When: Sunday, September 27, 2009

Where: Victoria Park, Kitchener from 11am to 5pm. Located at the Jubilee Drive and Davis Street entrance to the event.  (map)

 
What: Graphic Novel tent featuring creator readings, interactive panels and workshops by local comic creators

Who: sponsored by WOTS Kitchener and The Dragon, serving the Guelph, Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge area for 11 years. The Dragon has moved into a brand new location within the Old Quebec Street Mall found at 55 Wyndham Street North, in downtown Guelph.

Creator Guests:

Chad Solomon of Rabbit & Bear Paws
Scott Chantler of Northwest Passage
Svetlana Chamkova of Drama Con and Night School
Rob Walton of Ragmop and Chocolate Face Grace
Jay Stephens of The Secret Saturdays and Tutenstein
Lar DeSouza of Looking For Group and Least I Could Do
Eric Kim of Streta, the newest addition to Transmission X Comics
Richard Zajac of G.I.Joe and long time supporter of the HERO Initiative
Alfonso Espinos of Night Spike

Industry Guests:
Jennifer Stewart – Teacher and owner of The Dragon comic shop
Robert Haines – Joe Shuster Awards committee member

Programming:

The purpose of setting up a Graphic Novel Tent at Word On The Street Kitchener is to introduce the larger community to large number of comic and cartoon creators working in the region and all of the great work being produced.

As a literacy festival WOTS is focused on life long reading, so a sizable portion of the content for this event is ‘Kid Friendly’. The greater goal is to show the learning and entertainment value inherent in the comic/graphic novel form, and provide advocacy for a reading form which has been noticed by the greater public more and more.

11:00 to 11:30 – Chad Solomon does a reading from Rabbit & Bear Paws, plus Q&A. This book was a finalist for the Comics for Kids award.

11:30 to 12:00 – Chad Solomon will run a workshop on creating comics

12:00 to 12:30 – Scott Chantler, Chad Solomon and Jennifer Stewart participate in a panel discussing great comics for kids.

12:30 to 1:00 – Scott Chantler does a reading from Northwest Passage, plus Q&A.

1:00 to 1:30 – Scott Chantler and Svetlana Chmakova participate in a panel titled ‘diverse comics for diverse tastes’. The focus will be on teen readers, including the impact manga has had on teen reading habits.

1:30 to 2:00 – Svetlana Chmakova reads her story ‘On The Importance of Space Travel’ published in Flight 5, plus Q&A.

2:00 to 3:00 – Jay Stephens is holding an interactive children’s workshop on comics and animation.

Adult oriented programming begins:

3:00 to 3:30 – Rob Walton does a reading from Ragmop, plus Q&A.

3:30 to 4:00 – More and more adults are reading comics and graphic novels, whether these are new readers or longtime readers. A look at interesting and engaging works which would be of interest to this group.

4:00 to 5:00 – Webcomics! A phenomenon? The Future? How do you do it? Join our guests Lar DeSouza, Rob Walton and Eric Kim for an hour long panel all about webcomics.