Article content

Spock did it.

Up until 2010, the Calgary Comic Expo was a nice comic book collector’s event. They brought in a few actors from time to time such as Peter Mayhew — Chewbacca in Star Wars — but the event could definitely have been described as nerd niche.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Spock helped teleport Calgary Comic Expo to warp speed Back to video

Then in the summer of 2009, Calgary Expo founder Kandrix Foong tracked down Leonard Nimoy.

Photo by Gavin Young / Calgary Herald

“I guess I had made some pretty good contacts in the industry,” Foong says. “I had actually met with Leonard in August 2009 and said, here’s some things I want to do with his appearance (such as visiting Vulcan, the namesake home of Nimoy’s Mr. Spock Star Trek character) and it just — I guess you could say it just took off. ”

“That’s the one that really put us on the map,” he says, “That generated huge media all over North America, let alone Calgary.”

Photo by Colleen De Neve / Calgary Herald

Now, as the Calgary Comic Expo launches its 10th anniversary show April 16-19 at Stampede Park, the event has grown into a really big deal, both locally and on the comic con circuit, routinely drawing over 50,000 visitors, and filling many city hotels, bars and restaurants.