question. Felton is just great with kids.

He also shared a moment with the crowd from back during the filming of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. In the movie, Hermione Granger, who is played by Emma Watson, punches Draco in the face in one scene. While in the break room one day, Felton tells Watson that they should practice the part before filming, which was originally supposed to be a slap. Felton is fully aware of how to throw a fake hit, Watson unfortunately, is not. She ended up slapping Felton across the face, mush to his surprise.

Before the end of the conference, he added a few touching anecdotes about working with the late Alan Rickman.

 

The final panel of the day was the award ceremony for Saturdays Masquerade. While there were a plethora of honourable mention awards for best aspects, I will stick to the awards for best in divison and how my top three picks faired:

Best in the Novice division: Entry #16 Pit and Dark Pit from Kid Icarus

Honourable Mention for Armour in the Journeyman division: #57 Iron Man Mark 39 from Iron Man

Best Armour in the Journeyman division: #9 Sauron and the Witch King from Lord of The Rings

Best in the Journeyman division: #20 Cosplay group of Alice Through The Looking Glass and #18 Customized Air Nomad cosplay from Avatar: The Last Airbender

Best in the Artisan division: #15 Gender-bent Penguin from the Gotham TV series and #32 Anastasia Tremaine from Cinderella

Best Wings in the Master division: #24 Custom designed cosplay of a Lunar moth

Best in the Master division: #42 Goddess from the Spawn Manga

Best Overall in Show: #32 Anastasia Tremaine from Cinderella and #38 Backstreet Boys cosplay group

 

Sunday was much more relax than Saturday was and not nearly as packed. I was also happy to get back into my cosplay. I was recognized several times, spotted at least three other Sanses and took a couple of pictures with people. I do believe I have also been thoroughly Pavloved. Every time a bell rings I shout “SHAME.” Don't know how that happened. There's a line in my notes though that reads

 

“The man with the bell has too much power.”

 

Sadly to say, I did leave the con a bit earlier than expected. As part of Comiccon tradition with friends, we all go out for sushi and then crash at home. Which is exactly what we did. You can take the cosplayer out of cosplay... but you can't stop them from devouring sushi and passing out from a food coma.

As soon as possible I will follow up with an entire overview of the con and it's events, so please stay tuned to CJLO's Magazine and Feature section for the update, it will be up promptly. Despite whatever post-con depression I may face.

 

Thank you Montreal!