The Vancouver Comic Arts Festival has issued an apology on social media after coming under scrutiny for an earlier statement about banning cartoonist Miriam Libicki, creator of the autobiographical comic Jobnik! and a contributor to the 2020 Eisner Award nominee But I Live, from attending future shows.
Libicki, a citizen of both the United States and Israel who currently lives in Canada, served in the Israeli military — which is mandatory for all Israeli citizens over the age of 18*. Since then, Libicki has recounted her experiences in the military in her comic Jobnik! and also contributed to But I Live, a collection of nonfiction comics that draw from the experiences of Holocaust survivors.
Libicki has been a regular attendee of the festival since its inception in 2012, and at the 2022 show, she was met with protestors who “caused a scene” because of her prior military experience, according to a post from her husband, Mike Yoshioka. After missing the deadline for the 2023 show, he said she applied to return in 2024 but was rejected by the show’s organizers, which led to a meeting. According to Yoshioka, Libicki agreed not to display issues of Jobnik! or Toward A Hot Jew, a collection of graphic essays published by Fantagraphics in 2016. She would only feature But I Live.
“In recent years, I have been working closely with Holocaust survivors to tell their own stories,” Libicki told The Canadian Jewish News. “I consider this urgent and timely work. The award-winning anthology of Holocaust memoirs, But I Live, was the only graphic novel I was selling at VanCAF 2024.”
After this year’s show, which was May-18-19, the festival issued an “Accountability Statement” on social media. They’ve since removed it, but it said that community members had approached them about Libicki’s involvement in the show — although she was not called out by name in the statement.
“The concerns regarded this exhibitor’s prior role in the Israeli military and their subsequent collection of works which recount their personal position in said military and the illegal occupation of Palestine. The oversight and ignorance to allow this exhibitor in the festival, not only this year but in 2022 as well, fundamentally falls in absolute disregard to all of our exhibiting artists, attendees and staff, especially those who are directly affected by the ongoing genocide in Palestine and Indigenous community members alike,” the statement said. The Board of Directors — who did not include their own names — apologized “for the harm we have caused” and said this exhibitor would not be allowed to attend future shows.
Here’s the statement, which someone took a screenshot of before it was removed:
Yoshioka said in his post that the festival directors did not reach out to them directly to share the decision, and that he only saw that Libicki had been banned from future shows because people tagged them in the comments on Instagram.
In addition to spreading on social media, the story was picked up by several Jewish publications. Libicki told the Canadian Jewish News:
“I am, and I have consistently, publicly, been pro-peace. I am in favor of a Palestinian state via negotiations. Because of the vulnerable populations I work with, I prefer not to discuss my specific political views in public. I believe all policing of artists’ personal identities and nationalities is wrong. VanCAF’s illegal ban, and defamation directed at me, is bad for all artists of all political orientations and backgrounds.”
The Vancouver Comic Arts Festival is managed and organized by the Vancouver Comic Arts Association, a non-profit organization dedicated to connecting local cartoonists with the community. It’s not clear on their website or their social accounts who sits on their board of directors, but that may be a moot point, based on the post that went up yesterday.
According to the apology, which was issued as a series of text files turned to images, the decision to ban Libicki was “wrong headed” and the board “moved too quickly without adequate consultation.” It also states that the “vast majority of individuals involved in the first statement have since independently resigned.” Here it is in full:
Whether the ban is still in effect or not isn’t addressed in their statement, but it sounds like that’ll be a decision for whoever takes over the festival.
*I’ve edited the article to remove a statement that inferred Libicki was required to serve in the Israeli military. Because she is an Orthodox Jew, it was not mandatory for her to serve; she volunteered. She talks more about her service, as well as the VanCAF incident, in this interview.