The Vancouver Comic Arts Festival
181 Roundhouse Mews V6Z 2W3 Vancouver, BC, Canada

Join us next Wednesday!!

Meet our panellists for next week's panel! We would love for you to join us - sign up for our event next week with @outinschools here: https://buff.ly/36CkPei Kathleen Gros Kathleen Gros is a cartoonist living in Vancouver, BC. She graduated with a BFA in Illustration from Emily Carr University of Art and Design in 2015 & has taught comics in the Continuing Studies program at Langara. She is the creator behind the graphic novel Jo: An Adaptation of Little Women (Sort Of) (Ha...rperCollins 2020). Two more graphic novels with HarperCollins have been announced with releases slated for 2022 and 2024. She currently holds the position of secretary for the Vancouver-based charitable organization, Cloudscape. You can find more of her work at https://buff.ly/36XPfIb Ilinca Barbacuta Ilinca Barbacuta is a breathtakingly Canadian writer and illustrator based in the Pacific Northwest. She primarily writes speculative fiction, with an emphasis on urban fantasy, but either way will be sure to sneak a plethora of terrible puns into anything she’s working on at the moment. Ilinca has been previously published in a handful of original & fandom zines, and was also one of the contributing writers to UNDERCITIES, an urban fantasy short story anthology. She was one of the founding members of Jessamine Press and successfully organized, edited, and kickstarted MALAISE, a short story horror anthology. She is hard at work on her next project when she’s not trying to get better at D&D. Ilinca likes humane monsters, found families, monstrous humans, creepy tales, and happy endings. Christian Haruki Lett Christian Haruki Lett draws and writes stories about magic, monsters, ghosts, queerness, creatures, mad science, and love. He keeps a vial of glitter on his person at all times in case of emergencies.

Robert Dayton Interviews Fiona Smyth! Watch through the link below. Fiona Smyth is a comics legend influencing so many artists, that some of them aren’t even aware that Fiona is an influence on their work! Once they see the retrospective collection of Fiona’s work, Somnambulance, published by Koyama Press though, lightbulbs will go off. At 367 pages spanning the 80’s to 2018, the point of publication, this incredible and unique collection is just some of her comics work. Plu...s, there’s the art for the sex education books What Makes A Baby and Sex Is A Funny Word with writer Cory Silverberg, gallery installations, and so much more! And hey, we discuss all that and what she has been up to since then! One thing we didn’t talk about, though, is the doodle art catalogue cover and doodle art poster (for you to colour in) that Fiona has designed for the upcoming Art Gallery Of Ontario exhibit I Am Here with work by Patti Smith, Mary Pratt, and Andy Warhol. So, it’s mentioned here in this introduction, ha! And be sure to visit and bookmark: http://fiona-smyth.blogspot.com/?m=1 See more

Join us on Oct. 27 for a virtual program with acclaimed author and illustrator Nora Krug in conversation with @marshalederman on intergenerational perspectives ...of the Holocaust presented with @germanyincanada / Vancouver & the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance w/ support of @universityofbc & @universityofvictoria. https://canada.diplo.de//vertre/generalkonsulat3/-/2397736 Free event. Link to register above.

TOMORROW NIGHT! Join us for our last workshop in the #StartaComic series and Start a Comic with Ken Steacy. Spaces still available!

Tajliya Jamal discusses mixed media comics in this newest tutorial! Watch below:

Join us TONIGHT! Spaces are still available for @TaniaDeRozario.Art workshop on Creating Visual Metaphor in Comics. Register here: http://www2.vancaf.com/workshops/

Tomorrow! There are still spaces open for Tania De Rozario's online comics workshop. Register here:

#StartaComic with Tania De Rozario on October 15th! What does it mean to devour a book, bottle up a feeling or have a broken heart? We often think of metaphors as literary devices but in truth, we use them everyday to help us communicate difficult feelings or abstract ideas. In this workshop, participants will develop visual metaphors that they may consider using as comic-beginnings. Spaces are limited! Register through the following link: http://www2.vancaf.com/workshops/

TONIGHT! Spaces are still available for the Brainstorm a Comic workshop with James Lloyd! Register here:

TOMORROW! Register for James Lloyd's free, online workshop. Join us for some fun brainstorming and collaboration! Register here:

There are still spaces in James Lloyd's free, online workshop next week! Register here:

#StartaComic with Janice Liu Illustration tonight! Learn how to outline a short story comic - the workshop is free and online. Register here:

@flutterdoodle is hosting a workshop tomorrow night all about Outlining a Short Comic Story! Register and learn more:

#StartaComic with James Lloyd! All comics begin with an idea first, and facing the blank page can be an intimidating prospect when setting forth on a story. In this workshop, we will explore the concept of brainstorming & creation in the moment. This will be a lively & interactive workshop wherein participants will collaborate with the other participants in the yes and spirit to quickly expand a simple plot concept into a full comic story. The workshop is free and online, but spaces are limited! Register here and learn more:

Spaces are still available for Janice Liu Illustration's free, online workshop on Outlining a Short Story Comic! Learn more and register:

#StartaComic with VanCAF: A Free, Online, 4-part Workshop Series! Join us for 4 Thursdays in October to learn different ways to start a comic. Spaces are limited! The first workshop is on Thursday, October 1st: Outlining a Short Story Comic with Janice Liu. Learn to outline a short story comic in this workshop for beginners of all ages! This fast-paced, collaborative workshop will cover the basic principles and considerations of planning out a comic before you begin drawing... it. Participants will create short stories based on prompts, and leave the workshop with a finished script breakdown of a 3-4 page comic. #StartaComic with Janice Liu! @janiceliuillustration Register for Janice's workshop and find out more about the series through the link below. http://www2.vancaf.com/workshops/

Learn 12 different watercolour textures with Kirsten Hatfield! For more about Kirsten: www.kirstenhatfield.com

Erica Isomura's (@ericahiroko) interview with Kiku Hughes (@kikuhughes) is now live on our youtube channel! Japanese American author Kiku Hughes and Japanese Canadian writer Erica Isomura discuss family history, reclamation of queer stories, model minority myths in Asian America, and the significance of these narratives to the racial justice movement. Kiku Hughes' "Displacement" (published by @01FirstSecond) is a magical realist story about a Japanese American teen who is pu...lled back in time to witness her grandmother's experiences in an incarceration camp during the Second World War. You can buy "Displacement" from you local, independent book seller, or from @MacMillanUSA: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250193537

@andreawarnerwriter interviews @rumiharaillustration about Hara's new graphic novel, "Nori", published by Drawn and Quarterly. From Drawn & Quarterly's website: "Nori (short for Noriko) is a spirited three-year-old girl who lives with her parents and grandmother in the suburbs of Osaka during the 1980s. While both parents work full-time, her grandmother is Nori’s caregiver and companionforever following after Nori as the three year old dashes off on fantastical adventures." https://buff.ly/3m6qz66 You can buy "Nori" from you local, independent book seller, or through Drawn and Quarterly: https://buff.ly/2Fd0T6G