Millions Of Comic Books...

...or how I enjoyed my first visit to  the Toronto Comics Art Festival (TCAF)...

The Haul

I have to admit there is nothing more exciting then spending an hour  (or 3) lurking in a library or bookstore, but when the library becomes a bookstore (or comic book store), well, even better. This was my first visit to TCAF and there was so much to see and do, I  could only experience a small part of it, which makes me eager to visit again next year.

As I went with my husband and son, the first thing was to get the boychild settled and doing something. TCAF had a great kid's area, "The Owl Area", where they could sit and relax and browse through the Library's Graphic Novel Collection or they could do drawings/crafts or learn about making comics with some excellent workshops that were running.  Luckily, we arrived just in time so he could participate in "Turn your life into comics" workshop run by Raina Telgemier (creator of the Graphic Novel "Smile"). She was engaging and she encouraged the kid's to take something that could be potentially "horrible" (such as injuring your front teeth) and turn it into something funny. The kid's were engaged and worked hard on their comic pages. Brilliant!

The Boychild listening to Raina Telgemeier...

...which inspired this comic page.

So, maybe I exaggerate when I say there were "millions of comic books"; but there certainly was thousands of comic book and graphic novel fans about and artists, of course.

There was certainly a lot to see and do (check out the programming guide and you will see what I mean.). But, I have to say that one of my favorite things is having the opportunity to chat with the artists/publishers about what they do, as well as discovering new and interesting reading all under one roof.

Letterpress demo at Porcupine's Quill booth

The friendly folks from "The Devastator"

And, running into some long time artist/animator friends, such as Dan Turner (Dragon Lake Inc.) and Natalie Garceau-Turner (Flipart Studio) and being able to share your latest comic book discoveries. A very nice way to end the day, indeed.

Lou, Dan, and Nat.

Now, if you will excuse me, I have some comic books to read.

Bonne Annee, mon ami Laurence! Bonne Annee, mes amis!

Yesterday, I had posted much of my December mail art haul for this blog. As I received most of it at the end of the week, I was just wanting to get the post done before the years end. One piece in particular, I hadn't opened up fully. It's from my new mail art friend, Laurence in France. So, without any further ado:

Merci du bel art, Laurence !

Painful

There is nothing more painful than whacking your toe on a chairleg when you are half asleep.

If you love someone...make them an Emergency Preparedness Kit.

I made this for my "Cub" pack (as kids always respond well to visual stuff), but thought I would post it. For more info on the subject go to www.getprepared.ca