mocca 2005 trip
by bryan lee o'malley

22 hour drive with chris & andrew (halifax to toronto)


chris & andrew are angels!


a bar somewhere in quebec -- "the western lighthouse"? images of deserts and cowboys and lighthouses!


some crazy sign we saw in montreal


drawn & quarterly's offices, in a lovely building in a spooky neighbourhood


alternate angle on the d&q offices


chris at the d&q window


chris & andrew in d&q land


d&q rolodex (i didn't flip through it or anything)


julie doucet's sketchbook, which d&q are publishing. it is tiny, and the drawings and writings are all immaculate, straight to pen with some collage paste-up work.


later that evening, we got back to toronto. toronto is best on summer nights.


in a cafe in korea town. jason, patrick, andrew, jerry. i took them to the korean groceries right before this, where patrick and jerry nerded out, sad to say.


i drove to new york city with chris, peter, nathalie and arthur. we left at 4 AM, so you'll forgive me if this is the first picture i took -- a pigeon from our hotel balcony window that afternoon.


this is the view from that balcony window. great!


here's the front door of our hotel, the off soho suites on rivington near the bowery. celebrities who stayed there: jet!


this painting was in the lobby bathroom. worst painting ever!


peter at the d&q table. post-setup, pre-opening. the deal is: peter, chris and nathalie represented d&q. they had four tables and not enough stock, so they sold me half a table. i was sandwiched between d&q and fantagraphics, with the national cartoonists' society and cbldf in there too. tough crowd!


the view from my table a few hours later. it was a pretty busy show.


my first (and practically only) purchase of the day was a guy named foofy, i think, from a girl named robyn lee.


chris and i attended the harveys that evening. we sat with heidi macdonald and i got slightly drunk from the free beers. we met skyler. andy runton won! i pared down the photos to this single essential jeff smith shot.


afterwards, chris and I went out and got drunker and also ate some food. our companions were scott robins and jose villarubia (pictured), christine norrie, and two of jose's friends, an alexei and a gentleman whose name i missed.


jose and christine.


top shelf's booth, featuring andy runton. now that i think of it, i believe this is the same bar that craig thompson was sitting at two years ago when he signed all those blanketses. it seemed brighter this time.


andy's shirts, which he packages so nicely.


andy's owly plush, soon to be mass-produced!


that evening, chris and i, along with ed mathews, arthur dela cruz, and eric kim, went to the pink teacup for dinner, a favourite spot. this is the pie eric got for dessert. eric had never had pie before, and all agreed that he was right to wait. the pink teacup has the world's greatest apple pie, we discovered.


afterwards, we caught up with the gang at the spring street natural. here is a picture of vera brosgol. she apparently has a halo. this might be because she is awesome.


here is a picture of some dudes trying to take my picture. the dudes are kazu kabuishi and kean soo.


someone actually got a picture of me. this is me.


kazu, kean, and chris.


a plate of french fries. they make their own ketchup. i thought it was tasty, but i was so full from the pink teacup and a papaya dog that my judgment was all screwed up. and this is the last picture!