Mon: Hello and welcome to a bonus episode of Stereo Geeks! You know spring is near when Toronto Comicon comes around.
Ron: So to celebrate, we’re recording a quick recap of our time at the convention. I’m Ron.
Mon: And, I’m Mon.
Ron: We always look forward to getting our geek on at Toronto Comicon. This year’s event was a strange one – the programming focused almost exclusively on The Boys and Supernatural. I’m sure there are lots of geeks out there who aren’t interested in either of these shows. Not sure what they would have got out of it.
Mon: Yeah, totally. And this was probably the first time since we’ve been to Toronto Comicon that the con and March break have coincided. So, really, more fandoms should have been considered in the programming. Despite that, Friday was far busier than usual.
Ron: We had a few sessions that we wanted to attend on Friday, but really the draw for us was looking through the vendors and the Artists Alley.
Mon: The artists are always the best part. And you never know who you’ll find there.
Mon: We chanced upon George Buza, the voice of X-Men’s Hank McCoy/Beast. We knew he’d be at the con – he was replacing X-Men ‘92 creator Larry Huston, who wasn’t able to attend this year.
Ron: We fangirled so hard when we met Larry Huston last year, so it was a bit of a bummer he couldn’t come this year.
Mon: Yeah, but we had such a lovely chat with George Buza. I mean, you were wearing your X-Men ‘97 shirt, so it’s not like he couldn’t tell we were fans!
Ron: That t-shirt got so many comments on Friday. It was fun.
Mon: It was. We were gushing about how we like George’s version of Beast because he’s most similar to the early Beast, the one you and I know best. He seemed to love hearing that. He also scoffed at what they’ve done to Beast in the comics, and said he hoped the show doesn’t go down the same route.
Ron: I hope we can hang on to nice Beast, too. I told him as much.
Mon: George also reminded us that he, and the majority of the X-Men voice cast, live in Toronto, so really, X-Men is like a local show. But despite that, when it comes to conventions, the creative team gets relegated to the Artists Alley instead of being treated like stars. That sucks.
Ron: I remember we were confused about Larry Huston being in the Artists Alley last year, but now George Buza is too? I mean, he’s a voice actor – actors usually get a whole different section. It’s a bizarre choice. And how are people meant to know where to find him?
Mon: The entertainment industry is really strange.
Ron: Having checked out the show floor, we were able to attend the Roger Christian talk. Christian was the set director for Star Wars: A New Hope and he won an Oscar for it. I’ve written about Roger Christian’s experiences making the first lightsaber over at FlickSided.
Mon: I’m so glad we attended that session. It was so great to hear how one of our favourite sci-fi universes came to life.
Ron: The final session of Friday was Comic Writers Unite with Jim Zub, Fred Kennedy, Michael Schwartz, and Cecil Castellucci. It was a very interesting panel about being a comic writer. Lots of discussion about the importance of independent work and how it builds the drive for creativity, as well as a longing to complete something.
Ron: But indie work should be done without the hope for becoming something bigger—finding a creative outlet is its own goal.
Mon: In other words, don’t go into a creative field hoping to get big. That’s… not how the arts work, unfortunately.
Ron: When talking about IP versus creator-owned work, the consensus was that IP has far more constraints due to crossover events and tie-ins, which makes it a difficult process.
Mon: Ok, so we’re both writers, but you’re studying screen-writing right now. How surprised were you to hear that creating a comic script is wildly different from writing a screenplay?
Ron: That took me by surprise. Turns out comic scripts are a whole different format. Michael Schwartz described the job of a comic writer as being the writer and the director of the comic.
Mon: Fred Kennedy shared a great note he’d heard from Scott McCloud - writers tell the story to artists; artists tell the story to readers. That’s a great takeaway for any budding comic creators out there.
Ron: While the session was informative, I’m still confused as to how one writes a comic. How do you know you can write the comic in 22 pages? At what point have you written enough to reach the page turn? I wanted more technical details and perhaps that was beyond the scope of the session.
Mon: Agreed. I guess that info would be at a workshop.
Mon: Before we get to our Saturday recap, we can’t forget to mention the Disney+ Daredevil: Born Again installation at Toronto Comicon. We found out about this installation like everyone else – on Instagram. Which, to be honest, is super-weird because we’re press. We go as press. We’ve been getting press invites to these installations for a couple of years now. And now suddenly, no invite?
Ron: Yeah, and the installation wasn’t open to the public or the press when we arrived on Friday. But there were some people already lined up and going in. We can only assume…
Mon: That they were influencers? Yeah totally. Which is so frustrating. But let’s move on to the installation. This time around, the Marvel people realized the line was taking too long to move, so they gave out coupons. That was a better system, because we would have missed out on sessions, shopping, and eating, if we’d had to stand in line. In all honesty, I doubt we would have stood in line for more than 20 minutes. That’s not what a con is for.
Ron: Agreed. That was a good decision, but when we eventually made it back to the installation two hours later, we still stood in line for ages. They had asked us to return in 30 minutes. So we’d have stood in line that entire time?
Mon: That line was still so slow. And we realized why.
Ron: The installation involved guests digitally spray painting Hell’s Kitchen. It not only took forever to share the instructions, but then to actually do the painting, and then take pics of the installation, and then pick up the t-shirt with the spray painting on it. I mean, it was fun, but goodness, it took soooo long!
Mon: Listen, I love these hands-on, experiential installations that end with us getting a free goodie…
Ron: Hang on a second. No, we don’t. I want to get in, take a picture, and leave. I don’t want to waste time.
Mon: Speak for yourself. I love this stuff. I absolutely adore our resin Rings of Power rings from last year’s Fan Expo Canada. And I know we’re going to dig the spray-painted Daredevil t-shirts. But, yeah, things should be faster.
Ron: As fruitful as Friday was, Saturday of Toronto Comicon 2025 didn’t go at all as planned. Despite reaching well in time for the Supernatural session with Ruth Connell, Jim Beaver, and Alexander Calvert, a bunch of people in the queue, including us, were told that there was no capacity left in the room. Not even standing room. A couple of people were let in after that announcement but there was clearly no chance for us once the session had begun.
Mon: We were a bit shocked that we couldn’t even get into the room. That’s never happened to us before. But we did hear the con staff saying they’d never seen the room that full before.
Ron: We were disappointed but a few other people in the queue were positively devastated. We were all wondering why the con hadn’t used the massive rooms on the lower ground level. You realized why that was.
Mon: Yes. There was a whole corporate shindig happening on that level and those huge rooms were taken. It’s probably the first time we’ve seen the Comicon share space with another event.
Ron: It put paid to our plans and our aching feet. We ended up having to sit on the floor and rest our feet. The lack of seating around the con has been a problem. Even the food area has no seating. That’s bonkers. People are on their feet all day; they should get some place to rest. Especially cosplayers. Some of them have such painful shoes on!
Mon: But the lost opportunity at the Supernatural session did free us up to attend our first-ever comic artist sketch duel. It was between Jesus Merino and Pasqual Ferry. We’ve always meant to go for a sketch duel but they usually end up clashing with other events.
Ron: The sketch duel was great! I’m so glad we got to attend. We were all handed raffle tickets before going in for the chance to win the sketches. That’s fun. The duel started with the audience giving the artists ideas for sketches. Some of them clearly threw the artists for a loop. They didn’t know some of the characters the audience mentioned. Also, both artists are native Spanish speakers from Spain so if the audience wasn’t completely clear in their diction, the artists got confused.
Mon: There were so many ideas to choose from but the artists weren’t daunted. When it was time to start drawing, they immediately got to work. While they were drawing, the moderator, JM Clark, also asked them questions about their life and work, as well as their origin stories in comics. Both the artists had experienced poorly-created Spanish comics as children and they wanted to make their own as they grew older.
Ron: I was really fascinated by their experiences with American versus European comics. American comic books are more action-heavy and dynamic, they’re fast-paced. But European comics are practically cerebral in comparison, and they want to live in the little moments. That was the shared experience of both artists.
Mon: It was very interesting listening to them talk about their work, all while they were drawing. At the 45-minute mark, they were done. Ferry sketched a stunning OG Iron Man and Merino drew SpongeBob as Batman. The girl behind us who had suggested the prompt was crying happy tears.
Ron: Of course, come raffle time, neither of us won anything. Good on the winners who did get to take those gorgeous sketches home. We have got to attend more sketch duels in the future.
Mon: We ended our curtailed second day of the con at George Buza’s session. Buza is the iconic voice of Beast on the X-Men animated series and X-Men ‘97. We’d met him on Friday but it was great to attend his session. His passion for playing Beast is palpable. He was an X-Men fan from the beginning and his delight at being part of the universe comes through.
Ron: I really enjoyed listening to Buza talk about Beast’s philosophy of life, how he’s a man of intellect rather than violence because his appearance evokes the latter. But Buza did wonder out loud if the events in Genosha in the first season might change Beast in some way. Is that a hint about season two of the show?
Mon: Obviously, Buza can’t give any spoilers but it’s something for fans to surmise about. Speaking of fans, Buza was so grateful to the fans. The voice actors were never informed about the enormous support the show had. They just went and did their job but it was only after the ‘92 show ended that they learned about the ceiling-high fanmail they’d been receiving.
Ron: Yeah, what an odd thing to hide from the actors. And Buza also said that they were kept on tenterhooks about whether the show would be renewed each season. Considering how popular the show is, it’s hard to imagine why the creative and acting teams were put through the wringer like that.
Mon: You can read more about what Buza said in my session recap at Bam Smack Pow.
Ron: The frustrations of Saturday didn’t end with that day. We thought we’d arrived to relative calm on Sunday. We found out we were wrong, very soon. We joined what we were told was the line for Mark Sheppard and Jared Padalecki’s Supernatural talk. There were already a few people before us. No problem.
Ron: Then! Staff members arrive and ask the line what we’re doing there because nobody was supposed to be outside the room. There were already two queues upstairs just to get into this room. But nobody had told the queue we were in about that. Not even the volunteer queue managers. Absolutely bonkers. People yelling. And everybody wondering what exactly we were meant to do now.
Mon: Toronto Comicon has been going on for how long now? How is it that every single year, there’s absolute chaos around lines? Where to stand? When to stand? Every time?
Ron: Can I just add that this was at 9am for a 10:30am session and people had been queuing for an hour before. What?
Mon: I get that the volunteer staff change every year, but don’t they have staff who can manage these things better? We’ve been on the other side of putting on a huge event, they have got to figure out a way to be more polite to the audience. And they really need to figure out how to manage things better.
Ron: A lot of people got yelled at for apparently being in the wrong place. But we were all following instructions.
Mon: Yeah. Don’t yell at people. They paid to be here. This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for most of us. If the staff and security can’t get their act together then be polite and remorseful over the mess-up.
Ron: Once we were in the room, the vibe was completely different. I’d say this is the first time we’ve truly experienced being a part of the Supernatural Family. Everyone was so friendly, we were all trading stories about queue management drama. Which was apparently even worse upstairs! We got a great picture with the queue’s loudest advocate, Jessica. She was incredible. She made sure we weren’t penalized for the bad management. And she’s got an Indian connection! Love it.
Mon: Yeah, shout out to Jessica and the gentleman in the Scooby-Doo shirt for fighting for the audience. Once the tension died down, everyone was so chatty. I can’t say we’ve faced that in any other fandom. Maybe the drama brought us together, or maybe it was just how the SPN family rolls.
Ron: Also shoutout to moderator Victor Dandridge for keeping the crowd calm and entertained. He was very funny and played with the crowd. Last year, at the X-Men ‘97 activation, we got chatting to him and he was lovely even then. He brings the energy and is clearly one of the fans.
Mon: Yep. He’s the one moderator at these Toronto shows who works the crowd. The others just turn up and leave for the most part.
Ron: The session itself was lovely. But it felt so short!
Mon: Dude, it was short. It was 35 minutes long.
Ron: What! No way!
Mon: Yes. 10:35 to 11:10.
Ron: Dang. Anyway, Victor had wonderful questions for Jared and Mark, who were equally funny and insightful. I first saw Mark Sheppard in 2011 at the Middle East Film and Comic Con. Back then, he was sharing lots of anecdotes from behind the scenes and how Jensen Ackles was called the ‘short one’ because Jared is so tall. And he really is. At 6 feet 4 inches, he fills the stage. This time, I found Mark Sheppard so philosophical and he really wanted to applaud the audience, the Supernatural Family, for being such an important part of the journey.
Mon: You could feel the love for the fans from Jared and Mark. Much like how we felt it with George Buza. But more than that, I like that both actors talked about the why of Supernatural’s success. It’s fun to get behind-the-scenes stories, but much more interesting when the creative teams attempt to dissect why we love the show.
Ron: I loved the love in that room. So much cheering from the crowd and both Mark and Jared just thanking the fans so much. It’s so interesting that Mark didn’t want to use the term fans for us. Because fanaticism has such a negative connotation. He talked about how the SPN viewers were always there for each other and supporting each other, as well as the creatives on the show. They weren’t fans; they’re a family. And that’s where the term SPN Family came from. Because the group of people who are brought together through Supernatural aren’t fans, they’re a family to each other. And we definitely felt that in the room.
Mon: For me, it was most fascinating when Mark explained what kept fans coming back, and why fans enjoy the characters of Castiel and Crowley. We love the brothers — Sam and Dean. But so do Castiel and Crowley. They’re like the audience stand-ins; as he said, the audience are living vicariously through Cas and Crowley. That was mind-blowing to me. I’ve always known we stuck with Supernatural through thick and thin because of the brothers, but I didn’t always understand why we found Cas and Crowley compelling as well. Now we know.
Mon: Jared also made a point about the distance between the audience when watching a film in a theatre, versus how we consumed Supernatural – it was a TV show, so we’re watching it in our homes.
Ron: Yes, so that proximity makes the TV characters feel closer, more like a family. That’s not a feeling you get from being at the movie theatre. Because, you need to buy the tickets and transport yourself there and back. But the TV is at home, with you. It was funny that Jared thought movie tickets were $10. I loudly informed him that that was not the case in Toronto!
Mon: Poor guy. He’s a bit out of it with Canadian prices.
Ron: Yes. In general, I thought Mark was so insightful about the show and the people involved in it. And Jared was all emotion. He did get emotional at one point!
Mon: Yeah, Jared teared up talking about the series finale. Can you believe that was 5 years ago?
Ron: Where does time fly? We aren’t even having fun. I kid. I kid. Despite the extremely early start in the morning and the weirdness with the trains and all that drama with the queues, the session was lovely and seeing Jared in person made me a very happy person. My teenage self would be stoked.
Mon: Jared and Misha Collins have been cast in the final season of The Boys, which is also an Eric Kripke show. Several SPN cast members have been on that show, and Jensen Ackles had a big role as well. The three of them will be sharing a scene together on The Boys, so the crowd obviously went wild over that. But Jared also mentioned that he wants Supernatural to come back in some way. I’m not sure how though.
Ron: Yeah, the door seems firmly shut on Supernatural. Dean died. Castiel died. Crowley died. Sam died of old age. God destroyed the multiverse. But it’s sweet that Jared still wants the show to continue in some way.
Mon: The next session we attended was Manny Jacinto’s talk. I lined up for that almost immediately after the Supernatural panel. And there were already people ahead of me.
Ron: My plan was to attend the Doctor Who session, hosted by the Doctor Who Society of Toronto. We have only attended one talk by them before and that was after the first season with Jodie Whittaker. We hated the entire talk and left furious. They were so dismissive of the historical stories that the season focused on. Which was the reason we started watching it, because ‘Demons of the Punjab’ was about the Partition of India. I wanted to know if the society had educated themselves since Ncuti Gatwa took over the role of the Doctor. Anyway, that didn’t happen. Because while I was lined up for that talk, you called me frantically, telling me the line for Manny was already moving. So I raced over to you and managed to join you just as you were entering the room. An hour and 10 minutes before the start of the talk!
Mon: It’s quite ridiculous to miss out on so much of the con because we need to stand in line. But, at least we were able to get into the session.
Mon: One last complaint, and this issue was corroborated by the photographer sitting next to me. The lighting on the Main Stage was terrible. Jared and Manny were totally in shadow. It was a terrible decision not to put some overhead lights on to light them. The photographer said she’d have to work on fixing all the pictures in post because they were so dark.
Ron: Wow, you really brought a friendly vibe to this con. Who didn’t chat with you on Sunday? But yes, agreed. The green and purple lights were great for mood lighting, but absolutely terrible for the speakers.
Ron: Moving on to the session. I can’t say we know Manny Jacinto’s entire filmography but we were there to represent all fans of The Acolyte. There were definitely other Acolyte fans in that room but the vast majority were there for The Good Place, a show we haven’t yet watched. But we may finally have to give it a shot. Since we don’t mind comedies so much anymore.
Mon: We will see. But we were here for The Stranger, and Manny delivered.
Ron: Manny did talk about The Acolyte and specifically how much he enjoyed being able to do the switch between goofy Qimir and the stoic and deadly Stranger. He kind of did the opposite in The Good Place, and at that time, neither he nor the creative team were sure if he was right for the role. Because he had never done comedy before. But he pulled it off very well, playing out the duality of his characters across two shows.
Mon: Manny also talked about doing as many of his own stunts as possible on The Acolyte, because he isn’t getting any younger. He also mentioned how his dance skills played a huge part in being able to perform the fight scenes.
Ron: Yes. The Stranger’s helmet didn’t have much visibility, he said. He was bumping into things all the time. They made three versions — each with larger eye lines — but for the most part, Manny was relying on muscle memory to fight.
Mon: Manny also mentioned two disparate roles that got him this Star Wars gig. Leslye Headland, showrunner of The Acolyte, watched The Good Place, where Manny demonstrated his comedy skills, and Nine Perfect Strangers, where his character was very stoic. Which is how she realized that Manny was her guy to play Qimir and The Stranger.
Mon: Should we talk about the Murderville snafu?
Ron: We should but it was very cringe. So, apparently, nowadays at the Comicon, they’ve stopped doing live Q&As at panels. Something happened at another con somewhere. Instead, fans now need to pre-submit questions. Where? How? No one knows. So really, more disastrous management at work.
Mon: There we are at the Manny Jacinto panel, and the moderator asks one of the pre-submitted questions about Manny’s work and experience on the Will Arnett improv show Murderville. And Manny looks so confused.
Ron: Yeah. And the moderator totally missed Manny’s confusion, because he went right ahead and asked this extremely long question about Murderville.
Mon: And guess what, y’all. Manny wasn’t even on Murderville! Yikes!
Ron: That was so embarrassing!
Mon: The moderator played it off well in the end. But sheesh, shouldn’t someone vet this stuff beforehand? A real fan question could have been asked in that time.
Ron: Manny took the Murderville thing well and even joked about it right up until the end. But that was how our Toronto Comicon 2025 came to an end. This was probably the least satisfactory con experience of our lives. It was a really frustrating time.
Mon: Agreed. I’ve never felt so tired after one of these cons, even when they’ve been super hectic or busy. But this one just tired me out. The line-up was depressing, the management was terrible. The experience just wasn’t great.
Ron: I’m hoping they take all the feedback and make Fan Expo Canada extraordinary, because we can’t do with a repeat of this.