#Wowee Zonk

[torontocomics]

Celebrating 10 years of Wowee Zonk, and 5 years of Word Balloon Academy

TCAF 2019 will see the celebration of two important anniversaries for the Festival; the 10th Anniversary of our Wowee Zonk Pavilion of Small Press and indie artists, and the 5th Anniversary of our Word Balloon Academy Professional Development programming for creators!

The Wowee Zonk Pavilion began in 2010 and has been curated since that time by Toronto artists Christopher Kuzma, Patrick Kyle, and Ginette LaPalme. Its goal is to continuously shine a light on some of the very best and most exciting work being made internationally in comics, zines, and small press publishing. Occupying the ‘Browsery’ space of Toronto Reference Library, Wowee Zonk is frequently cited as an exciting and dynamic space at TCAF, and the Festival will be doing a number of special events around Wowee Zonk this year, including welcoming Wowee Zonk exhibitor Inés Estrada as our Featured Guest! Look for more Wowee Zonk info soon.

Word Balloon Academy began in 2015, as TCAF’s free, annual professional development program for comics creators local to Toronto and those in town to participate in the Festival. Headed by Georgia Webber and Kim Hoang in the first year, and continuing with Kim as programming coordinator since 2016, Word Balloon Academy has offered presentations on everything from writing grant applications to running a successful crowdfunding campaign, to dealing with depression and maintaining physical health, to how to ink a really great looking comics page! Word Balloon Academy will offer its broadest suite of programming ever in 2019, with more info to be announced soon.

For more information, visit torontocomics.com

[expansivemouthfeel]

Patrick Kyle, Night Door. For Kuš! minis.

[kumerish]

A Gleaming: Part One

Strange lights have been appearing above the city, beloved buildings are being torn down only to be replaced with larger ones, and somehow the past keeps finding its way into these characters present. A group of friends reunites after a few distant years for a party - for old times sake. A Gleaming is a story about the purgatory of young adulthood.

48pgs. B&W. 

I’ll be debuting it at TCAF and potentially online before!

[saicoink]

2018 marks 10 years since the first issue of Open Spaces and Closed Places was completed. To celebrate I am making some goods and a sketchbook. I have opened preorders for now.

OSCP sketch book 2008-2014 A collection of sketches, pencils, and unpublished material from comic series Open Spaces and Closed Places in celebration of 10 year anniversary of the first book's release. Materials will mostly come from 2008 to 2014. I have included some of my favorite pages of original comic pencils, sketch comics, and dropped pages never inked. About 120 pages or so...

OSCP acrylic keychains If you order 2 or more keychains use code BIRDSAREGREAT to receive 10% off the keychains. The final Justine design will be uploaded on Sunday!

Please order by March 30th to get the preorder bonuses. All items will be ready for shipment in May. Choose shipping option Vietnam to pickup books at TCAF in May 2018. I will be tabling at the Wowee Zonk room this year. Also by the end of this year OSCP will go out of print. I will not reprint any more copies of the volumes in the series. If you would like to purchase a copy the time is now. And remember you can always read the OSCP comic for free online on Smackjeeves. Once I have time to update my website I will also put the comic in its entirety over there. Thank you for the support all these years!

[bensears]

The Ideal Copy debuts at TCAF this Saturday! I’ll be there both days tabling in the Wowee Zonk Small Press Room, as well as signing at Koyama from 3-4 PM (Saturday & Sunday), and doing a live drawing session on Saturday.

[elegieenbleu]

PATRICK KYLE /

Wowee Zonk Small Press Showcase  TCAF 2017 _ http://www.patrickkyle.com

[secretacres]

Right Here Waiting - Scuttlebutt 05.15.19

We made it! The Toronto Comic Arts Festival came to a close in its typically spectacular fashion. TCAF feels like a world comics symposium, with exhibitors from seemingly every nation and visitors from what we suspect is the most international city on earth. You want diversity? TCAF has you covered. Also, TCAF knows how to party. A busted leg and a busted car posed no match for the Secret Acres gang. Joakim Drescher came all the way from Denmark to check Motel Universe into the show. L. Nichols took Flocks to the North for the very first time. Our man, Edie Fake, kept the Wow in Wowee Zonk. Our very own Canuck, Aaron Costain served up Entropy and served as ambassador. We tricked Adam Griffiths into hanging at the table all weekend. Sadiya, our mule extraordinaire, kept the wheels turning all the way up and back. With a gang like that, who needs legs? We went broke for our haul, we stuffed ourselves with dumplings and faux hog, we saw everyone from everywhere and we partied naked. We want to thank everyone who made it happen - especially the volunteers who remain the best in the business. Thank you, everyone who came to the show, all you beautiful people buying beautiful books. We’re inviting all y’all to a party next week, on Thursday, in our hometown Brooklyn, at Desert Island, with Joakim and L. both. It’s the least we could do! See you in few. Meantime, get all the Scuttlebutt dirt and deets right here.

[czapbooks]

The most wonderful time of the year is upon us once again, which sends up north for another round of tabling at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival this weekend, May 13 & 14!

Czap Books will be set up on the second floor (at the top of the stairs) at table 215. New this year will be the gorgeous Witchlight by Jessi Zabarsky - if you haven't had a chance to grab this yet, do yourself a favor and pick it up here.

Ley Lines and art/pop music fans will be ecstatic to know that our debut book for the show is Eric Kostiuk Williams' "How Does It Feel In My Arms?" (Ley Lines 11) - a heady manifesto for love and happiness set to Kylie Minogue. We'll also have the previous issue, Tommi Parrish's "And They Rush On Me, Like Some Kind of Fragrant Dream", as well as the full 2016 run, featuring new work by Aaron Cockle, Mimi Chrzanowski, Kevin Czap, and Laila Milevski.

We'll also have time-tested favorites like Bug Boys, Úlcera, Cyanide Milkshake, and more at our table. PLUS beautiful postcards for our next title (due in the fall) - don't tell me not to worry (i'll worry all i want) by Kelly Kwang!

Speaking of Kelly, she'll be on a stacked panel called Aesthetics of Sci-Fi, 10am Saturday in the Toronto Reference Library Learning Centre, along with a bunch of our favorite cartoonists (shout out to Beatrix Urkowitz ♥). At that exact time (10am on Saturday morning), over at the Pilot, you can catch Eric Kostiuk Williams on the panel Sound and Vision: Music in Comics. Later in the day, Tommi Parrish will join other luminaries on LGBTQ Comics Abroad at 4pm in the Forest Hill Ballroom at the Marriott.

The show will run from 9am-5pm on Saturday and 10am-5pm on Sunday, come to Table 215 and say hi! We're going to have Jessi Zabarsky signing copies of Witchlight through the weekend, but otherwise you can find her at table 222. She'll have a brand new mini comic, which I'm personally very excited to snatch up. Kelly Kwang will be on the third floor at table 312, and word on the street says she'll have a brand new, mini, sneak peek zine. Eric Kostiuk Williams will be at table 153 on the first floor, near Koyama Press (who are debuting his book Condo Heartbreak Disco!). Tommi Parrish will be in the Wowee Zonk room, which is always on the Not-To-Be-Missed list. Other friends and Czap Books family will be spread throughout the show, see the full exhibitor list here.

There's going to be a million things to do and too many friends to see - I hope we see each other ♥

[etteette]

http://www.torontocomics.com/2017/04/26/announcing-comics-x-games-6/

Hey Would You Grab Me Some --- ? @ Gogo-Grocery 

Made a funny grocery game with Taylor Wai-Boo for this year’s comics x games! Try it out on the second floor of the reference library during TCAF this weekend !!! Wooo : o P 

Also come see me in the Wowee Zonk zone on the first floor! Will have my Confetti books, lots of jewelry, tshirts, totes, art and more! Luv u see u there <3

[jonvaughn2]

It has been a good year for trades. :) 🎨 Left-Right: Alex Chiu zines @artbyalexchiu, Dreem Street sticker @dreemstreet, E*Rock/Hegray/Hercberg-Decapitron 20 @ericwmast, Alexandre St-Onge CD, David Turgeon-Jardin Botanique, Chris Savage patch & zine @ccmsavage, Zigendemonic & Oggi-Framed Nightmares @zigendemonic, Nathan Jones sticker @plasticspaces, Elevator Teeth patch @elevatorteeth, TCAF & Wowee Zonk present The News @patrick.kyle, Jesse-Osborne Lantheir-A.T.L.H.F.V.A.M.L.T.H.A.T.U. Cassette @jesseosbornelanthier, Lorenz Peter Zine @lps_lps_toronto, Calufrax "The Stolen Earth" Cassette @patrick.kyle, respectfulchild pin @respectfulchild, Zuzu Knew pins @zuzu_knew, Elevator Teeth patches @elevatorteeth, Zigendemonic "BRVTAL" sticker @zigendemonic, Dreem Street sticker @dreemstreet, Vincent Fritz-Some Towers 2 zine @vncntfrtz, Chris Savage sticker @ccmsavage, 108 books and zines @108_108_108, Nathan Jones zine @plasticspaces, Boris Détraz-Dix plages zine @boris.detraz. 🖼 [Not pictured: t-shirts, prints, vinyl and originals that I will share in future times] 🕑 So much love to everyone around the globe whom I've exchanged packages with! 💚 It's the best feeling getting mail from an artist friend or peer, and can make ones day, or month - even year! ;) 💥 Here's to 2017 and continued international cultural dialogue! :) 🎉

[torontocomics]

Announcing: Wowee Zonk Small Press Browsery

TCAF is thrilled to once again present The Wowee Zonk Small Press Browsery!

Featuring some of the raddest and baddest creators, Wowee Zonk always curates a dynamic line-up of amazing artists. This year’s list includes:

Adam De Souza

Alicia’s Klassic Kool Shoppe

Alexander Laird

Beatrix Urkowitz

Ben Sears

Breakdown Press

Bred Press

Brie Moreno

Chloe Perkis

Chris Kuzma

Cole Pauls

Colour Code

Colorama

Conor Stechschulte

Dalbert B. Vilarino

DDOOGG

Eli Howey

Gina Wyndbrandt

Ginette Lapalme

Ivy Atoms

Jamie Q

Jamiyla Lowe

Jon Vaughn

Jordan River

Kendra Yee

Lale Westvind

Lane Milburn

Lily Snowden-Fine

Mega Press

Mickey Zacchilli

Natalie Andrewson

Noel Freibert

OCADu Students

Patrick Kyle

Perfectly Acceptable Press

Plum

Saicoink

Sydney Madia

Tommi Parrish

Wavering Line

Be sure to check them all out in the Browsery on the first floor of the library!

[icpdrq-blog]

Case Study - Ginette Lapalme 

I stumbled upon a book by Ginette Lapalme while in Brighton last year. Confetti, like its namesake, is a fun and explosive mix of colour from the fertile mind of multidisciplinary artist Ginette Lapalme. In comics, paintings, prints, sculpture, and jewellery, Lapalme uses cartoons and junk culture as raw material to make "cute" subversive and "pretty" punk. I fell in love with this crazy mixture of glitter, goo and funny little images. I particularity love her work because of how much she produces. you can really tell that this is her passion and is what she wants to do with her life. I hope that I feel like that one day, that is probably my biggest wish. 

Lapalme is a graduate of the storied OCADU Illustration program, and is one third of Wowee Zonk, a Toronto-based illustrator collective and contemporary comic book anthology. Her work has been exhibited in galleries across Toronto, and her client list includes the Walrus magazine, Threadless, and VICE magazine

[kumerish]

Been a bit silent over here.  I’ve been working on a ton of things that’ll all suddenly be revealed in the week leading up to TCAF! I’m compiling, finishing, and redrawing a whole bunch of comics that I’ll be selling. 

 I’ll be tabling, along with some amazingly talented friends and folk, in the Wowee Zonk area.

[koyamapress]

Monday courtesy of Wowee Zonk 4.

[forgeartmag]

Patrick Kyle embodies many of the characteristics that have separated the Toronto comics scene from most others around the world. The care and attention that Patrick takes to the visual aspects of his work extend into the way he chooses to present and distribute it. Since graduating for Ontario College of Art and Design in 2009 Patrick has put out a massive body of work through his collective with Ginette Lapalme and Chris Kuzma, Wowee Zonk, the prolific Toronto based publisher, Koyama Press, and several self published projects. in addition to his vibrant and esoteric comic and illustrative work, Patrick is also in part responsible for curating the superb small press room at each year’s Toronto Comic Art’s Festival.

Through his many ventures Patrick has gained an intimate knowledge of the economics and idiosyncrasies of zine making, and has developed a really wonderful attitude towards a format that many people turn their backs on because of it’s lack of profitability. What’s important to Patrick is producing great content and creating platforms with which he can expose new audiences to his and his peers work, which he has successfully done with pretty much everything he as taken on. Today Patrick anticipates next year’s release of his new book with Koyama Press, Don’t Come In Here, and navigates which of the many projects he wants to embark on next.

GO READ THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE

For more of Patrick’s work visit http://www.patrickkyle.com/ motherbooks.storenvy.com http://woweezonk.tumblr.com/ http://koyamapress.com/projects/dont-…

Music contributions by Sean Henry and High Pop https://boycrushforever.bandcamp.com/ http://www.dbldblwhmmy.com/products/5… https://highpopforever.bandcamp.com/ https://www.facebook.com/highpopforever

Nobel Savage http://anoblesavage.bandcamp.com/ https://soundcloud.com/trevorlang

[livingcartoon]

I made some new posters and matching stickers for TCAF! Come visit me Saturday and Sunday in the woweezonk Small Press Room! Also have a new book I made with rudycomixandfun and Swimmers Group, mini zine collabs with billymavreas, Rick Trembles, lenoreclaireherrem and Syngja.