Writer, artist, good chum of the blog and seasoned comic con goer Sean Azzopardi returned to Canada recently to be a part of the parcel of comics delights that is TCAF; he even managed to fit in some more days off in Toronto and took in some related comics culture events taking part in the city in the wake of TCAF, and he’s very kindly sent us in a report, the view of this year’s TCAF from a self published comics creator manning his own table; Sean has also uploaded a bunch of photos to his Flickr so you can have a look around the con. Over to Sean:

TCAF 2012 was my second visit to the city of Toronto and to the festival. As I blogged last year, this is an amazing event and this time round topped that experience. There was an excellent programme of events for the duration of the festival that gave people the opportunity to experience far more than just visiting the main exhibitors spaces, situated in the library. As an exhibitor this is one part of any festival that I generally miss out on.

(pics here borrowed from Sean’s TCAF 2012 set on his Flickr, by and (c) Sean Azzopardi)

Thursday was a gentle start, an exhibition of cartoonists and gamers at Magic Pony. I love the way that beer and pizza was in plentiful supply. Good pizza as well. There were a lot of events that I would have loved to have attended, say How to Pitch, or Jeff Smith’s inking demonstration. It was Jeff Smith along with Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon who opened the festival on Friday night, taking part in a relaxed interview. This is a cool way to start a festival. Chris Butcher starts with a brief outline of the events and introduces the interview. As an exhibitor or attendee it feels as though you are about to take part in something that is welcoming. Gabriel and Fabio have video from the Toronto Libraries up on their blog from the event:

Afterwards there was a meet up at The Cockpit one of the bar/ talk venue, but I hung around to set up my own table. I was interested to see the setting up process and saw Chris organizing the volunteers. Ask anyone who attends this event – they are the real stars, decked out in tangerine and super helpful.

There is not a lot I can say about the Saturday other than it was so busy I never left my table. It was so busy that one ‘comfort’ break was all I could manage away from my table. After a quiet start I sold steadily. But for me it’s less about the sales and more about the opportunity to engage with people about my work. It was nice to have people return after last year to chat and look at my new work. Sunday was a quite start again, but was still busy throughout the day. I did manage to get to go around the downstairs section and buy some stuff. There was so much choice; so many excellent comics on offer.

TCAF is an amazingly-curated and well thought out event. There are sections for children’s comics, Zines, local self publishers and much more. Isn’t it thoughtful to have these spotlight areas within the event, rather than a lumped-together row of tables with no theme or reason? Having a free entry policy to the main event and extensive promotion meant a really large attendance. I think it was up on last year, certainly felt that way. The mix was brilliant all ages, a good male/female ratio of exhibitors and audience.

I found myself smiling a lot at this event. A feeling of genuine joy that I was part of something special. This feeling was extended to the Sunday after-party. Chris gave a closing speech assisted by Peter and Miles. I was looking forward to this, to seeing the reaction of the first timers like Ian Williams and Simon Moreton. They were part of a strong group of UK cartoonists who made the trip to Canada, deep breath: Joe Decie, Lizz Lunney, Darryl Cunningham, Martin Steenton from Blank Slate, Doug and Emma from SelfMadeHero, Joe List, Luke Pearson, Philippa Rice, Clark, Joe (Nobrow), Tom Gauld and Matt Sherret.

The closing speech is a really important moment as it cements the feeling that you have all been involved together, a lovely way to close an event. Post-weekend there were a couple of talks that I attended as well, Gabriella Giandelli at the Italian Institute, and Arne Bellstorf at the Goethe Institut. A very nice coda to the main festival. In summary it was one of the best events I’ve attended. Full of fun and inspiration it’s my idea of a near perfect comic event. I would like to thank everyone who took part for making it a wonderful time.

More please.

(a segment from Seth’s new Great Northern Brotherhood of Canadian Cartoonists book, just coming out from D&Q)

A quick look down the list of some 70-odd authors who will be at the Festival in October (when the award will be given) also reveals some fellow comics folks who will be guests at the literary bash, including Daniel Clowes and Kate Beaton, as well as a pair of Scottish crime novelists who have also turned their hands to comics work, Denise Mina and Ian Rankin. The IFOA runs from October 19th to 30th in Toronto.

(a page from Snow by and (c) Benjamin Rivers)

Benjamin Rivers has posted up a video promoting his new graphic novel Snow, which I have to say from the premise and the taster of it you can check out looks very interesting, dealing with something most of us are likely to experience in our lives, how you react when your world changes around you. Snow follows one woman as she finds her home turf of Queen Street West in Toronto altering and changing around her, favourite stores closing, buildings changing, until it doesn’t feel like her old neighbourhood anymore. I like that the video isn’t just showing art from the comic but also Benjamin walking the neighbourhood and talking about the changes that the comic mirrors, gives it a nice, grounded, ‘real’ feeling to the story. I see from the official Snow website that it is a Xeric Grant winner, which is usually a good indicator of a quality bit of comics work. The site is pretty cool too, with a taster of the comic, both print and digital versions available to buy (very organised!) and even a wee free PC game based on the comic that you can play, Ben obviously has his self-published approach down very well, it all looks very slick and professional.

SNOW – A Graphic Novel Set in Toronto from Benjamin Rivers on Vimeo.

(pic above and quote below shamelessly borrowed from Tom’s TCAF article on Comic Reporter)

“I made a point of asking after people’s business as late in the weekend as I could (I left a couple of hours before things closed up on Sunday). Many cited best weekend ever sales, while only about 10 percent said that sales were off or disappointing. Drawn and Quarterly had their best weekend ever, Nobrow sold out of about a half-dozen books, Dustin Harbin said he did an SPX’s worth of business on the crowded Saturday all by itself, and Top Shelf I believe flat sold out of a couple of their debut books including the Jess Fink robot/sex book. Fantagraphics’ Mike Baehr said they had their best TCAF yet. Tom Neely and Dylan Williams had done well enough they looked like they had just eaten a big Thanksgiving meal and were ready to push back from the table and take a nap. (Williams promised a forthcoming blog post about the show that will serve as a companion piece to his post-Stumptown meditation on the utility of shows.) Newer material did well across the board, no surprise there. I don’t think it was a great weekend for everyone, but in general I think a lot of people moved a lot of product.”

This Saturday and Sunday is the annual TCAF, the Toronto Comic Arts Festival in the Toronto Reference Library, a bash that everyone we know who has been before has absolutely loved, so we are jealous of anyone who is heading there over this weekend, of course. And among the people who will be juggling selling and looking at comics with trying to consume vast amount of pancakes with proper Canadian maple leaf syrup drizzled all over them is FPI’s very own Kenny Penman, who will be present wearing his Blank Slate Books hat (a tricorn hat, with Blank, Slate and Books emblazoned on each of the three sides. Okay, no, it’s a metaphorical hat, sadly, I’m sure he’d look great in a real one as he proclaimed the fineness of his wares to the citizens of Toronto). Before heading for Canada Kenny was telling me that a whole bunch of new Blank Slate titles had arrived fresh from the printer just in time, so Canadian comics folks, you will be among the first to see them anywhere. And it is also a good chance for North American comics readers to see why BSB has been generating a lot of good word of mouth among those of us on this side of the Atlantic, so if you are going to be at TCAF please take advantage of it to check out some of their titles and give them some fine Canadian support.

(above: German creator Mawil’s Home and Away, one of the Blank Slate Books title making its debut at TCAF this weekend; below: Joe Decie’s Accidental Salad, the first of Blank Slate’s new Chalk Mark series of shorter comics works, also debuting at TCAF)

A glance down the list of other exhibitors is making me even more jealous that I won’t be there myself. A parcel of Blighty’s own will be there too, including Sean Azzopardi, Adam Cadwell, Joe Decie (Joe’s Accidental Salad, the first of Blank Slate’s new Ignatz-like Chalk Marks titles, should be available too, all being well; fellow Blank Slater Mawil will be there too and his new BSB titles – Home and Away and The Band should be with him), Howard Hardiman, Nobrow, Kayla Marie Hiller, Fanfare/Ponent Mon, Tom Humberstone, Jamie McKelvie and more. And look at some of the others who will be at TCAF: Lorenzo Mattotti, James O’Barr, Paul Pope, John Porcellino, Seth, Zak Sally, Adrian Tomine, Maurice Vellekoop, Chris Ware, Top Shelf, Fantagraphics, Drawn & Quarterly, Adrian Alphona, Kate Beaton, Box Brown, Becky Cloonan, Abby Denson, Brecht Evans (that noise you just heard was our own Wim fainting with pleasure at the mere mention of Brecht’s name), Kathryn and Stuart Immonen, Matt Kindt, Jeff Lemire… Okay, I’m going to stop now, I’m making myself more jealous at not being there and anwyay, you get the picture – this is a real comics lovers comics festival. All the best to everyone exhibiting or visiting TCAF over this weekend, sure you will all have a blast and we look forward to hearing your TCAF reports when you get home.

(Also making their debuts at TCAF this weekend – above, Lucille by Ludovic Debeurme, published Top Shelf, below: Paying For it by Chester Brown, published Drawn & Quarterly)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrL7lHrZ7zA

and

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRTHJVh3uOE