Results tagged “torontocomicartsfestival”

This weekend, the Toronto Reference Library’s bespectacled old ladies of Saturday morning cartoon fame were replaced with another near-sighted crowd. Trading cat’s eye glasses for black horn rims, the Toronto Comic Arts Festival crowd, several thousand strong, dominated at least the first two floors of the behemoth library.

THEATRE: Today is the last day of Crosscurrents, the ninth annual playwrights festival, at the Factory Theatre. Dedicated to playwrights of colour, the event celebrates the diversity of Canada’s national theatre scene. Today’s feature is poet and filmmaker Ahdri Zhina Mandiela’s who knew grannie, a dub aria about the expiation of generational family ties. Mandiela is the founder and artistic director of b current, a company exploring black identity through experimental theatre, dance, and dub poetry. Factory Theatre (125 Bathurst Street), 2:30 p.m., P.W.Y.C. or $10 in advance.

ART: Magic Pony presents an exhibit of limited-edition prints and a new series of toys from artist Tara McPherson. McPherson will be at the Narwhal Art Projects gallery tonight for the opening reception until 8 p.m. She is in town as a guest of the Toronto Comic Arts Festival to debut her new book, Lost Constellations: The Art of Tara McPherson Volume 2. Narwhal Art Projects (680 Queen Street West), 6–9 p.m., FREE.

ART: Barbershop Gallery is holding an exhibition/auction in support of non-profit community group Sketch, which helps homeless and disadvantaged people engage with the arts. Photobloggers Sam Javanrouh, Rannie Turingan, and Istoica curated this photography exhibition that captures big-name Toronto artists in their environment: Thrush Holmes, Brendan Flanagan, and artist collective Team Macho are all on the bill. Coming to the opening tonight means fringe benefits like a DJ set and free cupcakes. Barbershop Gallery (1718 Queen Street West), 7 p.m., FREE.

The Watchmen movie has been released to moderate success and every other person on the street has a copy of the graphic novel in their low-slung messenger bag. Michael Cera, the quirky playboy of lady hipster hearts, is in town filming the Scott Pilgrim movie. Now is a better time than ever to come out and let your comic flag fly. Side-by-side with a documentary festival, book festival, and photography festival, the fourth Toronto Comic Arts Festival (or TCAF) animates the city this week.

Torontoist is ending the year by naming our Heroes and Villains of 2007––the people, places, and things that we've either fallen head over heels in love with or developed uncontrollable rage towards over the past twelve months. Get your dose, starting Boxing Day and running into the new year, three times a day––sunrise, noon, and sunset.

A lot happens in and around Toronto, but we can only write about so much in a week. Here's the best of the rest, in a new weekly feature we're calling Superfluist. Superfluist will now appear every Saturday.

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 make the nervous, skinny boys floating about the tables even more so. The tension! Oh yes, the tension!

Torontoist attended the Toronto Comic Arts Festival last weekend and was astounded by how much talent could be crammed into one building. Despite wanting to obtain nearly every giclée print and minicomic we saw, it was more economical to take photographs instead.

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.

Roxanne Bielskis will be appearing at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival this Saturday! Check out the full schedule online, and be sure to check back later today for Torontoist's preview of the event.

Torontoist remembers that wonderful summer afternoon spent in the alley behind Honest Ed's at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival. There were just far too many talented artists and graphic novel goodness for us to take it all in. So sadly we missed meeting the three artists appearing at the Revival tonight.