John Martz

Pamplemoussi, Maakies, and Satiro-Plastic

I just got home from listening to Geneviève Castrée, Tony Millionaire, and Gary Panter speak and display their work—a Harbourfront Centre International Readings event that coincided with this weekend’s Toronto Comics Arts Festival.

I now have a very serious crush on Geneviève Castrée.  Not only have I found a new comics artist I was unfamiliar with, but I found one who is incredibly cute (and that French Canadian accent! Swoon!).

Tony Millionaire read from some of his Maakies strips which were projected on a screen beside him. I am a big fan of the strip, and while you could tell Tony’s a very funny fellow, his work didn’t translate too well when spoken.  He made a point of saying how much he hated when the readers of audio books gave the characters voices and accents, but his reading could have used such flourishes, especially since his work is so flamboyant and irreverent.

Finally, Gary Panter showed a series of slides of his paintings while he read not from his actual comics, but from the introductions to his books, including a rather dry textbook introduction about Danté to his oversized Jimbo in Purgatory.  Although Panter was touted as the headliner of the evening, he was by far the least engaging, and left me with no interest to dig deeper into his body of work.

However, I consider the night a success as I ended up coming home with a signed book by Mr. Millionaire, and—as you can see—my very own drawing of Drinky Crow!