8th edition

Montreal Comiccon 2016

Celebrating 50 years of Star Trek and Batman

The 2016 edition of the Montreal Comiccon aims to be the biggest yet with an estimated 60,000 attendees, for fans of science-fiction, fantasy, horror, video games and, of course, comic books and bande dessinée. This year will feature guests and activities honouring pop culture from Montreal plus half-century celebrations: Batman TV series and Star Trek.

• Special Guests: The incomparable William Shatner (Captain Kirk) will be helping us look back at 50 years of Star Trek at this year’s event. The cultural icon will be joined by Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura), Brent Spiner from Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Kate Mulgrew, who portrayed Captain Kathryn Janeway on Star Trek: Voyager.

• Morena Baccarin, who plays Leslie Thompkins on Gotham, and known for starring roles in Deadpool (2016), Firefly, and Homeland, as well as Robin Lord Taylor, who portrays Oswald Cobblepot (a.k.a. The Penguin), will be headed to Montreal in July.

• Many Montreal natives are at the forefront of popular culture, including the aforementioned William Shatner. To celebrate further, we welcome Peter Cullen, who is best known for voicing the heroic Autobot leader Optimus Prime on The Transformers 1984 animated series. Millennials may be more familiar with guest Elias Toufexis, best known as Adam Jensen in the video game franchise Deus Ex (Eidos), and more recently Kenzo on the Saturn-nominated series The Expanse.

• Additional guests: Brett Dalton, who plays Agent Grant Ward on Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (CTV / Musique Plus) and Alfonso Ribeiro, who portrayed the beloved Carlton Banks on the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and is the current host of American’s Funniest Home Videos. As for, Billy Dee Williams, most will recognize him as the suave Lando Calrissian from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980).

• Comic Book & BD Guests: No one epitomizes classic New York hip-hop like Darryl “DMC” McDaniels (Run DMC), who will be promoting his new comic book imprint, Darryl Makes Comics, he’ll discuss his career, his influence on the music industry, and his new career making comics. Well known comic book artists include the legendary Neal Adams (Action Comics), Bob Layton (The Invincible Iron Man) Yanick Paquette (Wonder Woman: Earth One), Michael Golden (Micronauts), and Mike Grell (Green Arrow). Additional creator guests include Marguerite Sauvage (DC Bombshells), Marco Rudy (The Winter Soldier), Dave Ross (West Coast Avengers), Richard Pace (The New Warriors) and Robert Bailey (Star Wars).

• On the bande dessinée front, Bryan Perro, the author of the Amos Daragon series of books, will be on hand to promote the first Amos Daragon album, titled Porteur de masques, with art by Jeik Dion. In addition, we will have Rémi Maynègre (Voyage au japon), Gautier Langevin and Olivier Carpentier (Far Out), as well as Jimmy Suzan, the artist of the Montreal Comiccon logo, who also created the Montreal Comiccon 2016 poster art.

• 2016 Programming Highlights: In 2015, Montreal Comiccon included over 100 activities over the course of three days. For this year, more programming hours have been allocated with over 150 events including panels, workshops, improv and so much more.  To celebrate this popular visual medium of anime, Montreal Comiccon will have several new dedicated anime programming tracks that will appeal to all audiences, including screenings of anime titles and several fun filled anime themed contests!

• Fans of costume building are in for a special treat with three of the most popular professional cosplayers. These include: Jessica Nigri, who has also broken into voice acting; Kamui Cosplay, who has written several books on costume building; and Yaya Han, who recently launched a fabric line.

• HorrorFest turns Obscura: The Montreal HorrorFest has been revamped and rebranded as Montreal Comiccon Obscura, which will continue to delve into the horror genre, plus adding the cult genre into the mix. In honour of the film Turbo Kid (2015), we will be holding the Turbo Expo worldwide exclusive, with props and set pieces from the film, as well as panels and workshops tied to the film’s production, with the collective Roadkill Superstar (François Simard, Anouk Whissell and Yoann-Karl Whissell).  Horror and cult films will now be curated and screened exclusively on Friday and Saturday nights. Plus, fans won’t want to miss the multimedia event, Nightmare Carnavale, with live performances of three chilling supernatural tales, written by the one and only Stephen King and the master of science-fiction, Ray Bradbury.

• Doublage au Québec (Live Dubbing): Considering the success of the 2015 edition, we come back to you with live dubbing sessions. The public is invited to meet with the French voice actors of Turbo Kid and Total Drama Island (L’Île des défis extrêmes). Fans will get to see how it’s done and may even get a chance to try it! And who knows, with the 50th anniversary of Star Trek, we may be in for some more surprises.

• Orchestral Concerts for Geeks of All Ages: The Film Music Wind Orchestra (OVMF – L’Orchestre à vents de musiques de films), comprised of 50 talented musicians under the direction of talented conductor and arranger Jocelyn Leblanc, will help the audience (re)discover the soundtracks of many films, TV series and video games, over three nights and three themed concerts: Geek Universe , Video Games and Star Wars. These concerts are intended for pop culture fans who want to explore orchestral music from a repertoire they are familiar with.

• Video Game Track Gets Even Bigger: Since 2012, Montreal Comiccon has been building its video-game footprint and 2016 will showcase that aspect even further. Presented by Multijoueur, the indie game zone is a great opportunity for indie developers to showcase their projects at a lesser cost. Creators have the opportunity to connect with a large public and present their creative and innovating project. The creators’ night is back with new developers, new quick-fire game demos and an even more intriguing night. A newly expanded eSports area will feature several activities for attendees discover this fascinating world, in which the best players will compete live at Comiccon for glory, honour and prizes, with several Quebec eSport personalities in attendance. In addition, the retrogamer.ca team will be bringing our favourite childhood games, where fans are invited to come learn and play with a team of experts and a dedicated space to purchase tools and accessories for older gaming systems.

Single day and three-day tickets as well as special Deluxe and VIP packages are available. Please visit www.montrealcomiccon.com for details and updates.

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