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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

World-Renowned Protest Artist Seth Tobocman Speaking in Toronto

Cartoonist to Discuss New Book and 35 Years of Grassroots Comic Activism at Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF 2014)

Press Contact: Nicole Marie Burton
Phone: (647) 863-4994
E-mail: adastracomix@gmail.com
RSVP via Facebook: Saturday May 10, 6PM-10PM (city-wide event social & fundraiser), Sunday May 11, 1:30PM-2:30PM (TCAF workshop)
Purchase tickets online: HERE.

As comic lovers gear up for the Toronto Comic Arts Festival (May 10 & 11, 2014), it has been announced that world-renowned protest artist and cartoonist Seth Tobocman will be in town. Seth will speak on over 35 years of experience making political comics, presenting his new upcoming book and sharing his experience on comics as a tool for social change. Tobocman will be giving one talk during the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, and a city-wide talk outside of the comics community between May 7^th and 10^th.

Tobocman is most well-known for his role as a founding editor of World War 3 Illustrated, a quarterly self-published journal of political comics, based out of New York City. Since the magazine’s inception in 1979, World War 3 Illustrated has served as a launch pad for both emerging artists and radical ideas. The artist’s work appears regularly in its pages.

Seth Tobocman posing in front of his original graffiti art, which served as the cover for World War 3 Illustrated's Issue #40: "What We Want" — Seth Tobocman posing in front of his original graffiti art, which served as the cover for World War 3 Illustrated’s Issue #40: “What We Want”

Tobocman is also notable for his comic documentations of a number of political struggles in New York City. His book, War in the Neighborhood, details the affordable housing movement of the late 1980s which led to a series of occupations of abandoned buildings at a time of intense gentrification.

Cover of Seth's book "War in the Neighborhood," a graphic novel about the struggles over homelessness, gentrification, police brutality and human rights that raged in NYC during the 1980s and 90s. Published by Autonomedia. — Cover of Seth’s book “War in the Neighborhood,” a graphic novel about the struggles over homelessness, gentrification, police brutality and human rights that raged in NYC during the 1980s and 90s. Published by Autonomedia.

“There were events that made big impressions, and effected the direction of my art,” Seth explained in a recent interview with the Toronto-based political comics website, Ad Astra Comix. “The invasion of Grenada (1983) led me to do my first stencil graffiti… The housing movement in my neighborhood offered me a vast area of subject material to explore. More recently, the Occupy movement showed up to confirm that we had been on the right track all along.”

Tobocman has explored some of the larger contextual issues communicated by the Occupy Movement in two recent full-length graphic books: Disaster and Resistance: Comics and Landscapes for the 21st Century (AK PRESS, 2008); and Understanding the Crash with Eric Larsen and Jessica Wehrle (Soft Skull Press, 2010). A collection of his earlier graffiti and stencil art is compiled in You Don’t Have to Fuck People Over to Survive (Soft Skull Press, 1999).

City-wide tickets are now on sale for $5 each to cover the costs of Seth’s visit. Interviews with media can be arranged by appointment. More information available shortly!

For more in-depth on Seth and his work, check out our interview we did for the 35th Anniversary of World War 3: