Most bloggers have already pontificated about what’s in store for their new year. I held off till now as things have become a little more into focus.

Plans for new story arcs are currently underway. Food For the Soul has just come to an end and Portal of It’s Eye, a tale involving classic Lovecraftian themes of which, obviously, I’m a huge fan, will launch next week. Sam Agro provided the art while Henry Huang was on colourist chores. It looks fantastic, just wait and see. That will take us into the beginning of April. After that I’ve a few stories being currently illustrated by a couple of talented local Toronto artists. The first is One Last Night with Shane Heron on art. You may know Shane as the artist of the fantaboulous webcomic Awesome Marcus Ninja. The second is tentatively titled The Spawn of Cthulhu, illustrated by Dan Simon, artist and co-creator of the webcomic No Reason and designer of this website via his March1Studios enterprise. I’m also planning a sequel to Portal of It’s Eye, currently titled From the Ashes. I picture it as a sort of Empire Strike’s Back, the second arc of what will become a continuing story line.

I won’t say much on this except that I’m finally going to attempt to try my hand at the opportunity provided by DC’s webcomic initiative Zuda and send their way a couple of pitches for their monthly contest. Both are well into the artwork stage, hopefully I’ll be able to send of the first by mid-March. Stay tuned for that. I’m really excited about the potential for both projects. If accepted I’m going to need all the help, and votes, I can get.

Convention season is also upon us. It doesn’t look like I’ll be traveling far from home this year. Some fellow comic creators invited me to travel to New York for the MoCCA festival but due to budgetary considerations, i.e. a new mortgage and car, and my first child being due any day now, I decided the wisest thing was to try and keep things simple and manageable. So the local convention scene is going to be the focus. Feb 28th is the Toronto ComiCon. I don’t have a table, but I do hope to stop by and get a few books signed, in particular issues of the Marquis and BPRD by Guy Davis and Cameron Stewart’s Batman and Robin run which has been a visual delight. That all depends on how overwhelmed I’m feeling in the newborn fog.

After that is the Wizard World Toronto Comic Con March 26th-28th. I’ll have a table at the show with Shane Heron and his writing partner Joel Buxton from Awesome Marcus Ninja, as well as Lezley Davidson, creator of Peeling Onions. I’m not sure what to make of the show, I probably won’t until after it’s all said and done and I’ve had time to reflect on it. The old Paradise Comic Con, from which this show has evolved, was always a good time and drew some solid guests. Lately, Wizard’s been under siege by pros and fans alike. There are some legitimate knocks against the way Wizard runs its shows, with their focus on former wrestling stars and b-list celebrities. None of the big publishers will be in attendance and many of the comic guests are local residents, familiar to many of the local cons. Like any show though it will really come down to the types and numbers of fans that attend.

After that I is the June Fan Appreciation Show which I hope to exhibit at as well as debut issue #4 of the Book of Methuselah. I also plan on getting a table at the Fan Expo in August. I’ll provide more details on that as we get closer to the date. Oh, and there’s TCAF in early May. I applied to exhibit but was turned down. I’m not really surprised. Indie, unknown horror anthologies don’t really mesh with the D and Q vibe the festival caters to. I’ll try to stop by and look around, there’s a couple of creators whose work I admire that I’d like to meet, namely Kevin Colden, creator of I Rule the Night.

Alright, I’ve gone on long enough.

Fan Expo ’09 was a blast. It was the first major show I’ve ever been an exhibitor and it blew the roof off my expectations. I have to thank Pat, Ryan and Shane for helping me at the Furious Comics table. You guys were brilliant. On Sunday, Shane provided a few free sketches to some lucky attendees, one of which was Superman. I remarked that the drawing looked similar in style to Francis Manupal’s work. Shane claimed Francis learned it from him. I also had the pleasure of being flanked by some wonderful individuals I’d never met before.

To my left was David Walters, a talented, young artist and graphic designer, whose style reminded me of the late Michael Turner. He looked to be busy for most of the weekend, though word has it he spent far more then he made.

To my right was Lezley Davidson and Paul Quinn, both talented Indy comic creators. Lezley is the creator of Peeled Onions, an autobiographical comic strip based on her own experiences. She was also doing killer facial sketches of the exhibitors along our aisle. Word is she’s sending an image of mine soon. Still waiting Lezley. Paul is the co-creator and artist of Popculture Junkies. Similar in vein to Kevin Smith’s early work, the story follows a pair of friends running the local Bag ‘n’ Board Comics shop. Very witty, Sci-fi fan satire.

I didn’t get around the floor like I wanted to. I should have gone for a walk about Friday and checked out some stuff; it was the least busy of the three days. But I figured I’d have time late Saturday or Sunday. I was dead wrong. Saturday was zoo, just herds and herds of people and aisles clogged with lines. Estimates placed the total number of attendees at 59 000! I was able to meet with a few buds and acquaintances like the multi-talented Sam Agro, Andy B. artist of Bottle of Awesome, and the excellent Mike Cho. Lezley referred to him all weekend as her Yoda, an apt description as Mike is both kind and wise.

Greg Dunford was The Man on a Mission, cruising up and down the aisles, making contacts and bringing awareness of Hard Drive, his punk Sci-fi adventure comic. Also meet the guys from the Watchtower Podcast, Jeff Moss and Donnie Coulter. Jeff and I swapped books; he grabbed issue 3 of The Book of Methuselah, while I grabbed No Reason Zero. I would have liked to have picked Donnie’s brain longer; I think we share a lot of the same opinions regarding the stories being pumped out of the Big Two.

So the weekend was a hit. I always feel like this is the unofficial end of summer after the show. Autumn beckons, my day job is about to get busy again, and the NFL and NHL is about to start up, my two favorite sports. And no, that has nothing to do with the pools.

Until next year.

Greetings loyal followers. So my home computer internet is on the fritz and my landlord, through whom I receive my my connection, is out of town. I don’t know if I’ll be able to get the problem sorted out in the next couple of days so Saturday’s post may not happen. Same with Tuesday’s.

And then I’m off to Scotland for a couple of weeks. When I get back I plan on updating the look of the site with the help of a very talented friend. So good things should be in store by the time August roles around. Until then,, thanks to all those who are watching. You won’t be disappointed once we get this show rolling again.

Cheers

OTP