Armageddon 2010, Melbourne Australia October 16 & 17

This past weekend the Armageddon Expo invaded the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre. The event occupied one of the Centre’s large exhibition halls and therein lies my disappointment with my experience of Armageddon 2010.

The Expo managed to attract a host of local and international celebrities from the world of TV, Anime, Comics and Film. Some of the highlights included American comic author Daniel Way, actor Michael Biehn and the voice of Futurama’s Bender John DiMaggio. Many of these talented guests held panels where audience members could ask them questions, pretty standard expo stuff.

The problem with Armageddon was everything took place in the one hall but over two stages. The general hustle and bustle of the crowd, the wrestling display and the noise generated from the other stage meant that those attending presentations at the Comic Stage (like me) could barely hear anything. There was no way to block the noise off from outside of the curtained off are that made up the Comic Stage so I can’t say I really attended the Daniel Way Writer’s Panel or Lar DeSouza and Ryan Sohmer Web Comics Panel because I didn’t even hear half of it.

I was surprised that Armageddon was set-up this way considering AVCON, a much smaller Adelaide Anime and Video Games Convention, operated across a convention hall, several theatres and conference rooms. I felt that was a far more successful set-up that allowed attendees to properly experience the variety of events on offer. Maybe the Adelaide Convention Centre is more flexible, in terms of available rooms/space, than the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention centre.

That aside Armageddon was still an enjoyable experience on the Saturday I attended (the event covered the Sunday as well). As is the staple for these sorts of events the cosplayers were out in full force in everything from the classics, Star Wars, Star Trek, Dr.Who, to Naruto, Alien, Predator and Halo. The talent of these people never ceases to amaze me, particularly the person who went to the effort of creating a very authentic looking Xenomorph costume. They always give the expo real energy and excitement and Armageddon was no exception.

While the panels were a bit of a disappointment, due to audio difficulties, the Superman and Batman Apocalypse film luckily didn’t suffer from the same problems after they whipped the volume up a few notches. The animation, particularly the fight scenes, in this DC and Warner Bros production was top notch. I did find Superman a little underpowered to be honest but then again if he was full powered there’d probably be no use for any of the other characters.

The voice acting was also good from a cast including Kevin Conroy as Batman and Summer Glau as Supergirl. The downside was the story really felt like it needed an extra 20 to 30 minutes as the film tried to cover a lot of material with the arrival of Superman’s cousin, discovery of her powers, attempt to control them, capture by Darkseid and rescue. There was just too much happening too fast for any development to happen but it was still a fun movie to watch and the DVD has a look at a Green Arrow film which was a nice bonus as well.

The highlight of the convention would have to have been talking to Australian comic authors Tom Taylor and Paul Bedford. You wouldn’t really call either of them interviews but I did have a chance to talk to them about their creator owned projects The List (Paul Bedford) and The Example and Rombies (Tom Taylor). Taylor’s Rombies is a zombie book set in the gladiatorial arena of Ancient Rome. Taylor described the story as a one-shot but it takes place in a larger series of events.

There is a plan to make a full series but the publisher really wanted him to do something now. What won Taylor over for getting something down now was the possibility of creating a zombie lion, which turned out as awesome as one might hope. Taylor also told me how The Example was originally a play that he wrote, a very highly regarded play, before he turned it into a comic. Taylor then informed me that he has 15 projects in the works at the moment, making him a very busy person indeed.

Paul Bedford’s The List is Australian small press publishing at its best. Adapted from a screenplay Bedford wrote two trade paperbacks have been released so far and a third will hopefully be released by the end of the year. Bedford plans to collect it as a roughly 200 page graphic novel and send both the screenplay and graphic novel to Australian studios. Bedford explained the reason why The List has come out in parts. Basically it’s too much of a risk for independent creators to invest all their time and money into one big book. If they do then there’s a big chance it will fail.

Releasing it in parts minimizes this risk while allowing a fan base to build up, hopefully some good press to generate and gives the creator a chance to recoup some costs while they are still working on the project. At the moment Bedford is pretty focused on finishing The List and then shopping the screenplay but he has no shortage of ideas for what he’ll do next. More than likely it will be something quite dark and twisted like The List as Bedford noted that it was the dark and bizarre stuff that really got his friends interested whereas the more normal and standard comic book stuff didn’t elicit much of a response.

Armageddon was an enjoyable experience for my first time. With a little bit better set-up it would have been an even greater day but I was happy to see and speak to some of Australia’s most talented comic book writers and artists. In the end that’s what these conventions are really about, allowing fans and creators to connect.

Troy Mayes, Comic Editor