The castle lights are dim indeed while I wind down from this year’s Festival of Fear, Rue Morgue’s annual convention held within FanExpo at the Toronto Metro Convention centre. It was amazing meeting everyone, especially all the artists, friends old and new who dropped by the booth to say hi, grab a print or chew up a storm talking shop. I also have to thank my wife Nicole for all her help prepping for the show. She took care of a ton of the prep work for the show while I was at work last week. I also have to thank my ghoulish volunteers: my awesome sister-in-law Shannon Williams, Jason “Look What Your Brother Did To the Door” Pullin, his lovely gal Dana Bruchette and Aaron “Zuckuss Voorhees” Beam. I threw them the key’s to the mote on Saturday while Nicole and I spent a day out of town at my good friend’s Susan and Jeff’s wedding. It was a nice break from the infamous Saturday insanity and I always have the greatest times with my friends from college. Sue and Jeff, we were honoured to be apart of your big weekend!
On Thursday evening at 8pm on August 25th, I hosted my very first panel called The Horror Artists Workshop. Thankfully, we were supremely fortunate to get into the room good and early to investigate the hook-ups for a smooth experience. Nicole used a great powerpoint program called Prezi and we put together a presentation, talking about some industry insights, some fun do’s and don’ts of design and a step by step demonstration behind my illustration process on RM’s issue #110’s Hobo With A Shotgun cover. I wasn’t sure what to expect but there was a really great turn-out and the Q & A went on far longer than expected. Again, thanks to everyone who came out, it’s as inspiring to meet all of you.
Friday was a busy blur. At 4pm that day, I was enjoying my time at the ECW booth signing Encyclopedia Gothica posters to promote author Liisa Ladouceur’s upcoming book. People also got a sneak peek at some of the illustrations appearing within. Sadly, I missed the Robert Englund screening of my favourite sequel to the series, A Nightmare on Elm Street III at the Toronto Underground Cinema in favour of grabbing some dinner for my crew and resting briefly before the next chapter that evening: Ghoultown live at the Courthouse. The band’s acoustic set the place ablaze and it was a great ending to an already epic day.
When we were back from the wedding at the con on Sunday morning, I looked up from my booth and noticed a beaming Guillermo del Toro standing in front of me! We spent some time catching up and he asked me on two separate occasions when I was going to have my own art book. To my shock and awe he even offered to write something for it. Now are any publisher’s interested?! Here’s a couple of pics from his visit. Guillermo with my American Werewolf print he took home with him and a pic with RM’s graphic designer and Phantom City’s Justin Erickson, Paige Reynolds, del Toro, my wife Nicole Pullin and RM’s managing editor Monica S. Kuebler.
My American Werewolf print was also popular with Mr. Tom Savini. My booth was situated right beside him and he traded me some Savini-goods and took home a print too!
There’s still a ton of stuff I want to post but today is supposed to be a day of rest before we kamikaze head first back into production over the next two weeks on RM’s double Halloween issue. I thank each and everyone again who dropped by my booth and panel. It was great meeting people at all the events and I hope everyone had a great experience at this years show. We sure did!