Location: Toronto Metro Convention Centre, South Building
Attendance: 3500
My pictures of the con are here.
I arrived at 11:05am, there was still a small line up of people to get in. Saturday was pretty dead as far as sales and crowd. A great show for getting sketches. The show unfortunately had a number of cancellations, among them was Tim Bradstreet and Khoi Phom. I did not see Valentine DeLandro or J. Rozon on Saturday. Richard Isanove did show up on Saturday, but his panel was canceled as his convention stay was cut short. So he opted to stay at his table and sketch for fans.
I went to 3 Panels on Saturday, 2 on Sunday. All the panels moderated by Walter Dickinson of Toronto Cartoonists Workshop.
The Zen of Inking with Ernie Chan. (54:30, 49.9mb) Bronze Age inker and artist Ernie Chan talks about being an artist in the Philippines, how they worked and the tools they used, then coming over to America and working with artists like John Buscema and Gil Kane. He talks about how he inked Marvel and DC books, his penciling work and some of his very recent commissions. Ernie Chan's art, which is talked about during the panel can be seen here.
Greg Rucka - A Novel Approach. (50:12, 45.9mb) Greg Rucka answers questions about how he got into comics, writing books, working with various artists and other writers. He also tells a story about being an EMT and how he helped a woman that got stabbed in the throat in New York City. Rucka talks about his changed views on the movie industry after his experiences on the set of Whiteout. Greg also tells us about his upcoming creator owned work as well.
Shop Talk with Philip Tan, Barry Kitson and Francis Manapul. (57:29, 52.6mb) These 3 artists talk about their art education, the process they use when working with different writers. More specifically Kitson talks about working with Mark Waid, Manapul talks about Geoff Johns and Jim Shooter, and Philip Tan talks about working at Marvel and with Dan DiDio. Kitson talks about Negative Space and leading the readers eye around the page and Manapul joins in. They also talked about the benefits and pitfalls of using Agents among other topics.
I then did a bit of shopping out of sympathy for the dealers. I've no need for more books, but I found some I was interested at a really good price. I left when it closed at 6pm.
That night was the 6th Annual Joe Shuster Awards.
Location was the Innis Town Hall, Innis College, University of Toronto.
Start Time was 8pm.
Full 2010 Joe Shuster Awards Ceremony. (1:57:47, 107mb)
Introduction by the Master of Ceremonies Jonathan Llyr, assisted by Sarrah Young
Hall of Fame induction for Serge Gaboury, presented by Robert Pincombe
Harry Kremer Award for Outstanding Comic Book Retailer to The Beguiling, accepted by store manager Chris Butcher, presented by Mark Askwith
Outstanding Comic Book Publisher Award for La Pastque, presented by Jeff Brown
Hall of Fame induction for Dave Darrigo, presented by Joe Kilmartin
Comics for Kids Award to Svetlana Chmakova for Night School Vol 1 & 2 (Yen Press), presented by Jennifer Stewart
Gene Day Award for Self Publishing to Ethan Rilly for Pope Hats 1, presented by Jeff Lemire
Hall of Fame induction for Deni Loubert, presented by Ty Templeton
Outstanding Cover Award to Darwyn Cooke for Richard Stark's Parker: The Hunter (IDW), presented by Duane Murray
Outstanding Comic Book Colourist to Nathan Fairbairn, presented by Robin Fisher, accepted by Mike, friend of Mr. Fairbairn
Outstanding Comic Book Artist to Stuart Immonen, presented by David Okum
Hall of Fame induction for Cloude St. Aubin, George Freeman and Richard Comely (The Captain Canuck team), presented by Kalman Andrasofszky, Leslie Livingston and Ron Kasman
Outstanding Comic Book Writer Award to Maryse Dubuc for Les Nombrils, Tome 04: Duels de Belles (Dupris), presented by Robin Fisher
Outstanding Web Comics Creator Award to Karl Kerschl, presented by Duane Murray
Outstanding Comic Book Cartoonist Award to Michel Rabagliati for Paul, Tome 06: Paul A Quebec (La Plasteque), presented by Ty Templeton
Closing by Jonathan Llyr
Details about the awards can be found JoeShusterAwards.com.
The one big difference at this years show was a protest outside. Former board member James Waley had a couple of guys handing out flyers protesting him and his daughter being voted off the board late last year. Waley was inside the awards among the audience. He was not on stage doing the opening and closing remarks, thanking the sponsors like he normally does. The Board members and Waley had a difference in opinion on how they should spend their time and resources. The Board removed Waley for those reasons and other conflict of interest issues, but I was told it was not intended to be permanent removal and they were willing to let him join the board again at a later date. James daughter Mary Waley also left the organization due to time commitment issues. Suffice to say James is not happy about him and his daughter no longer being a part of the organization and his publicly disputing the reasons. There was a lot of talk the next day about Waley's protest by both people involved in the awards and friends of the awards, none of it good to say the least.
Another change was with the after party event. Typically there is free cake and food an adjoining room. This year it was held elsewhere in a bar. I wasn't able to go as I had made other plans.
What was a bit surprising was not seeing some "regulars" who are typically at Toronto area conventions but not at the awards. Darwyn Cooke, Karl Kerschl, and Stuart Immonen among them. None of them were at the convention either and I know some of them don't live near Toronto. I can't blame them for not wanting to spend a travel time and money just to show up for a 2 hour awards show. Some of those creators were out of the country at the time or had other scheduling issues that prevented them from attending.
The Awards did have a late start but ended in just under 2 hours.
Sunday:
Much busier as this was the "free" day. If you spent $10 at a participating Toronto area retailer you got a free ticket to get into the con. Otherwise you would pay $10 and get a $10 coupon which you could redeem it with any of the exhibitors inside the con. The dealers deep discounting TPBs were getting much of the traffic and I noticed a few retailers make adjustment to their signs, lowering prices to compete and move some books.
There were a couple of panels I went to:
Chris Sprouse - From Panel to Page. (54:49, 50.1mb) Chris Sprouse talks about his process of drawing comics. He takes us through going from thumb nails, to layouts to the finished page. Sprouse also talks about why he sticks to working on paper and when and how he does use a computer. He talks about what programs he does use to help him on certain things. Chris also goes into designing new characters and what he thinks of computer colouring. Chris Sprouse's art, which is talked about during the panel can be seen here.
Jeff Lemire - Bruisers, Brawlers and Invisible Men. (47:35 43.5mb) Jeff Lemire explains how he went from being an celebrated indy cartoonist to a monthly superhero writer for DC. He talks about his earliest work and winning the Xeric Grant and how that helped him. Jeff gives insight to the real and not real parts of Essex County trilogy and how the 3 book series came together. He mentions how things are going for him in Vertigo and also his now creating a new origin for The Atom and writing Superboy.
After the panels I got pictures of some people in costumes. I also talked with some dealers and dispelled a rumor about Hobbystar vs. Wizard World. Then asked people how the show was. Most dealers said Saturday was very slow, "unmitigated disaster" was how one dealer put it. Sunday was much better, like night and day according to another dealer. Still most people called the show slow to okay or not bad. One said it went well, 2 said they made money. The show was pretty dedicated to traditional comic books, not much in the way of manga. There were more people selling T-shirts than usual.
Artists Alley was a different story, I only got to talk to a small sample but they were all over the place. A few said it was slow, a few said it was good show. A lot of them did not see Saturday as a slow day. That's when the die-hards came and got sketches, Sunday was a either a good day for selling books, a standard day for selling everything or sketching. One creator said it was better than the February show they were at.
I left at 5 pm, when it closed.
Regards,
http://www.TheGraphicNovels.com
News and discussion on a free, Delphi like forum.
