However, I was visiting the Pixie Trix Comics* page, and they said that not only would they be staffing a booth, but that TCAF was completely free to enter. So while Saturday was a busy though productive day, I decided to run down to the Metro Toronto reference library and check it out. (I had really wanted to go to High Park and check out the cherry blossoms, but the weather really didn't cooperate -- it rained early and scared off my wife and then (while very humid) it didn't rain the rest of the day, so we could have gone after all. Rats! On the other hand, I probably wouldn't have had time to get to TCAF if we had also done the High Park trip. I guess there is always next year (when we won't be packing to move!) to try to go out there to see the cherry blossoms.)
As it happens, my business cards were ready, so I grabbed them on the way to the subway. I think they came out well, though if I was going to redo them, I'd make my name 2 font sizes bigger to stand out just a bit more. Still, I will be able to pass these out at SFYS on Monday (I think I'll go even if my piece isn't included), particularly if I run into two of the actors that read my Straying South piece.
I made it over to the Toronto Reference Library and it was a complete zoo. I don't think I've ever seen it that busy (and I imagine it probably did put some folks there to do actual research into a real tizzy). Here is the staircase between the two floors that were hosting TCAF.
It was impossible to find anything without one of the venue maps, and even then it wasn't easy (as few booths actually had numbers on them!). Pixie Trix is at booth 271, which is in the Bram & Bluma Appel Salon on the 2nd floor.
I did get a chance to meet Gisele and Dave in person. I could even have met Shouri, who flew in quite a distance to be there. But she was talking with someone else and signing, and I guess I felt shy. I had no idea that none of them live in Montreal any longer...
While I didn't really need much at the booth, since I got everything through Kickstarter, I did buy some cards and got a cute bookmark as well. I'm glad I came out, though it was jam packed in the library.
I was pretty good about not spending a ton of money at TCAF, though it would have been easy to do.
On the way out, I took one last look around and happened to see Dakota McFadzean's work at a booth. It took me a minute to realize that this was the cartoonist who had just started Murray Geister, which I blogged about here. Dakota was actually at the booth, so we chatted just a bit, and then he mentioned he had seen the post, which I thought was a bit odd (as this blog still is a bit under the radar), but he admitted he had been Googling himself and my post popped up. I gave him one of the new cards, and he thought it was amusing that I called myself an urbanologist. We talked about that briefly. It turns out that he actually lives in Toronto and hasn't been in Saskatchewan for ages. Can't say I blame him.
I think I even saw one of the folks from the writing group (the one that was telling the other writer just how much competition there is now in the realm of comics). I'm sort of sorry I didn't have a chance to say hello, but maybe I will end up going another time and getting to know him a bit better. I think I need to be done or almost done with the move before I can go back.
So that was my excursion for the day. After I got back, I did rent a ZipCar and got 8 boxes moved over (and met even more of the neighbours). It was more of a symbolic than a substantive move, but one has to start somewhere.
* Though I am a regular reader, I have been really hesitant to link to any of these web-comics as most of them are borderline inappropriate for work and Menage a 3 is completely NSFW! Probably the safest of the bunch is Sandra on the Rocks, though even this would be better read at home...
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