The Toronto Comic Arts Festival has come and gone. It really is the model of how to run a successful comics festival. The care, organization and enthusiasm is evident on every level. Here’s a quick run-down of my highs and lows at this year’s show:
Highs:
The glowing involuntary patriotic reactions from the locals to AdHouse’s Chris Pitzer proudly displaying his Canadian flag.
Annie Koyama explaining how to tell the good cabs from the evil cabs.
Walking from the far northeast corner to the far southwest corner of Toronto and back again with NoBrow’s Sam Arthur.
Talking about Zardoz and Kirby with Farel Dalrymple.
Sharing a table with Jamie McElvie and watching his confident drawing technique in action.
Having people who didn’t realize comics were still being made discover my work.
After finding out at the Fantagraphics booth that the first volume of Prince Valiant is momentarily out of print, finding a scratch and dent copy for less than half price at BMV.
Lows:
At every comics show somebody gets hit in the head with a falling display sign. This time, it was me.
I didn’t get to stop at the Beguiling.
Being the only Pittsburgh cartoonist in a sea of Portlanders didn’t help my argument that Pittsburgh is becoming the new capital of comics.
Driving Dustin Harbin to the airport just in time to miss his flight.
