The stormtroopers and guardians of the galaxy are already mingling at CN Centre. The gates of Northern FanCon got stormed like the threshold of Asgard on Friday afternoon, and this pop-culture portal will remain open throughout the weekend.
Lt. Uhura will beam into CN Centre in person, Reece will defend the place from the Terminator, Samwise will befriend our little shire, and so many more special guest appearances are coming to the Photo Op corner. Some of the best in B.C.'s filmmaking industry will bring brainpower to Creative Corner, and if all you want to do is just see a costume parade or play arcade games, that's going on as well.
For a lot of people near and far, Northern FanCon is their Christmas, their prom, their Stanley Cup playoffs. Even if you love all those other things, it is still a power event on the city's calendar.
"I've been counting the days, for a couple of reasons," said author Chris Dias, sporting a curly moustache he twisted into place especially for some steam-punk satisfaction. He has a booth in the Kin 1 trade show area.
"One of the reasons is, it's FanCon!," Dias said, "but the other reason is I have four books this year (Aiden's Way, Controlling Chaos, House Of Sky and Amethyst), and two of them only arrived a couple of days ago, so I was getting nervous, but it's all good now."
Not far from Dias is the makeup artistry booth of Mandy Paavola. She adds supernova face painting elements to FanCon. She has been an outspoken advocate of FanCon dating back four years to its beginning.
"This is an important event," she said, tracing a green line of body paint down the arm of a customer in her decoration chair. "There is nothing else like this in all of Prince George. It's all-inclusive. Even if you're not into the superheroes and whatnot, you know that in here you are allowed to be yourself, no mater what that is. It's where outsiders are welcome. You can let your geek flag fly, and it's all positive. And I have regulars who come back to me year after year. I've gotten to know a lot of the attendees."
"That's how we first met," said the customer getting the green lines. Her name is Nash McCabe "and I'm also a vendor, here too. My booth is called Scoow. I do polymer clay, sewing, I make sculptures and jewelry and upcycled art. These are the most friendly people in Prince George, and it's actually really well organized."
Well, not everyone is from Prince George. Steven Palmer was already in the building with a contingent of people like him from Burns Lake. They all had VIP passes around their necks.
"You get to meet some of your favourite stars, see different art, and meet people who are into the same things you are."
Some of that cutting edge art is by Andy Poon. He missed FanCon last year, but came up from his home in the Lower Mainland for a booth to sell his original drawings. He is known for working with the DC franchise family of shows shot in Vancouver. Poon draws the costume designs that get turned into the character costumes on shows like Arrow and Legends Of Tomorrow. But he's in Prince George today, an exhibitor but also a fan like everyone else.
