Vancouver cartoonist/comic historian Ken Boesem writes & draws the soapy serialized comic strip The Village, which turns seven in 2012. John Bell's Invaders From The North: How Canada Conquered the Comic Book Universe (2007) lists Ken as someone doing interesting contemporary work and his full mini-comics output is archived in the UBC Library's Rare Books & Special Collections. Ken's work has been published or reviewed in Maclean's, Geist, Broken Pencil, OCW, The Vancouver Sun, The Stranger and others and has appeared in the graphic anthologies SPX (2003) and Funday Sunnies (2009).

Outside of comics, Ken's illustrations appear throughout the new memoir Foodsluts at Doll & Penny's Cafe (May 2012) by award-winning writer Tony Correia and his posters appear on the odd lamppost as does he (with his nearest and dearest) as part of the Queer History Project's 2011 Chosen Family photo/heritage marker project. He also provides art direction for award-winning film/stage productions and acts as "drag"aturg to popular drag performer Vera Way.

Ken's currently at work on a graphic adaptation of Canada's first science fiction/fantasy novel and a series of school-friendly history books about Canada's Golden Age of comics, our first costumed crusaders and their fascinating creators.

Ian Boothby is a multiple Shuster Award, Harvey Award and Eisner Award nominee and Eisner Award-winning comic book creator best known for his work as one of the main writers on THE SIMPSONS and FUTURAMA Comics for Bongo including the SIMPSONS FUTURAMA CROSSOVER CRISIS and COMIC BOOK GUY THE COMIC BOOK.

Ian is also an improv, sketch and stand up comedian living in Vancouver, Canada where he co-hosts the SNEAKY DRAGON podcast.

Matt Bors is a nationally-syndicated editorial cartoonist and editor based in Portland, OR. He was a 2012 Pulitzer Prize Finalist for his political cartoons, which appear regularly in The Sacramento Bee, Portland Mercury, Pittsburgh City Paper, and on Daily Kos.

Bors has traveled to Afghanistan and Haiti to produce and edit comics journalism and served as an editor for Cartoon Movement. In 2012, Bors was the recipient of the Herblock Prize and the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi Award for his editorial cartooning.

His first graphic novel, War Is Boring, was a collaboration with journalist David Axe. His latest book is a collection of political cartoons and essays titled Life Begins At Incorporation.

Born in London, Ontario, Canada in 1953. His first comic strip -- HEART BREAK COMICS, starring Laszlo, Great Slavic Lover -- was published in the Vancouver "underground" weekly Georgia Straight 14 July, 1977. In June 1978 a new strip entitled REID FLEMING, WORLD'S TOUGHEST MILKMAN appeared. The first REID FLEMING comic book was published by the author in October 1980, and has never been out of print. In 1984 HEART BREAK COMICS was co-published by the author and Last Gasp of San Francisco. From 1986 to 1990 a new REID FLEMING series was published by now-defunct Eclipse Comics of California; the five books comprised the graphic novel ROGUE TO RICHES. In 1991 Eclipse published a compendium of all the REID FLEMING comics entitled FUN WITH REID FLEMING, in both soft- and hard-cover editions. Three hundred copies of the hard-cover edition included a tipped-in colour plate signed by the author.

In 2011 I.D.W. of San Diego published the first of two volumes collecting all the REID FLEMING comics, as well as HEART BREAK COMICS. Volume II will contain a new REID FLEMING graphic novel called ANOTHER DAWN. Also in 2011 Mr. Boswell was inducted into the Canadian cartoonists Hall of Fame at a ceremony in Toronto, part of the annual Doug Wright Awards. The title "Giant of the North", along with a medal created by esteemed cartoonist Seth, was bestowed upon the author at the Art Gallery of Ontario on 7 May 2011.

Mr. Boswell is also a photographer, and his portrait of Leonard Cohen (shot in Vancouver in 1978 for the Georgia Straight) is the cover image for the new authorised biography by Sylvie Simmons.

Mr. Boswell is married, the proud father of three grown children, and lives in Vancouver, B.C.

Ed Brisson is a Vancouver-based comic book writer and letterer. He's best known for his self-published crime series MURDER BOOK and Image published COMEBACK and EL DIA DE LOS MUERTOS. His latest series through Image/Shadowline, SHELTERED, with local artist Johnnie Christmas, hits stores in July.

The Cloudscape Comics Society is a coalition of indie comic book artists centered in Metro Vancouver who publish yearly anthologies and foster a community where BC comic creators can network with each other while developing their craft and continuing to push the boundaries of the comic book medium. In 2007, a Vancouver artist named Jeff Ellis decided to bring together several local indie comic book creators for a collective project. A year later, Robots, Pine Trees, & Broken Hearts was published, featuring nine stories written by independent BC comic artists. This was soon followed by Historyonics (2008), an anthology of historical fiction; Funday Sunnies (2009), a tribute to the classic Sunday colour comic strips; Exploded View (2010), a science fiction anthology where each artist explored their own unique vision of the future, and 21 Journeys, a full-colour collection centered around travel and self-discovery.

Their most recent book is Giants of Main Street, tales of fantasy and magic set within urban environment. All their anthologies are available for purchase on their website.

A Softer World is a comic that was created by Emily Horne and Joey Comeau so that people would recognize them as important artistic geniuses. Sometimes the "comic" is sad or harsh. It should be noted that this is in the tradition of George Simenon's 'romans durs' (or 'hard novels') and not in the lesser traditions of comics like Peanuts or anything else not French. Comeau is a French name. (Pronounced kuh-moe, by the way. Joey is very important, please say his name correctly. Emily is also very important but her name is easier to pronounce.)

Farel Dalrymple was the artist on Omega the Unknown (Marvel Comics) with writer Jonathan Lethem. His creator-owned comic book, Pop Gun War (Dark Horse Comics), was a Xeric grant recipient and won a gold medal from The Society of Illustrators. Farel was a co-founder of the comic anthology Meathaus and has worked on a range of illustration and cartooning projects for comic book publishers (Marvel, DC, Image, Dark Horse, Ad house), magazines, book publishers, ad agencies and film studios. He is currently residing in Portland, Oregon where he is writing and drawing an original comic book story, The Wrenchies, for First Second Books, drawing an occasional issue of Prophet for Image Comics, and working on his webcomic, it will all hurt for Study Group Comics.

Rebecca Dart is a Vancouver-based artist working in the animation industry on such shows as Mission Hill and My Little Pony. She is currently working on a Battle Kittens graphic novel.

Vancouver-based illustrator and painter, Camilla d'Errico, has made her mark on the Fine Art and Comic book industries. Camilla has shared her passion illustration on collaborative projects with comic all-star authors including Joshua Dysart, Serena Valentino, Neil Gaiman and Grant Morrison, with publications through Image Comics, Arcana Studios, Slave Labour Graphics and Darkhorse.

Camilla's true love of storytelling is seen through her own self-published comic series, Tanpopo. From volume 1, Tanpopo has grown and developed to unfold Camilla's story and characters across transmedia platforms. Print, internet serialization, and active engagement for readers through conventions, schools and online see Camilla's stories and characters reach back to touch the hearts of those who approach them. Camilla's Tanpopo characters have found their way into designer toys, costume contests, and interactive characters on social media networks. Tanpopo invites comic readers to enjoy classic literature and comics together, enriching their scope and sparking new appreciation for both new and original works of fiction. A hardcover edition of Tanpopo 1-3, available from Boom Studios in 2012, will be inviting more readers to experience Camilla's most personal art and storytelling for themselves.

Becky and Frank have been working together and making comics for a million years. Originally from New Zealand, they are now based out of Los Angeles where they continue to make comics and children's books.

They are most known for their hand-painted online serial Tiny Kitten Teeth and its companion piece, Tigerbuttah, which is produced in a faux Little Golden Book style. In late 2012, they released the first collection of Tiny Kitten Teeth in hardcover. At VanCAF 2013 they will have their brand new book, Capture Creatures, a collection of 151 hand-painted creatures, which has taken close to two years to complete.

Brandon Graham was born in December of 1976, the grandson of pin-up artist Bill Randall. He grew up in Seattle around a lot of graffiti and comics. Some of his books are King City, Escalator and Universe so Big.

He lives in Vancouver BC with his lady Marian Churchland. He writes and sometimes draws the Image series Prophet and he's been working on his new book, Multiple Warheads and sketchbook collection, Walrus.

Meredith Gran is a cartoonist and animator from New York. She most recently drew the Adventure Time miniseries "Marceline and the Scream Queens" and spends a lot of time on her webcomic Octopus Pie.

Jeph Jacques writes and illustrates the webcomic Questionable Content. He was born in Rockville, Maryland, graduated from Hampshire College with a degree in music. He lives in Easthampton, Massachusetts with his wife and business manager Cristi.

Morgan Jeske is a cartoonist who draws comics like Disappearing Town and Change (Image Comics). He lives and works in Vancouver. He refers to himself in third person professionally.

Steve LeCouiiliard is a story artist, web comicker and self-published cartoonist. He is best known for his three-volume comedy strip Much the Miller's Son, for which he won a Xeric Grant in 2010. Steve is currently wrestling with Una the Blade, a Sword and Sorcery comic about a barbarian single-mom and Mister Satan, an affectionate revisionist superhero based on Adam West's Batman. He lives in Coquitlam with his wife and two young sons.

Steve is the artist of VanCAF 2013's promotional art.

Steve Lieber's comics and illustrations have been published by DC, Marvel, Dark Horse, Image, Dupuis, Scholastic and many others, but he's best known for his work on Whiteout, a graphic novel that was adapted by Warner Brothers as a feature film, and UNDERGROUND, a graphic novel that's famous for being pirated on 4Chan.

His various projects have received nine Eisner Award nominations, and he won the Eisner for Best Limited Series for Whiteout Volume 2: Melt. Steve's a founding member of Periscope Studio, the largest studio of comic book artists in North America. He lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife, the novelist Sara Ryan.

(Profile photo provided by Lori Matsumoto)

James Lloyd started drawing comics as an effective way of avoiding almost all normal adult responsibilities. His career in comics includes ten years as regular penciller on both the Simpsons and Futurama titles for Bongo Comics, a brief stint self-publishing a slew of small-press work, and a long stretch of being Canadian. He worked in various capacities for Vancouver's animation industry in the nineties on such cultural phenomenons as MGM Lionhearts and the Littlest Angel's Easter Special. He looks forward to topping these momentous conquests by introducing the concept of irony to Vancouver's heavy metal community.

Sam Logan is the Vancouver-based creator of Sam and Fuzzy, a webcomic epic featuring warring ninja mafiosos, adorable rodent gangsters, and lovesick stalker vampires; he also provides artistic and motivational support for the enigmatic alternative artist Rikk Estoban, creator of Skull Panda. When not drawing comics, Sam can be found in the company of a labrador retriever named Macbeth.

Nina Matsumoto (better known online by the alias of "space coyote") is a Japanese-Canadian Eisner Award-winning comic book artist. Critically-acclaimed for her unique style and versatility, she has released two volumes of her original manga Yokaiden through Del Rey Manga. A lifelong fan of The Simpsons, she regularly pencils for Bongo Comics (Simpson Comics, Bart Simpson Comics). She also illustrated The Last Airbender Prequel: Zuko's Story, and is an artist for the T-shirt company Meat Bun.

Marv Newland has lived and worked in Vancouver, Canada since 1972. He has produced illustrations for many magazines including: Georgia Straight, Vancouver Magazine, Geist, Discorder, Outside Go, Travel etc., La Petite Lettre De La Poudriere and Joe Magazine. Pines & Palms published a series of books featuring drawings from his sketchbooks during the years 1988 through 2000. In 2009 Newland had a one man show of his watercolour painted postcards at galeriebarbes in Serignan, France. In 2010 Chernoff Fine Arts, Vancouver held an exhibition of his watercolour postcards and larger works. Newland makes animated films with International Rocketship Limited, Vancouver and the National Film Board of Canada. He is a part time animation instructor at Vancouver Film School and University of the Fraser Valley.

Steve Rolston has been telling stories in the comic book medium for over a decade and has illustrated a range of genres, from the spy series Queen & Country to the punk rock comedy Pounded; from the teen drama Emiko Superstar to the supernatural thriller Ghost Projekt. While he most often works with writers, Steve has gone solo on a few comics such as the cartoony Jack Spade & Tony Two-Fist and his slacker noir graphic novel One Bad Day.

His comic book work has earned an Eisner Award and Cybils Award, as well as a couple Shuster Award nominations. Beyond comics, he has provided illustrations for educational children's books and character designs for both tv animation and video game projects.

Steve also teaches a part-time course on the art of comic book storytelling at the VanArts school.

Simon Roy is a cartoonist and illustrator from Victoria, BC. He burst onto the comics scene in 2009 with his first book Jan's Atomic Heart that left reviewers wondering if he was a new talent or a classic creator from Europe. Every review cited the resemblance of his work to the artists of Heavy Metal Magazine, where he has also been published. He is currently co-writing and illustrating Image Comics' Prophet series. More of his work can be found here.

James Stokoe is a Canadian comic book artist who is known for his work on such titles as Orc Stain, Wonton Soup and Godzilla: Half Century War. He spends his days watching The Fast and The Furious and drawing terrible terrible things. Give him fresca, he likes fresca.

Kurtis Wiebe is a Vancouver, Canada-based author who's been established in the world of comic writing since 2009. For his contribution to the critically-acclaimed Green Wake, Kurtis was presented with the Outstanding Comic Book Writer Shuster Award.

His other credits include The Intrepids, Peter Panzerfaust, Debris, Grim Leaper and The Lineage.

Marley Zarcone thinks she's Scully from The X-Files. Do not tell her she isn't, things may get violent. She has drawn for Madame Xanadu, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Forgetless and Elephantmen. Marley is currently collaborating with Brandon Graham on an unnamed project.

Transplanted from Ontario, Zed Alexandra is a comic artist and hardcore drawer. Through storytelling she is constantly searching to find ways to express themes of love, pain and sexuality as a process of loss and discovery. She draws comics in order to gain a deeper understanding of the life she lives. Zed is can be found cooking food when she's not inking pages at her desk.

Sam Alden is a 24-year-old cartoonist and illustrator from Portland. He draws the webcomic DUBBLEBABY with his brother Toby, as well as the graphic novel Eighth Grade and the serialized adventure comic Haunter on Study Group Comics.

Ed Appleby is the creative mind behind the online comic strips Ed's R Us and Betty and the Beast, and is also the Host of "The Panel" Podcast. He has been working in comics since 1998, though takes short breaks to dabble in screenwriting, acting, and animation. Ed has a fun and dynamic style that gives his illustrations an optimistic look which translates through into his day job as a graphic designer and illustrator.

Albert is an artist and animator with a background in the local animation and videogame industry. A Vancouver native, he is the creator of 'The Homeless Quatchi Project,' and the comicbook series Homeless Quatchi & Friends, chronicling the life of the Olympic mascots after the 2010 Winter Games. The Homeless Quatchi Project is a light social commentary bringing awareness to homelessness in Vancouver through humour.

Albert is also well known for his videogame-themed artwork in paintings, and vinyl toys, featured on sites like Kotaku, Joystiq, Destructoid, and Tomopop. His first production vinyl toy design was released by Hong Kong based company Toy2R, during a collaboration with the brand Skelanimals in the blind-box 'Artist Series 2.'

Lucy Bellwood is America's one and only dual citizen, tall ship-sailing cartoonist. When not working on her nautically-themed, autobiographical series Baggywrinkles, she can be found slaving away on both longer projects and silly strips. She is a graduate of the Independent Publishing Resource Center's Certificate Program in Comics, a veteran of the Center for Cartoon Studies' 2010 Summer Session, and the recent recipient of a BA in Art from Reed College. She lives in Portland, Oregon where she spends an inordinate amount of time drawing at Periscope Studio and dancing the Blues. You can see more of her drawings and other things on her tumblr.

Laura Bifano is a painter and illustrator based out of Victoria, BC. Perhaps best known for her "menagerie" series, she's earned numerous accolades in print and in web from Juxtapoz, Hi-Fructose and Creative Quarterly. Laura has shown work in galleries such as gallery 1988, 8 Bit Productions and Thinkspace Gallery in Los Angeles.

Kory Bing was born a few days before Halloween, cementing her love of the weird early on. She grew up in a mid-Missouri river valley, but now lives in Portland, Oregon, drawing comics about monsters and living the dream. Kory is the writer and artist of the webcomic Skin Deep, and artist for Weird Pets, a story about monster people living in Vancouver.

Robin Bougie has been creating Cinema Sewer zine for over 15 years, has amassed 26 issues, three softcover book collections from FAB Press, and various shirts, calendars, and other related claptrap. He's also an accomplished comic artist who draws filthy, disgusting things, but he's a fairly harmless creature overall. Visit him online (if you dare).

Chelsey Bueckert is a freelance artist, aspiring animator, and self admitted fangirl. She does illustration and artwork for private clients and is the colorist for the webcomic Shifters Redux. Her work and style is broad, and ranges from semi realistic digital paintings to highly cartoony digital renderings. When she's not busy scribbling away on her computer or in a sketch book she enjoys video games, tea, roleplaying and other geekery. Chelsey currently lives in Langley, BC with her boyfriend and beloved kitty.

Portland-based cartoonist Ezra Butt draws plants and animals. Occasionally one of said animals will be a person, but rarely. His strip Crawads Welcome features lovingly-rendered drawings coupled with vulgar humor that frankly doesn't deserve to be anywhere near such niceties.

Kelly Christensen is a Vancouver local that passes the time between writing research papers and riding the bus by drawing comix, illustrations, and silly greeting cards. Kelly also enjoys crafting and tinkering with hot glue guns, button presses, paper cutters, and long arm staplers. When not being crushed under the weight of two adorable black cats, Kelly likes playing video games and having sandshrew as a spirit Pokemon.

Cindey is an artist working in the animation industry. She is a recent graduate of the character animation program at CalArts where she made four films. Cindey likes animals, sunny days, ice cream and all things cute. She sincerely hopes you do too!

Born and raised in Vancouver, Tony Cliff is a ten-year veteran of this city's animation industry. He is a contributor to the Flight series of anthologies and has been nominated for Shuster and Harvey awards, and has three times been nominated for a Will Eisner award. Delilah Dirk and The Turkish Lieutenant, a humorous graphic novel of historical adventure, was serialized online in 2012 and will be published by First Second in August of 2013. He hopes his next book will not take quite so long.

Chloe Dalquist spent half her formative years in the U.S. and the other half in B.C. but currently resides in San Francisco drawing comics and art all the way. Her current and most ambitious project is Jamie the Trickster, an eccentric road trip comic about a character who can change into a man or a woman at will. She also draws whatever bizarre illustration/fanart idea comes into her head, ranging from Buffy the Vampire Slayer gag comics to James Spader dressed as Spider-Man.

Jonathon is an elementary school teacher who also draws comics--or possibly a comic book artist who also teaches elementary school. Anyway, his Mesoamerican fantasy book Lords of Death and Life won a Xeric in 2010, and his next book, A Mad Tea-Party (a 270-page science fiction socio-political drama) will be finished and out in the world in a matter of months. Until then he can be found in or near Vancouver, and his comics can be found on the internet.

Jesse Davidge is a director at Blatant Studios, specializing in animation and motion graphics, located in Vancouver, B.C. He created the series called Mathemagick & Mystiphysics with his cousin James Davidge, which stars a group of Mathematicians from various parts of history that have fantastic adventures throughout "all-time".

He will be showcasing the new issue of Mathemagick & Mystiphysics, as well as a one-off comic, "Drunk Fight", by writer Andrew Fielden at VanCaf. Check out more of Jesse's work on his blog.

David Dedrick is the creator of the zines Generic Drivel and The Devil's Advocate as well as the creator of the comic book Rounders and co-creator of the mini comic "We're So Jar!" David, along with Ian Boothby, co-hosts the weekly Sneaky Dragon podcast and is the only podcaster/cartoonist at this convention who can also shoe a horse!

Jeff is currently the President on the Cloudscape Board of Directors and their chief cat herder. He has contributed to all of the Cloudscapes anthologies, and has published two of his own 24 hr. mini-comics: "Dreamgirl" and "Dirk Dawson: Cats & Dogs". He is also working hard on his webcomic Teach English in Japan. Chapter one and two of the series is also available in print.

Enzo writes and illustrates for Cheer Up, Emo Kid, a vulgar and satirical webcomic about life, love, and loss. He currently resides in Vancouver with an overweight cat.

Amy T. Falcone maintains two ongoing webcomics; [citation needed], a slice-of-life gag strip written by Chris O'Brien that began in 2009 and her solo-project Cardigan Weather, a journal comic touching on difficult subjects such as mental health and sexuality which debuted in 2012. Amy most recently appears as a contestant on Penny Arcade's new webcomic competition Strip Search where she learned the magic of friendship. In August of 2013, her work will appear in Northwest Press' anthology Anything That Loves: Comics Beyond "Gay" and "Straight".

Susan Ferguson has been living and working in Vancouver for over two decades. She originally came to attend Emily Carr College (as it was known at the time) and graduated from the animation program. When she hasn't been working on and off in animation and various customer service jobs involving books, toys, lamps and concierge work, she has drawn and written self-published comics.

Colleen Frakes makes comics and works in a library in Seattle. She was a member of the inaugural class of the Center for Cartoon Studies, and was awarded a Xeric Grant to publisher her book Tragic Relief in the fall of 2007. In 2009, her second graphic novel Woman King won the Ignatz award for Promising New Talent. Her most recent book, Island Brat, was published with help from Koyama Press.

Trevor Frick is an artist currently living in Kelowna, BC. He began self-publishing Centuri Way of the Ninja way back in 2004 and in August of 2011 he started to post the comic online. During that time he started to try his hand a creating his own Paper Toys and in August of 2012 he released Series One, "The Marvelous", of his Paper Toy entitled "BIT+", featuring eight popular characters from the Marvel Comic Universe. Since then he has released 4 more Series of the BIT+ Paper Toy. He hopes to have Series 6, "Saturday Mornings", ready in time for a VANCAF release. You can find out more on his his website.

Nelson Dedos Garcia is a Vancouver-based cartoonist and animator. He has done work for BMG, EMI, Nintendo, EA, and others. His comic work includes The Gift, Drawing Hope, Dropping the Flag, and Girlfriend. He is currently working on character and comic content for Popcap Games' "Hidden Agenda" Facebook game.

Emi Gennis is a cartoonist and illustrator, and an alumna of the Savannah College of Art & Design's Sequential Art MFA program. Her macabre historical and true crime comics have appeared in both print and online publications, including several anthologies. She is the editor of Unknown Origins & Untimely Ends, an anthology of nonfiction mystery comics from Hic & Hoc Publications. Emi currently lives in Portland, OR with her boyfriend and decidedly too many cats. Be sure to check out her tumblr!

Caanan is an Aussie cartoonist living in Calgary, AB. His first comic, Celadore, was published by DC Comics through their defunct Zuda imprint, and his current comic, Max Overacts, was once nominated for an Eisner award for Best Digital Comic and now stumbles along in relative obscurity down in loserville... Where everyone is surprisingly happy!

Max is about a (now) 9 year old boy who longs to be the greatest thespian who ever thesped, and how he irritates the heck out of everyone around him in the process. The first collection was self-published last year, and Caanan hopes to have volume 2 in time for VanCAF. (It's out there now. It's been said! Do the work, you slug!)

Ragnar Guidote is the artist of Steambun Samurai, which he creates with Matthew Ocasio. He is part of the group Sketrospective.

Becky Hawkins began self-publishing French Toast Comix in 2007. These autobio comics, travel stories and watercolors chronicle her life in Brooklyn, Pittsburgh, Portland, and world-traveling as a cruise ship musician. Wherever she is, her favorite thing to do is to draw people and old buildings over a cup of coffee. She currently resides in Portland with Shoulder Angel, who co-stars in a lot of her comics.

Tyson Hesse has a college degree in who cares from the school of whatever. He's animated characters on video games like Skullgirls and illustrated on comic books like Bravest Warriors. He has two comics of his own: Boxer Hockey and Diesel.

Beth Hetland (Center for Cartoon Studies alumna '11) currently teaches comics at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has been self publishing since 2006 and loves it dearly. Her most recent work is a semi-autobiographical story about her family, their relationship with music and each other.

Alex Holt is the illustrator of Always Raining Here, a weekly webcomic that began in 2011. It has recently completed its first volume. Alex is a student at Emily Carr University.

Jenny Jaeckel is a comics artist and the author/illustrator of three graphic novel memoirs: Spot 12, The Story of a Birth (2009); SIBERIAK, My Cold War Adventure on the River Ob (2011); and Odd Pieces, Memoir of a Childhood (2012). Spot 12 won a 2008 Xeric Grant and was short-listed for the Gene Day Award. Jenny lives on Vancouver Island and is at work on a fourth graphic novel memoir, Mariposa/Butterfly.

Jak is a "draw whatever the hell inspires her at the current moment" kinda gal. She enjoys food, Legend of Zelda, playing video games, and laughing at fart jokes. She had a webcomic that ran for a few years called Insane Yeti Squirrel but retired it and is now working on a comic called Woo Hoo! with her comic partner in crime, JR Boos. She is also the inker of JR's comic Even Death May Die! When she's not drawing comics, she enjoys drawing men with pompadours and cute butts and then posts it all on her Tumblr. Jak enjoys making people smile and hopes to one day have a comic she is proud to have made. In the meantime, she'll continue to have anxiety attacks while rolling around naked in paint singing "Good Vibrations" at the top of her lungs. She is also available for commissions!

Rachel Kahn is an artist with a love for the uncanny, the unconventional, the silly, and the sinister. Artistically, she is trying very hard to keep her fingers in all of the pots; she illustrates and designs concepts for indie and small-press videogames, tabletop games, and fiction, and self-published her first comic collection in 2012. In between drawing, she spends a lot of time learning about prehistoric megafauna and listening to heavy metal music. Her current comic projects include the journal comic By Crom, featuring Conan the Barbarian as a spirit guide, and Orin and the Dead Man's Sword, an uncanny, forested, fantasy comic appearing in the anthology Weald.

Nomi Kane is a cartoonist with an MFA from The Center for Cartoon Studies. She's been drawing all her life and self-publishes an ever growing litany of mini-comics. She loves rock and roll, baseball, and civil rights history. Nomi currently lives and works in Seattle, WA.

Mei K (Mary Karaplis) is a self-taught artist/illustrator based in Vancouver, B.C. She is the creative force behind Tiny Vices and has showcased her work at conventions across the country (including SPX, Stumptown, Word On The Street, Canzine, VanCAF, Comix and Stories, etc). She also contributed regularly and provided covers for the D.C.-based Bash Magazine and Toronto based The Broken City magazine. She is debuting her "Corporate Ghost" mini comic at VanCAF 2013. Check out her work (including tiny books and prints) at her website.

Sean Karemaker moved to Vancouver 6 years ago to work in the video game industry, but what he found outside the offices on the streets of Vancouver became far more interesting to him. He began to work on a series of single panel comics about his experience observing people in Vancouver. Sean called the comics Astronaut Journal. Over time the comics evolved into full size graphic novels, and the work became popular in the underground comics scene and began to attract the attention of galleries.

Sean's work continues to evolve and change. Surreal imagery and compositions are used along with common, recognizable events and emotions of the human experience; the effect is meant to be disarmingly personal. Sean has recently been focused on large, story-based compositions that express love and love lost, a fear of growing old and feelings of nostalgia based on his experiences of living in Vancouver.

Steven Kraan is a comic artist who has recently moved with his girlfriend from Rotterdam/the Netherlands to Vancouver/Canada. His drawing daily comic strips feature flying laserskulls, incompetent doctors, time-traveling rodents, dancing brains, strange cosmonauts, talking vegetables and everything in between. But don't be fooled by the cheerful colors and these innocent-looking characters. Loneliness, sadness, mistrust, betrayal, despair and even death are recurring themes in these silly little adventures. Since April 2010 Steven has been making a daily comic for his Facebook page called drawing daily. His small press comic booklets are available online, in a number of comic shops in Europe and North-America, and can be found in the zine collection of the Vancouver Public Library.

Jeannette Langmead specializes in comics, science, and paper dolls. She is the creator of Science You Forgot: a guide to your elementary school textbook and The Animal Penis Activity Book. No one really knows why, but she also does a lot of illustration work for Vancouver-based comedians. Her autobiographical comics, available exclusively online, explore anxiety, self-hate, crushes, alcoholism, and ninja turtles.

Jeannette doesn't know where she's from, but has been living in Portland, Oregon for the last three months. She does know she loves fun and tap water and draws so people will like her. She has an illustration degree from a university, so don't worry, she's totally qualified to be doing this.

Along with his partner, Anise, Wei boldly but naively into comics in 2008. They didn't know what they were getting into. All they knew was to make comics. Several comics were born out of this innocent ambition--most notably, Wei's Xeric award-winning Lotus Root Children. Recently Wei has also expanded his storytelling ambitions and ventured into the world of animation. What a fool. Wei lives with Anise in their Coquitlam apartment with their two cats, Eire and Charlie.

Miriam Libicki creates rather jewy nonfiction comics. She has been publishing her Israeli army memoir series, Jobnik!, since 2005 (five years longer than she was in the IDF, and counting). She has also made experimental drawn essays on related themes, including "Towards a Hot Jews", "Jewish Memoir Goes Pow! Zap! Oy!", and "Strangers". Miriam also designs and screenprints only slightly jewy apparel. She lives in the accursed suburbs of Vancouver with her family.

Karly MacDonald is an award-winning illustration artist originally from Fox Point, Nova Scotia. Spending summers living and working as a gallerista for Mountain Galleries in Jasper National Park, Alberta she has grown up around wild nature and this is where her inspiration comes from. Upon completing her education in Animation, May of 2010 she was hired as character designer/background painter by 9Story Entertainment and has been a full time artist with the company since working on productions such as Pound Puppies (Hasbro), Fugget About It and the new award-winning animated children's hit Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood (Fred Rogers Company, Out of the Blue, PBS). At events such as Vancaf, Karly will be available with art prints and doing on the spot drawing commissions of your favorite animation and comic book characters! Super pet commissions are also a convention fav. To see samples of her work or to pre order commissions please her website.

J.J. McCullough is Canada's only political cartoonist under 30. He draws the editorial webcomic Filibuster, and his cartoons have been featured in "Portfoolio: The Year's Best Canadian Editorial Cartoons" since 2006. When he's not drawing cartoons he works as a political columnist for the Huffington Post and spouts off on CTV's weekly "Political Express" panel. He lives in British Columbia.

Kel McDonald stays at home drawing comics all day everyday. These comics have appeared in Darkhorse Presents and Womanthology: Space, but mostly they are silly stories about werewolves and vampires that appear on www.sorcery101.net

Bettina McEntyre is the creator of Knotpile, a collection of illustration, comics, prints, and zines. Her current self-published works include NOiD and La Familia. She spends most of her time drawing pickles and talking to cats in sunny Portland, Oregon.

As of August 2005 Luke has paid his debt to society and been released back in to the real world. The real world is great, lots of movies, games, food, and girls. He writes and draws comics about them, formally at Rooster Teeth Productions and now here at Button Mash Productions.

Dylan Meconis is the creator of Bite Me!, Family Man, Outfoxed, Danse Macabre 2.0 and more. She is a member of Periscope Studio in Portland, Oregon.

Angela Melick is best known as the creator of Wasted Talent, an autobiographical comedy about her adventures as a mechanical engineer. For eight years, she's been sharing laughs about life in Vancouver, and she's published two book collections along the way. Her work has been featured in several anthologies, as well as in Reader's Digest and the Toronto Star.

Josue Menjivar is an illustrator, cartoonist, and author. He has taught typography, illustration, and Magazine production at two colleges. He also runs his own graphic design/illustration business called Fresh Brewed Creative. Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, the small business has been creating illustrations, graphic design, and comics worldwide since 1998. His work has been published in the US, Iceland, Mexico, Slovenia, the UK, and Canada.

Erika Moen is a full-time cartoonist in Portland, OR's Periscope Studio. She's best known for the graphic novel Bucko, written by Jeff Parker, and her autobiographical series, DAR! She is also a contestant on Penny Arcade's Strip Search TV show.

Sydney More makes small things and loves to game. She grew up in a string of small-towns back East and misses the thunderstorms. Sydney is probably best known for her character Gogg Mulligan (the goblin rogue) and the 2011 comic strip "Homo Erectus" published by The Paltry Sapien. Her comics are mostly self-published, and include the titles "Lost and Found" (a tale of robot-human companionship), "Trapdoor" (a mostly true story of urban treasure-finding), and "The Glaistig" (an illustrated Scottish folktale). Her short comic "Terrible Things" was published in the 2011 anthology 21 Journeys by the Cloudscape Comics Society. Sydney currently lives in Vancouver with her partner and their mid-sized petting zoo.

Mike Myhre is a Leo-nominated storyboard artist. When he isn't globetrotting or working on the ephemeral tripe of commercial animation, he draws comics, and co-opts British culture. He's too hard on himself, and unconsciously fishes for compliments.

Amancay Nahuelpan-Bustamante (pronounced Aman-kay Na-well-pan) was born in Canada and grew up in Chile. He has been working as an independent artist since 2006, that year he published Hijos de P, a noir genre comic, winner of the Chilean Pofessional Institute's Fantasy and Comics Festival Award for Best Artist and Best Series in 2007 (Hijos de P is currently available for free through Graphicly). During the years 2006 - 2007 he worked for Caleuche Comics, an independent Chilean publisher, and for the horror web comic site Mortis.cl. During the years 2008-2009 he participated in the Zuda Comics Competitions. In 2009 he returned to Vancouver and has been working on several independent graphic novels, anthologies and creator owned projects (Duppy'78, Blanco Experimental, 21 Journeys, Giants of Main Street, among others.)

Amancay graduated from the Catholic University of Temuco with a major in Interior Design. He has also been illustrating several educational books in Chile, Spain, and Canada, as well as other commercial artwork and design for several companies. In October 2011 he joined the Ashcan Allstars blog to showcase every week a different sketch with a related theme. After living for a year during 2011-2012 in Spain, he returned to Vancouver, where he currently lives.

Renee Nault is the author and artist of Witchling, a surreal fantasy epic about gods, monsters, and a girl who talks to cats. Renee has been working as a professional illustrator for the last 6 years. Her work can be seen in books, magazines, newspapers, and advertising around the world. She currently lives in Victoria. You can see more of Renee's comics and illustration on her website.

Terri Nelson is a member of Periscope Studio in Portland, Oregon. She is the intern wrangler, and the best person to talk to if you love comics and would like to spend three months sitting in with the largest collection of freelance comic artists and writers in the U.S. She draws and writes her own stories and a semi-autobiographical webcomic called Trixie Comics. She draws spot illustrations, does logo design, inks, and does background illustration in addition to speaking on the use of comics in education.

Matthew J. Ocasio is a writer, editor, publisher, and cat lover. Based out of a two-cat secret lair in Portland, he publishes The Matter, an anthology of short-form illustrated fiction that focuses on stories told by an artist and writer both. He travels to conventions on both coasts of the Americas as well as in Canada (which he lovingly refers to as "America's Ned Flanders"). He writes fiction under the pen name Jack Bracken, and has published a total of nine stories. He is writing Steambun Samurai, a project started by Ragnar Guidote, to be pitched for professional publication. About one-third of the pictures he has taken in his lifetime are of cats, usually his own.

Jorden Oliwa aka Johnny Gonzo is canadian artist/animator, creator of timeless characters and stories in the form of animation, graphic novels and illustrations. Push the boundaries, remix it digitally with photos, 2d, 3d, music, poetry and any other kind of art to create a unique and gritty story that people will relate to on numerous levels. That's the goal.

Children's art teacher by day, independent artist by night, Dino Pai currently resides in Vancouver, Canada. Dino is best known for his Xeric-winning graphic novel Dear Beloved Stranger. His other comics work include Haikucomics and My Eurydice.

At Urban-FairyTales.com, it is believed that the charm of fairy tales lies not in their escapist nature, but the confrontational. Through allegories and storytelling, artist Dino Pai aims not merely to entertain his readers, but to inform, provoke, and connect to them. Urban-FairyTales.com is a documentation of Dino's journey as he engages the world around him with his art and comics, and you are invited to come along for the ride!

Emily Partridge is a local cutie pie. She also makes fine art, illustration, comics, and other crafty things.

Ryan Pequin is the creator of a silly webcomic called Three Word Phrase. He has also done some work for the Bravest Warriors comic book, and the Adventure Time tv show. He owns a sweater with butterflies on it.

Alina Pete is a Canadian comic artist and animator. Her webcomic, Weregeek, takes a hilarious look at Geek culture and gaming, following the daily lives and imaginations of a group of gamers. Alina is a member of the Little Pine First Nation, a Plains Cree reservation in western Saskatchewan, and has lived at various times in Fiji, Arizona and China. Her digital animation work can be seen in the Gemini-award-winning children's show Wapos Bay. She currently lives in Edmonton, Alberta, with her boyfriend Layne.

Brazilian-Canadian artist Mauricio Pommella focuses primarily on communicating ideas visually. He specializes in illustration, graphic design, and art direction for print and web. He lives in Vancouver, Canada with his wife and young daughters. When not working on independent comics and graphic design projects, he is snowboarding or surfing somewhere around the globe.

Currently he's working on a new story and some updates can be seen at his blog. His instagram can be viewed here.

Reid Psaltis is an illustrator, self-publisher, and connoisseur of the natural sciences currently living in Portland, Oregon. After years of scattered one-shot publications, such as "Carry On, Carrion: A Crow Funeral," "Hells Dachshunds," and "Cryptozoology: A Pragmatist's Guide," he recently launched Misnomer, the publication in which his forthcoming self-published work will be printed, including his first serialized project Kingdom/Order.

He is also behind a series of hand-colored, letterpress prints of small birds called "A Passerine Fancy," as well as other prints and illustrations featuring various types of fauna.

Inflorescent Productions is a partnership between artist Elise Stevens and writer Alison Ross created to produce new and interesting projects utilizing a wide variety of media including comics, graphic media, and various forms of animation. Based in Vancouver, Alison and Elise work to create stories that entertain and inspire, as well as push boundaries.

Their current project is their continuing web and print comic The Knittrix, the tale of a knitting super-hero who tangles with larger than life villains that threaten her ideas of justice and social etiquette. Check out their tumblr!

Jacob Samuel is a Canadian cartoonist, writer, stand-up comic, and Oxford Comma enthusiast. In 2012, he published his debut book, which Bite.ca ranked as one of the top 25 funniest books of the year and was praised by Superbad co-writer Evan Goldberg. Jacob currently writes, cartoons, and edits for the popular comedy website Nearly Robots.

When Doug Savage was a kid, he always wanted to be a cartoonist. But when he grew up, he found himself working in a corporation, starving for creativity and plagued by migraines. Luckily, this predicament drove him to pick up a pad of yellow sticky notes and start drawing chicken cartoons. He's been publishing Savage Chickens online every weekday since 2005. Savage's book, Savage Chickens: A Survival Kit for Life in the Coop, was published in 2011 by Perigee Books.

On a rainy November morning in 1871, renowned mystic Col. (former) Abernathy Devonshire-White bound a copy of the New Hadrionic Newsletter in a tattered wool sock and stored it in a jar containing a mixture of coffee and stout beer. The contents were stored on a high shelf and forgotten for 109 years and a day when an ice cream truck collided with the outside foundation, spilling the shelf and smashing the jar. The resulting mess grew up cynical and grouchy, becoming a hobbying cartoonist and eventually settling down to raise a family. By luck and seven murders, the once-mish mash of stimulants and week-end crossword became Jeremy Sawatsky, coxswain and Chairman of the League of Secrets' Museum of True and Legitimate Histories.

Kris Sayer is an independent game developer, illustrator, and graphic designer living in British Columbia, Canada. A member of Cloudscape Comics Society and regular attendee of the Vancouver Comic Jam, Sayer does her best to create comics in her spare time. Personal experimental projects include Nameless, a comic starring hands, and Blue Girl, a comic tutorial of sorts detailing how to make a latex headpiece. Most recently she has had her comic "The Corpse Door" published in Gurukitty's Ghost Tales and her story "Bombardier" is set to be published in Cloudscape Comic's next anthology, Waterlogged. Currently Sayer is working on her own long-term far-from-finished graphic novel, a Viking-age epic titled Tatterhood. She has conducted an absurd amount of research for the project, having made chainmaille, taken blacksmithing courses, learned horseback riding, travelled to England, Denmark and Iceland, made a complete costume of the main character, and learned how to fight (with a giant wooden spoon). The first part of Tatterhood will be appearing in the uncanny fantasy anthology Weald.

LeeLee is a small little thing that dropped out of art school in Baltimore, MD to make art and animations for video games in Vancouver, BC. She's more commonly known on the internet for her webcomic Name Game. She is also one of the artists for the Penny-Arcade web-series Extra Credits. She has a new comic she's been brewing called Little Life of Leels while the script for Name Game is under construction.

Ven is a self-taught comic and manga artist. He has been incorporating this style into his artwork for the last 16 years, and most recently, his work has culminated in the production of an online comic called Sushi Yakuza. His artistic efforts are primarily focused towards producing digital artwork, but in the past he has also created several custom flash art designs for individual tattoos.

Ven's art has been sold at numerous conventions around Western Canada, and in 2010-2011 The Animethon in Edmonton, Alberta utilized many of his works as promotion pieces to publically advertise the convention. His long-term goal is to become a published Manga artist, and as art is his passion, he is fervently working towards achieving this dream.

Josh hails from the desert but now calls the Pacific Northwest his home. Falling Rock National Park, his comic about the animal residents of a Southwestern park, has been running since 2006.

Anise Shaw is a Vancouver-born jack of all trades and general know-it-all. She has a BFA in Visual Arts, meaning she spent most of her degree pretending she wasn't a comic artist at all, because comics weren't 'cool' in the gallery scene. However her love for comics could not be contained. After collaborating with her partner, Wei Li, on several comic projects, she embarked on her very own fantasy webcomic, Even in Arcadia. She created a world inspired by 1800's China and characters based on her own political experience.

Recently she has decided to add the skills of the animation world under her belt. She is currently studying animation at Capilano University. For the time being, she misses comics a lot.

Anise has also taught cartooning, animation and visual arts in after school programs for children for several municipalities in the Greater Vancouver area. She lives with Wei and is often caught cooing at something cute her two cats are doing.

Sneaky Dragon is a comedy podcast by Eisner and Canadian Comedy Award winning writer/performer Ian Boothby and David "Awards are for Dorks" Dedrick. Each week either alone or with a guest they wrestle with the past, mock the present and predict the future. Occasionally they're joined by someone from the comics or comedy community. Funny, fast paced and maybe a little too Canadian for their own good. Listen at www.sneakydragon.com or on itunes and Stitcher SmartRadio.

Katie So is a comic artist, illustrator and art director from Vancouver, BC. Her semi-autobiographical weekly comic, Bad Boyfriend, makes many people laugh, but makes many more people cry. Check out her tumblr.

In late 2011, after working ten years in various roles in film and advertising, Florida native Jake Standley moved to Portland, OR to pursue his childhood dream of making comics. Check out his website for regular updates and previews of a new weekly webcomic Dead in Memphis starting Summer 2013.

Alex Steacy is a multimedia artist best known for his contributions to sketch comedy troupe Loading Ready Run and their charity drive, Desert Bus for Hope. Notable among his video credits are "Daily Drop", "Crapshots" and the vidcasts "Ask An Alex Live" as well as "The Derp Show". He is also an aspiring comics illustrator, traipsing around in his father Ken Steacy's footsteps with such works as Shards: Tales from the Ruin Nation and 64 Robots / Dailybot.

Rachel Steeves is a comic artist who enjoys a variety of mediums from pen and ink, to screenprint and etching, to digital. Her passion has always centered around comics as a storytelling medium from the day she learned to turn pages and she has been informed by game, North American comic, and manga culture. Rachel does commission work, and is the artist of the webcomic Trance, produced by Double Jump Studios.

Marie Tary is an award-winning graphic designer and illustrator who has spent the last 14 years passionately pursuing her love of comics and art. She has two webcomics, the fantasy adventure Brymstone, and the dark future vampire/werewolf tale of Shifters:Redux. She is also a regular contributor to the Webcomic Beacon Newscast podcast. When not involved in making or reporting about comics, she's busy working on illustrations for various clients, doing freelance graphic design, making crafts, and pursuing other creative hobbies. She lives in Langley, BC with her beloved spouse and her two cats, one of which is evil, the other is just spaced out.

Stefan Tosheff is comic artist, illustrator, graphic designer, and production manager from Vancouver, BC. He also plays guitar in a band, like a cool guy would. You can check out his tumblr here.

Jason Turner is a Canadian comic book artist currently residing in North Vancouver, BC. He has been self-publishing comics since the late 1980's, and has produced quite a stack of comics since then. He has been putting his comics on the internet since the late 1990's, and has quite a large volume of material on there as well. Two of the True Loves graphic novels (co-written with Manien Bothma) have been published, with the first volume being short-listed for One Book One Vancouver. His stories have appeared in anthologies including You Ain't No Dancer and Don't Touch Me, as well as magazines such as Geist and Taddle Creek. He has a regular column about comics in comic form for Broken Pencil magazine.

Colin Upton has lived and breathed comics for the last 30 years. As an art school drop-out, small press self-publisher, comic book artist, political cartoonist, strip cartoonist, editiorial cartoonist, web cartoonist, reviewer and an award winning graphic novelist (The Collected Diabetes Funnies) he has been an active member of the Vancouver comics community from the BC Cartoonists Society in the 1980's to today's Cloudscape. He has created cartoons for a play (A Comic Tale), a series of films (Vancouver Vagabond) and is collaborating on a series of jazz music videos based on his comics with England's John Lee. He has lectured about comics, written articles and essays about comics and co-hosted two radio shows on comics. He is also a Lowbrow painter, award winning illustrator, conceptual artist, historical expert, award winning wargamer & miniaturist, junk drummer and has been a mail, performance and 3D artist. Colin has acted as a small press comics buyer for the UBC Rare Books & Special Collections. Comics... comics are good...

Trevor Waurechen makes comix about his own life and other things that make him laugh. "It seemed like a good idea at the time" follows the happenings, and, often, not-happenings of Trevor's personal experiences. Trevor's latest project, "49 Parallels," documents his journeys across Canada, exploring the diverse multitude of micro-cultures to be found throughout the country, as he searches for any elusive threads which unite us all as Canadians. You can follow along with both of these stories and more online.

Evin Weston has never been called the voice of his generation, but he did get confused for a girl a lot when he was in junior high and we'd like to think that's close. He also draws comics that he hopes kids will like, and hopes to some day make kids that books will like. Wait, that sounds weird. Can we edit that out? Is this microphone on? Are we recording?

Elaine Will is a freelance illustrator and cartoonist from the Canadian prairies. She draws the Xeric Award-winning graphic novel serial Look Straight Ahead as well as the comic strip On the Bus, which appears weekly in Verb Magazine!

Brett Williams lives in Vancouver, where he writes and draws the weekly autobiographical webcomic Laura Knows Best. When not drawing comics, he is busy teaching, travelling and waiting for his wife to deliver the next punchline.

Tara is a freelance illustrator & comic creator living in Victoria, BC. An 09 grad from the Capilano idea program, she spent a year in Montreal as part of the French mile end arts collective superkippa 2000. Tara attended Expozine 2010 and was featured in the best of Expozine 10 year anniversary book. She was recently featured in Olio collective's second edition screenprinting show and is currently working on two comic projects: a short run comic about growing up on a gulf island called "Parents Are Dead", and a graphic novel set in a dystopian dreamworld called Land of the Lotus Eaters. You can see some of her work at the upcoming Alice in Wonderland show at 50/50 gallery.

Her style can be described as fluid and organic with European graphic novel influences. She plays around with universal themes present in mythology and classic storytelling, bringing to life the creatures that haunt our collective imagination.

Portland artist Kevin Wilson is best known for: 1. writing/illustrating the webcomic Titanzer and 2: his poisonous bite. Grown in the tundra of Michigan, he graduated from Central Michigan University with a degree in graphic design. With it he crafts comics and video game shirts for the internet. Winner of several imaginary awards he drew on napkins. Currently, Kevin is working on finishing this senten-.

Klara Woldenga, avowed octopus enthusiast, grew up in a small down in B.C. and is currently living in Victoria B.C. She is currently working towards an Associate's degree in Sociology and spends her class time drawing funny comics rather than listening to her lectures. Klara also works at UVic university newspaper The Martlet as a graphics artist and humor writer. The author of Robot Comics, a comic occasionally about robots, interests include; robots, marauding killer octopodes, general sea creatures, small things, and long walks on the beach.

Merritt "Zephos" Wong is a Vancouver-based artist specializing in anime/manga illustration, amplifying the adorable! Although primarily an illustrator, Zephos is also an established writer, weaving such short stories as "Under the Toilet Paper Tree" featured in the book Fearsome Fables from Ink'd Well Comics.

In between his classes as an instructor at the Vancouver Animation School, Zephos enjoys showcasing and selling his personal body of work at such conventions as Anime Revolution, Minicomi, Anime Evolution and the Vancouver ComiCon! You should come and see his best impression of a well-adjusted human being at these, it's hilarious!

Zephos' "super-clean" art style and detailed graphic design work have been featured locally and internationally, stretching as far as Thailand and adopted by such organizations as Jasmina Design and Befrienders Worldwide. Left to his own devices however, he'll probably just end up drawing cute girls doing cute things again ... well, that or eat his own weight in Goldfish crackers, one of the two.

The Cloudscape Comics Society is a coalition of indie comic book artists centered in Metro Vancouver who publish yearly anthologies and foster a community where BC comic creators can network with each other while developing their craft and continuing to push the boundaries of the comic book medium. In 2007, a Vancouver artist named Jeff Ellis decided to bring together several local indie comic book creators for a collective project. A year later, Robots, Pine Trees, & Broken Hearts was published, featuring nine stories written by independent BC comic artists. This was soon followed by Historyonics (2008), an anthology of historical fiction; Funday Sunnies (2009), a tribute to the classic Sunday colour comic strips; Exploded View (2010), a science fiction anthology where each artist explored their own unique vision of the future, and 21 Journeys, a full-colour collection centered around travel and self-discovery.

Their most recent book is Giants of Main Street, tales of fantasy and magic set within urban environment. All their anthologies are available for purchase on their website.

Gurukitty Studios is a small Vancouver-based comic studio founded in 1997 by 2 sisters, Jeri and Jayleen--better known as Kitty and Guru. The studio has had a growth spurt in the last few years so they launched into publishing in 2007. They have several publications including the Ghost Tales anthology, the Daqueran series, and most recently Once Upon a Time.... They are busy at work on the highly anticipated Hello, Albertosaurus memoir and The Gourd Wife graphic novel, aiming for a 2013/2014 release. Several more stories, and projects are also in the works.

Top Shelf Productions is the literary graphic novel publisher best known for its ability to discover and showcase the vanguard of the comics scene. Founded by Publishers Brett Warnock and Chris Staros, Top Shelf has produced over 300 graphic novels that have helped to revitalize interest in comics as a literary art form. Most notably, Alan Moore's From Hell, Craig Thompson's Blankets, Jeff Lemire's Underwater Welder, Jeffrey Brown's Clumsy, and Andy Runton's Owly -- all of which have garnered accolades from the likes of Time, USA Today, Entertainment Weekly, and the New York Times.