Calgary Expo 2015 Wish List

I've had a blast each time I go to the annual Calgary Expo. They always have great guests and I've picked up great comics, beautiful pieces of art and gotten autographs from people who have inspired me and made both childhood and adulthood awesome.

Ever since the end of last year's Expo I kept thinking about who I would like to see attend next year. So, even though there's around eight months before the Expo and there's plenty of chance to make arrangements for these people to attend, these are people I would like to see at the 2015 Calgary Expo.



1) Neil Gaiman
I'd heard of Gaiman before in a comic book documentary and he was brought up when talking about Sandman.
"The idea of putting somebody in a costume seemed very odd. I thought, 'I don't know any people who wear costumes.' On the other hand a person who dressed all in black, seemed kind of obvious."
I recently bought the first volume of Sandman and really enjoyed it.

His work is incredibly popular and with the talk of Sandman being made into a motion picture, it would seem like the perfect time to get such an superb guest.

I've been listening to interviews of the guy for quite a while and a lot of the stuff that I hear from him is just very inspiring. Plus he seems like a really cool guy and I don't know anyone who would disagree with that. Sometimes I'll put on an interview of his and just hearing him speak makes me want to write harder and better. And I have no idea why that is. Either way, Neil Gaiman would be able to draw a lot of fans.
Just watch his "Make Good Art" speech and you'll agree with me.


2) Greg Weisman
Weisman is responsible for some of the more intelligent cartoons from when I was a kid and also when I was an adult. He co-created the 1994 cartoon Gargoyles, which had some of the best voice actors for any cartoon with the exception of Batman: The Animated Series but damn, did it do an awesome job.
Plus, I love the irony of having Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis, two cast-members from one of TV's biggest good-guy team playing the main bad guys in this cartoon and holy crap, did they kick ass!

Weisman was also responsible for Spectacular Spider-Man, a series that I ignorantly ignored at first simply due to the character design but when I gave it an honest look, I realized that this was almost a love letter and modern update of the classic stories by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. And also, it's probably the best adaptations of Spider-Man I've seen. I'll take binge-watching this everyday for a week compared to ever watching The Amazing Spider-Man 2 just once.

Also, Weisman was behind Young Justice, probably one of the best animated superhero shows of the past half-decade. In fact, bring anyone associated with Young Justice from voice actors, to artists like Christopher Jones, who worked on the excellent tie-in comic of the same name.

Oh and the fact that Weisman's both a writer and executive producer on the new Star Wars Rebels series and we know it's going to be impossible for that show to not have some popularity.

3) Bruce Timm
Oh, the guy responsible for Batman: The Animated Series, a show that's credited as being one of the best cartoons of all time? Yeah, I mean...there's bound to be a few people who'd want to meet him.

Yeah, not gonna lie, I'd be one of them. He's one of the men responsible for the DC Animated Universe (DCAU) which spanned 14 years of continuous programming and showed that just because the show's target audience is children, doesn't mean that the stories can't be interesting for adults. From Batman: TAS all the way to Justice League: Unlimited and even the stuff he's working on today, Timm's shown that he has a great respect for the histories of the characters he helps bring to the screen. Just look what he did for Superman's 75th anniversary last year.

Oh and he also co-created Freakazoid! which I didn't know until now. 

Yeah, I know Snyder helped on this. Don't really care either

4) Paul Dini

Yeah, if we're going to bring about the guy who helped bring Batman to the small screen in the best way, why not invite the guy who wrote some of the best episodes from that series? Heart of Ice, Joker's Favor, "Almost Got 'Im", these are classic stories that still hold up and I'm just picking ones from one series. 

He's also done work in comics, writing the Batman story "Mad Love" which Frank Miller called the best Batman story of the decade. I should note that this is before Miller went batshit crazy.

Dini also worked on Lost and he's responsible for creating the character of Harley Quinn. Remember, this is a character who started out as a sidekick to the Joker, that was so popular, she eventually joined the mainstream comic universe. You're doing something right when you create a character that can do that!

Viewers most beloved abusive relationship!

You know, since this is featuring a lot of people involved with Batman: The Animated Series, fine, let's go all out!

5) Every Voice Actor from "Batman: The Animated Series".
OK, it might be hard to get every voice actor and sadly Efrem Zimbalist Jr. (Alfred) and Bob Hastings (Commissioner Gordon) both passed away this year, but don't tell me that you can't get Kevin Conroy (Batman), Mark Hamill (The Joker), Loren Lester (Robin/Nightwing) and Arleen Sorkin (Harley Quinn). 

Hell, last year, one of the the big draws (From my POV) was the fact that you had the original cast of the  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon as well as co-creator Kevin Eastman there. Imagine how big the crowds would be if you had the voice actors I just listed? 

 Find some way to incorporate the Calgary Expo into this and tickets will sell out within an hour

I could go on and on about people I want to see at next year's Calgary Expo but I think it's best if I stop here. Look, I'm not saying that all the people I've listed have to show up or else I'm not going.

Hardly. None of them could show up and I'd still go, taking time off from work if need be. I'm just putting out there what I and probably others would like to see. 

But as you can see here, there's plenty of time to get that done.