Wednesday 23 March 2016

Toronto Comicon Refection

March has been a fantastically busy month. With Toronto Comicon just finished and the Bazaar of the Bizarre coming up this weekend. With several commission picked up at comicon, as well as some current charater design work I am doing, I’m going to be quite busy. I just wanted to take the time for a quick look back over my weekend.


Toronto Comicon 2016 was one of my most successful yet! I feel the work I’ve put in to improving my set up, my selection, and the addition of mutiple sizes of prints has really made my work more accessible and increased my sales overall. I did have to increase some of my prices this year as well, with table and printing costs increasing. But none the less I found no one was taken aback by the cost, and no mater the budget there was something in that price range.


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From a personal perspective, I had an amazing time! I have recently Quit smoking and found not having to go out to feed my addiction has given me so much more time at the table and to enjoy the con. As always I am so very grateful to my partner Isaac and my cousin Rachel for their help with my table! I had alot of time to shop and speak with friends and teachers, alot of people from Max the Mutt were around me. I really love the feeling of community at these shows and getting the chance to socialize after months alone in my studio is always reffeshing. The support I receive from so many people is very appreciated!


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I feel the convention was well organised, and I was lucky with my location this year. Previous years I have not been in such a central location and I do feel this has an effect on sales. I was very close to Rob Liefeld which was an odd expirience being someone who’s work was so prolific through my youth, I didn’t even go to meet him but being so close in real life was almost surreal. I’m not realy sure if it had a positive effect. I didn’t necessarily notice an increased traffic flown as his line was strategically routed behind the curtins of the outer ring. The guest list was superb both celebrity and otherwise. I was very happy to see many of my favorite artist on the guest list.


I’d say one of the highlights for me was meeting the organisers of the GTA Expo. They recently asked me to be a guest at their convention On May 1st 2016. This is the first time I have ever been asked to be a guest at a convention and it is a great honor! They were so impressed with my set up they want me to do the same at their show and they will provide me the space to do so. As well they handed me some extra tickets to bring a few friends to the show with me, I just can’t help but express my elation at their kindness! Probably one of the Coolest updates of all, they landed Amy Jo Johnson, the original Pink Ranger as a celebrity guest. Once again my youth dragged into my current reality and thrown in front of me.


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Maybe I made the mistake in my youth of telling myself that my world and what was on T.V. were two different worlds that would never meet. But they do, specifically at conventions, a big part of my job. But my brain still just breaks a bit evey time the two meet now and I become a babbling idiot! None the less I look forward to meeting her, I have tried twice to see my favorite charater from Power Rangers Tommy  (Jason David Frank) and unfortunately both visits to Canada were canceled. Despite the fact that in my youth it was a love/hate sort of feeling, I think there would be no denying Kimberly was defiantly my second favorite. I have ideas brewing for a nice piece with the both of them.


Well I was not expecting that to digress into a rant about Power Rangers and meeting celebritys, but I think I’ll leave it as clearly those were the feeling that needed to be expressed. I have lots of pictures of the Comicon posted publicly on my personal Facebook page, please feel free to check them out here. Overall very happy with the start of my con season and know this is shaping up to be an amazing year as I push forward with many projects, the launch of my web comics and Patreon. More show updates coming soon.



Toronto Comicon Refection

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