The Merry Old Month of May!

I recently uploaded a bunch of photos from my phone to my picasa web albums and found a few that I felt like sharing - all from stuff that went down this past month:

During TCAF, Myles and I met up with Niall and his friend (whose names escapes me...Rupert, maybe?) at TCAFête, which was held at Pauper's Pub on Bloor Street, and after grabbing a booth we decided to start up some comic jams! Well, I steer clear of paper and pens, since I don't have any artistic abilities, but Niall and Rupert (??) started up these pieces. I'm not sure how they ended up, or if they even caught on, but it was fun to start them off, anyway.

A pretty funky dragon-monster by "Rupert".

A menagerie of aliens from the creative mind of Niall Eccles!!

Myles LOVES comic jams, even though he is slightly less skilled at drawing than others...I like this piece of a balloon flying a kite, but I forgot to take a picture of his other piece that I liked even better - it was a slice of pizza and an eggplant on a disco dance floor. Heehee...very cute, indeed.

My eldest sister bought a book called 365 Things to Do with Paper and Cardboard, which has turned out to be a great babysitting tool. A few weeks ago, Zoë and I created these cute little cardboard mice. Zoë was in charge of all executive decisions regarding colour and style, and she decorated the dresses and the bows with polka dots. I took care of the cutting and taping - grown up stuff!! I love that they can't stand up on their own until you add the tail. We've made a few other paper projects since...only 362 more to go!

Most of you will have seen these guys pop up in my Facebook photo albums. They are the best ever gumball machine toys! The Spider-man, Iron Man, Wolverine (at the front), Thor, Hulk and Captain America came from machines Myles and I found in Vancouver/Whistler when we were there last year. A few weeks ago, after seeing Thor, we discovered that there is a new set! Dr. Doom, Venom, Cyclops, The Thing, and Wolverine (brown suit, in the back) are the newest additions to our collection. We still need Daredevil...I have a feeling we will try tonight when we go to see X-Men: First Class. *fingers crossed*

And finally, I need to share these pictures of the weirdest carrot I've ever seen. I don't even know how this happens - the two pieces were actually fused at one end, but I broke them apart out of sheer curiosity. *shudder*

TCAF!! (Better Late Than Never!!)

Eesh...almost 9 months since I posted here. Meh. No excuses and no apologies! Just going to forge ahead with a post about a recurring event documented on this here blog - the Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF), which took place May 8th and 9th at the Metro Toronto Reference Library (ugh - I'm such a procrastinator). Anyway, this year was extra cool because my super-talented, artist friend Niall, who is currently creating a "Character of the Day" for each day of the year (!!!) set up a table and pimped his wares  Check out his project here: www.nialleccles.com

Niall Eccles and his Character of the Day project at TCAF

As per usual, I spent my time at TCAF hunting down my favourites, discovering new talent, and buying a buttload of books!

A view of the main floor before it filled up with the masses...it was shoulder to shoulder by the afternoon on Saturday.

More awesomeness from the bizarre mind of Scott Campbell.Check out Great Showdowns  where he posts his drawings of classic movie showdowns. I am partial to The Princess Bride showdown between Inigo Montoya and the Six-Fingered Man.

Ken Turner has an amazing style, strongly influenced by Tim Burton. I think he only heard me say "kay" when he asked how I spelled my name. :( 

I will never NOT get a sketch from Graham Annable. He's just too awesome to miss. I think this is another Spock/Mysterio piece, carrying on from last year's theme. That's MY interpretation, anyway. I could be way off, though...

I was worried for a moment that Dustin Harbin cancelled because he was not in his usual spot by the water, but was relieved when I found him with Koyama Press. I like to stock up on any new comics he has for sale and was pleasantly surprised that his Diary Comics #2 came with a free original art page. It took me forever to choose just one, but I finally decided on a page with puppies and Hurley from Lost!

Poor Myles missed out on Sunday, so he wasn't able to get in line for Pendleton Ward of  Adventure Time with Finn and Jake fame. He was a last minute addition to TCAF, and he was selling a CD at his signing table with a bunch of random recordings and a choose-your-own-AUDIO-adventure! My favourite track was him playing and singing Sea of Love (Cat Power version) on a piano he found in his hotel while drunk at 4am. He's apparently a man of many talents.

If you've read my previous convention reports, you will already be well-aware of my adoration for all things Nate Powell. I misunderstood and thought that his new graphic novel, Any Empire, would be available for purchase, but when I spoke to him he said that it's actually going to launch at San Diego next month. BOOOO!!! Oh well, I got my sneak peek of the pages when I was at the SDCC a few years ago (he even remembered me!!! I think that means we are BFFs...heh). I will just have to wait to buy it like a regular chump...unless I can find someone to pick it up for me in SD!!

Did I ever tell you how amazing Top Shelf Productions is? Besides publishing works by a bunch of my favourite artists (Jeffrey Brown, Jeff Lemire, Nate Powell, and Andy Runton, to name a few), they are also smart enough to employ the incomparable Leigh Walton who has a sneaky way of getting me to try out all kinds of new books. This time, he convinced me to buy Lucille because the French author Luduvic Debeurme, was in North America for the first time and I shouldn't let the opportunity to have my book signed pass me by. Lucille is a beautifully told story of two teenagers fighting their personal demons and finding each other. And now my copy has this beautiful sketch on the front page. Thanks so much, Leigh, for being so good at what you do!


My "fun find" this year was a children's book series called Guinea Pig: Pet Shop Private Eye, by Colleen AF Venable. I picked up the first two books of the series for Myles, who was particularly drawn to the titles: "Hamster and Cheese" and "And Then There Were Gnomes". The stories are really cute, but the art by Stephanie Yue is even more adorable! Now I can't wait for the third book, "The Ferret's A Foot".   

Okay. That's enough of that. TCAF is probably the convention that I look forward to the most. I'm glad that it now occurs annually instead of biennially. I'll have to come up with a new theme for my sketchbook before the next one, though. It's probably about time to retire Mysterio...maybe. 

[EDIT: Something strange happened and my original post disappeared...I found this version but it wasn't the *final* one...it was missing stuff about my "fun find" which I've rewritten. ~ks]