Colin Tedford dot com

It’s Thanksgiving! Time to dust off the Thanksgiving comics. Remember how the European colonists thanked the Indians for helping them survive — by killing and stealing from them? Let’s try to express our gratitude more appropriately than that.

I met “Weird Al” Yankovic! I’m the one in green looking like a dazed sweathog; my friend Keith (in red) more visibly reflects my delight in this picture. I think Al looks pretty pleased to meet us

For better or worse Weird Al is one of my formative influences, so it was a thrill to finally see him in concert and meet him (even after a long day of travel and art fair tabling and half a week of short sleep, and even for just a quick greet / sign / photo). Of course I gave him a comic, ’cause that’s what I do.

Had a nice time at MeCAF: had good conversations with old & new acquaintances (including two nonfiction-makers), acquired what looks so far like a pretty good bunch of comics, and enjoyed Portland and its surroundings. Sales were a little lower than I’d expect from such a show but were OK (which is normal for MeCAF). Vampire Pickle magnets were popular. I didn’t bother to meet special guest Jeff Smith because I knew the line would be huge and I’d nothing to say beyond “I really liked Bone!” — but he ended up next to me at the night-before reception saying, “Hi, I’m Jeff; who are you?” so I had a nice little chat with him (OMGHBBBLL). He seems quite friendly and nice.

Feedback on my work at the show included: Some laughter at the humor (a nice perk of working in a genre meant to provoke an involuntary reaction). One fellow cartoonist said my drawing style reminded them of Quentin Blake and another said the history bits in Square Dance reminded them of Hark! A Vagrant; both nice to hear, though I don’t mistake “reminds me of” for “is as good as”. Best of all was a description of a piece as “well-timed” from an accomplished cartoonist whose fine qualities include superb timing.