Six comic artists to discover at the Montreal BD Festival

The 13th Montreal BD Festival, which takes off on Friday, will welcome no less than 300 artists and 168 exhibitors until Sunday under its marquees on Saint-Denis Street, between Gilford and Roy streets. Virginie Mont-Reynaud, director of programming, tells us about six comic artists to discover this weekend.

Lisa Mandel

French author and designer Lisa Mandel discovered her passion for comics in the mid-1990s, while studying at the École Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Strasbourg. In 2001, she created the series Nini Patalo for the French magazine Tcho! She will publish five volumes of the adventures of the little bitch, which will be adapted into an animated series broadcast on France 3 and Canal J in Europe.

More recently, Lisa Mandel has started making webcomics, short comic strips offered on the Internet that are inspired by her daily life. In 2019, she started the series An exemplary year, giving himself the challenge of publishing a comic strip per day while tackling his addictions: alcohol, tobacco, sugar, fat, video games, etc. All of the boards were published on her social networks, before being brought together in a book published in 2020. Two years later, she published Get wella comic strip taking the form of an investigation into mental health recovery.

She is a renowned French author, who also founded a publishing house called Exemplaire. It is a new publishing house model, which is co-managed with other comic artists, which allows them to have better benefits.explains Virginie Mont-Reynaud.

On Sunday, May 26 at 11 a.m., Lisa Mandel invites the public to discover her creative world during the activity Cartoon conversation, which will be held at the Fab à Dessin (kiosk C-17). She will also be present for several signing sessions at Exemplaire Éditions booth D31.

Walter Scott

Born in Kahnawake, interdisciplinary artist Walter Scott studied at Concordia University in Montreal before moving to Toronto. The man who works in the fields of comics, drawing, video, performance and sculpture published the first volume of the series in 2014 Wendya satire of the contemporary art world.

Wendy is an arts student and an antiheroine. She’s not necessarily likeable, she doesn’t make the best choices, but we end up becoming attached to her. We really recognize the city of Montreal [dans les livres de Walter Scott]summarizes Virginie Mont-Reynaud.

The highly anticipated fourth volume in its series, The Wendy Award, will be released in July. The author is offering several signing sessions at booth A09 of the publisher Drawn & Quarterly.

Cassandra Calin

Montreal illustrator, cartoonist and author Cassandra Calin is best known for her series of semi-autobiographical comics published online, Cassandra Comics. Born in Romania, she immigrated to Canada as a child.

The short story, which is inspired by his immigration to Canada. The book will be released during the summer in French and English [The New Girl] at Scholastic”,”text”:”She is launching her first book this year, The Short Story, which is inspired by her immigration to Canada. The book will be released during the summer in French and English [The New Girl] at Scholastic”}}”>This year she is launching her first book, The new, which is inspired by his immigration to Canada. The book will be released during the summer in French and English [The New Girl] at Scholasticexplains Virginie Mont-Reynaud.

On Saturday, May 25, at 11:30 a.m., she will participate in a round table entitled : life stories”,”text”:”New realities: life stories”}}”>New realities: life stories (kiosk C 20), which gives voice to authors who have decided to put the story of a life at the heart of their works. She will be accompanied by Marina Léon, an Argentinian-Brazilian cartoonist, illustrator and graphic designer who recently arrived in Montreal, as well as Silki, a cartoonist born in Seoul, South Korea, and who studied in India and France.

Cassandra Calin will also be present at the Scholastic booth (B12) for signing sessions.

Charles Beauchesne

Comedian Charles Beauchesne recently adapted his popular podcast The worst moments in history in comics, published last September by Front Froid editions. The book was designed in collaboration with the designer Xavier Cadieux (Pitoune and poutine, The 500 first Cadieux), as well as the screenwriters François de Grandpré and Odrée Rousseau.

With Paul Bordeleau and Rémi Paradis, Charles Beauchesne will participate on Sunday, May 26, at 12 p.m., in a round table entitled All roads lead to comics. The discussion moderated by Catherine-Emmanuel Brunet will look at the breakdown of creative boundaries and comics inspired by other art forms such as films, series, books or podcasts.

The comedian and author will also be present for two signing sessions at the Front Froid kiosk (E33).

Jean-François Laliberté and Sacha Lefebvre

The popularity of manga continues to grow outside its country of origin, Japan. Riding on this trend, author Jean-François Laliberté and illustrator Sacha Lefebvre published in 2023 the first entirely Quebec manga, Eljun elected officials.

The two artists, who also collaborated on the comic U-Merlinwill be present for several signing sessions at the kiosks of the publisher Les Malins (D25) and Éditions Michel Quintin (E38).

Among the activities offered during the festival, Virginie Mont-Reynaud invites the public to discover the event Shangri-La : Immersive comic-concert (New window), presented Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. at the Society of Technological Arts (SAT). This is a musical adaptation of the comic strip. Shangri-La by Mathieu Bablet, with projections of the work on four walls and the participation of several musicians.

To see the schedule of all the signing sessions and the many activities offered during the 13th Montreal BD Festival, go to the festival website (New window).