Well my goodness — I’m realizing that my Calgary post that I wrote up last week never appeared in the blog! Time to correct that. It’s time for: The O-fficial Sheldon Calgary Comic Expo Write-Up Extravaganza!
Short version: I could not have had more fun at my first Canadian comics show. Calgary is a great, great town, and the people could not have been cooler.
As you may remember, I was a special guest of the show, along with my fellow cartoonists Kris Straub and Brad Guigar. We exhibited through the entire show, and gave a talk on Sunday on webcomics to a really engaged crowd.
But the best part of the show, for me, was the Sheldon readers who came out. Some from as far away as Saskatchewan — a 7-and-a-half-hour drive! In fact, just to reward that commitment, lets start off with that shot! Here she is: Sheldon-reader Nikki, who piled into a car at ungodly hours and drove for almost a full workday, just to make it down for the show! And who got a suitably awesome series of sketches in return — thanks, Nikki!
Sheldonista Darrell U. asked for, and got, a comparison sketch of Flaco and the Drive Pilot. That was a fun one to do!
Lots of kind Sheldonistas e-mailed me copies of the shots they took at that show. Going down the list, here’s Susan:
And Brody, along with me in blink-mode. (…just one of my many modes.)
And proud Sheldon-Original-Art-Ownin’ Amanda and Jerry. (Sidenote: No making fun of my hat. I’m diggin’ the fedora, lately.)
Speaking of hats, I have to mention this: Canadians are the nicest people on earth, as evidenced by the fact that nearly everyone brought me “Canadian-esque” gifts….whether they were Tim Horton’s awesome doughnuts, Canadian-specific Cadbury’s chocolates, Hobnobs, and perhaps the creme de la creme: A genuine “white” Calgary cowboy hat! Check it out!
Awesome Sheldon readers Jeff and Melanie brought that baby to me as part of a traditional Calgary welcome, and man, that puppy was sweet. I couldn’t take it off for the rest of the show! Although, unfortunately, it somewhat changed the view people had of me when I was sketching for them. Adding the hat made it go from this:
To this:
I even wore it to our Sunday webcomics talk…although (wisely) took it off during the forum, as I started lookin’ like there were some cows needin’ rustlin’
Oh! Also! I should mention that Jeff and Melanie also brought out a rare copy of my now out-of-print book from 1996, “A Well Balanced Meal”. Fittingly, I sketched them my current lead character, Sheldon, next to my previous strips’ lead character, Nate.
Among all the free sketches I did for folks, that was a particularly fun one to do….as were all the requests for “Drive” sketches. Thank you for requesting those — makes me feel good about the new strip!
And a huge thank you to show organizer Kandrix Foong for inviting me up as a guest of the show. It was a highlight of my year…and I’ll be back to Calgary anytime you want me! And thanks as well to the folks of Calgary, broader Alberta, and surrounding provinces who drove in. You guys made the weekend for me — and made me significantly porkier with all the chocolatey treats. Thank you, Calgary, for a fantastic show!