October 2019 - Stephanie Cooke

I love Halloween dearly. I don’t remember it always being this way but somewhere along the way, the holiday turned into something delightful and magical for me. Maybe it was that when I was a kid, I was at the mercy of my mother’s costuming abilities (which were actually pretty great…) and as an adult, I can do whatever I may want. Even do more than one costume in the season if I choose to.

This year I had the idea to dress up as Toronto’s unofficial mascot – an idea brought on by my personal adventures with the adorable trash fiends. Over the last two summers, young raccoons have gotten stuck in the bottom of my trash bins when they’re empty post-garbage day. I’ve been late to work a couple times trying to help my trash babies out of the bins and get them on their way back to their mommas.

If you’ll indulge me for a moment more, I thought I’d talk about the making of my costume since a few people have asked, in the wake of BlogTO, CTV, and other places posting up my photo.

A few weeks ago when the idea came to me, I set out and bought a garbage bin from Home Depot. I don’t know what I was thinking when I bought an extra durable Rubbermaid one (it was very hard to cut), but after a couple weeks of trying to cut through the bottom so that I could stand in it, I was finally able to. A combo of scissors and a sharp exacto knife got the job done.

From there, I measured and made four holes in the top part of the bin to create suspenders to hold it up on my shoulders. I used garbage bags to create the suspenders – it seemed apt. I put two holes in the lid of the bin as well at the sides and then strung a garbage bag across that too to turn it into a sort of hat.

And then from there, I made a stencil of the City of Toronto logo that’s on the official garbage bins, and I painted it on the front of my bin. I used cheap Dollarama paint so it bled a little bit but once it dried, I cleaned it up with a Sharpie.

I wish I could claim that I made the mask and gloves but in reality, I got the mask from an art store (Midoco), and I bought the faux fur gloves from Spirit Halloween (they’re technically “wolf paws”). Then I just wore a grey sweater to tie it all together.

Thanks again to BlogTO, and CTV who featured my costume after I wore it out to the ROM on Friday night for their Wicked event. You can check out the BlogTO pieces here and here. You can see screencaps of the CTV feature here or watch this video at the 39 min mark.

Over the weekend, I had the privilege of attending MCX (Mississauga Comic Expo) at the Mississauga Central Library where I had a booth set up for Creator Resource, and I was the Noel Ryan Auditorium moderator for the day.

My friend Tate came with me to help watch the Creator Resource booth and I spent the majority of the day talking to amazing comic creators on the respective panels that I helped to guide.

My first panel of the day was a Sketch Challenge with Shay Hahn, Adam Gorham, Zi Chen, and Shamayal Hayat. They were asked to draw Korra from The Legend of Korra. I wish I had thought to take photos of the amazing drawings but I was not that awake at that point. We had lots of great questions from kiddos in the audience and the 30 mins for the drawings went by really quick. In the end, we gave away the drawings to some lucky folks in the crowd.

Next up I had the distinct pleasure of hosting the Creator Spotlight with Marcus To and Caitlin Major. This was the panel I was most anxious about and did the majority of my pre-convention prep for. I don’t know why I was so anxious though (lol jk I’m always anxious, that’s why) because Marcus and Caitlin were delightful. We had a great conversation about their works, their processes, and about things that they love.

And when it came time to take questions from the audience, we had a wonderful kiddo raise their hand and with the utmost seriousness asked, “Why is Dumbledore SO old?!” to the panelists.

We had a little chat after the panel, and I felt silly for having been anxious in the lead up to it (but we can’t turn our anxieties off…)

After that, I chatted with Megan Huang, Jamal Campbell, and Paris Alleyne in the Behind the Comics panel which was focused on the artists’ digital process for their works. Each artist hooked up their tablet to the overhead projector and showed their works to the audience. We asked questions about their processes, and then opened things up to the audience for them to ask their questions.

Last but not least, I had the final panel of the day which was the second Sketch Challenge with Brenna Baines, Te’ Shawn Dwyer, Joy San, Casey Parsons. For this challenge, we asked the audience for four different ideas and then the artists could choose from those four things what they wanted to draw. You can see parts of the panel here:

And that was the show for me! I got to spend some time with great people, and caught up with some friends (shout out to Jey and Michelle). And I guess I technically got to get out of the city for a little bit – even if it was just to Mississauga.

MCX is a wonderful library show that’s free for attendees, and is a small but great experience. I highly recommend checking it out next time, and making sure to support the organizers, as well as the folks who table at the show and help make it as fun as it is.