Toronto ComiCON - Fan Appreciation Event

This past weekend (April 12 - 13, 2008) was the Hobbystar Toronto ComiCON: Fan Appreciation Event . I shared a two tables with Digital Kontent and a nice young man by the name of Brian Boodnarine.

we where there on Saturday and Sunday, we gave away a ton of cool prizes in our Super-Awesome-Raffle, and we drew a helluva lot a sketches. super fun.

i gotta be honest, i loved how busy the show was, and i recognize that it was great value for a show that size, but i wasn't a fan of the layout of tables. i realize HobbyStar was trying different stuff to see what works, but i wasn't to happy about facing the backwall. i hate being negative but there has to be a better way to layout the tables. it was still all good, though. thanks Kevin Boyd and James Armstrong of Hobbystar.

Digital Kontent (JohnBoy, Paulie, Iby, and Milo, plus K.Song) did a great job running the tables. thanks.

Here's what i appreciated,

- Brian 'the Bood' Boodnarine : Brian put together an awesome sketchbook called, the Bloody Brian Bot sketchbook, and he sketched his ass off the whole weekend. it was Brian's first show, as an artist, and hopefully not his last. i had Brian sketch me a Shagaharamesh, when he had a little downtime.

check out Brian's new blog.

- the brothers Troung ( Jason and Danny ) were first in line, like always. i didn't get to sketch anything for Jason or Danny, but they walked away with a few nice raffle prizes. i actually asked Jason if i could start something for him when i wasn't busy, but he said to make sure to get everyone else who wants one first. what a gent. D & J, i will be always happy to draw for you guys, just ask. don't be shy.

- Alfonso Espinos, Studio Comix : Alfonso was sitting next to us and selling his awesome sketchbooks and mini-comix, NightSpike. Alfonso & i met previously at last years Paradise Toronto Comicon ( June 2007) . he has been making and publishing comics in Mexico for 13 years. his stuff is really great and energetic. Alfonso & i traded sketches of each others characters. check out the Shagaharamesh he did for me. i love it!

- Marcio Takara: Marcio was sitting on the other side of us. he had some really amazing prints. a lot of DC characters, a little Star Wars, and a lot of awesomeness. Marcio was very friendly, and is super talented. Marcio actually gave me one of his mini-poster prints, that i was checking out the whole weekend. thanks, Marcio.

- Michelle : my friend/helper/promo girl for the weekend. a lot of people walked away with our sample of Awesome Marcus Ninja thanks to Michelle and her excellent cleavage. thanks, Michelle.

- Angston : a huge comic fan & art collector, who i've seen at many Toronto shows but never had the chance to meet. Angston asked me to draw The Escapist, which I've never read or drawn before. He even offered to pay and was surprised to find i wasn't charging. Angston talked with me quite a bit about the Escapist. he was very patient and happy with the sketch i gave him, and he rewarded me with an out-of-print Escapist book that features a Jeff Brown story. awesome! on top of that, Angston sent me an email with the drawing i did, thanking me. no no, thank you.

- Jeff Lemire : Eisner Award and Shuster Award nominee, artist/author of the Essex County Trilogy, and Xeric Award winning Lost Dogs. i love Jeff's work! i've met Jeff before twice and he is always super nice . now, i am not a big collector of art and signed books but Jeff was doing sketches for $10. i had to do it. no choice. i asked him to do a non-super hero character of his choice. Jeff went with his main character from Lost Dogs, because he hadn't drawn him in a while. i love it! congrats on you Eisner and Shuster nominations and good luck Jeff.

- Christian : i'm still not sure who this kid is. he was hanging out at our table and making friends with JohnBoy and Brian. he is the son of one of the other artists ( don't remember who) and he was super-knowledgeable about comics and he was pretty damn funny too.

- My Surprise: seeing as this was the same week as my birthday, Milo, Kathryn and Iby decided to take it upon themselves to have other, super talented artist do their rendition of Shagaharamesh as a (super awesome amazing) gift to me, knowing that i love other artists versions of my characters. wow! check out the 3 Shagaharamesh sketches by Agnes Garbowska, Kent Burles, and Jeff Lemire.
thanks guys! i love it!

- Francis Manapul : an incredible artist. i got to speak with him briefly but I didn't get the Manapul Shagaharamesh sketch because i was too damn busy drawing. i love Fancis' art, maybe next time.

- Lar DeSouza : artist for Least I Could DO web comic. very talented and very nice guy.

- Jeff Moss and Donnie Coulter: the hosts of The Watchtower Podcast. i listen to the show every week and it was finally nice to meet them.

great show! thanks to everyone who came out to support me, Brian, and Digital Kontent.

xoxo