Fan Expo Philadelphia

On 06/05/2023 at 02:38 PM by KnightDriver

Went to Fan Expo in center city Philadelphia on June 3rd with a friend of mine who was after celebrity signatures. I met several, plus comic creators and a lot of cosplayers.

philly

View of city hall from the entrance of the convention center.

So the big guests were three from Back to the Future: Michel J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd and Tom Willson (Biff); and Hyden Christensen. Mr. Fox and Mr. Christensen weren't to be there until later in the day, so we missed them, but we met Tom Wilson who was a graduate of my friend's high school, and Christopher Lloyd and got signatures from both.

I was keen to meet Sam Raimi, but the line for him was incredibly long. I got a snap shot of him from a distance instead.

raimi

Sam Raimi

Sean Astin (Samwise) was there as was Henry Winkler. My friend got Randy Quaid's (Independence Day) signature and Daniel Panabaker's (Flash TV show 2014). We also met Peter Weller (Robocop) and got his signature.

We saw voice actors: Peter Cullen (Optimus Prime), Chris Sabat (many voices from DragonBall Z), Maile Flanagan (Naruto), Dameon Clarke (Handsome Jack from Borderlands and Cell in Dragonball), and David Hayter (Metal Gear Solid).

We also met with a few comic creators, one my friend knew and another worked on the Canto series, which I've read. I can't seem to find their names at the moment.

We got there very early but after an hour or so the real crowds showed up and it was wall to wall people like in this shot I took.

crowds

Cosplayers were everywhere too. I photographed this one as he (or she) tried to make his way through the crowd.

spidey

Maybe Venom form of Spider-Man wasn't such a good idea at a crowded con like this. Someone either lost an eye or that costume got broke later on, I'm sure.

Below is a video for the day we went. We saw many of the cosplayers shown here and took photos with some of them.

If I had gone on my own, I would've stayed for the cosplay competition. I love seeing the great costumes people make.

Cary Woodham

06/06/2023 at 08:46 AM

It's great to see expos like this still going. I know video game expos like E3 and PAX are supposedly dying, and I hate that because nothing will replace the social interaction fun that these kinds of things provide.

KnightDriver

06/09/2023 at 09:04 AM

I'm going to Retro Con in September.

SanAndreas

06/08/2023 at 12:09 PM

Watching MJF and Christopher Lloyd somehow manages to be both heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time. It's shockiog how badly MJF's Parkinson's has affected him. He's still relatively young and has been dealing with it for years. But seeing Christopher Lloyd, who looks great for a guy well into his 80s, helping his colleague at public appearances is moving. The love these two longtime colleagues and friends have for each other is apparent in these appearances. Tom Wilson seems like a chill guy. He used to be on the Nerdist podcast. For some reason, I'm never lucky enough to get to meet people like that at expos, as they didn't come to places I lived in very often.

06/09/2023 at 09:07 AM

I'm just lucky to be near a big city. We were guessing MJF's late apperance was probably due to his Parkinson's.

PixlBit