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While waiting for my Porter Airlines flight at Billy Batson Airport, I thought I’d dash off a thought or two.

• It was an amazing show, with creators from more countries than ever before — 21 according to director Chris Butcher. Attendance was up, books were flying off the tables—85 copies of Andre the Giant on Saturday alone—and there were more programming tracks and more offsites than ever.

• The Jiraya sweatshirt from Massive modeled above by Spike Trotman was THE fashion statement of the snow. So many people were wearing it by the Sunday night after party that there should have been a group shot. Gachimuchi sweatshirts are the Slave Leia of TCAF.

• I think we’re way past the time when there is a “book of the show” but many people seemed to be talking about THIS ONE SUMMER by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki and it sold out on Saturday.

• I literally could not get near the Peow booth anytime I tried, and they had sold out of most of their books by the end of the show.

• The offsite Comics v Games /Bit Bazaar event was another success with 3000 people attending.

• If you were paying attention, this was obviously the “year of the woman” at TCAF, but it was only alluded to. That said, girl cartoonists, girl comics, girl readers, and girl power far overwhelmed any other trend at the show.

• For every up and comer making a hesitant yet glowing debut, there were some returning warriors like Nick Bertozzi and Nick Gurewitch. It’s not that the Nicks have been idle, they have just been doing other things.

• Programming that I was at went off very well overall. I was shocked that we filled the 50-seater room for “Comics Criticism” — given the chatty nature of the panelists it could have gone on hours and hours. I recorded it and should have the audio online later this week.

• The manga-ka seemed to be having a great time. I saw Est Em ant the two woman team of Akira Himekawa all over the place taking pictures and smiling. Hideaki Anno was ther eon the d-low with wife Moyoco Anno and seemed to have a great time as well.

• Everyone was smiling.

• They’re calling my flight! I hope Deb remembered to take the Momofuko pork out of the fridge!

8 COMMENTS

  1. It’s uh Billy Bishop International Airport not Billy Batson Airport!
    Billy Bishop was a World War One flying ace who was believed to have shot down the Red Baron!
    Naming an airport after Billy Batson is just asking for lightning to strike the plane, just say the word!

  2. Great recap, though I wouldn’t necessarily call this the year of girl power but more so the year of diversity in comics. Of course women creators were a highlight of the show (as Chris said during the opening to the Lyrnn Johnston Talk)

  3. That pic was taken at TCAF. I saw Spike doing that too. It was a very popular shirt.

    I’m glad you recorded the Comics Criticism panel as it overlapped with another panel I was covering.

  4. Yeah, another great year at TCAF. My only complaint is that I did mother’s day stuff early on Saturday and by the time I dropped by Sunday a number of comics that I was looking for were already sold out. Despite the fact that I was missing out, it’s nice to see good indie comics be so successful.

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