An upcoming festival will allow the students in Camosun’s Comics and Graphic Novels program the opportunity to network with professional visual storytellers who will share their experiences and skills in a mentorship environment.
The annual Camosun Comic Arts Festival (CCAF), taking place April 11 at Camosun’s Lansdowne campus, is a free event open to the public.
Students and alumni will present and sell their published works, original art, and sketches.
Co-created by Ken and Joan Steacy, the program offers career-focused, skills-based training in the language of visual storytelling, which includes the creation of comic books, graphic novels, comic strips, webcomics, storyboards, and edutainment comics.
In the festival’s first year, Camosun College provided the funding, and for the second year the program received a grant for the festival. This year, the CCAF has started an Indiegogo campaign to raise money for the festival. The goal was to raise $5,000; the campaign ran from March 2 to April 2 (the campaign was still running as of press time).
Ken Steacy says comic conventions, such the San Diego ComicCon, are still important for artists, but they have changed over the years.
“They are more focused on licensing now,” he says. “They are shifting away from the source materials, such as the creators of comics.”
CCAF is different from those types of conventions and has used the same model as Toronto’s TCAF and Vancouver’s VanCAF, which focuses on the creator of the comics and the arts and literature, says Steacy.
“In addition to the students showcasing their original artwork, and the comics they have produced, CCAF will have 12 professional artists that will mentor the students,” says Steacy. “They will spend the morning with the students, and in the afternoon they are here to meet with the public audience and share their experiences in the industry.”
Some of the program’s alumni have been asked to join the festival as well, to share what they have been doing in the years since they graduated from the program.
“Some have gone onto higher education, and some have gone onto self-publishing, webcomics, or building their brand online, so it’s going to be fabulous,” says Steacy.
The main objective for taking the program for Camosun student Jesse Blanchard is “to hone my own skills in visual storytelling.”
CCAF will give the students the opportunity to showcase the skills they have acquired through the program. Blanchard and Kay Prosser are two students who will be graduating this year, and they have also been part of organizing the Indiegogo project, along with alumnus Karen Gillmore.
“We were so fortunate that Karen volunteered and stepped in to organize our Indiegogo campaign,” says Prosser. “She has been phenomenal.”
Something that CCAF has changed from previous years is the keynote speech, which is a roundtable discussion this time around, with four author-illustrators. It will be held on the Friday night at the Nellie McClung branch of the Greater Victoria Public Library.
Approximately 300 people attended last year’s festival, and Steacy is hoping for even more this year.
“We are really trying to do more of an outreach to the community, and get people all fired up about it,” he says.
Camosun Comic Arts Festival
Saturday, April 11
Free, Lansdowne campus
camosun.ca/learn/programs/comics-graphic-novels/