The 13th Edition of the Montreal Comic Arts Festival Exceeds Expectations!
Montreal, May 30, 2024 – The 13th edition of the Montreal Comic Arts Festival (MCAF) concluded on Sunday under glorious skies, marking the end of an exceptional celebration of comic arts.
This free event, which ran from May 24 to 26 in collaboration with SDC Rue Saint-Denis, brought together over 300 comic artists from Quebec, Canada and abroad, offering a rich program of over 60 free activities.
The festival set a new record, with over 95,000 fans, enthusiasts and curious visitors over the three days.
“The Québec comics scene is enjoying a fantastic time at the moment, with a wide range of work being produced by both publishers and self-published artists. It’s a pleasure to see so many passionate or simply curious people coming to meet the comic artists, stopping to read one of our exhibitions or taking part in an activity as part of the festival. In fact, we’ve seen a sharp rise in the participation rate, and many of the activity tents were overflowing during the weekend.
It’s so important for our community, and for promoting the pleasure of reading, to be able to hold a free outdoor event like ours.”, says Mélanie La Roche, Executive Director of the festival.
A Varied Program That Attracted the Crowds
MCAF 2024 offered 60 free activities for the general public, 8 exhibitions, as well as book signing and encounters with a total of over 300 comic artists, another record.
For the first year, Télé-Québec’s La Fab à dessin allowed artists to draw and take on challenges live before the public’s eyes. “We consider this first year of collaboration a success: the public turned out in person for La Fab à dessin’s activities, and was able to remotely follow the festival by meeting several artists on our social networks over the weekend. We’re looking forward to continuing this great collaboration in the years to come!” comments Isabelle Longtin, Regional Coordinator, Fabrique culturelle & Partnerships.
The panel discussions presented by La Presse included discussions between artists in both French and English, such as This is My Story to Tell: Representation and Role-Models in the Comic Arts with Sarah Kourkejian, Brandon Mitchell and Joanna Cacao. In addition, a panel discussion with Jillian Tamaki, creator of the 2024 festival poster, On the Road, drew a record for panels of 80 attendees.
Thanks to these collaborations, exchanges and conversations about comics attracted more than double the number of participants than in 2023.
The live drawing activities, always a great success with young and older alike, attracted a record of 648 participants for all 13 activities. Comic Reading with Sarah Andersen and Joshua Barkman was a big hit.
Festival-goers were also able to attend creative workshops and take advantage of Express Drawings to learn how to create a raven, a unicorn or a mecha robot.
To wrap up Friday and Saturday, the Montreal Comic Arts Festival presented the immersive show Shangri-La at the Société des arts technologiques [SAT]. This comic book inspired concert, based on Mathieu Bablet’s work, was produced by Collectif Or Normes in partnership with studio Umanimation.
Last but not least, the professional day was a special opportunity for artists to network, with Lisa Mandel’s masterclass on new publishing models and Tim Probert’s shop talk on lighting. As well as being an opportunity for artists to learn more about their profession, these exchanges were also great moments of sharing between comic artists from different backgrounds.
The Winners of the 25th Bédélys Awards
Over 200 members of the comics community were present at La Tulipe for the festival’s opening night on Thursday, May 23. The evening, hosted by journalist and animator Marie-Louise Arsenault, rewarded the best of comics published in 2023.
Six prizes were handed out, for a total of $5,000 in grants, thanks to our partners: Télé-Québec, Librairie Planète BD and Copibec.
Each prize was accompanied by a unique trophy created by artist Karl Dupéré-Richer.
The winning comics are:
- Bédélys Québec: Are You Willing to Die for the Cause?, Chris Oliveros (Drawn &
- Quarterly)
- Bédélys Youth Québec: J’aime pas ta robe, Danielle Chaperon, Samuel Cantin (Monsieur Ed)
- Bédélys Independent Francophone: Crépuscule, Catherine de Gongre
- Bédélys Independent Anglophone: Spores, Joshua Barkman
- Bédélys Youth: L’échappée belle, Faith Erin Hicks (Rue de Sèvres)
- Bédélys International: Des maux à dire, Bea Lema (Sarbacane)
See you next year!
The organizers of the Montreal Comic Arts Festival are delighted to invite everyone to the 14th edition from May 23 to 25, 2025. The team is already working on even more surprises and discoveries.
Partners
The Montreal Comic Arts Festival is presented in collaboration with the SDC Rue Saint-Denis and would like to thank its major partners for their support: Télé-Québec, La Presse, Canadian Heritage, Canada Council for the Arts, SODEC, Ministère du Tourisme, Ministère de l’Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale, Conseil des arts de Montréal, Service de la culture de la Ville de Montréal, Tourisme Montréal and Arrondissement Plateau–Mont-Royal.
MCAF also thanks its many programming partners: le Consulat général de France à Québec, Italian Institute of Culture in Montreal, Consulate of Switzerland in Quebec, Pro Helvetia, Wallonie-Bruxelles International, Bibliothèques Montréal, École en Réseau, CSSDM, CSSMB, CSSPI, le Salon du livre de Montréal, Liseur Public, Partenariat du Quartier des Spectacles, and Montréal CoWork.
About MCAF
The Montreal Comic Arts Festival (MCAF) is Montreal’s sole bilingual event dedicated to promoting comics and the artists who create them. This not-to-be-missed comic art event drew over 95,000 people in 2024.
The 13th edition of MCAF took place from May 24 to 26, 2024 on a pedestrianized Saint-Denis Street between Gilford and Roy. More than 300 comic artists from here and abroad were presented, and a diverse program of over 60 free activities was offered.
Year-round, MCAF organizes activities that contribute to the development and dissemination of knowledge about the 9th art, for both professionals and comic arts enthusiasts. For more information, visit fbdm-mcaf.ca.
