TCAF REPORT PART TWO :: These Cartoonists Are Fandangolous
Okay so where did I leave off yesterday? Oh that's right. So I think I sold my first copy of DHARBIN! #2 around noon or so, which made me feel less emasculated. Everyone kept asking about Joe Lambert's comics! I mean, sure, they're brilliant and amazing and everything, but color is so EASY, right? Black and white is HARDER, right? Right??
Anyway, at noon-thirty I went off about twenty feet or so to be on my first ever non-HeroesCon panel. The subject was... well I'm not sure to tell you the truth. Originally it was sold to me as tracking the kind of "out" throughline from Jack Kirby to Bronze Age dudes up to today's alternative cartoonists, but it kept changing. Regardless, and as I told anyone who would listen: I don't know anything about that stuff and really had no place on the panel. The panel was moderated by Robin McConnell of the Inkstuds podcast, and my fellow panelists were (pictured above from left) Dash Shaw, Frank Santoro, and Robert Dayton.
I'm a big fan of Dash's comics, and Frank Santoro is a straight-up smart dude in whatever he does (and I'm sure Robert's great too, but I'd never met him). And Robin's super nice. But this panel was a mess. Frank just started out talking about how wild Kirby comics were, and then some Steranko, and then everyone seemed to agree that Mazzucchelli ripped Toth off (maybe, who knows). I could never really tell what the point of anything was, and the one or two times I opened my mouth I said I thought most 70's Kirby stories were terribly written and just lame stories, unless you were high. Whoa! That ended up being the controversy of the evening for me, although a pleasant one in the end. But I had a good time either way--I like all these guys, and who cares if the 70's Jack Kirby comics have crappy stories? They still look great.
I came out of the panel and found TCAF packed with peeps, so I spent most of the afternoon doing so-so sales. Not TCAF's fault--let's face it, no one knows who I am. Especially in Canada. But I'm coming for you, new readers: one by one I will convince you all. Anyway, it was crowded and I sold some books and bought a bunch more. I never think of as cartooning as a money-making thing--until I do something "serious", like a book that will stay in print and I can earn royalties from, I probably won't--which makes it easy to relax and not worry too much about sales. As far as I'm concerned, everything at this point is practice. I made a lot of mistakes before and during TCAF, but I have been studiously jotting them down--by SPX I will be superhuman.
Where was I? Okay so after the show closed for the day we did one of my favorite things you can do in Toronto--just walked down the street and picked a place out and ate there. There are restaurants and brewhouses and teeny eateries all over the place, and they all seem to have fascinating food on the menu. I don't think a single time during the weekend did anyone have a clear idea of where we were going, but we always found something delicious.
In the middle of dinner, who happened by but Chris Pitzer, leading Josh Cotter, Tom Scioli, Jim Rugg, and a person I'd never met who might be named Bill. I hope so--Bill's a good name. [UPDATE: It's "Dave." Still not a bad name.] Anyway, we shamed them into sitting with us and tipped back more delicious beers--that's when I made the mistake of bringing up my earlier Kirby comments. Jim had been at the panel, and had made some points I liked, so I brought it up. But whoa! I think I accidentally offended Tom, who is a cool dude and a big Kirby guy. Does any of this make sense? Hopefully we smoothed it over later, because I like Tom and he definitely knows what he's talking about.
And I LOVE Jim Rugg. He's got a big brain and an interesting take on things, and I always love to hear the direction he comes from. He also made me blush all the way to my toes after dinner, when walking down the street he told me, "Whatever it is you think you're practicing or getting ready for, you're there and it's time to start taking yourself seriously." That's actually a pretty liberal paraphrase, probably halfway between what he said and what I wanted to hear, but I loved it. I am hoping that later in life, when I am filthy rich, I will point back to this moment (in the very few interviews I'll grant) as the turning point between being an aspiring cartoonist and just being a regular old cartoonist. Thanks Jim Rugg you RIP!
I wasn't sure what picture from my Flickr set to use next, but I have to give it up at this point to Naseem Hrab possibly my new favorite Torontonian. After dinner we ended up at Chip Zdarsky's party at a bar called Pilot, where pretty much everyone was. I met people I'd loved for ages like Jay Stephens, but then we started talking to some girls and that was it for chatting with cartoonists. I think Jay would understand. The girls were led by the lovely Naseem, mightly lady-love of also-mighty Kean Soo, and they invited us to some Korean-style karaoke. Wow did this night just get perfect or what?! So off we went, and in a trice ended up in a giant room crammed with people singing karaoke. Man that was so much fun.
The discovery of the night was Derek Kirk Kim, who is a total karaoke stud. This is speaking as a karaoke stud, mind you--the dude has moves. In fact, pretty much everyone did--the song choices were uncommonly terrible, and the mikes moved freely around the room, with people collaborating when they weren't sure. I did the "Ghostbusters" theme with someone, then "Lust For Life" with Kean, and later on me and Scott C. NAILED "Sister Christian," which was probably the highlight of the night for me.
The great thing about hanging with Scott is that he's like the most fun, positive dude in the world. The bad thing is that all the women in the world want to talk to him--he's like delicious heroin to them or something. But he's so loveable--how can you get mad at a guy like that? Also kudos to poor Joe Lambert, who was pretty tired but who we kept dragging along: "I think we can make last call at this place if we hurry--that's okay, right Joe?"
Speaking of last call, I'm sleepy. Tomorrow the last installment, including my first ever original art sale, more night-time fun-times, trauma at the airport, and more! Excelsior!
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