It’s over already! I’m tired but happy, having made some new friends, gotten to know others better, and stuffed my greedy little wheelie-luggage full of graphic novels. In fact, I’m not sure how I’m going to get these home…

Today I remembered to take some photos, so you can get some idea of what the event looks like. I also took pics of some of the artists whose work I like and will be featuring them in coming days here, starting tomorrow — I was going to do just one or two, and post them tonight, but there were so many wonderful people, and I want to share them and their work with everyone! So the next week will have one or two comic creators per day featured, until I run out of photos.

The view from the fourth floor. The Toronto Reference Library is a beautiful space for an event like this.

Today’s highlight presentation for me was an interview with Jeff Smith, creator of Bone. I absolutely love this comic, which is actually an epic-length graphic novel that was serialized. It’s marketed for kids, but it’s really one of those all-ages things — heck, I’m almost 60 and I loved it, both for the artwork and the story. Jeff talked about the initial reactions to the publication of the comic, and how he and his wife dealt with the challenges of indie publishing. He also talked about B&W vs colour, and how he came to have the originally B&W Bone coloured after some initial resistance on his part, and his reactions to it (he liked it). If you ever get the chance, watch The Cartoonist: Jeff Smith, Bone and the Changing Face of Comics — it’s a wonderful glimpse into the creative processes of this artist.

I was delighted to find out that he’s doing a webcomic called Tuki. He started it because of the realization that the internet is becoming very important in the comics scene, and he needed to get his foot in the door! It’s about the first man to leave Africa, 2 million years ago. I asked him about his research, and he got very animated about all the studies he did for it — palaeontology and biology and climate — you could tell he was passionate about it. It’s free to look at, that’s how webcomics are, so go take a look — the art is gorgeous!

Another view from the fourth floor. It was much more crowded yesterday; the stairs going up were jam-packed, and at one point it was very hard to get upstairs because they’d reached capacity!

The upstairs room — this photo doesn’t do it justice; it was a huge room and adjacent smaller room, the large on being the same as the photo I posted on Friday’s blog.

A view from the second floor. The tables were not just in the centre space you see here; they were wound around the entire first floor, in every nook and cranny! So many artists and writers — I wish I could have bought something from each of them, but I’d have to open my own library! Oh, and win the lottery…

TCAF is all about the creators of indie comics and small press publishers. There were very few standard superheroes in evidence; much of the work on offer was very different than what most people think of as comics.

The study areas of the library were open as usual; researchers were coexisting remarkably well with festival-goers. I loved these glass study areas.

Oh, and my New Experience for the day — I took the subway, all by myself, to the event! I figured Sunday would be much less stressful then Friday’s rush hour, and it was.

Stay tuned for those spot features on comics creators, starting tomorrow!