Toronto Comics vol. 2
We all share Toronto, but no two of us see it alike. Inside these covers you’ll find nineteen fresh angles on the city we love, from thirty-three talented creators.
From condo vampires to caped heroes, from thrift-store lifers to the pilots of mighty Toronto-Tron, everyone’s got a different perspective. Whether you’re looking for icy horror, true tales of weird history, or romance at the end of the world, there’s a story in here that will change how you see Toronto.
Back and better than ever, our second volume brings many returning creators, as well as new artists and writers working in comics for the first time.
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LAUCHING AT THE 2015 TORONTO COMIC ARTS FESTIVAL
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Inside you’ll find…
We were here
By Aaron Feldman and Ryan Garcia
With only a few months left before the world ends, a boy and girl meet on a blind date and take a tour of Toronto’s final Nuit Blanche.
Welcome to Turdberg
By Alex Correa and Kelvin Sue
A pair of disgruntled teens decide to use a laser light projection to write an angry message in the Toronto sky. The only thing keeping them from doing so is the 1776 step climb to the top of the CN Tower.
Discount Demon of the West End!
By Steven Andrews and Ally Colthoff
A pair of Value Village failures accidentally summon a demon eager to do their bidding. Unfortunately, their bidding mostly involves covering their shifts!
Sandwich Boards and Salami
By BC Holmes
In the eighties and early nineties, Crad Kilodney was Toronto’s most eccentric writer. Shunned by the mainstream, he was the only writer willing to shine a spotlight on North Tonawanda’s serious blood-sucking monkey problem. Can one really understand his genius, if all one has ever known are the suffocating stories of Sarnia, Ontario?
The Icelandia Boycotts
By Christopher Bird and Leo Lee
Fire on the S.S. Noronic
By Christopher Bird and Brice Hall
The Toronto Patty Wars of 1985
By Christopher Bird and Elham Fatapour
Redevelopment and Reunion
By Daniel Reynolds and Stephany Lein
After their second attempt goes wrong, a gang of crooks reunite one last time to crack a forgotten stash house safe in the West Queen West Triangle. But after ten years is it too late for them to claim the loot?
Cool New Job
By David Oxley
Ginger and Trina are catching up over coffee when an excited Trina reveals too much about her cool new job. There is only one way to rectify this breach in top-secret security…
Major North
By Sam Noir and Christopher Yao
Toronto has been transformed into a fascist state… six strangers are imprisoned. Only one is a superhero.
The Last Northbound Train
By Graham Bulmer
The scariest subway line on the TTC claims another victim.
Bloodsuckers
By JM Frey and Ryan Cole
Two vampires with deep roots in the history of Toronto discus gentrification, the condo boom, and who the bloodsuckers at City Hall really are.
Toronto the Rude
By JM Frey and Tim Lai
A short comic comparing the brusque but good-hearted masses of New York against the polite but cold Toronto crowd, as the author travels on a difficult TTC trip.
The Black Spire of York
By Miike Something and Todd Sullivan
A vainglorious and lustful Governor conspires to hold a beautiful French maiden hostage- but his brash actions illicit a retaliation from beyond the grave in this tale of gothic horror.
Home
By Mark Foo and Xan Grey
After an apocalypse, a woman makes her way across Toronto trying to get home, driven by memories of her life in the city. Plus, there are horrible, flesh-tearing mutants.
Hero!
By Mark Foo and Greg Jensen
A concerned citizen takes the law into his own hands. Criminals: fear the sting of the quills of justice!
We still got it
By Mark Maia and James Riehl
A retired super hero and his lifelong nemesis, swap stories of the good ‘ol days over a warm cup of coffee.
Devil in the Point
By Nelson da Rocha and Ariane Laurence
The Monster Artist
By Oliver Ho and Rina Rozsas
A child discovers a strange and sinister way to escape from her troubled home life.
Sultan of Hanlon Point
By Robert Shapiro and Nicole Trudel
A young boy finds a baseball and is magically transported to 1914 Hanlan’s Point where he must return the baseball to it rightful owner…Babe Ruth.
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Reviews:
Toronto anthology bursts with wit, striking images (London Free Press)
“Part of the fun is in seeing familiar landmarks and buildings, like the CN Tower and Honest Ed’s, used as settings for comic action.
But the true genius of this collection is the towering imagination that each writer-and-artist combo brings to the Muddy York vignettes.”
TORONTO COMICS CAST THE CITY IN ITS OWN PULP FICTION STORIES(NOW Magazine)
“With even more characters and drama than a comment thread, Toronto’s streets burst with lively stories and action – at least when people stop for long enough to tell them. Much like the filmic anthology of From Paris with Love, the local comic collection Toronto Comics has strung together an array of stories from the writers and artists who cross paths with our steely city.
Friends Andrew Stevenson, Nelson da Rocha and Malcolm Derikx, who met at Ty Templeton’s Comic Book Boot Camp, created the first edition of Toronto Comics after five months of collaboration with fellow students. It was so successful, Toronto Comics Volume 2 will be released at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival on May 9.
“The audience response has been amazing,” Stevenson says. “At conventions, folks are excited to see familiar faces and familiar places, and the comic stores we spoke to have been very supportive of local comics.”
In a city filled with such villainous caricatures as the Ford’s and fables like the ghosts who roam High Park, comics seem like an ideal medium for telling Toronto’s many stories.
New contributors joining this volume include Sam Noir and Chris Yao, as well as JM Frey, a local sci-fi author entering comics for the first time with her condo vampire story Bloodsuckers. Other entries range from the re-telling of true to life tales like the SS Noronic disaster (Picture Canadian Heritage Minutes without the embarrassing dialogue) to more fantastical fare like an imagining of post zombie fallout Toronto in Mark Foo and Xan Grey’s Home.”