JMS at FanExpo-Toronto 2009

[Jeremy]

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone!

I'm glad Jan that you enjoyed your visit to Toronto, it is a great city, although its unfortunate it was grey, rainy and cold when you came! The person that was attending the con with me was my dad, which has become a tradition for both us as we are both big Sci Fi fans (as is my mom), so it's a great way to spend time with each other.

Glad to here Spoo Junky that you successfully got a place in the autograph line, particularly after the previous day's cutoff line. It's great to here how considerate other B5 fans are, helping each other out when they had to catch flights out.

[Jan]

Welcome out of Lurkdom, Jeremy!

I had a great time at the con, due in major part to Spoo Junky. It was great meeting her and Jeremy (and friend whose name I can't recall) and Toronto seems to be a great city.

Jan

[WorkerCaste]

Congratulations on your first post, Jeremy. Jan can be VERY convincing about trip reports. Sounds like a good time. I'd still like to make it to a good-sized con sometime.

[OmahaStar]

Welcome to the board, Jeremy!

[Spoo Junky]

Hi Jeremy! It was great meeting you too! We looked for you today in the line-up, sorry you had to leave early. JMS may yet come back to Toronto to give you another chance - Never Surrender Dreams (I heard that somewhere :P)

Anyway, being the keener that I am, I was first in line again and held a place for Jan. Besides Jan, there were some people who had to catch flights as soon as JMS arrived and signed their stuff. Unfortunately, for the first time probably ever, JMS was late for the signing. It wasn't his fault, there was a mix-up regarding the time. Jan was able to stay, but some others had to make a run for it. Luckily, JMS fans are often quite helpful so other people in line offered to get stuff signed and forward it off to the people who had to run.

When JMS did arrive, there was much apologizing, but he still was able to give a smile to everyone in line. Jan got a lot of cool stuff signed, some of it to be sold on ebay with the proceeds to go towards Jeanne Robinson, so keep an eye open and buy, buy, buy!

Overall it was a good weekend, but now I'm glad to be home. Thanks to JMS for coming; thanks to Jan for coming all this way, it was good to meet up; and thanks to Jeremy who has popped out of lurkdom - hope to see more of you here

[Jeremy]

Fan Expo

As promised to Jan and Spoo Junky, I've decide to post on JMSNews for the first time after 5 or 6 years of Lurking.

The convention was a wonderful experience, although extremely busy as usual. The JMS Spotlight Session was excellent and as Jan mentioned was fortunately not biased towards one specific topic. I was even fortunate enough to ask a question, which I am happy to report seemed to be well received by JMS. There wasn't very much new B5 news from JMS apart from the following statements:
- of all the incomplete B5 projects the one he is saddened the most about not completing was Crusade
- Per previous comments Warners has not committed to a new B5 feature film but they have asked JMS to approach them with a concept for a B5 feature film for their consideration which JMS is giving some thought to, but it doesn't sound like JMS is in a rush to start working on a feature film until he has a good story he wants to tell
- JMS' favourite B5 race are the Minbari, his favourite alien character is G'Kar and JMS says he is most like Londo!

As Jan noted the first autograph line up was full after the spotlight, with fans who skipped the spotlight and instead stood in line for an autograph. Alas, I had to depart the convention a day earlier than planned due to last minute activities at home that I did not expect, so no autographs for this JMS visit, but the spotlight was definitely worth the trip to Toronto.

It was wonderful to meet Jan and Spoo Junky in person for the first time after reading all of their (and other members) posts over the years. I will definitely be checking back regularly and will hopefully keep up the posting!

[Jan]

Greetings again! Your intrepid reporter here again to report on JMS' spotlight panel this afternoon.

I arrived shortly after noon and there was still a tremendous line to get in. Already having my badge, I bypassed that and went right to the area where the panels were.

Since JMS had said that he might pop into the DC panel, I went to that. He didn't make it, though, and I slid out after all of the announcements and headed across the hall where the spotlight was to be held.

Spoo Junky had staked her claim to the first spot in line and she let me slide in. While we waited, a friendly lurker named Jeremy came up and introduced himself and we talked for a while.

As usual, JMS was right on time and gave us an update on some of his projects.

• In comics he's going to be doing The Brave and The Bold and he verified that he'll be doing a Superman title that he couldn't discuss yet.
  
• In TV, he's got a pilot deal with Imagin and they're taking the script out to the networks next week.
  
• He's turned in the script for "Proving Ground" to MGM.
  
• He's working on a historical mystery.
  
• He's been approached by a top producer to write and direct a "Midnight Nation" feature.
  
• If everything goes according to plan, "Forbidden Planet should shoot in 2010 and be released in 2011.
  
• He's written ten screenplays in the past two years. For every two genre screenplays he writes he tries to do one mainstream script.
  
• "Deam Police" is another possibility for a feature.

The panel went over an hour and there was a nice mix of questions, some B5, some comics and some writing-related.

Afterwards, we headed straight to the autograph area only to find that the line had been cut off before we arrived. Fortunately, there's another signing tomorrow.

Spoo Junky has volunteered to ensure a place in line tomorrow, thankfully. I'll need to check out of the hotel and bring my suitcase with me and then stuff my con bag in after JMS signs all of the stuff I brought with me. There's much more than usual since I'm doing the auctions for Jeanne Robinson.

I made it a short day and headed back here to listen to the recording and report back here. Jeremy's promised to start posting so we'll look forward to seeing him here even if we miss him tomorrow.

Jan

[Jan]

(simu-posted to JMSnews and the moderated newsgroup)

Greetings from beautiful (though cloudy/drizzly) Toronto! No major news to report on the JMS-side yet. I met up with Spoo Junky yesterday and we spent most of the time visiting and wandering around the show floor getting the lay of the land.

Walter Koenig was signing and I had him autograph a couple of B5 group photos that I'll be auctioning off in my fund-raising for Jeanne Robinson (http://wedreamforjeanne.blogspot.com/ ) after I add JMS's today and several others at DragonCon next weekend.

We also went to the Q&A for Walter which was fun. Sadly they didn't have a microphone for the fan questions so I didn't hear some of them. The room only holds about 400 people which may not bode well for all of the fans getting in to see JMS today in the same room.

JMS's spotlight today is at 2:30 PM and his signing is at 4:00 PM.

Jan

[Jan]

JMS popped in to the newsgroup last night and posted:

At this point I may jump in on the DC panel on Saturday, but it looks
like that may be the only other addition. They wanted to do the
writing panel but it looks like they ran out of room(s).

It seems he's still recovering from the walking pneumonia. Hopefully any sick folks will keep their distance from him.

Jan

[Jan]

I'm glad I indulged this year and got a hotel room in the city; travelling there and home again daily is tiring.

"Budget the luxuries first." -- Lazarus Long (Robert A. Heinlein)

Jan

[Spoo Junky]

I've printed out the schedule and have been busily highlighting the autograph/Q&A sessions. As long as it doesn't change I think I can get to everyone I want to see, although JMS is the priority.

I'm glad I indulged this year and got a hotel room in the city; travelling there and home again daily is tiring.

[Jan]

The schedule is up for the con now. The JMS items that I see are:

Spotlight - Saturday 2:30 PM
Autographs - Saturday 4:00 PM
Autographs - Sunday 2:00 PM

Jan

[Spoo Junky]

You coming to Toronto? Cool! I'll be there all day, every day so meeting up shouldn't be a problem

[Jan]

Or you could be like me and just travel around to where he is. SJ, I hope we'll be able to meet while I'm there?

Jan

ETA: I've merged the three threads we had on FanExpo together.

[Spoo Junky]

I wonder when JMS will make it to St. Louis, Missouri.

JMS researched future technology ideas for Forbidden Planet. A potential collaboration with Roger Corman would probably be on another project.

Dan Dassow

Thought I had it figured out for sure Oh well, I'm not complaining. I never thought he'd come to Toronto once, never mind twice. I'm rooting for St. Louis to be next!