Quick Change

Blog-Header-05_13_15MAN ALIVE, knowing what you’re doing halves the battle for real. The unthinkable happened on our trip up to the Toronto Comics Arts Festival this year: not a thing. Meaning, we had our paperwork expertly prepared, we were given all kinds of enthusiastic support from the beautiful people at the border crossing, we arrived in Toronto during daylight hours and managed to get set up and registered at the early load-in on Friday. This has never happened to us ever in our lives. God bless Peter Birkemoe and the good ship Beguiling for their expert direction which made us not feel like invading smugglers. Other than our Breeders run-in, the trip up north was never so magical.

 

Rob

 

Last year’s TCAF, we had an actual book (like with a spine) debut. Unfortunately, our planned TCAF 2015 debut is running two and a half years late. A surprising number of people asked about Gabby, his book, his health and his well-being. He’s still Gabby. Folks asked the same of Joe Lambert. He is alive and well. Secret Acres’ lucky streak continues, though, with Rob Sergel saving our days at TCAF with his brand spanking new, fourth issue of Eschew. It rocks, and if you missed TCAF, you can get yours right here. There were only two of us manning the booth and there could not have been a better tag team. Disasters averted, we sold a ton of books, way more than expected. If you remember our previous post, we explained that this kind of travel needs a great show to hit break even. We hit that in style.

Rolling into TCAF as a duo means a lot less time to explore the show itself, but escaping the major news of the day (and, no, idiots, Annie Koyama did not buy Drawn and Quarterly, nor did Blaise Larmee get into a fistfight) meant that you were deaf. Major props to Drawn and Quarterly, both for bringing out the biggest book of the show in D+Q: 25, and for keeping tight wraps on the changing of the guard over in Montreal. Chris Oliveros, founder and publisher and deity, is handing the reigns over to Peggy Burns, now capital P Publisher and still the best in the game. Congratulations, Peggy!

 

TCAF

 

Imagine how tough it would be to accept that kind of responsibility. Back when Fantagraphics turned 25, people said D+Q would be the last comic company on our side of the comics fence to hit that milestone. That might be true (but probably not – and looking at you, Conundrum). The biggest reason for that likelihood is the publishing companies in the underground, indie world have never had a clear line of succession until this very moment. Add that to Chris Oliveros’ stupidly long list of accomplishments. You could even put that at the top. Leaving D+Q in such capable hands is about the best thing he could have done for comics.

We talked about all that plenty on Saturday night. We (meaning Nobrow‘s Tucker Stone and Koyama Press’ Annie) talked a lot about Consortium, too, the big distro that is threatening to make grownups out of all the little comics outfits. Speaking of which, more than a few folks at TCAF were picking our brains on that process and how we’re handling it. Short version: it’s really hard for us. With no power comes no responsibility and we’ve been cool with that for years.

 

Annie

 

We spent plenty of time with Alex Degen, otherwise known as A. Degen (and correctly pronounced A. DEE-gen), who promises to be a terrible influence on us. We got to hang with Hazlitt‘s own Anshuman Iddamsetty, a human reminder of just how dumb we are. We went to the Queer Mixer, which had Anne Ishii killing it with one-liners, but no fucking of any kind that we could see, which… We officially met the one and only Sophia Foster-Dimino, a cartoonist who has turned that corner from great to godlike genius, producing some of the best work the medium has seen in a long while. We hope someone is watching her read this, because we can guarantee that she is hiding her head under something. Seriously, if you see her, compliment her (because it’s your duty), and watch what happens. We love you, Sophia.

 

Pitzer

 

We made the rounds of the floor(s) early on Mother’s Day, after FaceTiming with our respective mommies on the library’s WiFi. Believe it or not, the second floor now wraps comics all the way around the library – and it ain’t filler, either. The strangest thing was the AdHouse setup. Chris Pitzer had just one book on the table and the booth would fill with water for five minutes every hour while Pitzer just held his breath and read. Amazing. Many thanks to the Space Face people for holding copies of their stuff for us in their odd room, which would climb, again hourly, in temperature up to 451° Fahrenheit, clearing out all the books with fire. Incredible.

Sadly, we had to skip the Sunday parties to make Rob’s flight home. After a tearful goodbye to the best table island neighbours (sic), Dustin Harbin and Conundrum Press, we packed up, exchanged pretty Canadian dollars for a fat check, and made it home in record time to bask in the glow of our separation anxiety. With TCAF done, we’re going to be relatively quiet for a while. But, in a David Lynch’s Mullholland Drive kind of way, when you see us again, you’ll have three rather enormous books coming from us. Spring break is over.

Your Pals,

Leon and Barry

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