Toronto Comic Arts Festival 2026

From TCAF.

Considered to be amongst the premier comic arts festivals in the world, TCAF is an annual two day festival in downtown Toronto. 

Held since 2003, TCAF is unique for its scale and scope welcoming 28,000+ local and international visitors and over 315+ artists, and its continued focus on independent arts culture and accessibility remaining a free public and non-commercial arts and cultural festival.

TCAF 2026 will be held from June 6-7, 2026 at our new location Toronto Metropolitan University's Mattamy Athletic Centre, with additional programming in the surrounding neighbourhood. 

Libraries and Education Day and Word Balloon Academy are scheduled for Friday June 5. 

Nominees of the 2026 Doug Wright Awards

From the Doug Wright Awards website.

Here are the nominees of the 22nd annual Doug Wright Awards which will be given out on Saturday June 6 at the Arts & Letters Club in Toronto.

Julie Rocheleau designs the 2026 MCAF poster

From the MCAF Facebook page.

To illustrate the theme of its next edition, Alive!, and mark its 15th anniversary, the FBDM chose a prominent figure from the Montreal comic book scene and a regular participant in the Festival.

After working as a freelancer in animation studios, Julie Rocheleau turned to comics in the early 2010s, with notable and award-winning collaborations in Canada, Europe and the United States. 

She is notably the co-author of 𝘎𝘭𝘰𝘣𝘦-𝘛𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘴, 𝘉𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘺 𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘣 and 𝘓𝘢 𝘱𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘦. This queen of illustration in Quebec likes to play with representations of fauna and flora. Her posters, with their dynamic compositions, are always elegant and sensitive, with a unique punk touch.

She was therefore the obvious choice to illustrate the poster for this year's edition.

The Royal Mail Releases a Peanuts Stamp Set

From the Royal Mail.

This colourful collection of Peanuts Special Stamps features iconic illustrations of anxious Charlie Brown, his beloved beagle Snoopy and their chums, to mark the comic strip’s 75th anniversary.

United States Postal Service’s 250 Anniversary stamps

From The Daily Cartoonist.

In celebration of two and a half centuries of continuous service, the U.S. Postal Service unveiled last week two stamp releases at its headquarters building. 

The two stamp designs capture the essence of USPS, one features the first U. S. Postmaster General Ben Franklin.

The other highlights its ubiquitous presence in everyday life with a Chris Ware-designed 20 stamp pane.

The Doug Wright Awards 2025

From the Doug Wright Awards Facebook page.

This Saturday,  the Doug Wright Awards will be back at the historic Arts & Letters Club, 14 Elm Street, to present its 21st edition.

Doors (and the bar) open at 7 and the show starts at 8. (Get there early or end up in the overflow room.) 

The bar will remain open after the show, making it the perfect after-party for TCAF Day 1. 

This is a free event, open to everyone, whether you're involved in the comic industry or not. There are no tickets and no need to R.S.V.P. We hope to see you there.

UPDATE:

Program for the 14th Edition of the Montreal Comic Arts Festival

From the Montreal Comic Arts Festival.

 

The Montreal Comic Arts Festival (MCAF) is proud to announce the programming for its 14th edition, taking place from May 23 to 25 on Saint-Denis Street, which will be, for the occasion, free of cars between Gilford and Roy.

Presented in collaboration with the SDC Rue Saint-Denis and Télé-Québec, MCAF offers a rich lineup under the theme "Back to the Future" featuring over 60 free activities. 

This year, more than 320 creators and 170 exhibitors are expected under its tents.

Yaakov Kirshan 1938-2025

 

Yaakov Kirshan, one of the giants of the Israeli cartooning, died Monday after a lengthy illness. He was 87 years old.

His comic strip Dry Bones was internationally syndicated and published in The Jerusalem Post for 50 years, after which Kirschen moved to the Jewish News Syndicate.

“Rea Irvin: An Appreciation" by Seth

From Drawn & Quarterly.

Seth (Clyde Fans) offers an homage to Rea Irvin, The New Yorker's first art editor and the man who invented Eustace Tilley.

AAEC 2025 Convention

The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists is pleased to announce that it will be teaming up with the Small Press Expo, in September for its' 2025 convention.

Jules Feiffer dies at 95

From The Washington Post.

Jules Feiffer, the Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, playwright, screenwriter and children’s book author who was one of the most humorously neurotic literary voices of his generation, died Jan. 17 at his home in Richfield Springs, New York. He was 95.

The cause was congestive heart failure, said his wife, JZ Holden.

Cartoon Crossroads Columbus 2024

From Cartoon Crossroads Columbus

CXC 2024 poster art by Evan Salazar

Each year, the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum is proud to partner with institutions across Columbus to bring this free festival.

Join us on Friday, September 27 from 5 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. for our annual CXC Opening Reception.

Explore the museum, enjoy refreshments, and cheer on your cartoonist colleagues as we give out our annual awards at 6pm in the lobby. 

Visitors can peruse an open-house display of materials in the reading room, and view our current exhibit in the galleries: The Nancy Show: Ernie Bushmiller and Beyond.

The full slate of programming is available at cartooncrossroadscolumbus.org

Cartoon Crossroads Columbus

September 26 - 29, 2024

Drawn & Quarterly at Cartoon Crossroads Columbus 2024

From Drawn & Quarterly

Drawn & Quarterly will be exhibiting September 28-29, alongside some special guests including Kate Beaton (Ducks), Edward Steed (Forces of Nature), Chris Oliveros (Are You Willing to Die for the Cause?), and Ryan Holmberg (translator of Yoshiharu Tsuge, Fujiwara Maki, Yamada Murasaki, and more).

CML Main Library

96 S Grant Ave
Columbus, OH 43215

Book Banning Series in Crankshaft Comic Strip

From The Daily Cartoonist. 

Tom Batiuk, creator of the tremendously popular Crankshaft and Funky Winkerbean comic strips, has created a compelling storyline that illuminates the challenges librarians and store owners currently face around book banning. 

 The series began August 26 [2024] in the Crankshaft comic strip and continues through October. 

Ruben Bolling Profile in The New Yorker

From The New Yorker. 

“Tom the Dancing Bug,” which Ruben Bolling began publishing widely in 1990, has always been free-form and vaudevillian from week to week—original characters, recurring parodies and satires, one-offs, a terrific long-running meta-funny-pages gag.

His illustration style tends toward a tidy clean-line aesthetic, à la “Tintin,” but it morphs to suit whatever he’s up to: hatched and shaded portrait-style depictions of celebrities and politicians; imitations of other artists; fake ads, posters, and informational broadsides. 

Early on, Bolling had “Saturday Night Live,” Mad magazine, and “Mr. Show” in mind as inspirations. 

The strip has become more political over time, especially in recent years, though the past few weeks of U.S. election news—an assassination attempt in one party, the passing of the candidacy torch in the other—has been atypical in its intensity. 

Like all satirists of our era, Bolling has learned to adapt.

2024 Eisner Award winners

From Comics Beat. 

The 2024 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards were presented at San Diego Comic-Con International on Friday, July 26 at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hotel. 

Hosted by Phil LaMarr and Thomas Lennon, the ceremony awarded trophies to winners across 32 categories. 

The general theme of the night seemed to be “paying it forward,” and multiple presenters and winners used stage time to compliment their peers and reflect on community.

Son O’ God Comics

From Flashback.

IN 1972, National Lampoon magazine introduced the super hero Son O’ God, created by Michel Choquette, Sean Kelly and Neal Adams, 

Son ‘O God who turned from nebbishy Jewish New Yorker Benny David – 30-years-old; living with controlling parents; no aptitude for any sport – who turns into a WASP wonderman on a mission to tackle Catholicism, the Antichrist Pope and “the scourge of Islam”.

The Comics Journal #310

From Fantagraphics. 

Multimedia artist and satirist Gerald Scarfe, best known globally for his Pink Floyd’s The Wall and Disney’s Hercules iconography, talks to Gary Groth about his scabrous film, TV, and comics career, spanning 60+ years.

Zach Rabiroff does a journalistic deep dive into Bill Jemas’s tenure as Vice President of Marvel from 2000–2004, the creation of the Marvel Ultimates Universe, and much more. 

Also: visual artists Aidan Koch (Earth Comics, The Blonde Woman) and Lale Westvind (Grip) in conversation; a Jess Johnson sketchbook; a Fair Warning interview with TCJ Best of 2022 cartoonist Juliette Collet; a look at Chris Companik’s HIV-awareness comics, original work by Allee Errico, and much more.

The Comics Journal #310

On sale August 27, 2024

$24.99

Jules Feiffer on the Artists and Works from His Collection

From Swann Auction Galleries.

David Levine, Jules Feiffer with Cigar, 1983, unpublished.

Jules Feiffer’s career spans decades, producing a remarkable range of projects and generating numerous awards and honors. 

His contributions to the field of comics since his start in the late 1940s have been recognized with his induction into the Comic Book Hall of Fame and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Writers Guild of America. 

His satirical strip, Feiffer, which explored contemporary politics and social issues, ran for 42 years and earned him a Pulitzer Prize in 1986. 

"What, Me Worry? The Art and Humor of MAD Magazine" Exhibition

From the Norman Rockwell Museum.

Illustration by Richard Williams

The Norman Rockwell Museum will explore the art and satire of MAD magazine in the exhibit, What, Me Worry? The Art and Humor of MAD Magazine. 

Over 150 pieces of original art will be displayed, including paintings, drawings, cartoons, ephemera, artifacts, and other media. 

One gallery will be focused solely on the work of Mort Drucker, who spent more than five decades drawing caricatures and illustrations for MAD.