Here's my brother kindly watching my stall while I went to some talks.
The fancy lifts in the library.
I did fairly well at TCAF last weekend. I sold a few more comics than I did at the London Web & Minicomix Thing so that's not bad. Not great, but nothing to be depressed about. I think I had unrealistic sales expectations as there are so many visitors to the show, but the competition there is amazing with really big names like Dan Clowes and Jim Woodring. I bought some great stuff so I'll do some more posts about my haul later.
The best thing was the talks, on Friday night I went to see Dan Clowes talk about his career and new book 'Wilson' which was a great talk, and on Saturday I went to see Jim Woodring talk about his new book 'Weathercraft'. Jim Woodring's slide projecting computer broke down so his talk was a bit messed up but it was very funny and interesting. He was going to go through every page of 'Weathercraft' and explain what is going on but only about half the slides worked. I was pleased that my thoughts about what was going on were mainly right. Apparently there is a secret word on each page of the book but I have been unable to find any yet.
The Saturday started very quietly for sales as everyone was rushing to see the famous creators first. It was a bit weird and like the first few shows I went to in England as I didn't know anyone there (except
Adam Cadwell) so there was no one I know coming round the stall to talk to me like there is at UK shows. The Sunday was a much better day as I went to a talk and sales were better too, I guess people were looking for new people they hadn't heard of instead of just going to the well known cartoonists stalls. Thanks to everyone who bought my comics, especially the lady from
Koyama Press (sorry I've forgot your name) for buying three comics near the end!
It was worth going but I wouldn't go again for a good few years as I had a great holiday in Toronto afterwards which made all the travelling and horrible flying worthwhile. I think I managed to see nearly everything in the city so would want to go to a show somewhere else. I always like to combine the comics shows with a holiday so the travel costs don't seem so bad.
Here's the first page I've partly drawn of my new story. It needs the pencils rubbing out and some grey tones yet and that. It's in the middle of the tale for some reason. At the moment it's called 'The Gods Must Be Bastards' but I may well change that.
'Days' is his diary strip style comic from September to November 2008, but he's only just brought it out. It's different from most diary strips I've seen recently as it's mainly just one or two images for each day and is very reflective, rather than just telling what happened each day, he is thinking a lot about it. There are loads of different page layouts and experiments.
'Lisbon' is a little travelogue of his trip to Lisbon. He seems to have liked it a lot more than I did when I went. It rained on me all the time and I was somewhat miserable. Some very nice drawings and it's always fun to see people drawing places you've been yourself.
This is 'Smoo 2 1/2' which he has brought out while finishing 'Smoo 3' Some great drawing in here on a collection of short stories, very autobiographical. I am looking forward to seeing 'Smoo 3'. Simon got a good review at Forbidden planet recently so have a look at that too...
Here's another cover idea for a future comic I thought up. I'm waiting to think of a new story idea so am doing these instead. This one came to me in a dream, which saved me from having to think of it myself.
I've spent all day drawing the cover for 'Gin Palace 2' and it's nearly finished so here's a look at it. Just need to mess about with it for a while and sort out some bits of colour.
My brother bought these two new volumes of 'Yotsuba' at the Worlds Biggest Bookstore, Toronto (it was a pretty big bookstore, but world's biggest? I would need to see proof). I was pleased as it saved me buying them. 'Yotsuba' is a manga series he really enjoys and so do I. We read them on the plane coming back. This series seems to be getting even better to me, the drawing has got better anyhow, and the characters seem more well rounded. It still makes me laugh a lot and feel happy as it's so nice, but not in a sickening way...
I really enjoyed all these little one dollar minicomics from Matt Wiegle that i bought at TCAF. Makes me want to do some little comics too. The gags are all funny and perfect in their shortness, if you know what I mean. Go buy some here. My favourite is 'Is It Bacon?' an excellent guide for the amateur or professional bacon enthusiast.
Here's the first two pages of my new comic 'Goblin Hall'. I'm going to send it to the printers tomorrow. I'm getting it printed American comic sized to see what effect that will have on my sales... at least it will let you see the elaborate battle scenes without a magnifying glass. It's 36 pages, black and white with colour covers.
The first thing I bought at TCAF was Josh Cotter's 'March Hare' which was really cool. As you can see I got a little drawing in it, and its 1 of 20 he had made for the show. Its a envelope like thing with 31 printed drawings inside. Each one has a big circle cut out of it so you can see the drawing behind it through the hole. So you can change the order around and get a load more different combinations. It's really nice and a lot like his drawing for 'Driven By Lemons' which I really enjoyed.
Here's my brother kindly watching my stall while I went to some talks.
The fancy lifts in the library.
Phew, I just made it back here today from Toronto before the ash clouds closed in again. I was worrying about them on the way out too but luckily they didn't slow down the flight. I am rotten with the jet lag today.
The best thing in Toronto was the St Lawrence Market. It's the best market I've ever been too, much better than Borough Market in London, mainly as it's very reasonably priced. I went a few times and had peameal bacon butties here, loads of lovely cakes and a proper huge Italian deli meatball sandwich. Loads of really good stalls.
The 'Gumball 3000' rally was randomly going on as we wandered round one night. Didn't stop to watch as I am soon bored with cars.
This is me at the Niagara Falls which were well worth a look.