Fan Expo Canada is back for another year, and is shaping up to be one of the best conventions of the summer. Toronto’s annual FanExpo continues to be one of the best fan experiences year after year, as they provides great fan interaction with guests and the convention floor provides a endless supply of treasures to purchase with your hard earned cash. This four-day convention has the very guests from the geek community including comics, horror, anime, and gaming.

This year Fan Expo is pulling out all the stops with confirmed guests that include Stan Lee, Bernie Wrightson, cast members from The Walking Dead, Bruce Campbell, Sean Sexton Cunningham creator of “Friday the 13th” franchise, and a cast reunion for the original “Nightmare On Elm Street” film. This year’s line-up is nothing short of unbelievable and will be one of the biggest and best celebrations of geek culture this year. Fan Expo is scheduled to take place August 28th-31st at the Metro Toronto Convention Center.

Bloody-Disgusting caught up with FanExpo’s event and programming coordinator James Armstrong to talk about this year’s line-up and everything that goes into planning a convention of this magnitude. Armstrong has a genuine passion for comics, horror and science fiction that bleeds out into Fan Expo each and every year.

Bloody Disgusting: Last year was your most successful show with over 100,000 fans in attendance. At what point after last year’s show do you start to plan for this year’s show?

James Armstrong: We actually start working way in advance; about 18-months. We’re already working on 2015 now with some basic things. That is partly due to the facilities, because we need them for longer than the four days that the show is going on. We need to have the facility ready so our exhibitors can load in the days before, and we can then break it down in the days after. We basically need the entire facility for about a week. We’re now actually looking into how we can move some things into the city, as we’ve had a limited number of engagements like parties and receptions and things such as parties and receptions at other sites. We want to do more with that, because there is a lot of people that come in from out of town, so they want more to do than site in their hotel and wait around for the doors to open.

BD: Working in the convention business, do you follow what other conventions are doing and who they are booking, or do you stay in your own lane?

JA: We’re always interested in what is going on out there and we do pay attention. It’s a national industry now and some conventions are stronger than others, but we’re always looking for new and fresh ideas. I can remember when the whole steampunk movement started happening and we didn’t see all that much of it here in Toronto in the beginning. We saw it and we worked hard to make it a part of our shows by putting a spotlight on it by booking steampunk guests, and featuring a web-series that was done on steampunk here. That turned out tremendously and now steampunk is a huge part of Fan Expo.

BD: Cosplay is always a big part of FanExpo and over the years we’ve seen some amazing costumes. Is there any costume that sticks out as particularly mind blowing over the years?

JA: Well I would say one that stuck out to me personally as very clever, and that was Kingon Batman. It was a really awesome Batman costume, but as if he were of Klingon origin. He has the big forehead and the Klingon symbols, so everyone knew who he was. Klingon’s are sort of recognizable to those people that are not Star Trek fans, and Batman is just an icon. You mentioned the explosion of cosplay, and this year we are putting a focus on that with the cosplay celebrities like Yaya Han, Jessica Nigri, and Meg Turney will be there. Cosplay was one those things that was sort of exclusive to the Anime world in the beginning, but it has now expanded and you see tons of superhero, movies and horror costumes, which is great. I can’t imagine how many hundreds of thousands photos get taken throughout the weekend. One of our oldest even is the Cosplay Masquerade hosted by Gordon Rose, and it’s been around since the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Every year it seems like we have  to put it into a bigger room to accommodate more fans, and it just keeps filling up. We’ve had to cap the amount of entries we have because there just isn’t enough time for more.

BD: Geek culture is at an all-time high at the moment and it seems like there is a new convention every other week in North America. Do you worry about market oversaturation or the geek culture bubble will pop?

BD: This year you have booked Arrow star Stephen Amell, but just a few years ago FanExpo had the entire cast on hand to debut the series pilot for fans in a panel months before it aired. What’s it like to see the rise to success for someone like Stephen and then come back and book them again and they are a mega star.

JA: It is gratifying and we can’t take much credit in terms of making the show a success, but you are right that we did roll it out. Since the show is comic book related they are really putting themselves out there to some of the harshest critics in that fan base. It’s great that the series has worked out, and I think if you can find success in a tough audience that’s passionate then I think you’ll do very well.

BD: On the comic book side of things, you have the legendary Bernie Wrightson and Stan Lee. Lead us through the timeline from when their names get suggested to the actual booking.

JA: I agree. Bernie Wrightson’s core audience is far reaching and there are folks that I know that may not consider themselves art collectors, but they will go out of their way to pick something up just because it was from his hand. We did have him many years ago, so we’re very happy to have him back. Stan Lee is a friend of the show, and he’s taken part in a  lot of our events. When you say his name to the general public, they know who he is and the significance of his work. Stan is one of those guys that never runs out of stories and I wish there was more guests that have his sort of broad appeal that people respond to. He says so many cleaver things, and when he does his panels with fans, he will never give the same answer twice even if he’s been asked the question before, probably a thousand times. He seems to find a new and fresh way to tell a story, which really shows off his true brilliance as a creator and entertainer.

BD: Steve Epting is a guest on the heels of the success of “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and his brilliant new series “Velvet” with Brubaker over at Image.

JA: Steve is a friend of the show, and the one thing that blows me away about him, is watching him sketch during the show where pandemonium is all around him but he’s doing the finest lines on a character’s face. He is just so completely unfazed and that level of concentration always impresses me. To see that creation just flowing out of his hand is amazing, and if you love comic books or art, it is definitely something you don’t get sick of.

BD: You mentioned entertaining panelists and I gotta say that artist Ethan Van Sciver is definitely a must see. The stories he tells at his panels are hilarious.

JA: I would agree. I don’t know if he still does it or not, but Ethan tells these behind-the scenes stories about editors, some of them working and other who are no longer working in the industry. You can’t hear stuff like that or get that type of experience hearing those stories anywhere else. I agree with you, but when he tells things out of school, some people in the industry may frown upon it but the fans definitely love it.

BD: On the horror side for the the Festival of Fear, you have Robert Englund and a reunion of the “Nightmare On Elm Street” cast, which is particularly amazing.

JA: We always look for opportunities like that, and we’ve had Robert at the show before, so it will be great to surround him by his cast mates. “Nightmare On Elm Street” is one of those iconic films, and we don’t have that many opportunities to put together a cast for a film like that very often. We don’t move our date around as it stays the same every year, so sometimes those things fall through because a particular cast member is not available. When it does come together it’s particular special.

BD: Sean Sexton Cunningham creator of “Friday the 13^th” franchise. Between that and “Nightmare On Elm Street” they are probably the two biggest film franchises in horror.

JA: Well the horror genre seems to have broken a lot of ground, particularly in the ‘80s when those first few films came out. For a lot of fans, seeing Freddy Krueger or Jason for the first time was the horror movie that really stuck with them. I think that seeing those characters and actors again is re-visiting a thrilling part of those fans childhood. The imagery and the hooks, no pun intended, sort of moved into popular culture since then. The popularity of those two franchises seems to be everlasting, especially as a new generation discovers how fun those films were.

Another guest we have to talk about is Bruce Campbell because every year you bring him back as a guest, his fanbase has grown and the line-ups get bigger for him.

JA: He’s definitely one of my favorites. There doesn’t seem to be any one particular reason for his popularity either, as fans love him for all different reasons. When you put it all together in one room for a panel, he becomes a one man show who entertains young and old. We just had him at our Vancouver Expo and when he did his panel he sort of sprung a new way to do Q & A sessions. It was just super special and all of his own creation, adlibbing on stage and it was wonderful to watch. When you have a guy like that who knows the routine and doesn’t want to bore the fans, so you get a whole new show even though it’s the same guy.

BD: You also have a massive list of cast members from “The Walking Dead” this year, and that show is really a juggernaut in mainstream pop culture now.

JA: The show is really watched by a mainstream audience, and a lot of them probably don’t consider themselves to be horror fans, but they find themselves watching the show. I always recommend that fans of the show read the comic book series, because Robert Kirkman is just one of the most brilliant comic book writers to come around in the last twenty years. I think Robert is really underrated and maybe he doesn’t get enough credit for what he started. As for the shows continuing popularity, even though they continue to kill off main characters, which has started a new trend in television drama where you don’t have to follow just one character from beginning to the end of the series. Of course I love those internet memes that say, “If you kill Darryl Dixon we’ll start a riot!” (Laughs). I think it’s a bit of a sleeper because the comic book series has been known within the industry for years, but I often wonder how many people watch the show and still don’t realize that it is a comic book series.

BD: I had the pleasure of interviewing Robert Kirkman a few weeks ago about his new series “Outcast”, and I gotta say he would be the one guest that I would love to see what Fan Expo that you haven’t had.

JA: Well we would too! I don’t see him at many shows, and I realize he’s very busy with the show and comic series. That is the one thing about Fan Expo Canada, is that we don’t ever change the date, so guest have to be available that weekend and for some people it’s just not a good weekend. The other thing is that 120,000 people crammed into a convention center is just not for everyone and we realize that. We have had some guests that say while they appreciate the fans, they just can’t handle that type of rock star craziness, which is understandable. We got a little bit of that last year when we had the sports stars at Fan Expo, and these guys have trained all their life to play on the ice or field, but they probably never gave much thought to being mobbed for autographs or photos. We’ve had those moments in the past with some of our top guests like William Shatner, Kevin Smith, and Stan Lee have had those moments. Some people are just not prepared for it or able to deal with it. The fans that come to Fan Expo are very respectful of the guests, and we have great security at Fan Expo so we’ve never had a moment that was dangerous or anything like that. This year we have Elijah Wood back again this year, and I remember the first time he was at the show, he said that he wanted to go on the show floor and go shopping. We told him that that could get a little crazy, but he said, “No everybody seems fine. Let’s do it.” We sent out a few security people with him, and he went out on the floor and bought a few things from the retailers. Now we have retailers that have a story of Elijah Wood buying a t-shirt or merchandise from them.

BA: So to wrap things up here, if anyone has never been to Fan Expo before what can they expect?

JA: Well if you’ve never been before then it’s the biggest and greatest even you’ve never heard of. You’ve probably never been to event like it before and it’s a special live event that the fans take part in. The fans sort of mold the event, even though we supply the guest list and the location. You are completely surrounded by passionate fans and people that you can relate to instantly. You can walk into Fan Expo and whenever you’re interested in, and you immediately have people that share similar interests. This is an event that was built by the fans for the fans, which is why we changed the name about twenty years ago. It used to be called the Canadian National Comic Book Expo, but when we were looking to re-brand we kept coming back to the word fan. The show was all about the fans, so that’s how we came up with the name Fan Expo Canada.