Last night at the museum

Alberta's royal museum is closing the doors of its current home for good this weekend, and it's holding a free 48-hour party to celebrate.

The Royal Alberta Museum will close the doors of its 102 Avenue location for good on Monday, just in time for its 48th anniversary. The museum will then be off-limits to the public for at least two years as staffers move everything in it over to the new downtown Edmonton location, currently under construction.

As the museum first opened on Dec. 7 some 48 years ago, staffers decided to hold a big event around that date to celebrate their last days in the old building, said spokesperson Oksana Gowin.

“We'll be open for 48 hours straight with free admission,” she said Thursday, and have a host of activities planned inside the museum.

The party started at 5 p.m. on Friday and is still running today – it won't stop until 5 p.m. on Dec. 6.

The museum will then be off-limits to the public save for its theatre. There will also be a special ticketed event Monday night hosted by the Friends of Royal Alberta Museum Society.

Giant comic book?

The 48-hour event features live music, midnight film festivals, morning cartoons, museum mascot Moe the Mammoth, and more. Visitors can explore the museum's regular galleries as well as a special “Goodbye, Hello” exhibit of behind-the-scenes photos from the museum's past.

Walk upstairs, and you'll get to witness some of Alberta's top comic book artists scrambling to break a Guinness World Record.

The project is the brainwave of Jay Bardyla, owner of Edmonton's Happy Harbor Comics.

The museum had films, music, and dance in its party plans and wanted him to do something with comics, Bardyla said. He suggested making the world's biggest comic book in 48 hours – an idea he's had ever since he heard the record holder was a mere three feet tall.

“Really? We can do better than that.”

Bardyla has ordered seven giant sheets of paper from the paper company Domtar to produce a “slightly larger than average” 24-page comic book.

He's also collected more than $1,600 for the Edmonton Public Schools Foundation from donors who will choose which characters and plot points go into the book.

The comic team, which includes pros such as Image Comics' Kyle Charles and author Minister Faust, learned what plot points they had to weave together on Friday at 5 p.m.

Team members now have until 5 p.m. Sunday to write, ink, and colour the book, which will likely be auctioned off to raise funds for the foundation.

Bardyla said the book should be five-feet tall and three-feet, three-inches wide when it's done, and would be fastened together with a giant stapling device provided by Design Marketing. Despite its presumed collector's value, the book will not be enclosed in a traditional Mylar bag with cardboard back.

“I don't think I've got Mylars that are quite that size,” he joked.

Former St. Albert resident and cosplayer Malissa Sekela is one of the many artists helping with the project.

“The museum's been super-awesome,” she said, providing everything from sleeping areas to oversized tables for the team to use. They'll also have a whole balcony area to themselves.

“We basically have everything we need to survive.”

Team members will likely work in shifts, although a few plan to stay for as long as they can, Sekela said.

Sekela said she suspects she'll be tired yet proud when the book is done, and that the best ideas for it will probably pop up at around 4 a.m.

She also hoped to stay up late to catch some of the event's midnight movies.

“It's kind of sad that they're closing for awhile, but it's a great way to go out with a bang.”

Visit royalalbertamuseum.ca for details.