Pencil fighting with Bwana Spoons... WTF!?!?!?!?

On Friday night, Bwana Spoons stopped by Super7 for the San Francisco leg of his WTF summer tour. Of course this could only mean one thing: pencil fight! Before the lead sparring commenced, Bwana signed and sketched in his new Welcome to Forest Island art book. The book is a must for fans of Bwana's art because it will give you the backstory on your favorite toys. Following an intro by Tim Biskup, there is much to be learned about the world and relationships of Bwana's characters. (Personally, I was very happy to see that one of my favorite characters, Steven the Bat, is a big fan of one of my favorite delicacies, the bagel.)

Speaking of Steven, Bwana and Super7's Brian Flynn, told me all about a palette fire at the port of Oakland that destroyed most of a shipment of the vinyl bats. Some images of the charred toys can be found in Super7 magazine, and if you've got a box from the first series lying around, give it a whiff. Apparently, you can smell the devastation. Allergic to a faint hint of smoke? A fresh batch of Stevens has been following Bwana along the WTF tour. Each stop along the 9-city tour has featured a new Steven the Bat figure with coordinated Killer colorway.

Now back to the pencil fighting. Bwana explained that this was a nod to a zine he used to make. I, too, used to make zines, but clearly this did not lead to any solid skills with a Dixon Ticonderoga. I mostly struck my opponent's knuckles and after what seemed like an eternity, much to our combined relief, he broke my pencil. I tried to assess how San Francisco ranked among the pencil-fighters of Paris and London, where WTF had been previously. Bwana said there were good matches all over, but noted that the New York stop, which was populated mainly by kids, had some of the longest matches. SF's match ended with our champion getting an original Bwana painting. It looks like LA's winner got a Steven.

Even though fighting's not my forte, I kind of won too, as Bwana kindly customized my blank Steven with a handy green Sharpie. Friday night I fell asleep looking at the new book and dreamt of Forest Island. Check it out at SDCC, Super7 and wherever fine art books by fine art toy artists are sold. Big thanks to self proclaimed "Freelance Toy Writer" Jeremy Brautman, for this awesome write up and coverage of this show, seriously thanks so much, you rock!