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 Eleven: Dufferin Street Tunnel & Parkdale Amphitheatre, 1258 Queen St. W.

Alerted to trouble as he walks past Alexandria Falafel and Motel Bar, Lucas Barrett continues down Queen St. West, only to discover the intersection at Dufferin St. completely destroyed by a huge spiky-skinned creature rising up from beneath the city.

The Pitiful Human-Lizard running for his life on the first cover of his own series.

Emerging from the street, the enormous monster actually reflects a city-planning oversight that had plagued Toronto motorists since the dawn of the automobile, and which had only recently been corrected. For over a century, traffic along Dufferin had been forced to detour around the CP Rail line that also intersects at Queen and Dufferin Sts, resulting in what had come to be known as the "Dufferin Street Jog."

Trouble rears it's ugly head at the corner of Queen St. West and Dufferin St.

The jog was first seen as a problem during the 1960s, when traffic picked up to such a degree that Dufferin St. became a much more heavily used artery into the city's core. In the end though, it took the city nearly fifty years to correct the traffic flow snag in 2010, by completing the 72-meter-long Dufferin Street Tunnel, running under the railway line and directly adjacent to the Queen Street underpass.

Phone booths are a rare thing nowadays, so Lucas resorts to changing in the bushes.

While Lucas is off getting changed behind some nearby shrubbery, Mother Wonder rockets down Queen St. West like a TTC streetcar, ready to tackle the titanic beast. The Human-Lizard quickly enters the fray, but no sooner does he leap up on the creature's shoulder than things take a turn for the horribly unexpected.

Mother Wonder's got this, while Lucas is still tucking in his shirt.

The sudden jolt from a Wonder punch causes one of the creature's spikes to slice through Human-Lizard's arm, cutting it clean off and sending the now critically maimed Lucas hurtling to the street. While he lays bleeding out, thinking his super-hero career is over before it's even really begun, Lucas is shocked to see his arm reattach itself and heal at incredible speed!

The Human-Lizard looks around for a helping hand next to Parkdale Amphitheatre.

Meanwhile, Mother Wonder makes short work of the rampaging menace and, checking in on the now-completely recovered Human-Lizard (minus the bloody sleeve of his uniform, of course), thanks him for the assist in taking the monster down before heading off to her next super-heroic feat: Taking care of the family back at home.

Mother Wonder giving the beast a taste of it's own medicine.

Before the Dufferin Street Tunnel was completed, the area where Mother Wonder and Human-Lizard tackle and overcome the giant, spiky monster was nothing more than a few unkempt trees and a large, unsightly billboard.

Parkdale Amphitheatre with, and without, giant spiky monsters.

Shortly after though, it was revitalized into a more neighbourhood friendly green space with wheelchair accessible terraced seating, surrounding the pocket park now known as Parkdale Amphitheatre.

Parkdale Amphitheatre at 1258 Queen St. West.

Next up: A trip down memory lane with Lizard-Man . . . on top of the Fairmont Royal York hotel!

-DE

Sticky Step Ten: Alexandria Falafel & Motel Bar 1233-5 Queen St. West

As Lucas leaves his apartment dressed in a Blue Jays jersey, possibly to take in a baseball game while grabbing a bite at the hot dog cart just outside Rogers Centre, the last of Majestic's scout rats flee en masse, down the street.

Lucas leaving his apartment at 1381 Queen St. West.

Lucas proceeds in the same direction (with his Human-Lizard gear stowed in his knapsack, as always), but whether he's tailing the rats or just heading downtown to catch that ball game is never firmly established because as he approaches the corner, Lucas closes the distance between himself and fresh trouble brewing on Queen St. West.

Lucas walking down Queen St. West, directly in front of Alexandria Falafel and Motel Bar.

As he passes by one particular storefront, a huge crack in the sidewalk appears, throwing Lucas off-balance and heralding the arrival of serious trouble just up ahead. Could this be a job for the city's newest protector?

Lucas loses his footing right in front of Motel Bar at 1235 Queen St. West.

Located at the corner of Gwynne Avenue, Alexandria Falafel at 1233 Queen St. West has been keeping the visitors and residents of Toronto's Parkdale neighbourhood fed for years now. Open late, it primarily caters to the after-last call crowd as patrons empty out of the surrounding bars in the area.

Alexandria Falafel at 1233 Queen St. West and the corner of Gwynne Avenue.

One such establishment, Motel Bar, just happens to be right next door to Alexandria Falafel. So titled as a play on the names of other hotel-turned-watering holes in the Parkdale area, like the Drake and the Gladstone Hotel, Motel Bar is slightly different from your typical hole-in-the-wall dive bar.

Motel Bar at 1235 Queen St. West.

In addition to offering up live music for patrons Sunday to Thursday, it also doubles as a vintage record store, as well. The vintage doesn't end with the vinyl, though. Inside, the walls are adorned with old record sleeves, cathode ray tube TV sets and even an original motel sign recovered from Toronto's long-lost strip of cheap, seedy motels along Lakeshore Road.

Motel Bar's namesake, an old rusty sign recovered from Toronto's seedy past.

Next up: The Human-Lizard helps out Mother Wonder (well, sort of) while battling a mutant monster by the Dufferin Street Tunnel and Parkdale Amphitheatre!

-DE

Sticky Step Eight: The Secret Lizard Lair, 1381 Queen St. West.

With nothing happening in the downtown core (and no one to patrol with anyway), the Human-Lizard gives up on the seemingly abandoned Yonge-Dundas Square to head home for the night. However, the next morning he experiences not one, but two rude awakenings as he discovers a swarm of brightly coloured rats all over his apartment! While alarmed at first, Lucas quickly assesses the situation and phones up his buddy, Kenneth Kozlow (a.k.a. Majestic Rat), to tell him to call off his telepathically influenced subjects.

Jerry the lab tech leaving the Secret Lizard Lair.

Then a knock at the door from Jerry, the Walmer + Corp. lab technician, complicates things further as he asks Lucas if he'd recovered from the negative effects of the drug he'd tested earlier in the week, which had landed him in the hospital. Lucas tells Jerry he's fine and quickly dismisses him as Majestic's second wave of rat subjects arrives to call back the first scouting party. As Jerry exits Lucas' building, the address number is seen on the front door, revealing the now not so Secret Lizard Lair to be on the second floor (Apt. #202) of 1381 Queen St. West in Parkdale.

1381 Queen St. West, home of the Human-Lizard.

Depending on your opinion, it's either appropriate or ironic that Toronto's street-level defender of justice just happens to live right above a lawyer's office. Although the ground floor entry of 1381 Queen St. West is depicted as the entrance to the second floor apartments in the The Pitiful Human-Lizard, it's actually the front door to the bustling offices of the Morris Goldstein Law firm on the ground floor.

The offices of Morris Goldstein Law located at 1381 Queen St. West.

Next up: News of the Human-Lizard's heroism spreads to George's Gourmet hot dog cart next to Bobbie Rosenfeld Park at 280 Bremner Blvd!

-DE

Sticky Step Seven: The Rooftop Road To Yonge-Dundas Square.

It's been well over half the summer without any new Sticky Steps (sorry about that faithful readers, but real life decided to cut in line and swallow up all my free time this season!), but now that there are fresh, new Human-Lizard stories filling up the comic racks again (The Chapterhouse Comics 2016 Summer Special and TPHL #8 are on shelves now, and TPHL #9 is scheduled for release on Wednesday, August 31), it's time to get the ball rolling again.

First up, be sure to check out the updated and corrected information on the very first Sticky Step on Roncesvalles Ave. As it turns out, I'd been way off on that one, but thanks to some helpful direction from Jason Loo, The Pitiful Human-Lizard creator himself, I'm back on track!

The Human-Lizard doubled over as the windows of 200 University Ave. gleam in the background.

Although I've been remiss in updating Sticky Footprints for a little while now, I haven't been completely unproductive. During the downtime, I've scoured the city of Toronto hunting down and photographing locales (way before it became a whole thing with Pokemon Go players) and chatting up some of Chapterhouse Comics' other superstar creators, like "Fearless" Fred Kennedy, Adam Gorham, Danny Zabbal and Mike Rooth. But summer's almost gone now, so it's time to knuckle down and get back to following the Human-Lizard!

The Human-Lizard on the rooftop of what appears to be CIBC at 205 Queen Street West.

When we last left Lucas Barrett (a.k.a. Toronto's new, street-level hero, the Human-Lizard), he was absconding from the police after tussling with Johnny "Bodyrocks" Mancini in the middle of the Entertainment District's John Street, also known as "Club District."

Dumpster diving in the name of medical science!

As Lucas makes his way along the rooftops toward the centre of the city, he pauses on one particular rooftop as pain lances through his now shattered mouth. He discovers that the secret formula that he'd tested out at the Walmer + Corp. laboratory a few days earlier has endowed him an advanced healing factor, which gives him greater strength, stamina and endurance, while also recovering from his wounds almost instantaneously! Lucas decides to test out this theory by flinging himself off the roof into a nearby dumpster.

CIBC at 205 Queen Street West.

Although, again, I can't be a hundred per cent certain, the rooftop that Lucas takes a dive from to confirm this discovery appears to be the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, located at 205 Queen Street West at the corner of Simcoe Street. Of all the buildings in the area east of John Street, this one perfectly matches the height and dimensions depicted in the panels of issue #1.

200 University Ave. as seen from the corner of Queen St. W. and Simcoe St.

The glass faced building in the background backs up this theory, as well, since it looks nearly identical to the one at 200 University Avenue, a designated city Heritage site, which was designed and built by John B. Parkin and Associates, the same firm responsible for the design of Toronto’s (new-ish) City Hall along with the Financial District's iconic collection of black towers making up the Toronto Dominion Centre.

Looking across toward Y-D Square from the rooftop of Atrium.

Emboldened by his discovery, Lucas makes his way further into the city, hopping from rooftop to rooftop, until he reaches Atrium (formerly known as "Atrium on Bay") at 595 Bay St. and puts a call in to Majestic Rat, while looking across at the illuminated billboards which tower over Yonge-Dundas Square.

Hanging out on top of Forever 21 at 302 Yonge St.

Hopping down closer to street level, the Human-Lizard steadies himself against the Forever 21 sign directly above the store located kitty-corner from the square at 302 Yonge Street, while marveling at how deserted the square is.

A view of Yonge-Dundas Square from above and seen from directly below.

Sadly, without regenerative powers and sticky glue boots, I wasn't able to get proper rooftop photos comparing each location along the road to Y-D Square, but hopefully you can still get an idea of the landscape Lucas travels while crawling walls downtown.

Yonge-Dundas Square at 1 Dundas Street East.

Want to know what's going on at Yonge-Dundas Square so you don't show up when it's completely deserted? No problem! Just visit their events calendar to find out what's coming up!

Next up: A closer look at where the Human-Lizard hangs his cowl, The Secret Lizard Lair!

-DE

Sticky Step Five: Captain's Treasures Antiques & Skyline Restaurant, 1424-6 Queen St. W.

Having recovered from the drug trial testing that sent him to the hospital overnight (which, since he lives in the Parkdale neighbourhood, would most likely have been Toronto Western Hospital at 399 Bathurst Street), and freshly limbered up from another class at TDOT BJJ, Lucas checks his messages, makes a few repairs to his Human-Lizard uniform and then suits up to go out on Friday night patrol.

Toronto Western Hospital at 399 Bathurst Street seen from the intersection at Nassau Street.

Now dressed as Toronto's pretty decent protector, The Human-Lizard, Lucas climbs out of the Secret Lizard Lair's second-floor window and leaps onto the roof of a passing streetcar heading into the downtown core.

The second-floor window of the Secret Lizard Lair and the streetcar cables over the street directly in front.

Zooming down Queen Street West, the Human-Lizard surfs a ride on top of the 501 Neville Park streetcar as it passes by two iconic Parkdale storefronts, The Skyline Restaurant and Captain's Treasures Antiques, identified by the windows of the apartments above.

The rooftops of 1424-6 Queen St. W. can be seen as the Human-Lizard zooms by on the roof of a passing streetcar.

Recently, it was reported that the Skyline Restaurant at 1426 Queen Street West would be closing it's doors permanently, but now that appears not to be the case. As it turns out, Jud Ruhl (former guitarist of 90s indie-rock band, The Gandarvas and more recently, The Beauties, as well as owner of two other downtown T.O. restaurants, The Wallflower and The 3 Speed) has stepped in with his sister Maggie to preserve and revitalize the iconic Parkdale dining institution.

The Skyline Restaurant and Captain's Treasures Antiques at 1424-6 Queen St. W.

To get a look at the best booty on the internet (at least according to Captain's Treasure's Antiques, anyway) set course for the second star on the right and click on to: http://www.captainstreasures.biz/

Next up: The Pitiful Human-Lizard's first battle with "Johnny Bodyrocks" in the Club District!

-DE