TCAF last Saturday was awesome! There were some really weird smells at times, but it didn’t take too much away from the event. I was trying really hard not to act like a complete and udder doofus at the show, giving away those fanart-postcards to some of my favourite artists. Every time I saw one of them, I was almost tempted to snort, laugh, grow an annoying voice, and spontaneously grow a pocket protector in my left breast pocket. I’m hoping to God that in the end, I actually DIDN’T do any of those.

I guess I’ll start off with what I didn’t like about the show; there was no air conditioning. It was the weirdest thing, too. Outside, it was fresh and cool (with the best wind I’ve ever felt in August), but in the Victoria College, it was hot and dank. None of the windows opened, based on my understanding, and to relate to what I said before the smells didn’t help.

I’m also pissed off that I didn’t get to see Vera Brosgol, ‘cos I’ve been wanting to for quite some time. From what I remember, she’s one of the first alternative-vibe comic artists I started to admire around my early years of reading webcomics. I went to the Flight table to see if she was there, but one of the other artists said she stepped out for lunch a while back and didn’t come back. I bit the bullet and left the art-postcard with him (whom I should have known, sorry), and it was the only one I didn’t give to an artist in person. I really do hope she got it (and that you found this site), and I don’t even know if I ever saw her at the event. I vaguely know what she looks like too, which really sucks! Ha ha!

The greatest thing about TCAF were the artists and their personalities. Every one I met and talked to (or stuttered at, more or less) were great people, and they really liked the postcards. Dave and Raina seemed to really enjoy their cards, and Raina even said that was the highlight of their day, which made me feel a lot more confident about my work. A lot of the artists surprised me with something I wasn’t expecting though: for the drawings some of them gave me free swag and minicomics, which was amazingly awesome! I only ended up buying what I came for (Life Meter 2, Scott Pilgrim Vol. 1, Flight Vol. 3), but I got more than I bargained for! Bryan Lee O’Malley caught me a bit by surprise, though: he was very chill when I met him, as if he had (as corny as it sounds) some rock-star vibe to him. I give him his postcard, and he had this “that’s kinda cool” expression on his face. In any case, I hope they all liked their gifts. Still a good fan of all of their works.

What surprised me the most about this showing was who I met at the festival that I didn’t expect; Yuko Ota and Ananth Panagariya were in front of me and Jackie in the lineup at Lee O’Malley’s table. Again, both are artists and writers that I’ve been big fans of since my growth of loving webcomics. I might have seen Brian Carroll at the show too, but I was a bit too nervous to ask who I saw if it was him when I saw him. It’s like back at the Paradise Toronto Comicon, where I was too nervous to talk to Ramon Perez and Rob Coughler (which I finally did at TCAF).

I wonder if he knew who I was. Probably not. Ha ha!

Well, that was my time at TCAF. Seeing stuff like that has made me want to do comic work even more, so I’m glad that my comic’s still going in Imprint. Makes me relieved and somewhat comfortable.

EDIT: Wow.  Apparently the co-founder of TCAF, Christopher Butcher, actually mentioned my blog entry!  Good times, and thanks!