Fans unite at Toronto Comicon, meet Degrassi stars

March 23, 2017 Pop culture event Toronto continued to grow this year, the sixth year since its restructuring as a three day program. Beginning on Friday evening, it continued through to Sunday. Organized by the same company as Fan Expo Canada, the event offered exhibitors, retailers, an artist's alley, and panels.

Cast members from Canadian teen show  were among the featured guests at the convention. While the current series in the franchise, best known as , has spawned Broadway star, rapper , and others, the earlier show including and  remains popular, particularly in Canada. Brogren told industry publication Kidscreen: "A part of me thought we would do it for five years and maybe get recognized for a couple of years afterwards and then that would be it. I had no idea it would turn out to be such an important thing in so many peopleʼs lives and not just in Canada, but around the world."

The current program is now distributed by Netflix, and Brogen remains a cast member as school principal, in addition to being a producer and director.

It was the first time the cast did a convention event. The cast also plan to tour to other conventions in Canada this year.

Also appearing were, the holographic doctor on ', and , Darth Maul in '.

Panels at the convention focused on topics like steampunk costuming, wig styling, recently rebooted comic , toy collecting, and the history of comic books in Canada over the decades, in conjunction with Canada's sesquicentennial year. Cast members from The Sean Ward Show appeared at the event, meeting guests to the convention and hosting a panel about the superhero comedy YouTube channel which has more than 600 million views.

Cosplay highlights
As per usual, many attendees showed off costumes based on their favourite video games, comic books, television series, movies, and other pop culture creations. Characters ranged from one woman's interpretation of Roadhog from the current Overwatch video game, to retro revivals like the titular character from three-decade-old series Alf. Wikinews' Nick Moreau was at the event Saturday to photograph.

Many cosplayers at the event gave their own personal twists to recognizable characters. Two takes on, for example: one group turned Moana, Cinderella, Mulan and Snow White into lightsaber-wielding , while another woman touring the con floor was dressed in preparation for a photo shoot later that day. Other twists included a Wookie version of Winnie the Pooh, sophisticated armour based on Pokemon characters, and a Stormtrooper from .