Toronto is fortunate to have a lot of choice when it comes to comic events: there are a myriad of one-off signings and lectures given in the city; there is the free-to-the-public TCAF event; there is the Wizard comic/media show held in the spring; and of course, the Hobbystar FanExpo show.

There should be no doubt that Aman Gupta has built this event from very humble beginnings into the 3rd or 4th largest comic/media event in North America, and for that he should be heartily congratulated.

Over the past 5+ years there have been a lot of great comic guests coming through Toronto in late August, thanks to the efforts of FanExpo staffers Tiziano DeSantis & Kevin Boyd, and the majority of comic fans in area have been very fortunate to have access to these creators.

I don’t think there is much doubt that this event does a great job of getting paying customers through the door, and a lot of Canadian creators make a lot of money at this event. Would I be wrong to say that FanExpo is the #1 Toronto event for Canadian creators to make money? No doubt in my mind this is true.

FanExpo also provides space to a great number of Canadian creators, the list this year is impressive:
JEFF LEMIRE
DARWYN COOKE
DALE KEOWN
FRANCIS MANAPUL
YANICK PAQUETTE
CAMERON STEWART
DOUG SNEYD
ANDY BELANGER
MICHAEL CHO
ROB COUGHLER
ARTHUR DELA CRUZ
SCOTT HEPBURN
ERIC KIM
BRIAN McLACHLAN
RAMON PEREZ
SALGOOD SAM (aka Max Douglas)
ERIC VEDDER
KEI ACEDERA
ATTILA ADORJANY
SAM AGRO
ADRIAN ALPHONA
KALMAN ANDRASOFSZKY
JASON ARMSTRONG
KELLEY ARMSTRONG
BLAKE BELL
J. BONE
JACK BRIGLIO
KENT BURLES
SCOTT CHANTLER
MICHAEL CHERKAS
BOBBY CHIU
MICHAEL CHO
RICHARD COMELY
WES CRAIG
DAVID CUTLER
WILLOW DAWSON
VALENTINE DE LANDRO
CAMILLA D’ERRICO
LAR DESOUZA
ANTHONY DEL COL
OMAR DOGAN
JASON EDMISTON
RAY FAWKES
AGNES GARBOWSKA
JASON GILMORE
TONY GRAY
LARRY HANCOCK
SCOTT HEPBURN
JANET HETHERINGTON
GREG HYLAND
RAFFAELLE IENCO
ALEX JANSEN
RON KASMAN
LOVERN KINDZIERSKI
LEONARD KIRK
RICHARD A. KIRK
SHANE KIRSHENBLATT
ALVIN LEE
KURT LEHNER
STEVEN CHARLES MANALE
MARVIN S. MARIANO
NICK MARINKOVICH
CONOR MCCREERY
ALEX MILNE
MATT MOYLAN
JOE NG
RICHARD PACE
RICHARD POPLAK
NICK POSTIC
AMY PRONOVOST
GIBSON QUARTER
PETER REPOVSKI
HUGH ROOKWOOD
DAVE ROSS
RYAN SOHMER
STEVE SPRAYSON
KEN STEACY
RONN SUTTON
MARCIO TAKARA
TY TEMPLETON
MARCUS TO
J. TORRES
JAMES TURNER
ALINA URUSOV
JOE VRIENS
ROB WALTON
SEAN WARD
KEN WHEATON
CRAIG YEUNG
RICHARD ZAJAC
JIM ZUBKAVICH

I hope everyone enjoys the weekend.