#TCAF 2018

[strontiumsun]

How I designed a new cover for my webcomic's Book 1 reprint

The cover. It's the first impression anyone has of your comic book, so it's got to make an impact. Which is why I'm really proud of the new cover of Heroes of Thantopolis Book 1.

Who are these characters? What kinds of fun and colorful adventures do they get up to? That's what I hope people think when they see the book when it debuts at Cartoon Crossroads Columbus.

But the journey to get to this cover was full of trial and error. Today I want to share that journey and what I learned along the way. Let's go!

The original print cover of Book 1

I self-published the original print of HoT Book 1 in 2016. This was before I joined @hiveworks, and I was using an on-demand printer not really known for their comics, so everything - including the InDesign template I placed the pages in - was done from scratch.

Here's what the cover for the original print looked like:

Helene and Cyrus are front and center amidst tapestries depicting the four chapters of the comic. It's not a bad illustration - not in the slightest! And the comic sold very well at TCAF 2017. But I think you can tell it's an amateur effort. I may have completed four chapters of my comic, but I didn't have comparable experience designing books.

Brainstorming for the reprint

I joined Hiveworks in 2018. Hiveworks has a lot of experience independently publishing webcomics. I planned to re-print Book 1 as well as print the first editions of the rest of the comic under their banner.

I had a good idea of the bonus content I wanted to include in the reprint. I had less of an idea of what I wanted the cover to look like. My first sketches were very movie poster-esque:

All of the main characters are here, with the villain ominously looming over everyone. It felt like an upgrade from the original cover. But... it felt generic, too. It didn't capture what was unique about my comic.

I put preparations for the reprint to the side for a while, until...

Inspiration

I love the opening of the Netflix cartoon Hilda. I love the music, the fluid animation and the super cool transitions between her adventures. Hilda goes from riding a dragon to dodging viking warriors, running through the locations and characters she meets during the season. It really captures the vibe of the show!

That's when it occurred to me what was missing from my cover. Readers of Heroes of Thantopolis will know that every chapter has a different color palette, giving them each a unique feel. A unified illustration wouldn't show the diversity of color or feelings. But a cover made of flowing segments, like the Hilda opening...

Now I felt like I was really getting somewhere!

The final cover

Working with my editor Isa (@secondlina), I continued to refine the design of the comic. I wasn't sure what to put in the top left. Isa suggested creating a special version of the logo that flowed along the border created by the Sag segment.

(Isa's sketch in green, on the right)

From there, the final cover began to take shape.

Until we got to the final cover that appears on the actual book!

(Print colors are never as vibrant at RGB, but it still captures that colorful vibe.)

Conclusion

If there's one lesson in my creative life that I've seen play out over and over again, it's that your first idea may not be the best idea. Iteration and reflection improves the end result. I'm not saying you need to waffle over every decision. But rather, tp let your creative juices marinade your idea, rather than immediately put the concept to the fire.

I also couldn't have done this without help from people more knowledgeable than I on book design. Not every webcomic creator has access to print experts, true, but there are communities of webcomic creators out there that pool resources and share advice. We can always learn from other people. And that's why I made this post! I hope you enjoyed a peek into my creative process.

I look forward to seeing you at CXC on September 30th and October 1st! If you can't make it to the show, you can read all of Heroes of Thantopolis online, FOR FREE, anytime you want. Book 1 will be sold online soon!

#webcomic #webcomics #heroes of thantopolis #creative process #print comic #printing process #graphic design #cover design #cover art #hiveworks #comic book #Youtube

[shelandsorcery]

I had a really, really lovely time at TCAF - it was so good to see everyone and get all hyped up on comics and to rebuild summer community connections that I've really been missing! I haven't done a proper TCAF since 2018, and while everything is somehow both the same and completely different, it was unbelievable wonderful. Happy TCAF hangover, friends❤️

[millionfish]

pupdate

#original work #millionfish #home beings #pond scum royalty #tcaf 2018

[torontocomics]

DEBUTING AT TCAF 2018 - OFFHAND by Yuko Ota

When Yuko Ota began dealing with wrist issues in 2012 she started drawing with her non-dominant hand as a means of catharsis. OFFHAND is an art book of work that Yuko did with her non-dominant hand. It collects work from 2012-2017 including newly (offhand) drawn comics detailing her battle with the issues and increasing competency with her offhand.

Exhibiting Creator: Yuko Ota Publisher: Johnny Wander Price: US$25 for Regular Edition. $50 for Limited Lenticular Edition

#Yuko Ota #TCAF 2018 #TCAF #Johnny Wander

[smallpresspreviews]

Ley Lines: Langeweile by Oliver East Published by Czap Books x Grindstone Comics

Find time Kill time Repeat.

The theme of "Langweile" is Martin Heidegger’s concept of profound boredom (Langweile is German for boredom. Literally ‘a long passing of time) and the structure of each page is based on the three stages of perception: retention, immediate present and protention.

The comic records a cyclical walk around the borderscape of an airport and ponders how one might better spend that time.

Oliver East has been making comics about walking and place for over ten years. He is the recipient of numerus Arts Council of England funding awards due to his unique take on illustrative reportage. As part of a visual artist/illustrator practice, he also creates comics and projects for the heritage sector, working with museums and social interest groups, and at various art galleries in North West England.

24 pages, Orange ink, Risographed, Saddle-stitched 5” x 7.5” ISBN 9780997203295 May 2018 $6 ORDER HERE Debuting May 12th at Toronto Comic Arts Festival

#oliver east #ley lines #boredom #airports #risograph #martin heidegger #czap books #grindstone comics #tcaf 2018

[koyamapress]

A Western World is a collection of Michael DeForge comics including the acclaimed “Mostly Saturn.”

Coming this May!

#tcaf 2018 #tcaf #michael deforge #comic #graphic novels #island #koyama press #koyama #saturn #saturnalia #sci fi & fantasy #gif

[thedivideandi]

Hey everyone!! I am extremely excited to announce that I’ll be tabling at TCAF 2018! Come check out my table and say hi if you’re in Toronto this weekend. I’m going to be in the same room as Tess Stone and KC Green?! Oh my god???? 

I’ll be participating in a panel on Sunday at 1:30PM called Things That Go Bump In The Night, which is all about horror stories and their social impact in the modern era. That will be on the 3rd floor, at the Hinton Learning Theatre.

Depending on how bad my anxiety is by the end of the Saturday you might find me at the Queer Mixer at Glad Day Bookshop (499 Church St)  Sorry for the pause this week, new page will be up next thursday!

-Jackie

#tcaf #toronto comics #toronto comic arts festival #tcaf 2018 #the divide and i #tdai #toronto

[gaborbata]

Part of a new comic I’m whuppin’ up for TCAF this year. It’s still a work in progress, but keep an eye out for a proper reveal soon.

#batabing bataboom #gabor bata #iillustration #digital art #snake #tail #comic book #comic #zine #what was missing #artists on tumblr #montreal #mtl #preview #TCAF #tcaf 2018 #Toronto Comic Arts Festival

[samwellstudentunion]

Events in the Check, Please! Fandom May 13-May 19

Ngozi @ TCAF

Dates: May 12-13 Event Website: Here

Kent Parson Birthday Bash Sign-Ups

Dates: May 6-20 More Info: @kentparsonbirthdaybash

OMGCP Big Bang Sign Ups Open

Dates: May 19-June 23 (writers) & May 19-Sept 14 (artists) More Info: @omgcpbigbang2018

And that’s it for the week! Check out the full Calendar here and be sure to let us know about any Check, Please! events you hear about!

#omgcp #events #weekly roundup #ngozi #tcaf 2018 #kent parson #kentparsonbirthdaybash #omgcpbigbang2018 #omgcp big bang #may 2018

[anxiousa]

I’mma be at TCAF !! On the second floor hanging out with the fabulous @gccladiesnight !!! Come say hi if you’re out and about!!

#zines #comics #zine fest #tcaf #tcaf 2018 #anxiousa #Alexis Cooke

[scienceisadesiretoknow]

TCAF is very busy but so far I've found 4/5 of the books I wanted so I'm stoked!!

#whine whine whine #tcaf 2018

[comicweek]

Lindsay Gibb invited some of her academic colleagues Michelle Miller, Michael Jones, Barbara Postema, Jamie Lee Morin and Frederik Kohlert to discuss issues of comics in Academics. The room was set up with the chairs in a circle and several audience members joined in on the discussion. Among the topics covered were: Is their institution on board with comics? Comics being used outside of comics classes, introducing comics to co-workers and helping them incorporate them into their courses, Representation in comics to reflect their audience, Teaching corporate superhero comics, the goals of using comics in the classroom and how do they measure their success, resistance to certain books and Zine collections.

More TCAF Audio Panels Can Be Found Here

#tcaf #tcaf 2018 #toronto arts festival #comic studies #academia #comic books #comics #Lindsay Gibb #Michael Jones #Barbata Postema #Jamie Lee Morin #Frederik Kohlert

[comixreblog]

I’d like to share with you a mind-blowing experience I had in Canada!!! I participated in TCAF 2018 (Toronto Comic Art Festival). The top photo is me with my table-mates at the festival (Harley Lin, Dakota Mcfadzean, Mark Laliberte, and me, Erik Nebel). The bottom photo is a panel discussion with Annie Koyama, Francoise Mouly, Luc Bosse, Yvan Alagbe, and the moderator.   

Toronto Reference Library was the venue. It’s quite a sight, when you step inside. I don’t know how many people were in there, but it looked like thousands. Fortunately, the library is gigantic, it’s like a cavernous tower, so it could accommodate every one.

The morning of Saturday, May 12th, I went to the table where cartoonists sign in, and I chatted with a nice person named Jasmine, the volunteer coordinator. At the sign-in table there were pronoun stickers, where you could choose: he/him, she/her, they/them. I proudly got the they/them sticker. I went to find Mark Laliberte at the 4Panel table, where he had already set up to sell our comics. It’s actually the first time that we met each other in person. (We’ve had an online friendship up until this point.) Mark is an amazing artist and designer and publisher, and I’ve been collaborating with him for the past few years via email and Facebook messaging. He’s been a dream to work with, I can’t thank him enough for the opportunities he’s given me. I was happy to see that the TCAF people had chosen to place our table right in front of the Koyama Press table. Annie Koyama publishes some of my favorite cartoonists. One of my hopes in coming to TCAF was that I’d have a chance to meet Annie, and there she was, right in front of me! I had plenty of opportunities throughout the festival to chat with her, and it was such a pleasure. Now I’ll tell you more about the people that are with me in that photo up above. If you look at the person who is next to me holding a book, that is Mark Laliberte, the publisher and designer and editor of the book that he is holding. Hartley Lin (on the far left of me and Mark) is one of the cartoonists whose work is in the book. And my comics are in the book.The book is called: 4Panel2. It’s called 4Panel2 because all the cartoonists use the same 4-panel template as the basis for the comics. And it’s volume two because it’s part of a series, where different artists are invited to contribute to different volumes. Here is the link to see the book: https://popnoir.bigcartel.com/product/4panel-2 I hope you buy it! I hope you like it! After hanging out with Mark for a bit and meeting some of the other contributors to the book (Fiona Smyth, Jonathan Dyck, Drazen Kozjan, and Barbara Postema), I went out to have lunch with my friend, the cartoonist, Beatrix Urkowitz, who was also exhibiting at the festival. She lives on the east coast, and I’m on the west coast, so the only time we see each other is at comics festivals. Quality time. After a quick lunch, we went back to our tables. One of my favorite parts of being at comics festivals is meeting people who really enthusiastically love what I’m doing, and I feel really fortunate to have those fans. I can’t remember the names of every one I met who bought my comics, but several of them stand out to me in my mind. There was Kasper, who told me that he’s never seen any one do what I’m doing with my comics, and he plans on showing my art to all his artist friends. There was Ben Grill, who gave me a copy of his beautiful risograph comic and told me that he was inspired by my work. And there was Haejin Park, who said to me, “You’re Erik Nebel? I love your comics.” She told me she had been reading my comics online, and she put her hand to her heart and said, “I really love your comics.” It was so sweet, I’m so grateful. She said she was also an exhibitor herself at the festival, but I never got a chance to find her, wherever she was, and look at her art. I’ve seen some of her work online and it’s stunning. Next day, Sunday, I went to the zine show at Cumberland Terrace, and there was a panel discussion with comics publishers at 11am (Annie Koyama, Francoise Mouly, Luc Bosse, Yvan Alagbe). It was a great talk, where every member of the panel had something thoughtful and insightful to say. The funniest moment of that panel was at the very end. They were running a bit late, past their scheduled time, and suddenly some one appeared from out of nowhere, zoom! He rushed into the room and rushed up to the front to sit down next to Annie Koyama. There was a moment of silence, and then the guy realized that every one was looking at him, and he said, “Oh, no. I’m in the wrong panel. I thought I was late, but I guess I’m early.” Every one laughed. It was a nice way to end the panel with all the laughter. After the panel, I headed back to the library and back to the 4Panel table. I spent most of my day at our table, but I did briefly leave the table to say hi to my friends at a comics publisher called 2dcloud: Maggie Umber and Raighne Hogan. They recently posted a little bio of me and my comics on the 2dcloud website: http://2dcloud.com/well-come I am deeply grateful to 2dcloud for including my comics on their site. I love so many of the cartoonists they publish. At 5pm, we started hearing announcements that it was time to pack up and leave the library, TCAF was over. The last event was a good-bye party at 8pm. I was talking with an artist named Marc Ngui, and he asked me if I was going to the final event. I told him I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go because I might get lost in Toronto. He was really sweet, and he gave me one of his postcards, and he drew an elaborate map of how to get there, and places to eat nearby. So I went back to the hotel room to rest for a bit, and then around 7pm, I took the subway to the place on the map and walked around a fun area of Toronto and had some good food, and then I went to the event. I was nervous, thinking that when I got there, I wouldn’t know anybody, and that would be pretty awkward. I walked around for a bit looking for familiar faces, and then I thought, “Oh, forget it, why did I come here? I’ll just leave.” Fortunately, Dakota McFadzean saw me as I was walking out of the place, and he called out to me and beckoned me to meet his friends. Dakota McFadzean is the guy with the thick beard (in the photo); he was one of my table mates at the festival, and I’m a big fan of his work. Dakota introduced me to Meags Fitzgerald and Beth. Meags is a cartoonist who was published by Conundrum Press and Pow Pow, and is being distributed by 2dcloud. Beth is a professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she teaches comics. She is super passionate about her work. We were later joined by Reid Psaltis, who has a new book that debuted from the publisher Secret Acres. We had a fun time talking about… yes, comics. And then it was over. I took the subway back to the hotel. Got up real early. Took a bus to the airport (only 3 dollars to go from my hotel to the airport!). Spent all day Monday traveling home, with delays because of bad weather. Spent Tuesday exhausted. Ruminating. What is the takeaway? People who nurture artists are just as important as the artists themselves. Thank you, TCAF.

#tcaf #2018 #toronto #comic #art #festival

[millionfish]

HI, JUST REALIZED I NEVER MENTIONED HERE IM GOING TO BE TABLING AT TCAF 2018!!! I’m super excited and I’m working hard to get things ready!

 more updates soon! ♥ 

#tcaf 2018 #tcaf #process #original work #home beings #pond scum royalty #millionfish

[torontocomics]

DEBUTING AT TCAF 2018 - MANFRIED THE MAN by Kelly Bastow and Caitlin Major

Meet Manfried, a stray man taken in by the likeable but introverted tomcat Steve Catson. Stuck in a dead-end job and bemoaning a nonexistent love life, Steve depends on his pet man for friendship and support. But when Steve’s carelessness results in Manfried getting lost, Steve has no choice but to muster his meagre resources to bring his best friend home and safe. Can a cat who can’t even clean up his own apartment manage to find his missing man before it’s too late?

Exhibiting Creators: Kelly Bastow, Caitlin Major Publisher: Quirk Books Price: $14.99 CAD

#Quirk Books #Kelly Bastow #Caitlin Major #TCAF #TCAF 2018

[woweezonk]

Hello All !

This is just a little update to announce that we have been quite the early birds this year with planning the Woweezonk Room for TCAF 2018. In years past we waited until the February before TCAF to curate the space but this year we wanted to plan early while the applications to the festival were still open. That date is coming up super fast unfortunately! The deadline for applications is Halloween night (Oct 31st)! 

http://www.torontocomics.com/2017/08/14/apply-now-for-tcaf-2018/

As of Saturday Oct 28th (how is it this feels early and late at the same time?), we have been in contact with all the people tabling in the Woweezonk Room for next year’s TCAF (2018). 

We know this might come as a surprise for a lot of folks who usually expect an invite in early spring!  We love and want to keep supporting everyone who’s tabled in the Woweezonk room throughout the years ~ (2010-2017) ~ and we hope to have you all back : ) 

We’ve been curating this space for seven years and even though our familiar roster of artists and small press publishers has grown we always aim to invite new creators. Even so, we’ve slowly been trying to incorporate the idea of having people table every other year. This is honestly hard to enforce when everyone is always so productive at creating new comics and other art/works all the time!

Frankly we believe that this year is our best attempt at enforcing this balance. Here's how it breaks down at the moment, though some numbers may change before Festival time. Counting the three curators (Myself - Ginette Lapalme, Patrick Kyle and Chris Kuzma) as well as an OCADu student comics table; 15 individuals, collectives and publishers will be returning from last year’s festival (2017). Eight creators who have previously tabled 2 or more years ago will be returning in 2018. And of those who have never tabled in our space before (for some it will be their first time at TCAF); we are welcoming 16 creators/collectives/small press groups! 

We’re very excited to eventually announce our guests!!! …. At the start of next year when it will feel just a little more concrete. 

: o P 

We hope that even though we haven’t reached out for you to table in the Woweezonk room this coming year, that you will consider applying to TCAF 2018. Otherwise we will be in contact in future years of the festival so long as we still have access to this great opportunity provided to us by TCAF itself!!! <3 >>>http://www.torontocomics.com/2017/08/14/apply-now-for-tcaf-2018/ <<< (To reiterate the deadline is fast approaching! You only have 2 more days to apply so please consider it) Yipes! Sorry!

On that note, although we three as individuals are often approached in person with requests to table in ~ the zone ~ we’ve recently created the email address [email protected] to refer to with any inquiries. This email will be super helpful for us because we need to consider every request as a group rather than as individuals. We are also pretty forgetful to be honest! We’ve sometimes said yes to someone a year in advance and then have had to scramble when we’ve forgotten who we’ve said yes to. Which is the worst. >__< !

With all that said, thank you for understanding and for reading all of this! ~It’s so long and I feel I’m rambling~ but we hope everyone will be as excited about TCAF 2018 as we are! 

-Ginette (on behalf of Patrick & Chris) 

#woweezonk #tcaf #2018