Maine Comics Arts Festival 2010

Above: CCS Student Jen Vaughn draws a caricature of a little girl at the 2010 Maine Comics Arts Festival.

A grand time was had at the second annual Maine Comics Arts Festival, which was held this past weekend. Hundreds of families walked through the Ocean Gateway in Portland, ME. The above ins NOT the Gateway, but a view from the building toward some tugs. Fog sat on the Portland bay for most of the day. About mid-day, it began to lift.

I shared a table with my inky pal Mark Anderson, who flew in from Chicago. (EDIT: Mark has posted some photos at his Andertoons blog here.) We each sold some of our cartoon books and chatted with the people who came to see the cartoonists. There were a lot of families, and a lot of people who were just curious to see what this was all about!



David Jacobson and Jeff Pert shared the table next to us. David, the only professional glassblower/cartoonist I have ever met (or am likely to) has a series of these glass word balloons with different words on them. Each one was hand-created and they are tough and durable and easy to mount on a wall. Everyone in NE knows Jeff Pert's iconic cartoons about lobsters and moose! He was doing brisk business with cartoon postcards, magnets and posters.

Local graphic novelist Ben Bishop with a big, Hollywood smile!

One of the sponsors of the show: Cap'n Eli's Soda! Locally made and smilingly poured by the above team. All day long there were free samples of their root beer and other flavors.

While I was talking to Jennifer and Matt, we all found out we live within 20 minutes of each other! Small frakkin' cartoony world! Jennifer draws Squarecat Comics. Matt works for a design firm in the Seacoast area.

Above: the one and only Chris Mills, a writer extraordinaire, I love his Space 1970 blog, which focuses on Sc Fi TV of the 1970s. Chris has a number of other blogs as well!

You get a good feel for the room in the above shot. There are a large bank of windows looking out onto the bay, so you feel connected to the sea and sky.

Henniker, NH cartoonist Marek Bennett strikes a thoughtful pose. Whatever he's thinking about, you can bet it's something having to do with comics! I own one of those shirts behind Marek!

And, coming in from Queens, New Yawk, is the dynamic duo of Raina Telgemeier and Dave Roman, making their first appearance at MECAF.

Brian Codagnone and Barry Corbett with their books. They came up from the Boston area. They were at the table next to us.

Oh, and as for me and Mark Anderson ...

I had a table there, with my pal Mark Anderson. Here he is during an afternoon lull, checking his voicemail or something with his iPhone. Mark also had his iPad with him and showed me some cartoons he had drawn on it. Yes, the iPad is cool. Even cooler when he showed me some Batman cartoons on it.

We had a great time and while I can't speak for anyone else, I did many times the business I did the year before. It was great to meet so many kids and adults who love cartooning. It was terrific to meet a couple of people who make read this and make this here cartoon blog a regular stop. Very kind of you to say hello. And it was great to see Colin Tedford (thanks for your mini!) , Jeff Lok, John Platt (ditto), Lenny Boudreau, and other people -- I am sorry there were a lot and I know I'm forgetting names!