Sticky Step Twenty-Five: The Great Hall - 1087 Queen St. West

After an abysmal first date at the Art Gallery of Ontario, "RooBarb" heads home to her second floor townhouse apartment in Toronto's Palmerston neighbourhood and logs onto her online profile to see Lucas' date invitation for the first time. Probably thinking it couldn't be any worse than the evening she'd just spent with "Don Juan," she immediately takes "LuBar" up on his offer.

Barb's townhouse apartment at 634 Bathurst Street.

Meanwhile, at that moment a few blocks south and west, "LuBar" (a.k.a. the Human-Lizard) gets her response while riding home on the top of another TTC streetcar as it passes The Great Hall at 1087 Queen Street West.

The Human-Lizard zooms past the Great Hall's Drawing Room windows.

Built in 1889, and lovingly restored to it's original glory after decades of neglect, The Great Hall is now home to four different venues (The Main Hall, Conversation Room, Longboat Hall, and the Drawing Room) to cater to any kind of upscale event, from concerts and shows to corporate meetings, weddings and even film location shooting. For more information about booking an event, please visit The Great Hall.

The Great Hall at 1087 Queen St. W.

From 2014 to 2016, the restaurant space in the first floor of The Great Hall was home to the British pub, The Bristol, but has since been replaced by the German themed, Otto's Bierhalle.

Up next: The Human-Lizard celebrates the prospect of social interaction while passing by Mr Sub on Queen St. West (now Hot Shawarma/Burger Fighter).

-DE

Sticky Step Twenty-Four: Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) - 317 Dundas St. West

This past week saw the milestone first anniversary of Sticky Footprints' first Sticky Step pass, so it feels like a good time pause for a moment and process that fact. It feels pretty good, to be honest. It's true I haven't posted as regularly as I'd would've liked at times (and as I start to devote time to a few other passions and projects, that's not likely to change on the short term), but I've kept up with this blog pretty well and after a year with a post every other week on average I can safely say that isn't nothing.

The hunter of Human-Lizards hanging out in front of the Art Gallery of Ontario.

The constant challenge of course, has been trying to keep pace with both the ever-changing landscape of the city and the astonishingly talented and prolific output from the creator of The Pitiful Human-Lizard, Jason Loo (who can churn out a whole comic in just a little more than a week!) while living in the Niagara Region and rarely having the chance to visit the Big Smoke. Hopefully that will change in the coming months, since the plan is to be closer to the city anyway. In the meantime, I want to thank Jason again for approving of this little blog idea of mine and encouraging me to pursue it. Of course, I especially want to thank everyone who's been following along so far, as well. There's so much more of the Human-Lizard's Toronto yet to share, so I hope you'll STICK around for it!

The Human-Lizard protects the AGO from Warshell.

Continuing his patrol after the incident with Mother Wonder and the ROM's moon rock thief about a half hour earlier, Lucas descends from the top of the Art Gallery of Ontario's Galleria Italia facade to finally mete out some lizard justice to a small-time villain named Warshell attempting to steal the Tom Thomson painting, Sunset in Algonquin Park inside.

The AGO is safe enough again for Lucas to check his messages.

Risking a blast to the face from Warshell's wrist rockets, the Human-Lizard bravely hurls himself at the would-be art thief and with a well-placed knee to Warshell's nether regions, the danger has passed and the AGO and it's art appreciating patrons are safe once more.

A certain school teacher and her "Don Juan" date exit the AGO.

At that moment, as Lucas checks his messages for the millionth time with no luck, two people exit the gallery (one the same grade school teacher who was not impressed with her students admiration for the Human-Lizard in the first issue) and seeing the commotion on the sidewalk, start heading in the opposite direction along the AGO's front promenade on Dundas Street West.

Taking a stroll along the Joey and Toby Tanenbaum Promenade.

"Don Juan" gets a little too familiar with his date and losing all patience with him, she shuts him down and heads for home. Clueless as ever though, he tells her to keep in touch.

After a bad first date with "Don Juan," best to just untangle yourself and run.

Meanwhile, as she stifles a retch at the thought of ever communicating with this guy in anyway ever again, the Human-Lizard attends to Warshell, still curled up in a fetal position on the sidewalk, completely immobilized by Lucas' attack.

Heading home fast while the Human-Lizard consoles a defeated Warshell.

Although the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) was founded in the year 1900 (as the Art Museum of Toronto), it didn't settle into it's permanent location at 317 Dundas Street West until 1910, when The Grange (a Georgian manor built in 1817) was bequeathed to the Ontario Society of Artists upon the passing of the British historian and journalist, Goldwin Smith. After previously being renamed the Art Gallery of Toronto in 1919, the art institution was renamed the Art Gallery of Ontario in 1966.

The AGO's Galleria Italia facade seen from the corner of Dundas and McCaul.

In 2004, world-renowned architect Frank Gehry began a $275 million redevelopment plan, titled "Transformation AGO" to revamp and expand the gallery. Reopening again in late 2008, the AGO now boasts a four-story glass and titanium south wing overlooking Grange Park, as well as the distinctive, 180 metre-long Galleria Italia facade along the gallery's north face on Dundas Street West.

Up next: RooBarb heads home and the Human-Lizard finally gets a phone message while riding past The Great Hall, but after the events of the past evening will he have a date or not?

-DE

Sticky Step Twenty: The Gladstone Hotel - 1214 Queen St. West

Winter is behind us, spring is here and Sticky Footprints is ready once again to pick up the trail of Jason Loo's forever down on his luck hero in The Pitiful Human-Lizard #2!

Last seen sticking to the wall of Lee's Palace, the second issue opens with Lucas Barrett who, following the TV news piece covering his father's heyday as the local celebrity known as the Lizard-Man, is now recognized around the office as Toronto's newest superhero, enduring the snide comments and condescending inquiries of his boss and co-workers as they try to figure out why Lucas does what he does and why he does it dressed as a lizard. He ignores them, in favour of updating his online dating profile (using the appropriately pitiful sounding online handle, "Lubar.") and while doing so, Lucas comes across the profile of "RooBarb." He strikes up a text conversation with her that goes on sporadically through the afternoon at work, his evening martial arts lesson and even bus ride home afterwards.

The Human-Lizard catches a ride downtown on a TTC streetcar passing by the Gladstone.

As Lucas is prepping for his nightly patrol of the city as the Human-Lizard, the conversation turns to what each of them do for a living and "RooBarb" reveals she's an elementary school teacher. Lucas embellishes his duties as an office drone to Tolkien-esque proportions and, as the eastbound 501 Queen Streetcar he's riding on top of passes by the Gladstone Hotel, he musters the courage to ask "RooBarb" out for a night of board games and beer.

The Gladstone Hotel at 1214 Queen Street West.

Built in 1889, the Gladstone Hotel is the oldest hotel in Toronto to remain operating continuously since it's doors first opened. An impressive feat considering the numerous changes of ownership throughout the hotel's first century and extensive renovations by the current owners in 2005. Thanks to those much needed renos, however, the Gladstone is now renowned not only as a Toronto landmark in it's own right, but also as the city's preeminent boutique art hotel, hosting regular art exhibitions and events celebrating local artists and designers.

For more on the hotel's history, current art exhibitions and events or to book a room, visit the Gladstone Hotel's website.

Up next: The Human-Lizard atop the Royal Cinema's marquee while on patrol in Toronto's Little Italy!

-DE

Sticky Step Thirteen: Golden Diamond Chinese Restaurant (formerly Bright Pearl Restaurant, now closed), 346 Spadina Ave.

Sometimes you get a goldmine of photos and sometimes you get nothing, or very nearly close to it. Sadly, that's the case with the next two locations I went on the hunt for. The first is the rooftop patio where the Human-Lizard briefly interacts with three young women (one of whom, Barb, will have a much more important role in the comic as it unfolds) while grappling with a giant worm monster.

Barb and friends on a rooftop patio barely tolerating the Human-Lizard's efforts to protect them.

I just couldn't for the life of me figure out where the rooftop patio in question is in Toronto. Jason Loo, creator of The Pitiful Human-Lizard, may have mentioned to me where the setting was, but if so, it was a part of town I'm less familiar with and I've completely forgotten since. Trying to locate it on my own has proven impossible because there are so many rooftop patios in the city, it could literally be anywhere. What's interesting is that this is a recurring theme with Barb's character, because as I've read through the series and studied each of Barb's appearances, I've discovered that she lives up to the self-appointed title of "street ninja" by nearly always being someplace I'm completely unable to identify.

Barb dismisses the Human-Lizard with a word, and the giant worm monster with a thought.

The second disappointment was discovering that the restaurant Lucas and his parents go to dinner at, Golden Diamond Chinese Restaurant (located in the centre of Toronto's Spadina Ave. Chinatown district), has since closed down. Hopefully it will reopen again in the near future and, if luck holds out, the interior will continue to be the same as it has been since the restaurant went by the name Bright Pearl.

The interior of the now-closed Golden Diamond restaurant at 346 Spadina Ave.

Until then, however, I've had to satisfy myself with just a shot of the sign which still hangs from the front of the building at 346 Spadina Ave. The exterior of the building known as the Hsin Kuang Centre does feature in a later chapter of The Pitiful Human-Lizard and I've taken a bunch of photos, but I'll save those for another day.

The "Gold Diamond" sign still hangs in front of the Hsin Kunag Centre at 346 Spadina Ave.

Next up: Things get crazy at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) when Bodyrocks tussles with Majestic Rat!

-DE