Back from Ontario and TCAF, which was all a great time. Good to see the family, good to see all the comic people at the show. Nice to have some people come by specifically to pick up True Loves 3!

While I think of it, I am still updating the colour online version. New one up today. Oh and while I’m thinking of it, this Big Planet Comics podcast has a nice discussion of Farm School in around the 20 minute mark.

I am still finishing up comics about my Ontario trip, but here is a quick little photo trip through it. True Loves 3 did arrive in time for TCAF which was a relief.

Manien booked me a room at Victoria’s Mansion House and it was cute. My room was… cozy. And it was in the basement! But I was just sleeping there between selling comics and whooping it up with comics people, so it was fine!

I met up with former Vancouverite and old Crown Commission comrade Ben Woo for a bite on Friday night. Good to see him and hear about all the crazy nerd studies his doing with his PHD in nerdic matters. He was also nice enough to help me carry boxes to the reference library in the pouring rain.

We eventually got to the Pilot for the opening party and had a table with various guests, including Inkstud Robin.

And Tyler J Hutchinson who told us how his We Draw Comics site is going.

My TCAF table was upstairs again which was nice. Look at those True Loveses! The place was hopping. I had lovely neighbours Blue and Andy.

After the show on Sunday I met up with old Toronto pals, Dave and Dawn for a bite and a beer. Dave also stopped off at the Green Room with me for another as I was on my way to the TCAF closing party. The Green Room just may be a location in an upcoming story I want to do.

The closing party was a blast. Managed to talk to a bunch of people and eventually found Dave Lapp, Doug Wright Award winner Nina Bunjevac and Jordan to hang out. Dancing ensued and eventually Nina, Salgood Sam and I were the only ones left dancing. As we left I took a picture and then a second later TCAF organizers Chris and Miles were leaving too, so they got in for a pic too.

New True Loves 3 is up!

I feel like there were many things I wanted to tell you, but can I think now what they were? Okay:

1. I’m reading this sci fi book Spin by Robert Charles Wilson. It is kind of blowing my mind to a degree that I find pleasantly surprising.

2. Manien and I watched Mission Impossible one day and the Descendants the next and found Clooney’s greying dad-hair looked so much better on him than Cruise’s desperate dye-job.

3. I got Tom Gauld’s Goliath recently. So good! Funny, beautiful and sad. And thought provoking even!

4. A couple of VanCAF videos. Some nice photos here too. Oh yeah, and this comic Grade Eight that I got at the show was great too.

5. It has been a fairly wet summer so far here in Vancouver Town. A lot of people are bellyaching, but I don’t mind. It means less watering of the garden, and less of Jason bursting into flames as he walks to and from the Dayjob. Today I was enjoying some music that was good for a drizzly day. Sparklehorse. The National. And my soothing music in general these days, Grimes.

6. And hey a new Die Antwoord video! It is a classic family drama in the vein of Twisted Sister’s We’re Not Gonna Take It!

Okay I better stop or I’ll go all night.

Spent the weekend at the first ever Vancouver Comic Arts Festival. It was a great show! Shannon the show organizer and her team of noble volunteers did a great job of making everything run smoothly, and making all the attendees feel loved and pampered. It is creates such a different atmosphere being at a show where you feel like they appreciate you being there, rather than just being another person who paid for a table.

Speaking of tables, here I am setting up mine. Manien and I were a little on the late side, and there were already customers wandering through as we stocked the table.

All this space felt quite decadent after the tighter quarters at TCAF. Quite a few people admired the colourful table cover. It came from Manien’s Cabinet of Fabric.

Pictured here Battle Kittens’ Rebecca Dart talking to the Silly Kingdom team, with Much the Miller’s Son’s Steve LeCouilliard behind them and Savage Chicken’s Doug Savage in the distance. The 4geeksmedia crew in the foreground recording.

Having the show at the Roundhouse in Yaletown was fantastic. The room was beautiful bright and airy with a high ceiling and thick wooden beams. It also managed to stay cool even though the day was quite sunny and warm outside. I never had to compromise my suit by taking off the jacket.

There was steady traffic all day Saturday, and a different mix of people than you get at a lot of shows. Non-comic people as well as comic people. Since it was free to get in, people could come and have a look around with no pressure. I talked to a lot of different non-comic people who were just interested and curious. The Roundhouse is a community centre, and so you would also get folks wandering in after their yoga class or whatever. There was also nice mix of exhibitors, with quite a number up from Portland and even further afield.

By the end of the first day every exhibitor I talked to was loving the show. It had a great upbeat vibe and I think most people enjoyed good sales. The organizers decided to keep the doors open until 6:00 (rather than the scheduled 5), but Manien and I were about to pass out with hunger so we closed shop at 5:00.

We zipped over to Subeez to eat. Manien and I used to go there to write True Loves, back when we lived in the West End. Over dinner we realized that was ten years ago! Subeez has whittled their menu down to quite a spare selection since we used to go there. The VanCAF event for the evening was a pub crawl in Yaletown, but the Vancouver Comic Jam also coincided with the show, so we headed to the Wallflower on Main Street, as it seemed like that would be a more relaxing bet for the evening. Manien had never been to the jam or the Wallflower either, so she wanted to see what I was always going on about.

There was still sunlight outside as jam started. How novel! The Wallflower had blocked off quite a few tables for us, so the place was a little empty for the first while. In addition to the pub crawl there was also an art show opening at Lucky’s further up Main, so many locals were dropping by there first.

In no time at all the place filled up though, and soon the jam had taken over the whole restaurant. It was quite amazing, and the injection of new faces and visitors from out of town really added extra energy to the proceedings. You can see the pages from the jam here.

Manien and I closed the place down, then poured ourselves into a cab home. That was a full day of comics for Manien, so she stayed home on Sunday to do some gardening and pull up a rose bush. I dragged my hazy butt back to Yaletown for day two. Sunday’s traffic started off a little slower, but that worked fine for me and my hangover.

Things did pick up though. This kid had the most awesomely mis-matched socks. He was really fascinated by my Bird Comics, and his dad was kind enough to buy it for him. (I would have given it for free though, really)

I had an unexpected run on True Loves through the afternoon and ended up with quite the depleted stack by the end of the day. When I tallied up my earnings from the day I was surprised to see that I did considerably better than I did at TCAF – and I had been happy with the results there! So the show was quite the success, for me and for anyone else I talked to. It was smiles all around and a big cheer for Shannon as things came to a close. I hope this will lead to many more VanCAFs in the future.

VanCAF is this weekend! The Vancouver Comic Arts Festival’s first year! An exciting independent-oriented show that’s free to attend! I’ll be there, so come on out and say hi, buy some comics.

I am not quite back on my drawing track with True Loves, but here are a couple of little comics about Manien and my post TCAF adventures.

I didn’t draw a darned thing the whole time I was in Ontario, but on the flight home I did get drawing some comics about the show. It was another great year at TCAF, busy and buzzing. Sold lots of stuff, everyone was just happy and excited about the comics. It was great. By the end of the weekend I always just feel like I am floating on a cloud of joy.

Here are some comics and a couple of photos about it. Click to embiggen them, if you find they are too small.

It is still a couple of days away, but my head is already all over TCAF.

So before I forget, there is a new True Loves 3 up, featuring the Return of Dirk!

Okay, here is where you can find me at TCAF May 5 and 6. In a special extremely rare appearance, my wife and True Loves co-writer Manien is going to be there too! So come on by and tell her how awesome she is. We will be on the second floor, table 204. This is the first time I’ve had a table up there. It has always seemed so bright and airy, so I’m excited.

I have been getting in a convention-y state of mind this week, as I’ve been going through old boxes of zines, magazines and comics and so forth. It is very hard for me to get rid of stuff when I look at it and it reminds me of say that time 13 of us slept in one hotel room at that one SPX. It is like drifting around in a time machine. So this is what my living room floor looked like the past couple of nights.

Speaking of SPX here is a relic from SPX 2003 I had forgotten. I made a booklet and got people to draw their SPX Memories in it. This was my cover.

Here is some kind of art installation I have been passing a few times a day for the past month. They keep working away on it. I call it Black Plastic Slope with Pylon Line.

The asparagus is up! Here is the aspagus patch just before I harvested our first big feed of the year.

And finally I made a tall salad with some Microgreens. And Manien harvested a bit of our skinny perennial arugula from the garden, so I made some fins.

New True Loves 3 is up! Check it out!

So last weekend was the big comic show and it was super successful and twice as many people came as they expected. So that is good for Vancouver. But it was a superhero show, and really that just isn’t my scene. The superhero crowd don’t want a comic with love in the title, or something about some dude turning 40. They want a rad looking print of Venom. The guy next to me made out like a bandit selling such things. Oh well. I’m looking forward TCAF next week and VanCAF later in the month!

Here is what the show looked like.

Luckily later at the Vancouver Comic Jam there was swenking.

New True Loves 3! I didn’t think I was going to get this done, as I spent a fair bit of time this week putting together FOUR new minicomics, so that I would have something new at the big Fan Expo this weekend. I have not been to a big mainstream show in a while, should be interesting. You can find me a row over from the Batmobile.

Also this Saturday is the Vancouver Comic Jam. I will be there looking fancy in my convention threads. Ben Woo and I just may be swenking.

And I finally finished colouring this Fire Walk With Me drawing I did ages ago.

I am going to be at Canzine West on Sunday, come on by and say hi Sunday, November 13
Ukrainian Hall
805 Pender St. E
1-7pm

Also, I am going to this live art jam thing with Jim Mahfood and Dave Crosland tonight, The Kozmik Zoo
@ The Hennessey Dining Lounge
53 West Broadway

And someone actually sent a new Page 100! From the Road. Strangely I had just been considering doing one of those for the book I’m reading right now, though it would be a tricky one.

New True Loves 3. Trout Lake Farmers Market adventures. Apparently I have not been drawing much to share with you. Here is a photo of some zucchini and pattypans from the garden, getting ready to be BBQ’d.

Oh yeah, also, I am going to be at Comix and Stories this Sunday. Come on by if you are in Vancouver, everyone will be there!