London Studio Tour

I am happy to say that this year I've been accepted into the juried London (ont) Studio Tour. The tour has been operating for (I believe) over 20 years now in London and provides Londoners with the opportunity to visit the working environments of local artists, learn about their creative process, meet the artists, and purchase some original art!

The tour is self-guided and the artists work in a variety of mediums such as drawing, painting, printmaking, stained glass, ceramics, sculpture and woodworking. I have attended a number of years and have always really enjoyed it. It's pretty casual, very well-attended and free. The artists always seem to be happy to have so many people looking at their stuff.

I will have some of my comic work on display, including pages from my Gerald Bull project, as well as some landscapes in pen and ink and oil pastels for sale. Below is a Muskoka drawing I recently finished for the show.


This is the first time a comic artist has participated in the tour and I am anxious to see what people think. I plan on doing up hand-outs of my comic process as I find people are generally curious as to how a page goes from script, to original art, to its final printed form.

• Here the link for the official London Studio Tour website, which has a pdf of the brochure that shows the location of each artist's studio, as well as a bio for each artist.
• The tour takes place from Friday, May 1st - Sunday, May 3rd.

Watchmen - By the Pool

How big is the Watchmen phenomenon? How about this - a few weeks ago we went on a family vacation to a small Mexican island off of Cancun called "Isla Mujeres". The island is reached by ferry and is just 4.5 miles long. It's still a working fishing village, and there are no American restaurants chains there (yet).

Sitting around by the pool, what did I see but this startling sight:

A woman reading the graphic novel casually by the pool! In all of my vacationing days I have never seen a guy (who wasn't my husband or brother-in-law), reading a graphic novel by the pool or on the beach, much less a gal. I had to have Dave and Rosie pose in the pool nearby so I could get a photo of it. She then proceeded to have this conversation with her guy friend:

Girl: Have you ever read a graphic novel?
Guy: No.
Girl: They're good you know. They are a bit confusing to read at first, but once you get the hang of it, it's fine.
Guy: I don't know if I would like any of them. I've heard of that one you're reading though.
Girl: Well, Gary has been reallly raving about this book forever. He bought it when it came out like in the 80s or something. Anyway, I was curious about it and he got it for me for Christmas. It's good, and the movie is coming out on March 6th.

Me eavesdropping in background while wearing my Black Freighter baseball hat I got off of eBay (no joke) - "It is, I didn't even have that date memorized! That's coming up soon!

Girl: Anyway, this is good. I've read a couple of other graphic novels too. I've read V for Vendetta, and the Dark Knight. There's just one more I'm interested in reading though - it's called Preacher.
Guy: Hmmm. Never heard of it. Want to get some lunch?
Girl: Sounds good. Is it too early for a margarita?

If I hadn't have witnessed this scene, myself, I would have never have believed it. It's some kind of sign of the Apocalypse or something....

Don't tell me that movies don't have an impact on graphic novel sales. This is proof positive!