Troop 142 got a nice shout-out on an NPR Best of 2011 blog yesterday, which did actually translate into some book sales, I believe. I don’t know what amazon sales rankings really mean, but I know that I jumped into the top 100 for Graphic Novels for the first time ever. Again, I don’t know what these numbers really mean, but it was all very exciting nonetheless.

(I actually suspect a lot of sales came from friends who’d forgotten that I’d recently published a book until I posted about the NPR list on Facebook. A couple folks responded that “ah, yes, they really oughta finally buy that thing off of amazon…”)

In other news, I’m not sure that I’m going to be posting anything new on this blog for the remainder of 2011, as there’ll be no The Ink Panthers Show! episode next week, and then before you know it, it’ll be 2012 already.

Also, I am not sure yet when I’m going to resume posting actual comics up on this blog again. I have to admit, keeping the work offline for the past couple months has probably been creatively beneficial. I’m happy to report that I’m knee-deep in a new story and I’m feeling generally very positive about it. A couple days “staycation” this past week, where I just holed myself away and just drew and drew, really did wonders for my feelings of momentum and progress. I’m excited about the work, and am thinking maybe I’ll have something I feel good about showing sometime soon.

Here’s a video of me lettering a word-balloon, to tide everyone over.

Next year, I don’t have a ton planned. I’m going to be attending the big Angouleme Festival in France at the end of January, and will be doing some signings in Paris following that. My wife will come join me out there after all the comics business is done, and we’ll have a little mini-vacation to celebrate ten-years of being together.

In terms of other conventions, I am not sure what I’m attending or not. I imagine I’ll still make it down to SPX in the Fall, and am hoping that TCAF in Toronto is a possibility.

Nothing is changing with The Ink Panthers Show! I think this past year was really great for the show. We had some wonderful guests, and I think really had some strong episodes with just The Panthers (Tony “The Desert Panther” Consiglio is included in that. We should change his name to The Honorary Panther). TIPS is continually a work-in-progress, and Alex and I are always trying to figure out what is the best balance of solo-Panthers shows vs. Special Guest episodes. I think it’s probably best we keep aiming for that pleasant mix of both.

TCJ Talkies will return in January. It’s probable that those are going to be coming out at a slightly slower pace. The biweekly schedule really began to catch up to me at the end of this year, and listeners may have noticed a bit of a slowdown. My plan is to roll them out at a more relaxed rate, but we’ll see. I’ve found that I feel worn out before I record an episode, but once it’s done I get all excited and motivated again. I think I just really like talking about comics!

Happy New Year everyone!!

The Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival happened this past weekend, and with it, my little Troop 142 mini-tour also came to an end. Sad. Oh well, it was a good show to end on. A ton of great stuff there, and even better, it’s just a subway ride away.

Here’s a photo I took on the subway of someone reading RAW.

My assumption was that they were headed to the con, but in fact, they were not. They got off the train well before we made it to Williamsburg. It still feels strange to see people reading art comics in public. I see people on the subway reading X-Men all the time. It’s much more rare to see a comic like this.

I’m very much looking forward to being at the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival in Williamsburg, this weekend. This is the third year of the show, and the first time I’ve been sitting behind a table, which is nice. I’ll be at the Secret Acres Corral, between The Koyama Press Pavillion and the Drawn & Quarterly MegaDome. Lots of other Secret Acres artists are going to be at the show too, including, I believe, John Brodowski, who is debuting a new book. I loved his first graphic novel, Curio Cabinet, so am really interested to see his new work.

I’m back from the Minneapolis Indie Xpo, and in keeping with tradition here at Mike Dawson Comics, I have almost no pictures to show for it. I’m going to post what little I’ve got, and assume that some of the other cartoonists who were there this weekend will pick up some of the slack.

I’m thinking about one event in particular, where a group of us all went over to Zak Sally’s studio to see his printing press. That woulda’ been a good time to take out my iPhone. But, I never got it together. I saw other folks snapping photos though, so I’m sure the event will get covered elsewhere.

Here’s what I have!

This is a photo taken from my point of view at the airport gate in New York with a box of Troop 142′s sitting in my lap. See, another thing I never get on the ball about is shipping my books to the show ahead of time. So, my solution is to always stuff a large suitcase with as many books as possible, and just bring the bare minimum’s worth of other items, such as say, clothes and toothpaste and that sort of stuff.

With MIX and also APE, my suitcase weighed about 80lbs. Different airlines have different rules about baggage. I flew Virgin America out to APE, and the nice lady at the check-in desk gave me a break on my heavy bags, and just charged me a $25 additional bag fee. I flew Delta to MIX this past weekend, and their approach to luggage is to charge you 25 bucks just to bring anything at all. When I heaved my suitcase onto the scales at Delta, they basically said I could pay $100 in a heavy-baggage fine, or lighten up the suitcase. Thus, the photo of me sitting with a box of Troop 142 graphic novels on my lap, treating it as a carry-on item.

I guess truthfully, once I was on the plane it wasn’t so bad, because I just shoved it in the overhead, but it was definitely a pain as I waited in the loooooong security line…

The above three pictures were taken at the Friday night show pre-party. In picture one, that’s Jim Rugg and Dustin Harbin, in picture two we have AdHouse head-honcho Chris Pitzer and his lovely wife, and in picture three we see Grimalkin Press publisher, Jordan Shiveley, and rival comics podcaster and cartoonist, Rina Ayuyang. Well composed photos, one and all.

I never really sell full pages of original art, but this year I’ve been bringing a little Apple-Jacks binder filled with small images and scraps from comics. You can see, there are panels from my Ace-Face book there, as well as odds and ends from Troop 142. I think a couple of those visible there are panels that did not actually make it into the book.

Anyway, it’s nice to have a little something for people to pick through, and a way for me to make a few extra dollars, but my word of advice is to not use an Apple-Jacks binder to display such stuff, but rather to invest in an actual real-binder thing with plastic sleeves that can be turned and easily flipped through. It’s just tough for people to pick through the pile when it’s all stacked all higgedly-piggedly like I have it here. It might be a passive-aggressive I-don’t-really-want-to-sell-original-art thing on my part, because not selling much of it is surely the outcome!

Julia Wertz gave me an elephant cookie! That is some heavily applied frosting right there…

View from my Table 1: That’s Top Shelf’s own Brett Warnock talking with cartoonist and upstart publisher, Tom Kaczynski.

View from my Table 2: Tom is giving Kevin Huizenga the hard sell.

Tom K. is a Minneapolis native, and generously allowed me, Kevin, and fellow Secret Acres artist Eamon Espey (not pictured) to crash at his place. There were a number of other groups of cartooning friends also staying nearby, so the evenings were these great gatherings of funny, interesting people. I think one of my favorite things about MIX being a smaller show, was that it was easy to talk to all the people you wanted to talk to, and actually feel like you had a good amount of time together, as opposed to a show like SPX or MoCCA, where it feels like you barely spend four or five minutes in conversation with people you really enjoy talking to, and even then realize after the fact that there were a ton of people you didn’t even say “hello” to at all. MIX was a much better pace, socially. I mean, that’s from my point of view. Maybe all those other cartoonists are going to write con-reports that say stuff like “one downside to MIX being so small is that it was impossible to get away from notorious comics-chatterbox, Mike Dawson”. We’ll see.

I ate some of the cookie! Yes, that sure is some generously applied frosting, indeed.

This food truck outside had the most delicious vegetarian curry, which I ate for lunch both days. It was pretty much the perfect savory food to eat after consuming ten pounds of sugary elephant cookie frosting…

And finally, here’s a photo of the live TCJ Talkies podcast I recorded on Sunday morning. It was a spotlight on cartoonists Noah Van Sciver and MariNaomi. I think it went well. I listened back to the audio recording, and I think a combination of my nerves and the chilliness of the Soap Factory at 10AM (note the woolly Jets cap atop my head) made me a little manic, so we moved through an hour’s worth of questions at a clip which kept the panel under 45 minutes, but I think that was alright. There were a lot of laughs, and I think some interesting back and forth between Noah and Mari. I think it went well, and will of course eventually post the audio recording.

So, that’s really all I have. It was a great weekend. I sold a lot of comics, and came away from it amped up to get back to work, which is always the best outcome you can ask for. Here’s hoping MIX comes back in 2012!

I’ll be manning the Secret Acres table with Eamon (Wormdye) Espey, and we’ll have all those good books for sale. Come find us! Just like at APE, Secret Acres trusted me with their special custom convention flag, so we should be easy enough to spot.

Also: On Sunday morning, at 10:15AM, I’ll be hosting a TCJ Talkies LIVE panel, with guests MariNaomi and Noah Van Sciver. I’ll talk about their respective work, and also plan on asking questions about format – working on full length graphic novels versus serializing comics as floppies or minicomics. Mari has been posting comics online at The Rumpus recently, so I’ll ask what it’s like working for the web. Come listen to us yak, won’t you?

In addition to Troop 142, I’ll be bringing a handful of Freddie & Me’s & Gabagool!s, as well as my Apple Jacks binder filled with cheap original art.

See you there!

Mike is back from APE, the Alternative Press Expo, and has all the updates you’d expect. What was it like renting someone else’s apartment for the weekend? Was he able to sleep there alone? Then, Alex has some complaining to do about Public Displays of Affection (PDA), and Mike talks about the most extreme example he can remember seeing. THEN, The Desert Panther, Tony Consiglio creeps into The Lair to tell us a story about how he bought a new mattress. That sounds boring, yes. But trust us, this is a good one.

Comments welcome!

This week’s illustration of Inky the Domesticated Panther supplied by David King! Submit your own illustration of Inky to inkpanthers@gmail.com

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I am back from the big Alternative Press Expo in sunny (yet unexpectedly chilly) San Francisco, and in keeping with tradition, I didn’t take pictures of anything, despite seeing plenty.

A few notes:

I really liked flying Virgin America. The plane felt new and safe, and they have these purple lights and a dimly lit cabin that make you feel like you’re just chilling at a particularly cramped nightclub, rather than hurtling through the air at 600 mph, in defiance of God and nature. I used to be a terrible on planes, but have gotten better in recent years. I tense up during take-off, but have finally learned to relax during the rest of the flight.

My one concern was the fact that also on my flight out there, was the incredibly talented and popular cartoonist, Kate Beaton. I always get a little concerned when flying with other cartoonists, because I worry about how the inevitable Beat headline would be written should our plane go down. With Kate on the plane, it would be no contest: Cartooning Superstar Perishes in Fiery Plane Crash! Aspiring Comics Podcaster also rumored to have been on board. Thank goodness we made it there in one piece.

On Saturday I was one of four guests slated to appear on the Comix Claptrap LIVE panel. I was up first, and participated in some mostly friendly, but pretty-well borderline insulting-to-me banter with the hosts, and then my 10 minutes were up and I was asked to slide down “the couch” while they called up guest number two. Here’s a photo I took of Scott Campbell getting the Claptrap Treatment.

It was a lot like being at a long table at a restaurant, with the feeling that all the good conversation was happening at the other end.

I didn’t really pack enough clothes (I think because I was too preoccupied with packing heavy boxes of books), so on Day One I bought a t-shirt from someone at the con. On Day Two, I wore it to the show. Here I am in it. I am pretty sure some of the aliens on the shirt have testicles visible, which I didn’t notice when I purchased it. I don’t think this will stop me from wearing the shirt again, but it will probably always be known to me as my Alien Balls shirt from now on.

Finally, what did I pick up at the show? I will probably post a photo of my “haul” at a later date – but I can tell you I got some great comics from Adrian Tomine, MariNaomi, Noah Van Sciver, Tessa Brunton, Ethan Rilly, Susie Cagle, Joey Allison Sayers, Levon Jihanian, and a bunch more.

However, my favorite thing that I bought might be this:

People say that APE is a show with more support for Arts & Crafts than other conventions, and I think this is true. A lot of tables have artists selling only prints, or posters, or handmade t-shirts, or toys. Buttons, postcards, paintings, and drawings. I think a show like SPX is a little more exclusively comics-focused, where at APE the lines are a little looser. I don’t really mind this at all, because one of my favorite things to pick up at conventions are strange little hand-made things that I can get for cheap and put up on the wall. I love this little mounted Yeti head. The only thing I have to decide now is if it’s better placed in my daughter’s room, or can this be something for the living room. Decisions, decisions…

Thanks to David King for the sweet animated gif at the top of the post.

Mike returns from his tour of Scotland to fill Alex in on all the news. First up: what is the ruling on regaling friends on all of the pleasant things that happened on a perfectly nice vacation? Yea or Nay? Also: Mike saw the movie CARS, and is outraged. Speaking of outrage, Alex is feeling it himself at New York 1′s lousy coverage of the Occupy Wall Street protests, and seriously considers heading downtown himself to throw some support to those kids in their Phish t-shirts with their hacky-sacks and Idealism.

One note: anyone in the San Francisco area this weekend should come see Mike at the Alternative Press Expo and get themselves a signed copy of Troop 142. Mike will also be appearing on a live recording of rival comics podcast, The Comix Claptrap. Come say hello, won’t you?

Comments welcome!

This week’s illustration of Inky the Domesticated Panther supplied by Matt Emery! Submit your own illustration of Inky to inkpanthers@gmail.com

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Anyway, here’s what I got:

The Secret Acres gang, from left to right: Leon Avelino, Gabby Schulz, and Barry Matthews.

The Fantagraphics table across the way.

Oustanding Artist Ignatz Winner Joe Lambert.

A Spiderman Heroclix sitting on top of my books.

I sat next to Craig Thompson and Chester Brown at The Ignatzes. Craig was telling Chester he really should listen to The Ink Panthers Show podcast. I hope he doesn’t listen to the one where we talked about Paying For It.

Darryl Ayo accepts his Promise Brick*, as this year’s Promising New Talent Ignatz recipient.

Leon accepts the Best Graphic Novel Ignatz on behalf of Edie Fake. A great moment.

Dinner on Sunday night with Ethan Rilly and Lamar Abrams (Chris Pitzer was there too, just off-camera).

And, no joke, I didn’t pack enough clothes with me, so on Monday morning I had to don my Ink Panthers maxi-print t-shirt that the Secret Acres guys had gotten me. I wish the eyes were slighly lower, so they’d look like orange glowing fiery nipples.

*This joke copyright 2011 John Martz, who made it in his presentation speech. I hope it catches on.

The Ink Panthers happily present the complete audio recording of panel they were featured in, entitled “Indie Comics: Do They Matter?” (or something along those lines) at this past New York Comic Con. Alex and Mike were thrilled to sit-in on a lineup which included the wonderful Julia Wertz and Jason Little. It starts off a little rocky, but it gets going after everyone warms up. Comments welcome!

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This are the items I accumulated this weekend, thanks to the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival, which I went to yesterday. Personally, I most enjoy buying prints or pieces of artwork at shows like this. I was very happy with the things I picked up along these lines: there’s a letterpress print by Ben Catmull, a silk-screen comic by Joe Lambert, and then a really large silk-screen done by Jennifer Tong. Then, the thing I’m most excited about for the weekend, which was a page from Josh Cotter’s Skyscrapers of the Midwest.

I’m heading over to check out this festival today. Copies of all 5 issues of my Troop 142 minicomics ought to be available at the Secret Acres table (well, they will be once I get there, and give them the copies…). This looks like a really great show, with a lot of fantastic artists, and some very interesting panels, many of which I plan on taking in.

The Panthers are back in The Lair! And there are plenty of things to talk about: Humiliating Secret Diary fall-out; New York Comic Con and the “Do Indie Comics Even Matter?” panel; a special surprise guest; and more. This episode should win a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the most jam-packed podcast ever! Comments welcome.

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Part of my apprehension might have been about the panel, as I wasn’t sure how well attended it would be, being scheduled to take place after the con closed at 7PM. It took place way, way out in the furthest reaches of the conference rooms, well past the large crowds that were assembling for the Stan Lee signing, and whatever else was happening in the main area where lots of people were gathered.

I shouldn’t have worried so much. At about 7:20, the doors to the panel opened, and the conference room filled up. It was a pleasant surprise.

The talk itself started off pretty rocky, as we were asked to introduce ourselves, and if anybody knows me, they would know that I absolutely suck at talking about my comics-work in any way that doesn’t make it seem like what I do is worthless and stupid. And I had to go first! I mumbled something about having been drawing comics for 12 years or so, and that I had a book out in 2008 and that was it. I had to be prompted to mention the name of the book (Freddie & Me). I didn’t mention my online comic, my podcast, or anything. Ugh! Awful.

The other panelists did slightly better than me with this, and then the conversation got going. I think it ended up becoming a pretty good talk – the themes that I took away from it were that you shouldn’t become an “Indie” comics creator unless you truly loved writing and drawing comics that may or may not ever find an audience, and were OK with the fact that making a living doing this was far from guaranteed.

I don’t know if this sounded pessimistic or not. My feeling about making comics is actually the opposite of pessimism: I do it because I love doing it. When asked the blunt question “Why do you do this”, I mumbled something or other along these lines, but what I wish I’d said in a more concise manner was that “writing, drawing, and discovering stories and characters is an exhilarating process that I absolutely enjoy”. And it’s true. I’m coming towards the end of my first draft of Troop 142, and for me I feel like the entire thing has been a process of learning to write better, more effective stories, enjoying myself, and really having fun composing a story. I’m really excited to do it again with whatever I work on next.

Anyway, I didn’t say that, I said something else, but hopefully the message was halfway conveyed.

There were a lot of audience questions, which was really nice, and at the end of the hour I felt good about the panel. It was then really nice to get some dinner with friends Alex, Chris and Vania, GB Tran and Jamie Tanner. I went home after, and that was pretty much it for me for NYCC 2010!

The Ink Panthers are proud to debut a brand new feature this week: excerpts from young Mike Dawson’s diary of a twelve year old. We haven’t thought of a title for the segment yet, but “I’ve Got The Teenage Douche-Chills” just sprung into my mind, sung to the tune of the hit single by the band Wheatus. Plus: SPX recap, and help Alex pick his Fantasy Football league. Comments welcome.

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Just a few comments on the weekend:

Thanks to Vanessa Davis for letting me crash at her table, along with New-Booth-Friend Zack Soto, and Gabrielle Bell. It was a lot of laughs, and more importantly there was no pressure to “man the table” the whole time, since there were plenty of people floating around back there.

Speaking of not manning the table, I managed to make it to a few panels. Well, two. I was there for the full “Critics Panel: How We Judge” discussion. I thought it was really interesting. There were a lot of folks on the panel, which can sometimes mean not everyone gets a chance to speak, or the conversation gets lopsided. The moderator really kept it all together though. I guess I’m not sure what the takeaway was. Maybe that comics-criticism is still in its infancy stage.

I also caught about half of the Jim Rugg/Frank Santoro discussion about commercial comics, which seemed like a passionate, if not almost combative, conversation.

Aside from that, it was the usual socializing, conversing, drinking, etc. I don’t think I realized how nervous I was about the Ignatz awards, because I felt tired and worn-out all day Saturday, and I couldn’t really figure out why. But, once the ceremony was over, I got all my energy back, and kept it all day Sunday.

And, for those of you who are curious, I can’t say that I managed to muster up a flood of tears when I accepted my Ignatz Award (Outstanding Online Comic), as promised on recent episodes of The Ink Panthers Show. I did my best, but I think the pressure of high expectations did me in. But, I was sincere in my acceptance speech. SPX is my favorite show, and receiving the award meant a lot to me.

Hey, look! A picture of me on Chris Pitzer’s Flickr stream!!

I don’t might possibly have a table to myself some table space, but there are a few spots on the convention floor where you might find me. Look for me hanging around the AdHouse Books booth drawing pictures inside copies of my book Ace-Face, or see if you can spot me milling around nearby the table Julia Wertz, Karen Sneider, Tom Kaczynski, and Jon Lewis will be sharing. Or even, perhaps, you might see me lingering close to the Secret Acres setup.

Speaking of Secret Acres, they ought to have all five issues of my Troop 142 mini-comics for sale. I am bringing plenty of copies down, so they should definitely be stocked. Keep an eye out for issue #5, as it’s brand new, and if SPX still had the Outstanding Debut Ignatz category, I definitely would have entered it.

And speaking of the Ignatz awards, don’t forget I’ve been nominated in a few categories. If you are a fan of Troop 142, and will be at the show, please consider casting a vote for me.

Hope to see you there!!

Print by Matt Forsythe. I got this at TCAF two years ago.

Print by Phil McAndrew. I pointed out to Orli that the man has a big nose. Now she’s calling it “Big Nose Man”. I am worried I’ve just taught her to remark on people’s notable features.

Print by Onsmith. I actually got this a long time ago, at an SPX. I really like it, but I couldn’t find a great picture of it online. I bet there is one, I probably just have to look harder.

Original art by Vanessa Davis. This is called “Sleepies”. I just got it this week. I think I’m going to hang it in Orli’s room as a reminder of what she’s supposed to be doing in there when I put her in the crib (“Look at those ladies, Orli. They are being good and going to sleep”).

Print by Kate Beaton. I just got this too, and I have to get a frame for it before I can hang it up. This will probably have to go into my study, because of the cursing and all that. It cracks me up though. A very funny strip.

I’m going to SPX in early September. Not sure if I’ll be squatting at someone’s table, or just walking around. I am fine with either one. I am hoping to get another print or even more original art while I’m there. That’s one of the best things about those shows for me, because so many comics and books I can buy in one of the great comic stores we’ve got here in NYC.

The Panthers crept from their lairs this past weekend, and attended the MoCCA Art Festival in Manhattan. Mike debuted a brand new comic (and a brand new table prop), and Alex appeared on a panel and explained what the “Very Best Comics Written By His co-Host of the 00′s” were. Get the inside scoop on what the show was really like. Comments Welcome!

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So, there’s not much I can add to the discussion about the show, except to say that it seemed Very Well Run. I griped about the organization of the show last year on the Ink Panthers podcast, so feel like I should formally acknowledge that I thought this year was a huge improvement and return to form. And, I thought having the show in the much cooler month of April worked out very well. The weather was pretty much perfect, and it felt like it was reflected in everybody’s good moods.

The only downside to shifting the show up a few months is that I keep thinking to myself “I had a great time at the con this last weekend… it sure is making me look forward to MoCCA this Summer… oh wait…”

OK, it’s the day before the MoCCA festival, and in honor of the big show, I’m posting the first 5 pages of the next TROOP 142 chapter.

I’m looking forward to the convention this year. I’ll have three brand new minicomics, collecting the completed chapters of Troop 142, and will of course be selling and signing copies of Freddie & Me and Ace-Face. Don’t expect to see the Freddie Mercury statue this year. He’s been retired. Instead, I need to find a large Baden Powell doll to start displaying at my festival tables. Either that or I start wearing my own Boy Scout uniform to shows, but I am pretty sure that’s never going to actually happen.

Either way, if you are coming to MoCCA this weekend, look for me at table E19, and come and say hello.

Just returned from my trip to Angouleme yesterday, and wanted to post the bulk of my pics while it’s all still fresh in my mind. I am kind of a crappy photojournalist, and almost never take any pictures worth posting. I got very few pics of the festival itself, or any of the great art that I saw, or many of the people I met and spent time with. But, here’s the best of what I did manage to capture:

Alex Robinson and I signing books at the Rackham table.

“Velo!” is French for Bicycle.

A drawing from the Blutch exhibition.

I bought this little figurine of Nikita Khrushchev waving his shoe from a store in Paris.

Two days after Angouleme I took a train trip with Alex Robinson and Kazimir Strzepek to a great comic book store in Lyon called Experience. The owners treated us extremely well, treating us to a wonderful lunch, a tour of the city, and freedom to desecrate the ceilings of their store with our doodles. They have a lot of cartoonists already on the ceiling, but the only other Americans I spotted were Jeffrey Brown, Craig Thompson, Dash Shaw, and Keith Giffen, so I felt like I was in great company.

Kaz works on his doodle. My drawing of Ace-Face is visible at the top. I wrote my daughter’s name, Orli, on Ace-Face’s arm, but to my great shame, I misspelled it, Orly, which I am blaming on the proximity to the airport in France.

Alex’s pic near the entrance.

Here we are at lunch!

And here’s that same scene from the other direction. The man at the back is actually at the table next to us. His face turned an alarming shade of red as he drank his wine and ate his meat on his lunch-break. We were told this was a common look in France.

Seated next to the red-face man, towards us, is Cecile Mac Lennan, who does publicity work for Rackham, and took care of us a great deal of the time while we were there. She’s a delightful person, and a lot of fun to talk to. I am fascinated by the fact that her favorite TV show is The Wire (which I also love), since it’s a show that’s challenging enough to follow when English is your first language, let alone your second.

Me and Kaz in Lyon.

Me, Kaz, Alex, and our guide, Stephane. Stephane and Alex got into a heated debate about the value of the Pixar movie “Cars”.

Aliza is thrilled to finally be somewhere where there are no comics.

Kaz, Peter Kuper, Rackham publisher Latino Imparto, and Serge from Editions çà et là. This was from a signing back up in the Paris area.

And finally, one morning in Angouleme, I bought a bag of dates to eat, and someone took a picture of me holding them. I realize now that it kind of looks like I’m holding up a pair of testicles.

The final three pages in the MONDAY chapter of TROOP 142 are posted. Check them out.

This is nice timing, as I’m off to the Angouleme Festival in France next week. It’ll be good to have a little break, before I get back into it with the next chapter, TUESDAY.

If anyone is going to be at Angouleme, I will be signing every day at the Rackham booth. There are also some bookstores signings planned for Paris and Lyon the following week. My good friend Alex will be at each of those appearances too, so I imagine we’re going to have a pretty good time.

Super Heros, a comics shop in Paris, made this ex-libris bookplate to insert into French copies of Freddie & Me. They sent me a box of them. They’re really nice.

This is a picture I took at TCAF of my table. I never got around to posting any of my TCAF pics, but most of them weren’t very good anyway. I might need a better camera, or maybe I just need to read the manual to find out how to take less blurry photos.

Look how cute Orli is!! She drinks out of a straw!

In this week’s episode Alex and I discuss whether or not I am really a fan of the band Rush, our various old-man ailments, and a little bit of post-game on the big MoCCA arts-festival this past last weekend. Comments welcome!

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I’ll try to talk a little bit about MoCCA on this week’s episode of The Ink Panther’s Show. I took it easy this year, heading home after dinner each night, and getting into the new David Mazzucchelli book, Asterios Polyp, which I bought early Saturday morning. My biggest regret of the show is not getting this signed when I had the chance.

Picture credit: Gary The GazBomb Gretsky

It seems to me that the city is big enough to handle another art-comics festival… maybe in someplace like, Brooklyn, for instance. Like, possibly at the Brooklyn Library, right at the top of Prospect Park there, for example. A nice Spring-time international comics festival could do well there, I’d imagine! There’s plenty of space in there for exhibits and panels and all that stuff.

Come on, people-who-might-organize-such-a-thing! Make it happen!

My main “takeaways” from the TCAF show in Toronto that I attended this past weekend:

- Come on MoCCA! Let the public come into the show for free!! TCAF does it. Seriously, it’s so much better letting attendees just walk in off the street. I don’t think there were really any quiet points during the show in terms of crowds, and it seemed like it wasn’t all the same faces. And, for real now, it’s so much nicer. Can’t you make enough money off of the artists paying for the tables and the refreshments that you can sell to all the crowds? Think of all the extra refreshments you’d be able to sell, with all those extra crowds coming in, who – come to think of it – will have extra $$$ in their pockets anyway, since they got in for free, and are totally going to be more likely to buy a $3 bottle of water.

- “Curating” the show is kind of cool. In direct opposition to their approach to the general public (see bullet point above), TCAF doesn’t let just anyone get a table at the show. It didn’t feel like they were super-hardcore exclusive about it, but it seemed like they were trying to manage the guestlist to keep it strong. And it really was. It wasn’t the largest convention I’ve ever been to, but it was probably the densest in terms of quality artists/comics.

- I liked that there were only 3 categories at the Doug Wright awards. It made the three winners seem a little more special, when basically there’s just “Best Book”, “Emerging Talent”, and an award for Unusual/experimental books.

- As a followup to the above bullet-point though, I have to throw out a mild criticism to the fellow who read the “appreciation” of Kate Beaton, the cartoonist who won in the Emerging Talent category. Come on guy, it’s not cool to talk about how the winner was so far and away better than the other three schlubs who just lost the award.

- Speaking of Kate Beaton, from what I gathered, she totally deserved to win in this category, as all of TCAF loves her work. I met her on Friday night, and she seemed nice, and now I am going to familiarize myself with her work. Also, is it significant that she’s a webcartoonist, and she just won a pretty major award? That seems kind of significant to me.

- Here are the cartoonists/comics folks at the show who I am still too shy to go up and say “hello” to and just tell them that I like their work: Seth, Chester Brown, Maurice Vellekoop, Chris Oliveros, Yoshihiro Tatsumi… basically I am just totally intimidated by the Drawn and Quarterly set.

- Thanks to Cheese, Miss, Dave, Brian, and Kevin for being great company on the to-and-from flights. I am a notoriously bad flyer, but it made me feel better not being the worst one in the bunch.