Batgirl – Stephanie Brown was a great Batgirl and rocked the black and purple for too short a time (24 issues). Lucky for us the cosplayers think so too!

Batwoman – In a sea of unoriginality (Venus counted twenty-two Poison Ivys and over ten Harley Quinns) there are always a handful of original costumes. This Batwoman was one of our favourites for sure.

The Court of Owls – Easily the most eerie costumes of the con. Fear the court!

Harley Quinn, Scarecrow and Catwoman – Win! Win! Win!

Hawkman – Character fail, costume win! Sure Hawkman sucks, but check out those awesome wings!

Lady Blackhawk – In every crowd picture there’s an Asian saying everything with their eyes. LOL! Seriously though, this one is definitely in the running for best con costume. Fan-tas-tic.

Poison Ivy & Two-Face – I’m gonna write some x-rated fan fiction about these two! It’s gonna be a new feature in the comics section of R2AK! Look for it in May!

The Riddler - Nailed it!

The Rocketeer – Girl Rocketeers are my most favourite thing ever. Considering I’d give my left nut for that jacket and helmet, this one is really well done!

Rogue & Punisher – There are no shortage of crappy Punishers (and Deadpools) at comic conventions, but this guy put a lot of work into his costume. And that old-school Rogue is fantastic too. Nice!

Wonder Woman – Ame-Comi (by Udon Studios) make the best manga-fied heroine statuettes and the fact that this woman made an Ame-Comi Wonder Woman costume endears her to our hearts.

Zatanna – Cute and awesome, a con without a Zatanna is like a day without sunshine. Or like a Nuv article without spelling and grammatical errors. Go fishnets!

THE. END. (Whew.) Y’all get home safe now, y’hear?

– The Explosivos

Billy Fowler’s Nightcrawler – I was lucky enough to pick up this rad-ass print by a rad-ass artist. Check out Billy’s website and be amazed!

Brian Buccellato’s Lady Blackhawk – Best known as the colourist on Francis Manapul’s The Flash, Buccellato has some artistic chops of his own. Check it out!

Cat Farris‘ Portal – For the cake-loving puzzle solvers in all of us.

Christopher Uminga’s Batgirl – Cassandra Cain was the most bad-ass Batgirl ever to wear the uniform. Venus managed to get this amazing commission during the Saturday madness.

Dean Trippe’s Supergirl – I had this image as a computer wallpaper for a long time before I found out who did the art. Lucky for me I was able to get a nice print from the man himself!

Dustin Nguyen’s Lady Blackhawk – Nguyen was swamped for three days and still signed and sketched for almost anyone who asked. I’m super-glad Venus asked.

Francis Manapul & Brian Buccellato’s Wonder Woman – Venus not only got Francis Manapul to sketch her a Wonder Woman, she also got Brian Buccellato to colour it. PSYCHIC POWERS OF PERSUASION.

Greg Capullo’s Scarecrow – I managed to score a copy of this Greg Capullo print for Numbnuts on Saturday. Capullo was all “This Nuv guy sounds like a giant idiot.” Right you are, Greg! *

* Legal counsel for the site (A.T. the Bartender) has advised me to put in small-print that the above misquote, despite its absolute truth, is a shameless and wholly fabricated libel intended to disparage the character and ruin the already-questionable reputation of said “giant idiot.”

Katie Cook’s Birds of Prey, Min-Ian, Mini-Venus – I almost died…OF CUTENESS! Venus’ Birds of Prey commission theme is basically the best idea since… ever. And since Katie does $5 sketch cards of anything you want, Venus got her to do us blowing stuff up in our respective trades.

Kelly Sue DeConnick & Phil Noto’s Ghost – I’d been meaning to read Image’s Ghost for a while now, and with a new series starting soon (DeConnick writing, Noto drawing) it’s a great jumping on point.

Marcus To’s Batgirls – Marcus To really kicked ass on the 6-issue Huntress series that just wrapped up, so we were pretty stoked to see him (and his awesome prints) at ECCC 2012.

Matt Wagner’s Lady Blackhawk – Venus’ final commission of the con, the icing on the cake, and Wagner absolutely NAILED IT. A great way to get rid of those pesky American greenbacks before heading home.

Phil Noto’s Daenerys Targaryen – We love Game of Thrones almost as much as we love Phil Noto’s art. Venus picked up this print and now all I can do is listen to “Hey Jealousy” by the Gin Blossoms on repeat.

Phil Noto’s Lady Blackhawk – Venus paid for a black-and-white commission and Noto coloured it for free by accident. It’s unexpected raddities like this that makes a great con extraordinary!

Tim Sale’s Cassandra Cain Batgirl – Venus always manages to snag a fast-pass commission from Tim Sale and once again he totally rocked it for her.

Stay tuned for THE SECOND INSTALMENT of our photo gallery of con-goodness! Coming up in the next article: Cosplay!

– The Explosivos

The second annual V.I.C. Fest will be held on June 16th, again on the gorgeous grounds of St. Ann’s Academy. After this small taste of the f-ck yeah fun to come, we’re sure the second year will play out like so – crammed with a variety of talented local performers, food & booze. And boobs. And violins. And lots of beer.

Ultimately, it’s the very best of what Vancouver Island has to offer.

Here are a few snaps Jay caught of the night – a tease of great things to come.
(For tickets, great contests and more info, go here.)
See you there!

At 14 years young, my first studio session was the kind of thing I always dreamed of, as I spat raps from my endless notebook, thinkin’ I was the baddest motherf*cker since Shaft… until I heard the playback. Let’s just say the sound lacked, ummm… SACK. With my new posse impressed with any delivery that didn’t sound like an awkward cracka rappin’ in a mirror, I still felt somethin’ was missing. After the session we piled into a busted-ass little Mazda to go on a mission, as DJ Cash barked at me to grab a CD case wedged between us sardines in the backseat. He popped the disc into the system that was worth twice as much as the car, dialed it to track 5, and sh-t went down that would change my attitude towards rhymin’ for good.

“Booomp-BooWAAAAAH-Booomp…. BUCK’EMDOWN!buck’emdown!BUCK’EMDOWN!buck’emdown!BUCK’EMDOWN!!”

I officially lost my sh-t. The next week I got a hold of a hot Discman, the Enta Da Stage CD, and proceeded to try to deem myself the West Coast Buckshot Shorty. Twenty years later I finally got to thank him.

Fortune Sound Club was the spot, but there was a feeling in the air that it would officially be transformed into Fortune Bucktown at any moment, with so many possibilities of which of the Bootcamp militia would hit the stage first. Then the dark, deep buzz of bass came… “LET’S-LET’S GIT IT-GIT IT OOONNN!!!”

Smif-N-Wessun came barrelin’ out to the track that 18 years ago made them official, not just as Bootcamp representatives, but as the grimy answer to the randoms still wearin’ cartoon sh-t and doin’ the Roger Rabbit. They reminded the crowd why they SHOULD’VE been in a boxing ring for their video, instead of “LL Cool J’in’ it” cuz it looked cool. They brought the Bucktown thunder like they haven’t missed a show in years, even lookin’ like they haven’t stopped bangin’ stages. Either that, or they just stepped out of a DeLorean from times when rhymes were better cuz they were stank dirtaaay. In a time when M.C. ’s that mildly associate with hard-rocks feel the need to act hard on a singin’-ass track, they rained the surREAL. Even the pretty little hotties were gettin’ their mean mug on. Coincidentally, I was smilin’ like a schoolgirl at a Justin Gaga show.

As Sean Price took the forefront of the stage, some of us couldn’t help but feel like something was missing. It was no fault of Ruck (now known as Price), who would’ve been dope solo if he was never associated with Rock, (his partner in Heltah Skeltah) but that situation is what it is. Homeboy can still rap his ass off. Even though I kinda missed the cryptic back’n'forth those two huge bastards had in their heyday with Nocturnal, and classic kicks like “Bruvas betta wreckognize…” growled by the Rockness Monsta, Sean did remind us that even though Shaq was physically more dominant, Tim Duncan made his team better. I just wish Shaq was there to tear the rim off just once.

On that note, there’s manymanymany M.C.’s that have inspired me over the last 20 years… Chuck D, Shock G, Del, Mos Def, Meth, Em, the Fission. But no M.C. inspired me to represent the “little big man” like Buckshot Shorty. He went from one album that changed how confident underrated rappers rapped, to a Smif-N-Wesssun album that brought “east coast hard” back, from gangsta rap bein’ dominated by the West Coast, to inventing the idea of a “team” of groups formin’ like Voltron. And I finally got to be part of the West Coast showin’ a hip-hop icon long overdue propers.

With Jay Haddow flankin’ me, Buckshot showed and proved, takin’ us through the days of East Coast ghetto glory. As he went though his wheelhouse of back-in-the-day tracks that had me thinkin’ I was still wearin’ camo pants and Timbalands, he asked “Who got the props?” and “How many M.C.’s must get dissed?” and the answer was… Bootcamp… and all of them.

In a hip-hop world where the real is few and far between, I’m grateful that there’s still a place that old school can Enta Tha Stage. As a wise man once said… “Leflaur Leflah Eshkoshka.”

– A.T.

Mo’ Motherfuckin’ Photos by Jay Haddow!

– Jy Harris

– Jy Harris

– Jy Harris

– Jy Harris

– Jy Harris

– Jy Harris