Day two of Toronto Comicon 2024 featured a host of panel discussions about the world of pop culture, and intellectual property. The sessions were a mixed bag.
My twin, Monita, and I queued all morning to catch the X-Men ’97 premiere, which started behind schedule and ran over, which meant our hopes of catching the Mary McDonnell session were dashed. We were much too late. I don’t know whether we’ll ever again see the actor behind the multi-layered president on Battlestar Galactica, but the X-Men won out this time.
After a quick stop to buy a poster that we don’t actually have wall space for, and an adorable Miles Morales magnet that’s taken pride of place on our refrigerator already, we headed out for lunch. Aka the hot dog truck, again. Fortunately, nobody waylaid us today so we ate in peace but we both had sessions at 2pm so it was a quick lunch.
I decided to check out the spotlight session on Claudia Gray, author of several sci-fi novels, as well as a few Star Wars books. I have been slowly (very, very slowly) been getting back into Star Wars books and comics, so I really wanted to hear what the process was for the books now, since the entire legends series is out of canon.
Gray was so much fun to listen to. She was so bubbly and energetic that I smiled throughout the session. It was clear how much she loves her craft and enjoys being able to write within the Star Wars universe. She did bemoan not being able to exist in fandom spaces anymore, mainly because she can’t speculate without someone writing about it in the media. But she also needs to be careful about what she consumes, lest it inform her writing. Gray spoke kindly about the fanfiction writing experience, which I remember EK Johnston also speaking of at a Comicon years ago. It really is quite interesting how authors cut their teeth on fanfic but when Gray asked the audience how many people are involved in reading or writing fanfic, she was disappointed to see that there were fewer hands up than she’d expected. I consider myself a fanfic reader, but I’ll be honest here and say it’s been tough to find time to delve into fanfics for the past 8-10 months. Are our numbers dwindling? I certainly hope not.
The conversation inevitably turned to Star Wars canon. Gray led with the importance of asking questions and how there are people who she can get answers from, as well as ship schematics, when she needs them. This is in contrast to her creator-owned work where she has to develop a spaceship herself, which Gray said was surprisingly hard, to much laughter. Overall, I found the session to be incredibly fun and I loved coming away with a reading list.
While I was at Gray’s session, Monita went to The Behind the Scenes of VFX panel. She shared her impressions of the session below.
Monita’s Special Report
The panel featured VFX supervisor Jason Zimmerman (Star Trek, Game of Thrones, Sleepy Hollow) and VFX supervisor Jennifer Maillet (Star Trek, Gen V, What We Do in the Shadows). They were the only two guests, as the third guest, VFX supervisor Alexander Wood, was unable to make it because he had been on set till 2am. Zimmerman is currently working on the Star Trek film, Section 31, and will start working on the Starfleet Academy show in the summer. I’m guessing Maillet will also be working on these—I have no idea, she didn’t talk much, and when she did, it wasn’t into her microphone.
The session was interesting because the guests opened the floor to questions really early on. Zimmerman broke down why VFX is still so expensive—there are around 500-600 people working on these VFX shots, and invariably, the producers and directors of a project will greenlight a budget with certain shots, and then want to make changes at the last minute, which means the VFX team has to start from scratch. That’s also the reason why, sometimes, in shows like Star Trek, they’ll refer to something having happened without showing it on screen. The producers will have to forego some smaller VFX shots in order to make one big shot. That’s why you didn’t see the port nacelle blow out, folks, it’s because the producers wanted to make some random giant ship instead!
The panelists were also asked about AI—they aren’t too concerned about it. They see AI as a tool, but Zimmerman also reiterated that the ethics of using AI is important since they can’t just take someone else’s work and call it their own. Both guests believe the human touch is essential in making VFX work, so AI may speed up the process, but won’t replace them. Here’s hoping!
The Con, Cont.
It’s Louis again. Thanks, sis.
Our next stop was the Strange New Worlds panel with Christina Chong, Ethan Peck and Anson Mount. The poor things had also finished filming at 2am in the morning and barely 12 hours later, were in front of a screaming audience. They were exhausted and mentioned as much a couple of times. I appreciate them taking the time to speak with fans but it’s ludicrous to make people work that late when they have such a public event the following day.
I can’t say I have many takeaways from the panel, except that I was sad to hear that Chong was badly bullied at school for being half-Chinese and she seemed genuinely upset recalling it. And while La’an Noonien Singh’s presence on SNW is great representation, it’s worrying that Chong is meeting children who are being similarly bullied even today. That means nothing has changed.
Chong did bring a surprise that had the crowd absolutely ecstatic. Her little dog, Runa, sat on her lap without uttering a single bark. Even when she leapt off Chong’s lap, she just raced about the stage, did some tricks for the crowd, ate some snacks and went for a wander, returning to Chong just in time for the panel to end. If only my neighbour’s evil dog who barks at everyone and threatens to bite any human on the same floor as her would behave so well.
Despite lovely Runa, I found the Strange New Worlds panel lacklustre. The three actors were tired, the audience questions were long-winded and there were so many questions about the musical episode, I could see the actors wishing for something different.
Unfortunately, the next and final panel wouldn’t lift my spirits either. I was looking forward to the panel on Star Trek and Star Wars in Comics with Heather Antos, Marcus To, Adam Gorham, Megan Huang and Leonard Kirk. But there was some confusion about the setup. Two chairs were missing, meaning To and the moderator were sitting dangerously close to the edge of the stage. And it wouldn’t be a small fall if something went wrong. The moderator didn’t know that Huang was supposed to be on the panel and was expecting Kirk. The panel listing on the site didn’t include Kirk. Nevertheless, Kirk was able to join the panel, though he was a bit late.
Because the moderator didn’t know about the line up, the bulk of the conversation was between Kirk and Antos, with To able to share anecdotes in between. Gorham barely said a word and Huang never got asked a question and only spoke once near the end of the panel about meeting Christina Chong moments ago. The conversations were also weirdly negative. It doesn’t seem like working with IP is fun for anyone involved. Nobody tells the editors, writers, or artists anything on time. Entire books and series are cancelled on a whim because a single dialogue is changed in a film or tv show. The vibe of this session was completely the opposite of Gray’s and I felt thoroughly depressed. Not to mention, there was no discussion about how a creator can even dream of getting into this side of the industry. We’ve met Huang a couple of times, including a few years ago at her first con. I would have loved to know how she’s got into working on such large IP and how she feels about the process. But the conversation never veered towards her.
I did enjoy Antos defending Kathleen Kennedy in the Q&A. An audience member slipped in that Kathleen (note how the man used just her first name) had got rid of all the extended universe books. Antos firmly but politely told him that that decision had not been Kennedy’s even though people love to blame her for it. The man had the good sense not to argue.
Toronto Comicon 2024 came to a rather ignominious end for me, sadly, with two sessions that missed the mark. Though the con goes on through Sunday, there’s no way Monita and I can make the trek knowing the bonkers work week we have coming up. Every work week is bonkers but it’s particularly challenging transitioning from our geeky selves to our work selves.
As always, I loved the cosplayers I got to meet during the con and it was a relief to do something normal like being around jolly pop culture fans. However, the more cons I’ve attended, the more I’m reminded how annoying some male fans can be. My patience is wearing thin.
But the fun experiences of meeting cosplayers and hearing about my favourite properties tend to overshadow those moments. More X-Men activations in my life and fewer X-Men “experts” accosting us in hotdog queues, please.
