I've never been to an North American Comic Festival, a lucky destiny made the TCAF the first one. (To be precise it was the kind invitation of the organizers Christopher Butcher and Peter Birkemoe.) The first issue was held in 2003 in the backyard of their Comicshop "The Beguiling" and has now grown to one of the most amazing festivals I've ever visited. Why?
The basic concept of the festival is to arrange a great "meet & greet" of artists and readers. The entrance is free and so are all the panels. The selection of exhibitors is curated, and yet the hall was crowded with great alternative comics, two days of festival were not enough to get an overview. Because besides browsing through comics I met colleagues to chat with on every meter: 400 visiting artists, among them several where only mentioning their names evokes an excited trembling, - here they were strolling around in person, greeting and chatting. Although everybody was very jovial, I was to shy to ask for fotos, did only few secret ones ...
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| Art Spiegelmann |
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| Gilbert and Chaime Hernandez |
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| I like Lucy's tatoo |
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| This girl likes Dash's drawings, therefore she tattoed two of his figures on her arm. |
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One day before the festival we made the tourist tour to Niagara Falls, which includes not only the visit of the falls, but also a wine tasting, the floral clock and other bullshit we didn't want to see, but we had to.
In this foto can be found: Boulet, David B., Judith Vanistendael, Bruce (from Australia) |
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The man who is photographed here is the admired Manga Artist Gengoroh Tagame.
Drawing by Tagame ... We share the same taste in men (only I wouldn't torture them). |
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| Met him again the next morning on the Toronto Airport. |
