FORT90

So, where was I? Oh yeah?

Day 7

With the Magic Pony portion of COMICS VS GAMES officially over with, it was finally time for phase two: moving everything to the Toronto Reference Library, where TCAF takes place. Unfortunately, things were not able to go as planned. Actually, things went back to how they were supposed to originally.

Steve, the man in charge of Magic Pony, was so impressed by all the artwork during set-up that he suggested extending their stay on his end. So he decided to hang onto them, till the following weekend; duplicates would be produced for TCAF. Truth be told, certain pieces needed to be reprinted anyway, due to mistakes with the first run (though no one else noticed them).

This second batch would replace the ones that had been hung, right before the main event, for the closing party. Problem was, after set-up, Steve had to make a brief stop in NYC for an art fair, one that he was never able to return from in time, due to the aforementioned storm. In the end, we had to transport the pieces, including the ones that had mistakes.

Would have been cool to have the Attract Mode prints in two locations at once, but that’s just how it goes. But otherwise, transport and set-up at the library went silky smooth, thanks again to the fine folks at both Magic Pony and TIFF Nexus! So much so that I was barely needed for the most part, which was fine since at that point, I needed to rendezvous with Colleen.

After checking into our hotel room, we got some Chinese for lunch. Colleen was hankering for some bubble tea, which sounded like an excellent idea?

Once I had returned, I discovered that all the games has been put together?

Which meant it was my turn to put the finishing touches. Because of library policies, I wasn’t allowed to hang stuff in a gallery-like fashion; couldn’t nail anything to the wall, and instead, they wanted us to use tape. Which would have effectively ruined the prints (yet another reason why Steve wanted to create an extra batch for us).

Plus the allotted space as a whole was slightly awkward as well. In the end, Suzan from Tiff and I were able to improvise a few solutions for the game jam specific prints, and simply putting the Attract Mode ones on the table would allow visitors a better chance to admire the work (and maybe help with sales)?

Soon it was evening, and time for the big pre-TCAF mixer. By this point, everyone from out of town had finally arrived, with the party being the first real stop for many. The best part was the abundance of video game folk, so it was a real who’s who from that world and comics. Like Zac Gorman and Phil Fish?

Here we have Dave with John (Pham), who I hadn’t seen in person in literally years, plus our new pal Georgina?

And here I am with Kris?

? Who was entertaining the Area 5 guys; they were all in town to meet the world’s biggest Street Fighter diehard, who apparently lives in Toronto! Anyhow, super chill bros. Also got to finally meet Jim Guthrie (had to try my best to not come off as some blithering fan boy), as well hang with various Toronto game luminaries.

Point being, it was super rad to have a bunch of game makers mingle with a bunch of comic book makers. Really makes me wonder why both communities here in NYC don’t interact like that. In fact, there’s hardly any acknowledgement amongst one another. It’s been said already that there’s no reason for it, but TCAF basically shoots that theory down.

Though the trip as a whole made me seriously question a LOT about New York City, on many levels, but that’s a conversation for another time.

Day 8

Day one of TCAF 2012 was just as expected: a TON of people. The following was taken very early on; it would become much, MUCH more crowded than this?

The games, as expected, were quite popular! Truth be told, I seriously wondered what the reception would be like, going in. Game jam games in particular can be hard to grasp among the general public, so it’s a real testament to the phenomenal talent and hard work that is behind each and every one. But also, given how awkwardly comics and games have mixed in the past? let’s just say that COMICS VS GAMES succeeded on many levels (and just another reason why I enjoyed Toronto so much)…

In addition to having the prints for sale (kinda), I also brought with me some Attract Mode goods to sale. But not much; I didn’t do so hot last year, and with that in mind, I brought a fraction of those same goods. In the end, I brought just enough. Hey, selling books and zines that mostly has words in them is a tough sell at a comic show; it’s a completely different audience, I get that.

I also didn’t feel so bad for not having FORT90ZINE #4 ready after-all. People did ask for it, but virtually all of those folks are already getting a copy because they donated to the Kickstarter. On the other hand, selling the prints was quite the task, if only for logistical reasons; they were on-hand for display purposes only. Those interested had to go to Magic Pony, where one could request a copy (that was to be printed the following week).

So asking people who were interested in a piece to spend more money than they expected (because they were archival quality prints, they went for considerably more than most other prints found at the show, and such things in general are hard sells to begin with) to instead go off-site, which gave them more than enough time to talk themselves out of such an investment, led to not as many sales as could have been possible.

Ideally, would have been nice to have some prints on-hand. The missing in action Steve not only runs Magic Pony but is the guy does all the printing himself, and was still stuck in NYC. Hopefully, if there’s a COMICS VS GAMES 2, we’ll have a better system in place. Yet despite it all, I still had a blast being behind the table, due to my table mate Mathew!

Speaking of pals, TCAF also offered me the chance to see others that I also rarely get to see outside of comic shows, like Ryan and Hellen?

Along with Hamlet Machine! Even though she actually lives in NYC, but we’re both super busy folk?

Here we have Colleen striking a pose. Or something like that?

And Kris Mukai, whose stunning Skyrim print was one of the more popular pieces at the show (not surprisingly) and Tess, another Magic Pony staff member, who decided to stop by the COMICS VS GAMES area?

Eventually, day one was finally over. After getting some kimchee friend rice at this place I discovered last year, decided to chill in the hotel room until the next official TCAF after hours gathering had commenced. But by this point, was so worn out from the show, plus the week as a whole had finally caught up with me (that and how I was still sick), that I came pretty close to just staying in. To enjoy cable television, of course.

Was stupified by the wretched excuse for comedy I stumbled across on on local television (yet couldn’t stop watching), which was as far removed from SCTV, Kids In The Hal, and Trailer Park Boys as possible. Would discover later on, from a friend of Kris, the sorry state of Canadian comedy, but that’s another whole other story. Meanwhile, had no idea that the Spice Girls movie was so good!

In the end, went to the party anyway, which was at this bar that was just as poorly equipped for the large contingency of cartoonists as it was last year. So Pendleton (as in Pendleton Ward, the creator of Adventure Time, that guy) had an idea: karaoke. Or perhaps it was Ryan’s, since that’s always his preferred method of hanging with peeps at a comic show?

But because the creator of Cartoon Network’s second best show (sorry, but I’m more of a Regular Show kind of person) was leading the posse, it was a very large crew. To the point that we basically took over the vast majority of this sleepy little karaoke joint, in the outskirts of Koreatown. Here we have Hellen, Calvin, and Pendleton in room 1?

… Too bad you can’t see the button that Pendleton is wearing, which is of some old guy eating grass. Yeah, I don’t know either. I also forget what song is being performed here. The place was decent, but Christ did their selection suck. There was not a SINGLE Billy Joel!

Here we have Benjamin Marra. Again, forget what he’s doing, but I do know it was the kind of song that man like Benjamin would be into ?

Meanwhile, in room 2, Mathew here is giving it all he’s got (with some help of the half bottom of bourbon that he just consumed)?

The bourbon, btw, was courtesy of “Dorke”, the super warm and friendly French Canadian girl who became one of many new friends that weekend. Unfortunately her real name escapes me, yet I do recall all the rum and cokes she treated me to (along with her super rad mini)?

Later on, in room 3, Hellen and Calvin continued to struggle to find something, anything worth singing?

Mathew again (who claimed afterward that he was even drunker than that time in E3, which led to a rather infamous appearance on some 1UP podcast), sharing the secrets of the universe with Ryan?

The evening as a whole was chock full of hijinks, but I’ll skip the details in order to save everyone (mostly myself) the embarrassment. But all in all, the most epic evening of karaoke that I’ve personally taken part in! Which unfortunately led to?

Day 9

? Which was really rough going. The thing is, it takes me next to nothing to get piss drunk (it’s the Asian in me). Some view that as a negative, and it can be somewhat annoying (though for the most part, it saves me a ton of money). But on the flip side, I rarely suffer from hangovers. Except this particular day, of course. Both myself and Mathew were fairly haggered to put it mildly.

On the plus side, sales of zines and the like were better than expected. Actually sold out of some stuff! Granted, and once more, I didn’t bring much of certain items, but there are some items that will not be making it for the Attract Mode store re-launch. Plenty of people asked about that, btw, and like I keep saying, it’s happening very soon, you have to believe me.

And the games were just as popular on day two of TCAF as they were on day one, if not more so, especially amongst kids. Here’s a girl who was absolutely mesmerized by Storyteller?

These kids all played The Yawgh quite a bit on Saturday, and were back for more on Sunday. The cutest part was how they were all sharing tips and strategies that they had picked and developed!

The Yawgh was also plenty fun for adults as well. I have no idea why Cesar and Craig are wearing sunglasses here?

Sorry, but there’s not a whole lot to say about day two; in addition to being drained from my time in Toronto up till that point, was again suffering the consequence of the night prior. In fact, for a while there, was technically still drunk!

Also, there’s not much to show either; the lighting conditions in the room that COMICS VS GAMES was housed in did not lend itself well to photography, as evidenced by this attempt at having a keepsake photo of myself and Miguel?

I honestly cannot thank Miguel enough (along with Christopher Butcher) for inviting me to be part of such an amazing thing. And speaking of the evil genius behind TCAF, he’s the guy you’ll want to refer to, as it pertains to a proper recap of this year’s show. Which again, was simply incredible.

Once more, there’s a reason why TCAF has become THE comics event of the northeast, and is officially eating MoCCA Art Fest’s lunch at this point. Hate to be a hater, but it has hardly a sentiment that was unique to me that weekend, especially those who had done MoCCA the weekend prior.

Days 10 & 11

COMICS VS GAMES was officially history, and my stay in the Great White North was coming to a close, which meant some loose ends to tie up.

Stopped by Magic Pony one last time, to drop off equipment and see how well the prints sold in the end. Over the weekend, Steve had his staff put back up some Jon Burgerman prints from a prior show. The plan was to have them intermingle with the Attract Mode prints, which as explained earlier, didn’t quite happen. Thankfully Steve made two versions of Kyle’s?

I’ll admit that I had absolutely no knowledge of Burgerman prior to me being exposed to his work at Magic Pony, despite being a local artist (dude lives in Brooklyn), but I’m certainly a fan now?

Long story short: I miscalculated my length of stay when making plans beforehand. And because I didn’t want to pay for an entire hotel room by myself (Colleen had to go back to work on Monday), and because my last order of business was super close to his apartment, Kris let me stay at his place for my final night in Toronto?

Due to the fact that we were both worn down from many nights of staying out late and drinking, the plan was to just chill at his place and watch Star Trek: TNG with his pal Aaron (the aforementioned pal who explained to how comedy is such a touch racket in Canada these days).

But because it was my final evening, decided to do a bit of bar hopping, even if everyone else was too tired and sick. In the dead of night, and while between watering holes, I passed by a laundromat that had a tattered poster of Ahnold that couldn’t help but take a picture of?

Toronto is definitely a wonderful city, but it’s not without its quirks. Like how getting drunk can be a bit of a pain in the ass. Aside from the fact that all bars close crazy early, and how beer is often more expensive than hard liquor, you seriously cannot buy booze in places like delis or the like.

In the case of beer, you can only buy it at a place called, get this, The Beer Store?

Which, conveniently enough, was right next to a Sony press event, one designed to highlight all the local talent that they’ve been tapping into.

Was tipped off by Shawn McGrath, whom I first became aquatinted with at PAX East. MSNBC had informed me the week prior that my run was officially coming to a close, so I wanted to do something special for my last day. Figured an overview of the thriving indie game scene in Toronto would be an excellent swan song.

Shawn, btw, is the creator Dyad, a game that I wrote about a couple of times at least, over at GameSetWatch, and which more than lived up to my expectations at PAX. Still shots alone cannot do the thing justice. Basically, if you liked Rez, you will LOVE Dyad?

Jonathan Mak and Shaw-Han Liem were also present, aka the duo behind Sound Shapes, which is essentially the reason why I’m a proud Vita owner, and why you should be as well. That and Persona 4 The Golden, of course. Here’s Mak showing off the level editor?

Later that week, back in NYC, I would file my report, which can be read here.

Before heading to the airport, I stopped by the Capy office to say my final goodbyes to Kris, Nathan, and Mathew. Was given a tour, but naturally, I couldn’t just take pictures of anything, since everyone is working on top secret stuff. But here’s a shot of one corner, of all the various trophies they’ve earned over the years?

Remember that piece of art they did, as the grand prize for a contest that Destructoid was running, that was built around one of Capy’s first hits, Critter Crunch?

My last shot, before heading to the airport (the Instagramed version of the image I used for my final piece for MSNBC)?

Re: me leaving Toronto. It’s almost ironic how, when Jonathan asked what I thought about my stay, I responded with “Man, I absolute LOVE this city!”, and that resulted in “That’s great to hear, but our mass transit system sure does suck, doesn’t it?” To that, I simply replied with “Well, I haven’t had any problems thus far.”

Which was true; while not as robust as the MTA, Toronto’s combination of subways, buses, and streetcars got me where I needed to go, with zero fuss or muss, generally speaking. That is, until I needed to absolutely be somewhere at a specific time. Which was later that afternoon, in which all hell broke loose.

Another long story short: the subway that was supposed to take me to the bus station, where I’d hitch a ride to the airport, had been suspended due to someone falling on the tracks or something. Because there’s no alternate/express tracks, I began to panic and went topside, to hop in the first available cab.

Taxis are definitely another thing in which NYC wins over Toronto, hands down. Virtually every cab ride up north was an ordeal; sure the ones here can be just as weird and creepy, but they’re also flagrantly racist in Toronto, and the one at this particular moment was also trying to rip me off.

I caught him red-handed, leading to a heated argument, and was thusly kicked me out, literally in the middle of the highway. Was eventually picked up by someone else, who was more honest, but dear Jesus was he dumb. And asking questions that one who is running crazy late for a flight does not want to hear. Like “Are you sure that’s the airport you want to go?” Like seriously?

Eventually made it to the bus stop, where I had to deal with the absurdly designed gate for those who wish to enter the system with the luggage (would take WAY too long to properly explain), and then to the airport, where I was reminded once again how annoying flying has become. Though not helping his how Toronto’s primary airport is perhaps the worst of its kind (which all residents agree with).

But never mind the final few hours: I had a simply magical time in Toronto, and cannot wait for the chance to come back, perhaps for COMICS VS GAMES 2? Though I’m also seriously thinking about relocating there. The people I’ve met up there, and the communities that they’ve worked hard to build, plus the resulting vibes, especially as it pertains to comics and videos, has been genuinely eye-opening and mind-blowing.

It honestly leaves me rather jealous. Just sucks that the Mexican food there is so God awful. The fact that their Neflix Instant is vastly inferior to ours is another deal breaker. Anyway, time to check out my loot from TCAF?

Got lots of awesome stuff, but my favorite might have to be John’s latest zine, which is a must own for anyone that has fond memories of old video game rags?

Something else that I’m super fond of is a thing by Benjamin Marra’s girlfriend. Who basically Photoshopped herself into stock shots of, where else, at Grocery Stores?

Check out this super cool print by Hamlet Machine, of her boys from Starfighter, at an arcade!

Finally, here’s a button I got from Kris, of Jeff Leopard, one of the heroes from Capy’s Super Time Force, along with Jimmy, Kris’ real life cat?

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“It’s like a Boo!”

As mentioned at the beginning of part 1, I honestly haven’t been up to much since coming back, just stuff here and here. Here are the highlights, with some random links tossed in for good measure:

- Not long after returning was Dave and John (Green)‘s Teen Boat book release party. With the best part being how it took place on an actual boat! And I’m happy to say that I was there, pretty much, when book was first came to be, in the form of a mini comic. One that details the angst of being a teen, and the thrill of being a boat?

Both Dave and John were dressed in nautical related attire and requested that attendees do so the same. Alas, I can’t seem to find my Gordon’s Fisherman get-up anywhere (clarification: I actually don’t own such threads, it’s just a joke)?

The highlight was the slide show that detailed the creation of the book, and going back even further, the formation of their friendship, which in turn led to plenty of other comic projects, with their best known effort together being Quicken Forbidden?

Marion took some actual good pictures of the event. In this one, if you look real hard, you can see my vintage “Vote Boat” pin from SPX 2004!

- So I finally got the chance to check out the Canvas offices. Here we have Dmauro setting up his Astro Cites?

Among the games played was Streets of Rage 2. When taking the following, he noted “I bet when people see that pic, they’ll go ‘Man, check out those scan lines! I bet they’ll be jealous!’” Which is pretty much the truth?

Meanwhile, a third machine was being prepped. Which had previously belonged to Nullsleep. Which I myself wanted to own, but I was slightly late when responding to his head’s up, for sale, email?

- The Beat recently spoke with some of the superb talent that’s working behind the scenes on their hottest shows, who also happen to be pals of mind, like Helen and Hilary! Check it out here.

Though the best part is how, when talking with Toby, gave a shout out to FORT90ZINE4ANSWER in his Q&A! And I can assure you, his contribution is one of the definite highlights. And once again, it’s on it’s way, swear to God, cross my heart and hope to die.

- Caught the final performance of Starscreeam, now officially known as Infinity Shred. The circumstances behind the name change, i.e. some no name/clearly bitter goth band claiming first dibs on the Transformers reference and threatening legal action, is fairly crappy. But hey, the new name is vastly superior anyway, so there ya go?

Took place at Shea Stadium, and never before at a chip show did I feel so old. I remember when the DJ before Starscream/Infinity Shred went on stage decided to spin records, and asked the crowed “Are you ready for some old school hip hot?” and I joking responded to dmauro if there would be anything before 2002. Sadly, there wasn’t.

- My order from Randwiches finally arrived!

It contained two kids of pork, cheddar cheese, portabella mushrooms, greens, and miso-hummus. As awesome as it looks, it tasted even better!

- Speaking of food, today is the 5 year anniversary of my epic trip to Japan. Actually, it was technically yesterday, but due to the time difference, it was a full 24 hours between setting forth and arriving, so it still counts in my mind.

I normally get together with Joe and June to swap war stories over some Japanese food on such a day. But they’re schedules are so crazy these days, since they’re so busy with Wax Eye related matters, that I decided to go solo.

To Hagi, the closest approximation I’ve found to an authentic dining experience outside of Japan. Kicked things off with Kiru sake, and some sweet and sour chicken wings?

Followed by Nigori sake and tuna sashimi?

The main course was Yakisoba with miso sauce?

BTW, for those who haven’t checked it out (and has some time on their hands), my entire Japanese excursion is detailed starting here. I pretty much covered all my bases, though for some reason, I neglected to really emphasize how truly emotional I got while speeding down the Tokyo highway.

As silly as it sounds, to be so strongly reminded of moments in fave racing games, like Ride Racer: Type 4, honestly chocked me up to a certain degree. Hey, I am what I am.

- Needless to say, I want to go back, now more than ever. Though the time is now; as first mentioned a little while ago, there’s a fairly epic Katsuhiro Otomo exhibition going on at the moment. Here’s another report detailing its absurd greatness. And as of this moment, I have just a bit over one week to get my ass back to Tokyo.

- And finally, back to Joe and June; I did get to hang with them the other day. Am somewhat helping them out on a project, but I’ll say no more regarding that matter. They recently got a dog, and she’s a cutie! Her name is Lumi?

There’s a second picture, from later that evening. Of me, drunk off my ass, watching the season finale of Celebrity Apprentice, and with a puppet Hedwig (yes, from Harry Potter) by my side. But I think I’ve posted enough pics for now!

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And? I’m back! Actually, been back in American for about two weeks now. Sorry for the radio silence, but you know how almost every single blog entry since forever has opened with me lamenting how absurdly busy I’ve been?

Well, it all finally caught up with. You could say that I crashed and burned upon my return from Canada, and been recovering ever since. By doing absolutely nothing; if I could afford to see a doctor, I’m sure he would approve.

Alas, it’s not like there’s been all that much to do. My trip to Toronto had many high points, but a few low ones. Like how I lost not one, but two freelance gigs, plus a third was scaled back a considerable degree, all while up in the Great White North.

But instead of looking for work, all I’ve been doing is vegging out on video games and Netflix (the entire run of Transformers cartoon from the 80s is on Instant, btw). Was that tapped out, mentally and physically.

Am now finally getting back into battle ready mode, and figured that now would be a good time to talk about the rest of my Canadian adventures, as well as how COMICS VS GAMES turned out…
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Day 0

I arrived on Canadian soil on a Friday, late in the evening, via train. Even though the trip took 12 hours, and flying would have only been just one, I have absolutely no regrets. I actually LOVE to fly, or at least used to, until it became such a pain in the ass. Dealing with customs was still nerve racking, but not nearly as much at an airport, plus the abundance of leg room on the Amtrak made me finally realize how much of a caged animal the airlines and TSA makes one feel these days.

Arrived just in time to be pinged by Mathew, inviting me to see a documentary with him about GLOW, since he knows how much I am into wrestling. Unfortunately, right before my trip, I began to develop a nasty cough, which went full borne on the train (yet another reason why I’m glad I didn’t fly; I would have surely gotten punched in the face by some germaphobe). Instead, I just had a late night dinner with Miguel, who not only invited me to be part of COMICS VS GAMES, but was kind enough to let me crash at his place for my first week in Toronto.

And Miguel’s place is pretty rad, filled with accouterments of someone with discerning tastes?

My trusty camera is great most of the time, but when lighting conditions made some things tricky to capture, like Miguel’s autographed Utena poster (Kunihiko Ikuhara!!!), and some totally random anime cel he somehow came to acquire, that’s where my iPhone and Instagram came in?

Day 1

My first official day in Canada was spent with Zack acting as tour guide, much like he did the previous year. This time he took me to a place that he had a hunch that I would love to death. And he was right; the previously noted Pinball Cafe. I’ve posted pictures from it on Instagram already, but once again?

They even had a super tiny Asteroids machine, in a housing that was completely foreign to me?

It was at the Pinball Cafe where my eyes were finally opened as to how beautiful the artwork that adorns such machines truly are?

The place also served food, like my personal favorite?

Because of the nasty cough that I could barely keep under control, the totally cute girl working the counter made me mint milkshake to accompany my cough syrup?

Eventually it was time to finally make my way to the Magic Pony, to oversee the installation of the big show. I’ll be honest: the last time I had set something similar up, it was rough going to put it very mildly.

So I was somewhat expecting a long and rocky night. Thankfully, everyone at the space was (and are) quite simply the super coolest people ever. I especially hit it off with Steve Cober, the man in charge; knew almost instantly that we’d get along well when discovering his two fave games: Rez and Vib Ribbon!

Also finally met Suzan Sabir, from TIFF Nexus, the primary force behind COMICS VS GAMES in the first place, and who was equally awesome! You also had her crew, plus Christine Love and Damian Sommer, two of the designers that helped to make the game jam the stunning success that it was. Everyone pitched in to make set-up as smooth as butter?

Best part is how everyone, especially Steve and Suzan, couldn’t stop playing the games…

Again, things went relatively according to plan, but there were still technical difficulties. Game jam games can be inherently difficult to get up and running, especially in a gallery environment. Two of the games were also unfinished; here we have an earlier version of We’re No Angels, as evidenced by the place-holder character select screen?

Wrapped up around 1 or 2 in the morning, much earlier than expected. The only other comparable show was Heavenly Symphony, and everyone went home around 8am, the day of! Anyhow, it was also time for a late night snack, and thus I had my second taste of poutine. And? sorry Torontonians, I just don’t get the appeal.

When I said that the first (and only other) time I had the stuff wasn’t anything mind-blowing, Miguel and Christine took me to a place called Smokes that was supposedly the cream of the crop as it pertains to poutine. Again, wasn’t horrible per say, yet not entirely earth-shattering either.

Day 2

Day two was actually day one of COMICS VS GAMES. And, as also previously noted, it was a smash success, especially for a soft launch, on a Sunday no less! Time for some additional, Instragramed pics?

Due to a variety of reasons, I was not able to pre-promote as much as I would have liked. Night two was it downed on me that, trying to promote COMICS VS GAMES, plus maintain my normal output of freelance work, all while being sick away from home (fun-fact: Canadian over the counter meds are not as potent as the stuff in America, cuz we like everything super-sized and all), might mean a rather hellish week to come.

Believe it or not, at this point, I honestly thought I could still get my zine done in time for that following weekend! Anyhow, instead of going out and about (another fun-fact: everyone closes rather early in Toronto, especially on a Sunday), I just chilled at Miguel’s, where I not only got a chance to test drive his upcoming Xbox Indie game, also got to enjoy his massive Atari Lynx collection?

Was my very first chance to finally play around with the system and its games (I knew no one growing up who had one). Thankfully. Miguel had a TON of games to sample, as you can see above. The highlight was some Robocop rip-off, which had positively the most insane pre-game scrawl ever. Took plenty of screencaps and hope to make an animated gif eventually.

Days 3, 4, & 5

The following couple of days were as hellish as predicted. My routine was as followed: get up, take a shower, find a spot that had wifi so I could do work, and also handle COMICS VS GAMES promotions, plus medicate myself when necessary until evening time, often beyond. Even when I threw in the towel as it pertained to the zine, my workload was super taxing.

When I finally discovered that I had lost those aforementioned gigs, and the last one left was being scaled back (in the form of three emails, all delivered in span of an hour, no joke), never before had I so badly wanted to just craw into bed and wither away. Unfortunately, it was many miles away at that point.

So I had to keep on trucking. Tried finding a new place to handle business every single day, which at least afforded me the chance to explore Toronto. Wasn’t long before I became a fan of it’s street art, which simply gets points in my book for being non-pretentious?

I had also been told that Toronto was a music lover’s paradise, and the crazy number of record shops seemed to indicate that there was truth to such a sentiment?

A random Mr & Ms Pac-Man sighting?

And a random MJ sighting as well?

One day I passed by some place that had a bunch of robots in the front window?

Aside from my rather tepid response to poutine, I really loved the food in Toronto. Especially the Korean cuisine; it was so good that it actually got my angry. Angry that, in NYC, it costs literally four times as much for dishes that’s half as good.

Though I did have a bowl of ramen at some random Chinatown joint that was so bad that I was pissed about it for two solid days. Had foolishly assumed that Toronto Chinatown might somehow be better than NYC’s when it comes to Japanese cuisine. Was dead wrong. This pic is the only good to come from that abominable meal?

The Linux Cafe, alongside The Pinball Cafe, was one of my favorite places to work; practically single customer was a techie of some kind, either programmers or graphic designers. They really pushed it’s love for operating system, but not in an annoying way?

It was there in which I got yelled at by some crazy old person who I got a phone call. At a certain point, I really wanted to deck the guy, but quickly remembered: A. a young guy punching an elderly gentlemen might get me in some hot water, and B. a young American punching an elderly Canadian would DEFINITELY get me in trouble.

Fun-fact #3: MTV controls the Freemasons in Toronto?

Like I said, there was plenty of COMICS VS GAMES promotions to take care off, which included being interviewed by various Canadian television outfits?

And here we have the final piece from Electric Playground, where I make an appearance near the end. I rambled on like a complete idiot, so they did a bang up job making me sound semi-coherent. Also, please note once more that I was as sick as a dog that day.

It was around this point in which I decided to finally give up on getting FORT90ZINE4ANSWER done in time for TCAF later that weekend, and instead, finally enjoy my evenings. So here I am out with some drinks with Kris and Nathan from Capy, at their fave watering hole. And Jesus, can they pound the liquor! I was barely able to keep up?

Fun-fact #4: Kris is a hardcore Star Trek fan. Case in point, his bizarre Riker painting (be sure to observe the leg lamp from Christmas Story in the background)?

He also has this autographed CD from Brent Spiner. You know, Data?

Day 6

It was eventually show time: the COMICS VS GAMES closing party! As expected, things were kind of hairy behind the scenes: last minute final build of games to install, a storm that caused considerable headaches across the board (like for Steve, who was literally stuck at Newark Airport for many hours and ultimately couldn’t attend), and competing with the Canadian premier of Indie Game: The Movie across town.

Yet in the end, we were still the hottest ticket in town…

Was elated that both John and especially Dave enjoyed the games as much as they did. They have very particular tastes, which I can totally appreciate?

Here we have Lindsay Collins, who aside from being the only artist from the Attract Mode portion of the show to be in attendance, is also the only local artist to be included as well, along with her bf Mike, who is another all around super rad individual?

It’s Zack with Benjamin Marra, who is my new favorite creator in comics from the past year, without question?

Miguel and Dave and Steve Manale, the artist on We’re No Angels?

Back to Zack; he was kind enough to take some pics with his fancy pants camera! Here we have myself and Inez, one of the wonderful staff members of the Magic Pony?

It’s Mathew (on the right) and some folks, all trying to prepare for The Yawgh?

Black Church Brigandage was another game that was tweaked up until the very last minute, but all that work definitely paid off?

Someone brought a dog! UPDATE: Turns out, it’s Miguel’s sister Mara…

One of the win screens from We’re No Angels?

Steve enjoying himself?

Again, the evening was a MASSIVE success. Loads of people played some games, and even bought some art I’m happy to report! Thanks to everyone who stopped by and simply lent their support by spreading the word. And of course, congrats to all the artists for such an incredible effort; the city of Toronto sincerely appreciated it!!!

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