FrostCon 2.0

This past weekend, I got the opportunity to travel up to Toronto for the second annual FrostCon. I went with fellow contributor Jason and our photographer Dan, braving our way there and back in a blizzard. (Safely of course)

Even though the weather was terrible, the turnout to this event was really good and it continued to build throughout the day. Most of the people there were dressed as anime characters which admittedly is not my strong suit unless we are talking stuff from the 80’s like Robotech or Voltron. That was to be expected since we knew going in this would be a mostly anime convention. Held at the Ramada Plaza in downtown Toronto, this is the second year of FrostCon and it seems to be going strong.

The X-Men of Toronto were there doing a great job of welcoming people into the main area where the dealers and artists were and raising money for charity. They’ve have been busy lately with charities and at FrostCon it was Blessings in a Backpack that they focused their attention on, letting everyone know the charities mission; that they help to provide kids with lunches that may otherwise be going to school without one. Previously, the X-Men of Toronto attended Toy Mountain, which saw over 30,000 toys donated to the cause. You can follow more of their charity work on their Facebook page and you can donate to Blessings in a Backpack here: http://blessingsinabackpack.ca

The vendor room was a little cramped. There were only six vendors but they had a wide variety of items for sale and it seemed everybody grabbed a box of Pocky while they were there. (Pocky is a Japanese snack food; a cookie-like stick dipped in different flavored coating like chocolate and strawberry) Most of the items for sale was typical of stuff you would see at an anime convention which are very small, Japanese figurines or key fobs. Unfortunately for me and anyone into comics, there was only one comic book vendor which was an independent company called StudioComix, who had an assortment of great comics for about $4.00 an issue. We always love catching up with the owner, Alfonso, at the conventions we attend together. Check out his work at StudioComix Press.

Artist alley had many more tables then the vendor room. Obviously most of the art was anime style and it appeared a lot of it were not characters from any anime or manga. Personally, I would have liked to see pictures of recognizable characters and more artists selling original works in other mediums and not just prints. For people who were interested in the artwork, there was a great selection to choose from and it seemed every print was priced the same at $10.00 each.

One artist, however, did catch my eye. Her name is Shannon Kelly and she had a very cool collage print of Amazing Spider-Man which had Spider-Man surrounded by his assorted enemies. Her work was very good and in talking to her I learned that she is only 16 years old. Shannon was there to lend a hand at her sisters table but took a chance by displaying her artwork at an unused table. I was able to talk to her for a few minutes and found that she is really just getting started in selling her work. She even scans her work and adds digitized effects using her tablet. The effort she puts into the pictures really shows through and I hope to see more of her work in the future. You can see some of her art here: Stolen Key on DeviantArt

Overall, it was a great day and I was glad to see it wasn’t a bust because of the bad winter weather outside.