Volunteering at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival was a great experience — really friendly and relaxed, with lots of support and appreciation from the event’s organizers, exhibitors, and guests.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I was a bit worried about doing something new that I knew nothing about, but discovered that being a generally confident grown-up goes a long way. I felt totally at ease — although some of the details and duties were left to us to figure out on the fly, as in:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
“Where’s Room [Mysterious Letter-Number Combination]<\/em>?”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n “Do you know where [Comic Artist I’ve Never Heard Of But is Probably Way Famous]<\/em> is doing their signing?”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n “I have no idea. Let me look it up in the guide [which you also have in your hand and could look up as easily as I can].”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n All it took was being one step ahead of the guests — delivering a bit of patter all the while, of course.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n And I discovered endless reserves of banter: until the after-party last night, where suddenly I found myself in a dark wooden-floored room with flashing lights and loud music, and spun back to those horrible grade-school dance afternoons or my nights as a single person. Everyone was chatting with their group, and I suddenly felt totally out of place. So I went home.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Over the weekend, though, I did get to speak with a few artists I’ve long admired, who inspired me to get back into cartooning (like Boulet<\/a>, Dustin Harbin<\/a>, and Dan Berry<\/a>). It felt great to credit them, to their faces, with giving me the chance to make a living doing this thing I’ve always loved.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n