04/29/2024
four more special guest announcements!
VanCAF 2024 is thrilled to welcome CHRISTOPHER TWIN, DIANA SCHUTZ, VERONICA POST & BOUM to our 2024 Festival!
(Diana Schutz art by Brennan Wagner)
*** Christopher Twin has been doing freelance illustration and comic work for close to a decade. He was self-taught from an early age and took correspondence courses.
In 2018 he enrolled on the Fine Art program at Grant MacEwan University to advance his practice as well as to explore other mediums. His self-directed work is usually narrative driven and consists of stories about journeys of self-discovery and stories in the Horror and/or Science fiction genres. Christopher’s work is inspired by social/cultural divides, alternative philosophies/religions, and life as a mixed-race person.
He was born and raised on the Swan River First Nations reservation in northern Alberta and now lives and works in Edmonton, Alberta.
*** Diana Schutz is an award-winning editor who began working in comics in 1978, becoming an editor in 1981. After editorial stints at both Marvel Comics and Comico, she became senior executive editor at Dark Horse Comics, where she was on staff from 1990 to 2015. She was Frank Miller’s editor on Sin City and 300, Matt Wagner’s editor on Grendel, Stan Sakai’s editor on Usagi Yojimbo, Harvey Pekar’s editor on American Splendor, and Larry Marder’s editor on Beanworld. She applied her knowledge of Romance languages to edit international material in translation, such as Blacksad and The Manara Library. She has worked with authors Michael Chabon, Neil Gaiman, and the late Harlan Ellison, among others. She was fortunate to have been comics pioneer Will Eisner’s Dark Horse editor until his death in 2005.
The first woman to be inducted into the Canadian Comic Book Creator Hall of Fame, in 2023 Schutz was also honored with the Eisner Comics Industry Hall of Fame Award. She is an adjunct instructor of Comics Studies at Portland State University and a published author of both comics and prose. Semi-retired, she now works as a translator of European graphic novels, including The Mœbius Library volumes and the popular Blacksad series, among others.
*** Veronica Post is an award-winning graphic novelist and multi-disciplinary artist based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She attended University for Philosophy and Fine Arts, before moving to Montreal where she completed her studies in cabinetmaking, and discovered the DIY culture of self-published zines. She joined a zine distro and began creating comics, while following a path towards becoming a furniture-maker. Her path took a turn when she left Montreal for the allure of travel. She spent 8 years exploring Canada, America and Eastern Europe, where she began working on what would become Fugitive Days. Today, she continues to create comics based on her life with her characters Langosh and Peppi.
*** Boum was born in Montreal in 1985. Holder of a college diploma and a bachelor's degree in Traditional Animation, her animated shorts travel all over the world. Since 2011, however, she has been devoting herself to comics. Author of La petite révolution (Front Froid) and Nausées matinales et autres petits bonheurs (La Pastèque), she is best known for her series Boumeries, winner of the Bédélys Independent Award in 2021. She has a husband, two daughters, a cat and a very long to-do list. Boum has been suffering from various eye diseases for more than fifteen years. In March 2021, she permanently lost the use of her right eye. Her latest book, La méduse (Pow Pow), is inspired from her health issues.
