About

ALL ARE WELCOME!

Artists meet once a month in a bar to socialize and draw collaborative comics. Books of the work are printed the following month as well as (eventually) in PDF format. This ancient Toronto Star article still explains it best and this recent Canculture article explains some of its history quite well.

Why not visit one of our discussion groups and say hello? For all the up-to-the-minute comings & goings,  check out our Instagram, Discord, Facebook, Reddit, and Bluesky accounts.

When: The last Sunday of each month (excluding December). It starts at 7:30 pm.
Where: The Cameron House on Queen St. W., just west of Spadina.
Here’s a MAP.
How much?: Free, but the jam books are $5 or pwyc.
You can get reminders here on Luma.

The Toronto Comic Jam was founded by Dave Howard in November 1996 as a safe haven for the alternative comics community — a place where artists could meet, exchange ideas, and find moral support, using comics as a basis for social interaction. Inspired by Rupert Bottenberg’s comic jams in Montreal, regularly-held monthly comic jams in Toronto have helped to build a sense of community and local history around this often underappreciated art form. This recent Canculture article explains some of its history quite well.

A “comic jam” is a constraint-based exercise reminiscent of Raymond Queneau’s Oulipo (Workshop for Potential Literature) and its subsequent comics arm, Oubapo (Workshop for Potential Comics). Participants take turns drawing consecutive panels, composing spontaneous, collaborative stories. In the process, comics become a vehicle to explore narrative, a template for self-expression, and a form of social exchange – and participants get caught up in the sheer joy of drawing. Finished pages are put on the wall for all to see.

In social situations, many artists find themselves doodling in notebooks and drawing on napkins. These people find the comic jam to be a wonderful inversion – everybody’s drawing. In fact, to not draw is an anomaly.

The comic is a medium in which anyone and everyone can participate, and that this is part of its power. At the comic jam, experienced artists are challenged to expand themselves, given the different requirements of each jam page, while people new to the medium can discover the wealth of graphic language they may not realize they already possess.

This is my first time. What do I do?

When you step into the back room of the Cameron House, you’ll see the lights are up and everyone is hunched over a their boards drawing the next panel of a comic. Once done, they will place the incomplete board at the back on the stage, and pick up another board with another incomplete strip on it, and draw the next panel. Once a page is filled, whoever completed the final panel will take it off the board and tape it to the very back wall.

Towards the end of the night this wall will have a dozen or so pages taped, and you can feel free to read them all, maybe see what people did with the pages you contributed to.

You’ll also need to find and write your name on the sign in sheet! It will be passed around from table to table, or sitting with the incomplete boards at the back.

All the completed pages are collected at the very end of the night and printed in a zine that is brought the next month. A five dollar donation is suggested when you pick up the zine to help cover printing costs, but is optional. Incomplete boards are packed up and brought back out next month.

Everyone is very friendly and approachable, anyone will point you to one of the organizers who will help you get settled. We were all first timers once, it’s not a big deal. You’ll see.

Please come join us!