Toronto Comic Arts Fest Report: Awards, Muscles, and Friendship

Thank you Toronto Comic Arts Festival, The Beguiling, and teenage mutant volunteers for letting us crash the party four years running

TCAF takes place on three of the seventeen floors in Toronto’s gigantic public library

It is pleasantly jarring to find a community that gives a shit about books enough to build such a monument, and open its doors to the public for a free indie comics festival of such scale

https://twitter.com/CarolynCNowak/status/995303860817223680

Silver Sprocket crew making good decisions at the time included Ivy Atoms, Hazel Newlevant, Carolyn Nowak, Ben Passmore, Isabella Rotman, Michael Sweater, Steve Thueson, and Jenn Woodall

In Canada you put a maple leaf on everything

Magical Beatdown won Jenn Woodall a Doug Wright silver boy

I WON!!? Thank you so much to @doug_wright_awards for the nomination, to the jurors, to @thebeguiling and to the people who have supported me along the way like my amazing partner @trevorhenderson , my lovely friends and @silversprocket for always promoting and supporting my work 💖💖 THANK YOU

A post shared by Jenn Woodall (@funeralbeat) on May 12, 2018 at 6:48pm PDT

“Magical Beatdown deploys violence in a very satisfying way, and that, coupled with Jenn’s gorgeous illustrative style made this book a clear winner,” said the jury

https://twitter.com/ssbcpunk/status/995677208814456832

Ivy Atoms’ Pinky and Pepper Forever made its debut

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bir_UuqFZr9/?taken-by=ivyatoms

and Steve Thueson’s fantastic BORSQ

Some jerks wouldn’t get away from the Fantagraphics table so they had Michael Sweater and I do some push-ups while yelling COMICS to scare them off

This is the first and only time anyone has or will ever count on us to be the “muscle” in a situation

It took the entire weekend for these polite Canadians to land a Critical Hit

Bonus thanks Sacha for all the help and being the most responsible

we’re always the last table to finish packing up

got a bunch of fresh to death indie comics

Confused by the local customs

Fuckyeah Ben Passmore’s Your Black Friend and Other Strangers in the window display at Drawn & Quarterly

ok that was fun see you next year

(Photo: Jody Culkin / Publishers Weekly)

We’ll be at more comic fests coming up if you’d like to join the mess:

VanCAF in Vancouver: May 19-20 with James the Stanton
CAKE in Chicago: June 2-3, Table 231-233 with Isabella Rotman & Jenn Woodall
San Diego ComicCon in San Diego, CA: July 18-22, Booth 1718
Rose City ComicCon in Portland, OR: Sept 7-9
STAPLE in Austin, TX: Sept 8-9th with Ben Snakepit
SPX in Bethesda, MD: Sept 15-16 with *everyone*
CXC in Columbus, OH: Sept 29-30
MICE in Cambridge, MA: Oct 20-21 with Erin K Wilson, Isabella Rotman, Steve Thueson