5.17.2009

2DC @ TCAF '09: The weekend in hindsight


Given the wealth of tasks and events on Raighne and Meghan's proverbial plates (this weekend's Art-a-Whirl–ends today!–, getting review copies of Yearbooks sent out, preparing for our release party at Arise!, getting ready for MOCCA next month, working on their pieces for GMN4 and Rdcd Fist, and sundry tasks I'm forgetting), they have delegated the task of recounting our time in Toronto for TCAF to me, the increasingly less silent partner in the 2D Cloud enterprise, Justin. If interested in what transpired, click below for the full account. Otherwise, thanks to those who stopped by our table to converse or pick up a book! (Note: Thanks to our superior saleswoman, Sarah T., for visually documenting the trip)
















Riding the rail, fresh faced and ready to undergo multiple bouts of vomiting in a few short hours. A few miles away, Raighne and Meghan are stuffing their faces with home-made pancakes before they depart.


Here Sarah and I sit, awaiting the arrival of Raighne and Meghan.







All are accounted for, and I'm about to begin my cold sweats and vomiting shortly.





Here I am, Mr. dried sweat and stale vomit, but who gives a shit, we're in Toronto! Time for us to contribute to the Canadian economy and the coffers of our fellow TCAFers.
















Our lovely bearded chief, Raighne, is about to let the rest of the 2D Cloud clan set up camp, unawares to the Le Meridien staff. "Do not disturb"=cheap hotel for all!



And

Now

We

Rest?
















Preparing for day one of TCAF. Raighne is putting his final touches on a display that, sadly, will not realize its full potential. Notice the sun glowing behind the curtain? That won't last.

















Foreground: me posing for subway photo.
Background: Raighne and Meghan figuring out how to get to our vegan breakfast.
Aboveground: Stormclouds gather.


Little do

we

know

This awaits us upstairs

After some scrambling and a thorough soaking, we make it there. Raighne and Meghan get started on damage control while Sarah and I...












Sneak off to eat breakfast at Tim Horton's. I think Toronto has the friendliest hobos I've ever met.






I relieved Raighne and Meghan of their posts shortly after we returned. I think this is around the time that Tom K. stopped by to check up on us.












Here's what we had to offer the people. Of note is the addition of Yearkbooks to our spread for the first time. It almost didn't make it, but Westcan was able to ship a couple of boxes to the hotel.


Depending on whom you ask, this could've been to our benefit or detriment, but we were placed in the same loop as Drawn and Quarterly , who was hosting three of the primary draws for the show: Seth, Adrian Tomine, and Yoshihiro Tatsumi. All were signing books for a large chunk of Saturday and part of Sunday as well.


Our top salesperson of the fest, Sarah T. She made a quarter of the weekend's sales in one hour. Apparently some people prefer to buy our books from a cute Asian girl than scraggly white people.


Upon being granted their newfound freedom from the table, Raighne and Meghan don't know what to do with themselves. They quickly came to their senses, however, and decided to hand out a few copies of Yearbooks to people we admire and those offering to review it: namely Chester Brown, Frank Santoro, Jose Villarrubia, Jim Munroe, and the good people at Broken Pencil.


This was somewhat early on in the day. As the fest wore on, it became difficult to make one's way around any part of the show.














Just like everyone else, we have photos of Seth, Tomine, and Tatsumi, but there are plenty of people with better shots of them that you can find easily. This one pretty much sums up Raighne's feeling about waiting in line for at over an hour to have Tatsumi sign and sketch in his copy of A Drifting Life.



Day two of the fest saw the 2D Cloud clan split up for a large portion of the day, hence the dearth of fest photos and a couple of what Sarah and I ate in their stead. I did break down and return to the Picturebox table to buy issues 1 and 2 of Powr Mastrs by CF and sat in on a couple of panels. Raighne, Meghan and I attended one on editing comics, which consisted of Alvin Buenaventura, Brendan Burford, and Greg Means. Not much was said that any of us deemed illuminating and Alvin didn't seem to know how to talk into a mike, but nevertheless it was still entertaining. The latter panel was a critics roundtable which consisted of Jeet Heer, Douglas Wolk, Dan Nadel, and Bart Beaty. This panel was great and I wished it was twice as long, but alas, it was not to be. Jeet and Dan seemed to dominate the panel, with Bart getting his thoughts in there when he could. They covered topics ranging from the level of critical discourse concerning comics in the press to the selective lineage modern cartoonists seem to be constructing for themselves with the reissues and promotion of older cartoonists. All in all, it was fun to see people who knew their shit argue and bemoan current trends in the 'biz'.

After the fest had ended and we all gathered our meager earnings and growing stack of reading materials, we split to fill our stomachs (Raighne and Meghan chose an excellent but exorbitant vegan pizza from Magic Oven, while Sarah and I went for cheap, mediocre bento boxes). Once reconvening at the hotel, Meghan decided call it a night and cozy up with some of said reading materials, while the rest of us ventured to the DeLeon White gallery
to see NoisePopper/Twee producer Dan Deacon. After a twenty minute wait and tantalizing wafts of chronsmoke gliding past our noses, we made it in. Seen here is Raighne and I amused at how much shitty beer costs and how old we are in relation to many of our fellow show-goers.







Sarah demonstrating how fast she could sell books in relation to the rest of us.


Here's a couple samples of what Dan Deacon had to offer those in attendance:






Aside from a tasty breakfast the following morning and a brief encounter with Jose Villarrubia at the airport, that pretty much sums up the weekend. Thanks again to all who stopped to see us, those who picked up a book or two, and to you for getting through what will probably be the longest GMN blog post ever.

?

No comments: