Toronto Comic Arts Festival: National Post Creator Q&A Links, Pt. 2

Wow.

There was so much Toronto Comic Arts Festival coverage posted at The Afterword, the National Post's book blog, that I just didn't have time to post all the artist links before the dang event was over! So instead of this being pre-event homework, let's consider this a chance to find out more about the artists you met or missed this weekend.

Many of these quickie "interviews" are replies to Post writer Mark Medley's pre-show questionnaire sent to many of the participating artists. It's fun to see where the answers are similar and where they diverge. I think it's also safe to say that artists for whom English is a second language or those unfamiliar with North American pop culture are at a disadvantage. But every artist who replied shows they've got game.

Now where were we? I think we hit the "L"s.

Dave Lapp is the man at the drawing board for Drop-In, a new graphic novel from Toronto's Conundrum Press about Lapp's experiences as an art teacher at a Toronto, inner-city drop-in centre in Regent Park. Drop-In, is getting a lot of good press like this review over at the WalrusMagazine.com. And I'll bet a true cartoonist like Lapp loved being reviewed right along with Albert Chartier's une piquante petite brunette.

Chartier is a grandmaster of the form and Lapp has been plying his trade since at least high school. A fact which I can attest to since he and I went to the same high school. He's also collected his Georgia Strait comic strip, Children of the Atom, online.

Jeff Lemire. Another Londoner making graphic waves after his Essex Country trilogy of graphic novels achieved fame. His new Vertigo graphic novel, The Nobody , hits shelves in a few months. Then his new, ongoing series, Sweet Tooth, debuts in September.

Troy Little, the creator of Chiaroscuro and Angora Napkin.

Jason Loo. Sketchkrieg and the AWOL'd graphic novels.

Steve MacIsaac. This transplanted Canadian cartoonist lifts his mighty brush and pens to produce Shirtlifter.

John Malloy, of the memorable graphic novel, Amnesia.

Brian McLachlan. Author of The Princess Planet.

Carla Speed McNeil. Self-Publisher of the long-running sci-fi comic series, Finder.

Tara McPherson was one of the more famous artists in attendance (in terms "art world" acceptance. Her personal website is at taramcpherson.com.

Erika Moen is the female force behind DAR: A Super Girly Top Secret Comic Diary. You can also check out her online portfolio.

Evan Munday. Stripmalling and Quarterlife Crisis.

Tom Neely, the L.A. based creator of The Blot and the forthcoming The Wolf.

Ryan North is the deranged brain behind Dinosaur Comics, which has been making funny out of the same strip of dinosaur pictures for years! Truly, the zen of hilarity.

Bryan Lee O’Malley. Who isn't talking about the creator of Scott Pilgrim, Monica Battle and Lost At Sea?

Jim Ottaviani and his G.T. Labs publishing site have making terrific graphic novels about scientists and history for years. After books like Two Fisted Science, Dignifying Science and Levitation, his latest, T-Minus, just hit the shoelves.

Ramon Perez. This Toronto-born artist draws Butternut Squash, Kukuburi, the She's My Kind of Girl pin-up site and has worked for DC Comics most recently on a Wildcat three-parter.

Rina Piccolo, the hilarious cartoonist behind Tina's Groove, a long-running newspaper strip.

Dang... Still more to come.

Thank you National Post!!!

Beavers Up!