Toronto, ON — December 2024 — The Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF) is thrilled to announce our new venue and dates for 2025! The in-person festival returns and will be hosted at our new venue location for 2025 - Toronto Metropolitan University’s Mattamy Athletic Centre (50 Carlton St). 

TCAF 2025 will be held from June 7-8, 2025 at Toronto Metropolitan University’s Mattamy Athletic Centre, with additional programming space in the surrounding neighbourhood. Professional and Industry Programming for educators, students, scholars, librarians, and comics professionals, including the return of Libraries and Education Day, is scheduled for Friday June 6 at a nearby location. We will also be hosting off site events and workshops in the days leading up to TCAF 2025. More details on that programming coming in the new year! 

Want to table at TCAF? Apply to Exhibit at TCAF - deadline Jan 24, 2025

Have a programming idea? Call for Programming at TCAF - deadline Feb 14, 2025

New Venue: 

From 2009-2024 TCAF was held at the Toronto Reference Library, and presented by the Toronto Public Library (TPL). In 2024, TCAF welcomed over 28,000 attendees and 350 artists from all around the world. If you weren’t there, it was a great time. However, due to planned renovations at the Toronto Reference Library over the next two years, TCAF needs to find new space for 2025 and beyond. We’re incredibly excited about finding a new home at Toronto Metropolitan University’s Mattamy Athletic Centre, but we also wanted to take a moment to acknowledge TPL. We are incredibly thankful to the Toronto Public Library for its invaluable support over the last 15 years and we look forward to future partnership opportunities with the Toronto Public Library in 2025 and beyond. 

Toronto Metropolitan University’s Mattamy Athletic Centre was once known as Maple Leaf Gardens and the athletic centre is a Canadian National Historic Site. The building is famous not only for hosting sporting events, but also hundreds of concerts and political rallies. Our festival will activate the new ice rink (built above the old one), basketball court, and rink concourse to host approximately 280 tables of cartoonists, collectives, and publishers. Hosting TCAF at Toronto Metropolitan University’s Mattamy Athletic Centre keeps the festival in the heart of downtown Toronto and closer to our hotel partners.

Exhibit at TCAF: 

While it can be scary to move, Toronto Metropolitan University’s Mattamy Athletic Centre will allow TCAF to offer more table space than any year in its history (!!) - a +25% increase in total number of tables. As such, we are removing our historical 3-table cap for publishers. We’re excited to spread out a little bit to better accommodate signing lines with our publishing partners. With the increased space, we will also be asking fewer creators to reduce their space requests. Moving to a dedicated event venue will also mean that TCAF 2025 will have earlier and longer set up windows than in previous years. 

Applications to exhibit at TCAF 2025 are open until January 24th, 2025, and applicants will be notified of their status by early February 2025. International exhibitors are welcome. 

TCAF 2025 Exhibitor Application: CLICK HERE TO APPLY.

TCAF welcomes those who have demonstrated a commitment to upholding the values of equity, diversity, and inclusion. We encourage applications from members of groups that have been historically disadvantaged and marginalized, including but not limited to, BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour), persons with disabilities, and those who identify as women and/or 2SLGBTQ+. 

We are also pleased to announce that we have streamlined entry into our Access TCAF Program. This program forgives table fees from creators who self-identify as belonging to the groups mentioned above. 

Apply to Access TCAF: As you are filling out your exhibitor application, please click (Yes / No) if you would like to be considered for the Access TCAF Program to have your table fees forgiven. Please note that consideration for the Access TCAF Program is only available to exhibitors whose applications have been approved. If any given year there is no guarantee the number of approved applications for this program; if Access TCAF requests exceed our allotted budget for this program - now in its 3rd year - recipients are selected via lottery. 

Programming at TCAF: 

Beyond welcoming 300+ artists from around the world exhibiting at TCAF, we also offer programming for all ages. Have a programming idea? Apply! 

Applications for programming at TCAF 2025 are open until February 14, 2025, and applicants will be notified of their status by late February 2025.

TCAF 2025 Call for Programming: CLICK HERE TO APPLY 

Lastly, we are thrilled to announce the return of Libraries and Education Day (LED). We heard your pleas and it’s back! If you’re unfamiliar, LED is professional development  programming aimed at teachers, school librarians, librarians,  library workers, and people in similar roles who want to know more about incorporating comics and graphic novels into their collections and classrooms Our first LED since 2022 will return to its in-person format. 

About TCAF: 

The Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF) is one of the largest independent comics festivals in the world. Founded in 2003, TCAF has been dedicated to promoting the breadth and diversity of comics since its start. Connect with TCAF at @torontocomics on social media channels (Bluesky, Instagram, Facebook) or at www.torontocomics.com Never visited TCAF before and wondering what it’s like? Please visit one of our favourite videos from TCAF 2018 (video courtesy of Innerspace, 2018).

TCAF is committed to providing an event free of discrimination and harassment; a festival where all participants are treated with respect and dignity. More about this commitment can be found in our Conduct & Harassment Policy on our About page.

TCAF would not be possible without the support of its partners, sponsors and government funders. Thanks to our location partners, Toronto Metropolitan University’s Mattamy Athletic Centre. Special thanks for TCAF 2025 to our sponsors and funders, The Beguiling Books and Art, the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council, and the Government of Ontario.

TCAF is once again thrilled to work with the Ontario Arts Council (OAC) to provide grants to comic writers creating new pieces of work through the OAC Recommender Grants for Writers program.

We are looking for works exploring the breadth and diversity of comics. Successful applicants should demonstrate a solid commitment to personal expression through whatever genres or a mix of genres they choose to explore in their works. We will also consider non-fiction prose projects that explore comics history.

The deadline to apply is January 15th, 2025 at 1pm ET. Grant amounts can range from $1,500-$5,000.

To apply, use OAC’s online grant application system NOVA and select TCAF as recommender. We will assess your application and submit grant recommendations to OAC.

Criteria:

This program is for Ontario-based comic writers seeking a grant to help them in their new project. Organizations are not eligible for this program. In addition to being an Ontario resident, you must meet at least one of the following criteria:

• one traditionally published book (minimum of 48 pages) for which you have a publishing contract and receive royalties; or - three traditionally published short stories, comics, poems, or other works for which you have received payment. Works can appear in magazines, newspapers, websites, and anthologies. Contest-winning work is considered a publication;

• or three years' professional presentation of comics work through work-for-hire creation jobs (editorial cartooning, creation for commercial comics franchises), sales at curated comics festivals, or gallery exhibitions;

• or two recent production writing credits for non-text media (radio, television, film, interactive digital media, and theatre).

As this is a third-party recommending program, grants disbursed from this program are made by OAC under TCAF's recommendations.

You may only submit one application per recommender per program year. However, you may be recommended for funding by more than one recommender per program year.

We hope you will apply!

The Toronto Comic Arts Festival is happy to announce that it has hired Amie Wright as its new Executive Director. 

Amie Wright is a comics librarian and public historian based in Ontario who has been organizing comics programming in Canada and the United States since 2013. Amie has created in-person and virtual programming for New York Comic Con, San Diego Comic Con, the American and Ontario Library Associations, and TCAF.  Amie is the former Manager of School Outreach / MyLibraryNYC at the New York Public Library (NYPL) and the former inaugural President of the Graphic Novels and Comics Round Table (GNCRT) of the American Library Association (ALA). A current Public History PhD Candidate at Carleton University (Ottawa) researching the history of comics censorship in Canada, Amie also teaches a comics course in the Department of History at Carleton. On taking over the Executive Director position from Miles Baker, Amie has said, "Miles has been with TCAF and helped nurture and grow the show for more than a decade. I am honoured to be taking over as TCAF chief steward and look forward to working with the TCAF team, volunteers, and board to continue TCAF's tradition as an accessible indie show with international appeal that reflects the vital importance of the comic arts." 

President of the TCAF Board, Peter Birkemoe, says, “The board is incredibly excited that Amie Wright has accepted the position of Executive Director. We can’t wait to start the next phase of the organization’s development under Amie Wright’s guidance and direction.”

Outgoing Executive Director Miles Baker adds, “I’m very excited about Amie’s upcoming tenure with the organization. We’ll begin our  transition period over the next few weeks as we turn our full attention to the 2025 festival.” Baker has served as TCAF’s first Executive Director since 2020, and has worked with the organization since 2009. “I’m very excited to attend as a fan. It’s been a very long time.”

The Toronto Comic Arts Festival is one of the largest independent comics festivals in the world. Founded in 2003, TCAF has been dedicated to promoting the breadth and diversity of comics since its start. Connect with TCAF at @torontocomics on all social media channels or at www.torontocomics.com 

Want to table at TCAF? Have an idea for a TCAF presentation? Or maybe you’d like to volunteer? Sign up for our newsletter to get all our major announcements at www.torontocomics.com

TCAF would not be possible without the support of its sponsors and government funders. Special thanks to The Beguiling Books and Art, the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council, and the Government of Ontario.

This weekend at TCAF, head to the 3rd floor to see fabulous creations from graduates of the "Introduction to Comics Studio" course at Seneca's Illustration diploma program.

"Hullabaloo"

It was a regular day for (fill in protagonist) who was at (fill in setting), when all of a sudden (fill in antagonist) showed up and (fill in action) ensued!

This collection of comics showcases the culminating assignment for the introduction to comics studio course in the Illustration diploma program at Seneca Polytechnic. Students are challenged to write and draw a short, two-page comic based on the above narrative prompt. The objective for the project is to be open enough to enable almost any content of the students’ choosing, yet with specific art direction to demonstrate the elements of comics creation practiced earlier in the course. Students write the short narrative and then design their own characters, panel layout and colour scheme. The scene is set using aspect framing to establish the protagonist within a believable setting. The mood is then interrupted by the arrival of an antagonist whereby some kind of physical action ensues. 

The comic is finished in two-colours for risograph printing. Check out how each artist has imaginatively responded to the same art direction using different character dynamics and plot twists.

The project name, Hullabaloo, is a nod to cartoonist and educator, Lynda Barry, whose accessible approach to comics-making has inspired innumerable artists and non-artists alike to make their own comics. 

Illustration Faculty, Martha Newbigging

Illustration Program Coordinator, JoAnn Purcell

Printing by Colour Code. 

We've partnered with Canada Post to celebrate their newest stamp issue featuring the works of iconic graphic novelists Chester Brown, Michel Rabagliati, Seth and Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki!

As Canadian storytellers, these creators have made significant contributions to the genre, and to mark their stamp debut, we're organizing a kickoff panel featuring Chester Brown, Seth and Jillian Tamaki!

Friday, May 10, 2024 at 6:45 pm

Toronto Reference Library – Bram and Bluma Appel Salon, 789 Yonge St.

TCAF’s Digital Marketplace is now open!

Shop TCAF from the comfort of your home, and choose from 700+ items from 100+ artists from all over the world.

Jean-Marc Rochette is a French painter and illustrator. He is one half of the creative force behind the best-selling Snowpiercer, which was adapted into a film by Oscar-nominated director Boon Joon-ho (Parasite) starring Chris Evans, and a TNT/Netflix series starring Jennifer Connelly and Daveed Diggs. His graphic autobiography Altitude was named as one of The Guardian's best graphic novels of 2020. 

Aidan Koch is an artist and graphic novelist based in the Mojave Desert on unceded Serrano land. Koch's work uses modes of ecological story-telling to explore loving and fraught relationships between humans, non-human animals, and landscapes. She is the author of several graphic novels including Xeric Award winning, The Blonde Woman (2012), After Nothing Comes (2016) and Spiral and Other Stories (2024); with short works featured in The Paris Review, The New York Times, Frieze Magazine, Best American Comics 2014, and MoMA PS1 GNY series. Her work has been exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art, South Bend Museum of Art, and Queens University Belfast, among others. Koch's ongoing projects, Institute for Interspecies Art and Relations and Environmental Comics, act as pedagogical and collaborative extensions of her ecological inquiries.

Johnnie Christmas is a # 1 New York Times Best Selling graphic novelist. His 2022 middle grade graphic novel debut SWIM TEAM earned a spot on the National Book Awards longlist, a Coretta Scott King Award Illustrator Honor and a Harvey Awards nomination. SWIM TEAM is currently a nominee for the Barnes & Noble Children's Book Award and for the Silver Birch Award. Johnnie is currently hard at work on two new middle-grade graphic novels for the HarperAlley imprint of HarperCollins. He was also the writer/co-creator of the Image Comics sci-fi series TARTARUS and CREMA, a haunted romance published by Comixology and his book FIREBUG earned a Joe Shuster Outstanding Cartoonist nomination. He also co-created the series ANGEL CATBIRD with celebrated writer Margaret Atwood and adapted William Gibson’s lost screenplay for ALIEN 3 into a critically acclaimed graphic novel of the same name. His credits also include co-creating the pre-apocalyptic thriller SHELTERED. A graduate of the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY, earning a BFA in Communication Design/Illustration. Johnnie makes Vancouver, BC his home.

Nick Marinkovich is a Canadian illustrator, cartoonist and multimedia artist.

Graduating with a degree in Genetics, he shunned the world of academia and turned to the high-stakes game of illustration and comics. He broke into professional work with the 2004 adaptation of the Sony Pictures film, Underworld, and the accompanying mini-series released by IDW.

In 2010 he released the critically acclaimed graphic novel Kenk: A Graphic Portrait, a biography on Igor Kenk – dubbed the world’s most prolific bicycle thief. In 2014, he was a recipient of the Ontario Arts Council Works in Progress Grant for his series The Voyageur, a dramatic chronicle of Samuel De Champlain’s voyage to the New World.

In 2023 he co-created and released the historical fiction series Dead Romans through Image Comics Shadowline. The series was nominated for the TripWire award for Best New Series.

Outside of print, his artwork can be seen in Ubisoft’s Far Cry series and most recently in Molson’s History in the Making ad campaign.

Anna Humphrey has worked as a marketing person for a poetry organization, in communications for the Girl Guides of Canada, as an editor for a web-zine, an intern at a decorating magazine and for the government. None of those was quite right, so she started her own freelance writing and editing business on top of writing for kids and teens. She has been published by Disney Hyperion, Simon & Schuster, HarperTeen and Owlkids. She lives in a big, old brick house in Kitchener, Ontario.

We know folks have been excited to hear about Kamome Shirahama's programs at TCAF, and today is the day you've been waiting for! 

Shirahama-sensei will have two public programs and two signings at TCAF 2024. As you get ready to attend these programs, please note:

1. For all of Shirahama's public appearances, she will be wearing a self-made mask to protect her privacy. 

2. Similarly, none of Shirahama's events will allow for recording of any type or photography.

3. Unlike most TCAF signings, we will require a purchase at the time of signing. The TCAF 2024 poster By Shirahama will be available for $10 CAD, along with a selection of the sensei's work.

Public Programs:

• Saturday May 11: Novella Room, Toronto Reference Library 10am-11am. Live Drawing with Shirahama. Doors will open shortly after 9am. Space is limited, and guests will be admitted on a first-come, first-serve basis.

• Sunday May 12: Japan Foundation Toronto. Q&A with Shirahama. 1:30pm- 2:30pm. This is a ticketed event, announced by the Japan Foundation a few weeks ago. Tickets are sold out at this time. However, we will maintain a rushline at the door.  (2 Bloor St E, Unit 300, Toronto, ON M4W 1A8)

Signings

As we expect there to be very strong demand, Shirahama will likely be unable to sign for all attendees looking for a signature. To ensure an equitable distribution of spots, and to avoid overnight lines or a resale market, we will be running a lottery on both days to get a signature. 

• On Saturday, May 11 from 11am-12pm, we will be handing out tickets for your chance to win a signing in the Basement Signing Area of the Toronto Reference Library. The draw of successful signing lottery winners will happen at 12pm at Asquith Green Park. You will need to arrive at 12pm to see if your ticket is called. The signing will follow at 1pm-2:30pm. 

• On Sunday, May 12 from 11am-12pm in the Basement Signing Area of the Toronto Reference Library, we will hand out lottery tickets for the Sunday signing, which will happen at the Japan Foundation (2 Bloor St E, Unit 300, Toronto, ON M4W 1A8) following her 2:30pm Q&A. Like Saturday, we'll announce winners at Asquith Green Park. You will need to arrive at 12pm to see if your ticket is called.

We look forward to welcoming you and Kamome Shirahama to TCAF later this week!

Raeghan Buchanan is an illustrator/writer from Eerie, PA, who currently lives in Columbus, Ohio. She is the creator behind the new ongoing series The Secret History of Black Punk (out now on Silver Sprocket). She has also recently self-published books Strange Glances, POCtober Sketchbook 1 and 2, and is featured in the Black Punk Now anthology (Soft Skull Press).

Chip Kidd is one of the most prolific book cover designers in American design history. Educated at Penn State, he started designing covers for Knopf in 1986, where he was responsible for 75 book covers a year. He is still employed at Knopf, an imprint of Random House, where he is an art director. He also oversees the production of comic book covers for Pantheon, another subsidy of Random House. His interest in comic books, graphic novels and pop culture have been a large influence on his work.

He has published two books, Cheese Monkeys and The Learners, both of which he designed himself. The typography within the book is used to subtly, and sometimes blatantly, make points along side the narrative contained within. His highly productive career has allowed him to work with many celebrities and authors, including Frank Miller, Dean Koontz, John Updike and David Sedaris. His book covers continue to influence designers and pop culture and many of them are widely imitated.

Comics publisher, producer, and video journalist Deni Loubert has had an illustrious career in the Canadian comics world and beyond. She is the founder of Renegade Press and former publisher for Aardvark-Vanaheim. She received an Inkpot Award in 1987 (given for lifetime achievement in comics at the San Diego Comic-Con) and was inducted into the Canadian Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2010. Loubert lives and writes in New Westminster, B.C.

Eunnie is a Korean American illustrator based in Washington. She loves exploring relationships through her art and writing, and finds much joy in the portrayal of queer intimacy. If You'll Have Me is her debut graphic novel, as well as her love letter to women and sapphics. When she’s not cooking up new stories, Eunnie spends her time napping, watching video essays, and collecting hoodies in every color.

Peter Kuper is an American alternative comics artist and illustrator, best known for his autobiographical, political, and social observations. Besides his contributions to the political anthology World War 3 Illustrated, which he co-founded in 1979 with Seth Tobocman, Kuper is best known for taking over Spy vs. Spy for Mad Magazine. Kuper has produced numerous graphic novels which have been translated into French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Swedish, Slovenian and Greek, including award-winning adaptations of Franz Kafka's Give It Up! and the Metamorphosis.

Mylo Choy finds comfort in the spaces between things. As a mixed-race and nonbinary person, moving between worlds feels like home to them. Born and raised in Wisconsin, they also developed a strong connection to Hawai'i, where their mother was born and raised. For over 10 years, they were employed in outdoor education, living and working in many places, including Maine and Hawai’i, but mostly between New York City and the woods upstate. They currently live in the Hudson Valley, exploring planting roots in one place for a while. Mylo’s work — ranging from music to graphic stories and comics — uses the inherent tensions of multimedia to bring to life the space they inhabit between worlds. Inspired by nature’s ability to offer peace and perspective, their work is contemplative without being brooding, and soothing without being escapist. Middle Distance is their first full-length graphic novel.

Chester Brown was born in Montreal, Canada, on May 16, 1960, and grew up in the nearby suburb of Chateauguay. At nineteen he moved to Toronto where, in 1983, he began self-publishing his work in photocopied mini-comics under the title Yummy Fur. He is best known for Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography, Paying for It: A Comic-Strip Memoir About Being a John.

Özge Samanci, media artist and graphic novelist, is an associate professor in Northwestern University’s School of Communication. Her interactive installations have been exhibited internationally, including Museu do Amanhã, Siggraph Art Gallery, FILE festival, Currents New Media, The Tech Museum of Innovation, WRO Media Art Biennial, Athens International Festival of Digital Arts and New Media, Piksel Electronic Arts Festival, ISEA among others.

Her autobiographical graphic novel Dare to Disappoint (Farrar Straus Giroux, 2015) received international press attention and was positively reviewed in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate along with many other media outlets. Dare to Disappoint has been translated into six languages. Her drawings appeared in The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, Slate Magazine, The Huffington Post, Airmail, Guernica, The Rumpus. In 2017, she received the Berlin Prize and she was the Holtzbrinck Visual Arts Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin. Her other awards are Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts Distinguished Alumni Award (2020) from Georgia Institute of Technology and the Artist Fellowship Award in Media Arts (2023) by the Illinois Arts Council.

Tessa Hulls is an artist/writer/adventurer illuminating the connections between the present and the past. As the mixed race daughter of two first generation immigrants who landed in a tiny town of 350 people, she grew up with no models of how she fit within American culture. Her family didn't have TV and the internet didn't yet exist, so she spent her formative years reading her way through the public library and roaming alone through the hills with a backpack full of books (she still does this). This fusion of solitude, research, and forward motion remains the bedrock of her extremely multidisciplinary creative practice.

Tessa went quietly and happily feral in 2011 after a 5,000 mile solo bike ride from southern California to Maine, and her restlessness has joyously dragged her across all seven continents. Her travels have led to everything from bartending in Antarctica to painting murals in Ghana to hosting book clubs in Denali National Park, but these days she is staying still and saying no to pretty much everything in order to focus on her nonfiction graphic novel, Feeding Ghosts (forthcoming March 5,2024 from MCD at Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux)

She is the recipient of grants from The Seattle Office of Arts and Culture and 4Culture, and a fellowship from The Robert B. McMillen Foundation. She received the 2021 Artist Trust Arts Innovator Award, and has been awarded residencies at Yaddo, Hedgebrook, Ucross, and others. As the 2019 awardee of the PEN Northwest Margery Boyden Wilderness Writing Residency, she spent 6.5 months living alone in a remote off grid cabin with no cell service or internet while writing the outline of Feeding Ghosts. She never fully left the woods and has no plans--or desire, or ability-- to truly re-domesticate.

Rick Altergott is the creator of the cartoon character, Doofus, who with his pal, Henry Hothckiss, reside in Flowertown, U.S.A. These two have appeared in tandem in various publications over the years, usually in short gag-oriented "adventures". Now with the release of "Blessed Be", they are embroiled in a book-length story containing the usual lowbrow humor, as well as sexual content, eccentric small town behavior; and Flowertown itself transformed into a battleground between the forces of good and evil! This is the first time Altergott has presented his characters in a full graphic novel setting. He lives in Cranston, Rhode Island with his wife, Ariel Bordeaux , also a cartoonist, and their son, Eddie.

Formerly credited as Emily Carroll, E.M. is the writer and artist of numerous award-winning comics, both online and in print. Their debut horror comics collection, Through the Woods, won both the Eisner Award and the British Fantasy Award in 2015. Recent work includes A Guest in the House, When I Arrived at the Castle, and a graphic novel adaptation of Laurie Halse Anderson's novel Speak. They are also known for the short comics they post on their website. E.M. lives with their wife, Kate, and their two dogs in Ontario, Canada. 

Chris Oliveros was born in 1966 in Montreal and grew up in the nearby suburb of Chomedey, Laval. He founded Drawn & Quarterly in 1989 and was the publisher for the following 25 years. Oliveros stepped down from D+Q in 2015 to work on Are You Willing to Die For The Cause?, a graphic novel about the early years of the Front de libération du Québec.

Colin Upton has been called the “King of Canadian mini-comics”. After dropping out of art school in 1985, he self-published over 300 mini-comics and digests. He also created indie comics Big Thing, Buddha on the Road, and Incubus, and has appeared in numerous comics anthologies. Colin has written about comics, co-hosted two radio shows about comics, and created award-winning cartoon illustrations, concept art for a miniatures line, and cartoons for a movie and for a play. When not creating comics, Colin performed in a garage band, Puke Theatre, and a noise band The Haters. He wargames, paints, collects stuff and creates assemblages for an art movement he created as a joke, Fraud Art. He lives on mental disability in Vancouver with his cat, Gojira.

Over the past fifteen years, Alison McCreesh has extensively travelled around the Arctic and sub-Arctic and contemporary day-to-day life in the North is a theme that carries through her creative work. Alison currently lives in Yellowknife where she creates comics and illustrations surrounded by her two dogs and three small children. Alison’s past books include Degrees of Separation: A Decade North of 60, the award-winning graphic novel Ramshackle: A Yellowknife Story, as well as the travelogue Norths: Two Suitcases and a Stroller around the Circumpolar World.

Seth is the cartoonist behind the comic book series Palookaville, which started in the stone age as a pamphlet and is now a semi-annual hardcover. His comics have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Best American Comics, and McSweeneys Quarterly, and he is the designer for several classic comics reprint series, notably collections of work by Charles Schulz, John Stanley, and Doug Wright. Seth lives in Guelph, Ontario, with his wife Tania and their two cats in an old house he has named "Inkwell's End."

Anita Kunz is an acclaimed illustrator and painter whose work has graced the covers of the New Yorker, Time, Rolling Stone, The New York Times Magazine, and many other mass circulation periodicals. She was named one of the 50 most influential women in Canada by the National Post. She was the first woman and the first Canadian to have a solo show at the Library of Congress. She has been appointed Officer of the Order of Canada. She lives in Toronto and her two newest books with Fantagraphics are Striking a Pose: A Handy Guide to the Male Nude and Another History of Art.

David Lapp is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design and the University of Western Ontario. He has been teaching cartooning at the Art Gallery of Ontario for over twenty years. Dave has created three graphic novels, Drop In, Children of the Atom, and People Around Here, which have been published by Conundrum Press. Dave’s work was chosen for the Best American Comics series for 2010, 2011, and 2016. His work has also been nominated for an Ignatz and a Doug Wright award.

Geneviève Bigué is an illustrator and comic artist based in Montreal. With a formation in Traditional Animation (Cégep du Vieux Montréal) and Graphic Design (UQÀM), she now works in many fields, such as books, advertising and the cultural scene. In 2022, she published her first graphic novel as an author, Parfois les lacs brûlent (When the Lake Burns). Her book has won many awards, including the 2023 Prix des libraires du Québec. It was also nominated for the 2023 Governor General’s Literary Awards in Young People’s Literature – Illustrated Books (French).

Christopher Twin has been doing freelance illustration and comic work for close to a decade. He was self-taught from an early age and took correspondence courses.  In 2018 he enrolled on the Fine Art program at Grant MacEwan University to advance his practice as well as to explore other mediums. His self-directed work is usually narrative driven and consists of stories about journeys of self-discovery and stories in the Horror and/or Science fiction genres. Christopher’s work is inspired by social/cultural divides, alternative philosophies/religions, and life as a mixed-race person. He was born and raised on the Swan River First Nations reservation in northern Alberta and now lives and works in Edmonton, Alberta.

Kirsten Hatfield is a queer, chronically ill, disabled artist working and living on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Coast Salish peoples–Sḵwx̱ wú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō and Səl̓ ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and xwməθkwəy̓ əm (Musqueam) Nations. Her multidisciplinary approach to creating art books and comics is largely informed by her background in fine art, painting and abstract expressionism, often resisting conventional formats and linear narrative. Her most recent work has focused on exploring ideas around her experience with illness, isolation, grief and ableism using both representational and abstract imagery and language in a variety of materials and formats.

Gene Luen Yang writes, and sometimes draws, comic books and graphic novels. He was named a National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature by the Library of Congress in 2016, and advocates for the importance of reading, especially reading diversely. His graphic novel American Born Chinese, a National Book Award finalist and Printz Award winner, has been adapted into an original series on Disney+. His two-volume graphic novel Boxers & Saints won the LA Times Book Prize and was a National Book Award Finalist. His nonfiction graphic novel, Dragon Hoops, received an Eisner award and a Printz honor. His other comics work includes Secret Coders (with Mike Holmes), The Shadow Hero (with Sonny Liew), and Superman Smashes the Klan and the Avatar: The Last Airbender series (both with Gurihiru). In 2016, he was named a MacArthur Foundation Fellow.

Stephanie Cooke is a writer based out of Toronto, Canada where she lives with her snuggly cat that she happens to be very allergic to. Some of her graphic novels include: The Racc Pack, ParaNorthern and Oh My Gods! Her YA debut, Pillow Talk, will be released in April 2024. Find more about her at stephaniecooke.ca.

Mel Valentine Vargas (They/Them) is a Queer Cuban-American comic artist and illustrator based in Chicago. They love to play farming sims, sing in Spanish, and eat gyoza with their friends. Vargas's work includes Yaqui Delgado Wants To Kick Your Ass by Meg Medina, The OUT Side: Trans & Non-Binary Comics, and Pillow Talk by Stephanie Cooke.

Adam de Souza is a Vancouver based cartoonist. His works include the award winning online comic strip Blind Alley and the recently published graphic novel The Gulf through Tundra Books.  

Lawrence Lindell (he/they) is a cartoonist, educator, musician and artist from California. Lindell is known to focus on Blackness, mental health and queerness in his work. Lindell received his BFA in Digital Media with an emphasis in 2D animation/illustration from Otis College of Art and Design and his MFA in Comics from California College of the Arts. 

He is the creator of Blackward, a graphic novel published by Drawn and Quarterly and Buckle Up, a middle-grade graphic novel published by RH Graphic. He contributes to The New Yorker, SF Examiner, and Razorcake, and has been involved with DIY publishing for over a decade. His work has been featured in museums, and art exhibitions and nominated for the Believer Book Awards, Dwayne McDuffie Award for Diversity in Comics, GLAAD Media Awards, Lambda Literary Award, The Publishing Triangle: Jacqueline Woodson Award and the Broken Frontier Award. 

Lindell founded Laneha House with his spouse Breena Nuñez in 2020. They publish comics from themselves and cartoonists online through their Open Mic series. Their periodical series Laneha House has been nominated for the Broken Frontier Award and they are recipients of the CCS BIPOC Cartoonist Fund Grant. Through Laneha House he cofounded the Kinnard Awards in 2022 to honor pioneering Black queer cartoonist Rupert Kinnard and folks in the comics community. When he is not creating comics, music or touring, he is usually spending time with his spouse and kid, drinking coffee, and planning his next few projects. 

Breena Nuñez is a cartoonist from the Bay Area and resides in San Francisco, CA. Their work has been known to share lived experiences with being a queer AfroSalvadoran-Guatemalan person, encountering the awkwardness of racism, and some self-deprecating humor. Nowadays Breena creates comic strips archiving her journey into motherhood while teaching comics through an Ethnic Studies lens. 

Breena’s comics are primarily self-published as zines through the family run small press she co-founded with her spouse, Laneha House. You will also find some comics in other publications such as The New Yorker: Daily Shouts and The Nib, as well as in anthologies like Tales From La Vida: A Latinx Comics Anthology, Drawing Power (Eisner Award Winner 2020), and Be Gay, Do Comics! (Ignatz Award Winner 2020).

Christine (Diễm Uyên) Chung is a Vietnamese-Canadian artist who works on storyboards for animated TV and feature films by day and sketches up the plans for another world by night. She is interested in stories that live in the space between our connection to our planet, our communities and to ourselves — striving to find collective triumph in our darkest of places. Christine lives in Toronto, Canada, with her family —and a few blocks away from her childhood friend Salwa. Viewfinder is her debut book.

Salwa Majoka is a Pakistani-Canadian illustrator and 2D artist for the animation industry. She has worked on both TV cartoons and in film with a focus on painting and color design — the two things she enjoys the most about visual storytelling. Salwa has a special love and curiosity for the many marvels of the natural world, outer space and the deep sea, which often find their way into her work. She has known her co-author, Christine, since middle school, and this is her first book. She lives in Toronto, Canada, with her family.

Gary Clement is a Canadian artist, cartoonist, illustrator, and writer. He’s the author and illustrator of several children’s books, among them The Great Poochini, which earned Canada’s Governor General’s Literary Award in Children’s Literature—Illustration, and most recently illustrated My Winter City, written by James Gladstone. His illustrations have appeared in the New York Times, the Boston Globe, and many other newspapers and magazines across North America. K Is in Trouble is his debut graphic novel.

Vera Brosgol was born in Moscow, Russia, in 1984 and moved to the United States when she was five. Her two graphic novels, Anya's Ghost and Be Prepared, were published by First Second, and her debut picture book Leave Me Alone! was a 2017 Caldecott Honor book. She’s also worked in story on several animated films, including Coraline and Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio. She lives in Portland, Oregon with her dog Omar, a mere two hours from the sea.

"When TCAF gave the opportunity to Seneca to create one of their TCAF posters I selected Sara to work with. I imagined the concept as a decolonized Gulliver's Travels and art directed the project. Sara applied her magic and thus the poster.  She used this image from the 17th century book cover to riff off of." — JoAnn Purcell, Program Coordinator, Illustration, Seneca Polytechnic.

Word Balloon Academy (WBA) is TCAF's annual day of skills-building and career management programming for comics creators.

We're excited to offer a free lineup of incredible programming, including panels and Q&A's with leading creators, skill-building workshops, and roundtables with industry professionals.

It's all happening on Friday, May 10th at the Toronto Reference Library. RSVP to snag your spot!

Kamome Shirahama is the author of the fan-favorite and critically acclaimed manga series Witch Hat Atelier, serialized beginning in 2016 and published in English and Japanese by Kodansha. Witch Hat Atelier won the 2020 Eisner Award for Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia, and in 2020, the series won the Harvey Award for the Best Manga category . A food-focused spin-off series, Witch Hat Atelier Kitchen, by Hiromi Sato and created by Kamome Shirahama began English-language publication in 2023. A graduate of the design department of the Tokyo University of the Arts, Shirahama lives in Tokyo, Japan. As a freelance illustrator, Shirahama has created numerous cover illustrations for DC Comics and Marvel Comics, including Star Wars: Doctor Aphra, Star Wars: The last Jedi, Batgirl and the Birds of Prey.

Lucy Sullivan is a writer & artist from London. Her acclaimed debut graphic novel Barking, based on her own experience of a mental health crisis was first published during the pandemic and quickly sold out. The new edition launched February ’24 with Avery Hill Publishing and is available for the first time in Canada & US. Alongside her comics and zines Lucy has created a variety of commissions for titles including Colossive Press Cartographies, Killtopia, Hey Amateur!, Department Of Truth and a Black Hammer short ‘Betwixt Between’ for Jeff Lemire. She is the artist on IND-XED with Fraser Campbell as well as stories with John Reppion for Skrawl Magazine, Jordan Thomas for Metallic Dynamite, Peter Davison for YOSHIN10 and Dan Watters for Razorblades (Image). Her new Folk-Horror series SHELTER is currently in development with Arts Council England. The first story Early Doors is out now - Winner of Broken Frontier’s ‘Best New Periodical Series’ Award. The second story ‘Mothers Ruin’ is in script development & scheduled for publication 2026 (TBA).

Luke Healy was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, where he also received a BA in Journalism. He has an MFA from the Centre for Cartoon Studies in Vermont, USA. He has published numerous graphic novels including Americana (And the Act of Getting Over It), How to Survive in the North, and more recently with Drawn & Quarterly: The Con Artists and Self-Esteem and the End of the World. Healy’s work has been exhibited in the Museum of Comics and Cartoon Art in Manhattan and his clients include The New Yorker, BBC, Vice, and Narratively.

Lonnie Mann grew up in Long Island, New York, and has been reading comics and drawing his whole life. He studied illustration and cartooning at the School of Visual Arts in New York. And he has published comics in various anthologies. Lonnie currently lives with his spouse Ryan Gatts in Tokyo Japan. Gaytheist is his debut graphic novel. 

Kit Anderson (she/her) is a cartoonist from Boulder, Colorado. Her short stories have been published by Parsifal Press and The Rumpus, and she received her MFA from the Center for Cartoon Studies. Kit lives near Zürich with her partner and tiny dog where she enjoys walking in the woods and making comics about memory, nature, and wizards sometimes, too.

The corporeal form of Thijs Desmet resides in the medieval town of Gent, Belgium, where he makes comics and studies UFOs in a haunted beguinage. His book “Smoking Kills”, previously by Flemish publishing house Bries as “Van Roken ga je Dood”, came out in 2024 with Fantagraphics Underground. He also explores other media such as animation, zines, printmaking, ceramics and painting. It is theorised that he is actually the ghost haunting the beguinage.  

Multi-award-winning contemporary artist FLuX is a practitioner of contemporary classical realism and illustration. FLuX’s work has been exhibited globally and is included in collections with notable artists such as Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons. With a

self-taught background in illustration and design, FLuX has worked with commercial clients including Apple, Swatch and others. He is also an author of graphic novels. He has received numerous awards, including Creativity International, Communication Arts, and Society of Illustrators, and has been featured in The Big Book of Illustration and Spectrum.

David Good is a member of the Yanomami tribe, author, explorer, filmmaker, and founder of the Yanomami Foundation. He is currently a PhD candidate in microbiology at the University of Guelph, Ontario. A member of the Explorer’s Club, he coordinates expeditions to Yanomami territory to support programs in health, biocultural research, education, and cultural preservation. His unique ancestry and scientific training provide a rare opportunity to build global awareness on the importance of protecting these few remaining isolated indigenous societies.

Freddy Carrasco is a Dominican-born artist from Toronto, Canada. He is the author of the award-winning graphic novel GLEEM, and his multidisciplinary practice encompasses comics, illustration, painting, sculpture, and music. He is currently living in Tokyo, working on his first solo exhibition.

Julie Delporte was born in Saint-Malo, France, in 1983. She presently resides in Montreal, Canada, and Portrait of a Body is her fourth graphic novel after This Woman’s Work, Everywhere Antennas, and Journal. She holds a degree in cinema studies and was a fellow at the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, Vermont. When she’s not working on comics, she makes ceramics, writes poetry and essays, and works on risograph and silkscreen projects. She loves animals, plants, and sometimes humans.

In 1999, Ivana Filipović/Ivana Filipovich/Ивана Филиповић, an architect, archaeologist, designer, cartoonist, and occasional procrastinator, became a literal escape artist, selling her beloved black lacquer piano for a one-way ticket to Vancouver. After a 20-year hiatus she returned to cartooning, and in the last few years her comics were published and exhibited in Sweden, Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia. Deeply interested in psychology, her work aims predominantly to portray complex female characters and other underrepresented persons and groups. Stylistically close to French and Italian cartooning, she uses both traditional and digital tools. Most recently, the Canada Council for the Arts has supported her exploration of 3D storyboarding.

Rosena Fung is a cartoonist and illustrator based in Toronto, Canada. She is the creator of the graphic novels Age 16 and Living With Viola. She has created work for magazines, newspapers, and public art murals. Her illustration clients include Chickadee Magazine, The Bentway, The Globe and Mail, Chronicle Review of Higher Education, CBC Arts, and the Toronto Transit Commission. When she is not drawing, Rosena can be found teaching illustration, vending at zine fairs, and going to the library. Her favourite activities also include petting cats, eating snacks, and learning to play both acoustic and electric guitar. She lives with her partner and the literal best cat in the entire universe.

Mitch Lohmeier is a musician, illustrator and comics creator based out of Toronto, Ontario. His work is reminiscent of the early Max Fleischer "rubber hose" style of cartooning, as well as the underground comics of the 60’s and 70’s. In 2020, Mitch serialized a daily comic on Instagram titled Michael Mouse which quickly achieved viral success alongside other “Covid-era comics” like Hanselmann’s Crisis Zone and Graham’s Dog Biscuits. In 2023, he released a self-published version of the comic which debuted at TCAF's digital marketplace. The title was a smash hit, shattering all marketplace records. Shortly after he partnered with Floating World Comics to release a new print edition. Mitch is currently working on his follow up comic titled Marine Unit, which is set to debut in spring 2024. 

Jillian Tamaki is a cartoonist, illustrator, and educator raised in Calgary, Alberta. She is the author of the Eisner Award-winning graphic novels SuperMutant Magic Academy and Boundless. With her cousin Mariko Tamaki, she is the co-creator of the young adult graphic novels SKIM and the award-winning This One Summer, which won a Governor General’s Award and Caldecott Honor. Most recently, the pair released Roaming, their first foray into new adult fiction. She lives in Toronto, Ontario.  

Maurice Vellekoop is a Toronto illustrator and cartoonist. For over thirty-five years, he has worked for top international editorial and advertising clients, published numerous zines and books, created art for animated films, and participated in art shows around the world. His first full-length graphic work, I’m So Glad We Had This Time Together from Pantheon/Random House Canada, was published in February.

Photo by Paul Hillier

Want to be a part of the TCAF magic?

TCAF will be taking place at the Toronto Reference Library this May 11-12, 2024, and we'll need YOUR help to pull it off!

It's a great opportunity to meet new people, gain experience, and of course, get a snazzy TCAF volunteer t-shirt.

Interested? Fill out our volunteer form below.

Nina Bunjevac is a Toronto-based artist and illustrator. Her books include Fatherland (2015 Jonathan Cape), Bezimena (2019 Fantagraphics), The Alchemical Journey Through the Major Arcana of The Tarot (2021 Zarabatana Books, Brazil), and La Reparation (2022, Editions Martin De Halleux, France). Nina’s books have received multiple Doug Wright awards, the French Aremisia Prix, Italian Grand Jury Prize at Lucca Comics and Games, and Joe Shuster. Her art has been exhibited both at home in Canada and internationally, most notably at Art Gallery of Ontario and Galerie Martel in Paris.  Nina’s brilliant An Alchemical Journey Through the Major Arcana of The Tarot: A Spiritually Transformative Deck and Guidebook published by Fantagraphics will be available at TCAF 2024 and she created this year’s gorgeous TCAF poster.

For over 3 decades, Keith Knight has brought the funny back to the funny pages with accessible, yet subversive comix reminiscent of MAD magazine, Calvin and Hobbes, and underground cartooning. His 3 comic strips, (th)ink, the K chronicles, and the Knight Life, have been collected in over 15 books. The Boston native's socio-political and autobiographical cartooning was the inspiration for the television show, Woke, seen on Hulu in the States and FX Canada.

Adrian Tomine was born in 1974 in Sacramento, California. He began self-publishing his comic book series Optic Nerve when he was sixteen, and in 1994 he received an offer to publish from Drawn & Quarterly. His comics have been anthologized in publications such as McSweeney's, Best American Comics, and Best American Nonrequired Reading. Both his graphic novel Shortcomings and his memoir The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist were named New York Times Notable Books of the year. Since 1999, Tomine has been a regular contributor to The New Yorker. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and daughters. His most recent book is Shortcomings: A Screenplay.

Veronica Post is an award-winning graphic novelist and multi-disciplinary artist based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She attended University for Philosophy and Fine Arts, before moving to Montreal where she completed her studies in cabinetmaking, and discovered the DIY culture of self-published zines. She joined a zine distro and began creating comics, while following a path towards becoming a furniture-maker. Her path took a turn when she left Montreal for the allure of travel. She spent 8 years exploring Canada, America and Eastern Europe, where she began working on what would become Fugitive Days. Today, she continues to create comics based on her life with her characters Langosh and Peppi.

Boum (Samantha Leriche-Gionet) was born in Montréal in 1985. Following her studies in animation and a career that saw her short films shown around the world, she has dedicated herself to creating comic books since 2011. Some of her many works include the graphic novel A Small Revolution and her long-running, award-winning series Boumeries. The English edition of her graphic novel The Jellyfish (Pow Pow Press), which won both the Bédéis Causa Award and the ACBD Critic's Prize, will debut at TCAF 2024. She has a husband, two daughters, a cat, and a very long list of things to do. Boum has suffered from a range of eye conditions for more than fifteen years. In March of 2021 she permanently lost the use of her right eye.

Rosemary Valero-O’Connell is a cartoonist and illustrator born in Minneapolis, raised in Zaragoza, and currently residing in Brooklyn, New York. She is the co-creator, alongside Mariko Tamaki, of the bestselling graphic novel Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me, and the sole creator of Don't Go Without Me, Golden Record and the upcoming The 12th House. Her work has received multiple Eisner, Ignatz, and Harvey awards, as well as Printz honor, and has been shown in galleries both locally and internationally. She hopes to one day own the largest collection of kewpie dolls in the world. 

We’re thrilled to debut the 2024 TCAF festival poster, beautifully illustrated by Toronto-based artist Nina Bunjevac!

Nina is a multiple Doug Wright Award-winner who's previously appeared at TCAF as a featured guest. Check our her poster on display May 11-12, 2024 at #TCAF2024!

Although Canadian born, Nina spent her formative years in Yugoslavia, where she began her art education before returning to Canada at onset of the war of the 1990s. She continued her education in graphic design at the iconic Art Centre of Central Technical School in Toronto, subsequently graduating from the Drawing and Painting department at OCAD. After a decade of drawing and painting she discovered the passion for the narrative through sculpture installation work, eventually returning to her childhood passion for comics.

Nina’s comics have been published in a number of international periodicals and anthologies, including The National Post, Le Monde Diplomatique, ArtReview and Best American Comics. Her first book Heartless (2012, Conundrum Press, Nova Scotia) won a Doug Wright Award in Best Debut category. Her second book, Fatherland (2014, Jonathan Cape, London) has reached international acclaim, appearing on the New York Times best-seller list and receiving a Doug Wright Award in Best Book category; it was also shortlisted for PACA Regional Literary Award in France. Bezimena (2018, Ici Même, Nantes; 2019, Fantagraphics, Seattle), Nina’s third book, made the official selection at Angoulême International Comics Festival 2019, won Artemisia prize in the category of Best Drawing in France, and was awarded Best Book Jury Prize at 2019 Lucca Comics and Games in Lucca, Italy.

Her artwork has been included in a number of exhibitions, both in Canada and internationally. Notable exhibits include the 2014 installation “Out of Fatherland” at AGO - Art Gallery of Ontario, commissioned mural pieces for The Idea of North, and Galerie Martel in Paris, France.

Follow Nina on Instagram: @nbunjevac