Photo Gallery: Manga, Comics and More at TCAF 2009

By most accounts, several thousand visitors came out to check out Toronto Comics Arts Festival 2009 this past weekend, and delivered a fun-filled celebration of comics and creativity. I was there, and so were an astounding array of creators from Canada, England, Germany, France, the United States and yes, even Japan.

I'll admit, I booked this trip mostly so I could meet manga legend Yoshihiro Tatsumi, who's on a whirlwind tour to promote the recent release of A Drifting Life, but also found myself moderating a panel on "international perspectives on manga" with a great group of artists and industry professionals. And of course, I discovered and bought lots of wonderful graphic novels, mini-comics and prints. A great weekend was had by all!

Don't believe me? Check out some of my photos from this weekend in my Toronto Comic Arts Festival 2009 Gallery. I've got a few photos in there to start, but will be adding more over the next few days. Stick around and you'll see pics from Tatsumi-sensei's talk with Adrian Tomine, autograph sessions with Paul Pope, Seth, Bryan Lee O'Malley and Derek Kirk Kim, a sampling of new books from Picturebox, Top Shelf, Drawn & Quarterly and a lot more.

Also, stick around for lots more from TCAF this week, as I'll be posting a transcript from Tatsumi's talk with Tomine, along with a few extra follow-up questions I asked Tatsumi at the end of TCAF, a short chat with TCAF co-founder Christopher Butcher and a transcript of the global manga panel that I moderated on Saturday, featuring Becky Cloonan (Demo, East Coast Rising), O'Malley (Scott Pilgrim), Eric Ko (Udon Entertainment), Jason Thompson (The Complete Guide to Manga, King of RPGs) and Antoine Dodé (Armelle et Mon Oncle).

Image credit: © Deb Aoki