On September 16th, I went to Toonfest 2006, an annual event in Marceline, MO(USA) where a handful of famous cartoonists get to be grand marshals in a parade and give a very informative symposium about their art and careers. It's a very fun event to go to, especially if you're an artist yourself. 

After the symposium, the artists give free sketches. When I went in 2002, I got a nice sketch from Mike Peters. That was nice, but I realized if you just ask for a sketch, that's just exactly what you'll get.  The next year, I went ready with a specific fun sketch idea for Tom Wilson, Jr.: "Ziggy dressed up as Weird Al". To reiterate what he couldn't stop saying as he was drawing this; he's NEVER had anybody request anything like that before. We both really enjoyed this sketch. Thus started my tradition of getting creative with my sketch requests.

2002 - Mike Peters	2005 - Tom Wilson II	2006 - Browne/Piraro	2006 - Lynn Johnston
2006 - Matt Daigle	2006 - Dan Piraro	2006 - Dan Piraro

Click here to go to the home page for all my Toonfest travels.