Sunday, May 29, 2011

The Toronto Comics Arts Festival 2011

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On May 7 me and my lady went to TCAF. Great event. Went to two panels: The first had Paul Pope, Sam Hiti and Brandon Graham discussing their ideas on story creation, fav artists, and independent work vs studio work. The second one we attended starred Darwyn Cooke, Ray Fawkes, Kathyrn Immonen, Stuart Immonen, and Jillian Tamaki. The topic was regarding their ideas on a Canadian voice in mainstream comics. As ever, the panel was fun due to the fact of Darwyn just being Darwyn.

Overall I loved TCAF. My personal highlight was meeting James O'Barr. He signed my Crow comic, which is awesome, but more importantly, we caught him outside the event, and we got a chance to shoot the shit with him. I couldn't help but smile when he started playfully razing Paul Pope. I didn't know it, but I guess when Pope started out in the biz, he went and saw James and Dave Sim to show off his work and get advice. Pope draws on these huge art boards, and James joked that Paul should start drawing on 11 by 17's instead of bed sheets. It was neat to hear one of my favourite creators jokingly pick on another of my favourite comic creators.

Also slightly offended Chester Brown. That was amusing. He asked me why I didn't want to buy his new book, so I told him I'm not attuned to autobio comics. The real reason is I didn't want to buy his new book because I was tapped. I eventually told him that, but the sting was there. Also I laughed when I read his new books title aloud, "Confessions of Being a John". I just thought it was a funny title.

Here's some photos of TCAF.

TCAF groundfloor shotcomics dicussion on storydigital shot of cover of Diamond 6 comic by Paul Pope

discussion at the pilot in toronto
Comics dicussion at the pilot
comics discussion at the pilot in toronto during TCAF
blurry picture of Kathryn Immonen
close up of cover
screenshot of cover
a drawing by Chester Brown
Interior of James O'barss autograph

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