Even though my mother is from the Halifax area, I had never been to the east coast in my own home country. But after Conor McCreery told me at Montreal Comic Con about how amazing Hal-Con was last year, I had to pack up my product case and make the trip.

And what a trip! The Saturday of the convention was my biggest single day for sales ever. Sunday was a little slower on account of how the big ticket programming was on Sunday, but if you count the books that stores bought from me to sell for Christmas gift-giving, this was my highest-grossing convention weekend ever.

Three conventions in the last couple of months and each one more successful than the last.  It occurs to me that this is living the dream.

My deepest thanks and appreciation to everyone at Hal-Con who came by my table, bought my pop art wonderworks, and gave me a very warm welcome in Halifax.  And extra special thanks to Harth Publishing for sending me on this trip to represent our book, Tomorrow Never Knows – A Comics History of the Psychedelic Beatles.  This partnership just gets more fun by the day.

Thanks so much, everyone!  If you were there, drop me a line and let me know how you liked the books you got. Send me your pictures and I’ll put them on the blog or the Facebook page!

Here is the vehicle in which I arrived to Halifax. First time flying Porter!

Pondering the wisdom of Yoda. This, probably my favorite costume of the convention, was knitted by the person wearing it. She said it took her three months to make it!

Here are my custom monogrammed bags. Buy something, and then advertise me all weekend!

Homeboys chillin’. Let’s kick it on November 5.

This girl came running to the table with money in hand to buy everything Beatles on the table. It all made sense when I saw the tattoo on her wrist.

And after the convention, Strange Adventures (Legendary Halifax comic book that regularly wins awards for being the best comic book store in North America) hosted the after-party where I got to catch up with a bunch of artists I haven’t seen in forever, and make a bunch of new friends.

Speaking of Strange Adventures, Tomorrow Never Knows is going to be on their featured products wall for the Christmas gift buying season. If you are in the Halifax area, make sure you pop in to pick up a copy.  Also available in Halifax at Monster Comics Lounge.

Thanks again to everyone who made my first-ever visit to Halifax a big success and a lot of fun. This is just a sampling of the photos I took. Check out the complete gallery on my Facebook page: facebook.com/SeanWardSuperParty

You’ll notice that the latter portion of the video is an interview with Mike Smith. This is extremely rare, as the performers only ever do interviews in-character. Entertainment Tonight can’t even get this kind of coverage!

Here’s the story: Thanks to a mutual friend between myself and Mike Smith (Bubbles), I got invited to go down to Buffalo to catch the Trailer Park Boys’ performance at Buffalo State College on the Drunk, High, and Unemployed Tour.  It was Lauren O’Nizzle‘s birthday weekend and since she is a big fan of the Boys and she’s one of my best friends & favorite Internet people, I hooked up tickets and backstage passes for her and her fella and it was on like Donkey Kong.

During the show they asked for volunteers from the audience who could sing, and both Lauren and I were up on stage before other people even had a chance to raise their hand.

During Intermission, I interviewed a real live American to find out what she thinks she has learned about Canadian culture from watching Trailer Park Boys:

And after the show, the backstage antics were the Lulz as we got to play an original Trailer Park Boys guitar that had just been autographed by Bubbles….

…and then we went around the way to a little bar called Cole’s where Lauren charmed the hell out of the Boys (which is the kind of thing Lauren is good at)

Good Night, Buffalo!!!

And Happy Birthday to Lauren O’Nizzle!  (Click for her blog post of the event)

If you go to the beach in Malibu, you’re going to see lots of Designer Swimwear. (sponsor message)

I think this would have been a way better idea for a sequel.

There’s me getting in my California ride. I don’t own it, I just borrow it when I’m in town.

These are some photos from some recent goings-on. I hope you like looking at them as much as I liked living them.

Now it’s time for guerilla street promotion!

That’s how you do it.

Thanks for bringing me a burger, Rando!

The End!

They say that when you reach the centre of the labyrinth, you will have a mystical experience.

One of the things I look most forward to about a trip to California is In-N-Out Burger. Canadians: you know how Canadians go nuts about Tim Horton’s? That’s how Los Angelinos feel about In-N-Out. Last time I was in San Francisco, i discovered that the city has one In-N-Out, located in Fisherman’s Wharf.

I have been in California for two weeks and have not hit In-N-Out Burger yet!! Can you believe it? We’re going to rectify that situation today. Let’s go out for lunch.

Here is one corner of the pad, semi-strewn with Rock Band paraphernalia.

This photo is entitled Portrait of a Man Looking Forward to Burgers.

Yes, these burgers are this exciting.

This is the hood we’re starting out from. It’s a walk north to the wharf.

Chillin’.

We’re getting close. There’s Alcatraz across the Bay, and Fisherman’s Wharf along the water. It’s just a walk down the hill from here.

And if you’re standing in the spot where you take the previous picture, you see this view of the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco Presidio.

These are the homeys taking this voyage with me. That’s Rando Calrissian with the backpack, aka. Rand Shuler, producer of the Revolution 9.9.9 event. The other dude is Mike, a crazy local we brought along.

This is one of the steepest hills I have ever been on. I got running down it at full tilt for the picture, and then had a hard time stopping. And of course Mike and Rand are laughing about how funny it would be if I wiped out.

It’s getting close…

Notice that this is the entire menu. The pressure to add chicken, veggie burgers, etc. to their menu over the years must have been enormous as fads came and went. But In-N-Out doesn’t get into that nonsense. They specialize, do one thing, and do it better than anyone.

Below, we start getting to the serious part. Finally enjoying my burger after looking forward to it since leaving California the previous time at the end of April.

I really wanted to sell how good these burgers are in these photos so I was thinking of a particular woman as they were being taken.

The last bite…

Rand likes his fries Animal Style with cheese.

Good-bye for now, In-N-Out Burger! It was wonderful to see you again! You are just as beautiful as ever.

Welcome to Beatlefest The Fest for Beatles Fans

Have you played The Beatles Rock Band video game yet?

I have!

The line up to give it a try was pretty long if you wanted to play the drums or one of the guitars. But all I wanted was to sing so I got right up.

The game is really cool. The features seem more advanced than in other similar games, and the software picks up your singing a lot better than in Singstar where you get more points if you just hum it.

Custom art examining who is the fifth, sixth, and fourteenth Beatle.

I did not do as well as I would have thought at Beatles Trivial Pursuit.

I met tons of cool people at this thing and since everyone’s got The Beatles in common, everyone is friends. It’s even more pronounced than at a comic book event because there, everyone likes all different characters, all different artists, and all different types of comics. Here, everyone loves The Beatles and that’s the beginning and the end of it.

Went to see about selling some prints of The Ballad of John and Yoko this past weekend at Chicago’s Beatlefest The Fest for Beatles Fans (they had to stop using the name Beatlefest in 2001). Here are a few scenes from the ride down and our arrival to the hotel.

More of my famous Custom Album Art!

Something about the road, it lends itself to my Custom Album Art.

This is especially poignant as Custom Album Art. Note the church!

Getting nearer to Chicago! Here’s the subway:

Entering the City Center, even though we weren’t supposed to. We were supposed to skip the city and go out by O’Hare airport except a member of our party punched “Chicago” into the GPS when he should have punched in Rosemont. Looking for the Hyatt Regency O’Hare hotel, the GPS led us to a parking lot beside a church near downtown.

Custom Album Art!

See the fountain in the middle? That’s the park where Barack Obama had his victory party the night he won the election.

Finally made it to the hotel. A nine hour drive took 13. The Hyatt Regency O’Hare has been doing some cool stuff with the renovations over the last couple of years, although I’m still pissed that they took the pool out.

The view from the balcony

Desperately needing a shower and a nap.

See you down on the convention floor!

No, it’s Ramblin’ man… I got the words wrong.

Know what I want to do?  I want to go to Vancouver.  Not right now, but soon.

I have been to the U.S.’s west coast, but I have never been to Canada’s west coast.  I have friends there and I have family there.  My grandfather who is a pastor lives there, and we have tons to talk about.

I think the most fun thing to do would be to start out from California, and road trip it up to B.C. through Oregon and Washington.

Then where would I go from there?  There’s no telling.  That’s the awesome part.