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Fans unite at Toronto Comicon, meet Degrassi stars

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Thursday, March 23, 2017

A woman in a Lady Deadpool outfit, known under the pseudonym "Tumbling Cosplay", is interviewed.
Image: Nick Moreau.

Pop culture event Toronto ComiCon continued to grow this year, the sixth year since its restructuring as a three day program. Beginning on Friday evening, it continued through to Sunday. Organized by the same company as Fan Expo Canada, the event offered exhibitors, retailers, an artist's alley, and panels.

Cast members from Canadian teen show Degrassi Junior High were among the featured guests at the convention. While the current series in the franchise, best known as Degrassi: The Next Generation, has spawned Broadway star Jake Epstein, rapper Drake, and others, the earlier show including Stacie Mistysyn and Stefan Brogren remains popular, particularly in Canada. Brogren told industry publication Kidscreen: "A part of me thought we would do it for five years and maybe get recognized for a couple of years afterwards and then that would be it. I had no idea it would turn out to be such an important thing in so many peopleʼs lives and not just in Canada, but around the world."

The current program is now distributed by Netflix, and Brogen remains a cast member as school principal, in addition to being a producer and director.

It was the first time the cast did a convention event. The cast also plan to tour to other conventions in Canada this year.

Also appearing were Robert Picardo, the holographic doctor on Star Trek: Voyager, and Ray Park, Darth Maul in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.

Panels at the convention focused on topics like steampunk costuming, wig styling, recently rebooted comic Captain Canuck, toy collecting, and the history of comic books in Canada over the decades, in conjunction with Canada's sesquicentennial year. Cast members from The Sean Ward Show appeared at the event, meeting guests to the convention and hosting a panel about the superhero comedy YouTube channel which has more than 600 million views.

Cosplay highlights

As per usual, many attendees showed off costumes based on their favourite video games, comic books, television series, movies, and other pop culture creations. Characters ranged from one woman's interpretation of Roadhog from the current Overwatch video game, to retro revivals like the titular character from three-decade-old series Alf. Wikinews' Nick Moreau was at the event Saturday to photograph.

Many cosplayers at the event gave their own personal twists to recognizable characters. Two takes on Disney Princesses, for example: one group turned Moana, Cinderella, Mulan and Snow White into lightsaber-wielding Jedi, while another woman touring the con floor was dressed in preparation for a boudoir photo shoot later that day. Other twists included a Wookie version of Winnie the Pooh, sophisticated armour based on Pokemon characters, and a Stormtrooper from Planet of the Apes.

Ended series were the name of the game when it comes to costumes inspired by television, with few exceptions. One duo seen by Wikinews' reporter, but unfortunately not photographed, was inspired by Canadian international co-production spy series X Company, which aired its final episode just days before the event.

Superheroes, video game characters, and others rounded out the lineup.


Sources

Wikinews
Wikinews
 This article features first-hand journalism by Wikinews members. See the collaboration page for more details.
Wikinews
Wikinews
 This article features first-hand journalism by Wikinews members. See the collaboration page for more details.

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This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.
Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.
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