The Toronto Comics Arts Festival has begun announcing their guests with legendary manga artist Junji Ito. He has also drawn the official poster for the festival. This will be Ito’s first North American appearance similar to last year’s guest Inio Asano and 2017’s Sana Takeda. TCAF certainly has a great relationship with Japanese artists and is certainly different from other shows. Follow TCAF to see what other top comic talent will be attending. Twitter Facebook Press release below
TCAF 2019 Poster
Toronto Public Library presents
The Toronto Comic Arts Festival 2019
Saturday May 11th, 9am-5pm, and Sunday May 12th, 10am-5pm
@ Toronto Reference Library, 789 Yonge Street, Toronto, Canada
Free To Attend | www.torontocomics.com

FEBRUARY 11, 2019: TCAF, The Toronto Comic Arts Festival is proud to announce that acclaimed Japanese manga creator and international horror sensation JUNJI ITO will participate in TCAF as a Featured Guest and Official Poster Artist of the 2019 Festival, to be held May 11-12, 2019, in Toronto, Canada. Junji Ito is best known for his groundbreaking horror stories including Uzumaki, Gyo, Tomie, and “The Enigma of Amigara Fault,” and will travel to Toronto in support of his new short story collection Smashed: Junji Ito Story Collection, to be published this April by VIZ Media.
“Junji Ito is a truly amazing creator, and we’re so proud to welcome him the Canada,” said TCAF Artistic Director Christopher Butcher. “Ito-sensei is a creator that we’d been hoping to feature at the Festival for more than a decade, he’s a personal favourite manga-ka of mine and of so many fans and comic creators. We’re so happy that he could find some time in his busy creative schedule to attend the Festival this year.”
Junji Ito will debut the new horror short story collection Smashed, the latest in an impressive line-up of great collections of his work in English. In the last 5 years horror fans have been treated to an incredible wealth of Ito’s material, including new hardcover deluxe editions of Uzumaki, Gyo, and Tomie, and all-new collections including Frankenstein, Shiver, and Fragments of Horror, among others, all available from VIZ Media.
Junji Ito will participate in a wide variety of events at TCAF 2019, including an on-stage interview, live-drawing, and special ticketed autograph sessions (details To Be Announced). The full range of Ito-sensei’s in-print manga will be available for purchase on-site at TCAF at the Festival Shop, Page & Panel, and at his events courtesy of Festival Sponsor The Beguiling. Ito-sensei’s works are also well-represented in the circulating collection of Festival Presenting Sponsor Toronto Public Library.
ABOUT JUNJI ITO
Junji Ito made his professional manga debut in 1987 and since then has gone on to be recognized as one of the greatest contemporary artists working in the horror genre. His titles include Tomie and Uzumaki, which have been adapted into live-action films; Gyo, which was adapted into an animated film; Fragments of Horror, adapted into an animated series; and the short story collections Shiver and Frankenstein, with all works having been published in English by VIZ Media. Other works of Ito’s in English include Dissolving Classroom, published by Vertical Inc., and Junji Ito’s Cat Diary: Mon & Yu, published by Kodansha Comics. Ito’s influences include classic horror manga artists Kazuo Umezu and Hideshi Hino, as well as authors Yasutaka Tsutsui and H.P. Lovecraft.