This weekend’s TCAF was a lesson in facial hair and anxious hovering (refer to Karen Whaley's photo recap). Most comic artists are known for their self-loathing and surrealism (what artists aren’t?), but never have so many accomplished beards gathered in one place. Knowing that comics have traditionally been a boy’s club, it was especially great to see so many women artists come out and make it a more gender-even atmosphere. However, the female presence did......

This Saturday and Sunday is the third Toronto Comic Arts Festival, the city's only comics convention where you're unlikely to find cosplayers. Instead, fans call comic books "graphic novels" and story protagonists are often neurotic everymen rather than superheroes. This free event is organized to showcase the talent of Canada's cartoonists, both up-and-coming and well-established, while also welcoming international comics creators to the Great White North. The festival, called "TCAF" to be concise, will......

After exhibits in exotic Windsor, Ontario and far-flung South Korea as both a solo artist and a member of the Sausages for Hostages Collective, mixed media artist Victor North returns to Toronto with an explosive new show Cool But Crude at the Resistor Gallery. North's new collection of paintings created since his return to Toronto are, according to the artist, "inspired by beautiful women, influenced by comic books, and informed by location." The works contain......

The image everyone has of the quintessential comic book expert is a guy sitting around in his basement with 50-year-old copies of Superman, ranting wildly about the Golden Age. Leading comics theorist Scott McCloud defies that stereotype entirely. He is best known for writing comic books about comic books: epic treatises which are remarkably optimistic about the future of the industry. This evening he will be in Toronto giving a lecture, Understanding, Reinventing, and......

Hold on to your horrors, scary story-lovers: Stephen King is scheduled to make his first official Canadian appearance to receive a life-time achievement award from the Canadian Booksellers Association. The event, to be held at the John Bassett Theatre at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on Friday, June 8, will include an on-stage interview. The organizers say that tickets go on sale today (but as of 9 a.m. this morning, the website isn’t online). You......

The best things in life are free: long walks on the beach, make-outs in the dark and, for one day a year, comic books. Comics nerds around the globe will unite in spirit this Saturday to celebrate Free Comic Book Day, which means a trip to your local comic book store will result in a handful of free stuff and a general sense of well-being. As part of the festivities, The Beguiling will be giving......

Local comic hero Chester Brown reimagines Wonder Woman, one of the most iconic characters in comic books. The one-of-a kind original pieces (not prints) will be going up for auction with all proceeds going to the Douglas Wright Awards for Canadian Cartooning which will be held later this year. The award organizers have previously auctioned off Seth's playful reimagining of the original X-Men. Chester Brown's Wonder Woman print will be auctioned off on eBay......

Tomorrow, May 6th, 2006, is worldwide Free Comic Book Day! That means pretty much what you think it means: fine comic book shops across the globe are dispensing comics to those who wander through their doors. The event, designed to celebrate indie comic stores, is now in it's fifth year. from the website: Comic books are an original American art form, created in the early days of the twentieth century. They are fun to read,......

It's old news now, but just in case you didn't hear, Boing Boing editor and former Torontonian Cory Doctorow is one of three judges for the 2006 Blooker prize. The Lulu Blooker prize is awarded to the best non-fiction, fiction and comic books inspired by a blog (or blog turned into books). The most impressive title on the short list, in Torontoist's humble opinion is Julie Powell's Julie and Julia, the New York secretary that......

SpeakEasy is an informal gathering for creative types and the people who like to hang around them. Around in one form or another since 1996, this month's theme is comic books (upcoming shows will be photography, multi-media, graphic design and industrial design), and will feature the work of Cameron Stewart, Paul Rivoche, Chip Zdarsky, Steve Manale, Attila Adorjany, Eric Kim, Ramon Perez, and a handful more. The organizers also suggest there will be some 'cute,......

Joe Shuster was one of Canada's greatest graphic storytellers, and a co-creator of Superman. What's more, in his youth, he was a paperboy for the Toronto Daily Star, and as a result, dorky Clark Kent's day job at the Daily Star was a nod to that paper and those times. All of this to say, then, that it's fitting for Canada's newest award ceremony, honouring comic books and the people who make them, is to......