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]
Heh...I was pretty naive to think that, just because I committed to a weekly blog last post, I would be motivated enough to update more regularly. Apparently, turning over that leaf KILLS it. So, instead of saying something ridiculous like, "I will blog every week", I will revert to the more realistic, "I'll blog whenever the hell I want." Right now is a 'hell I want" moment because of TCAF! That's the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, for you n00bs....or as I like to call you, "non-nerds".
My TCAF experience this year had a mini-prelude and a pseudo(but-not-really)-related interlude leading up to the main event. First off, TCAF hosted an event on April 26th as part of Keep Toronto Reading called, Graphically Speaking 2010: Jeffrey Brown's Undeleted Scenes, where Brown presented a short lecture on his "process" and then fielded some questions. Myles had to work late that night and was going to miss most of the lecture, so I took some video so he could see what he missed. Here is a short sample: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z7SzO3Yco4
I have the rest of the lecture, but it's very long...maybe some day I will chop it up and post it...MAYBE. I've learned my lesson and will never commit to anything ever again, EVER. :P
Of course, no comic artist signing is complete without the obligatory sketch request. Lately, I've been giving artists a choice between Mysterio and Spock. Jeffrey went with Spock:
He's pretty much teh awesome.
The following Saturday was Free Comic Book day. HOORAY! More nerdful glee! Although, seeing as I've yet to read about 80% of the free comics I've collected over the years, I made a conscious decision to limit the number of comics I picked up this year. It helped that I was 'delayed' leaving the apartment in the morning (it may or may not have had something to do with WoW, but I'll admit to nothing!) so the only store I hit up was Paradise Comics. They had a three book limit, so I just grabbed some kid-friendly comics to read and then pass on to my niece. Gotta get her started early! The plus side of Paradise Comics was most certainly the guest artists from whom I received these sketches of Spock (Leonard Kirk and Richard Isanove, respectively):
I'm glad I got that Isanove, since I'm going to miss his next appearance at the Hobbystar Fan Appreciation event in June, and then he's moving back to France. He says it will only be for a year or two, but I think it will more likely be for EVER. *tear*
And now, on to TCAF! Hmm...I don't have a lot to add to Myles' report except to say that I *heart* Kagan McLeod. Last year at TCAF was the first time I got a sketch from him (of Spock) so this year I was going to ask him for a Mysterio. But, TCAF eve, Myles saw that Kagan posted some original art on Facebook that he did in advance to sell at TCAF, which included...A MYSTERIO!!! *jaw drop* When we got to TCAF, I lost Myles for a split second, and when I caught up with him, he was already dishing out the dough for the Mysterio original art! YIPPEE!!! Here he is in all his glory:
I love to just wander aimlessly around the floor at TCAF. But, this year I had a hidden agenda that involved some of my favourite returning independent and/or web comic creators: Matt Wiegle, Scott Campbell, Dustin Harbin, and Graham Annable. Wiegle (who is the featured artist review on the latest episode of Digital Kontent) seemed okay with drawing me a Mysterio and went with the test tubey-shaped head (as opposed to the more common fishbowl shape):
I asked Scott Campbell to choose between Spock and Mysterio but, being the super awesome dude that he is, he drew me BOTH! He drew Spock first and was embarrassed by the impossible angles of his fingers...hence, Mysterio's reaction:
Here's a fun little trick: after an artist spoils you with an awesome sketch, just show it to his friends and say, "Well, this is what HE did...but you can just do whatever." Friendly rivalry can go a long way, so Dustin and Graham both kicked it up a notch:
Spock as Mysterio!!! WHO KNEW???
Umm...yeah. So, this is pretty much my favourite. *heart*
I ran into Jason Truong who suggested that I get a sketch from Roger Langridge (in the interest of full disclosure, I will admit that I had to google his name because I forgot it...in fact, I may have never really known it...). Anyway, his work on The Muppet Show comic is so awesome! ANY fans of The Muppet Show should check out the comic, too. He drew up this Spock that actually looks a lot like my dad:
And FINALLY! We get to Ryan Kelly. If you read Myles' TCAF report, you'll already know that he almost started a public domestic by requesting a Mysterio from Ryan, which turned out to be AMAZING. Sorry, Myles, but "at least ONE of us got a Mysterio sketch" is neither comforting nor validating. :P Well, at least I always have Spock to fall back on. This one has a fancy laser gun! PEW PEW!!!
Here you see that Ryan Kelly is a BAD listener because that is NOT how I spelled out my name to him. I forgive him, though...he meant well. *pew pew pew*
I just did the one day at TCAF. I think I fared pretty well, and my wallet couldn't have handled another day (or even an hour!!) there. I picked up lots of books that I am looking forward to reading, and may some day even review them. MAYBE.
*NOTE: I am not now, nor have I ever been, a Trekkie. I just like the way Spock looks. Bowl cut, FTW!!
I don't think it's necessary for me to give a detailed account of my fun times at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF) this past weekend. Instead, I'll just point you to Myles' report since we were at the same places at the same times. I'm just going to take this time to show off my sketches from the weekend. There were so many amazing people and amazing artists that it was tough to see them all. I'm sure I missed tonnes of great artists - I think I need to be more systematic in my wanderings. Usually I just pinball around the venue avoiding the biggest crowds and finding people that have been recommended to me. I need to take on some more recon missions and discover my own hidden gems next time.
Timing was on my side on day one. After we arrived and wandered around to figure out the lay of the land, I decided to go to the info desk to find out when Brian Lee O'Malley would be signing. I was told that he had just arrived and would be signing in a few minutes. Since I had already figured out where he would be sitting, I bee-lined it to his table - grabbing Myles on the way - and we ended up about 3rd in line - a line which turned into a snake within seconds. Here's the best thing about Brian - a dude behind us asked if he would be sketching, and Brian turned around, saw the long line that had formed and said, "Yeah, I think I can do some sketches..." And do some sketches he did...here is my Stephen Stills:
My good timing continued while I wandered some more. This time, I ended up at Tara McPherson's table just as she was setting up. I mentioned that I didn't have my sketchbook the night before when we were at her gallery opening and asked if I could grab a quick sketch from her. She asked for a few minutes to set up, so I lingered until she was ready, and then I got this little piece of awesome:
There are a few artists from whom I try to request sketches of characters they've never done before. Usually it's someone who's style I love, so Jeff Lemire falls right into that category. I first asked for a sketch of Death, to which Jeff responded that he's drawn her a few times. I said I would think of something else and get back to him. A little while later, I decided to ask for a Cthulhu, but he wasn't comfortable drawing one without reference. Back to the drawing board! After some careful consideration, I settled on a Spock, not knowing if he would be into that at all. This is how our conversation went.
Me: "Ummmm....how does Spock sound?"
Jeff: "That sounds...pretty awesome."
Neither of us are real Trekkies, but he whipped up this bad boy pretty quickly, complete with an Enterprise, too!
OMG...this is going to take waaaaaay too long. I'm just going to point you to my web album instead. I'll add some descriptions so you're not left in the dark...
Just to sum up, TCAF is pretty much the awesomest of all awesomes...and it's FREE TO ATTEND. Next time, my niece should be old enough to check out the OWL Kids stuff, which should be fun. I wonder if they'll keep it at Met Ref. Small logistical and ventilation issues aside, it was a pretty neat place to have a festival. I'm already excited for TCAF 2011!!!
HOLY CRAP!!! I forgot to mention the awesome conversation I had with J. Bone about crocheting! On day one I noticed some AMAZING crocheted superheroes at his table, with a sign that said 'Not For Sale". There was a full bodied, crazy amazing Wolverine, and uh...eek! I can't remember who the girl doll is!!! But she has some kick-ass boots! And he made a cute little Spider-man with the eyes, and front and back logos all made from yarn! So, on day two I packed up my Cthulhu, Mysterio and Penguin so I could show him. J. is a crochet purest - he makes his dolls completely from yarn, all the details and accessories - everything!!! It's really amazing. I'm not good enough or patient enough to figure out my own patterns for stuff, so I use felt and baked clay to dress up my characters. Anyway, I had to come back and add this part cuz it was one of my favourite parts of the weekend! I can't wait to see some of J's other creations...I think he mentioned a Dr. Doom, which I can only assume is totally kickass!
Although you can't really tell, I am typing this entry using a keyboard setup called Dvorak (as opposed to QWERTY). While it is very slow-going right now, I think that it will someday change my life for the better. I only just found out about Dvorak this past weekend at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF) when I purchased a copy of 'The Dvorak Zine' from Alec Longstreth for the low low price of one dollar!! Best loonie I ever spent!
I won't go into too much detail about Dvorak except to say it's a logically designed keyboard layout based on extensive research. Pretty much everything you need to know about it can be found here: http://dvzine.org/. Alec, Frunch and GCB are funny, informative, encouraging and helpful - they even explain how to set it up in Windows, Mac AND Linux (yay for me!!!). I really hope to be able to adapt quickly and that it will help to ease my repetitive stress pain.
I expect it to be a bit hard to switch since QWERTY touch typist = old dog, and Dvorak = new tricks, but I think it's worth a shot!
First phase of mission: blog using Dvorak Status: ACCOMPLISHED
