6/12/13

The Grand Comics Festival 2013!

Intimidation tactics

The Grand Comics Festival last weekend was stupendous. I used a thesaurus to find a word other than “awesome”, and “stupendous” seemed pretty good. Plus “Fred the Baker™” on my 1986 Dunkin’ Donuts Merchandising Training video uses the word, and I try to be like him in every way except the Hitler moustache. 
The show was small enough for anyone browsing to check out every table without being overwhelmed, and there was a good variety of style & subject matter. I had the good fortune to be flanked by Pat Dorian (the organizer of the show) whose clean brushwork and excellent character design I greatly admire and Jess Ruliffson, whose ongoing series of interviews with veterans is truly engrossing.
Saturday was very well attended (with a lot of other cartoonists stopping by to jibber-jabber and/or shop). Sunday was much slower, which can surely be attributed to a combination of hangovers and brunch plans, but it gave all of us time to go check out each others work and do some jibber-jabbering of our own. I imagine the show will be cut down to just one day if it happens again (Pat mentioned doing another in the future).
The proximity to Foodswings (vegan fast-food) proved irresistible, and I ended up eating there twice a day, both days. I only mention it because it's sometimes hard to find decent veg options at shows, so this was another feather in GCF's cap for me. 
It turns out that this white male was a minority at the show in that I didn’t go to SVA. Apparently SVA is cranking out talented cartoonists. I mean, I guess I already knew that, but it was interesting to see so many in one place. 
All in all, I would consider it a stupendous success. Stupendous.