The Ashcan

The 2010 Toronto Comic Arts Festival was a crapload of Awesome

Posted on 13. May, 2010 by theashcan in comics, Toronto

(Friend of the blog Krystle Tabujara does a lot of random cool stuff, like making hats and acting and learning how to stab people. She also works at The Beguiling comic shop in Toronto and worked behind the scenes at this year’s Toronto Comic Arts Festival. I asked her to guest post about the event and her favourite artists, which is probably a conflict of interest, but definitely not a conflict of awesome.

Because she’s too bourgie to type herself, her colleague Michale Hurlbut helped write down her thoughts. Which makes this our first ghost-written post ever! Except for all that stuff I plagiarize on the reg, of course. -Jef)  

The main floor of the Toronto Reference Library

In 2003 The Beguiling became the ever-gracious, ever-accommodating host to Canada’s first ever Toronto Comic Arts Festival–wrangling a few hundred independent authors, artists and publishers. The humble modus-operandi of this free(!) event is to promote and celebrate the comic medium’s breadth, diversity and aesthetic vivacity as an art form. Needless to say, TCAF isn’t your average toy-shilling, corporation-spooning, masquerade-ball-of-the-damned style comic-con (Editor: Not that there’s anything wrong with that! *Smooths out cape*). It is, dare we say, a literary event. And this years event, held within the austere walls of the Toronto Reference Library, marked our second successful collaboration with the Toronto Public Library, corralling marquee names (and stratospheric talents) like Dan Clowes and Paul Pope, to rattle off a few.

My guests of note were: Charles Vess, Eric Kim (first on my dance card, if second on my guests-of-note list), Eric Wight and Kagan Mcleod. I was busy selling books, which fans could then get signed. Beside our bustling table was where Charles Vess held court. I had known Mr. Vess for Stardust (which was turned into a Major Motion Picture starring Michelle Pfieffer and a surpassingly oddball Robert De Niro), as well as his excellent work with Neil Gaiman. Besides being a terrific artist he is also a lovely man, and if he knew I called him Mr. Vess he’d likely emit a kind of half snort followed by, “Please… just Charles.” 

A fellow Beguiling staffer and myself. I designed, ordered and picked up this years t-shirts prior to the event, so I had time to modify mine a few days before.

Since my job brings me in contact with an array of neato kids books, I am also on a first name basis with Frankie Pickle. Thus, I was pickled tink to meet artist and author Eric Wight at the Official TCAF Saturday Night Party–which I organized or impresario’d, if you will–through a common friend (author of graphic memoir on dyslexia, Mirror Mind, Tory Woollcott) and, rest assured, I fan-girled a little. Frankie Pickle is about this kid with a wild imagination that gets into some hilarious and crazy adventures. Very cute.

The highlight of my weekend, naturally, was the Official TCAF Saturday Night Party, which was my pet project. The Martial Artistik DJ crew featuring DJ Dough Low and Cuzn Joe was spinning while Infinite Kung-Fu’s Kagan McLeod did ace drawing demos.  The place was packed. Fans got to rub elbows (among other things…) with their favourite artists and even Peter, my inscrutably po-faced boss and co-owner of The Beguiling said, “The music isn’t bad,” which is a big deal because he has very discerning tastes. 

Kagan Mcleod is known for his National Post illustrations, but also especially for his hip-hop work and the History of Rap Poster. It features portraits of every single hip-hop artist who ever performed (save one or two), from James Brown to Blondie to Inspectah Deck. The portraits are all incredible, but the back of the poster is a marvel: every artist is broken down into their respective crews with a blurb about their style.

What more can I say? It was a whirlwind few days. I can’t wait to do it all again… after a very long nap. 

Krystle Tabujara is a milliner, Beguiling staffer, international muse and artist model.
Michael Hurlbut is best known for his work as a writer, director and film artiste.

(Pics via and also)

Tags: Charles Vess, Eric Kim, Eric Wight, Kagan Mcleod, Martial Artistik, Toronto Comic Arts Festival, Tory Woollcott