Canadian comic creator festival returns today with new vigor

Canadian-made comics are celebrated at the Panel One Comic Creator Festival.

In an era of Hollywood-infested comic cons, the Panel One Comic Creator Festival in Calgary, Alberta offers a show that puts all the attention on comic creators in Canada. I spoke with Joey Gruszecki, President of Panel One.

What is Panel One?

Panel One is a non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion and advancement of Canadian comic book creators and artists at all stages of professional development, from hobbyists to professionals. In addition to our various programming and community building activities throughout the year, our primary focus is on the annual Panel One Comic Creator Festival. 

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TCAF un-invites special guest Pink Cat after social media backlash

“We made a mistake.”

Three days after announcing “viral artist” Pink Cat would attend as a special guest, the Toronto Comic Arts Festival has “rescinding its invitation” to the Instagram cartoonist, citing code of conduct violations and “concerns expressed by the comics community.”

Those concerns were raised almost instantly when TCAF announced its second round of guests for their 2022 show, which is scheduled for June 17-19. Their tweet announcing Pink Cat received more than 460 responses, compared to the two or three their tweets about other guests received at the same time.

Much of the backlash centered on Pink Cat’s involvement with NFTs, while others pointed out transphobic and racist remarks made in the past. There were also allegations of plagiarism and tracing other people’s art.

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TCAF will return as an in-person event next June

The Toronto Comics Arts Festival will host both an in-person and virtual event June 17-19.

The Toronto Comics Arts Festival have announced their 2022 dates, as well as their intention to return as an in-person event. TCAF 2022 is planned for June 17-19, offering “a unique combination of both real-life and virtual events.”

Like most conventions, TCAF cancelled their live event in 2020 when the pandemic struck. Last year they held a completely virtual event.

“Following on the success of last year’s extensive range of virtual programming, TCAF will bring together the best of both worlds for 2022, offering one-of-a-kind virtual events alongside a new and improved online marketplace for global visitors, as well as the triumphant return of in-person programming, events and creator exhibition for local attendees,” their statement reads.

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Fan Expo HQ acquires Wizard World’s six remaining events

Wizard gets out of the convention game as Fan Expo becomes ‘the largest producer of fan events in the world.’

Fan Expo HQ has announced they’ve acquired Wizard World’s six remaining conventions, including Chicago, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Portland, St. Louis and Cleveland, effectively taking Wizard out of the convention business and expanding Fan Expo’s portfolio to 17 conventions in North America.

The six shows will be rebranded in 2022 as Fan Expo events. The 2021 Chicago show, scheduled for Oct. 15-17, will continue on under the Wizard World brand.

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CXC plans some in-person events for 2021, announces the Tom Spurgeon Award

This year’s Cartoon Crossroads Columbus will be a hybrid event, with some events hosted online and some in-person.

Cartoon Crossroads Columbus has announced that this year they plan to return to hosting live crowds, as this year’s event, scheduled for Sept. 30-Oct. 3, will feature both in-person and online events.

Like most comics festivals and conventions, CXC went all virtual for its 2020 show due to the COVID-19 pandemic. CXC said some events this year will be online only, including the CXC Expo, and several of the in-person events will be broadcast online. They plan to follow the city of Columbus’s health guidelines and the recommendations of its programming sponsors when determining any necessary precautions. More details on programming and locations are forthcoming.

“Every Fall the art community in Columbus comes together for CXC, and once again we’ve put together an incredible guest list of creators,” said Bone creator Jeff Smith, CXC’s co-founder and artistic director. “Whether in person or online, we have events and activities planned for anyone who likes cartoons. Which is everyone!”

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Baltimore Comic-Con plans to return in October

The annual comic convention will return to the Baltimore Convention Center for a live show Oct. 22-24.

The Baltimore Comic-Con has announced plans to hold its next in-person show over the weekend of Oct. 22-24. They’ve also announced a preliminary guest list.

This will be the BCC’s first live show since 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic shut the world down. With changing CDC guidelines and more people getting vaccinated in the U.S., it isn’t surprising to see conventions start to ramp back up.

“The current status of the U.S. is migrating from a very conservative posture to a much more open approach to gatherings,” their statement reads. “We continue to be in contact with the Baltimore Convention Center staff, and all signs point to our ability to having our event this fall.”

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CCI responds to criticism of their planned Thanksgiving weekend event

The new statement questions whether a November event would even be feasible.

Comic-Con International has issued a clarifying statement about the Comic-Con Special Edition convention they announced over the weekend. They also attempted to explain why they chose Thanksgiving weekend for the event.

This weekend’s announcement was for a smaller convention that would be held Nov. 26-28, though few details were shared. Part of the reason for the event would be to “shore up our financial reserves and mark a slow return to larger in-person gatherings in 2022,” CCI said in their original statement.

The announcement received some backlash, however, from creators and fans; this CNBC story rounds up several pieces of feedback from Charles Soule, Dan Slott and others, who question why they would schedule the event for Thanksgiving.

“My family missed Thanksgiving last year because of the pandemic,” wrote Dan Slott. “This year, we’ll all be vaccinated. There’s no way I’d be attending any event instead of spending that time with them. Even if everything were magically back to normal. I can’t imagine others feeling differently.”

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Comic-Con Special Edition to occur Nov. 26-28

The first live event held by Comic-Con International since 2019 will take place at the San Diego Convention Center over Thanksgiving weekend.

Comic-Con International has announced the dates for their first live event since the COVID-19 pandemic started — Comic-Con Special Edition will occur Nov. 26-28 at the San Diego Convention Center, kicking off on the Friday that follows Thanksgiving in the United States.

Details on badge costs, programming, attendance capacity and other details are still being finalized, but part of the goal is to help raise money not only for CCI but also the local San Diego business community — both of which have been hit hard by the pandemic due to a decrease in in-person events and the tourism they bring.

“While we have been able to pivot from in-person gatherings to limited online events, the loss of revenue has had an acute impact on the organization as it has with many small businesses, necessitating reduced work schedules and reduction in pay for employees, among other issues,” said David Glanzer, spokesperson for CCI. “Hopefully this event will shore up our financial reserves and mark a slow return to larger in-person gatherings in 2022.

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Comic-Con International will be virtual again this summer

CCI plans to hold a smaller, in-person event in San Diego this fall.

Comic-Con International has made it official — there won’t be a live convention in San Diego again this summer. Instead, CCI has announced a three-day virtual Comic Con@Home event, like they held in 2020, with plans for a smaller, three-day in-person convention in San Diego in November.

“Never could we have imagined what the world experienced in 2020 and continues to experience today,” the statement reads on their website. “While we are buoyed by the rollout of the vaccine and the growing number of individuals being inoculated, it appears that July will still be too early to safely hold an in-person event of the magnitude of Comic-Con. For this reason, we have made the challenging decision to postpone Comic-Con 2021 as an in-person gathering until our 2022 dates, and once again hold this year’s celebration as the free online Comic-Con@Home. Unfortunately, the challenges of this past year and the multiple postponements of our two largest events have left us with limited financial resources, so this year the online experience will be reduced to a three-day event, spanning July 23-25, 2021.”

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ECCC, C2E2 postponed until December 2021

Both shows will be delayed from early 2021 due to the coronavirus.

ReedPop, the parent company that produces the Emerald City Comic Con and Chicago’s C2E2 convention, has announced that both conventions have been delayed until December 2021.

ECCC will now take place at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle Dec. 2-5, 2021, with C2E2 following it at McCormick Place in Chicago on Dec. 10-12, 2021.

The 2020 C2E2 was one of the last comic conventions to actually hold a show; it took place at the end of February, right before the coronavirus hit the United States and everyone started going into lockdown. The 2020 ECCC show was not so lucky; it was originally scheduled for March 12-15, and was one of the first events that had to decide whether to postpone or continue on. They did postpone, pushing the show back to August, when they hoped COVID-19 might no longer be a concern. Eventually they cancelled the show completely for 2020.

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New York Comic Con goes virtual for 2020

Just like everyone else.

As you probably expected, ReedPop has announced that they are canceling the in-person New York Comic Con and will hold a virtual event instead.

“We are thoroughly disappointed that we can’t gather together, in-person for the New York Comic Con we love to build and our fans love to revel in. We look forward to this weekend all year long, just like you, and with this being our 15th edition, we were particularly excited. I will miss walking up and down artist alley and seeing friends that I’ve made since we were in the basement at the Javits Center,” said Lance Fensterman, President of ReedPop, in a press release. “While this year will definitely be a different experience, we are going to look to bring the best and most engaging event to our fans, exhibitors and studios through our partnership with YouTube.”

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Emerald City Comic Con canceled for 2020

A live convention, which was postponed to August, is now off the books for this year due to COVID-19.

It seems like such a different time now — compared to all way back in March, when Emerald City Comic Con had to decide whether to move forward with their annual convention or postpone to a later date. They opted to postpone, looking toward the end of August as their new dates, and became the first major comic book convention to be affected by COVID-19.

Three months later, everything else has been canceled, too, to the point that the surprise is gone when you hear about another event that won’t move forward. But ECCC has officially announced that the convention won’t go on as planned in August. Instead, they’re planning to hold a digital event, with the hopes that a live convention can occur next March.

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