This last week has been one happy blur.
Photobooth: A Biography officially launched on May 8th at the Drawn & Quarterly store here in Montreal (thanks to them for hosting!) I was quite sick leading up the the event and may have told my sister "I think I'm dying" that very morning. But all in all the launch, which was for Conundrum Press authors went smoothly.
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| Photo by Louis Rastelli |
I really enjoy chatting to people while signing books. Everyone's got a story that has to do with photobooths. At the events in both Toronto and Montreal I was delightfully surprised to meet some people from the photobooth community for the first time. Here I am with photobooth fan, Carolina.
Conundrum Press may have had the best table location at the Toronto Comics Arts Festival (TCAF) which happened on May 10th and 11th. Being right at the entrance, I bumped into many friends from the days when I lived in Toronto. The weekend was of course tiring but so much fun! Here I am with Joe Ollmann and Dakota McFadzean, doing the signature Conundrum Press arm crossing technique.
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| Photo by Andy Brown |
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| Photo taken by my dad, Kevin. |
I'm one lucky lady. My parents, two aunts and my grandmother all came to Toronto to support me. (They flew from Edmonton and Saskatoon!) My brother, Tiegh and sister, Eryn also came to route me on. I was still recovering from being "deathly" ill, so it was especially nice to have my family there to help out. Here's my mom on the left, my aunty Annette beside her and my grandma on the right. (I somehow didn't get a picture of my aunty Suzanne who was also there.)
On the Sunday I spoke on a panel for Non-Fiction and History Comics. It was moderated by Brigid Alverson, who really knows her stuff. I was flattered to included amongst many great authors. It was really fun, even if I sounded nervous! You can listen to the audio from it here.
http://www.thecomicbooks.com/Audio/2014-05-11-TCAF-HistoryNonFictionComics.mp3 (Thanks to Jamie Coville for recording it!)
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| Photo by my sister Eryn. I talk with my hands. |
Another high point was getting to meet Jillian Tamaki and thanking her in person for writing a blurb endorsing my book last July. The blurb helped the book get some attention and it gave me a much needed ego boost, as Jillian's been one of my long time idols.
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| Photo taken by my proud grandma, Doris. |
TCAF was a huge success, by mid-Sunday we sold out of all of the copies of my book. Thanks to my friends, family and members of the photobooth community who showed up! Also a huge thanks to Andy Brown, the mastermind behind Conundrum Press.
Around the same time as the launches, a few interviews and reviews have come out. So far all the press has been really positive and supportive! Thanks to everyone who's read it and reviewed it! You can read them here:
Fun Interview- Open Book Toronto
Thorough Review- Dominic Umile
Mini-Review + Interview- Cult Magazine
If you're interested in buying the book, you can call your local bookstore and ask if they're stocking it. If you'd like a signed and personally inscribed copy, you can buy it directly from me at my
Etsy shop. I'll also be doing signing at events in Chicago, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Halifax, Calgary, Banff and Brooklyn (in that order, I know, it's a weird tour route) and I'll happily sign copies then. More details and dates for those will come soon.
The following weekend, June 6-8 is the International Photobooth Convention (IPC) hosted at A&A Studios. I'm one of the organizers for this year's convention and I'm really excited for all the programming we've put together. There's a good balance of events for photobooth artists, technicians, vintage photo collectors and for the general public too, who just like to have their pictures taken in these wonderful machines! 
