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  I’m working on a longer account of TCAF for PW, but here’s some photos to capture the high while it’s fresh. While the weekend was tinged with sadness over the passing of Canadian native son Darwyn Cooke, the general mood was a celebration of the kind of creative spirit that Darwyn embodied. TCAF s always a chance to catch […]

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Where's Wald-o?

I have a bit of a backlog so I am trying to catch up here.

I met Pat Ann and Larry MacDougal in Toronto to sketch and go to TCAF. I had wanted to see this comic convention for a while and it had been a long time since I had been in the area (2011).

We met Friday to check out  Oakville. It is a beautiful town that is starting to become very affluent. There is a ton of new construction there. It is also home to Sheridan College, where they both met and went to school.

We sketched at the marina until we were rained on, but it was so cold that it was good to go inside for coffee.



On Saturday, went to the comic show. My mom traveled with me to spend the day with my Godmother who was her best friend during her college days at Case Western Reserve in the early 60s.

It was amazing and PACKED. It was probably the youngest crowd I have ever seen at a comic convention. We talked about a table at TCAF but I need to do a LOT more comics before that happens...

After the show, we sketched for a while at the Royal Ontario Museum.


Vine video: https://vine.co/v/MgrPzumhFpH

I love the Chinese lions!

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Now here’s a nice example of “comics across the world.” TCAF, the Toronto Arts Festival, has taken a booth at Tokyo’s Kagai Manga Festa on November 18th, and will allow certain Canadian cartoonists to exhibit at the booth for free.

The Toronto Comic Arts Festival will be making its first exhibition abroad, at the first-ever Kaigai Manga Festa (International/Overseas Comics Festival) being held Sunday, November 18th, in Tokyo, Japan. TCAF will have a booth space there and will be promoting the festival and cartoonists who have exhibited there through posters, give-aways, and sales & displays of Canadian comics and graphic novels. Our initial partners on this venture are Canadian publishers Drawn & Quarterly and Koyama Press, whose works will be displayed at the Festival. In addition, we will be exhibiting alongside Canadian publisher UDON Comics.

Now here’s the part that’s most exciting for me (and for you!): TCAF will be making available exhibition space at Kaigai Manga Festa, for free, to any Canadian cartoonist who has exhibited at TCAF at least once since its inception. Basically, if you can get yourself to Tokyo, we will help you exhibit your comics and promote your work to the more than 40,000 attendees of this event (not to mention international publishers, licensing agents, etc. in attendance!). We will also probably do things like organize group dinners and teach you how to ride the train, that sort of thing, but the big thing is: Come promote your work and further your career in Tokyo.

The Festa is a one day event spotlighting alternative comics within the larger Comitia event and already features guests Emmanuel Lepage, Regis Loisel, Benoit Peeter, Francois Shuiten, and Jean-David Morvan, and Katsuhiro Otomo. TCAF organizer is putting together the booth details—which will only be open to Canadian cartoonist who have already exhibited at TCAF—and exhibiting cartoonsits must pay their own way to Japan, of course.

A lengthy FAQ has answers to all the burning questions including possible plans to expand opportunities for guests (and sad news for wannabe tagalongs)—but overall it sounds like a great opportunity for some cartoonists to expose their work to one of the most comics friendly audiences on earth.

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Jamie Coville has his usual massive photo dump for TCAF, with over 250 photos of all the great people there. That’s organizer Chris Butcher and Usamaru Furuya above.

Coville also recorded several panels and here they are!

David Boswell Spotlight (38:51, 35.5mb) – 
David Boswell talks about his career and a lot about his most famous creation Reid Fleming: The Worlds Toughest Milkman. Boswell explains how and why he got into doing comics, some of the inspiration behind Reid Fleming, why what was originally supposed to be a one page joke became an ongoing comic. Boswell spoke about the making of the Graphic Novel reprinting the Reid Fleming stories and what went into it. He goes into the new Reid Fleming Graphic Novel that’s currently being created. He also talks about the proposed Reid Fleming movie, the script he wrote and the big name actors that attempted to get it made and more. The panel was moderated by Tom Spurgeon

Telling True Stories (45:55, 42.0mb) – This panel includes a number of non-fiction writers spanning from autobiographical, history to biographies on other people. On it are David Collier, Tory Woolcott, Jim Ottaviani, GB Tran and Zach Worton. The panel was moderated by Greg Means. The group talked about writing about people who are alive and would likely read the work vs. people who are dead and gave reactions that they’ve received from family members to their subjects. They talked about how their behaviour changes when they are regularly doing autobiographic comics, also how they depict themselves in their works. Just about everybody admitted to fictionalizing their work in some manner and went into the how and why of doing that. Researching their topics was also discussed.

The Doug Wright Awards (1:25:50, 78.5mb) – 
The awards were hosted by Don McKellar
Among the presenters are: Erin Karpluk, Mark Medley & Michael Redhill

The ceremony was as follows:
Introduction of nominee’s and sponsor appreciation by Brad Mackay
Pigskin Peters Hat/Award: Spotting Deer by Michael DeForge (Koyama Press)
Best Emerging Talent: Alex Fellows, Spain and Morocco
Seth interviews Giants of the North Hall of Fame inductee David Boswell, who is then inducted by Chester Brown
Best Book: Bigfoot by Pascal Girard (Drawn and Quarterly)
Closing by Brad Mackay

Usamaru Furuya Spotlight (1:03:41, 58.3mb) – 
Manga creator Usamaru Furuya is interviewed by Chris Butcher on this spotlight. Chris starts off by explaining how Furuya’s work was translated to English 10 years ago and it was among the only book that dealt with the Japanese youth culture of the time. Through an interpreter, Furuya answers questions about why he has changed his style from project to project, his breaking the 4th wall in earlier works and letting the readers know what is going on with him as he’s drawing the story, his work on a Japanese Earthquake and how it relates to the catastrophe that had recently occurr

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scottlava:

I will be in Toronto at TCAF this weekend!

@ the Toronto Reference Library

I will be at TABLE 155 selling my wares.

such wares will include prints and comics and GREAT SHOWDOWNS COASTERS (coasters… very limited supply) more info HERE

so come over!  it’s FREE!

We need to start something as sweet as TCAF here in Vancouver. I know there are a couple comics events here, but they’re nothing like TCAF and other such events in other cities. Hey, someone in Vancouver other than me: step up! 

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Toronto Comic Arts Festival: Pencil it In (by Toronto Comic Arts Festival)

TCAF is coming in just over a week. I can’t wait. This video trailer featuring some of Toronto’s finest cartoonists talking about their tools — holy heck. Love.

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