ComiCon brings all things pop culture to Brockville

ComiCon made its annual visit to Brockville on Sunday, setting up again at the Memorial Centre and attracting lovers of all things pop culture.

With superheroes, comic books, swords, skulls, games, and mixing medieval images of dragons with fantastical futures, it is its own unique world.

It’s a world new to Jessica Allin and her son, Tyler Bishop, but a world they could see embracing.

Bishop, 20, is a 3D creator and is looking to open a small 3D printing company.

“I’m currently focusing on 3D photos,” he said.

“Tyler is on the autistic spectrum and uses his exceptionalities to great effect through his 3D and welding creations,” said Allin.

“Tyler can create anything with his 3D machine. If I have a broken handle he’ll create a replica for me,” she added.

“I think we may try our hand at something like this,” said Allin, seeing the potential of Tyler’s 3D talent finding a home in the ComiCon venue. “I’d be interested in helping Tyler have a booth and being a vendor.”

Featured at the event were two powerhouses in the pop culture world, Catherine Disher and Dan Day.

Day is a Canadian comic book artist known for his work on well-known animations like Spider-Man, Batman and horror titles. Day first came into the industry in 1982 with work on Detective Comics #527 for DC Comics.

He was the primary artist on the black and white production of Cases of Sherlock Holmes for Renegade Press and Northstar Publishing.

He went on to major works creating cover arts for titles including Captain America, The Amazing Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Swamp Thing, The Incredible Hulk and Wolverine.

Editor’s Picks

• Brockville’s Comicon a hit

Catherine Disher has been an actor and voice actor for many years. She starred as the Good Witch for seven years and the series is due for a comeback.

Born in Montreal, she attended McGill and the National Theatre School. After graduating, she moved to Toronto, found an agent and never looked back.

She has a unique connection to Brockville, being the daughter of Martha Fulford.

“My mother grew up in Fulford Place. I used to go and visit my grandfather there. I found it very spooky,” she said.

“I attended the celebration when the Magedoma was returned to Brockville. Unfortunately, my mom was no longer alive; she had died the year before. She would have loved to have seen it again,” she said.

Catherine has been in the business for 40 years and, as well as her on-camera Good Witch series, she has done many voice-overs.

“More cartoons than I can remember,” she said.

She played the voice of Dr. Natalie Lambert in Forever Knight and the voice of Jean Grey in Marvel’s X-Men.

Disher said pop culture is far from dead. Not only are new characters and series being created, but, she added: “the nostalgia factor is huge,” with many animated works that could have been created 30 years before being reissued.

“The X-Men, The Animated Series, was done in the ’90s and is now on Disney Plus,” she said.

“My series, The Resident Evil Game, came out in 1999 and has been reissued several times, most recently, last year,” she added.

“Disney bought Marvel and when they put Disney Plus online in 2000, they, of course, now owned the X-Men animation and they started playing the original cartoon. It was a huge success,” she said.

What may not be known is that many of the voices of famous cartoon characters are done by Canadians, said Disher.

“What many Americans (and Canadians) don’t know, is that the cartoons they grew up with were recorded in Toronto, including among other animations. Franklin, Arthur, and The Berenstain Bears.”