the montreal comiccon has boldly gone where no con has gone before

Press release

For immediate release

THE MONTREAL COMICCON HAS BOLDLY GONE WHERE NO CON HAS GONE BEFORE Montreal, September 17, 2012 – The fourth edition revealed to the world that the Montreal Comiccon is a world-class event, as 32,000 fans walked through the mighty halls of Montreal Comiccon's new home, the Palais des congrès. From the beginning to the end, super-powered fans could be seen dressed in costumes, posing for pictures and making thousands smile. All week-end, many lines snaked around for fans to get an opportunity to get their items signed or to participate in a photo op with their favourite celebrity. On Friday night, James Marsters charmed hundreds of fans with his music and voice at his late night concert in the Main Events room. A few floors up, a very direct Malcolm McDowell spent a few minutes entertaining fan questions as he introduced a special screening of A Clockwork Orange, underlining, in a grumpy yet humorous tone: “These better be intelligent questions!”. Saturday saw the largest number of people and activities, where fans had opportunities to attend some diverse programming, including Create Your Own Comics, Steampunk 101 and Sketcharades. Many panels were standing room only, including Le Parkour: Gravity is My Enemy, the live zombie makeup with Rémy Couture as well as videogame-related panels hosted by Ubisoft and BioWare. Other highlights of the day included the Smallville panel with Laura Vandervoort and Aaron Ashmore with surprise appearances of Elias Toufexis, Sam Witwer and Sam Huntington; and an entertaining panel led by the whole cast of Being Human. In addition, Gavin Blair's ReBoot retrospective panel had to be moved to a bigger room due to the overwhelming response, and the Kill Shakespeare live reading with the Montreal Shakespeare Theatre Company was one of the best attended events. The most talked-about event remains the Reunion of the Generations special panel held on Saturday night, where Sir Patrick Stewart and William Shatner discussed their careers through Star Trek history, as well as entertaining fans questions. About an hour into the show, Malcolm McDowell (who killed Captain Kirk in Star Trek) made an unexpected appearance, emerging from backstage to thunderous applause. Not even the two captains knew about it beforehand, which resulted in a very emotional and intense moment.

For its first year, the HorrorFest had a decent turnout, entertaining genre-buffs with scary, gory and thrilling films. Many directors and cast were on site to introduce their films, including Tom Savini (Smoke and Mirrors: The Story of Tom Savini) and Matt Farnsworth (The Orphan Killer). The screening of American Horror Story (AddikTV) was hosted by cinematographer Michael Goi, who was later handed the Montreal Comiccon HorrorFest Fan-Favorite Award for his movie, Megan is Missing, which he directed and was screened immediately after. Comic book and BD fans had an amazing assortment of creators to meet, get autographs and sketches from, including George Pérez (Wonder Woman, The Infinity Gauntlet), Ben Templesmith (30 Days of Night), David Finch (The Dark Knight), Michel Rabagliati (série Paul), Paolo Serpieri (Druuna) and Philippe Berthet (Couleur Café), among others. On Sunday, it was Mike Mignola's birthday, so organizers interrupted his panel to sing « Bonne fête » (in French) along with panel attendees and share a birthday cake. Finally, the 8th annual Joe Shuster Awards, celebrating the efforts of Canadian comic book creators, was held for the first time at the Montreal Comiccon. With the amazing turnout and support from fans, the Montreal Comiccon has become a must-see event in Montreal and promises to grow even more in the coming years. The next edition will take place at the Palais de congrès from September 13 to 15, 2013.

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Press/media enquiries:

Leeja Murphy – T 514 528-6362 C 514 213-0045 [email protected]

General enquiries:

Elizabeth Jutras – T 514 653-3783 [email protected]