We try hard to have a balance of "traditional" comic book artists/cartoonists (like Tim Levins' whose work is below), with visual artists whose work is inspired by comics (such as Aidan Urquhart's work - also below).
 |
| Mark Young in front of pieces by Tim Levins photo by Tristan Clark of LondonFuse |
 |
| Aidan Urquhart Photo by Tristan Clark of LondonFuse |
LondonFuse took some terrific shots of the space from the Opening Reception evening here and it gives a really good feel of what the exhibit space is like (that's where we grabbed the two pics above).
All participating artists need to hail from the Southwest Ontario region, which if you're not from the area is the #7 blue area in the map below.
 |
 |
| Southwestern Region of Ontario |
2016 Ting Comic and Graphic Arts Festival Artists
Here's the line-up of this year's participating artists.Megan Arnold
Megan is a London-based cartoonist best known for her illustrative work on the comic Nihilist Dog with writer Maverick Summers, and her intensely personal comics diary, which ran from September 2013 to August 2015. A former prom queen, she graduated from Western University’s BFA program in the spring of 2015, where she explored drawing, printmaking, installation, and performance. Most recently, she was resident artist at SparkBox Studio in Picton, ON, where she created and silkscreened edition of a new book.
James Kirkpatrick
Born in London, Ontario in 1977, James studied art at H.B. Beal Secondary School before receiving his BFA at Halifax’s Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in 2002. Kirkpatrick works in a variety of media including drawing, painting, sculpture, comics/zines, mask-making and experimental sound.
Bryan Lee O’Malley
Bryan is a Canadian cartoonist who created the “Scott Pilgrim” series, which inspired the cult classic film Scott Pilgrim Vs The World (directed by Edgar Wright). His most recent book is the Eisner-nominated,New York Times best-selling Seconds. He’s currently writing comic book series Snotgirl, which will be published by Image Comics, while working on his next major graphic novel. He lives in Los Angeles, California.
Levins & Young
Tim Levins studied Fine Art (Fanshawe College)and Classical Animation (Sheridan College) before breaking into the comic book business in the mid-1990s. Tim is best known for his work on the Eisner Award-winning DC Comics series, Batman: Gotham Adventures. Over the years, he has illustrated many other titles for DC, Marvel Comics, and Archie Comics, and has recently drawn several children’s books published by Capstone Press.
Happily married since 1992 and a father since 2003, Mark Young has been a writer for as long as he can remember. He was born in Toronto and grew up in London, Ontario. He was the first winner of the Lillian Kroll Prize for Creative Writing at Western University, where he also completed a degree in English Literature. He has published novels, poetry, short fiction, feature articles, comic strips and book reviews in various media. His latest novel is The Launch. He lives with his wife and daughter in London.
Lucky Unlucky
Scott MacDougall is a London-based editor and writer. He’s been a copywriter for over a decade and has recently transitioned to a number of creative projects. He was the lead editor on the graphic novel Jinn Warriors 2: The Fourth Horseman, from author Marwan el Nashar and Marz Publishing. MacDougall is currently working on the second volume of his original comic book series Lucky Unlucky, drawn by D. S. Barrick and coloured by Erin Elston.
D. S. Barrick is a London-based cartoonist and the author or co-author of over 20 mini-comics, including Skulsi Thatcher and The Day I Wrote Watermelon. His fascination with monsters hasled to hundreds of drawings, many of which can be seen on his web site, Cartoon Graveyard, at dsbarrick.com. Barrick is currently working on the second volume of Lucky Unlucky, a comic book series written and created by Scott MacDougall.
Erin Elston is the colourist of the Lucky Unlucky comic book series. Encouraging others to use their creativity to enhance their experiences of life, she has joined and harmonized the ideas behind the written and line components of Lucky Unlucky using colour. Her non-collaborative artworks range from small ink drawings to multi-wall, indoor murals.
Maureen Riley
Maureen has been a full time artist in London Ontario for the past thirty five years. Her work reflects a vibrant palette with positive woman-based images both mystical and earthbound. Riley’s work is in dozens of private collections and her images have been used by many organizations as well as the University of Western Ontario. Riley is currently engaged in creating Kite Dream, a graphic memoir which includes, along with her stories, images from the past three decades. Koktail Kids, a black and white (now copyrighted) cartoon that emerged from Kite Dream has taken on a life of its own. The Kids have a website and will appear later this year in “A is for Albatross: an Alphabet of Murder and Mayhem with the Koktail Kids.”
Doug Rogers
Doug recalls comics he could only have read when he was 8 years old. They were vividly alive and immersive in ways only movies are. Adam Strange running across the desert sands of Samarkand. Well, he grew up. For a time he went to Bealart. For a time he worked in various jobs, and became a house husband. For a time he drew the weekly editorial cartoon for The Londoner under Philip McLeod.
Christopher Runciman
Christopher began exhibiting in galleries as an artist in 1990 has been writing and illustrating books since 2000. He has published with Popular Canadian (Pop Can) Comics, The London Reader and Open Mind Comics among others. He works out of his home studio in London Ontario, manages Heroes Comics and last year, co-founded Runciman Press with his wife, Lori.
Sarah Scope
Sarah is a London Ontario based artist who specializes in pen and ink as well as textile art. Look for Sarah’s work this year at Back to the Fuchsia, Old East Coffee House and in Carousel Magazine.
Aidan Urquhart
Born and raised in London, Ontario, Aidan was educated at the University of Western Ontario and Fanshawe College in studio and art theory. As an avid observer of the media, internet and television age, he takes an acute interest in the information overload that bombards us daily. His approach is to cannibalize this information and distill it through works in collage, drawing, mixed media painting, installation and mail art/fax art projects. His work can be found in numerous public and private collections including the Winnipeg Art Gallery, National Archives-Ottawa, Canada Council Art Bank, McIntosh Gallery-UWO, St. Thomas-Elgin Art Centre and Museum London.
And last but not least - Ting! Each year we select a variety of Ting cartoons from the Western Archives which has a Tingley collection housing a large collection of his work. It's interesting in revisiting these pieces from decades ago, as many of these editorial cartoons could be run today and still be perfectly timely and topical!
Merle “Ting” Tingley
TING was an editorial cartoonist for the London Free Press for almost forty years (1948-1986). Over the years, his whimsical humour has attracted a loyal following, not only in the Free Press but across Canada in more than 60 daily and weekly publications. His diverse body of work includes political cartoons, social commentaries, and his famous cartoon mascot, Luke Worm, who is immediately recognizable and famed among readers of all ages. Tingley has been awarded national and international awards for his work and has inspired generations of comic artists in Southwestern Ontario.
