What is TCAF?
The Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF) is one of the largest independent comic arts festivals in the world.
Each year, TCAF welcomes 28,000+ visitors and 315+ artists from across Canada and around the world to our two-day celebration of the breadth and diversity of independent comics.
TCAF is unique in our commitment to accessibility. Unlike other large comic arts festivals in North America, TCAF has remained completely free to the public since our launch in 2003, and our programmers seek to spotlight emerging talent alongside established creators.
Over the years, TCAF has drawn prominent names such as Art Spiegelman, Alison Bechdel, Yoshihiro Tatsumi, Daniel Clowes, Junji Ito, Chris Ware, Jillian and Mariko Tamaki, Chester Brown, Seth, Kate Beaton, Adrian Tomine, Kamome Shirahama, and Bryan Lee O'Malley, and we seek to serve as a platform for international artists to showcase their work.
TCAF 2025 will be held from June 7-8, 2025 at Toronto Metropolitan University’s Mattamy Athletic Centre. To kick off the festival, we’re also offering a full day of professional development programming for comics librarians and staff (Libraries and Education Day) and comics creators (Word Balloon Academy) on June 6.
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Exhibitor Marketplace: Meet the creators of your favourite comics, and shop their latest releases. In 2024, over 315 artists and 30 publishers exhibited their works on the TCAF marketplace floor.
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Festival Programming: Learn about the historical and contemporary trends in comics through panel talks, Q&As, workshops, and artist spotlights. Programming will occur onsite throughout the festival.
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Kids Programming: TCAF is all-ages! Bring your kids for drawing and creation workshops and comics storytimes led by educators and library workers.
What to expect at
TCAF 2025
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Professional Programming: Work in comics? In 2025, TCAF will present two streams of professional development: Libraries and Education Day (LED) and Word Balloon Academy (WBA). LED focuses on developing skills to build library comics collections and tools to use comics in lesson plans. WBA offers two streams of programs dedicated to developing business and artistic skills for cartoonists
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Offsite programming: Starting June 2nd, TCAF will also host off-site programming events in the week leading up the festival. In past years, these events have included film screenings, manga swaps, queer mixers, comics jams, and more.
Team
Our
Ho Che Anderson
General Programming
Artistic Curator
Pip Bradford
Festival Producer
Kate Fane
Manager of Marketing & Communications
Mandy Folsom
Festival Administrator
Hannah Green
Volunteer Coordinator
Faduma Gure
​Manager, Programming & Partnerships Creative Lead
Jalen Innis
Production Manager
Aaron King
Digital Experience Manager
Allie Landy
Libraries & Education Day (LED) Coordinator
MJ Lyons
Assistant Festival Producer & Lead Programmer,
Word Balloon Academy
Claire McDonald
Volunteer Coordinator
Matthew Noe
Libraries & Education Day (LED) Coordinator
Amie Wright
Festival Director
TCAF Board
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Emma Wakelin
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Gary Sherman
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Michael Duboff
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Peter Birkemoe
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Simon Cheeseman
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Stephanie Winter
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Steven Kellier
Conduct & Harassment Policy
We aim to provide a safe and harassment-free space for creators.
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Violent, threatening, abusive, discriminatory or harassing language or conduct of any kind is not allowed. Disruptive or intrusive behaviour is not allowed.
Harassment includes, but is not limited to, unwanted and/or discriminatory advances, intimidation, stalking, inappropriate physical contact, unwelcomed sexual attention or other verbal or physical conduct of a discriminatory nature.
People creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive environment by engaging in such conduct are unwelcome at the festival and will be escorted out. TCAF reserves the right to revoke tabling privileges for exhibitors who create an unsafe space for people at the festival.
If you feel that you are being harassed or if you see someone else being harassed, please do one of the following:
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In the event of an emergency, call 911, Tell venue Security, Tell a TCAF Volunteer (Wearing a TCAF VOLUNTEER shirt), Tell a TCAF Staff Member (Wearing a TCAF STAFF badge)
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Email us at contact@torontocomics.com
If you have any questions, or would like to provide feedback or input on this policy, please email us at contact@torontocomics.com.