This weekend, an amazing array of comics artists from Europe, Asia and North America will convene at the Toronto Comics Arts Festival on Saturday and Sunday, May 9 - 10, 2009. The fun kicks into high gear on Friday, with an evening art show opening and panel featuring Japanese manga legend Yoshihiro Tatsumi (A Drifting Life), along with comics creators Seth (Palooka-ville) and and Adrian Tomine (Optic Nerve) at the Harbourfront Centre.
Then the festival officially begins on Saturday, from 10 am - 5 pm, and continues through Sunday from noon to 5:00 pm, giving fans two full days of comic book-filled fun at the The Toronto Reference Library, at 789 Yonge St. in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. With top-notch guests including Bryan Lee O'Malley (Scott Pilgrim), Paul Pope (100%), Scott McCloud (Making Comics) and too many more to list here, TCAF 2009 promises to be an event to remember.
The main reason why I decided to go to TCAF was to get a chance to meet Tatsumi-sensei, who has already been getting rave reviews for his recently released opus A Drifting Life. Tatsumi-sensei will be the featured guest at the Friday spotlight event at Harbourfront Centre at 7:30 pm, along with Tomine and Seth. Admission for this event is $8. There'll also be an exhibit of graphic novel artwork from all over the world at the Gallery at Harbourfront, with an opening reception on Friday from 6:00 pm.
I'll be moderating a panel entitled "Manga Around The World! International Perspectives on Manga" on Saturday, from 11:30 am - 12:30pm in the TCAF Gallery. I'll be joined by a pretty cool group of comics creators, including Antoine Dodé (Armelle et Mon Oncle), Becky Cloonan (Demo, East Coast Rising, and Pixu), Eric Ko (UDON Entertainment), Bryan Lee O’Malley (Scott Pilgrim) and Jason Thompson (Manga: The Complete Guide and the upcoming King of RPGs).
Thompson will also be presenting his always entertaining "Secret History of Manga in America" show on Saturday, from 10:30 am - 11:30 am, in the TCAF Gallery, right before our manga panel.
The full schedule for panels and events at TCAF is posted on the TorontoComics.com website and at organizer (and owner of The Beguiling) Chris Butcher's Comics212 website. There's lots of great events, so if you're able to make it to TCAF, there'll be more than enough interesting events to make it well worth your while. And dude, did I mention that it's free? Quite the deal!
Can't make it to Toronto this weekend? No worries! I'll be taking photos, chatting up creators, buying way too many books and compulsively tweeting about it all on Twitter, so feel free to follow my misadventures in manga and comics collecting from Friday afternoon to Sunday night.
Image credit: Bryan Lee O'Malley, courtesy of TCAF; © Yoshihiro Tatsumi
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