When Nerds Collide

This past weekend, from Friday to Sunday, the Metro Toronto Convention Centre was overrun with nerds. Nerds in the good sense, that is. The event, Fan Expo Canada, which originated in 1995, is an annual magnet for a strain of nerdity that goes beyond the couch and the computer screen, all the way into a realm of inventiveness and total glee. If you're having trouble imagining what the atmosphere at a thing like this might be like, just picture a giant party where everybody's having an amazing time, but nobody's drinking. At least not openly.

We plunged into the heart of dorkness on Saturday afternoon, at roughly the halfway point of the three-day event. The crowd numbered in the thousands. Some were there to stock up on rare merchandise. Some were there to hang out with friends, and make new ones. Some were there to participate in events, or attend panels. Some were there to pay fairly large sums of money for the autographs of celebrities of varying degrees of B- and C- list repute. (Leonard Nimoy, according to one attendee we spoke to, was leveraging his top-of-bill status to charge forty-five dollars per signature this year. The Star says it was sixty dollars.)

And then there were the cosplayers. These are fans that operate at a level of commitment above and beyond passive appreciation. They use skill, money, and in some cases considerable amounts of time to become their favourite characters. The results are sometimes amazing, sometimes weirdly titillating, but always interesting. Especially when the costume-makers go to extremes (see above).

Click "next" to see our favourite costumes from Fan Expo 2009—photographed by our own Nick Kozak, with the costumed attendees interviewed. We learned, among other things, why "Where's Waldo" is a potentially regrettable dress-up theme, and that there are certain environmental dangers to which skimpier costumes can fall prey. If you think events of this nature only attract pale, zit-faced males, prepare to be confused.