What a hectic few days it’s been! First, the good news: I submitted my wilderness survival graphic novel manuscript to my editor at Orca Books. Very happy about that but it’s also the reason I haven’t posted about Saturday’s big launch yet. But that’s about to change (aren’t you lucky?)

The lauch was crazy but tons of fun. It was part of the larger Owl Day festivities at the CN Tower, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I knew it was going to be busy when I arrived at the tower and saw dozens of kids in the foodcourt filling out Owl/Max Finder contest forms. I had no idea what the contest was and still don’t, but I knew for certain that the word had spread about Max & Alison and their new book.

The day kicked off with a comic workshop given by myself, Max illustrator Michael Cho and Brian McLachlan, the writer of the Alex & Charlie comic in OWL and a hilarious comic illustrator too.

None of us (including the folks from Owl) could believe the number of people wanting to get into our little workshop. We turned people away from the first session, but the theatre in the tower wasn’t even full, so we packed the second workshop. As you can see from this photoe, there were people sitting on the floor!

For the workshop, I got the kids to help identify the “ingredients” to a mystery story: crime, detective, clues, etc.

I got a lot of great answers including when I was looking for the key ingredient of “detective.” One audience member, who couldn’t be older than 10, stated very clearly that the ingredient I was looking for was the “hero.”

When I asked who she thought the hero was in a mystery story, she loudly announced: “The protagonist!” How can you argue with that?

When I’d finished talking about the writing side of comics, Mike took over to show the kids how he uses body language in his illusrations to convey emotion, by drawing Max Finder in action. It was clear from the smiles in the crowd that they got a kick out of watching Mike bring Max to life.

After Mike, Brian came on to show the kids how to be funny – not a enviable task at all. True to Brian’s wacky humour, he floored the kids with some of his secrets to writing gag-comics.

When we were through blathering about comics, it came time for the real action: the signing. Once again, Mike and I were blown away by the numbers. The photo on the left gives you an idea of the crowd waiting for us when we arrived at the table.

Mike and I jumped right into the action and started signing.

An hour later we were still happily talking to Max Finder fans and signing posters, books and anything else that was put in front of us.

By the end of the day, my hands were weary and my pen worn-out, but I was feeling great. After working on Max Finder for nearly four years, both Mike and I were overwhelmed by the support and enthusiasm of the fans.

With Max Finder Myserty Collected Casebook Vol.1 now available in book stores across North America, I’m excited to see Max & Alison leap from the pages of OWL Maganize into their very own graphic novel, making new friends and fans along the way.