Schedule
Programming
Saturday, May 11
Hinton Room
10:00 AM - Gleem: Freddy Carrasco Spotlight
Featured guest, award-winning graphic novelist and multidisciplinary artist Freddy Carrasco in conversation with TCAF programmer and celebrated cartoonist Ho Che Anderson.
Hinton Room
11:00 AM - Clashing Lunar Love
Featured guest, award-winning legendary cartoonist and writer Gene Luen Yang in conversation with writer, producer and interviewer Mark Askwith about Gene’s many projects, adapted works, reading advocacy and what’s next.
Hinton Room
12:00 PM - Doug Wright Volume Two
Cartoonist and curator Joe Ollmann moderates a panel with the folks behind the newest collection of famed Canadian cartoonist Doug Wright’s comics with Seth, Brad MacKay, Chris Oliveros, and Doug’s sons Jim and Ken Wright.
Hinton Room
1:00 PM - I’m So Glad We Had This Time Together
Featured guest, super star illustrator, and cartoonist Maurice Vellekoop talks about his highly anticipated graphic memoir with his editor, influential book designer and TCAF featured guest Chip Kidd.
Hinton Room
2:00 PM - Joe Matt, The Cartoonist
Jeet Heer moderates a celebration of Joe’s cartooning legacy. Friends Seth, Chester Brown, Chris Oliveros, and Adrian Tomine discuss Joe’s mighty prowess with the comics medium.
Hinton Room
3:00 PM - ‘British Comics Now’ Spotlight
Featured guest and cartoonist Lucy Sullivan (Barking) moderates a panel about today’s exciting UK cartoonists and comics scene with Martin Simpson (NORD), Clio Isadora (Sour Pickles) and B Mure (Disciples Of The Soil).
Hinton Room
4:00 PM - A Rather Unusual Adventure: From Animated film to Comics Collaboration
First conceived as a live action+animated film, Clive Smith and collaborators Millena Shang, Fred Kennedy, Jen Lum, J. Torres, and others discuss how they turned this dynamic universe into a comic. Find out more about The Rather Unusual Adventures of Ice Cream Girl and Mr. Licorice! Moderated by comics journalist Irene Velentzas.
Novella Room
10:00 AM - SHIRAHAMA - Live Drawing
Multi-award winning manga artist and illustrator Kamome Shirahama is renowned worldwide for Witch Hat Atelier and her work on Marvel Comics, DC, and Star Wars projects, among others. Come experience Shirahama’s process in a live drawing session!
Novella Room
11:00 AM - Family Ties
Comics and TCAF-aficionado Andrew Townsend speaks about the power of autobiography when family stories are involved with featured guests Tessa Hulls (Feeding Ghosts), Rosena Fung (Age 16), FluX and David Good (Good: From the Amazon Jungle to Suburbia and Back)
Novella Room
12:00 PM - "Peter Kuper Outside The Box"
Prolific and celebrated cartoonist Peter Kuper shares his illustrious career. He has worked for The New Yorker, The Nation, Charlie Hebdo and MAD magazine where he has written and illustrated SPY vs. SPY every issue since 1997.
Novella Room
1:00 PM - Coast to Coast to Coast
The country's coasts are teeming with talent! Join West Coasters Ivana Filipovich, Colin Upton, and Adam de Souza, East Coasters Veronica Post, Troy Little, Brenda Hickey, Tyler Landry, and North Coasters Cole Pauls and Alison McCreesh as they discuss the charm and challenges of creating and promoting their work far from the centre of the Canadian comics world. Moderated by East Coaster Sal Sawler.
Novella Room
2:00 PM - The Secret History of Black Punk-Record Zero
Featured guest Raeghan Buchanan in conversation with TCAF Creative Lead Faduma Gure (The Black Nerds) about comics, identity and kicking ass!
Novella Room
3:00 PM - The Drawing Is On The Wall-Muralists Storytelling
TCAF programmer and celebrated cartoonist Ho Che Anderson asks how storytelling affects the work muralists do? How do they best achieve creating a mural as opposed to conveying the same set of ideas in a book, comic book, or in a gallery? With Curtia Wright, Elicser, Ness Lee, and Milkbox
Novella Room
4:00 PM - Ask A (Comics) Librarian!
Hear from real-life comics librarians from Canada and the US on what comics librarianship looks like and how it can help bolster comics sales and growth. Plus, what titles comics librarians are reading and recommending - and whether they really shush people. With Lindsay Gibb (University of Toronto), Tina Coleman (American Library Association), Lucia Cedeira-Serantes (Western University), Natalie DeJonghe (American Library Association Graphic Novels & Comics Round Table), Fatma Faraj (Branksome Hall) and Scott Robins (Toronto Public Library). Moderated by Amie Wright (Carleton University)
Learning Centre
10:00 AM - Toronto as Setting
Join 5 cartoonists who have based their major works in Toronto and listen as they discuss how the city inspired their work: with Jason Loo (Pitiful Human Lizard), Jey Pawlik (Dead City), and featured guests Stephanie Cooke (Racc Pack), Nick Marinkovich (Kenk), and Rosena Fung(Age 16). Moderated by cartoonist Brian McLachlan.
Learning Centre
11:00 AM - Hello from the other side: The Yugoslav connection
Featured guests cartoonists Ivana Filipovich (What’s Fear Got to Do With It?) and Nina Bunjevac (The Alchemical Journey Through the Major Arcana of The Tarot) introduces us to the richness of the ex-YU comic arts, with a focus on Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia and Slovenia.
Learning Centre
12:00 PM - Spider Legs - Horror In Comics
Cartoonist and moderator James Turner (Dragon Garage) discusses scaring readers and why they come back for more with Genevieve Bigue (When The Lake Burns), Jenna Cha and Lonnie Nadler (The Sickness 01), Beth Hetland (Tender), Zach Worton (The Weird World Of Lagoola Gardner) and featured guest Christopher Twin (Bad Medicine).
Learning Centre
1:00 PM - Graphic Medicine is Contagious
Cartoonist and physiotherapist Kriota Willberg on the growing field of Graphic Medicine. There are now hundreds of books and numerous conferences. Where is this movement headed? With Lara Antal (Ronan and the Endless Sea of Stars), Dr. Shelley Wall, Morgan Sea (Abominatrix Comics) and Eloïse Marseille (Naked: The Confessions of a Normal Woman), Jane Zhao (Mixed-Media and Medicine, Graphic Medicine Reading Workshop).
Learning Centre
2:00 PM - Age 16
Featured guest Rosena Fung talks about the creation of her triple-timelined story of generational connectedness with comics editor and author Serah-Marie McMahon.
Learning Centre
3:00 PM - Queer Kisses-Love, Romance and Identity
Cartoonist and magazine editor Olea Kim (Broken Pencil, The Grind, Bug Milk Variety Show) speaks about all things lovely and messy when it comes to connection and being one’s true self with Cam Marshall (Matchmaker) and featured guests Julie Delporte (Portrait Of A Body), Eunnie (If You’ll Have Me), Rosemary Valero O’Connell (Golden Record), and Mel Valentine Vargas (Pillow Talk).
Learning Centre
4:00PM - The Field
Featured guest Dave Lapp in conversation with cartoonist/curator Joe Ollmann and legendary graphic novelist Chester Brown about Lapp's new graphic novel The Field.
Discussion Room
11:00 AM - Shea Proulx and Jillian Fleck: Zen and the Art of Creating Comics
Proulx and Fleck will be exploring issues of making art when nobody seems to care, building community, and the trials and pitfalls of being an independent creator. WITH THEIR POWERS COMBINED MAYBE THEY JUST MIGHT FIND THE ZEN OF COMIC CREATION.
​
This workshop is for anyone who is sad, tired, and thinking about giving up on making comics. Anyone who doesn’t feel good enough and like nobody's listening anyway. If you’ve complained about “the algorithm” in the last 24 hours, your attendance is mandatory.
Discussion Room
12:00 PM - Raeghan Buchanan - Drawing History out of Obscurity
Featured guest and comics creator Raeghan Buchanan talks about her experience creating non-fiction stories dealing with historically underrepresented subject matter. Focusing on discovery of material, distillation of information, and final presentation, using her comic The Secret History of Black Punk as a guide.
Discussion Room
1:00 PM - Laneha House/DIY Publishing
Featured guests Breena Nuñez and Lawrence Lindell talk about their publishing venture Laneha House- how to start up and maintain a small press, as well as keep their own individual cartoonist practices and family life going.
Discussion Room
2:00 PM - Blue Delliquanti
Presentation about transmasculine comics and how these creators explore identity, sexuality, and culture in their work. Blue Delliquanti is a comic artist and writer in Minneapolis, MN. From 2012 to 2020 Blue drew the science fiction webcomic O Human Star. Blue is also the creator of graphic novels and novellas like Meal (with Soleil Ho), Across a Field of Starlight, and Adversary. They teach comics courses at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
Discussion Room
3:00 PM - People-Pleasers Guide to Making Comics
Want to be an artist, but afraid of exposing yourself to criticism, critique, or just plain scared that people won't like you? In this workshop with author and artist Veronica Post, we will explore strategies to build resilience, self-compassion and strength so that we can be the authentic artists that we really want to be!
Discussion Room
4:00 PM - Subverting the Script
Featured Guests Lonnie Mann (Gaytheist: Coming Out Of My Orthodox Childhood) and Özge Samancı (Evil Eyes Sea) discuss their creative processes, the challenges of cartooning and getting published.
Sunday, May 12
Hinton Room
11:00 AM -Adaptations
Featured guest and renowned cartoonist Adrian Tomine talks about adapting his graphic novel Shortcomings for film, with culture commentator, writer, editor and critic Glenn Sumi.
Hinton Room
12:00 PM - Hidden in Plain Sight: Comics as Commentary
As a medium, comics can be uniquely effective as social commentary, whether pointed or sly. Join Rick Altergott (Blessed Be), Beth Hetland (Tender), Caitlin Cass (Suffrage Song: The Haunted History of Gender, Race and Voting Rights in the US), and Anita Kunz (Striking a Pose: A Handy Guide to the Male Nude and Another History of Art!) in conversation with CBC Books associate producer/columnist Talia Kliot.
Hinton Room
1:00 PM - Roaming Guests
Doug Wright Award 2024 nominees and comics power houses Jillian Tamaki (Roaming), and E.M. Carroll (A Guest In The House) talk about everything—moderated by cartoonist extraordinaire Michael DeForge
Hinton Room
2:00 PM - Visionary Creator Tackles Blindness: A Conversation with Boum
Boum is a key figure in the vibrant Montreal comics scene. Her latest work, the award-winning graphic novel The Jellyfish, is an occasionally terrifying story of facing the thing that we fear the most, and finding a light to guide us through the darkness. Listen as she shares its very personal inspiration with comics scholar/editor Irene Velentzas.
Hinton Room
3:00 PM - The Renegade
Featured guest and publisher, producer, video journalist and 2024 Canadian Cartoonists Hall Of Fame Inductee Deni Loubert talks about her illustrious comics publishing career and the Canadian comics world and beyond with Dr. Rebecca Sullivan, author and feminist media and cultural studies scholar.
Hinton Room
4:00 PM - Smoking Kills
Featured guests Thijs Desmet (Smoking Kills) and Mitch Lohmeier (Michael Mouse) share existential comics’ secrets and Thijs’ impression of the Toronto comics scene.
Novella Room
11:00 AM - Panelled Rheum- Art, Comics and Sequential Narrative
Artist, humourist and educator Jessica Campbell (Rave) moderates a discussion about innovation and experimentation in cartooning and sequential narrative with featured guests Aidan Koch (Spiral And Other Stories), Kirsten Hatfield (Spora), Thijs Desmet (Smoking Kills), Kit Anderson (Safer Places).
Novella Room
12:00 PM - The Atlantic Edge: Making Comics in Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland is home to a thriving and diverse community of comics creators, artists, and indie publishers. But making comics in out-of-the-way areas comes with its own challenges and benefits. Andrew Hawthorn, Paul Tucker, Kelly Bastow and Elizabeth Whitten share what's happening at the edge of the Canadian comics landscape. Moderated by comics journalist Irene Velentzas.
Novella Room
1:00 PM - T4T
T4T is a panel that creates space for Trans cartoonists to speak to their creative process, influences and whatever their heart desires. Moderated by Cleopatria Peterson with guests Blue Delliquanti, Morgan Sea, Leo Covault, Aria Villafranca, Beena Mistry
Novella Room
2:00 PM- The Last Queen
Featured guest Jean-Marc Rochette (co-creator of Snowpiercer) talks about his new book The Last Queen, the story of a bear who inspires a French sculptor's greatest work, with Bart Beaty, author and comics theorist.
Novella Room
3:00 PM -Middle Distance
Featured guest Mylo Choy discusses their new book with host/producer of COMIC NEWS INSIDER podcast’s Jimmy Aquino. Middle Distance is a charming, heartwarming, and poignant story of running and self-acceptance. An exciting graphic addition to a growing field, this sports memoir recounts Mylo’s history with running, and how their love for that famously solitary sport pushed them to grow over time.
Novella Room
4:00 PM - The Joy & Pain of Parenthood in Comics
Comics have a unique ability to speak to the big and small moments of raising little ones. Cartoonist Lara Antal explores the topic with featured guests Boum (The Jellyfish) Breena Nuñez and Lawrence Lindell (Laneha House), Alison McCreesh (Degrees Of Separation) Amy Noseworthy (Hired Hand Studio) Brenda Hickey and Troy Little (Pegamoose Press).
Learning Centre
11:00AM - Past, Present, Future Zines- A Conversation With Zinesters
Moderator artist, zinester and cartoonist Lina Wu speaks about the medium of zines as a vehicle to readership but also as a means to an end in itself with Blaise Moritz (Bar Delicious) and Xiaoxiao Li (Only a Slender Internal Connection) and featured guest Colin Upton (Post-Modern Mini-Comics).
Learning Centre
12:00 PM - Still Zine is dead (or, rather, on hiatus)! Long live Still Zine!
An entry into the annals of journal comics, Toronto-based Still Zine put out 10 issues where anyone could submit a single diary page. Join creator/publisher Jordan Aelick (endlessfret), TCAF programmer MJ Lyons, and contributors MontaRae, Jonathan Rotsztain, Lilian (Lil) Sim, and dearie_dawn to talk diary zines, community, and the intimate act of sharing what happened in a day, however bad, bizarre or banal.
Learning Centre
1:00 PM - Teen Titans- Empowering Stories For Young Folks
Moderator and cartoonist Cole Pauls (KwändÇ–r) talks about creating stories that resonate with teenagers with Cecil Castellucci (Soupy Leaves Home) and featured guests Adam de Souza (The Gulf), Vera Brosgol (Plain Jane and The Mermaid), Lawrence Lindell (Blackward)
Learning Centre
2:00 PM - Laugh Riot: Humour in Comics - Parody, Satire,and Commentary
Artist and cartoonist R.Sikoryak (Constitution Illustrated) on the benefits of humour when sharing complicated content with Jade Armstrong (Food School), Thom (Botanica Drama), and featured guests Mitch Lohmeier (Michael Mouse), Luke Healy (Self-Esteem And The End Of The World), Rick Altergott (Blessed Be), Keith Knight (The K Chronicles).
Learning Centre
3:00 PM - Backpack - Creating Stories for Middle-Graders
Cartoonist and artist Sid Sharp (The Wolf Suit) talks about the challenges and joys of writing for younger folks with featured guests Gary Clement (K Is In Trouble), Anna Humphrey (Megabat Megastar), Christine D.U. Chung and Salwa Majoka (Viewfinder).
Learning Centre
4:00 PM - “Everything’s Under Control”
In the 1960s and '70s, Canada was rocked by the Quebec Liberation Front (FLQ), a militant separatist group. Comics creator/Drawn & Quarterly founder Chris Oliveros chronicles their rise in Are You Willing to Die For the Cause? In conversation with cartoonist François Vigneault, Chris will showcase his creative process and shed light on why he chose to tackle this still-controversial subject.
Discussion Room
12:00 PM - Keith Knight - Cartooning Can Save the World
Award-winning cartoonist Keith Knight humorously explores the way comics have historically been used in social justice movements, cultural storytelling, and speaking truth to power, for centuries. Using his own work and the work of others, Knight makes the case that cartooning can be a bridge to education, compassion, rebellion, and yes, liberation!
Discussion Room
1:00 PM - Automatic Abstract One page comics! With Featured Guest Kirsten Hatfield
Explore "surrealist automatism" to create mixed media abstract one-page comics! This a method of art-making in which the artist suppresses conscious control over the process, allowing the unconscious mind to take over. We will be using this technique as a launching point to create a short comic that can be completely abstract, or on a topic of your choosing.
Discussion Room
2:00 PM - Spiritually Transformative Tarot Workshop with Nina Bunjevac
Nina Bunjevac has had a lifelong interest in psychoanalysis, dreamwork, and esoteric philosophy. In An Alchemical Journey Through the Major Arcana of the Tarot: A Spiritually Transformative Deck and Guidebook, she's united her knowledge and stunning art to craft a deck that aims to help seekers reach a deeper understanding of their inner life. In this workshop, Bunjevac will teach the meanings of the cards and their implication for one’s spiritual journey.
Discussion Room
3:00 PM - Aidan Koch
Aidan will present the process of her most recent book Spiral and Other Stories, discussing fragmentation, folk memory, and materials; additionally she will connect this to ongoing work on environmental comics and the capacity of comics for ecological storytelling.