KOI Music Festival 2011

KOI Music Fest came back for Round 2 last weekend.

This year I was smart and stayed for most of the day (the whole thing went from 1 PM til well into the morning) and I made a list of the different bands that I wanted to see. At the end of the day I saw eleven bands in total, and this girl was not disappointed.

Like last year, there was a main stage and about nine different venues around Downtown Kitchener, located at various bars, clubs, and cafes. This year though, the main stage was a bit bigger and located in the Crabby Joe's parking lot

I started out my day at Cafe Pyrus where Koetta Black played their set. Towards the end of their last song people were given a free copy of their CD and some stickers.

Koetta Black

I had some time to kill before the band Liferuiner played their set, so I wandered around downtown and ended up at the Main Stage. I saw the band Dancing With Paris all over the KOI facebook page before the festival - they won some contest and got to play on the main stage. This band was awesome live...I hope they come back again next year so that I can see the whole set.

Dancing With Paris

More Dancing With Paris...

Next was Liferuiner at the PSD (Peter Says Denim) Venue across the street. For some reason...I don't know why, but I thought the show would be something like the Christian Rock moshpit scene from Metalocalypse (minus the blood). Maybe I heard someone bash "Straight Edge" bands or something... Anywho, during their set, I totally got creamed at the EDGE of the moshpit.

Liferuiner

More Liferuiner...

I went back to the main stage, ran into some old friends (yay!) and watched bands Stray From the Path and The Real McKenzies.

Stray From the Path

The Real McKenzies - how about some Celtic Punk, eh?

Afterwards, my friend and I went to Capers Sports Bar and watched Blind the Carrier's set before heading out to The Wax to see Blind Witness. Both bands were so awesome...during Blind Witness' set, the place was packed.

Blind the Carrier

Blind Witness

We walked back to the second stage to see the band Hometown Beatdown, then went back across the street to see the last three bands play at the main stage - Dead and Divine, The Planet Smashers, and Protest the Hero. All of them were awesome (unfortunately I had to leave before Protest the Hero finished their set). It was like a big party that night in the parking lot downtown.

Dead and Divine

The Planet Smashers

Protest The Hero - I'm sorry that these photos suck!

...I look forward to Round 3 next year. ^_^

(More doodles coming!)

FanExpo 2011

After the con ended on Sunday evening...those messy, messy pros.

About three or four weeks ago, my friends and I were in the Artist's Alley again at FanExpo Canada. Unfortunately, I didn't even get to see everything at the convention during the four day event - the space was a lot bigger than last year. However, it was a lot better for the crowds of people that entered the building, and the event was a lot more organized than last year by far (last year there was a lockout on the Saturday, the fire marshal was called or something...2010 was not a fun year for the con go-er). Thumbs up for the improvements! :D 


In short, we all did very well, sold a lot of stuff, made contacts, the usual. I sold out of Issue #1 of Cadaverific and the Carnage prints, and got Issues #2 and #3 in the Silver Snail comic book shop in Toronto. There were also a couple of retailers from the US who were interested in getting the books into their comic book shops....we'll see where that goes.

Laura Vegys

Our Artist Alley neighbours were awesome, and IMO, one of the best rows for original and creative content (in other words, no thieves and/or scam artists!).  These people included Laura Vegys, Lamin Martin, Stephen Daymond (Specimen B28), Vitaly S. Alexius (Romantically Apocalyptic), Matthew Mohammed (Rorschach Press/Black Bastard), Lucky and Peter Trinh (Maddy McGee, P.I.), and the guys at Powie Studios. A couple of the most memorable highlights from the Arists' Alley was meeting Jeff Smith (creator of the Bone series) and Jeff Lemire (Sweet Tooth, Essex County).

The dudes at the Specimen B28 table.

Promotion for the webcomic Romatically Apocalyptic.

Of course, it can't be a comic con without the cosplayers! Here are some of them...

From Soul Eater

Penguin and Vein

Kakashi from Naruto

Freddy Kruger

Super Mario!

I have no idea...but that is awesome.

Chuthulu!

From The Watchmen

From Pokemon

And finally, the Star Wars Blue-Ray promotion was in full swing...

Until next year then!