Everyone who knows me knows that I’ve been trying to cut down on convention appearances for years, and this year I finally did it! TCAF, The Toronto Comics Arts Festival was the only show I committed to for 2012. And I chose wisely! The 10 year old festival co-founded by The Beguiling’s Christopher Butcher and Peter Birkemoe, is one of the best events on the calendar dedicated to cartoonists as authors and auteurs, and this year was by all accounts, a huge success.

3 days of small press and indie comics, starting with a Friday night Kick Off event with Fabio Moon, Gabriel Ba (the team behind Daytripper), and me being interviewed on stage by comics Nexus Mark Askwith. Here is link to Ba & Moon’s site where you can watch the official TCAF videos of the event. The twins are smart and funny, and wickedly talented; I got to spend a bit of time with the two of them over the weekend, and it was  the highlight of my trip.

Up top is a photo from the Saturday night party. Fabio Moon, Cecil Castellucci (The Plain Janes), Gabriel Ba, and Kazu Kibuishi (Amulet, and Flight).

With Cassandra Pelham, our associate editor at Scholastic.

My schedule was pretty full, and I spent a lot of time at the outside venues, but I did make a point to say hello to a few cartoonists who work I admire, like Guy Delisle (Jerusalem), Kate Beaton (Hark! A Vagrant!), Tom Gauld (Goliath), and Becky Cloonan (Wolves).

Also got to meet the wonderful Faith Erin Hicks (Friends with Boys), pictured here with myself and her pal Noreen. I snagged this pic from Faith’s website. You probably know her work, because it seems like it is everywhere these days, but if not, need to check her out!

Sunday was the last day of TCAF, and my last event for the show was getting interviewed by Julinda Morrow of Sequential Highway.

You can read the interview here: 

And that clears my travel schedule for the calendar year 2012! What’ll I do with my time? Draw comics!