Le Raton-laveur

Here is the next in my line of thrift store wildlife postcards.

The Raccoon can be found in most areas of Canada. They range in sizes as small as 5 to 8 lbs and as large as 30 lbs. They are easily recognized by the blacking markings on their face and their bushy tail.

If The Great Outdoors starring John Candy and Dan Akroyd taught me anything it's that the Raccoon is Mother Nature's adorable garbage loving prankster. Also, don't even think about trying to eat a 96 oz steak.

Now that I'm thinking about it, I don't think I've ever seen a raccoon in the wild. I guess maybe we must have them around Cranbrook, but I've never seen one. For some reason I think they'd be all over the West Kootenays/Kootenay Lake. I think I'll have to put "See a raccoon in the wild" on my bucket list.

Day 2

I was kind of dreading going back to the comic expo today only because we spent so much time waiting in line on Saturday. Today we went a little earlier and there was absolutely nobody in line and we just walked right on inside. There were a fewer people inside too, but only because it was still early, it would get busier later on.

Yesterday I went and saw Mark Walton aka Rhino aka the hamster from Disney's Bolt and him to sign not one but two Blu Ray covers. One was mine and the other was going to Logan and Avery. He is mainly a storyboard artist for Disney, but they used him to do some voice work early in production and decided he was so damn good that he got the part.

I went back to bother Bryan Lee O'Malley and Hope Larson (they're married) again, this time I got Bryan to sign more Scott Pilgrim stuff and bought a page of original art. This guy was in front of me buying art and he got the page that I wanted. As he was leaving he was saying he might come back and get more and there was one page he wanted, but soon as he left I was like "I'll take that page!" Sorry chump! I also got another sketch from Bryan, but I forgot my paper at home because you had to bring your own paper. I ended up "borrowing" a piece from Fiona Staples.

Yes, I got a picture of a cat. Then I went over to Hope Larson and got her book Chiggers signed, but forgot to get another book signed by her. Oops. O'Malley commented on how he liked my t-shirt which is the brown one with the BC logo on it and he liked my bag too. I never knew I was so cool.

Next was over to Sean "Cheeks" Galloway who is mostly noted for doing the character designs on the Hellboy animated movies and the new Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon series as well as comic book work. I picked up his art book, Spread the Cheeks, and got a quickie Peter Parker/Spider-Man head sketch in the back.

I went to Frank Cho's table who is well known for drawing sexy girlies. I got a few comics signed by him and bought his art book Jungle Queens.

I went over to the Udon table and got artist Jo Chen to sign a few things and I got a small print and over to Joe Ng to sign my Street Fighter IV comic. I was "on the fence" on whether or not to get a Udon's Art of Street Fighter book of the Street Fighter Tribute book. Even though the Art of Street Fighter book had tons of sweet stuff I went with the SF Tribute because it's 300 artists doing whatever they wanted with the SF characters. It was nice to see so many different styles and interpretations in one book. I got it signed by a couple guys at the Udon booth and a few other guys in the book were at the show like Cheeks, Mark Brooks, Scott Hepburn and back again to Bryan Lee O'Malley.

On Saturday I went up to Yanick Paquette's table to get him to sign some stuff for me when I realized that I forgot to bring to his books. I then told him I forgot his stuff and he looked at me like was I was idiot. I returned today with the books, and only slightly redeemed myself.

All the while I was going around I was also getting my Calgary Comic Expo art book signed by contributors. Proceeds from the western themed book and auction of the original art go to charity or something. I didn't get everyone who contributed to the book to sign because I'm not that motivated.

And that was it! As you can see I didn't even buy a single comic book, but I still managed to spend a lot of money. I got the stuff signed that I wanted to...almost! I got home and realized to forgot to go to Terry Moore's table. Saturday was pretty busy and annoying, but Sunday was better. People were in costume, some good and some horrible. I saw a girl dressed as Crimson Viper from the new SF IV game. She wasn't a bosomy as her video game counter part, but still kinda hot. I also saw this little kid dressed as Rorschach from Watchmen. His mask was pretty cool, but he still looked a little creepy. Cody was very disorganized and I was like you should've brought for her to sign and you should've brought that for him to sign. Get your sh!t together! Next year he says he is only going for one day and not two which is cool because he was only holding me back.

Day 1

Here is a quick recap of day one at the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo told most pictures of stuff I got signed and spent my money on. The most difficult part of the show was actually getting inside the damn thing as we spent almost an hour waiting in line to get in despite having pre-bought our tickets. Not very convenient! The line up just kept going and going and going and pretty much stretched from one end of the Round Up Centre to the other end, it was totally ridiculous. By the time we got inside I already tired and my back was hurting from standing around so long.

Once inside the first table I hit up was Bryan Lee O'Malley and Hope Larson. I got a bunch of Pilgrim stuff signed Bryan and sketch which was totally free! I bought a book from Hope Larson and she commented that she liked my t-shirt which was my 70's CBC logo shirt.

That is the aforementioned free Scott Pilgrim sketch. I had to provide the paper and then busted it out in like 30 seconds but you'd never know it. Look at the detail!

After that I went Michael Golden's booth to get a few comics signed like The Nam, Star Wars, and Jackie Chan's Spartan X. I really liked the Spartan X comic but it was canceled before the storyline even wrapped up, but the good news now is that it may see print again in graphic novel form, so here's hoping! I also bought a hardcover Michael Golden sketchbook.

Next it was over to local artist Fiona Staples' table to get some stuff signed. I also got her to do a sketch. I didn't really give her anything specific to draw, so she did like a viking chick Valkyrie thing.

After wandering around looking at all the other tables and stuff for sale I stopped by Matt Stewart's table to get his artbook signed. Last year I bought Vol 1 from him and bought Vol 2 online when it came out, so I had to get it signed.

By now the crowds were getting pretty bad and certain areas were almost impassable. I kept seeing things and then couldn't find my way back to them to look at stuff again. I didn't actually buy any comics but I picked up a hardcover edition of the Kevin Smith penned Spider-Man/Black miniseries for $10. I also got a Mark Brooks sketchbook and a Hulk print from Scott Hepburn.

It is too light to see, but the Hulk print is signed and numbered in pencil at the bottom of the page at 9 of 20. I asked Scott to signed it and he was like "It's already signed." but I was like "Yeah, I need it double signed!" You can't see the pencil that well and if someone was really mean they might erase it. Now he thinks I'm idiot.

I also visited writer Ray Fawkes to get my Apocalystix signed. Turns out he not only writes but also draws and paints on the side. He prefers writing so none of his artwork has been professionally published but he does sell little watercolor paintings that look pretty sweet and I got a roller girls mini artbook called Derby Girls.

That's pretty much it. I've actually got more comics to take tomorrow to get signed and I've got my eye on a few more things I might get, mostly sketches. We will see what the crowds are like because my parents will be in town in the afternoon, so I can't spend all day there. Laters.

Time for a Dirtnap

Not that anyone ever listens to it, but I've finally gotten around to changing the music on the music player, so now you don't don't have an excuse not to listen to it. This time I've upped the song count to five and they are all bands on Dirtnap Records out of Portland, Oregon. I guess they all have a similar sounds which is good because they all rock! I didn't bother with a song title and just went with the band name. The hardest part was coming with the the "Time for a Dirtnap" line because I also wanted to use "Take a Dirtnap" but in the end they are both equally confusing and don't make any sense.

P-Dog

As a follow up to the Canadian Pika postcard I present to you the next in the series, the Prairie Dog.

If you've ever driven down a prairie highway (or any highway for that matter) in the summer then you've no doubt seen these guys squished along side it. They're attracted to car tires like flies to garbage. I was tempted to make a crack about flies also being attracted to dead prairie dogs, but that's pretty much implied. The postcard is from the same company that did the pika postcard.

Prairie Dogs - Found almost anywhere in Western Canada, these small rodents sound alarm with a piercing chirp that alerts the colony to take cover as danger nears.

Countdown

It's almost that time of year and next weekend is the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo. I've been looking forward to this since last year's show, but only because Bryan Lee O'Malley was supposed to be there, but had to cancel and promised he's be there this year. I've said it before it, but you didn't listen but try and read his Scott Pilgrim books. They're cool and funny and Canadian. Or you just wait for the movie which is currently in production in Toronto with Edgar Wright directing. Check out the official movie site with weekly video blogs from Edgar and Edgar Wright Here a page where he post a picture a day from the movie. On Edgar Wright Here a few weeks ago there was a picture of Chris Murphy looking very grumpy.

I'm also going to see lots of other people like Mike Allred, Frank Cho, Michael Golden, Ray Fawkes, Herb Trimpe and Yanick Paquette. Plus Gavin Blair will be there, he's the co-creator of Reboot and the guy who did the voice of Rhino in Disney's Bolt. I plan on getting him to sign a DVD for Logan and Avery. They're also bringing back Ray Park aka Darth Maul aka Snake Eyes in the new G.I. Joe movie. For some reason I don't understand they are also going to have the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld there. I wonder if he'll sign a can of soup? Oh and if you love Baywatch then Erika Eleniak will be there too. I keep forgetting she is actually lives here in Calgary.

So this time next week you'll probably be reading about all the comics I got signed and stuff I bought. It'll probably be too much stuff to post, so I'll just write about the really really cool stuff.

Mighty Atom!

The other day I was watching EP Daily while at home for my lunch break. As the end credits rolled they showed the teaser trailer for the new Astro Boy movie. Wait...what?! An Astro Boy CG movie? I remember reading online many times over the years about Astro Boy movies that were planned, but nothing ever happened with them, but it looks like somebody finally delivered.

Visit the official Astro Boy movie website to watch the two teaser trailers, see pictures and get movie info. Don't worry Cam you can watch the trailers in HD too. It looks pretty slick, but unfortunately we'll have to wait until October 23, 2009. That is so far away, but we've been waiting this long, so it's nice to know the movie will actually come out. This also means we might be getting some cool Astro Boy merch, but it won't be as cool as anything from Japan.

Noooo!!

Well, I got my 2008 income taxes done and for the first time ever I have to pay income tax! I should be getting money back, not paying it. I'm poor and live in the projects, so why am I having to pay income tax? I should probably have looked at my T4 as I made a lot more than I thought I did. I was looking at my income tax sheet where it said my taxable income and I was like "I made how much?!" I didn't think that was even possible at my job. It could be worse, I could have to pay more than the $5.16 that I have to, but even that still sucks.

The best for last

Okay, here is the last piece of thrift store junk I picked up when I was back in Cranbrook. I got it at the Salvation Army and it's the best yet.

Quit rubbing your eyes because yes you are looking at a Graham Townsend record. This guy has got mad fiddle skillz winning numerous awards like a Juno, Porcupine Award(?) and the World Novelty Fiddle Championship three years in a row. He has even been inducted in the US Fiddlers Hall of Fame AND the Canadian National Fiddlers Hall of Fame. If there is any kind of award or honor for fiddlin' then this dude already has it.

Of course all that don't mean crap to me, but that album cover is hilarious, why do you think I bought it! That suit is insane and I nearly die from laughter every time I see that picture of him hopping on the fiddle like it's pogo stick. That is 50 cents well spent, but I did end up leaving in Cranbrook. I might bring it back just so I can buy a LP frame and hang that thing on my wall. It is classic.

DON'T DO IT!

Mug Shot

I know I said I would show you guys some junk I picked up at the Cranbrook thrift stores and I'm finally getting around to it. I picked these goodies up at the Hospital Auxiliary thrift store. Ever since shopping at the thrift store became hip the Hospital Auxiliary is nowhere near as cool as it used to be, but it's still my favorite.

When I was back I picked up the BC Forest Service mug which goes nicely with my BC Fisheries mug which I also picked up at the Hospital Auxiliary last time I back. I have tons of funny/weird/retro cups, glasses, and mugs but I don't actually use any of them. If I want something to drink then I'll drink it straight out of the carton. No sense is getting a cup dirty for some juice because then I'll just have to wash it. I should cut back on thrift store cups, I do have two entire boxes filled with nothing but tiki glasses.

But that's not all, I also got postcards! They had a basket full of postcards and I grabbed the ones that looked the neatest. I got some Canadian wildlife ones, Cranbrook clock tower and some with Japanese castles on them. They also had some Mr. Rogers postcards in there, but I got one once before and I posted it on here. I think I put a picture of it up, if not let me know because it's awesome.

Click picture for super mega jumbo version

The Pika postcard was my favorite because they're cute and funny looking. Go hiking anywhere in the mountains around Cranbrook and you'll run into these critters. The back of the postcard also has a brief description about the Canadian Pika.

Pika - A member of the rabbit family - these cute little animals can be found in mountain terrain thoughout Western Canada.

I did say it was a brief description. The postcards were priced at 25 cents each, but they lady only charged me 50 cents because nobody ever buys any. Lucky for me because I had about twelve of them. The Pika postcard is pretty cool, but I've saved the coolest for last. See ya next time.