Yes! For the first time ever, Fantagraphics will be heading to the great white north for this year's Toronto Comic Arts Festival. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone, and yes, I'll confess, I'm looking forward to trying one of those Canadian donuts I've heard so much about.
Yours truly will be manning the table, along with Denise and Helen from esteemed establishment The Beguiling. So, let me answer you now, "No, Eric, Gary, and Kim are not here," and "No, we're not accepting submissions, but please visit our website for details on how to submit your work…"
We'll be bringing a bevy of sweet, tasty, chewy… um, books for you to buy (dammit, sorry, still thinking about donuts), including:
• Artichoke Tales• The Artist Himself: Rand Holmes Update: Oops, this one won’t make it.
• Billy Hazelnuts & the Crazy Bird
• Captain Easy
• Meatcake
• MOME 19
• Prince Valiant, Vol. 2• Set to Sea Update: Sorry, this won’t make it either.
• Wally Gropius
• Weathercraft
• Werewolves of Montpellier
Swing by the Fantagraphics table (see map below) to pick these up, and get some books signed by our artists:
SIGNING SCHEDULE
Saturday 12:30-2:30: Jim Woodring (at The Beguiling signing tables)
Saturday 2-3: Blake Bell & Roger Langridge
Saturday 4-5: Dash Shaw
Sunday 12-2: Ho Che Anderson
Sunday 1-2: Roger Langridge
Sunday 2:30-4:30: Jim Woodring
(Times may be subject to last-minute change.)
And be sure to hit up some of these great panels, too:
SATURDAY
Feature: Daniel Clowes, James Sturm, Seth, Chester Brown, and Jim Woodring
11:30 – 12:30pm, Learning Center 1 (Located at Toronto Reference Library 789 Yonge Street, 1st floor, in the main atrium space)
Five of the world’s most respected cartoonists in one room, on one panel! Moderated by Tom Spurgeon.
Spotlight: Paul Pope and Dash Shaw
12:00-1:00pm, The Pilot (22 Cumberland Street, across the street from Toronto Reference Library)
TCAF Featured Guests Paul Pope and Dash Shaw are two of the most exciting creators in comics, mixing their influences and innovations to create groundbreaking work. Now Inkstuds Radio/Podcast host Robin McConnell will moderate a conversation between these two creators about the role that influences play in creating comics, ranging from traditional comics to film and music and from classical to contemporary works. This also includes a discussion of education, some key points in creating your own vision in comics, and an examination of how to make influences work and finding out where they lead you.
SUNDAY
Spotlight: Jim Woodring’s Weathercraft
12:30 – 1:30pm, Learning Center 1 (Located at Toronto Reference Library 789 Yonge Street, 1st floor, in the main atrium space)
Jim Woodring’s cartoons chart a course through some of the most surreal imagery ever seen in any artistic medium, drawing visions from the realms of the subconscious to create a graphic world of dreams. But while his work may speak in the language of dreams, Woodring’s life has often led him into nightmare territory… Now venture into Woodring’s interior world with Weathercraft, the newest book in Woodring’s Frank world. Joining Jim Woodring will be journalist Sean Rogers, who will interview the author in a moderated Q&A.
The New Graphic Novelists: New Creators Transforming the Medium
Sunday, May 9th, 2:15 – 3:15pm, Learning Center 1 (Located at Toronto Reference Library 789 Yonge Street, 1st floor, in the main atrium space)
There is a pantheon of great graphic novelists — folks who started thinking about comics as singular, book-bound creations. But that concept has shifted since its conceptualization, and a collection of young creators are pushing the medium in fantastic new ways. Creators Joshua Cotter, Colleen Frakes, Ryan North, Dash Shaw, and Raina Telgemeier will discuss their experiences producing comics that alternately defy and embrace the term ‘graphic novel”. Moderated by Eva Volin.
Research and History: Inspiration versus Obligation
Sunday, May 9th, 3:00 – 4:00pm, The Pilot (22 Cumberland Street, across the street from Toronto Reference Library)
A discussion about different approaches and uses of research from the hardcore to the writers of historical fiction. Inspiration versus obligation … for everybody. A lively discussion led by Kathryn Immonen, and featuring Stuart Immonen, Jim Ottaviani, Kate Beaton, Ho Che Anderson, Willow Dawson, and Matt Kindt.
Russell Patterson and the Patterson Girl
Sunday, May 9th, 4:30 – 5:00pm, Learning Center 1 (Located at Toronto Reference Library 789 Yonge Street, 1st floor, in the main atrium space)
Russell Patterson got his start in Montreal as a newspaper cartoonist. He then went to Chicago, where he eventually made a name for himself as an illustrator of flapper era nightlife. His “Patterson Girls,” which appeared in magazines and various comic strips (Flossy Frills; Gloria Gets Her Man; The Patterson Girl), were intended as caricatures, and between 1925 and 1960 they go from being fun and liberated to being sexist and shallow. Jaleen Grove, editor of Top Hats and Flappers (Fantagraphics) traces this progression in the context of the entertainment industry and its exploitation of glamour, looking at how models used illustrators and vice versa to further their careers.
