I’ll be honest with you; I hate conventions.
Maybe it’s because I’m usually working them and that in and of itself is usually an ordeal. Maybe it’s because there are throngs of people all trying to go in the same direction in usually poorly laid out aisles.
TCAF is totally different.
Maybe because it was my first ‘comic convention’ that it coloured my personal dislike of the convention scene, but TCAF is my favourite comic event of the year.
There’s something totally different about the feel of TCAF. There’s a wonderful sense of camaraderie and excitement in the air.
Everyone who is there is there because they believe in comic books as a medium.
There’s lots of people that I got to talk to and those interviews are going to be up within the next few days. But here’s some little tidbits that I learned and observed at TCAF 2010.
- Cameron Stewart is working on a top secret project with Karl Kerschl – no details yet.. but tell me that that book won’t be absolutely beautiful.
- Jaime McKelvie is currently working on book two of his ‘Suburban Glamour’ series. This is great news for guys who love fairies and beautiful girls.
- Matt Loux is awesome. There I said it. Dude is seriously the coolest person I met at the con – cannot wait for more Salt Water Taffy.
- I never got to talk to him but Charles Vess was everywhere, I think he had a coffee at all times.
- Paul Pope signs his name backwards. He told us that he studied caligraphy during his tenure in Japan and that he sees letters as shapes. He then had to rush off to Kinkos to send off some work to Marvel.
- If you haven’t had a chance to check out any work by Marc Ellerby or Adam Caldwell I highly recommend it. Ellerby is known for Love the way you love and his webcomic Ellebisms – but he’s got a comic called Chloe Noonan: Monster Hunter that totally blew me away. Probably my favourite thing I picked up at TCAF. Meanwhile Adam Caldwell – famed for his longrunning webcomic The Everyday – had copies of his new series Blood Blokes, a great coming of age book that involves Vampires. If the opening Hernandez-esque pages are any indication this is going to be something really, really special. I cannot wait to read more.
- and finally if you’re looking for a great webcomic, please check out Kayla Marie Hillier’s To Galavant a wonderful auto-biographical comic based on her 3 month excursion through the United Kingdom, well worth your time.
I’ll probably be updated more and more as more memories come back to me, but the truth is I had such a great time at TCAF and I really hope everyone who participated will send Chris Butcher and the crew at the Beguiling a big thank you for putting on such a wonderful event.
Pete DeCourcy is EiC of ComicBookDaily.com. He tumbls over at You Practically Rock and writes for The Simple Art of Crime. If you have any questions or demands of him, he can be reached via email at pdecourcy[at]comicbookdaily[dot]com
