For the 13th year, the Montreal Comic Arts Festival presents a rich and diverse program, with over 60 free activities organized around its theme Beyond Borders.

MCAF will be held on a pedestrianized section of Rue Saint-Denis, between Gilford and Roy streets. Welcoming 300 artists and 168 exhibitors under its tents.

A comic-book stroll that keeps attracting more and more people

1.2 km of activities, exhibitions and memorable encounters, regardless of the weather, that’s the promise of the Montreal Comic Arts Festival. Located near Laurier, Mont-Royal and Sherbrooke metro stations, the site is easily accessible by public transit or bicycle. Last year, more than 82,000 people came to enjoy this celebration.

Cartoonists from here and abroad gather in Montreal

For its 13th edition, MCAF welcomes a multitude of artists, including Jillian Tamaki, who is also the creator of this year’s poster; Tim Probert, presenting the 3rd volume of his series Lightfall; and Jeremy Perrodeau nominated for the 25th Bédélys International Award with Le visage de Pavil.

There will also be a number of visiting artists from Europe: Alex Baladi, Mortis Ghost, Lisa Mandel, Nino Bulling, Lorenzo Palloni and others.

On the Canadian side, Adam de Souza, Brandon Mitchell and Alison McCreesh will be present.

Quebec artists will, of course, be in the spotlight, with the participation of Chris Oliveros, Axelle Lenoir, Walter Scott, Cassandra Calin, Charles Beauchesne, Paul Bordeleau and many more.

In all, more than 300 comic artists from Quebec, Canada and abroad will be on site to meet their audiences at signing sessions and other activities.

A variety of activities to celebrate comic arts

With over 60 activities over the three days of the festival, there’s something for everyone.

Télé-Québec‘s La Fab à dessin will host a series of interviews that will bring us into the world of an artist with, among others, the French-Japanese author Isao Moutte or comic conversations that will have two artists drawing and discussing together.

Live drawing animations will be back to bring the whole family together and entertain them. Comic improvisation, creative workshops and comic quizzes will also be scheduled to satisfy every taste.

Panels presented by La Presse will cover a wide range of subjects with artists such as Sweeney Boo, Tillie Walden or Mathieu Benoit, and subjects such as On the road, Breaking the Border: Experimenting with Comics, and Stranger in a Strange Land: Expats and Immigrants.

There will also be special activities, including a discussion between artists Sarah Andersen and Joshua Barkman about their work and creative processes.

Once again, this year, MCAF has manga fans in mind, with workshops, the presence of Quebec’s first manga magazine Isekai Touch or mangaka Joël Dos Reis Viegas (Urbance).

Fans of Mathieu Bablet will be delighted to dive into the adaptation of his work Shangri-La with an immersive comic arts concert presented by Collectif Or Normes and studio Umanimation.

Two performances of this multidisciplinary show, with projections and musicians, will take place at the Société des arts technologiques [SAT] at 8 pm on Friday, May 24 and Saturday, May 25 (with an admission fee – in french).

Exhibitions to showcase comics from here and abroad

Numerous exhibitions will be on display during the festival. Montréal Imaginaire presents a 21-panel portrait of the city through artists’ representations of it in comic books. With the help of researcher Thara Charland, MCAF has scoured its library for places and aspects of Montreal that make it so unique.

Continuing its tour of Quebec, the 2nd edition of Les chercheuses en BD exhibition, produced by MCAF, in partnership with the consulat général de France à Québec and the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Nature et technologies, will also be on display.

Finally, the general public will be able to discover the exhibition The 500 Years of Indigenous Resistance featuring panels from Gordon Hill’s illustrated history of the same name. The book powerfully portrays flashpoints in history when Indigenous peoples have risen up and fought back against colonizers and other oppressors.

For the full list of events, visit: www.fbdm-mcaf.ca