Festivals Extra: A Few Far-Away Notes About TCAF 2016

I didn't make it to TCAF this year. I was medically cleared to travel too late for me to find a ticket that worked, and six hours there and back in a rental car sounded tougher than I wanted to risk. TCAF is an important show now, as important as any show in the world, and certainly in North America. I spent a lot of the weekend at home talking to people who are at TCAF. Here are a few impressions I got through their eyes.

* it was an extremely good show for most people, including everyone to whom I directly spoke. The crowds looked incredible.

* the placement in the Toronto Reference Library was changed around a bit to reflect concerns about overcrowding, particularly in that front of the library area. There were some people worried about traffic on the second and third floor, but as was the case in many of the spaces brought into the fold in previous years, most of those fears were allayed by about halfway through the first day.

* some attendees felt the absence of some former regulars. They all had different regulars they missed, though, just certain people they see every year who help define TCAF for them. Anecdotally this seemed due in part to a request by the show to walk back exhibition plans if you didn't have something brand new to have on hand, or if you'd gone several years in a row. It didn't ruin the show for anyone to whom I spoke. TCAF has done an excellent job of keeping the show at the forefront of the show's attractiveness.

* maybe it's just another generation aging into their thirties and in many cases no longer being at the financial level they're doing math in their heads every time they're asked to lunch, but more than half of the people to whom I spoke mentioned how much they're beginning to enjoy Toronto as a city to visit: the restaurants, the bars, the places to see. My hunch from one e-mailer's statements is that this may be due in part to people staying in different places throughout the city rather than in a convention hotel.

* a few US folks mentioned how much they enjoyed the exchange rate, which was approximately $.75 US to $1 CDN.

* people quite liked the Masonic Temple space, although I'm told it was a bit slow coming to life traffic-wise that first day. Personally, I feel like they needed a space like that and now that they have it they're unstoppable. Another thing I heard is that there were a couple of really good panel spaces, and I'm not sure exactly what the person who told me that meant by saying so. I think they may have utilized the library auditorium space upstairs? At any rate, the panels looked well-attended from what I saw from strangers' tweets.

* one friend suggested that TCAF has done a really good job of finding young cartoonists out of the flow of standard comics culture and giving them a place to meet what in many cases are sizable audience far ahead of what someone might think who only read more traditional sites like this one.

* more than a few people suggested that there is some general ennui concerning shows right now, just the broad idea of how shows, cons and festivals should fit into a cartoonist's life and how many an artist might do in a year. No one suggested skipping TCAF, but one cartoonist said that cutbacks to 1/2 to 1/3 as many shows in a calendar year is on the table for a lot of folks.

* finally, I'm told our pal Dustin Harbin was dragged into hosting the DWAs last minute due to a family illness suffered by the planned-for host, and that he killed.

So at least from my loose squad of Global Frequency-style random agents, it sounds like it was a great show. Congratulations to Chris Butcher, Peter Birkemoe and all of the staffers there, all of the volunteers, all of their pros. One of the most exciting things about TCAF being over for another year is all the work that debuted there will now trickle into the North American marketplace.
 
posted 11:55 pm PST | Permalink
 

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