Five big draws for Toronto comics festival
Variety and ambition makes TCAF so different from other fan gatherings
You won’t see crazy costumes, but you will see comics fans buzzing around the city this weekend soaking up the reflected light of the brightest stars in comics and graphic arts from Canada and around the world. On the occasion of the festival’s 15th anniversary, we spoke to co-founder and artistic director, Christopher Butcher, who told us why you need to see this year’s Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF).
1. Once-in-a-lifetime opportunities
If you’re a fan of Japanese manga, this is one you won’t want to miss. Japanese creator Inio Asano has had more than a dozen books published in English and is here to promote his newest speculative fiction series Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction.
Butcher tells us that Asano doesn’t do public appearances or events in Japan, and this is only his second time outside of Japan ever. As with other TCAF guests from Japan, “travel is exceptionally difficult and limited — so we haven’t been lucky enough to have any of our Japanese guests in the history of the festival back for a second time.”
So if you’re a fan of Asano’s work this is maybe your only chance to meet him in your whole life. (Spotlight: Inio Asano, Saturday, 1:30 p.m., Toronto Reference Library and Live Draw Sunday, 10:30 a.m., Beeton Auditorium, Toronto Reference Library.)
2. Celebrate Toronto artists!
The big kickoff panel on Friday night celebrates this city’s comics scene. Butcher extols the “generations of Toronto cartoonists who have either come back to graphic novels and done a new work this year or are releasing their first books after being a real integral part of the Toronto comics scene.” This includes Ho Che Anderson, known for his groundbreaking comics biography King of Martin Luther King Jr. He’s been working in film but wanted to tell a story in comics — it’s called
Godhead. Fiona Smyth has a career-retrospective graphic novel debuting at the festival called
Somnambulance. Smyth was an integral part of the local artistic scene in the ’90s, having done the exterior mural on Sneaky Dees and the art for the inside of its Dance Cave, and her massive new collection spans her entire career. (Toronto Comics: Past, Present, and Future, Friday, 6:30 p.m., Appel Salon, Toronto Reference Library.)
3. You don’t need a costume
In North America comics festivals tends to be more convention-oriented, with lots of people dressing up — with the art and the people who make it being secondary concerns, notes Butcher. But in Europe, a huge component of events is gallery shows and displays of original art. Inspired by Europe, see career retrospectives from Fiona Smyth and Michael Comeau; a Danish comics pavilion; and a German comics exhibit featuring the work Spring: an anthology of stories by eight German and eight Indian women cartoonists about the concerns of women and how they transcend borders. (Exhibits in various venues in the downtown core, including the Beguiling at 319 College St. and the Toronto Reference Library.)
4. There’s a hockey opera! A comic-book, bilingual chamber opera to be exact. It’s called Hockey Noir: An Opera In 3 Pe
riods and is being co-produced with Ensemble contemporain de Montreal and Continuum Contemporary Music.
It’s set in the ’50s and is about the rivalry between the Toronto and Montreal hockey teams, organized crime, love, lust, blood and betrayal. Comics author Cecil Castellucci ( The
P.L.A.I.N. Janes) wrote the libretto — and comics images will be projected throughout. Says Butcher: “It’s the kind of thing that you can’t believe we’re doing, but we’re doing it.” (Friday at 2 and 8 p.m., Jane Mallett Theatre; tickets — $40 for adults, $30 seniors/art workers, $20 students — available through Ticketmaster.) 5. There’s fun for all the family — and did we say free? By the numbers: there are 23 countries represented at what Butcher calls the most international festival yet.
There are two full days of kids programming. Most of the events will take place at three venues: the Toronto Reference Library, the Marriott Bloor hotel and the Cumberland Terrace.
That’s where hundreds of zine makers and “ziy” folks will take over the second floor for a twoday zine fair.
Best of all? Aside from the hockey opera, it’s free to see. The Toronto Comic Arts Festival runs Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information on the festival and all of the events go to www2.torontocomics.com.