Hey all, readers old and new!

I was in Montreal this weekend, attending Otakuthon and recruiting for the Lair. So if you were there and spotted a wild Caitlyn, well, that was me!

(Friday, in the manga library)

(Saturday, on the way to the convention)

Bubbly and outgoing Caitlyn was the perfect character to cosplay while meeting new people and promoting the comic. It was a lot of fun. My Saturday cosplay was actually comic accurate (school girl skirt and all, though you can’t see it here, since I am not good at taking selfies)… well, except for the glasses. I actually had bought myself a pair of dark blue contacts for this cosplay but it hurt so much to wear I decided to skip that part. Heck, we could always decide that the blue eyes are the colour of her corrective lenses and that Caitlyn actually has brown eyes; it would give me an excuse to wear my big manga-like glasses while cosplaying (and I know at least one fellow artist who would approve of inserting a character with glasses in my comic, *cough cough*).

On the last day of the convention I cosplayed as another, yet-to-appear character, a dark and dour fellow… which fit the level of energy I had left by then, heheh.

(aforementioned character, seen here reading a newly acquired comic)

Over all, it was quite a good time (despite the scheduling issues and technical malfunctions). I got to meet a bunch of fellow geeks and otakus, attend some interesting panels, and converse with some friendly artists and authors in the merch room and artists’ alley (though in some cases I might have hung around for way to long and made everyone feel awkward — sorry about that).

Highlights:

• Discovering (or rediscovering) the works of Boum (Boumeries — a fun and silly geeky webcomic) Jenniver Kiakas (Prism Knights; BadMouth — both excellent) and Tasha Mukanik (BadMouth; Sanity Circus — an ongoing webcomic I highly recommend), Kinn and Talhi Briones (Emmanuel Just Wants to Die; Hieroglyphes — a novel I will be devouring this month), and Stefanie Meunier (The Pinewood Curse — another beautifully drawn webcomic). Shout-out also to William Cote and his awesome art (I got two small posters). Check out my book haul, btw:

• Bothering my friend Dez at his own table in the artists’ alley while he worked on commission art in that distinct Frivolesque style (another webcomic, taking place in Québec city).
• A manga-drawing session with the lovely April Petchsri (who also has a webcomic). Caitlyn and Ellan had a cameo there:

• TWO panels discussing and recommending webcomics! One of which resulted in a long list (on which the Lair makes an appearance!!). Yes, I shamelessly plugged Ellan’s Lair during the discussion… but I recommended a lot of other cool ones as well! And shout-out to the person sitting in front of me during the Queer Webcomics panel who perked up when I mentioned the variety of characters we are eventually going to put in the Lair’s story: it was super nice to meet you!
• A panel on the « hidden gems » anime of the 2000s (because apparently we already need a refresher — great, now I feel old 😛 ) by the guys of the Nadeshico Club (they’re my Québec peeps!!) which reminded me how many good shows I should catch up on one of these days. There were technical difficulties with the sound (at one point the speakers in the room started broadcasting the frequency used by the security staff instead of the microphones… good thing the guys hosting this panel have loud voices).
• A panel analysing the music of the excellent anime Cowboy Bebop (a classic which you should watch, like, now).
• and finally a Rakugo demonstration: not every day you hear traditional japanese-style comedy performed in French. That was a hoot!

Anyway, I’ve returned from my travels tired but inspired — ready to get back to work with my co-creator on the next part of the Lair. 6 more pages left of the intro chapters (since Ellan’s intro is a bit longer)… and then we’re diving into dystopian Montreal shenanigans for real in September. We’re also planning to have character profiles up for our « main 4 » in the About the Lair section ready by then.

Until then, enjoy (and leave us a comment if you want to encourage us)!

— R.K. Magali