TCAF RECAF
I met so many cool artists at TCAF! Let me try to describe some of them in no particular order.
The singularly-named Boulet is a comics dynamo from France. I am probably the last cartoonist on earth to have discovered him, so sorry if this is old news, but man. I actually only met him at brunch on Monday, after TCAF proper was over, but he was a friendly dude with a sketchbook full of dinosaur skeleton drawings. His new book, Noirness, is gorgeous, hilarious, and most astoundingly of all, a 24-hour comic. You would never know it from reading it.
Monica Ray, who you may have seen on Strip Search, had a bunch of new things on her table that she made to "prove she can really draw" (her words). But honestly, what I really dig is the cartoony art in her regular strip, Phuzzy Comics... it just meshes so perfectly with her particular sense of humour. She seemed like a nice lady in person, too, and also earned bonus cred points by casually name-dropping old-school S&F characters like Candice mid-conversation. (Yes, I can be manipulated that easily. NOW YOU KNOW.)
I knew the mega-talented Ashley Davis from twitter and that Sonic zine thing we did awhile back, but this was my first time meeting her in person. She came by the booth to say hello, and like a moron I got busy and forgetful never managed to return the favour. Now I'm back here at home without having bought any of her stuff, like some kind of chump. Sorry Ashley! Let's all go look at her work online to try to make up for my intense personal failings.
Shows like TCAF and VanCAF are such great places to discover new artists. Sometimes I wish I wasn't so busy exhibiting at these shows myself, so I'd have time to really go through and see all the artists firsthand. But: these drawings of cats riding on corgis are not going to sell themselves, are they? No. No they are not.
-Sam Logan
De-TCAFinated
Oy! Thank you everyone -- from the organizers to the exhibitors to the attendees -- for another great TCAF. It was wonderful to connect with so many readers, new and old. And as always, it was amazing to see so many of my comics pals in one place at one time. (Possibly the highest concentration I have ever experienced.) There were so many of you, and you were all so darn nice to me. A+, would TCAF again!
Today -- assuming I regain my voice from all the party-time shouting -- I am going to be doing some filming! I am a pretty awkward dude on camera, but you gotta have a video for these crowdfunding deals, so I will do my best. Wish me luck, everyone.
-Sam Logan
TCAF!
The Toronto Comic Arts Festival starts tomorrow! As always, you can find me on the second floor, nestled among my Topatoco comrades and a bunch of other cool web and indie comiers. I've come to your fair city bringing a bunch of books and shirts, and I'm hoping to draw some commissions as well... so if you're in town, do come by and say hi! (After all... TCAF is free to attend!)
Sam and Fuzzy Q & A: Shifty Edition
Got a question you want answered? Just drop me an email with "Q & A" in the subject line!
"We don't know much about the underground but are there more shape shifters like Jess walking about? Also, Jess has been impersonating X for a long time. Has she been doing bad ass ninja stuff during this time? And if so, how does she have the skills/experience to do it?" -Tom
Jess is not the only of her kind -- her kind being giant slug people, apparently -- but there aren't a ton of them, and not all of them can shapeshift. (Or shapeshift as well as she can.) Like a lot of the creatures and organizations in Sam and Fuzzy, I've come up with a lot of background info about them that, honestly, will probably never come up in the comic at all. But you never know! Even if it doesn't wind up being S&F relevant, I might have other stories to tell in this universe later.
Jess has indeed been fully impersonating X for a long time. Exactly how she's been pulling it off is going to come up in future comics, but, uh... let's just say it hasn't been as difficult as you might think.
"But in this strip, we see Mr. X rampaging around well after the incident at Fuzzy's studio, and he is still wearing his old mask that leaves his mouth exposed! If Mr. X is actually Jess Starr at this point in the story, how did she stay disguised during the daytime without wearing a mask that covered her entire face?"
When the bottom half of X and/or Y's face is exposed, it's just because they've rolled it part-way up.. it's not actually a different mask. In this case, she can have the mask rolled up because they are indoors. (I drew the hallway extra dark specifically to combat sticklers later... ha!) We'd just come off a story where Y was briefly impersonated by Hazel, so I wanted to show Jess-X with the mask up at least once post-hospital stay to dispell anyone's suspicions.
Side note: there's a fairly prominent easter egg present in all of Jess-X's appearances. I know from my email inbox that several of you have already noticed it. Everyone else: it's still there for you to find!
We return on Monday. See you then, team!
-Sam Logan
