TCAF 2010 recap

TCAF was easily the best-organized and friendliest show I have ever attended. The exhibitors were all kept informed of the show details by like a million e-mails that Chris Butcher sent out, and the show was free and well-publicized for the general public, so they all knew where to find us and didn't have to wait in lines or anything.

I drove up with Jon Chad, Joe Lambert, and Alexis Frederick-Frost, and we stopped for the night in Buffalo to meet up with Stephen Floyd and JP Coovert of One Percent Press. I enjoyed Buffalo for its cheap-but-delicious restaurants and friendly cats.

The show was held in the Toronto Reference Library, which is an amazing facility. There are plenty of rooms for programing, lots of signage, multiple indoor water features (!!) I had total library envy. Next year I need to go back during regular hours and take more reference photos (I work at a library, and we're always talking about redesigning our weird little space).

Jon and I shared a half table on the 2nd floor, in the Webcomics room. There were some problems with this:
1) This was the first year TCAF had done the separate room thing, they told us ahead of time that it was an experiment.
2) Jon and I don't really have webcomics. I mean, I published Sir Christopher on the web (which was my reason for moving to the new room) and Jon had planned to have something online by then, but life got in the way.

So, we were a little out of place, and it felt like some attendees- who are use to shiny Lulu.com books and lots of plushies and t-shirts - didn't really know what to make of us.
THAT SAID, my sales were about the same as I made at smaller shows like MECAF last year, so no complaints, and I would take the same space next year if a similar deal was offered.

The other half of table #211 was being run by Evan Dahm of Rice Boy. I've been a fan of his work for a while, so it was great to get a chance to meet him and buy some books before he sold out.

Sunday I was on a panel, "The New Graphic Novelists: New Creators Transforming the Medium," with Joshua Cotter, Colleen Frakes, Ryan North, Dash Shaw, and Raina Telgemeier, and moderated by Eva Volin. It went pretty well, I was really intimidated to be on a panel with such talented and established cartoonists, but Eva was a great moderator and the audience was very tolerant of my ramblings.

After the show, we took a quick side trip to Niagara Falls- because Michelle Ollie said she would be very disappointed with us if we didn't. Who'd have thought falling water could be so amazing?

So in short- great weekend, go to TCAF next year, very tired, see more photos here.