Adam Griffith's StoryBox Comics Fair: An 'ongoing response to the comics, 'zine, and printmaking culture in DC'

by Mike Rhode

all photos courtesy of Adam Griffiths

What's StoryBox and why did you start it?

 
StoryBox Comics Fair is an annual two-day celebration of the medium of comics and gathering of self-published comics artists.

Day 1 takes place at DwightMess compound (805 Silver Spring Ave) from 11-6pm and is Free and open to the public.

Our program’s theme this year is 'Make Art, Make Comics!" So all of our workshops, artist lectures, and panels are centered around making. Our Special Guest, Richmond-based Rae Whitlock, will be in conversation with comics journalist Francesca Lyn about her new graphic novel, “Medium.” We’ll listen to an adventure about researching and writing comics with illustrator and graphic-recorder Mark Korsak. Babs New, everyone’s favorite art model will pose for a figure drawing session, and we’ll have a live recording by Paper Cuts with past and current editors of Magic Bullet, DC’s only comics newspaper.  We'll also present three new exhibits opening in the galleries; comics-inspired abstract graphics by John Grunwell, Remix: Selections from the DwightMess permanent Art & Tchotchkes Collection, and “Andrew Wodzianski is a Party Pooper,” an equally cheerful and dark exhibition of decorated vintage cakepans featuring various pop culture references. We’ll also be offering a free Intro Session with our new Riso machine if you’d like to begin printing regularly at the compound, and naturally, there will be exhibitor tables in the Common Room on the first floor, so, much to explore. 

Dana Maier buying comics

Day 2 takes place at Third Hill Brewing Co. and is a traditional comics expo experience at a smaller, more intimate scale, with a few workshops included. This year we’ll be screening rare cartoons from the DwightMess video vault!

StoryBox is an ongoing response to the comics, 'zine, and printmaking culture in DC, on the ground, as it happens. As we’ve been running DwightMess for almost four years, I’d say that I started StoryBox because I do enjoy going to comics expos and conventions, but there is nothing that tells me more about what it's like to be a comics reader and artist in the area where I reside than organizing this low-key mini-expo - it gives me a unique hold on what my peers are concerned with creatively, and keeps me burning with the integrity to remain original.  There's a difference between that and succumbing to every trend, which I think people who attend and who also follow what we've been doing at DwightMess compound understand intrinsically. 

Why is part of it in your house? How does your husband feel about that? IRRC, he's not a comics aficionado.

 
We were looking for a new place to live at the end of the pandemic. When we saw this house in downtown Silver Spring, which was way bigger than our previous house, I sort of noticed how it was laid out and began to hatch a plan to convert part of it into a gallery. Once we moved in, and I was setting up my art studio, that was when I realized that my own reading and art practice had gotten so big, so wider-spanning, that perhaps it would be right to not only run an underground gallery, but also continue to nourish the comics reader/maker community around me, and cultivate an ongoing and welcoming environment for ‘curious readers’ of comics.  

My Husband has me well-convinced that he likes all of the activity of the compound -the opening receptions, rotating art, me disappearing into my studio, and public programming. He’s not an aficionado but he does fall into the category of ‘curious reader;’ I can determine what types of comics he would be interested in, and make recommendations. In terms of the space and our home together, he is a lawyer, history buff and voracious (prose) reader so he really only needs his office and his library in the Common Room to perch in as he reads, and then most of the rest of the house and the workshop out back are devoted to showing art, teaching art, and making art. He quite likes the opening receptions because he’s a very good host and it always interests him talking to artists. 

Why call it Dwightmess?

 
My middle name is ‘Dwight.’ My family has an odd practice of addressing each other by either their first or middle names - and you don’t get to decide. Sometimes, one person, or several people will simultaneously all just switch and start calling you your other name, which is extremely disorienting, and so it’s a bit of a silly dig into that behavior and also the folly of being too self-regarding. The second part, primordially explains itself.

Why is part of it in a brewery?

 
We do the expo portion of the fair at the brewery in order to further communicate that we’d like to invite the public in to consume self-published and experimental comics, and adults especially so. Here in the states, comics are always thought of as a genre for kids, to get them reading, no matter how sophisticated the themes and humor have evolved. Comics can be the sort of cultural object that people can pick up as naturally as a film or a drink, or a new pair of shoes. That being said, the comics library at DwightMess is full of some truly subterranean material, but we would never withhold our type of reading from the hands of anyone we’d suspect would enjoy it!

How well has the brewery partnership worked out? 

 
We’ve been with Third Hill Brewing Co. since the beginning of StoryBox – the attendees and artist presenters love the space – we’re tucked back in the brewery amongst the beer tanks and so it’s silver and futuristic-looking and cozy, so it also forces us to maintain a certain scale. The most exhibitors we’ve ever had was 22.

Who gets asked to participate?

 
We do a free Call for Entries for StoryBox and then we also invite people from beyond the DC area as special guests or programmers. So anyone can apply, but also generally people who have been involved with the gallery before - exhibiting in the art space,  running a program, or someone we’ve networked with in some other context, can end up getting invited. For instance, Olivier Ballou, who makes graphic novels based on his Canadian home town, also runs our bi-monthly comic book club. So we try to sustain artists’ practices by having them collaborate with us in ways that will enrich their own art-making.

Are you attracting a different audience from a zine or SPX's show?

 
We definitely get the zine and SPX audience and many of the true devotees to small publishing who show up year-round for that, but we also get people who are truly fresh to comics-reading and making comics. Applying for SPX can be very intimidating to someone who’s just started making comics, who are so new, that they may have their concepts in order but are still developing their own sense of creative success and polish, and they need somewhere to explore and test that out first, without having to cut corners on their vision in order to achieve a level of professional sheen that they don’t need yet. I worked as an arts administrator in the DC contemporary art world for nearly 15 years, so we also get college professors, educators, and contemporary ‘fine’ artists who are trying to understand comics in a welcoming environment. We also get a lot more DMV-region locals who tend to be more intrepid about cross-pollinating with interesting people.
 
How many exhibits have you done in your home now? Was anything particularly notable or memorable about any one in particular? HOw do you select or ask people?

 
We’ve hosted over 30 shows since opening; in the main gallery, the Common Room, the Green Room on the 2nd floor, and also the secret/tiny gallery. From painting, to original comic art, to sculpture, animation, illustration, vintage objects - so many that I’d be doing any of those artists from our little family an injustice by leaving anyone out.

I’m looking forward to our next show: it’s the culmination of this year’s Dwightmess Artist Residency program combining forces with arts nonprofit transformer’s Exercises for Emerging Artists program to present a comics-themed show at their space in downtown DC at 14th & P Streets NW in late July. As Lead Artist, I selected four comics artists, Yuki Clarke, Art Hondros, Linda Kuo and Tia WIlson, who developed projects for the show over the course of several months. They met regularly at the compound to critique each other’s work, hear Guest Lecturers such as Corinne Halbert and Dana Jeri Maier and learn new skills such as risograph printing - sort of like a Masters of the Arts program in fast-forward. I’m so upset that I can’t even tell you the title yet! 

Your IRL job is a little surprising - can you describe it?

 
Yes, for a long time I was driven on becoming a full-time artist, but ultimately, like most creative people in the DMV, the high cost of living demands a patchwork of occupations.

Full-time, I’m the Security department’s manager at the National Museum for Women in the Arts - it started out as a guard job that I wouldn't have to think too much about; standing around in the galleries drawing, but upper management got wind of my capabilities so I've failed upwards splendidly for the past 2 years. 

We last did an interview 11 years ago - https://comicsdc.blogspot.com/2015/09/meet-local-cartoonist-chat-with-adam.html - is there anything you want to update or correct in there?

I’d say paste this to the end of the interview with no comment: “See Griffiths’ previous interview”...

Ben Claassen III

 

 

 

 

 

Dale Rawlings and Art Hondros

 

An Evening with Graphic Novelist Štěpánka Jislová and Cara Gormally

An audio recording and more photos are online at the Internet Archive.

Štěpánka Jislová

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The introduction by the Czechia Embassy.

Cara Gormally and Štěpánka Jislová

 

 

Her new book is Heartcore. Here's a review of the book from the International Journal of Comic Art. I just read Bald which she illustrated and I recommend it highly. An interview is at ‘My Red Library’: A Štěpánka Jislová Interview.

 

 

 

with photographer Bruce Guthrie

Chatting with Bob Fingerman, some years after meeting at Baltimore Comic Con

 by Mike Rhode

Sometime before COVID*, I was going to Baltimore Comic Con and a friend in Europe asked me to pick up some original art by Bob Fingerman** for him. I ended up buying more for myself than my buddy, as this was when Minimum Wage had just been collected, and I always enjoyed those scruffy urban not-quite-DINKS (you can see the six of mine scattered throughout this interview). Bob recently reached out to offer That’s Some Business You’re In and Printopia his two current books for review,*** and I asked him for an interview with my standard questions. (updated 2x 6/26/2025 to revise Recess Pieces information)

 

What type of comic work or cartooning do you do?

Well, I've done a lot. I've been at this for so long that I've managed to cram a lot of different genres and a lot of different approaches into one career. And I've been fortunate in that even in the times that I've played with other people's characters I've managed to do it in a way that felt consistent With my approach. But generally speaking, I guess I do what you would call Alternative Comics? Labels, what are you going to do? But yeah, mostly creator owned, very character driven stuff. Often with very talkative characters because I really love writing dialogue.

How do you do it? Traditional pen and ink, computer or a combination?

For quite a while it's been sort of a combination, but I do all of the drawing itself traditionally. Sometimes I ink, but generally I favor doing the finished art in hard colored pencil, almost always violet instead of black. I've been trying to figure out why? And I'm sure some psychologist would have a reason why I've locked into the color violet as my go-to, but yeah, that. And then I use the computer for color, so I digitally paint in conjunction with the line art. 

When (within a decade is fine) and where were you born?

They keep moving the goal post or criteria or whatever, but for the longest while I certainly identified as Gen X. And it seemed to work. And I'm from Queens, New York. 

And I liked Queens a whole lot better when it was just known as the boring borough as opposed to the borough that spawned Satan.

Where are you living now? What neighborhood or area do you live in?

I live in Los Angeles, after a lifetime in New York that had kind of run its course.

What is your training and/or education in cartooning?

The truth is that even though I went to art school I am largely and primarily self-taught.

Which is not to say I didn't learn some important lessons from Harvey Kurtzman when I was attending SVA. But the irony is all the best lessons I learned from him were extracurricular, because he hired me to work on some stories for a book he was editing (NUTS!) when I was a student in his class, and as an editor he really taught me a lot of very useful things. I also learned from other comics artists when I began to meet them, when I was young. I remember Bill Wray may have been the first to introduce the concept of "establishing panel" into my visual vocabulary of storytelling. I mean, that was gold. But I think I've just learned a lot from doing it for as long as I have and from looking at really good work over the years and absorbing bits and bobs.

Who are your influences?

Oof, how much time do you have? Jules Feiffer, Gahan Wilson, Herge, Robert Crumb (and many of the underground comic artists), the “usual gang of idiots” in the classic years of MAD, most especially Jack Davis and Wally Wood. But also Don Martin, Sergio Aragones. And when Heavy Metal magazine debuted it tore the lid off my head and poured it in some of the most astonishing comics I've ever seen to this day; so Richard Corben, Moebius, Caza, Bilal, Tardi, Frank Margerin, Serge Clerc. Akira Toriyama – – his Doctor Slump definitely crept into my brain. Tove Jansson. Vaughn Bodē. Walt Kelly. The incredible Charles Rodrigues, of National Lampoon fame. I know there are more, but I guess that's enough for the time being. Oh, Charles Burns? Gary Panter! Mike Mignola!

If you could, what in your career would you do-over or change? Or rather, how are you hoping your career will develop?

Oh my God, regrets? That might take longer than the influences. I'm kind of kidding. But of course, along the road I think I've made some poor choices. I think I used to grab the low hanging fruit too much, so I did some work that I'm not all that proud of in the earlier part of my career. I mean, I guess it's all part of the journey, so regret really isn't particularly healthy or helpful. Better to learn from your mistakes than regret them. And it's not like I did anything that hurt anyone. And as for my career developing, even though I've been doing this professionally for four decades I hope there's always forward momentum and growth. I think my work is a lot better now than it used to be, and I still keep learning new things, so hopefully by the time my hand begins to atrophy I'll have really achieved some of how I picture stuff in my head to the letter. I still enjoy what I do. The business, maybe not as much, but the actual job of creating? Love it! And I'm very grateful for that!

 

What work are you best-known for?

The comic book series Minimum Wage. That certainly the one I did the most of, the page-count probably totaling about 600? Compared to some people's output that's a blip, but for me to do 22 issues of a comic, plus a standalone introductory GN? The original run ran in the mid to late '90s from Fantagraphics, then it kind of went away and gestated for 15 years before being reborn courtesy of Image Comics. I'm hoping in the next year or two to collect all of it in one definitive edition.

What work are you most proud of?

I'm very proud of Minimum Wage, but I'm also proud of the two novels I got published (Bottomfeeder and Pariah), being in Heavy Metal magazine and MAD; the fact that I've managed to do work that had personal significance for as long as I have. And I'm very very proud of my latest graphic novel, Printopia! Might be my favorite book I've ever done.

What's Printopia about?  Where can people find it?

Printopia is set at a printshop in Manhattan. Within the framing device of the girl who works there—a recurring and evolving character of mine I’ve featured before, Darla Vogel—are vignettes about the lives of the eccentric and varied customers that employ Printopia’s services. A couple of dudes that put out a fantasy-oriented zine; a writer of cozy mysteries, who has a dirty secret; a naïve woman that creates children’s books featuring dioramas using dead animals to illustrate her stories and many more. It’s also, alas, very relevant, as it goes into stuff happening in the real world, now, even though it’s set in 2018. It’s funny, poignant and delves into the creative mind, pitfalls and all. It’s from Cosmic Lion Productions, and I’d encourage folks to either put in an order at their local comic shop, or order directly from Cosmic Lion. ****

 

   

pages from Printopia

  

 

Let's switch to your autobiography, That’s Some Business You’re In. Why did you decide to write a memoir? 

I wanted to mark the milestones of turning 60 and hitting my fortieth anniversary as a professional, so it seemed like a natural. But it’s more a career memoir than personal one, though there is intermingling. But it’s really a retrospective, to date. An expanded version will be coming out in trade paperback next year.

How did you come to be published by Zoop? They're crowdfunded, as opposed to being a traditional publisher, correct?

Yeah, they’re more a packager than publisher, but kind of function as a hybrid of both. I learned of them via a couple of creators I know that did projects via their platform, and I liked how they operate. After some good conversations with their principals, Eric and Jordan, doing That’s Some Business You’re In via Zoop seemed like a great idea.

It looks as thought the campaign was a success, raising 4x the initial request. Does that money come to you, stay with the publisher, or be split between you?

There’s a split, after costs, favoring the creator. Very equitable. 

Does Zoop handle all the fulfillment for this book? 

Yes, which is why I wanted to go with them as opposed to Kickstarter. I have no desire to do order fulfillment. It’s just not a way I want to spend my time. I’d rather focus on the creative aspect.

What would you like to do or work on in the future?

There’s a third book on the horizon: a vastly reworked edition of Recess Pieces called Recess Pieces Reanimated (due October 15, 2025).  It’s not simply a repackaged reissue. In my patented OCD style, I have reworked, revised, rewritten, redrawn and “reanimated” this graphic novel. 26 all-new pages, a new finale, and about 40 pages reworked extensively. It looks and reads soooo much better! Very excited for this to be out there. Planning on developing it as a tabletop RPG, too!

I would love to do a sequel to Printopia, but that remains to be seen. I also am planning to do something completely different, which would be a kids’ graphic novel. I think it would be fun to do something upbeat, for a change of pace. Especially with the world being what it is, focusing on something positive would be nice. But also, I wrote this story years ago and it's just lived in my head, so I think it's time to finally put it out in the world as a comic for kids. 

What do you do when you're in a rut or have writer's block?

That doesn’t happen all that often, but when it does the best thing for me, unless I’m on deadline, is to just walk away from whatever for a while. Let my brain reset itself. 

What do you think will be the future of your field?

No idea. I think it’s possible, even probable, that people will be reading comics for the rest of my lifetime, But in fewer numbers. I think people like the format. There are enough younger folks doing them that makes me think there is a future for the medium.

What cons do you attend?

I really don’t, much. Not anymore. The pandemic really shook me, and I already was iffy on cons, at the best of times. I kind of want to be active in them. I know it would help keep my name and work out there.

Any comments about attending them? We met at the Baltimore Comic Con years ago, and you mentioned enjoying that - why?

That was a rare con that I enjoyed. It felt… manageable. Not too big, but big enough to feel substantial. It attracted a good crowd that was actually there because they liked comics.

What comic books do you read regularly or recommend?

None, really. I generally “wait for trade,” like many consumers of comics. There are creators that when they have new work out, I must get it immediately, but their work is usually more in the OGN category. I love Noah Van Sciver’s work. He serialized Maple Terrace, and I got those as they were released, then bought it again in book form.

Do you have a local store?

Yeah, Secret Headquarters, in Atwater. I also get graphic novels and the like at Skylight Books’ annex. And Golden Apple.

What's your favorite thing about visiting DC?

Geez, it’s been a long time. Maybe twenty years? Maybe more? I loved the National Portrait Gallery. I’m trying to remember if that’s where I attended a great show of caricature art. Yeah, it was. Oh man, that was back in 1998. Okay, so yeah. It’s been a while. But it’s a very nice city, especially Georgetown.

Least favorite?

These days? Take a guess.

Do you have a website or blog?

Bobfingerman.com and my Instagram, bobfingerman. I also have a public Facebook page called Bob Fingerman – cartoonist & Author.

 How has the COVID-19 outbreak affected you, personally and professionally?

It was pretty bleak for a while, there. Those two plus years of lockdown? Spraying groceries with alcohol when you got them home? It felt very almost hopeless. Like, “Is this how it’s going to be forever, now?” On the other hand, I got a lot done, creatively. Being a prisoner in my own home wasn’t too bad, really. And one advantage of having always worked at home in a solitary way kind of prepped me for lockdown. But I’m glad life feels pretty normal, again. Though I still get anxious around crowds, indoors. So, another impediment re attending cons. I was actually going to finally return to San Diego last year, but then I got Covid! It’s still out there. What a note to end on! Stay healthy, folks!

*Ok, it was 2013, according to my emails, so this interview is long overdue. 

**Someone who can edit Wikipedia should update Bob's entry, based on this interview if nothing else.  

***Still available if you're interested in writing about them for IJOCA. I've bought my own copies as I'm way behind on reviews.

****I tried to order Printopia from my local comics store - they can't get it because Diamond was stocking it, and nobody's getting anything from Diamond now. I then tried the publisher who was about to charge $20 shipping on a $25 book. So I bought it from Amazon for cover price, but against my usual instincts to support LCSs or indy publishers. YMMV.

Fink and Leopold & Brink interview, long after a chance meeting at Baltimore Comic Con

by Mike Rhode

I encountered Christopher Fink (aka CA Fink, Christopher Alan Fink, who prefers to go by Fink in person), last fall at Baltimore Comic Con, in front of Eddie Campbell's table. He was talking to Campbell about his upcoming comic, and as he noted when writing back to me, "I’m the dude with a wacky contraption on his head, a treatment for brain cancer." I've written on cancer and graphic medicine in the past so I asked him about an interview. He agreed, with the caveat, "I should let you know my current work isn’t ABOUT cancer at all and is only in there (at the very end) as a lazy reader’s rationale for the events of the plot, namely me believing I’m a character in my own comic series, Leopold & Brink." According to copies for sale on the Internet, he began self-publishing the series in 1997, while an Instagram post says he began working on it in 1987. 

We've both been dilatory with finishing this interview for months, so I'm posting the second revision from April. I also assumed he was from Baltimore, so some of the questions reflect that mistake.

What type of comic work or cartooning do you do?

I started cartooning as an unconventional approach to a Philosophy dissertation in graphic novel form.  Though I’ve done a few short pieces since then, I’ve really only focused on the world I built for that project in the mid-‘90s. Nineteen 90s that is.

Your current graphic memoir is about suffering from brain cancer... can you tell us more about it?

Oh I wish it was simply about that ! It’s not a cancer book at all. 

My brain cancer does show up at the end of the Leopold and Brink-embedded autobio, and though it’s an honest presentation of my early experience with it, it mainly serves as a possible explanation for some outlandish plot points in the rest of the book.

How do you do it? Traditional pen and ink, computer or a combination?

This is Leopold and Brink # 5 I’m currently finishing and due to my health, I picked the most expedient media I could think of.: thick digital gouache on an iPad.

LaB #1-3 are all done with brush on Bristol. Tombo for the first. WN7 for 2 and 3.

LaB #4 is all text, a proper novel, and was written out on sketch pads then typed on various desktops.

This Instagram post from May says Fantagraphics will be publishing issue #5 this fall.

When (within a decade is fine) and where were you born?

Born at 12:06am Mercy Hospital, Coconut Grove/Miami, Florida March 12, 1970.

What neighborhood or area do you live in?

Fox Hills / Culver City, CALIFORNIA

What is your training and/or education in cartooning?

Copying John Byrne in the early 80s. Giving up after seeing Bill Sienkiewicz’s work in Moon Knight. No training at at all. Looked at a lot of art books as a kid.

Who are your influences?

After Byrne, it was all writers - Mainly the big Brits, Moore and Morrison. Swamp Thing and Animal Man convinced me to not give up on the medium as a possible voice for my interests.

As I went deeper, Kurtzman was big. Then I found all the masters, an exhaustive list. Mazzucchelli’s Rubber Blanket was a oooooh THAT’s how you do it. 

Oh, Heavy Metal was a favorite.

Influences as far as my own work, I’d have to go full pretentious and discuss other mediums. I’ve never been able to draw as well as I feel I can write or build worlds so I’m drawn to idealistic literature, fine art, and tv shows like Star Trek.

If you could, what in your career would you do-over or change? 

Had I let someone else publish LaB back in the mid-90s, I’m pretty sure I could now say I had a career as a cartoonist.

What work are you best-known for?

I’m not known at all unless this is being read after the LaB movies are out 🤪

What work are you most proud of?

No question - Leopold and Brink. My life’s work and the one thing I’m truly proud of.

What do you do when you're in a rut or have writer's block?

My ruts are always some form of procrastination. I’m blessed with flow when it comes to creating. I am not blessed with discipline.

What do you think will be the future of your field? 

Like most entertainment fields, it’s inevitable that AI will do all the production and future artists will more or less be mixmasters, curators, or victor frankensteins. I’m not opposed.

Until then - and I’m encouraged by the shows I’ve attended recently (2024) I think small press will continue to flourish and that community will grow. Maybe a kind of a weekly Farmer’s Market for comics in cities and towns everywhere?

What local cons do you attend? The Small Press Expo, Awesome Con, or others? Any comments about attending them?

I’ve only recently been back at shows, mainly to promote LaB 5. One of those was SPX, which was fantastic. I went to the very first one of those!! And a couple other early ones in the 90s. APE in SF was similarly wonderful. I’ll be at CALA Dec 2024 for the first time and can’t wait!

I think shows are always lovely and full of my kind of madness.

What comic books do you read regularly or recommend? Do you have a local store?

Oh no! I haven’t read a comic in months and before that, years. Not good. I had a strange program of gathering retirement reading for some dude I called Future Fink. Uh, do not recommend.

I DO recommend my local stores tho! Pulp Fiction on Sepulveda, Comic Bug, Stuart Ng, and of course, Secret Headquarters.

What's your favorite thing about Baltimore?

Only spent a few days there. I love that there’s an alcove to appreciate local legend, Thurgood Marshall, at the airport. 

For a graphic novelist, Fink's online presence is scarce but he's on YouTube and Instagram.

TCAF answers! from Alex Lupp

 by Mike Rhode

A few local cartoonists were selected to attend TCAF in Canada this year - it's a curated show, and not a lottery like SPX is. I think it has invited guests and people who apply to exhibit. I reached out to ask about their experiences. Alex's profile interview is here and when I saw him recently at Fantom Comics, he said new issues of Sand are coming.

How did you get selected for this show? Did you have to apply?

I did have to apply and was selected. TCAF is a curated show, and from what I can tell a lot of thought goes into that decision making process. I also applied last year, and was not selected, but that rejection came with an email explaining their decision. This is relatively rare in my experience. They specifically took the pains to explain that they reviewed my work and would consider me a stronger applicant this year, and encouraged me to apply again. These application processes can often be fairly opaque, so that small touch truly went a long way. 

Was this your first time?

Yes and no. I've been to TCAF many times starting in 2015, but all prior times it was either as a table helper, with maybe one comic on the table, or just attending for fun. Even though this was my fifth TCAF, it was the first where I applied by myself and was accepted. 

 

 Why do you go to TCAF so often? It's got to be a fairly expensive trip from the DC-area....

 

 Initially it was because my partner at the time was accepted to table, and I tagged along to help out & cover the event for my blog at the time (now defunct for years). That fist time I just fell in love with the show & Toronto, so tagged along again in 2017 & 2019. It's really one of the premier shows of its type & size. Finally in 2022 I went for fun, and it was honestly part of what motivated me to return to Sand and finish writing the story. There was a hiatus of six years between the first issue and the second, which was then finished the following year in 2023. After all that, I was fully motivated to be accepted on my own, and so here we are!

How was the experience? How does it compare to SPX or other local cons?

TCAF is always a great time. Comics are frequently a solitary experience, so these periodic pilgrimages we undertake to shows like TCAF are a good reminder that we're not alone on this creative journey. 

TCAF is in many ways very similar to SPX, but with some clear advantages. Whether previously when it was located in the Toronto Reference Library or this year at the Mattamy Athletic Centre, TCAF has always been located fairly centrally in Toronto. It is also free to attend. All of which makes it much easier to attend and makes for a very diverse & receptive audience. It is also much more carefully curated, while the SPX lottery feels very arbitrary. I've only ever tabled at SPX thanks to being able to share a space with friends. I've never won the lottery myself, meanwhile it feels like other creators are there every year. 

That said, I live about five minutes away from SPX, so it will always have a special place in my heart. 

 

 

How were your sales? Did you reach a new audience?

Sales were okay. I reached the minimum amount where they didn't feel bad, but I definitely had higher hopes. It was actually somewhat shocking that I did better at Zenkaikon, a smaller anime show in Lancaster, PA. Some of this might have been due to the general uncertainty of the times, or maybe just that I was located at the back of the smaller room, which may have impacted foot traffic. It also did not help that I was in the room that literally had a waterfall spring from the ceiling. My own table was not damaged, but some were, and from what I understand TCAF intends to refund table fees for those individuals. It is worth noting that this was TCAF's first time in a new space, and clearly that came with some growing pains. 

That said, it's always great to engage with a new audience, and see their excitement for your work. One person in particular returned on the second day to buy all of my comics, after buying & reading one the day before. How can that not feel great? 

How did Canadians react to Americans in light of the current administration's misbehavior to our ally?

People were exceptionally friendly. It was actually impressive how little the current administration's misbehavior actually impacted things. There were some remarks for sure, but all in good jest like people mentioning the Trump/Musk breakup. It was also interesting to note that I did have a couple of expats come by my table, and mention that they specifically left the US due to the volatility of the past several years. You hear people joke about that, but I was surprised to see it manifest. 

Lastly, I did attend a baseball game while I was in Toronto (and specifically as a Nats fan enjoyed seeing the Phillies lose to the Blue Jays), but was genuinely surprised at the amount of people genuinely clapping after the American anthem played. I would have expected either a lack of response, or even booing. 

TCAF answers! from Angela Hsieh

by Mike Rhode

A few local cartoonists were selected to attend TCAF in Canada this year - it's a curated show, and not a lottery like SPX is. I think it has invited guests and people who apply to exhibit. I reached out to ask about their experiences. Angela's recent interview is here.

How did you get selected for this show? Did you have to apply?

I applied back in January and was accepted at the end of February. The TCAF application was fairly straightforward: they want your portfolio and your bio, and notably, they're interested in what comics work you'll be debuting the year you apply. I believe I was selected this year because I had a graphic novel come out this year, plus I'd never been to TCAF before.

Was this your first time?

First time at TCAF, not to mention first time in Toronto! I went a few days in advance so that I could explore the city, but I tired myself out even before the con began. Unwise? Perhaps. Regrettable? Not in the least. 

How was the experience? How does it compare to SPX or other local cons?

This was my first international con. I tend to stick with local cons and festivals, so this was by far the furthest I've ever traveled for one—and probably the biggest con I've ever tabled at. Imagine SPX times ten. It's frankly overwhelming how much talent is on display. I wish I had more time to walk around and admire all the incredible work.

How were your sales? Did you reach a new audience?

I did pretty well! But because this was my first TCAF, I have no previous experience to compare to. For what it's worth, I heard some people who exhibited in the past say that sales were slower this year compared to previous years. 

I saw a couple of familiar faces, and I met a whole lot of new people. Plus, I finally got to meet some artists I've been mutuals with for years but have never met in person. Definitely one of the highlights. Another highlight: meeting kids and their parents who'd borrowed Lu and Ren's Guide to Geozoology from the library and stopped by my table to tell me how much they loved reading it. 🥺

How did Canadians react to Americans in light of the current administration's misbehavior to our ally?

With sympathy, when it came up, which it rarely did. People generally assumed I was Canadian, and when they found out I wasn't, the most frequent response was a nod of commiseration before we went back to the thing we showed up for: comics.