In Photos: Toronto Comicon 2026

The Toronto Comicon is the smaller of the Fan Expo shows in Toronto every year. Coinciding with the end of March Break (this is very much a show geared towards families), the show ran this past weekend (March 20th-22nd) at the North Building of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Much of the cosplay and merch for sale seemed similar to previous years, so I’ll eschew posting pics of those and concentrate instead on the guests I talked to. However, I was surprised to see records for sale to vinyl collectors this time around!

The first person I said hello to: Geof Isherwood. He told me about graduating from an art cegep (something like a combination of senior high and junior college) in Montreal and travelling to New York to get his first gigs at Marvel at the age of 22. He pencilled Daredevil #203 around that time which I have a fondness for as it’s part of that odd mish-mash period after Frank Miller left the title and it featured a villain called ‘The Trump.’ Isherwood lived with his aunt for three months while steadily working and then decided to move back to Canada and continue doing jobs long distance, availing himself of the use of FedEx which was a new practice in those days. He said that he knew that if he hung around the offices of Marvel and DC in New York, he’d be roped into lots of last minute jobs and assignments and would be overwhelmed by work he couldn’t handle. Ah, the good ‘ol days!

Isherwood had a portfolio of art to sell. Alas, I’m trying not to buy much these days, but these two large pieces of his stood out to me and prompted me to take a picture:

Here is Steve Leialoha, chatting away with fans and signing comics as well as taking commissions. I didn’t get to chat with him, but if I did, I’d probably ask him about G.I. Joe #21 — the famous ‘silent issue’ involving Snake Eyes. I’ve seen artists bring prints of famous covers of comics they’ve illustrated for sale, but Steve had something I don’t think I’ve seen before: prints of an interior page, in this case something from Howard the Duck he’d inked.

I did get to chat with writer Don McGregor a little bit. He mentioned he’s eighty years old(!) and his wife told me how Don preferred the typewriter to the word processors others were adopting in the 1980s. Don also talked a little about working with Paul Gulacy (a unique artist whose work I quite like) on Sabre and how difficult it could be because Gulacy didn’t like some of the creative McGregor choices as the writer and, thus, didn’t want to draw them. Still, whatever the process, the art that ensued is stunning! Many of the items at McGregor’s booth and on his table reflected the influential work he did on Black Panther, much of which was absorbed into the movies.

Below is the multi-talented Kyle Baker working on a sketch of Babe Ruth for someone. He was easily the most stylishly dressed person in the Artist Alley and it’s a shame I didn’t feel emboldened enough to ask him if he’d stand up for a photo because then you could see the embroidered red waistcoat in full effect. Baker is someone else I’d like to have chatted with more, but I felt I was interrupting him while sketching, though he was very affable and friendly and warm.

Here’s Canadian cartoonist Scott Chantler, also working on a drawing for someone. I recognized him from doing a talk at TCAF some years ago. He had a portfolio of art for sale that was enjoyable to look through:

While I was talking to Chantler, political commentator Scott Reid showed up at the table with his son. Americans are not going to know who Reid is, but he shows up on Canadian news channels (principally CTV News) to offer astute political commentary on major news events. He Zooms in from home and those of us who admire original comic art have noticed that, unlike other political commentators, Reid has pieces of original comic art framed on the wall behind him! I first noticed this during the pandemic and posted photos on Facebook and tried to get people to guess his story and identify the pieces of art on Reid’s wall. Well, meeting him in person, I learned there’s no great mystery here — he’s simply a comics fan!

Finally, I talked to Sam Noir, a local cartoonist who’s legally blind. We chatted a little about his obstacles in regard to cartooning and how he gets around them. Sam’s with RAID Studios, an outfit in Toronto that I’d like to learn more about.

I feel remiss if I don’t share a few more conventional (pardon the pun!) photos, so here are a couple of pics from the display promoting new Daredevil episodes — they outfitted one side of the display to look like Wilson Fisk’s (Vincent D’Onofrio) office as the mayor, and let’s finish on one of Mara Wilson (whom I remember as a child actor from years ago in movies like Matilda) doing a signing session!