Sunday 16 May 2010

TCAF Toronto 2010 Report

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.

4 comments:

Dave said...

Welcome back Rob, sounds fantastic. Inspired?

rob jackson said...

I am fair inspired. Going to have to start a new project once I think of something. Once the jet lag clears off i can get 'Goblin Hall' ready for printing.

fabtoons said...

It seems like the trip was worth it. And you managed to dodge the volcano both times. The market sounds brilliant. I heard from Abby and Tim so I guess you found them, thanks!

rob jackson said...

Yes, we were very lucky with the volcano. We landed back here at 8 in the morning and they closed the airport at 1. I went and found Abby and Tim on the Saturday when my brother came to give me a break. I still hadn't sold anything then so I was a bit stressed but my brother had sold a few when I got back so that calmed me down as usual.