Hello friend!
This Saturday, I’ll be set up at Amazing Stories (2508 8th Street East, Suite A) as the store celebrates Local Comic Shop Day 2026, and I’m looking forward to spending another day talking comics with fellow readers, collectors and creators. The event goes all day, but the group of artists will be there 11am-3pm.
Whenever I’m in a different city, I always make a point to stop in at the local comic shop, and I find they’re sadly becoming an increasingly rare sight. So seeing these stores disappear makes me grateful that Saskatoon still has such a healthy comics community. Comics have been a huge part of my life for as long as I can remember. I learned to read from comics. I definitely learned to draw from comics. Some of my happiest memories involve spending hours on my knees digging through longboxes in search of dusty treasure.
Regular readers will know that I spent a number of years behind the counter at Amazing Stories. Some of my closest friendships started there, along with a considerable number of conversations theorizing about the latest episode of LOST, or quickly reciting the title and issue number that Martian Manhunter died in1.
The shop has played an outsized role in my life, so it’s always a pleasure when they ask me to take part in one of their events.
What I particularly appreciate about Local Comic Shop Day is that it celebrates comics as their own unique art form. Comics sit in a strange and wonderful space somewhere between illustration, design, literature and film, borrowing from all of them while remaining something entirely their own. There really isn’t another storytelling medium quite like it. In an era where so much attention is focused on novels, movies or television, it’s nice to see an event focused squarely on the comics themselves and the people who make them.
The headliner, at least as far as I’m concerned, is Saskatchewan comics legend Tom Grummett. Tom’s work on Superman, Robin, Superboy and countless other titles has earned him a place among the most respected comic artists in the business, and it’s always a treat to see him and Nancy at events.
According to the Facebook event, the announced creator lineup also includes:
- Audra Balion
- Steve Boyd
- Ryan Howe
- Rob Shauf
- The team behind Artisans of War
- Brayden Viloria
It’s a terrific group of creators, and there may well be others joining as the event approaches.
As for my own table, I’m currently sold out of copies of my newest graphic novel, Does Your Mother Know? An updated edition with a new cover is hopefully arriving this November, but for now I’ll have copies of Don’t Know (Maybe So) Volumes 1, 2 and 3, along with Waiting for Wednesday, the comic short story that took me to France, and allowed me to meet Lisa Loeb.
I’ll also be bringing along something a little different.
Last year, I had the opportunity to collaborate with the University of Saskatchewan College of Medicine, the Canada FASD Research Network and the Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation on a four-page educational mini-comic called A Better Tomorrow.
Written by Dr. Mansfield Mela, a professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Saskatchewan, the comic presents a fictionalized but representative story inspired by the families he works with. I illustrated, coloured and lettered the project, which was produced as part of broader research and outreach efforts related to Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. A print run of 1,000 copies was presented at the CanFASD Conference in Toronto in October 2025.
It’s certainly not a typical comic-book story. The project introduces some of Dr. Mela’s team’s research into treatment approaches for individuals prenatally exposed to alcohol, touching on a complex subject through the language of comics. It was a very different sort of assignment for me, but one I’m proud to have been part of.
I’ll only have a small number of copies available, so if you’re curious to see one of the more unique projects I’ve worked on recently, feel free to stop by early to buy one.
Whether you’re hunting for back issues, meeting creators, supporting a great local business or simply looking for an excuse to spend a Saturday surrounded by comics, I hope you’ll stop by. I’ll be 11am-3pm, talking comics and trying very hard not to come home with more books than I arrived with.
I’m hoping to have another in-person announcement soon, so watch this space once the details are finalized.
Thanks for reading, I love you.
An Important Retraction
In a recent newsletter, I comedically implied that during a recent garage sale, my wife had held back on selling her collection of Barbies and My Little Ponies. In fact, those toys were included in the garage sale, and my wife only held back a single, deeply meaningful baby doll toy. Don Sparrow: Storyteller regrets the error.