About the Festival
Festival Staff
Frequently Asked Questions

"The Toronto Comic Arts Festival exists to promote the breadth and diversity of comics, and what is considered comics, as legitimate medium of literary and artistic worth. We seek to promote the creators of these works in their broad and diverse voices, for the betterment of the medium of comics and to reach as wide an audience as possible for them."

The third Toronto Comic Arts Festival will occur on Saturday August 18th and Sunday August 19th, 2007. It will be held in the Old Victoria College building and the Burwash Quad on the University of Toronto Campus.

For the purposes of correspondence, the official address of the Festival is:

Toronto Comic Arts Festival
c/o The Beguiling
601 Markham Street
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
M6G 2L7
Phone: 416-533-9168

For the purposes of hotel searches and/or directions to TCAF events, the address of the Festival is:

Old Victoria College
93 Charles St. West
Toronto, ON, Canada
M5S 2C7

Show Hours:
Saturday, August 18th: 10am-7pm
Sunday, August 19th: 10am-6pm

History:
The first Toronto Comic Arts Festival ("TCAF") was held on the weekend of March 29th 2003. It was the natural progression of years of disparate book signings, author appearances and miscellaneous events put together by a group of volunteers interested in promoting the literary and artistic merits of comic books and graphic novels. Approximately 600 members of the public attended the first festival, with 25 staff and approximately 70 creators in attendance.

The second TCAF was held May 28-29, 2005. It took place in tented pavilions in the parking lot of Honest Ed's, in the heart of Mirvish Village (and adjacent to TCAF sponsor The Beguiling). Approximately 6,000 members of the public attended the festival over two days, with 50 staff and more than 150 creators in attendence.

While a Festival the scope and size of TCAF was a natural progression of locally organized events, often in coordination with Toronto comic emporium The Beguiling, it also grew from equal parts agitation and inspiration caused by other large-scale events dealing with the comic book medium. While most of shows of this nature are pop-culture events and tend to be insular in nature, we wanted to do something that dealt more specifically with the art form of comics itself, with an emphasis on genre appreciation and open interaction between creators and their community.

Key points we wanted to address and incorporate into the event:

• Toronto is a world-class city, with a large indigenous literary and artistic community (to whit, locally it boasts internally acclaimed Ho Che Anderson, Seth, Chester Brown, Jay Stephens, Darwyn Cooke and others).
• Toronto is home to large-scale literary and artistic events that attract not only members of their respective communities but are attractive to the general public, including the annual Word On The Street festival, Harbourfront Reading Series and annual International Festival of Authors, Contact photography events, and even the Toronto International Film Festival.
• Canada is home to a large array of world-renowned comics authors that do not presently receive adequate promotion by literary or artistic festivals, particularly in their home country, and are almost entirely ignored by most comic events despite their media presence and critical acclaim in the international media.
• Incorporating the appearances of a number of talented creators who may not be able to achieve critical mass attendance with a single-creator event on their own.
• Toronto is a city that already has a predisposition to the medium of comics and graphic novels through numerous high-profile events and the second-highest comic book retail establishment to population ratio in North America, just behind the San Francisco Bay area.
• An ability to attract people who are not already comics enthusiasts with a low entrance fee and a community-friendly location.

We are confident that we have created a viable new outlet for comic and graphic novel authors to exhibit and promote their work and art, and added a unique new event to the cultural and publishing landscape in Canada. We look forward to growing steadily and significantly with TCAF 2005 and in the years to come.

STAFF
Festival Director: Matthew Seiden
Matthew was a staff member of TCAF for the first two events, and has graduated to be the main organiser for 2007's event.

Co-Founder: Peter Birkemoe
Peter is the co-owner of Toronto, Canada's Beguiling and one of the founders of TCAF.

Co-Founder: Christopher Butcher
Christopher is a writer, artist, and manager of The Beguiling. He co-founded the web-magazine PopImage as well as TCAF.

Media Coordinator: Nathalie Atkinson
Journalist, comics enthusiast and diabolical chief media strategist. For all press inquiries, including interview requests and accreditation, please e-mail 2007@torontocomics.com.

Webdesigner: Dave Komlos
Dave is a veteran Web professional and avid comic reader.

COMICS FESTIVAL! Co-Editor: Chip Zdarsky
Noted illustrator and creator of the comic book 'Prison Funnies', Chip is the editor of the Free Comic Book Day book/TCAF programme. Chip has also contributed to the overall design of the festival.

Library Outreach and Operations: Jason Azzopardi
Jason Azzopardi works tirelessly on behalf of The Beguiling to get kids reading comics. In his spare time, he also works tirelessly on behalf of TCAF to get kids reading comics.


FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What is the festival? Is it like a comics convention?

The Toronto Comic Arts Festival is a unique comics event, patterned after comics festivals like Angouleme, Harlem, and the Small Press Expo. It is two full days of comics-related events, including readings, presentations, panel discussions, gallery shows, and a large exhibition area featuring publishers and comic authors and artists. We like to describe it as 'unconventional'.

So this is in Toronto CANADA then?

TCAF is being held adjacent to Toronto’s university district, with plenty of options for entertainment including great restaurants, shopping, bars, tourist attractions, museums, movies and more. It is not being held in the 'tourist' district, which means everything is a bit more reasonably priced (and fun).

Won't there be snow or something?

Last year in August, Toronto was approximately 90 degrees with no snow on the ground. Most of the "Canadians live in igloos" stuff is thankfully exaggerated. Also, our venue is quite pleasantly air conditioned.

Will I have to get Canadian Money then? How does that work?

The Toronto Comic Arts Festival will be held in an area with three or four banks, which will be open on the Saturday/Sunday. In addition, many vendors and restaurants happily accept US dollars and Festival sponsor The Beguiling will be offering to exchange money as well.

The Canadian Dollar is hovering around being worth about 93 cents US. That means for every $1.00 US you spend, it's worth $1.10-$1.15 Canadian. Meanwhile, your paying customers are used to spending in Canadian currency after the exchange, so you’ll be making full money on your whatever you choose to sell.

I've never been to Canada before, how does that work?

Well, for U.S. Citizens, a passport is not required to enter Canada, only a birth certificate and photo ID. We do recommend having a passport anyway though, and visitors from outside of the U.S. will require one to enter the country.

The laws have recently changed about entry (or re-entry) to the U.S. Anyone entering the U.S. by land needs only photo I.D. and a birth certificate. However, anyone flying into the U.S., regardless of citizenship, must have a valid passport.

As for coming into Canada, Canada Customs is generally staffed at the border with nice people who want you to come into the country and spend money. As long as you have a clear address for where you'll be visiting (hotel, friend's house, etc) and a phone number, you'll have absolutely no problems coming into Canada. Going back to the U.S. afterwards... well, anyway. Good luck with that.

As for getting to Toronto, it's actually further south than a number of U.S. cities. Toronto is only a 3.5 hour drive from Detroit, 8.5 hours drive from Chicago, and 11 hours drive from New York City. If you're flying into the city, you're looking for "Lester B. Pearson International Airport", airport code "YYZ". The airport is loosely connected to the city's transit system and getting from the airport to the main festival area is a Cdn$40 cab ride and 30 minutes, or $5 and an hour via transit. See the TRAVEL/ACCOMODATIONS page for more.

I have more questions!

Please contact us at 2007@torontocomics.com, we'll do our best to answer your questions for you. Keep checking this page for updated information as well!