This weekend, we’re heading to Toronto, Canada, for the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, more commonly known as TCAF. It’s my first visit to TCAF, and my first visit to Toronto since I was a ten-year-old for a hernia operation (!). It seems like I’ve been hearing about TCAF forever, and this year—seeing as we’re in Ann Arbor, MI—it was more geographically feasible to visit. We’re also making it a family vacation, taking Phoebe out of school and everything. We’ll drive up to Toronto on Friday, stay for the festival, and then hang around for another couple of days to see the sights. I’m excited!

My expectation is that TCAF will be more like a European comics festival than an American-style comic convention. (Since I finally made it to Angouleme last year, I now fully appreciate the difference.) My favorite U.S. conventions—by far—are MoCCA and SPX—and I basically avoid all the rest of them when I can. My hope and expectation is that TCAF will join their ranks. The panels and programming look particularly promising—some of the panels I hope to make it to include Gilbert Hernandez, Michael Kupperman, Art Speigelman & Seth in Conversation, and Adventure Time!

I’ll be taking part in a panel myself, called Comics & Politics, on Saturday from 4:00–5:00 pm. My fellow esteemed panelists are Sarah Glidden, Rutu Modan, and Matt Bors, and the discussion will be moderated by Nicole Marie Burton. That’s Saturday, May 11, at the Toronto Marriott Bloor Yorkville Hotel, Forest Hill Ballroom. More details here.

When I’m not at a panel, or seeking out buddies I haven’t seen in a while, I’ll be seated at table #112 in the Atrium, alongside Colosse and Sophie Yanow. I’ll have copies of A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge, The Influencing Machine, A Few Perfect Hours, and a mini-comic I put together just for the occasion. Hope to see you there!

Toronto Comic Arts Festival
May 11-12, 2013
Toronto Reference Library (TRL)
789 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
M4W 2G8