GERHARD:
(via email, 22 April 2015)
Sitting
in one spot for four days may not sound like a lot of fun. At a slow,
ill-attended show two days can seem like four. But the 2015 Calgary Expo on 16-19 April was
hands down THE best organized, best run and best attended show I've
ever seen. That was the unanimous consensus of every other guest and
exhibitor that I spoke with.
The
staff and volunteers were incredibly helpful and efficient and possibly
clairvoyant; the food cart would magically appear at the first thought
of a hunger pang. Yes, you read that right... they provided free food
and beverages (no beer, though) for the guests. The carts were brought
around to our tables on a regular basis by extremely friendly and
cheerful staff. The quality and selection were top-notch, especially the
Mexican salad, California rolls and Dim Sum dumplings... okay, enough
gushing about the food. I never liked eating at the table in front of
the public, though; feels like you're on display at the zoo or
something: Come To The Show! Watch The Starving Artists Eat!
With
102,000 people filing past and with the popularity and exuberance of
cos-play (formerly known as 'dressing up') the guests behind the tables
got to enjoy the parade as it passed by (when we didn't have our head
down sketching). We met a lot of people; some die-hard fans (one guy drove the 3 hours down from Edmonton), some had never heard of Cerebus.
One
young woman stood back from the table starting over my head for quite a
while. When I asked if I could help her, she pointed at the Regency print behind me and sheepishly asked if I had drawn that. I told her
that I had and showed her the smaller print in my display portfolio that
she could have a closer look at. She
was pouring over the image and I told her that the print was available
for $20. She looked at me wide-eyed and said, "I can buy this?"
Dumbfounded, she handed over a twenty while I slipped a print from the
case and signed it. She thanked me, told me that she knew nothing about
comics; this was her first convention and she wandered away holding her
print as if it were a holy relic.
It doesn't get better than that.
We were tired and show-shocked at the end but as Shel said the next morning, "I could do another day!"
4 comments:
And...another uninitiated gets to start learning about the comics genius of Gerhard and, maybe, will start reading Cerebus...
A food cart? Awesome. And "Alone, Unserved & Unquenched"? Hahahahaha! One of these days I need to visit Ger's booth at a con to get me a Cerebus by Gerhard.
What did she "pour" over the print - and why didn't Gerhard stop her?!?
Check out the link and you'll see this is one trip Ger had "in the bag!"
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