The 2010 edition of the Toronto Comic Arts Festival
-- TCAF for short -- takes place May 8 and 9 at the Toronto Reference
Library. This year's line-up of cartoonists, artists, writers, graphic
novelists, and other sorts is fantastic, and in the lead-up to TCAF
The Afterword would like to introduce you to some of the talent attending this year's festival. Just like like year, we've devised a fun little questionnaire so they can speak for
themselves.
Who are you? Why are you coming to TCAF?
My name is Cecil Castellucci.  I’m coming to TCAF because I am a lady.  Also, because I am a nerd.  Also, because I write comic books (The Plain Janes with Jim Rugg)  and this year I wrote a comic book opera (with art by Cameron Stewart, Michael Cho, Pascal Girard and Scott Hepburn) that I am going to talk about.Have you been before? If so, what’s your fondest TCAF memory?I did come to TCAF last year in 2009.  I brought my sketchbook (‘cause i’m a nerd) and I had all these amazing artists draw one of Janes from  The Plain Janes.  I love and treasure that sketchbook.  I’m bringing it again.  So, you artists get ready!Do you make a living from comics? If not, what’s your day job?I make my living from writing books.  Sometimes that means comics.  But mostly I write young adult novels.  If you could have dinner with one other artist attending this year’s festival, who would it be and why?I have to pick only ONE?  That is actually an impossible question to answer.  That’s like asking me to make Sophie’s Choice or something.  I cannot pick one.  I pick EVERYONE.  Because have you seen who is coming?  TCAF is made up of COMICS PEEPS AWESOME!What’s the best comic you’ve read this year? The worst?I am in love with Hope Larson’s Mercury.   And as for the worst.  I don’t think it’s polite to reflect on poop.Who’s the most under-appreciated comic artist working today?Diana Tamblyn.  I think I said her last year, too.  But she should be more famous than she is.  I think Willow Dawson should be as well.What’s your most anticipated comic of the year?I love a book coming out in June called How I Made it To Eighteen by Tracy WhiteWhat’s one piece of advice you’d give to an aspiring cartoonist?draw?  Tell me about your dream comic: who would write it, who would draw it, who would do the cover?oooh.  easy!   It would be co-written by  Jane Austen and Geoff Johns.   It would be drawn by Cliff Chiang.  And Tara McPherson would do the cover.   It would have lots of wacky pride and prejudice hijinks, along with amazing origin stories and witty banter, elegant fights and fantastic lady fashion (in the way that Cliff always nails it.)What’s your earliest memory of comics, reading them or encountering them?For me, it was going to these Batman and Superman anthologies that my parents got after it was clear that i was in love with Adam West.  From there it was on to  TinTin and the Peanuts.  And then when older, the full on raiding of my brothers long boxes.Would you recommend your work to someone who’d never read a comic book before? Why or why not?Yes.  I would and do recommend The Plain Janes to a lot of people.  Because a lot of people write to tell me that it’s the first graphic novel that they read and now they read other comics.  I think I might be a gateway drug.Who’d play you on the big screen in an adaptation of your life?I am rooting for  Tina Fey, but I am afraid they’d give Winona Ryder the part.  We asked this last year and we’ll ask it again: which cartoonist appearing at this year’s TCAF do you suspect may in fact be an alien?I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again.  CHIP ZDARSKY is an alien.  Last year, he even said to me “Take me to your Leader!”If you had to spend a Saturday with any of the following “golden age” characters - Superman, Dagwood Bumstead, Popeye, Betty Boop or Flash Gordon which would it be, and how would you spend the day?Uh, Superman.  And we would be making sweet, sweet love.What potential does the iPad hold for comic creators and readers?I think that it’s going to make reading serialized comics easier for everyone.  I am totally excited by it.