Toronto Is For Comics

Greetings from Toronto, an extremely weird city in all the right ways, including its large concentration of creatives and quirky comic shops. While most of comics media was mixing it up at San Diego Comic-Con, I've been here exploring what feels more like the lifeblood of the industry. I am unashamed to admit it took me far too long to get here, too. Though I feel duty-bound to spread the word now that I have.

Ripping a page out of Jamie's book, I made it my mission to casually peruse the local shops in search of recently released small press gems from local creators. I had pretty low expectations, having grown up in a one-Starbucks township that was half an hour drive to the next closest shop. How many could there possibly be in a downtown area anyway?, I thought.

Turns out, there are quite a lot.

I counted about eight shops (or comics-adjacent anime/gaming stores) within a half-hour walk. I visited a mere fraction in between museums and a local art fair my first three days in town.

If the only appeal were comic shop density, I wouldn't be devoting an entire newsletter issue to it. The beauty of this part of Toronto is that it's still very much a cultural destination as you'd expect in any major city. Fine dining, hipster cafes, museums, art galleries, and plenty of coastal lake sightseeing are built into it. If you don't take advantage of it, you're really missing out. But that there happens to be a retailer selling floppies every few blocks is just magnificent icing on the cake.

The main event, though, as always, is the local creators. It felt impossible, but I narrowed it down to two that caught my attention (Lis Xu, Madelyn Schutz) and another that demanded it, Jenn Woodall.

It also seems like the most natural way to kick off our coverage...

Dumbass! Distills the Unique Hell of Managing Creative Burnout

Dumbass! is a collection of powerfully emotional, uncomfortably honest sketches and comics from the mind of Jenn Woodall. The 32-page magazine-sized risograph-printed book really experiments with the format, too.

Rather than a black-and-white production, Woodall chose colorful pages that intentionally alternate. It really highlights both her unique style and ability to communicate sequential art that sits with you long after closing the final page.

The stories range from internal struggles of making art without deadening one's soul to frustrations/guilt of a creative spark not arriving. Others venture into irrational absurdity as a method of processing the toll it takes to make art for a living. At least that's what it did for me.

Cathartic might be the most pithy way I can describe it, though with dashes of cynical humor thrown in generously. You can snag a copy of Dumbass! via Woodall's web store now. Also good...