It’s Western Canada’s largest celebration of literacy and reading, and on Sunday there will be numerous comic-related events in the Alma VanDusen Room of the Vancouver Public Library, including:
- Vancouver Comics History (2:40 PM): Cloudscape contributors Bevan Thomas, Colin Upton, and Jonathon Dalton will discuss the history of comics art in Vancouver, starting from local publishers in the 1940s to the indie comics scene and Vancouver comics as they are today.
- Neil the Horse (3:50): Canadian cartoonist Katherine Collins discusses her award-winning comic Neil the Horse, the world’s only musical comic book. Neil the Horse appeared in Canadian newspapers from 1975-1982, and subsequently starred in fifteen comic books, from 1983–88. Katherine was inducted into the Giants of the North, Canadian Cartooning Hall of Fame at the 2017 Doug Wright Awards.
- Miriam Libicki (4:30): The first cartoonist to become the Vancouver Public Library’s writer-in-residence. Miriam discusses her work, including Toward a Hot Jew, which was named a top ten graphic novel of 2016 by Forbes magazine. Miriam’s comics are based on nonfiction and documentary techniques, such as interviews and photo reference, and also deal with themes of identity and culture clash.
For more information, check out Word Vancouver.