Students in Camosun College’s Comics and Graphic Novels program are getting ready to put on the annual Camosun Comic Art Festival. Comics and Graphic Novels instructor Erin Shuttleworth says that the festival—which is happening from 4 to 9 pm on Wednesday, April 20, on the third floor of the Young Building at Lansdowne campus—will feature student artists talking about and showing what they have worked on over the past year.
“We’re going to have an artist alley where the students are selling their comics, showing off their prints, and talking about their careers,” says Shuttleworth. “We’re also gong to have live drawing sessions, where folks from the public can come in and illustrate drawings of cosplayers in costume.”
Shuttleworth says there will be several panels as well as a special guest speaker at the festival, which is free to attend.
“Our main guest speaker is Michael Nicoll [Yahgulanaas], who is a Haida Gwaii artist. He popularized Haida manga, so it’s a really great juxtaposition of this Haida iconography with this manga style of storytelling. He’s going to be joining us remotely; his talk goes from about 5:00 to 5:30 with then time for questions. The rest of the time in that room is going to be student-led panels,” says Shuttleworth. “We’ve been workshopping some panel ideas and had a really successful one about horror comics as well as the beginning-to-end process of building a comic, so how they plan their comics, how they differentiate themselves from each other, and then how they end up with that final work and what steps it takes to get there. So there’s going to be a lot of really great stuff happening at this event.”
Student Eddy Ritter says that he’ll be at the event to share his projects and art that he’s been making throughout the program.
“I might be there to participate in some of the panels that we’ll be doing,” he says. “We’ll be talking about different themes for comics and how they may vary in different locations, that’s one that we’ve being thinking about, not sure if we’ll be doing it yet, but I’ll be there to share everything and anything that people are wondering about the program and comics.”
Ritter says that he has a lot of new work to display at the event.
“I’ve got a few little short stories that I’ve been working on as well as single page little slice-of-life comics, just my experience with random things in the world. It’s all just lighthearted, fun stuff that I’m excited to share.”
Ritter says that his work is heavily influenced by the classic role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons as well as numerous podcasts and books.
“All of my influence just comes from different things that I enjoy,” says Ritter. “There are a few podcasts that I listen to, like The Adventure Zone, it’s a D&D-based podcast. Dungeons & Dragons in general I find is a pretty fun influence. It gives me ideas for stories and how to really make character interactions feel realistic, because it’s something you already acted out with other people. Various books I’ve read over the years are big influences to me, both regular novels and graphic novels, as well.”
Student Tori Schroeder will be helping out with some of the panels as well as showcasing her own work.
“Each of us is going to have a table where we can display and have our art for sale,” says Schroeder. “That’s anything from prints and stickers and smaller things to our fully realized and printed comic, which is going to be really exciting. I think that I will also be participating in a panel or two, or maybe more, having an open discussion about a topic or a subject that we have touched on throughout the program. I’m really excited to see what that day will bring.”
Schroeder says her art has “kind of a cartoony style,” and she shares an influence with Ritter.
“I’m a fan of D&D, so oftentimes my drawings veer into fantasy or fantastical characters or people like that on wild adventures.”
Schroeder says that she is heavily inspired by lots of different kinds of art.
“I grew up with a ton of different cartoons and animated shows that really inspired me,” she says. “Things like Avatar: The Last Airbender. I just loved the colours and all the world building that went into that. I was also a big fan of Star Wars: The Clone Wars because I just love that animation style, and I loved the vibrancy of the colours and just the really unique character design. Beyond that, more recent things like Into the Spider-Verse, just all that colour, it really was like if a comic came to life in a movie. I’m inspired by a lot of those kinds of things.”
Shuttleworth says that what she wants the festival’s audience to take away from the event is acknowledgement for her students’ art.
“I want them to meet these 13 super-talented students, first and foremost,” she says. “Because this program is only a year long, and I’ve watched them really, really grow in their own art styles as well as in their ability to tell stories, so I’m just really excited about them getting this chance to feature their artwork and get to meet people in the public and show off what they’ve accomplished in this course, because it really is huge, what they’ve done.”
