On Saturday I headed out to Mississauga with the lovely Tory Woollcott and Andrew Wheeler to attend MCX – the Mississauga Comic Expo. I had never attended before but one of the organizers is Jason Loo, who is a fabulous comics creator in the Toronto area. The con takes place in a library (the Mississauga Central Librady) and has a similar model to TCAF. It’s free to attendees, has a strong program for kids, and is overall a friendly and not-so-intimidating place to learn and get into some comic books (and art, etc.)I’m getting really awful at not taking any photos at these things I’m doing but OH WELL. You can say that I’m living in the moment or something along those lines.
Anyways, I moderated two panels: one was a creator spotlight on Tory Woollcott and Adam Gorham. I’ve known Adam for years so even though the panel was originally meant to have Ramon Perez on it, I didn’t mind at all that Adam was swapped into it. Tory and I had only met for the first time that morning but we got along wonderfully so the panel was fun, flowed well, and was just an overall great time. Plus we learned about what stance the creators took on the important issue of pineapple on pizza – does it belong there or naaaaah? (spoilers: everyone said that pineapple is great on pizza which reaffirmed that Tory and Adam are great people)
Immediately following that panel, I was moderating a sketch challenge where four artists came on stage to do a drawing in front of an audience. I got the opportunity to chat with Brenna Baines, Emmanuelle Châteauneuf, Jahnoy Lindsay, and Jamal Campbell who were absolute delights.
The audience was primarily kids so I ran around the auditorium getting their questions for the panelists to answer. The panel only ran for 20 or so minutes so that the artists weren’t drawing for too long and to keep the audience interested (again, they were mostly kids). It was a really great crowd though and I had a blast chatting with both the kids and the panelists as they answered questions and hung out.
I didn’t really get out to explore the show much which I feel guilty about. I mostly stuck to my booth outside of the panels and chatted with new pal, Tory. Since I was repping Creator Resource, I wanted to help answer questions for anyone who might want to know more about the industry and be available to guide people.
We had several passionate people come to the table, eager to learn. I really hope I was able to assist them in some way.
The bottom line here was that MCX was a wonderful show with an excellent team of volunteers. I’m hoping I get the chance to go back next year for more panels, to hang out with cool creators (and fans!), and to just be a part of it.