Ryan Beacom said he can still remember watching Lou Ferrigno play the Incredible Hulk on television when he was a child.
Beacom, now a radio broadcasting student at Algonquin College, has a chance to come face-to-face with Ferrigno at the first-ever Ottawa ComicCon being held May 12-13 at the new CE Centre.
“I don’t think I’m ever going to get another chance to come face-to-face with an actor who’ve I’ve grown up with and admire and just to get a couple of words in with [Stewart]. I mean, that’s fantastic,” Beacom said. “And that’s the great part of these kinds of events.”
Beacom travelled to some of the ComicCon events in Toronto, and said the fun is never in short supply. But now he has a chance to experience it in Ottawa.
ComicCon, an event hosted annually in most major cities in North America, is a convention designed to celebrate different areas of pop culture, including comic books, anime, horror films, and science fiction.
Event organizers Scott Péron, vice-president (operations), and David Newman, vice-president (creative development), said bringing ComicCon to Ottawa took roughly four months of planning.
“Things have been progressing,” Péron said. “It’s the first time running an event in [Ottawa], so we’re learning about the various vendors and suppliers that we’ll have to use in future years. It’s more of a challenge because you have to find all sorts of new people when you’re starting from scratch.”
Newman said concerns about whether or not a ComicCon could sustain itself in Ottawa were quickly refuted.
“At first, there was the unknown . . . We knew that there were many fans from Ottawa who were pretty much required to travel far off to go to a convention,” Newman said. “So we’ve met enough people to know there’s quite a fan base and that we’d check it out this year. From as soon as we announced it, it’s been a juggernaut. The response has been tremendous.”
Along with Ferrigno, Sir Patrick Stewart, best known as Professor Xavier from the X-Men movie series and Captain Kirk of Star Trek: The Next Generation will attend, as well as Cassandra Peterson, better known as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. A replica of the DeLorean time machine from Back to the Future will also be on display.
Newman said fans should stay tuned for more surprises.
Being able to meet personalities like Ferrigno and Stewart is what makes events like these special, Beacom said.
“At least, for the first time it’s pretty overwhelming because you’re never ready for the number of people that are there,” Beacom said. “A lot of people, I noticed, really like to dress up.”
Beacom said Ottawa should have no problem having enough attendees to make a successful convention and keep it going beyond the pilot.
“If you can give the people who are interested in this kind of thing a service and an environment that they feel comfortable in and that they can enjoy . . . they’ll keep coming back to you and if you can maintain that and improve upon that, you’ll have a sustained fan base,” Beacom said. “If they can put on a good show, this is something that can easily become an annual thing.”
