WONDERful time in Toronto!
A couple of weeks ago I had a signing at an Indigo Book Store in Toronto. It was great, very well attended, and the icing on the cake was meeting Lynda Carter who was doing a signing right after mine to promote her new CD.
It was an afternoon signing out in the burbs. When I first arrived at the store, the whole downstairs was jammed with people queued up behind velvet ropes. See? Nice turn out!
Then they showed me the upstairs!. They took me past another giant queue, which I assumed was for Lynda, but her’s was elsewhere. No, they said, upstairs and down, this is all for BONE, and there is a third line starting up in the back. Do you want to limit the number of books you’ll sign?
I said I wouldn’t put a limit on the number of books I’d sign, because most of the kids had all nine books, plus Rose, but I did request that I only draw in the top copy for each customer.
I got started at 2pm, and went for three and half hours straight. That’s a lot of Fone Bones to draw!
The kids made it worth it.
And most of them had read their copy of Rose while waiting in line; I was relieved to find out they all liked the ending, which is not a Disney happy ending by any stretch.
Then part way through my signing, the staff brought Lynda Carter over. I have to admit I was a little star struck. Can you tell?
She was great, and the crowd ate it up. She gave me a copy of her new CD and flashbulbs went off like we’re on the red carpet somewhere! While we were posing for the picture up at the top, one little girl said, "They should get married!"
I signed a copy of BONE for Lynda as she looked at some of the pictures the kids had drawn for me.
She probably gets tired of hearing about Wonder Woman, but man, it’s impossible to look at her and not think about the character. All right, no more Wonder Woman references, I promise. Her CD isn’t bad either.
Anyway, back to the kids! We finished up around 5:30.
Later that night I met up with a bunch of comics pals at a great little joint in the Annex area called The Madison Pub.
The survivors, L to R: Ian Daffern, Ho Che Anderson (peeking out), Scott Robins (leaning in), Chris Butcher, me, and one of my very oldest chums in the biz, Mark Askwith. Taking the photo is another long time crony Bruce Peck. Many, many martinis were consumed.
Scott Robins, who took all of the photos here, has a blog up at School Library Journal with more pictures.
Happy and exhausted, I stumbled up to my room overlooking downtown and the CN Tower. Can’t wait to get back to Toronto!
Special thanks to Denise Anderson of Scholastic Canada, Scott Robins for taking all the photos, Bruce Peck for arranging the boys night out.
Wow, Lynda Carter looks great! Not that I expected anything less, but it’s still remarkable. You’re a true champ to sign and doodle with such endurance. Hopefully you’ll come through Atlanta sometime in the future; lots of good restaurants, The Vortex is the best bar in town, pleasant weather in the fall….I’m just saying…
Comment by Jonathan — September 2, 2009 @ 11:13 am
wow that sound so coolo wish i could have been there but im on the other side of canada were the olypics will be coming … im just sayin they will be nice but what ever
later
reilly
Comment by Reilly — September 2, 2009 @ 11:51 am
Oh, jeff, your’e such a sweety :-p
Comment by LordSketch — September 2, 2009 @ 12:11 pm
Glad you had what sounds like an awesome trip! Now you just have to visit us on the West coast of Canada! It’s really cool that the kids made the long signing worth it, and especially that you were able to hear the feedback from a new generation of readers on Rose! It must be very gratifying to do an event like this where you can meet and interact with the young readers, to see the love and enthusiasm that children express so well for the stories and the characters.
Comment by Brandon Klassen — September 2, 2009 @ 1:22 pm
Were you star struck hanging out with Ho Che Anderson? Talk about an amazing artist.
Comment by Brian C. Payne — September 2, 2009 @ 6:32 pm
hahah! The look on your face was priceless when meeting Lynda =D
Rose was sooo good.
And I checked out Shaun Tan’s The Arrival when I saw that in the back of Crown of Horns, that was STUNNING.
Fun times it looks like =)
Comment by Marcus — September 2, 2009 @ 10:43 pm
So you met the lady herself – wow! She’s still in great shape apparently.
Comment by wondertrash — September 2, 2009 @ 11:38 pm
Oh, my goddess! She’s fantastic, today like yesterday.
Comment by Fam — September 3, 2009 @ 2:59 am
Wow. Linda is so stunning, and without the 10# of bling most seem to think they need to wear. She is such a classic act. How wonderful (no pun intended) it must have been to meet her! The photo of you two meeting is one to cherish forever!
Comment by shadoe — September 3, 2009 @ 10:44 am
Linda looks so great, and without the 10# of bling most think they need to wear. A class act as always. It must have been wonderful (no pun intended)to get to meet her.
Comment by shadoe — September 3, 2009 @ 10:46 am
Hope you had as much fun at the signing in Toronto as much as I did Jeff, which is highly appreciated! Thanks for the signed stuff, Jeff!
-Evan W.W.
Comment by The Lobster — September 3, 2009 @ 12:01 pm
RASL #6 has been moved to November?
Has it been moved 1 or 2 weeks?
Comment by Marcus — September 3, 2009 @ 12:46 pm
I’m glad you can;t wait to come back to Toronto, because I had to be out of town the weekend of your visit! You’re welcome any time!
Comment by JMG — September 3, 2009 @ 2:00 pm
I had a really good time, as you can all tell.
Ho Che Anderson isn’t quite as beautiful as Lynda Carter, but yes, I do appreciate his considerable talent!
RASL will ship toward the end of November, Marcus, mostly to make room for the new Bone Book which I am still wrapping up.
Comment by Jeff — September 3, 2009 @ 3:11 pm
That is sooo cool! I’ve only been starstruck around 2 celebs (and most people wouldn’t consider them celebs) Mort Drucker and Jack Davis. But they’d have to pick me up off the floor if I met Lynda Carter!
I’m surprised so many kids are reading Rose. As beautiful as it is, I’m still try to decide if my daughter Ginny can handle it.
Comment by Eddie Pittman — September 3, 2009 @ 5:19 pm
Random note: Denise at Scholastic seemed pretty awesome to me, I’m glad to hear she is still there and still coordinating with Cartoon Books. When I used to work at Chapters, she sent me Out From Boneville posters and the Scholastic Teaching Guide things to give out. We had a lot of happy kids giving out the posters to anyone who bought Bone around the release of Bone 6.
And a random Q: I thought I saw something about the One Volume getting a new cover… are we going to see something about that here on the blog?
Comment by Brandon Klassen — September 3, 2009 @ 7:28 pm
Wow that’s amazing! I don’t think I would be able to stand signing for 3 hours! My hands would be killing me. It’s great that you signed all of those books. I’ve seen kids turned away from things and it always leaves me with a sad feeling. So kudos for that and best of luck. Now I want to dig out my old Rose issues.
Lynda’s name sounded familar but it didn’t click at first until you made the Wonder Woman referance. I had no idea she could sing too!
Comment by Jeanette — September 3, 2009 @ 11:12 pm
By the new bone book do you mean Tall Tales?
Comment by Marcus — September 3, 2009 @ 11:22 pm
Brandon, good idea about the cover blog. I’ll pass that on to Tom.
Marcus, yes. And I feel bad shifting the schedule around, but sometimes it takes longer to do these comics then I expected. I still plan on moving to a 5 or 6 six issue a year schedule starting with RASL #7.
Comment by Jeff — September 4, 2009 @ 8:06 am
The pictures didn’t all load when I posted yesterday. So I didn’t get to see the last one with Wonder Woman holding up Fone Bone. That is awesome! I’ll have to print that out! Both are favorite characters of myself (Fone Bone) and my sister loves Wonder Woman. Too funny.
Comment by Jeanette — September 4, 2009 @ 4:04 pm
That’s perfectly fine with scheduele move, no problem Jeff!
To do a graphic novel AND ongoing series is alot of work,
and with 5 or 6 issues a year, I guess RASL is guaranteed to be at least a 12 issue limited series then?
Comment by Marcus — September 5, 2009 @ 12:19 pm
Canada loves you Jeff !!! Come back soon !
Comment by BennyB — September 9, 2009 @ 3:14 pm
I love bone book, but why stop oh I have a brilliant idea! You should make bone on TV like a movie or dvd rom huh? so be it.
Comment by Zak970 — September 18, 2009 @ 12:18 am
omg!!! so cool
Comment by marcela — November 14, 2009 @ 2:20 pm