For anyone who just wants a quick link:

http://hal-con.com/Get-Involved/volunteering-rules-and-guidelines/

After fans and organizers alike complained about crowded hallways and lack of sustenance on-site something had to be done.

“It’s nice to have a consensus”, says Hal-Con Facilities Director, Amanda Schreiber. “The consensus about Hal-Con 2011 was that we didn’t have enough space and the people who didn’t want to venture out for food had nowhere to pick up a bite. Lucky for everyone it has been an easy problem to fix.”

The fix comes in the form of adding a third floor for Hal-Con 2012.

Thanks to our friends at the World Trade and Convention Centre the third floor will open up a whole other world of space for fans.

“It’s mostly going to be gaming space.” Says Hal-Con’s Gaming guru Shawn Kehoe. “2011 was amazing for us gamers, but, there were crowd issues and noise issues being that close to the main convention area. We’ve fixed that for 2012. The third floor is away from the hustle and bustle of the main area. The extra space provided by the third floor will let us respond to our fans’ requests for more games without sacrificing any of the great events that made the 2011 games room such a great success.”

According to Schreiber moving the huge gaming area upstairs means more room for exhibitors, venders and presentations and just more room to get your geek on.

It’s hard to get that geek on with no fuel in the tank. Also new to the con this year is food, glorious food! The extra space we’ve acquired this year means we have the room to host a food vendor which means guests do not have to brave the cool October winds of Nova Scotia, sacrificing precious con-time in the search for sustenance. We’re still working on the menu with the folks from the WTCC, but, it looks like sandwiches and soft drinks, including that most precious universal commodity, pure H₂O, will be available at a reasonable cost.

Here’s the short version of the story. In 1795, some boys goofing around on Oak Island, a small (140 acres) island just off the Nova Scotian coast, discovered an apparently artificial hole where none should be. Over the ensuing centuries, many people have tried to get (literally) to the bottom of the hole, only to be thwarted by what seems to be a series of booby traps designed to protect something incredibly valuable that waits at the bottom. It’s still there, still undiscovered and unexplained.

I’ve read about this since the mid-80s, starting with Darcy O’Connor’s paperback, and it’s lost none of its fascination, even after a pretty reasonable debunking by Joe Nickell at the Skeptical Inquirer (LINK: http://www.csicop.org/si/show/secrets_of_oak_island/ ). I’d always intended to write something that explained it, even though Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child beat me with Riptide, which at least includes a clever explanation for the pit’s design in an otherwise goofy adventure story.

When I began my latest Eddie LaCrosse novel, Wake of the Bloody Angel, I had a few broad inspirations: pirates, the song “Brandy” by Looking Glass, and Oak Island. Originally my version of the Money Pit was to be a central part of the story, but as I wrote it became less and less important, until finally it’s barely an image only a fellow Oak Island-ophile like me might recognize. That’s how the process works sometimes: the thing that inspires a story gradually gets winnowed out of it.

But Hal-Con will be the closest I’m ever likely to get to Oak Island, even if it is now privately owned and I can only see it from the shore. So I’m hoping at some point I can slip away from the con and glimpse the home of one of my favorite mysteries and inspirations. If you see me at Hal-Con with a ridiculously big grin, it means I’ve just gotten back.

BIO:

Alex Bledsoe grew up an hour north of Memphis (home of Elvis) and twenty minutes from Nutbush (birthplace of Tina Turner). He now lives in a Wisconsin town famous for trolls.

Hal-con costume contest 2011

If your number is listed above, please contact us at info@hal-con.com

Aperture Studios has posted the photographs taken yesterday to their website. Please go to the gallery link and select the guest you posed with to see your photo.

The all-Toronto creative team behind the Harvey- and Joe Shuster-nominated series will be in Halifax this weekend to unveil Kill Shakespeare Volume 2: The Blast of War to Canadian comic fans for the first time. The concluding chapter of the IDW Publishing series, which pits the Bard’s heroes and villains on a quest to track down a mysterious wizard by the name of William Shakespeare, will be released in bookstores in Canada at the end of November.

Series co-creators Anthony Del Col and Conor McCreery, as well as series artist Andy Belanger, will also be taking part in panels and will provide workshops on how to create and market comic book series.

“I attended the inaugural Hal-Con last year and bar none I had the best time of any convention I have ever attended, say McCreery. “I’m beyond pleased that the timing of the release means we get to make Hal-Con the first convention in Canada to see The Blast of War.”

The Kill Shakespeare team will also provide more details on the upcoming Kill Shakespeare stage show. Toronto’s Soulpepper Theatre – one of the country’s top theatre groups – will perform the series live on November 26th and 27th in Toronto. The play will provide the audience with a never-before seen mix of comic art, performance and music to bring the series to life in a way that will delight both theatre and comic “geeks”.

Del Col, McCreery and Belanger will be available for interviews during Hal-Con 2011.

Pre-purchased ticket sales come to a close soon! Registration opens at 8am to get wristbands on… doors open at 9am on Saturday! If you have PRE PURCHASED a ticket, you’ll get in first. If you bought online – bring your confirmation/ID to speed things up.

Warp Speed pass holders will get a special line-up to get through the door first! There are only 50 passes total available for this – so get ‘em quick!

Alright comic fans – check this out. STEVE MCNIVEN just confirmed he’ll be at the Strange Adventures signing table on Sunday! This information is SO NEW – we haven’t even got it online yet. Check our Guests page for updates soon on that!

Autograph and Photo prices for some of the guests are as follows:

• Erin Gray $30
• Nicholas Brendon $30
• JG Hertzler $20-25
• Robert Maillet $20

The last day for in store ticket purchases is November 6th. On-line sales will be done on November the 10th. After that tickets will be available at the door, unless we sell out like we did last year. It’s cash sales only at the door, so if you want to pay by credit card you need to buy on-line.

There have been some changes to the schedule so if you haven’t checked it out lately please do so.