Lucy Sky

This year’s Comic Expo at Humber featured special guests Manu Bennett (Spartacus and Arrow) and Shaun Hatton (G4 Tech TV’s EP Daily), as well as many other guests, publishers and vendors with tables showcasing and selling their work.

Josh Paglione, Humber Students’ Federation’s programming coordinator, said the event which ran Wednesday at Lakeshore campus and Thursday at North campus, was the “most successful yet” and that there should be many more to come. He said getting a big actor like Bennett appealed to a large variety of Humber students.

Paglione said the expo is “visual and even if you’re not a comic book fan it’s still interesting.”

“One thing I’m really thankful for, is that these conventions are a great sounding board to meet the audience and find out how they really feel about you,” Bennett said. “It’s pretty flattering … it’s been a great experience.” He said it’s even more beneficial to do it with students, as he went through a very similar process to learn his craft and remembers what it was like to be at this stage. “People coming up to me and asking questions about how you get from A to B before you get to C and D… It’s good to see young people with ambitions who relate to the fact that you can’t always get to the level you want to get to immediately,” Bennett said.

Bennett said he’s amazed, “especially with these conventions, how many people come forward and have such challenging stories in their life… This is where you find out if you’ve affected people.”

After the Q&A, a student came up to him with watery eyes and told him about a very deep struggle in his life, and that he could relate to something similar that Bennett went through. Bennett hugged the young man and signed a photo for him that said, “We all have to face battles and how we do face those battles is how we’ll be remembered.”

Paligone said HSF spent the last month or so searching for someone to come to the event. Bennett was their first choice but originally couldn’t make it, so they were very happy when he ended up attending in the end.