Brooklyn Book Fest

Here she is: Kate Beaton had a handful of pre-launches for Hark! A Vagrant, including here at the Brooklyn Book Festival last week.


People lined up for two hours to meet her — is it any wonder that she won the Festival’s “AT&T fan favorite” award?


Crowd control became a problem when her regular fans had to contend with a mob of Quill & Quire subscribers who showed up, all vying for a coveted place in line to see what the fuss was about. Our tents are both further down at right, and this wasn’t even the end of the line.


Kate was a real pro, signing books for people even after they were told the line was capped.


Our beloved former intern/employee Alison Naturale came down from Boston and helped work the booth.


Also signing were Leanne Shapton and Jillian Tamaki, both amazing talents.


Ok, now bring on the boys (I actually didn’t realize our signing schedules were gender-based until seeing these photos). Anders Nilsen was on the tail end of a major Big Questions North American tour and sold out all copies at the show. Adrian Tomine stays true to the “floppy” format and signs the new Optic Nerve #12 (if it’s anyone that could make it work, it’s Adrian; already #12 is one of the most talked about and successful comics pamphlets in recent years).


More crowd scenes, this time for Adrian and Anders.


Adrian’s wife, Sarah Brennan, is spotted by a fan and graciously signs a copy of the book she co-stars in, Scenes From An Impending Marriage.


And here is their young daughter, Nora Tomine, breaking the record books in adorableness. Is it any wonder that Adrian has turned into a sweet, less cynical soul in recent years?


And speaking of adorable, here’s a young fan who reading a copy of Moomin at the curb while her mother was out looking at other book

Special thanks to the Brooklyn Book Festival for the great job on their programming, and for being one of our favorite book festivals to attend.

Posted in: