As I'm typing this, many forklifts and trolleys are hauling unsold merchandise and shelving units into large trucks before heading back to their homes either in or out of town. However, for the general public, it's absolutely over. Everyone who attended has their own tale of joyous glee to tell about their time spent on that day. Attendees from the smallest child to the oldest nerd had fun looking at and purchasing many wonderful works of art and exhibitors (in that same basic age range) had fun selling much of their own artwork or any other merchandise they may have had. Being one of those many attendees, I will now indulge myself and post about my experiences at this fine event for the benefit of everyone who reads this blog (those being random people who were brought here by mistyping a key word in Google and now ask "what the hell just happened?").
I sadly didn't sell as much stuff as last year, but I did make sales. Also, about as important, I got people talking and generated some interest for my Censor Monkeys Have No Class book as well as the topic of censorship in general. But it wasn't just the book that accomplished this. I also freely distributed these cards at the same time:
This may have helped as well. Some assessments of my book that I heard people make at this event were:
"Savage"
"This is the funniest thing I've ever seen"
"Planet of the Apes meets blaxploitation"
One person even commented that the Horrible Mother Monkey looked just like a drag queen that he knew. I'll just say Ouch for that drag queen.
Of course, just like at last year's Fan Expo and every other comic book seeing event I have attended, there were plenty of fun costumes to see. Like always, that ones that stopped at my table will be showcased starting immediately below:
Saturday:
Uh oh! Ariel became a badass ninja and murdered Flounder. You can bet that Jamaican crab will be 'pinchers up' and smothered in butter next.
She just flew in from 1903 to pick daffodils I'm assuming .
...as did this lady. Although she might also be attempting to establish prohibition again.
Ok, a sexy Jack Skelington. That is both a Christmas and Hallowe'en gift that keeps on giving.
Here's Bumblebee the Transformer promoting my book. I will definitely be using this image many more times in the future.
Bumblebee's pal, one of the Dinobots, was also there with him. He could help promote my book by biting the heads off of people who refuse to read it (but I of course would not and do not encourage such behaviour).
Lady Obi Wan. That's a fun idea.
Um...... Batman, what is that stain on your uniform? Is that Robin's? Alfred's? Actually, never mind. I'd rather not know.
Here's a Hogwarts alumni. She gave me a sticker.
She's either a statue or a g-g-g-g-ghost!
She's either dressed partly like a skeleton or at her last doctor's appointment he had the X-ray turned up way too high. Either way, she is now a super villain we should all fear.
HEY!!! You Can't Do That At Fan Expo! "D'iiiiiiiiiiiiii heard that!"
Mother & daughter Pokemon costumes. The mother confided in me "next year I get to pick the costumes". So, 'Dorothy and Sophia of the Golden Girls' it is.
More members of Hogwarts. It must have been a field trip or something.
Every young student remembers their first car.
Riddle me this and riddle me that. What has 4 legs in the morning, 2 legs in the afternoon, and 3 legs in the evening? I don't know, but I just barbecued it and ate it. It was delicious.
That's one snazzy guillotine operator.
I believe she is some kind of wizard in an outfit made out of cotton candy or something. I need help with this one.
Can he sleep on his front with such big buttons on his pyjamas?
They're looking at my Censor Monkey panels and thinking "I can't deal with such awesomeness". Or they're trying to remember the lyrics to an Engelbert Humperdinck song. One of the two.
This is a relatively modest version of Red Sonya's costume really. This must be the more respectful and conservative outfit she'd wear to weddings and funerals.
Lady Gaston! So she would display misandry then? Or maybe 'internalized misogyny'? Bah! Who cares? It's fun costume.
Those ladies in the back seemed rather unimpressed by Nacho Libre's flexed muscles. One body slam to the canvas should take care of that (to his opponent in the ring later of course. Jeez you guys are paranoid).
Sunday:
Here is the cousin that Fonzie rarely talks about. She can punch a jukebox and get her favourite song but sadly she can only jump her motorcycle over two school buses. This makes her the biggest disappointment in the Fonzarelli family.
A bearded Link or and angry Keebler elf. Either way, I want cookies.
This is Esmerelda from Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame. The gypsy curse she put on herself was making herself voiced by Demi Moore.
Hey! A young Captain America! So does that make him "Captain 13 Colonies"?
GO RIDERS!!! Should the Roughriders wear chainmail uniforms instead of pads inside jerseys? That could be an interesting twist.
A zombie and a minion walk into a bar. There were no survivors.
This husband and wife duo dress up as their favourite fetish for this Expo. It saved their marriage I'm sure.
Here's Princess Leia and her cheerleader friend. !00% accurate to the Star Wars universe.
Here's little Iron Man. Iron Boy maybe? O, since he looks about 6, shouldn't he be "Carbon Man"? (I had to do some research to come up with that one)
What? I have 3 seconds to give you all my money or you'll shoot? Well, it's not the most egregious offer I've ever had, so.........
Awwww! Mini Darth Vader with the current Toronto Blue Jays manager. I look forward to spring training.
Harley Quinn is very displeased with you! You know what you did!
I'm not sure why there's a badminton birdie on her chest. What kind of super power could she possibly have? Whatever, she could still kick my ass.
This one looks like some Star Wars nurse, perhaps about to give Chewbacca an enema or something. I do not envy her life.
No wait. This is a Star Wars nurse ready to give Jabba the Hut a sponge bath. Being a nurse in the Star Wars universe is not fun.
Another big highlight of my Expo experience was that the table beside me was promoting a movie that was filmed and edited in Regina, Saskatchewan. It's a sci-fi thriller called Patient 62.
They said that it will be released on DVD in October sometime.
And that was my 2017 Fan Expo experience. I'm already looking forward to next year. Hopefully I'll have my next Censor Monkeys book close to done by then.
Once again I have secured a table at the Regina Fan Expo (May 6 & 7) where I will be selling my comic book Censor Monkeys Have No Class. Last year was lots of fun and I hope to have even more fun this year. By strange and somewhat surreal coincidence, I will be seated at the exact same table that I had last year:
Fax Expo 2016
Fax Expo 2017
Crazy, right? Well, hey, I consider this a very good turn of events for me. Since I am already familiar with that particular area of Evraz Place I can use that space more to my advantage (but still stay within the expo's guidelines of course).
One thing not at all the same as last year is the list of celebrity guests who will be there. This year they are:
Bret Hart - a classic WWE wrestler who hails from Canada.
Michael Cudlitz - he plays Sgt. Abraham Ford on The Walking Dead.
Bruce Boxleitner - I remember him from a now obscure show from the 80's Scarecrow & Mrs. King but he has earned his "scifi cred" by appearing on Babylon 5.
Pat Mastroianni - he played Joey Jeremiah on the Canadian teen drama series Degrassi Junior High (and later Degrassi High).
Stefan Brogran - a fellow alumni from Degrassi. He played 'Snake' on that show.
I hope they'll get the band back together and play their hit song!
Oh, but of course, I am saving the biggest for last.
The captain himself, William Shatner will be there. If you need me to list this man's filmography for you then I will just say to you "congratulations on becoming a zygote in your mother's uterus. You have 9 months of development ahead of you and then a grand emergence into this big beautiful world where you will become familiar with Mr. Shatner's presence in no time."
I would also like to caution that if Bill here says that there's a gremlin on the side of the Fan Expo trying to sabotage it, believe him.
For a full list of guests, you can check out the Fan Expo website.
I hope to sell lots of books/merchandise, see lots of great costumes and meet lots of fun and interesting people just like last year. See y'all there.
Anyone paying any close attention to the news has undoubtedly seen and heard stories surrounding one university professor named Jordan Peterson. He's gained some notoriety in the passed few months for being a very stubborn champion of free speech and vehemently resisting the mandatory use of the pronouns that the trans-gender community have been, shall we say, aggressively promoting. (A handy little chart of some of the pronouns is posted above for convenience). While he does feel that these new pronouns are superfluous and unnecessary, his biggest concern is the push to make them mandatory. No government should be involved in forcing people to say and/or not say certain words whether people want to say them or not.
I you've followed my blog at all, then you know full well why I support someone like this man. I've been on the side of free speech for not as long as Dr. Peterson but for more than two decades for sure. My characters the Censor Monkeys are a testament to that.
Of course, one of the main components of free speech is that while Dr. Peterson has the freedom to say whatever he wants, anyone who disagrees with him also have their freedom to express any thoughts that contradict his. He in turn has a right to counter their arguments which thus becomes a debate. Unfortunately, Dr. Petersons opponents have an alternative approach to confronting his speech as you can see below:
Their strategy seems to be to act like a drunken tail gate party that got lost trying to find the football game and thought that a university lecture was as good a place as any to make jackasses of themselves. Rather than engage with him they want to physically and audibly shut him down. That sort of thing is antithetical to free speech in every way. Why would they do such a thing? Well, this poster put up at McMaster's University can give you some insight into how their head works.
Yep. More than one person wrote that up and thought it was a good solid argument. Any rational thinking person can see that it's not. I'd even go so far as to say it's the exact polar opposite to what a functioning brain would fabricate. Pretty much every sentence has an error of judgement that needs addressing. I feel the need to do exactly that right now. Those of you who can see all of the problems in this text, please show this to someone (either someone who attends McMasters or anyone who would sympathize with this diatribe) and help set them on a better path of wisdom. Here we go:
Did you fall for his drivel?
Did you really get tricked into thinking that Jordan Peterson is a heroic champion of free speech?
Oh you mean by how he says exactly what freedom of speech fully means?
Is this the stuff right here?
You poor sap…. seduced by another youtube demagogue.
Youtube demagogue, eh? Oh you mean like...
...this melanin-infused Stalin-ist who actually rationalizes her brand of tyranny by saying that silencing someone from speaking is still within the guidelines of free speech because it's not a government official doing it?
....or how about this mental-castrato who thinks all masculinity should be drained from the culture because he can't admit that he's too much of a preening poofster to handle any big action (or any action at all for that matter)?
...or possibly this man-lady who thinks that he/she is a lady-man? He/she/it/they/xir/quiditch/helicopter/zim espouses that words are equal to violence, that refusing to date someone is a form of rape, and has admitted to actively trying to ban people from youtube who disagree with him/her/zapped/pat/starfish/extra terrestrial.
Are any of these three people the 'youtube demagogue' this poster's author is talking about? Whatever!
Don’t you see how full of shit he is??? Let’s think about it for a minute:
Yes, let's subject your analysis of Jordan Peterson's philosophy to public scrutiny to see how it measures up.
What if my freedom of speech involved calling him Shitstain Peterson?
By crackie, yes it does. Oh, I guess the person who made this poster does understand freedom of speech after all. Nothing more to...
That’d be funny right? Especially if all of his students started doing it. But what if everyone started doing it?
Ok, the humour of the situation is a matter of individual opinion but it could be viewed as funny to some. Also, yes every single person in the world has the right to freedom of speech no matter how hard certain governments (or citizens) try to suppress it so every single person would have ample opportunity to say that. Alright then, this person seems to fully understand the important components of free speech so I guess I can just...
What if Shitstain Peterson was someone who had experienced unspeakable violence and humiliation since he was a kid because of that name?
Oh ok, that doesn't make sense at all. Any violence or humiliation (hypothetical or otherwise) Peterson would have experienced didn't come about BECAUSE of that name. The torment would have come about because of the prejudicial attitudes held by the surrounding community. Likewise, those prejudices would have been brought about by economic, environmental, and/or historical factors that could fill many volumes upon volumes of books. Simply changing the name from "Shitstain" to "Happiness Rainbow" would be useless and unproductive. Just as "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet", so too "a person you don't like called by any other ad hominem would still be a person you don't like". Words merely help to identify things they don't magically transform things.
What if Shitstain Peterson was only allowed to use bathrooms designated for him and other Shitstains simply because we didn’t want to stop labelling him that?
Ok this is just desperate conflation from an absolute shithead. First of all, every single person on the planet is only allowed to use public bathrooms that are designated for them. All men (of every race, creed & sexual orientation) must use the men's room and all women (of every race, creed & sexual orientation) must use the women's room. That is not a situation unique to transgender people. It would be no problem if we could live like animals and expel our waste into every bush, tree, pile of dirt, or human shoe we can find but we can't because we're (supposedly) civilized. Therefore, we all use whatever public bathrooms we can access.
This brings me to my next point. The issue of transpeople having to pick one bathroom or the other has absolutely nothing to do with any labels that exist. The reason bathrooms were divided up between male and female in the first place was for public safety. We don't want unstable grown men to assault little girls or grown women while they're vulnerable and peeing. So, having people who "sometimes identify as male and the times as female" get granted access to either or bathroom leaves things wide open for that very assault to happen. No, I am not saying that transgenders will commit all of these assaults. A 'cis male' could claim 'identify as a female' then make his way to the ladies room and POW!!!
Everywhere else in the world, people are free to identify as any gender they want. It may irritate some people but as far as maintaining a functional society goes, it's not even an issue. However, for the sake of public safety, when it comes to using a public bathroom pick a gender and stick with it. All this whinging and complaining about "society must change to accommodate us" bullshit makes the crowd supposedly on the side of the LGBTQQ2+...etc community sound like snivelling bratty children.
What if he was part of a population that had been fighting for decades for the right not to be called a Shitstain anymore, only to be attacked by people who think it’s their “free speech” to keep calling marginalized people whatever they want? Not so funny anymore, eh?
Ok, this bit contradicts itself in the worst way. This 'right not to be called something' cannot exist because it infringes on other people's rights, namely the right to free speech. The basics of this can be explained with property disputes. I have every right to grow an apple tree on my property. For the most part, since it's on my property, it's entirely my business. However, if the branches of my tree grow so long that they extend over into my neighbour's property and drops apples all over his lawn, then there's some conflict. My right to have a tree that produces apples is now infringing on his right to not have a tree that produces apples. I can't enforce my right to make him have apples he doesn't want. But, if my tree full of apples remains within my own property, everything is fine. In that case, if my neighbour doesn't like my apple tree, he is free to not look at it.
The words we say are like that apple tree. They are spoken from our mouths and are thus on our own property. When someone or a group of someones makes any kind of demand to change or remove any words we say, that is the same as trespassing onto our property and chopping down our apple tree. No civilized democracy would allow such a violation of civil liberties to happen and any uncorrupt law enforcement personal would be quick to arrest anyone who participates in such an act. So it is indeed everyone's free speech to refer to other people however they want whether it be "dirty tranny" or "shitstain".
I must also reiterate that people are free to find anything funny or not funny based on individual opinion. But of course people finding this situation humorous or not is somewhat irrelevant.
If using people’s preferred gender pronouns is too much of a strain on your linguistic capabilities you probably don’t deserve to speak in public.
There's a term in psychiatric circles for a statement like this: delusion of grandeur. The person who wrote that wishes to have the authority to officiate who can and who cannot be allowed to speak in public. Thankfully, the system we have here in the free western world is set up so that no such person can become such an authority and thus deny anyone's to speak.
Of course there have been such authoritarian types who have infiltrated various journalistic publications and social media sites that are finding ways to either silence or inconvenience those with whom they disagree. They try to invoke the 'apple tree analogy' I used above by stating "My property! My rules!" While they free to run their properties any way they like, they would be more in line better with democratic principles if they gave everyone an equal voice to share ideas.
You deserve to be silenced by people who don’t want ignorant & harmful ideas spread in their communities.
Okay this takes the previous statement one step further towards a dictatorship. While the previous notion put forth was somewhat passive saying"...you probably don't deserve to speak..." this new statement is more demanding and says "...you deserve to be silenced...". The person who wrote this wishes there was a dungeon or a Guantanamo Bay type of place that Jordan Peterson could be sent and thus effectively 'silenced' forever. Well, there was a system of government like that at one time. There was a family of monarchs consisting of a king, a queen, and many other royal subjects who would rule with impunity. They would often time collude with more corrupt popes in charge of the Catholic church and carry out all sorts of punishments for saying things they found unfit to be spoken aloud. Poor Galileo was a tragic victim of this system. Thankfully, a document known as the Magna Carta would be drawn up that would give more power to the people and less to authoritarians. Then sometime later, the Founding Fathers of the United States would set up a system of government that would separate church from state and establish freedom of speech for all of its citizens so as not to go back to such a vulgar and barbaric system ever again.
We often don’t bother to debate these ideas because, like the ideas of all fear mongering & hateful people, they can’t be debated.
Actually, every idea can and should be debated, even if the debate ends quickly because its basis is strong and can't be disputed or its basis is weak and thus falls apart under scrutiny. To simply declare an idea "undebatable" is a very authoritarian stance taken by an extremely closed mind.
(Ever tried to debate a Nazi? I have. It doesn’t work. Their hate and ignorance will always find a way to “trump” your smart ideas.)
Here we go. HEY, MORON!! FUCKING MORON!!! (Aw crap, I used a catchphrase from Undoomed. I guess I owe him something like 7 million dollars or whatever).
I'll ignore the pathetic attempt to shoehorn Donald Trump into this mess of a statement since he has fuck all to do with any of this. I'll also ignore the childish attempt to label all dissenters as "nazis". I will say that if you have to tell people that your ideas are "smart" then you don't have smart ideas. A truly smart idea can stand on its own. You know an idea is smart when you can present it to various groups of people and none of them can find anything to argue against this idea. If this idea is challenged because more than one person found a few flaws, found numerous flaws, or flat out called the idea a big smouldering ole of stupid, snapping back at this opposition by simply saying "SHUT UP! IT'S SMART!" will not persuade anyone to think it's smart. If anything, it would sway people away from your argument. I suspect that's how the previous argument ended with that "nazi".
They either have a platform or they don’t. We prefer if they don’t.
Uh, no. Everyone that has ever existed and ever will exist is born with a platform. It is with time, charisma, displaying skills and meeting other people that one manages to expand that platform of theirs so that bigger and bigger crowds will gather to listen. Truly, the only way to 'take someone's platform away' is through death. When people die, their platform goes with them. However, if they managed to expand their platform to good size while they were living, others will gladly take that platform and make it part of their own. That makes the purpose of deplatforming someone a rather moot exercise in futility.
The best way to combat someone you disagree with and has a platform that you feel is too large is to develop your own platform. Keep expanding your platform in an effort to reach more people until it's big enough to get your opponents' attention. Not only is it the high road, it's completely legal and constitutional.
It’s not about free speech - it’s about self determination and basic human dignity.
Yeah..... attacking reporters and physically trying to shut down speakers through excessive noise and intimidation is the exact opposite of dignified.
It’s not about free speech - it’s about people with different genders fighting for their right to be called by an appropriate & respectful pronoun.
Like I stated above with the apple tree analogy, the 'right to be called by a certain pronoun' cannot exist because it infringes on the right to free speech. Being called a certain title you want to be called is a privilege that is earned not just given. As an example I'll use a joke from the first Austin Powers movie. While Dr. Evil is talking to the world leaders one of them refers to him as "Mr. Evil". He quickly corrects them and says, "Ahem! That's Dr. Evil! I did not spend an extra four years in villain school to be called 'mister' thank you very much." It's a good funny joke and it perfectly illustrates my point. The privilege of being addressed by labels of your choosing must be earned through respect. Completely ignoring democratic principles and trying to force everyone to use these pronouns (even through violence in too many cases) at the expense of civil liberties is not respectful behaviour. If you don't know how to express your desires and have them implemented without using the basic bullying tactics to intimidate others and thus tree upon the freedom and democracy that many people fought and died to protect, then regroup and get back to us when you have learned this.
It’s about you not being a Shitstain.
More like it's about the collective 'you' not being a Shit For Brains!
This is some great artwork from an excellent artist named Jesse Oliver. I just had to use it.
Anyway, that's my opinion about why Dr. Jordan Peterson is great and why too many of his opponents have proven themselves to be useless morons. I wish him the best for all future endeavours and I hope he helps everyone he encounters to see the light.
As I'm typing this, many forklifts and trolleys are hauling unsold merchandise and shelving units into large trucks before heading back to their homes either in or out of town. However, for the general public, it's absolutely over. Everyone who attended has their own tale of joyous glee to tell about their time spent on that day. Attendees from the smallest child to the oldest nerd had fun looking at and purchasing many wonderful works of art and exhibitors (in that same basic age range) had fun selling much of their own artwork or any other merchandise they may have had. Being one of those many attendees, I will now indulge myself and post about my experiences at this fine event for the benefit of everyone who reads this blog (those being random people who were brought here by mistyping a key word in Google and now ask "what the hell just happened?").
This may have helped as well. Some assessments of my book that I heard people make at this event were:
