Today I went down with Amy and her sister to check out Word On the Street, a festival in downtown Toronto. I can’t really explain what it is like, except that it’s sort of like Anime North but with more refinement, no cosplayers, and books as opposed to manga. I went mainly to listen to a panel discussion involving Ryan North (from Dinosaur Comics) and a bunch of other webcomic writers. That was at 5 o’ clock until 6 but I arrived extra early. Amy wanted to hear a reading of “An Imperfect Offering” by James Orbinski (reading material for her PoliSci course) which was at 12:30. I found em after a bit of searching around just outside Queen’s Park.
The day was quite delightful, walking around talking mostly and getting to know her sister, Lynn. She was very shy at the start but was playing with my hair by the end of the day. Strange little girl (who has forearms approximately the same thickness as Amy, her elder sister of ten years). I thought having a young child in tow would be slightly dampening on any mushy fun we might have, but as the day went on it was clear that she actually added an interesting and altogether enjoyable dynamic to the date.
Anyway, meeting Ryan North (again) was neat. No photo this time, but I did have an actual conversation with him. That, and with one of his other webcomic authoring buddies. In the panel, they discussed lots of things to do with webcomic writing as well as giving commentary on broader aspects of society as well. I had a great time because, as is to be expected, comic writers are comic people. I do believe today was well worth the long bus ride down and rush to get back into Loo after. Thanks Amy!