It was busy, it was hot and it was a turnout which albeit painful to navigate through, proved very fruitful to the many many artists who rented a table at the Roundhouse Community Centre for the Vancouver Comics Art Festival. There were three rooms this year which was honestly too much for me. I like how last year one of those rooms was dedicated to indie video game developers who all happened to be using old hardware and you could just sit down and pay. I playe this weird hitchhiking where I took in aliens of all sorts who were conversing with me. That variety was a bit needed this year. There was an art room but it catered to children. However every year the free panels make it impossible to critique the organization in any serious way. I did not look up the schedule and was pleasantly surprised to find out I was in time for the non-binary author panel which will be the subject of an upcoming post.

I love it when artists draw at their tables. It’s a glimpse of their process that is intimate and neat to look at. There’s something interactive about it. In a sense, all the enventory the artists and their friends bring has already been printed, it is final but these work of art are still very much alive as the event goes on. I like the use of onconventional colours on the skin. They remind me of the Fauve painters of the late 19th century.

There he is Jason Turner, my good friend from the Vancouver Comic Jam. That man has personality and quite the sense of humour! You should really check out his stuff!

I was lucky enough to study with Boum in animation at Cégep du Vieux Montréal. I remember her all the way back to the fateful audition which took me away from the family nest. A fan of manga, she was eager to make sure her style became a strong hybrid as opposed to an emulation of Japanese style like Wakfu.

It’s always super interesting to hear from Boum in her autobiographical series (which by the way is adorable and funny) so meeting her in person is like an infusion of realness in your life. I love the way her photos on social media layer with the content of her comic. It is extremely rare for people to take on comics as their full time job! Fortunately, her time spent at the slower conventions provide her with inspiration for interesting gags. I saw her torwards the end and she just wanted to keep going which is the mark of a successful festival. She talked about the challenges of coloring for a commissioned project as well as how the early volumes of her series are not available anymore. I’m so jealous of the people who have their hands on Volume 1 and 2. I hope they keep them in mint condition because I’m sure they’re going to be worth a lot worth a lot when she dies. Sorry Boum.

Camilla d’Errico is a force in Vancouver. Don’t be fooled by the sweet colourful style you encounter, the wide eyed girls she paints come with a mysterious surrealistic edge that moves through the entire spectrum of emotions. Although she is a master of colour, she is also very interested in knowing the choices you will make when rendering her colouring books.

D’Errico was all ears when I talked to her about Steemit. What artist wouldn’t see the value of removing the noise of adds? However, she was a bit disappointed to find out about them bid bots because she is tired of seeing people use Instagram’s paying features. She kindly invited me to her open studio events and asked me to remind her about this wonderful platform as I get in touch.

This is Captain Cannabis. I had an interesting conversation with the author about his long career trying to promote the character. This character has been around since the 70s and I feel like his moment was robbed by unnecessary taboos about the drug. Go Captain Cannabis!

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