Over the past few days I was the artist guest of honor at The World Fantasy Convention in Toronto. From beginning to end this truly was a fantastic experience. Rather than attempt a post con wrap up, for now I’ll simply re-post the entries I made on Facebook while the events were happening.
Wednesday, October 31: Great dinner and conversation with Liz Hand and Charles de Lint and all the great organizers of World Fantasy!
THursday, November 1: Fun afternoon at World Fantasy – met Charles Vess! Toured author Liz Hand around my art booth and got led into the opening ceremony by bagpipe. The people at this con are kind and generous. I’m going to need a trailer to get all these books home!
Later: Finished doing a really fun panel on monsters with James Alan Gardner, Lena Croakley, Ellen Datlow, Christopher Golden and Holly Phillips at World Fantasy. Lively audience and a great panel.
Friday, November 2: My solo panel at World Fantasy went very well this morning. I covered everything that I needed to cover in an hour! Caffeine is a wonderful thing. The elevator in this hotel is turning out to be a great place to encounter people – Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, Bill Schafer from Subterranean Press and even Peter Straub.
Later: Met author Karin Tidbeck tonight. Looking forward to reading her story collection Jagannath. Attended a huge signing. It was great to see some of the older books I’ve illustrated showing up. I even signed one of the wine bottles that I designed for the World Fantasy banquet. Great day!
Saturday, November 3: Absolutely superb day at World Fantasy so far – participated in a 10am panel on cover art in the age of the ebook, took in Jeff Vandermeer’s insightful and often hilarious interview with Elizabeth Hand and after lunch, Charles Vess interviewing Charles de Lint, complete with a song at the end! Tonight is the art reception and the Cheeky Frawg book launch!
Later: Great art show reception at World Fantasy tonight. I had a fun time showing off some art and meeting tons of people. Afterwards, there was an impromptu jam in the lobby with Charles de Lint and others. Awesome!
Sunday, November 4: Last day of World Fantasy Con… what will it bring? Coffee, first. Lots and lots of coffee.
Later: Congratulations to Ann and Jeff Vandermeer for their World Fantasy Award for The Weird! anthology. Today started with a lively panel on the ins and outs of cover and interior book art. This was followed by the closing banquet and awards ceremony.
A huge thanks to the organizers that treated my family like royalty for 5 days (including finding Halloween candy for my daughter who missed going trick or treating!) Best con experience ever!
Richard A. Kirk | Visual Artist | Author 
R, Is there a chance we might get to see your solo panel on Youtube or Vimeo?
Congratulations on your accomplishments… but I still say I told you so.
R2
Hi Ron,
There was some video of the presentation shot on a flip camera. I’m going to see if any of it is usable and hopefully get it posted in a few days.
R.