We're confirmed: The 2009 Toronto Comic Arts Festival will be held Saturday May 9th and Sunday May 10th, in Toronto, Canada. Our new digs? The Toronto Reference Library, a huge and beautiful modernist building, able to accommodate all of our growing Festival needs.

Mark your calendars now, book off some time, and get ready for the best TCAF yet.

For more info, e-mail me at 2009@torontocomics.com.

- Christopher

The organizers of The Doug Wright Awards, Canada's premier comics and graphic novels awards, have begun their 2007 fundraising drive with the first of three auctions featuring new original art by Seth, Chester Brown, and Dave Sim. Each of the artists has created a work on the theme of the monster comics of Jack "The King" Kirby.

Seth's piece, GROOT!, is the first to hit the auction block over at ebay and it's pretty darned nice looking, if we do say so ourselves. Groot! is a Kirby creation from Tales To Astonish #12, and he has the most adorable little log-button nose.

Each one-of-a-kind artwork will go up for auction on eBay beginning Monday October 8th 2007, with all of the proceeds going towards the non-profit Wright Awards.

We'll be mentioning all of the future auction items here on the website as well, but you can also bookmark this link to keep up to date on Wright Awards auctions.

Hello everyone!

I’m Christopher Butcher, one of the co-founders and organizers of the Toronto Comic Arts Festival. I and my co-organizers, Peter Birkemoe and Matthew Seiden, decided that a letter might be a nicer way to address the public than a press release after TCAF 2007, our most successful and praised festival to date.

In the days following the TCAF, we’ve been inundated with calls and e-mails congratulating us on a show that was well-run, well-curated, and in such a beautiful, historic setting as the University of Toronto campus. Added to that are numerous Internet message board posts and blog entries proclaiming this the “best comics festival around” (Mark Siegel, Editor In Chief, First Second Books) and we’re very confident in announcing TCAF 2007 a huge success.

TCAF is different than any comics event I’ve ever attended… it was a conscious decision on our park to add something new and innovative to the comics landscape. Perhaps the one thing that surprises people about TCAF—attendees, press, and exhibitors alike—is that the show is completely FREE for the public to attend! The doors are open and people can walk in and out and return at their leisure (with staff and volunteers greeting them at the door with a smile and a program book). Because admission is free, it removes the psychological barriers associated with going to ‘a comic book show.’ Curious, tentative newcomers share in the energy of a crowd of enthusiastic and knowledgeable fans, and get caught up in attending panels, getting sketches and buying books as a result. TCAF is designed to show the interested public the best that the comics medium has to offer: a broad, accessible, varied view of comics instead the stereotypical collectibles and nostalgia image they might have. As an antidote to the frequent “news” items about outrageous prices being paid for rare and mint condition vintage comics, we kick open the doors and invite the public to witness firsthand that comics and graphic novels are a living, breathing, and most importantly, booming medium.

TCAF also has a fairly unique-to-comics approach of selecting exhibitors and creative guests from across different facets of the industry, including art-comix, independents, mainstream publishers, world manga, webcomics, superheroes, comics historians and especially mini-comics and self-published materials. Because the show is free, we try to pick exhibitors and guests who will appeal to the public, who will put on a great display in their exhibit space and who will engage attendees. We were really pleased to see how well all of these diverse talents worked within the TCAF space, with each section of the show’s eight rooms and two floors truly having something for everyone, including attendees who weren’t already comics fans, but were curious about the medium. All the TCAF exhibitors did a fantastic job of enhancing the stately Victoria College building, and we’d like to thank them for their efforts. In particular, we’d like to commend the folks responsible for the new Toronto-based webcomics collective Transmission-X for turning their room into a beautiful, multi-faceted exhibition space of comics art, illustration and video installation. That interactive experience was the perfect articulation of my specific vision for TCAF, and we hope that more exhibitors will follow their lead in future years (though not, perhaps, their 3am finish time!).

Our number one goal in putting on the festival every two years is to draw attention to the great comics being produced in Canada and around the world. Hearing from exhibitors that they had a great show, financially, personally, and promotionally, we know we’re achieving our goals.

Because of the vast amount of media coverage that TCAF received, before, during and even features and profiles afterwards, TCAF has a much larger reach both locally and internationally than we've ever had before, and than most typical comics festivals or conventions. That exposes new audiences to great comics, and this year specifically the works of TCAF exhibitors and special guests including Paul Pope, Seth, Hope Larson, Jillian Tamaki, Darwyn Cooke, Ryan North, Joe Ollman, Paul Gravett, and dozens more. Attendance for TCAF hovered at around 6,500 people over the course of the Festival, with demographics fairly evenly split between men and women, and with the primary age demographic solidly in the 18-35 area (though many both much older and much younger attended as well). This builds on our strong attendance of 2005, having our show remain approximately the same size – an intimate size and experience we and the exhibitors enjoy. Our observation though, is that our 2005 show was held adjacent to a main thoroughfare in the city and because of that there were a number of attendees who enjoyed the event as spectacle, whereas the majority of attendees this year were pre-informed about the event (and according to our exhibitors came with money to spend). We’re aware that most traditional cons and festivals like announce higher and higher attendance numbers with each successive show, but we don’t work that way.

I’m going to start thanking people now. First and foremost, a special mention of our volunteers. You’ve probably heard it before, that these events couldn’t happen without the help of the people behind the scenes, blah blah blah. Well, one of our volunteers GOT HIT BY A CAR on his bicycle ride home from the show Saturday and still showed up for his all-day shift on Sunday. Seriously. We were set-up for the show in under 3 hours on Saturday morning, and everything was torn down and clean an hour and a half after we closed un Sunday. Our volunteer staff were absolutely amazing: friendly, tireless, and extremely competent in every task. We’ve received tons of compliments, and I want to say for the record that the show would not have happened without them, period. My sincere thanks go to everyone who volunteered to help for TCAF 2007, including Adam, Ahrem, Amanda & Victoria, Anthony, Bryce, Carl, Carlos, Choon-sik, Corey, Dave, Denise, Diana, Diane, Ehab, Erin, Jacob, Jennifer, John, Linda, Myung-Jin, Ba Da, Paul, Rizie, Rob, Solly, Stacey, Steve, Tom, Victor, and everyone else whom I’ve inadvertently forgotten. You were all awesome. And you have the t-shirts to prove it.

The Festival also looked bloody great out in the world this year, thanks to some phenomenal pieces of art by our talented attending artists. Thanks go to: Darwyn Cooke, who made TCAF look more festive than ever with his gorgeous cover art to Comics Festival 2007 and our official 2007 Poster; to Bryan Lee O’Malley for lending Scott Pilgrim to the cover of Comics Festival 2007 and to our promotional material ensuring a healthy dose of recognition from Torontonians; to Evan Dorkin for having his characters Milk & Cheese destroy Toronto in some lovely promotional art; to Zach Worton for turning around our excellent program book cover and badge art in no time flat; to James Jean for his beautiful and haunting image for TCAF sponsor The Beguiling’s 20^th Anniversary Print (which debuted at the show); to Chip Zdarsky, whose talented fingerprints are all over everything we did; and last but not least to Paul Pope for lending his pretty face to the cover of Eye Magazine, one of Toronto’s two alt-weeklies, for our most visible and effective promotion of the year. Funny how that works out.

I’d like to thank the TCAF staff, including Nathalie, Andrew, Jason, Naseem, and Scott for taking excellent care of their respective responsibilities: we love you very much. I’d like to thank The Beguiling staff for giving up their weekend to be conscripted into service, including Parish, Becca, Kayla, James, Derek, Jerry, and Shane. Our panel moderators Ed, Jeet, Jon, Lianne, and Neil did a great job with their respective engagements, and really every one of our guests who held a workshop or created a presentation for the show, especially Darwyn Cooke, Paul Gravett, James Jean, Marc Siegel, Jason Thompson, and George A. Walker, added immeasurably to our success. Speaking of events, I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank all of the wonderful folks who put on ‘satellite’ TCAF events around the city. Our appreciation goes out to: Jim Munroe, Salgood Sam, and Claudia Davila for the Drawn Out Apocalypses launch; The Doug Wright Awards committee and especially Matt Seiden for our Friday-night kick-off event; Brendan Fletcher, Willow Dawson, and Bryan Lee O’Malley for the Songs & Pictures party; Brian McLachlan for the Indiana Jones party and art show; and our venue CENTRAL for our ‘victory’ party Sunday night.

I need to thank our sponsors, too. Not just because we’re contractually obligated to do so (heh), but because they really came through for us on all fronts. OWLkids, Eye Magazine, the Ontario Arts Council, the Toronto Arts Council, Firefly Books, Drawn & Quarterly, and all of our publisher friends: your contributions were very much appreciated. We’ll be hitting you up again in 2009.

I know this is going to seem weird to all of you reading, but I really need to take a second and thank The Beguiling. I know I work for The Beguiling, and one of the other TCAF organizers Peter Birkemoe is the co-owner of The Beguiling, but nonetheless: props. The Beguiling is the main sponsor of the festival, putting a ton of money and an amazing amount of sweat-equity into ensuring that the show goes on. Basically, every hour that I invest into TCAF is one taken away from my job at The Beguiling, and the whole free festival does sort of distract from my employer’s job of selling comics. TCAF wouldn’t happen without the support of this fine store, and as an employee I’m always proud that we bring some of the finest comics creators from around the world to Toronto (and they in turn fall in love with our shop and brag about it elsewhere: I particularly love that).

Finally, to Matthew Seiden, this year’s Festival Director. You did a great job this year, especially in putting up with Peter and I—two less than organized people who live in our own heads more than the real world. Everything you contributed made the show better than it’s ever been, and we’re really sorry to see you go. Best of luck. :)

And with that, I think we’re done for this year. I’m exceptionally happy with how everything turned out, and despite some bumps in the road, I think we came through it all fantastically well. Thank you to everyone who came out, who spread the word, and who made this the best comics event I’ve ever been to.

Christopher Butcher, Festival Co-Founder
On behalf of Peter Birkemoe, Matthew Seiden, and himself.

(Photos by Flickr user "The Doodlers" except where noted. 1st: TCAF Main Floor Exhibition Space, photo by Karen Whaley. 2nd: Gina Gagliano and Mark Siegel of First Second Books. 3rd: Transmission-X installation space, featuring art by J. Bone. 4th: TCAF Second Floor Exhibition Space. 5th: Beguiling 20th Anniversary Print by James Jean. 6th: TCAF kick-off party.)

Hey everybody! TCAF 2007 is NEXT WEEKEND, August 18th and 19th! It's a free event celebrating the best and brightest of Canadian cartooning and featuring comics authors from around the world! Check out the TCAF website at http://torontocomics.com/tcaf!

• A huge guestlist (over 200 comics authors, publishers, artists, and more)!
  
• Guests of Honour including Paul Gravett, Chester Brown, Darwyn Cooke, Evan Dorkin, James Jean, Joe Matt, Paul Pope, and Seth!


• Tons of other guests from webcomics creators like Jeffrey Rowland and R Stevens to Canadian graphic novelists Bryan Lee O'Malley and Svetlana Chmakova to MOME contributors Eleanor Davis and Tom K.!


• A full slate of programming! Panels, workshops, readings, author signings and more!


• An Evening with Joe Matt, hosted by Seth and Chester Brown! Friday night!


• The 2007 Doug Wright Awards! Friday Night!


• SONGS & PICTURES featuring great comics-related bands at Sneaky Dees Saturday Night!


• ...much, much more!

ALSO: Head to http://www.eyeweekly.com/contests/ for your chance to win a prize pack including signed TCAF posters and a copy of all of this year's comics and graphic novels nominated for a Doug Wright Award!

Hope we see you next weekend!

http://torontocomics.com/tcaf

- Chris @ The Beguiling

STEPHEN COLBERT'S TEK JANSEN IN ALPHA-SQUAD 7 #1
CREATOR SIGNING FEATURING ISSUE #1 ARTIST SCOTT CHANTLER
Wednesday, July 11th from 5pm-7pm
The Beguiling, 601 Markham Street
FREE

Come one, come all, to The Beguiling Books & Art this Wednesday for a signing with Scott Chantler, illustrator of the new comic based on The Comedy Network's THE COLBERT REPORT, STEPHEN COLBER'S TEK JANSEN IN ALPHA SQUAD 7. Based on the fictional novel (as in not a real novel, not just, you know, "of fiction" in the way of novels) by Stephen Colbert on the show, TEK JANSEN features Colbert's two-fisted sci-fi alter-ego plowing his way through alien menaces with lasers, all the while an attractive bevvy of alien hotties waits at his side. Tongue-in-cheek? Hell yes, but then that's what fans of The Colbert Report have come to love...

TEK JANSEN #1 features top-notch art by Canada's own Scott Chantler, and to celebrate, the artist will be signing copies of the book at The Beguiling and even selling original art from the series featuring Tek and the whole alien crew.

This is a last-minute signing because we wanted to make sure that the book would be in stores FOR SURE this Wednesday, and it will! Anything you can do to help us spread the word would be appreciated. Include in your listings! Tell your friends! And limit one copy per customer...

This signing is graciously sponsored by the fine folks at Oni Press.

--

- Chris @ The Beguiling

Hey there folks! Since we put the 2007 Toronto Comic Arts Festival website online, we've added nearly 20 new guests, with more on the way.

Also attending TCAF this year will be Kei Acedera, Adrian Alphona, Roxanne Bielskis, Bobby Chiu, John Green, Tom Humberstone, Tom Neely, Vanessa Satone, James Sturm, Tara Tallan, Jason Thompson, Noel Tuazon, Maurice Vellekoop, Marion Vitus, Rob Walton, Dylan Williams, and George A. Walker, as well as Dan Nadel and PictureBox and Canadian studio Imaginism.

Bios, links and more can be found online at http://www.torontocomics.com/tcaf.

Have you made your plans for TCAF yet?

- Chris

TORONTO, Ontario - The Beguiling, Canada’s premier comics bookstore, is proud to announce the 2007 Toronto Comic Arts Festival, to be held Saturday Saturday August 18 and Sunday August 19 2007 in Toronto, Canada. This is the third gathering of independent cartoonists, comic artists and graphic novelists under the TCAF banner, and it’s looking to be the biggest and best yet!

Featuring a diverse array of Canadian cartoonists, in addition to artists and graphic novelists from the United States and Europe, The Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF) will showcase the talents of its guests with an ambitious programme of exhibitor presentations, gallery showings, lectures, workshops, discussion panels and interactive readings. The whole event kicks off on Friday August 17 with the historic on-stage reunion of famed graphic novelist trio, Chester Brown, Seth, and Joe Matt (Joe having departed Toronto years earlier, when he heard the siren call of Hollywood…). Other guests include Society of Illustrators 2006 Gold Medal winner, James Jean, founder of the Center for Cartoon Studies and esteemed graphic novelist James Sturm, and fan-favourite creator of Milk & Cheese, Evan Dorkin, in his first ever Canadian appearance!

TCAF 2007 has expanded to fill the entire Old Victoria College building and Burwash Quad on the University of Toronto Campus, just across the street from the recently-revitalised ROM and steps from Museum subway station. Featuring over 15,000 square feet of festival space, more than 200 cartoonists, and 2 jam-packed days of programming and events, TCAF 2007 will redefine comics events not just within the city of Toronto, but across North America.

TCAF was founded in 2003 in response to the overwhelmingly positive feedback to interaction between the creative community and the public witnessed at similar festivals around the world. TCAF’s innovative format is modeled on grass roots comics festivals such as MoCCA (Museum of Cartoon and Comic Art) Festival in New York (http://www.moccany.org), and the more artist-oriented European festivals such as Stripdagen in Haarlem, NL (http://www.stripdagenhaarlem.nl). Attending Canadian cartoonists including Chester Brown, Svetlana Chmakova, Darwyn Cooke, Bryan Lee O’Malley and Seth are continually recognized as leaders in their fields. Canada is also home to one of the world’s renowned and important English-language comics publishers, Drawn & Quarterly. TCAF is Canada’s opportunity to not only promote and celebrate homegrown artistic talent and publishers, but also to broaden its scope beyond our borders and showcase creators from around the world, many of whom will be in Toronto for the first time. This prestigious gathering of artists is sure to attract a massive national and international audience.

GUESTS
The Toronto Comic Arts Festival is proud to welcome the following guests of honour (please check http://www.torontocomics.com/tcaf often, as new guests are regularly being added to the line-up):

Chester Brown: Chester Brown’s graphic biography of historical Canadian anti-hero Louis Riel in the graphic novel LOUIS RIEL has drawn critical acclaim from the international comics press as well as closer to home in publications like The Globe and Mail and Maclean’s. Brown’s ED THE HAPPY CLOWN [currently in feature development by Canadian filmmaker Bruce MacDonald] was recently re-released by publisher Drawn & Quarterly, and Brown is hard at work on his new autobiographical graphic novel due in 2008. Chester Brown was born in Chateauguay, Quebec, and now lives in Toronto, Canada.

Darwyn Cooke: Internationally acclaimed storyboard artist for numerous Warner Brothers animation projects (including BATMAN ADVENTURES and SUPERMAN ADVENTURES) Cooke broke new ground with his illustration-influenced graphic novels SELINA’S BIG SCORE (a noir crime-drama featuring a modern-day Catwoman) and DC: THE NEW FRONTIER (a McCarthy-era epic featuring the DC Comics/Warner Brothers superheroes). 2008 will see the release of an animated feature film based on Cooke’s DC: THE NEW FRONTIER from Warner Brothers animation.

Darwyn Cooke is also the artist behind the 2007 Toronto Comic Arts Festival poster, featuring a truly festive crowd celebrating with comic books.

Evan Dorkin: The notorious creator of MILK & CHEESE and DORK will be joining the Toronto Comic Arts Festival for his first-ever comics event in Toronto! After starting at Marvel Comics, Dorkin made his name on hip, contemporary looks at youth in popular culture through his series HECTIC PLANET and his short humour strips in anthologies including INSTANT PIANO. Currently, Dorkin's work can be seen in annual issues of DORK and in NICKELODEON MAGAZINE, MAD MAGAZINE, and on the cover of the new Larry Doyle novel “I Love You Beth Cooper”.

James Jean: Currently the cover illustrator for the best-selling graphic novel series FABLES, James Jean is a graduate of the School Of Visual Arts, New York. He has received an impressive number of comics and illustration awards including Eisner Awards, the Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators of LA, American Illustration, and has appeared in The New York Times, SPIN and Playboy magazine. James was born in Taiwan, raised in New Jersey, and educated in New York, where his love of comics inspired a career in illustration and dreams of painting.

James Jean is also the artist who created the limited edition print celebrating the 20th Anniversary of TCAF sponsor The Beguiling Books & Art.

Joe Matt: For over ten years Joe Matt has been notorious in cult circles for the embarrassing frankness with which he reveals his distressing habits and predilections. His most recent graphic novel, SPENT, took over 8 years to complete. Matt was born in Philadelphia in 1963. By his own account (collected in the graphic novel Fair Weather in 2002) he was a spoiled, selfish, and unpleasant child with a bedwetting problem, who also happened to be obsessed with collecting comics.

Paul Pope: In America, he's been called the "comics destroyer;" in France, he's been called the "Jim Morrison of comics" and "comics' Petit Prince." One of a handful of young cartoonists consistently gaining critical praise and media attention, Pope has been featured in Canada on MuchMusic and Space channel, among others, and his work has appeared in print outlets like Spin, Entertainment Weekly, Jalouse, V Magazine and The Village Voice. He is also the only American cartoonist to have worked for Japan's largest manga publisher (Kodansha). His recent works have included stints on popular comics icons in BATMAN YEAR 100 and THE FANTASTIC FOUR, and 2007 will see the releasing of his career-retrospective art collection PULP HOPE, debuting in time for TCAF.

Seth: Chief among the Canadian contingent will be internationally-acclaimed cartoonist Seth from Guelph, Ontario. With his recent graphic novels CLYDE FANS and WIMBLEDON GREEN drawing popular and critical acclaim, Seth has been hard at work on a number of new projects including GEORGE SPROTT (1894-1975), a graphic novella which recently finished its serialization in The New York Times. In addition to his graphic novel work, Seth is a busy book designer and illustrator whose work regularly appears in The New Yorker and The Wall Street Journal.

OTHER TCAF ITEMS OF NOTE:
- A large family area, with activities for young readers and a number of top children’s and young adult graphic novelists including Raina Telegemeier (BABYSITTER’S CLUB graphic novels), Mike Cho (MAX FINDER MYSTERIES, Owl Magazine), and J. Torres (DEGRASSI: THE NEXT GENERATION, TEEN TITANS GO!).
- Scott Chantler, artist on the forthcoming adaptation of Stephen Colbert’s ‘novel’ TEK JANSEN IN ALPHA SQUAD SEVEN and creator of the great Canadian fur-trade graphic novel, NORTHWEST PASSAGE.
- Noted international manga creators and experts including Svetlana Chmakova (DRAMACON), Becky Cloonan (EAST COAST RISING), and Jason Thompson (author of MANGA: THE COMPLETE GUIDE).
- A strong presence of internet-oriented cartoonists and webcomics creators, including Ryan North (DINOSAUR COMICS), Rich Stevens (DIESEL SWEETIES), Joey Comeau (A SOFTER WORLD), and Roxanne Bielskis (staff cartoonist, Torontoist.com).
- More than 200 comics guests, with over 130 already confirmed!

For more information on all guests and a regularly updated listing of attending cartoonists, please visit: http://www.torontocomics.com/tcaf/guests.html.


SPONSORS
The Toronto Comic Arts Festival would not be possible without the assistance of our sponsors, including:

The Beguiling,Canada’s foremost purveyor of comics, graphic novels and high-art funnybooks. http://www.beguiling.com.
The Ontario Arts Council
The Toronto Arts Council

PRESS
Please submit all interview requests, press inquiries, and press accreditation requests to: press2007@torontocomics.com.

Elk’s Run: Nominated for seven Harvey Awards, this groundbreaking series has finally been collected by New York publishing entity Random House/Villard.

The town of Elk's Run's fanatical survivalist founders have sealed it off from the rest of the world, transforming it into a twisted hybrid of Mayberry and the Branch Davidian compound.
When a fatal accident leads to a revenge lynching and a series of murders, the town's teenagers try to escape only to have their own parents hunt them down. The ensuing cat-and-mouse game involves a mine fire, a stockpile of napalm and a rash of terrorist plans.

In cooperation with Random House of Canada, artist Noel Tuazon will be on hand to discuss the genesis of Elk’s Run via an audo/visual presentation, and sign copies of this wonderful new collection.


--

Nick Cardy: Comic Strips: Nick Cardy has been a dynamic artistic force within the comic book industry for over 60 years. Beginning in 1939 with the Eisner/Iger shop through a number of important newspaper strips, a 25 year association with DC Comics and an extensive stint in advertising (TV Guide), magazines (Crazy, National Lampoon) and numerous movie posters (Star Wars, The Bad News Bears), 85 year old Nick Cardy continues to delight his ever-growing legion of fans with a multitude of commissions and special projects to this day.

While his work at DC has been often lauded, Cardy’s short, but bright career in newspaper strips has received minimal attention.

Nick Cardy: Comic Strips reviews Cardy’s entire strip catalogue beginning with Lady Luck (1942) through Batman (1972) and includes an archive of previously unpublished artwork.
Frecklebean Press editor/publisher Sean Menard has put together the definitive look at Cardy’s diverse newspaper strip work including his refreshing interpretation of Tarzan.

--

Come on our and support local Toronto comic authors, network with illustrators, artists, and more, and maybe even have a pint or two.

- Chris @ The Beguiling

Grumpy Bird Launch Party
Tuesday, April 17 2007 @ 5pm
Ten Feet Tall Restaurant, 1381 Danforth Ave.
Free

Come celebrate illustrator and artist Jeremy Tankard's new children's book Grumpy Bird at the official launch party, sponsored by Scholastic Books! Meet the author and pick up a copy of a great new book by a local author!

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Bryan Talbot, In Conversation

In support of his new graphic novel ALICE IN SUNDERLAND

Monday, April 16th, 2007, 6PM
The Merril Collection (Lillian H. Smith Library, 239 College St.)
Free to attend.
Hosted by SPACE's Mark Askwith

Bryan Talbot is coming to Toronto! The creator of One Bad Rat, Luther Arkwright, and the artist of The Sandman Special #1: The Song of Orpheus is touring North America in support of his massive new graphic novel, Alice In Sunderland. Talbot will be doing a presentation from the work, and will be interviewed on stage by Mark Askwith from the SPACE channel. This event is completely free, so come out and enjoy!

- Christopher

PARADISE COMICON TORONTO
JUNE 8-9-10, 2007
HALL C, DIRECT ENERGY CENTRE @ EXHIBITION PLACE
http://www.torontocomicon.com

The Paradise Comicon is Toronto’s largest convention that focuses ONLY on comics and sequential art. Selected year after year by fans and pros as the BEST Toronto comic convention!

Come and see why!

CGC is the official grading service of the Paradise Toronto Comicon.

We are also the home of:- The Women of Comics Symposium sponsored by AllNewComics.com- The Joe Shuster Canadian Comic Book Creator Awards.

For more info, visit http://www.torontocomicon.com

Just a quick reminder that this year's Toronto Comic Arts Festival will occur on Saturday August 18 and Sunday August 19, 2007, at the Victoria College building on the U of T campus. The official TCAF website will be going live soon!

Toronto Comic Book Fan Supershow
Sunday, November 19th, 2006, 11AM-5PM
Holiday Inn Regency Ballroom, 370 King St. West
(Near St. Andrew Subway Station)
$5.00, kids under 12 free w/paying adult

A special one day show featuring a number of great Toronto creators, the Toronto Comic Book Fan SuperShow is this weekend. Come out and meet guests including Dale Keown, Ken Lashley, J. Bone, Francis Manapul, Ramon Perez, Dave Ross, and many more. Plus a special appearance by Liana K & Ed The Sock! Find out more at http://torontocomicon.com/.

(Click on the image to view the full-size flyer.)

TRIPLE THREAT II
Featuring the creators of Degrassi: Extra Credit, Dramacon, and Northwest Passage
Sunday, November 26th, 2006 @ 3PM
Toronto Reference Library, Yonge St. North of Bloor
FREE!

Last fall The Beguiling teamed up with the Toronto Public Library to bring you TRIPLE THREAT, three great Canadian comics creators working in three different genres within the medium! Now get ready for TRIPLE THREAT X 2, our second Triple Threat event with 3 graphic novel series and 6 amazing creators! Featuring the official Canadian premiere of the DEGRASSI: THE NEXT GENERATION: EXTRA CREDIT series of graphic novels, this event will be one of our best of the fall!

Participating in the event are:

From Degrassi: The Next Generation Extra Credit Graphic Novels
Meet series author J. Torres, along with Book One artist Ed Northcot, Book Two artist Ramon Perez, and Book Three artist Eric Kim! Plus, some special surprises for fans of the Degrassi graphic novels and TV Series!

From Dramacon Volumes 1 & 2 Manga
Meet Svetlana Chmakova, creator of Dramacon and Dramacon 2, as well as the artist of the CG Girl comic strip in every month's 'CosmoGirl Magazine'!

From Northwest Passage Volumes 1, 2, and 3 Graphic Novels
How was the wild frontier of Canada settled? Find out in person from Scott Chantler, author of the amazing graphic novel series Northwest Passage.

All of these creators will be on hand talking about their work, how to 'make it' in the comics industry, and signing their books! Readers of all ages are invited to come participate at this free event! Please help spread the word about TRIPLE THREAT X 2 and we hope we'll see you there on November 26th!

RAGMOP and MAKESHIFT MIRACLE DUAL BOOK LAUNCH
Thursday, November 30th @ 7PM
The Victory Cafe, Upstairs, 595 Markham Street
FREE

After many many years, Rob Walton's cartoon/comedy/conspiracy series RAGMOP comes to its startling conclusion, in graphic novel form! Weighing in at 100s of pages (and including tons of new material), this has been a looong-awaited graphic novel collection! Right around the same time, the collection of Jim Zubkavich's MAKESHIFT MIRACLE, a graphic novel originally serialized online, will be released in print format.

To celebrate, we're holding a joint launch party for these two creators and teaming up with the fine folks at Comics Industry Night to do it! Both creators will be doing presentations from their books and both graphic novels will be available for sale at the event.

Jillian Tamaki book launch
Sunday, November 19th @ 8PM
The Cameron House (Back Room), 408 Queen St. West
FREE

It's a night of literary entertainment as comic artist and illustrator Jillian Tamaki (Skim) launches her first collection, GILDED LILLIES, with authors Tanya Chapman (King) and Ryan Arnold (The Coward Files). Gilded Lillies collects many of Tamaki's illustrations for magazines such as the New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, the CBC and The New Yorker, as well as new drawings, and includes numerous comics stories. It's a wonderful collection now on sale at The Beguiling, and Jillian's recent artistic collaboration with her cousin Mariko Tamaki, SKIM, won an Honourable Mention at the 2006 Doug Wright Awards. This should be a really great event, don't miss out!

Toronto Comic Arts Festival 2007
August 18-19 2007
Old Victoria College Building, University of Toronto
http://www.torontocomics.com/tcaf

The dates for the 2007 Toronto Comic Arts Festival have been announced! Please join us this August 18th and 19th at the comics event of the year, right in Downtown Toronto. For more information, visit http://www.torontocomics.com/tcaf and keep reading here.

Hi Readers! We're going to be changing the format of the events listed here at TorontoComics.com. Previously, we would delete past events and add new event listings in chronological order. Now we're just going to add events as they come in. This will keep the pages and events archived, and also allow us to more easily and frequently update the site. Please make sure to scroll through the whole page to see all of the upcoming events!

- TorontoComics.com staff

The 2nd annual Doug Wright Awards
Thursday, September 14th @ 8pm
The Gladstone Hotel – Ballroom
FREE
http://www.wrightawards.ca

The 2nd annual Doug Wright Awards for Canadian cartooning will be held in Toronto on Thursday, Sept. 14 at the Ballroom of The Gladstone Hotel. The evening will kick off at 8 p.m. with an on stage interview of Chester Brown by Seth to help launch the softcover release of Brown's best-selling Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography (Drawn & Quarterly).

The awards ceremony will follow, with the trophies for Best Book and Best Emerging Talent to be handed out by Phyllis Wright (widow of Doug Wright). Canadian broadcasting icon Lister Sinclair will also be on hand to help induct his friend, the late cartoonist George Feyer, into the 'Giants of the North' (aka The Canadian Cartoonist Hall of Fame.)

The Doug Wright Awards were founded in May 2005 as a means of casting light on the wide range of cartoonists and comic artists working across Canada. The country's premiere comic awards, The Wrights are named after Doug Wright (1917-1983) a cartoonist whose strip Doug Wright's Family (or Nipper) ran for more than 30 years across Canada.

Appetizers, music and comics-inspired mayhem will follow - hopefully well into the evening.
Everyone is welcome, but there will be limited capacity at the venue so come early!

3rd Quadrant 10 Year Anniversary Sale
Friday September 15th, 2006
226 Queen St W. (entrance on McCaul)
416-974-9211

3rd Quadrant Comics will be celebrating their 10th Anniversary with a sale on Friday, September 15th. Lots of stuff will be up to 50% off. Click on the small image below to see a full-size version of their sale flyer.

Hope Larson & Bryan Lee O'Malley Signing!
Saturday September 16th, 5pm-7pm
@ The Beguiling, 601 Markham Street
FREE

Scott Pilgrim creator Bryan Lee O’Malley and Gray Horses creator Hope Larson will be signing their newest works at The Beguiling, and you’re invited! If you need a refresher on their work, O’Malley is best known for his mega-popular Scott Pilgrim series, and we were lucky to have him here in town for the launch of Scott Pilgrim Volume 3 a few months back. Hope Larson is the author of Gray Horses and Salamander Dream and just founded the new publishing company TULIP TREE PRESS. Recently her comic strip about her adopted home of Halifax, NS ran in The New York Times.

Come one, come all, and tell your friends. We'll even be giving away copies of the FREE SCOTT PILGRIM book to anyone who attends!

- The Beguiling Staff

Hello folks,

The Toronto Comic Arts Festival is back online after a server hiccup. Give us a couple of days for the new DNS to propegate and we'll begin updating you with all of the great comics goings-on in the city of Toronto.

Best,

- Christopher Butcher
PS: Last year's TCAF website is back online at http://www.torontocomics.com/tcaf !

The staff of the Toronto Comic Arts Festival would like to thank all of the artists, publishers, retailers, and espescially attendees of TCAF 2005 for their attendence, assistance, and good nature. Coverage and photos of TCAF 2005 can be found catalogued online at PopImage.com, and official photos and coverage will be forthcoming on the site.

The next Toronto Comic Arts Festival is scheduled for Summer 2007. Please continue to visit this website for information on smaller TCAF events ocurring throughout the coming months.

Thanks again,

- The Staff of the Toronto Comic Arts Festival