News
Toronto Comic Arts Festival Hosts Taiyo Matsumoto, Gengoroh Tagame
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
The Toronto Comic Arts Festival announced on Tuesday that it will host manga creators Taiyo Matsumoto (Tekkonkinkreet, Sunny) and Gengoroh Tagame (The Passion of Gengoroh Tagame: Bara Master).
Matsumoto will debut his Sunny manga in English at the festival. Additionally, the event will host an exhibition of Matsumoto-related artwork and goods in conjunction with The Japan Foundation of Toronto. The event will also host a screening of the Tekkonkinkreet anime film with director Michael Arias and screenwriter Anthony Weintraub attending.
Viz Media published Matsumoto's Tekkonkinkreet (Black & White), Blue Spring, GoGo Monster, and No. 5 manga in North America. The company will release Matsumoto's Sunny manga in spring or summer of this year. Viz also released Fumihiko Sori's live-action film adaptation of Matsumoto's Ping Pong manga, while Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released the Tekkonkinkreet anime film.
Tagame is known for his work in bara manga, erotic comics featuring, and primarily aimed at, gay men. The English translation of Gengoroh's "Standing Ovations" short comic was published in the third issue of the North American independent erotic comics collection Thickness last year, which marked the first English-language publication of Tagame's work. PictureBox will release The Passion of Gengoroh Tagame: Bara Master, a collection of Tagame's works, later this year.
The Toronto Comic Arts Festival will be held from May 11-12, and the festival and most festival-related events are free to attend.
The festival hosted Chi's Sweet Home author Kanata Konami last year, and in 2011 the festival hosted manga creators Usamaru Furuya (Lychee Light Club, Genkaku Picasso) and Natsume Ono (Ristorante Paradiso, House of Five Leaves, Not Simple).
