VanCAF 2024 Kickoff:

BL METAMORPHOSIS Online film screening

ONLINE

May 17th 5PM

Free registration 

This online film screening is available for free from Friday, May 17, 5:59 PM (ET) to Sunday, May 19, 11:59 PM (ET).

Directed by KARIYAMA Shinsuke • 2022 • Comedy/Slice of Life • 118 minutes

Presented in Japanese with English subtitles 

Ichinoi, a 75-year-old woman living a peaceful life, unwittingly buys a Boy’s Love manga one day…and is fascinated by what she finds inside. When she returns to the bookstore to buy the next volume, the high school girl working there–Urara, a seasoned BL fan–notices a budding fangirl when she sees one. When Urara offers to help Ichinoi explore this whole new world of fiction, the two dive into BL fandom together, and form an unlikely friendship along the way. BL Metamorphosis is a live-action adaptation of the manga masterpiece of the same name, which garnered awards such as the New Face Award of the Manga Division at the Japan Media Arts Festival, and was also ranked #1 in the women’s category of Kono Manga ga Sugoi! (meaning “this manga is amazing!”), a renowned annual manga magazine. After watching, please share your comments about the film in our short questionnaire.

Co-presented by the Vancouver Comic Arts Festival and The Japan Foundation, Toronto.

Vancouver Comics Jam: VanCAF Edition!

The Pleasant

2434 Main Street

May 17th 7PM-12PM

Come out and hang out and draw collaborative comics with local and international comic creators at The Pleasant, on Friday, May 17th! The jam gets going at 7 pm!

WHO CAN ATTEND: Anyone who is of legal drinking age is invited!

COST: No admission
fee!

Follow the VCJ on Twitter: @vancomicjam

Land Acknowledgment Comics Artist Spotlight Panel

Maya McKibbin, bailey macabre, valen onstine

Roundhouse Performance Centre (Theatre)

May 18th 11:00-11:45AM

VanCAF land acknowledgment comic artists past and present Maya McKibbin, Valen Onstine and bailey macabre welcome you to the opening panel of VanCAF 2024! The artists discuss 2024’s Indigenous Youth comics workshop with UNYA as well as their own careers and artistic practices and what the future holds!

Childhood Cereal Tasted Better: A Nostalgia Panel

Jesse Jacobs, Freddy Carrasco, Kirsten Hatfield, moderator: Cole Pauls

Roundhouse (ROOM C)

May 18th- 11:15-12PM

We often don’t realize how big of an impact something has on us until time has long passed. Moderator Cole Pauls will ask Jesse Jacobs, Kirsten Hatfield, Freddy Carrasco the tough questions like “What stickers did you plaster on your childhood dresser?” and “What colour of Game Boy Colour did you have growing up?”

Spotlight on: Kaori Tsurutani

 Kaori Tsurutani,

translator: Jocelyne Allen

moderator: Jarrett Evan Samson, emuh ruh

Roundhouse Performance Centre (Theatre)

May 18th – 12-12:45 PM

VanCAF 2024 special guest Kaori Tsurutani joins VanCAF for a spotlight panel all about her work! Join VanCAF Festival Director Jarrett Evan Samson and Glacier Bay Books as they ask Tsurutani-sensei all about BL Metamorphosis, her career in comics and her new work in the BL First Crush Anthology: Five Seconds Before We Fall in Love!

Presented with the support of the JFT.

A is for Apocalypse: Creating illustrated storybooks from A-Z 

MJ Ocasio, Jesse Davidge

Roundhouse (ROOM C)

May 18th – 12:15 – 1PM

Learn how picture books differ from comic books, and how M.J. Ocasio & Jesse Davidge wrote and illustrated one as the world burned around them. This talk and Q & A will go through their process of creating their latest book, from concepts and rhyme schemes to pencils and colors. Join them in discussing how to collaborate as a writer and illustrator across different mediums, and how to bring a project to completion with a  Kickstarter campaign.

This Convention was Built on a Sacred Burial Ground! An Indigenous Horror Panel

Jim Terry, Jordanna George, Christopher Twin, moderator: Cole Pauls

Roundhouse Performance Centre (Theatre)

May 18th – 1 – 1:45 PM

Indigenous culture has been a trope in the horror genre for decades but our 3 panelists subvert the genre by creating their own blend of horror with accurate Indigenous representation.

Join moderator Cole Pauls in a discussion about recreating a genre that normally trivializes Indigenous culture and giving it a fresh perspective.

Queer Intersections and Comics Panel

Lindsey Perez, Maya McKibbin, Tajliya Jamal moderator: bailey macabre

Roundhouse (ROOM C)

May 18th- 1:15 – 2 PM

Join Lindsey Perez, Maya McKibbin, and Tajliya Jamal in this panel discussion moderated by bailey macabre, about intersectional identities and comics. Explore the ways in which comics are a wonderful way to express Queerness, Gender, and/or Ethnicity.

Spotlight on: Jean-Marc Rochette

(en francaise)

Jean-Marc Rochette

moderator: Marc Fournier

Roundhouse Performance Centre (Theatre)

May 18th – 2 – 2:45 PM

Special guest Jean-Marc Rochette sits down with Radio Canada host and journalist Marc Fournier to discuss his career and work and Jean-Marc’s new book THE LAST QUEEN (out in English from selfmadehero) in a special French language spotlight panel!

Presented with the Consulat Général de France Vancouver and the Alliance Francaise Vancouver!

X̱IÁM: Telling Indigenous Stories

Gord Hill, Whess Harman, Cole Pauls

moderator: Jordanna George

Roundhouse (ROOM C)

May 18th – 2:15 – 3 PM

X̱IÁM closes Sunday at the Bill Reid Gallery in Vancouver, so come to this panel to celebrate and hear about the genesis of the show from the curator and some of the show’s artists! Curator Jordanna George is joined by exhibiton artists Whess Harman, Cole Pauls and Gord Hill to talk all about the show and their work and give you a chance to check it out or see it again with new eyes before its closing Sunday May 19th!

Vancouver Undergrounds: Spotlight on George Metzger

George Metzger, Robin McConnell

moderator: Paul Chadwick

Roundhouse Performance Centre (Theatre)

May 18th – 3 -3:45 PM

Join us for a conversation underground comic legend, George Metzger. George will be discussing his new collection from Fantagraphics – The Lost Worlds of George Metzger. His underground work was a great mix of science fiction, fantasy and human experiences of his own travels from San Francisco to BC during the early 70s and he’ll talk about it with fellow comics legend Paul Chadwick and former Inkstuds host Robin McConnell!

This will be a very opportunity to spend time with a key contributor to underground comic history!

Comics in College

Diana Schutz, Susan Kirtley, James Lloyd

moderator: Sarah Leavitt

Roundhouse Performance Centre (Theatre)

May 18th – 4 – 4:45 PM

Imagine discussing graphic novels in class! Or reading your favorite comics as homework! Imagine your favorite creators as your teachers!

Your imagination has now become reality, as comics have moved beyond fandom and into college, where comics scholarship is finally on offer—with courses ranging from hands-on Making Comics all the way to the mysterious depths of Comics Theory and everywhere in between. This roundtable will focus on comics in classrooms, featuring instructors Sarah Leavitt (UBC), James Lloyd (Langara College), Diana Schutz (PSU), and moderator Susan Kirtley, director of the Comics Studies program at Portland State University.

These panelists will examine the role comic art plays in the academy and discuss opportunities for students interested in exploring the medium in colleges and universities. presented in partnership with the UBC School of Creative Writing.

Snowpiercer Film screening with Jean-Marc Rochette

The Cinematheque

1131 Howe Street

May 18th – 7 PM

Korean auteur Bong Joon Ho swung for the fences with his English-language debut. A highly allegorical, high-concept sci-fi epic with an A‑team ensemble and one of South Korea’s biggest-ever budgets, Snowpiercer was an all-chips-in gamble that astonishingly paid off, garnering acclaim, big box-office gains, and a seat for Bong at the Netflix table for follow-up Okja. The dystopian spectacular, set in 2031, concerns the last survivors of a human-caused cataclysmic event that has plunged Earth into a second ice age. The population now exists aboard a massive self-sustaining train, segregated by a caste system with the poorest at the back, the 1% at the front. An uprising led by tail-passenger Curtis (Chris Evans) sets off a bloody car-by-car crusade to reach the engineer (Ed Harris), architect of this inequitable world order. Bong’s steampunk social-class parable is based on the French graphic novel Le Transperceneige, also blueprint for the still-running television adaptation.

French artist Jean-Marc Rochette, co-creator and illustrator of the multi-volume Le Transperceneige graphic novel series, will be in person at The Cinematheque to discuss his work and the Bong Joon Ho film!

Jesse Jacobs Print Show

Lucky’s Comics

3128 Main Street

May 18th – 7 PM

VanCAF and Lucky’s Comics are pleased to present the opening reception for Jesse Jacobs’ show of prints in the new Gallery space art Lucky’s! Come meet the artist, check out the show and see the amazing new Lucky’s location while you’re at it!

MUSIC @ LUCKY’S Comics

Yep, Wut, Tough Age

Lucky’s Comics

3128 Main Street

May 18th – 9 – 11 PM

FREE to attend! Come see the bands WUT, YEP and TOUGH AGE! Show begins 9PM, done by 11- “Show up late, make friends with the gate”!

The Nature of Comics

Yasmeen Abedifard, Adam de Souza, Madeline Berger

Moderator: Sarah Maloney

Roundhouse Performance Centre (Theatre)

May 19th- 10:30 – 11:15 AM

Cartoonists Adam de Souza, Yasmeen Abedifard, Sarah Maloney and Madeline Berger are going to discuss nature in comics! What’s their favorite plant or organic matter to draw? What role does nature play in their storytelling? These fabulous cartoonists all feature nature in their work for various reasons, join the panel and hear why!

Undermining Heteronormativity – Queering the Comic Arts

Kathleen Gros / Ren Strapp / Jaik Olson

moderator: bailey macabre

Roundhouse (ROOM C)

May 19th- 11:15 – 12 PM

Join Kathleen Gros, Ren Strapp, and Jaik Olson aka Puppyteeth in this panel discussion moderated by bailey macabre about Undermining Heteronormativity and Queering the Comic Arts. Learn about the artists work, what inspires them to create, and how comics can be used to subvert the status quo.

From the Pages to the Walls: Pitching Publication-based Exhibitions Info Session

Whess Harman, curator @ grunt gallery

Roundhouse Performance Centre (Theatre)

May 19th- 11:30 – 12:15 PM

Do you want to pitch an exhibition of your publication-based practice to art galleries but aren’t sure where to start? Thinking beyond framing and mounting images on a wall, this info session will include a presentation of previous publication focused works that have been shown at artist run centers, museums and galleries showing a variety of approaches.

This session will also include a run-through of grunt gallery’s submissions based process with their curator, Whess Harman.

Whess (he/they) is a trans, Carrier Wit’at (Lake Babine Nation) artist and curator with experience on public art, Canada Council for the Arts, BC Arts Council, and First Peoples’ Cultural Council juries, among others.

Coming to Comics: The Road Less Traveled

Paterson Hodgson, Christopher Twin, Jenn Woodall, Veronica Howell, Veronica Post, Boum

moderator: Jarrett Evan Samson

Roundhouse (ROOM C)

May 19th – 12:15 – 1 PM

All roads lead to comics, whether we know it when we start down them or not! Acclaimed comicas artists Paterson Hodgson, Christopher Twin, Boum, Veronica Post and Jenn Woodall, along with comics editor Veronica Howell, join Festival Director Jarrett Evan Samson in a lively talk about the lives and various artistic practices they have lived in before that brought them to comics!

Sharing Our Secrets: A Spotlight on Diana Schutz & Susan Kirtley

Roundhouse (ROOM C)

May 19th – 1:15 – 2 PM

Join these two Eisner Award-winning women and friends in conversation about the challenges and the charms of their respective careers in comics.

Eisner Hall-of Famer Diana Schutz returns to visit her onetime Vancouver hometown, having begun her comics career in 1978 at former local landmark The Comicshop, with editorial stints along the way at Marvel, Comico, and especially Dark Horse Comics, where she was fortunate to shepherd the work of such talented creators as Harvey Pekar, Frank Miller, Matt Wagner, Stan Sakai, Harlan Ellison, and the legendary Will Eisner himself. Semi-retired, Schutz now freelances as a translator of French and Spanish comics, including The Mœbius Library and the popular Blacksad series. Founder and director of Portland State University’s hugely successful Comics Studies program—where she oversees a team of instructors including, among others, writers Brian Michael Bendis and David Walker, editors Shelly Bond and Diana Schutz, comics publisher Ted Adams, and critic and historian Douglas Wolk—Dr. Susan Kirtley is also the editor of Inks: The Journal of the Comics Studies Society and the author, most recently, of Typical Girls: The Rhetoric of Womanhood in Comic Strips, among other scholarly texts.

From creating comics to creating scholarship and curating young scholars and novice editors, from comics publishing to Comics Studies, from monthly comics to graphic novels, from authorship to education to editing, Kirtley and Schutz have weathered enormous changes and challenges as women in a complex and multifaceted field—and they’ll be sharing their secrets with you!

Jim Terry & Gord Hill in conversation

Roundhouse Performance Centre (Theatre)

May 21st – 1:30 – 2:30 PM

Acclaimed creators Gord Hill and Jim Terry sit down in an exclusive one-on-one conversation with to discuss their works and lives!

Brain Vs. Book Vs. VanCAF

Jocelyne Allen, Jarrett Samson

Roundhouse (ROOM C)

May 19th- 2:15 – 3 PM

Jocelyne Allen’s Esiner-award winning translations speak for themselves. with two many incrediblde titles to even begin to list- but we thought we’d make her speak anyways!

Jocelyne sits down with Festival Director Jarrett Evan Samson for.a live edition of her indispensible BRAIN VS. BOOK blog! Listen to talks about life, Tokyo bookstores, and all the books she’s read- LIVE!

Indiginerds

Alina Pete, Jordanna George, Rhael McGregor

moderator: bailey macabre

Roundhouse Performance Centre (Theatre)

May 19th- 2:30 – 3:15 PM

Get a behind the scenes look at the anthology Indiginerds: Tales from Modern Indigenous Life with the creator Alina Pete and two of the contributing artists, Jordanna George and Rhael McGregor, in this panel moderated by our resident Indigenous nerd bailey macabre!