Toronto Comic Arts Festival: National Post Creator Q&A Links, Pt. 3

More Paul work by Michel Rabagliati

Man, whoever said just putting up a bunch of links instead of writing a post is a good way to save time and stay current was soooo wrong.

Here at last are the final links to the National Post writer Mark Medley's cartoonist questionnaire sent out to participants of the Toronto Comic Arts Festival two weeks ago. Sorry for the delay.

As well, lots of post TCAF reports and comments have been popping up lately. Comic Book Resources Robot 6 pointed me to this Publisher's Weekly report, Now Magazine, a National Post roundup, the Post's coverage of the author roundtable at Harbourfront with Yoshiro Tatsumi, Adrian Tomine and Seth at Harbnourfront. The Toronto Star had a preview, a who to look for article and an interview with Tatsumi.

Robot 6 also pointed out artists who have blogging their experiences there, including Scott McLoud, who was kind enough to include more artist links. Deb Akoi and the Torontoist have photo blogs up. As well, the Same Hat manga blog has been posting about their trip to TCAF.

The absolutely essential Canadian website Sequential (which debuted it's first ever print edition at TCAF) has a typically thorough round-up of more Fest coverage here. There was so much they had to break post the links in four parts (so far). Check out Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.

Sequential also links to the fantastic Jamie Colville's MP3's of the panel discussions here and pointed readers to an Inkstuds recording of the post-Kirby panel. One stop shopping!

Back to regular blogging next time.

Michel Rabagliati. The Harvey Award winning artist behind the semi-autobiographical Paul graphic novels (Paul In The Country, Paul Has A Summer Job, Paul Moves Out,and his latest, Paul Goes Fishing) is one of the few Quebec artists to earn significant recognition in France, partially due to his European comic style, apparently inspired by Asterix, Tintin,and the comics of Spirou et Fantasio.

Paul Rivoche is a freelance designer, illustrator and co-creator of Mr. X. His latest comic work appeared in a recent issue of DC Comics' The Spirit. He and Ty Templeton have also teamed up to create the Toronto Cartoonists Workshop, to provide instruction in the comic arts. Details are still up in the air since they only announced the initiative at TCAF but the first classes should be running by Fall.

The Crusaders commission by Paul Rivoche.

Last month at the last Toronto Fan Appreciation Con, Paul also did a terrific commission for me of The Crusaders, a sci-fi comic series from Anglo American Comics way back in the forties. The Canadian Whites never looked so good. I promised to scan it for Paul and send him a copy but my scanner is too small for it. However, he did a lovely job of colouring the digital pic he took at the Con. I found it posted on his website, rocketfiction.com. Check it out. It's a thing of beauty!

Steve Rolston. The writer and artist of One Bad Day has also collaborated with some of the hippest comic writers around. He's produced MEK with Warren Ellis, Escapists with Brian K. Vaughn, Degrassi: Extra Credit with J. Torres and Emiko Superstar with Mariko Tamaki. His next project will be Ghost Projekt from Oni Press.

Florrent Ruppert, the French co-author of Panier de Singe, Safari Monseigneur, La Poubelle de la Place Vendôme and GoGo Club with his partner Jérôme Mulot.

Dash Shaw got double coverage from Post. The Richmond, Va, artist of the Eisner Award nominated Mother's Mouth and the serialized online Bodyworld, answered Medley's questionnaire and the Books section published a review of his massive, 720-page graphic opus, The Bottomless Belly-Button.

Sparkplug Comic Books has been carving a niche publishing up and coming cartoonists since 2002. In addition to the Marketing and Publicity Coordinator Shannon O'Leary's answers to the questionnaire, you can find more info at the Sparkplug website.

Valerie Sury. This French illustrator, painter and sculptor's virtual gallery can be found at her website. Her sister, comic artist Caroline Sury of Stripburger and Bebe 2000, runs the underground publishing house "Le Dernier Cri" together with her partner Pakito Bolino in Marseille.

Jillian and Mariko Tamaki were featured in the print edition of the Post, discussing their work Skim (a comic, then a play, then the graphic novel. Mariko also responded to Medley's questions.
More about her at MarikoTamaki.com.

Diana Tamblyn is another comic artist hailing from my hometown of London, Ontario.the Ignatz-nominated cartoonist has made a name for herself drawing lovely mini-comics like The Rosie Stories and There You Were. I'm looking forward to when she finishes her full-length graphic novel From Earth To Babylon: The Story of Gerald Bull and the Supergun. Now that's a title! Tamblyn is also quite active in fandom and has helped shepherd the Joe Shuster Awards through their many growing pains.

Jason Thompson. This journalist and manga critic recently authored Manga: The Complete Guide and the forthcoming graphic novel, King of RPGs with Victor Hao.

J. Torres is the King of all-ages and youth-oriented comics scribes and the Prince of creator-owned work, having co-created Alison Dare and Jason and the Argobots as well as writing for Teen Titan's Go! and the Degrassi: Extra Credit graphic novels. Other creator-owned work like the Copybook Tales, Days Like This, Scandalous, Love As A Foreign Language and the upcoming Dead Goombas and Lola: A Ghost Story from Oni Press. You can follow him on his blog.

From Adrian Tomine's Shortcomings.

Adrian Tomine is the much-beloved indie creator of Optic Nerve and graphic novels like Summer Blonde, Shortcomings, Scrapbook and Sleepwalk and Other Stories.

James Turner created the long running Rex Libris about a space-faring, immortal librarian (a description which doesn't even come close to doing its humour justice) and Nil: A Land Beyond Belief from Slave Labor Graphics.

Jason Turner's True Loves graphic novel is currently getting the sequel treatment. The collection is out soon but you can also see it online at True Loves 2. You can also check his blog for more deets.

Jose Villarrubia is a Maryland art professor whose secret identities include a photographer, illustrator and a colorist with extensive mainstream comic credits. He has collaborated with Alan Moore on three graphic novels/books: Voice of the Fire, The Mirror Of Love and the as yet unreleased The Book of Copulations, "an introduction to magic in everyday life". I found an old interview with him at the Comicbook Bin that shed some light on his career so far.

Eric Wight, the writer and illustrator of Frankie Pickle, from Simon and Schuster.

Chip Zdarsky (Steve Murray). The utterly unhinged brain behind Prison Funnies and Monster Cops made a splash with his first two issues then was snapped up by the National Post as an illustrator in residence (along with Kagan Mcleod). Some of his work includes Extremely Bad Advice and the still unfinished ComicsTrip. That put Chip and Kagan's comics waaaaaay off-schedule (Kagan's is the amazing Infinite Kung Fu).

The Post rewarded him with so much work he recently recently blew out his drawing arm. But I still noticed him wincing out out sketches for the ladies at TCAF. Get well soon Chipper. And if you're offended, do not check out his website's hilarious Marvel Comics Idea Journal in which he imagines the entire Marvelverse shtupping.

Zen Rankin. This Toronto illustrator's comic work includes Action Satisfaction Supreme and Ed and Red's Comic Strip. He's also a member of Sketchkrieg!

Jim Zubkavich. This Seneca College Professor of animation put his pen where his mouth is with Makeshift Miracle.

Beavers Up!