Meags Fitzgerald's Blog

It's been a long time since my last post and a lot has happened in that time! Notably, the snow has melted and the trees have leaves again. I'm also pretty close to having my second book finished and preparing for its release this fall. My life has been a balancing act between the very solitary act of drawing at a desk and the ultra social aspects of performing improv and attending comic festivals. I've also got a pretty steady routine (which I enjoy very much and miss when I'm traveling,) that consists of teaching a weekly improv class and taking aerial silks and contortion classes 2-3 times a week at a circus studio in my neighbourhood. I've been running a lot as well and I'm training for a 10km race at the end of June.

Aerial silks and my improv students back in February. In April I went with Conundrum Press to NYC for MoCCA (the Museum of Cartoon and Comic Arts Festival.) It was great to see some American pals there, and make new friends. I bought a ton of books, though not as many as usual because the exchange rate was super bad. Still, I had some good reading material for the train ride back to Montreal. 

MoCCA Day 1 at the Conundrum Press table, photo by Publisher's Weekly. MoCCA Day 2 at the Conundrum Press table.While there I stayed with my friend from the photobooth community, David Greg Harth in Brooklyn. My trip to NYC was very brief but Harth made sure I still used a chemical photobooth during my visit. He and I used this booth together, it's in a restaurant, The Smith, in the basement in the middle of the washroom. Our presence may have unsettled some bathroom-goers.


Almost two weeks ago now was, of course, TCAF (the Toronto Comics Arts Festival!) I knew this TCAF would feel different for me because I didn't have a debuting book but I did still feel that I had a good reason to be there because Photobooth: A Biography was nominated for a Doug Wright Spotlight Award. The real highlight for me this year was the number of new friends I made. I got to know some folks whose work I've admired for a while and got to connect again with friends from afar.  I feel super lucky to be part of this very supportive and friendly community.


TCAF Day 1 at the Conundrum Press table. TCAF Day 2 after a panel on History Comics, photo by Jody Culkin from Publisher's Weekly.
Publisher, Andy Brown and I, photo by Christy Ann Conlin.To my delight and amazement, I won the Doug Wright Spotlight Award, also known as "The Nipper." The award recognizes a work deserving of wider recognition and usually goes to an artist for their first or second book. The best about getting the award was probably all the silly and kind things that Seth (the cartoonist) whispered to me as we awkwardly arranged the physical award on stage. He's one of my art idols and it's surreal to me that he even read my book. On my way back to my seat, the legendary Lynda Barry squeezed my arm and congratulated me. (That woman just radiates joy.) All the nominees in the category were entirely deserving of the award and at the end of the day it comes down to the preference of the three-person jury (which changes every year.) I'm most happy that this means the book will reach a greater audience and more people will learn the story of the photobooth!

This week I'm off to perform in the Combustion Improv Festival in Toronto! I took a three and a half year hiatus from improv, and though I've been performing regularly for the last 16 months, I haven't played with these old friends. I've got butterflies in my tummy about it, good butterflies.

I've got a summer filled with more comics and more improv. Boy oh boy, I'm excited!

Copyright Nathan Boone 2014 Back in August I did a photoshoot with my friend and filmmaker Nathan Boone. He snapped some test shots while he adjusted the lighting. I had just bought us some cinnamon buns and couldn't help myself from acting a tad stupid in front of the camera. So, we didn't plan on taking comedic headshots but that was sorta the result. Thanks Nathan!

And speaking of comedy, I've got a handful of really exciting, very different improv shows lined up for February. If you're in Montreal, you should come out and get yourself some belly laughs.

Here’s the scoop:
> Sunday February 1st- MILF II (stands for Montreal Improv Lady Force.) Brought back by popular demand, this will be a high energy evening with a selection of Montreal Improv’s finest female performers. Ticket and show info here.
> Sunday February 8th- Memoir: An Improvised Autobiography. I feel very honoured to be the guest for this show, where the story of my life will be enacted by a talented team of improvisers and a director. You will laugh, you will cry, you will learn my deep, dark secrets. Ticket and show info here. 
> Sunday February 15th- 50/50 is an artful improv experiment. Half the cast will be well-prepared actors, the other half will be totally-in-the-dark improvisers. The two groups will be paired up on stage into two person scenes, the actors will stick to their scripts, the improvisers will, ah, well, improvise. Ticket and show info here. 
> Thursday February 19th- Photographic Memory. This is my very own duo with Vinny Francois. I hold it close to my heart. Together we weave improvised monologues into an over arching, satisfying story. An event page with all the details will be up this coming week.
> Friday February 20th- Threepio is a three-way competition of long-form improv. My troupe, Quest of the Dragon King has won our first two matches. We make up silly but sincere fantasy quests and botch a bunch of British accents in the process. An event page will be up soon!   I'll also probably performing in a Smackdown or two, which are Montreal Improv's flagship show- every Friday at 8pm.



And lastly, I'll be teaching a Level 1, Introduction to Improv class starting on Saturday February 7th. It's four weeks long, spread the word if you know someone who could use more play-time in their lives. Registration is here. 

In October I moved into a great new apartment, I pretty much won the lottery. It's in my favourite neighbourhood in Montreal, on a quiet street, just a few steps away from the base of the mountain. I'm also only a 10-15 minute walk from all of the places I regularly hang out; Montreal Improv Theatre, the metro station, my sister's apartment, an independent cinema and a cat cafe.

The apartment is also stellar because it's got a huge, sunny room with a balcony that I've made into my studio. When I moved in, the space had been pretty neglected and was in serious need of a scrub. The old plaster walls in particular were in really poor condition.

I spent most of October traveling so I hardly had time to unpack before hitting the road. In mid-November I got help from a super team of friends and we gave the place a much needed paint job. Thanks to Susan, Justin, Eryn, Joni, Monica and Fred who spent many hours filling, sanding, scraping and painting.


Slowly but surely I've been decorating and fine-tuning the space. Friend and photographer, Jess Fildes took the following photos of the studio in early December. It's still a work in progress though, I've got some shelves to hang, more fun cushions to sew and some antiques that I picked up while in Edmonton to incorporate.

Copyright 2014 Jessica Fildes Copyright 2014 Jessica Fildes Copyright 2014 Jessica Fildes Copyright 2014 Jessica Fildes




Copyright 2014 Jessica Fildes Copyright 2014 Jessica FildesThe rest of the apartment is coming along too, I've finished decorating my bedroom, and I'm about halfway finished with the living room and kitchen. As fun as it has been to get settled into a new place, I've been using it way too much as an excuse to procrastinate. Now that my space is functional, I'm going to put it to use! Which means, I'll have to put the rest of the decorating on the back burner until I've completed my next few big projects.

In the last few weeks, three podcasts were released that I was featured on. I was really happy to sit down and chat with all of these folks. Here are the links if you want to give them a listen:

Edge of the City #136: A Photo Booth, an EP, and a Dep:

The Deep Field #4: Photoboothing with Meags

We Talk Comics Presents: Graphic Novel Spotlight


And I chatted with CKUA Radio in Edmonton over the summer but I thought I'd share it again because they've been rebroadcasting it.

CKUA's ArtBeat: Graphic Novelist Says "Save the Photobooths!"

You can find reviews/excerpts of Photobooth: A Biography in three fine Canadian publications this quarter- Broken Pencil, Geist and UPPERCASE. Pick 'em while you can!


And for the curious, there's a list of other reviews here.

Two days ago Conundrum Press announced that we'll be working together again on my latest book project, Long Red Hair, which will be released in spring 2015. I'm really excited for this work to be out in the world. It's very different from Photobooth: A Biography in regards to the subject matter, the length, the narrative devices and the artwork (this one will be printed in duotone!) Though I think the readers will recognize my voice as it comes through in the introspection and attention to detail.

The full announcement and details are here. Below is the book's description.

Long Red Hair is Meags Fitzgerald's follow up to her acclaimed Photobooth: A Biography . In this graphic memoir, Fitzgerald paints a childhood full of sleepovers, playing dress-up, amateur fortune-telling and renting scary movies. Yet, Fitzgerald suspects that she is unlike her friends. The book navigates a child’s struggle with averageness, a preteen’s budding bisexuality and a young woman’s return after rejection. Fitzgerald takes us from her first kiss to a life sworn to singlehood, while weaving in allusions to witches in history and popular culture. Long Red Hair alluringly delves into the mystique of red hair and the beguiling nature of alternative romantic relationships.

The commercial I worked on came out last week and I'm pretty happy with it. The production company, Pedri Animation, a stop motion animation studio outside of Amsterdam, were really cool to work with and did a great job. The team there was awesome and I wish my trip was longer so I could have picked up some animation techniques from them.

Quite unexpectedly, I am actually in the finished commercial. It was supposed to be just my hands but the ad agency melded the stop motion footage with footage that they shot of me for the making-of video. At the end of the day, that is fine, but for the record, neither myself nor my business, Two Hands Two Crowns has any opinion of T-Mobile's products or services.



The ad agency found me because of the videos I posted of myself doing ambidextrous illustrations on vimeo three years ago. All that ambidextrous training that I did just for fun has definitely paid off. Just goes to show that you never know what a hobby will turn into!

Photo by Iris at Pedri Studios
Photo by Iris at Pedri Studios
Photo by Iris at Pedri Studios

Back in August I made a list of ten or so things to blog about, all of which were highlights from my summer. I didn't get very far into September before my schedule was swept away again.

The last week was really a whirlwind with a last minute opportunity to work on a commercial in Amsterdam. I'll share the back story of how that came to be when the commercial is ready to be shared. For now, here's a photo of our stop motion animation set-up.

I had less than one day of free time in the city but the stars aligned and I was able to visit with three friends in that time! We met at the newly-installed chemical photobooth in the Lomography store. Photoautomat Amsterdam placed the booth there only a few weeks ago and its been hugely popular. (It's the first working chemical photobooth to be in Amsterdam in almost a decade!) 

I feel super lucky that I was able to hang out with Stefan, Cari and Jason, who I know separate from each other but who are all "photobooth people" in their own right.

Strips of myself with Stefan, Cari and Jason
I'm in Edmonton now and prepping for lots of fun events in Alberta over the next two weeks. Hopefully I'll find some time to recap some of my other recent adventures here too!

In August of 2013, I sent an email to Brian and Tim, the gentlemen behind Photobooth.net. Since 2005 they've been the organizers of the International Photobooth Convention. (I should note that the conventions are not commercial trade shows, but rather volunteer-run festivals to celebrate all things photobooth-- with a heavy bias towards vintage machines.) In my email to them, I expressed interest in helping to organize the next IPC and listed a handful of ideas.

Ten months and hundreds of emails later, I arrived at A&A Studios a week before the convention date. Anthony Vizzari, his team and I got to work prepping IPC 2014. Truthfully, it was an immense amount of work, but it also felt energizing to be back in that creative space again, with all my old Chicago pals.

Chemical booths, from left to right, a Model 21, 17, 17 and 14, with a Photomatic peeking around the corner. Photo by Brian MeachamAnthony was responsible for getting the physical space in order, which involved setting up five chemical and two digital photobooths, as well as planning the opening night party. I was responsible for the programming, scheduling and the promotional materials. The A&A staff were a tremendous amount of help. Brian and Tim would join us for during the actual event to keep everything running smoothly.

Conference room, table covered in Anthony's collection of PDQ cameras. Some details from a Model 9 that Antony acquired since the last time I was in Chicago. Anthony's photos, a couple Photomatics and three great examples of frames designed specifically for photobooth pictures. Anthony's own Photomatic, an incredibly rare gem of a machine.
Anthony taught a workshop on using a photobooth camera outside of the photobooth. A&A staff member, David made a device to trigger the camera and paper cutter and attached a darkroom bag to collect the photos as they dropped out of the camera box. The photos were then developed by hand in the darkroom. Getting the lighting just right was the trickiest part.


It had been a while since I had serviced a photobooth but I was about to help get the machines up and running.  Here are some test shots from the Model 21 and Model 11 which we had running colour paper and chemicals.

What there aren't photos of, but what was certainly a memorable part of the pre-convention experience, is all the containers of take-out food we consumed that week.


  In addition to the poster I made announcing IPC, we also wanted to make limited edition silkscreened posters, like in previous years. I designed the graphic while Kiera, an A&A staff member did the actual silkscreening. I also designed name tags and a set of four buttons.


Photo by Brian Meacham.Volunteers made bunting out of paper in the convention colours and together we set up a merch table with a pretty good array of photobooth related products.
 Photo by Brian Meacham.As part of the convention we had a small exhibition of art titled Photobooth: New Works. The theme was art that was made since 2010 either using photobooths or with photobooths as the subject matter. With a team of volunteers we managed to get the art hung just before the opening party on Friday night.
 Photo by Brian Meacham.Well, that's it for set-up, in my next post I'll talk about what actually happened during the convention!

I spent the first three weeks of June in Chicago for a slew of comics and photobooth related events. First up was the Chicago Alternative Comics Expo (or CAKE, as it's better known.) I tabled with follow Conundrum Press author, Dakota McFadzean, who's one amazing storyteller/ cartoonist. Dakota is a graduate of the Center for Cartoon Studies, so the organizers put us next to other CCS alumni, who I got to know and befriend throughout the weekend.

There was a fair bit of interest in Photobooth: A Biography and all weekend long I had great conversations with people about the topic. I met a few photobooth fans that I hadn't met in person before and I may have converted a few casual photography enthusiasts into true blue photobooth devotees. (Which is the ulterior motive behind most of actions.)

Photo on the right by Megan Byrd of Women Write ComicsMy only qualm is that I didn't have much time to look around at mini-comics and zines that I would have liked for myself. I did however get to hang out with folks after the expo wrapped each day. One major highlight was going to Headquarters, which is a huge bar filled with pinball machines that are set to "free vend"... yes that's right, unlimited pinball! I may be a photobooth fan but I've got a soft spot for the whole coin-op industry. Headquarters also has a backroom filled with arcade machines, including my very favourite, Street Fighter II. Chun-Li 4life.


CAKE was lead by a super team of volunteers who were incredibly organized, cheery and helpful. The venue, the Center on Halsted, is also a really awesome, queer friendly space. Thanks to everyone who made that an awesome experience!

Two weeks later I had a talk and signing at Quimby's Bookstore, which in addition to having an amazing selection of alternative books, they also happen to have a functioning chemical photobooth! The talk went well but the coolest part of the evening (for me at least) was the Q&A session afterwards that turned into large discussion. 


I also gave everyone who came to the talk a tiny envelope, which they weren't allowed to open until the end. Half the envelopes contained glamorous photobooth shots and the other contained grotesque shots. Sending photobooth art to each other is one way that members of the international photobooth community stay connected, so I wanted to give the attendees a taste of that. Together, at the end everyone opened their respective envelopes to delight or dismay. 
 
My good friend Elizabeth came to the talk, which was awesome because she appears in the book multiple times. Elizabeth, over the last eleven years has literally appeased me dozens of times by posing with me in photobooths. This occasion was no different, here we are in the Quimby's photobooth. We are beautiful grown-up ladies.

Elizabeth and I also went to go see the Neo-Futurists perform their signature show Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind. I had heard a lot about the ensemble over the years but this was my first time seeing them... and my gosh, I can't believe I waited so long. It was one of the best live theatre experiences I've ever had. I highly recommend it!

More recaps about the rest of my trip to Chicago coming soon...