2022 Ottawa Comiccon

After a three-and-a-half year hiatus due to the pandemic, Ottawa Comiccon had finally returned. What better way to celebrate a grand return than having Gail Simone (Birds of Prey, Secret Six, Villains United, Batgirl) as a featured guest? This was Simone's FIRST time visiting Ottawa and her visit was met with a lot of enthusiasm.

You're probably wondering how Ottawa's first post-COVID Comiccon went? On Sunday evening the Ottawa Comiccon media team reported an attendance of over 40,000 visitors over the weekend. Not bad considering this convention was later in the summer than usual and fell around the same time students were returning back to college and university.

Since we're a site that tends to zero in on DC comics and/or 80s properties, comic guests of interest included Ken Lashley (Legends of the DCU, Legion of Super Heroes), Marco Rudy (Swamp Thing), Janet Hetherington (Elvira), Ronn Sutton (Elvira, Edgar Rice Burroughs comic strips), Tom Fowler (Doom Patrol), Dan Parent (Archie), Richard Comely (Captain Canuck), Mark Shainblum (Captain Canuck), Jack Briglio (Legion of Super Heroes) and Casey Parsons (covers and pinups for various DC titles). Geof Isherwood (Suicide Squad) was scheduled to appear, but had to postpone. 

Marco Rudy told us about his new creator-owned graphic novel, RDW: A Tale of Lost Fantasy, which he wrote and illustrated and had total creative control of. "I'm making a move towards creator-owned properties", he explained. We flipped through a few pages of his new hardcover book and it looked gorgeous -- exactly what we've come to expect from Marco. If you're a fan of his painted work, you'll want to check this out. More information and how to order can be found here. 

RDW: A Tale of Lost Fantasy

Janet Hetherington told us about Galaxy Warriors, a new sci-fi film directed by Brett Kelly that was filmed here in Ottawa and premiering at the Gladstone Theatre that weekend. Janet wrote the screenplay for the film and described it as 'a throwback to the B-movie sci-fi exploitation films of the 1970s': 

This film looks pretty entertaining and I'm a big fan of anything filmed locally (I still remember attending early screenings of Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter back in 2001), so I was all over this. As an added bonus, the movie poster was illustrated by Ronn Sutton and colored by Geof Isherwood: 

Janet Hetherington and Ronn Sutton with poster for Galaxy Warriors.

How could you NOT want to see this film? Just look at this flyer:

We stopped to chat with Casey Parsons, freelance artist, co-editor and co-publisher of Cauldron supernatural anthology magazine, at his table to check out his art and latest copy of Cauldron published by RAID press. Writer Sam Noir, who's love of DC comics from the 1980s automatically makes him a kindred spirit, was also hanging around and we had a chance to chat with him about his favorite comics of the era and discuss some sort of future collab for the future -- stay tuned for more on that. Sam also gave a shout out to Eric Anthony's Cave of Solitude podcast (which were already huge fans of, but it never hurts to remind people).

Artist Casey Parsons posing with Cauldron Magazine and Baxter Stock

Once we finished prowling through Artists Alley, we made our way over to the vendor tables on the other side of the convention (which will be a separate article). For anyone wondering: yes, we did get an interview with Gail Simone, and we'll be posting it shortly. 

The cosplayers were out in full force on Saturday and Sunday. Lots of anime/manga characters and lots of Marvel and video game characters. In terms of DC comics cosplay, Harley Quinn and Joker were still the most popular costumes. We're always on the lookout for the obscure DC characters, a few that stood out included:  

Katana (seen with Batman). It's nice to know that she's still in the public consciousness after that first Suicide Squad film. I'm a fan and I hope we see more of her in the DCU:

Image source: Martin Lee Photo

Polka Dot Man. A decade ago I don't think anyone would've ever expected a 1960's z-list Batman villain to be recognizable enough to be cosplayed at a comic convention. Thanks to the last Suicide Squad film, here we are:

Image source: Ottawa Comiccon

Peacemaker (seen with Harley Quinn and... I think... Catwoman). You already know we're Peacemaker fans, so we pretty much went crazy for this cosplay.

image source: Lee Riggins Photography

Truth be told, that Peacemaker cosplayer knocked it out of the park and that previous pic doesn't really do her costume justice, so we managed to find a better photo of her:

image source: Tiggi/Goose

While there were a few Wonder Woman cosplayers, this was the only KINGDOM COME Wonder Woman cosplay we saw (of course, this could just as easily have been Wonder Woman 84 cosplay):

Image source: Martin Lee Photo

We immediately recognized Troia of the Teen Titans, but mistook the cosplayer on the left for Superman's father from the original Superman film. It was actually the Lords of Justice Superman from the DCAU:

image source: DC in the 80s

Batwoman and Knightmare Future Batman (as seen in Zack Snyder's Justice League). Every time Ottawa Knight's cosplay comes out to a convention they always slay: 

image source: DC in the 80s

This Wonder Woman cosplayer (with Spider-Man) really went for that classic WW look that was prevalent throughout the 70s, 80s and 90s. Got to love the classics:

Fitness trainers Natasha Aughey and Xavier Renart 
image source: DC in the 80s

There was a Bane cosplayer and a Tank Girl cosplayer wandering around, but we couldn't catch up to them in time to snap a pic (or find any online pics of them). Maybe something will surface eventually?

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...and that's a summary of our visit to the 2022 Ottawa Comiccon. Thanks to Agence Pink for bringing Gail Simone to Ottawa and organizing a great show. We're looking forward to the next one.