Parker Halifax book launch! Awesome!!

we interrupt the usual blatherings by me to bring you this report:

Thursday August 6 Cal and the gang at Strange Adventures hosted the Halifax launch of The Hunter. It was stellar. There was a great turnout and I think everyone had fun. We had a great time.

Darwyn and I live in the middle of nowhere, so any evening trip into the city is a hassle, but Cal took care of everything and booked us a pet friendly hotel. We arrived at our swanking room with pooches in tow, brought them for a little walk around Citadel Hill and then made our way to the party. You might recognize one of these pooches from Wednesday Comics issue 1.



Tiina and Rachelle booked us into a place that was hotter than Hades, but that just made for more drinking and less clothing. The Frigate looks like a ship inside, with full masts and sails, with a large mural of Halifax Harbour. They didn't have air conditioning in 1813 so neither does the Frigate. Cal was stylin' as usual and there was even a special guest appearance by fellow Haligonian Steve McNiven. Yeah that guy. He and Darwyn don't get to see each other much - Marvel makes Steve work 20 hours days or something. Steve didn't stay long - back to the drawing board for him.



The evening started off slowly, with people melting into seats and after a little while the beer kicked in and people were getting to know each other. Darwyn mingled and tried to talk to everyone for a bit, then he got to the signing. People were coming up with multiple copies, copies for friends that were away, or for gifts. Hooray! Cal did a limited edition bookplate (which you can order from Strange Adventures) Tiina and Dave set up shop with debit even! Well done team! Wow I like exclamation marks! Special mention goes to Rachelle from livingbetweenwednesdays.com who was supposed to co-host the evening and did help organize it but was ill and couldn't make it last night. I think she went to the AC/DC concert instead but who is to say......Get well soon, you were missed.


Earlier in the day I had read on the twitter that Faith Erin Hicks (@smuu) was nervous about meeting Darwyn so I, of course, called her on it when she shyly came up to have her book signed. War at Ellsmere is one of my favourite books so I think of her as a famous comic artist. It's great for teenage girls (let's say 11 and up). Totally my reading level. I don't see a lot comics that girls can read that aren't stupid. Most young people I know are girls so Faith (and Hope Larson) are staples at my house. You can add some of their work to your order from Strange Adventures too LOL. Throw in a copy of Last Resort, that's an awesome comic by Palmiotti/Gray and a cool artist who's name I don't know. There are boobies so not for kids.

After all the books were signed we did the drawing for the door prizes - copies of the Parker sketch book. I got to do the draw and strangely enough mostly people I knew won. I didn't cheat but it was odd. Darwyn then handed out more prizes - advance reader copies of The Hunter, some Parker-T-shirts and some more art books. Darwyn says the funnest part of the night for him was having multiple women fanning him as he drew.

We stuck around for about an hour afterwards, chatting with everyone and teasing Ben (two-tone) and his super awesome girlfriend. We met Laura Kenins from The Coast who had just written a nice article about Darwyn - the ONLY Canadian newspaper to cover the book at all! The night drew to a close just as the temperature was getting tolerable, we walked back to the hotel, grabbed the ladies for a short walk and then ordered pizza. All in all, a great night was had.

Thanks again to Cal, Tiina, Rachelle, Dave and everyone else who helped out, everyone who showed up last night AND most of all thanks to everyone who has supported the book so far.

over and out
Marsha
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we now return you to your regularly scheduled programme.....

Next week! The winners of the Draw Parker contest!
Have a great weekend and read more comics!