Creating community in comics
Hamiltonian arts fans might be surprised to learn how many comics artists live in Hamilton, since their influence tends to remain underground. Bonk’d aims to change that.
Bonk’d is a Hamiltonian anthology comic book highlighting homegrown comic artists. Featuring talent in various stages of notoriety crossing a variety of genres, the collective’s focus from the beginning was on showcasing community.
Raul Palacios, Joe Ollmann and Sunny Singh are the editorial team behind the venture. Ollmann had talked about making a comic anthology for some time.
“I was always waiting for the right time, and to have the right money so we could pay people, and then these guys came along with their youthful vigour, and said, ‘Let’s just do it!’ So that was the impetus, that they were positive, and not cynical like me, so we just did it,” said Ollmann.
“I would meet up with Joe to trade comics and talk about life, and by the end of our meetings we would always just be like, ‘Yeah, we’ve got a lot of comics and cartoonist talent in Hamilton,’” said Singh. “We’d see it through Zineposium and things like that. He was just like, ‘We should do an anthology.’”
The idea was so popular, Palacios had almost signed up for a different project.
“I think I saw a post on Instagram like a year before about someone trying to put one together, and I thought I might apply to that, but it never came up again,” said Palacios. “So we were all talking about it. It was in the zeitgeist.”
Hamiltonian arts fans might be surprised to learn how many comics artists live in the Steel City, since their influence tends to remain underground.
“We ended up having a list of 40 artists that we wanted, just through who we knew in the city organically,” said Singh. “We reached out to everybody. Twenty-five ended up saying yes, but even after the fact we discovered more artists, through Zineposium and the Hamilton Drawing Club, and we thought that was a perfect reason to potentially do a second one.”
Although the scene may still be in development, Bonk’d, and potential future projects like it, could help project these artists into a more mainstream spotlight.
“There’s a lot of art being created in Hamilton, the community tends to help each other, and they like collaborating,” said Palacios. “Comics specific, I don’t know, I think we tend to be lonely people. I don’t think there’s such a thing as a big comics community in Hamilton, but maybe we can change that.”
“It’s a very isolating art form. You work for hundreds of hours by yourself,” said Ollmann. “The thing about Hamilton is, comics is a very working class art form, it’s a gutter art form, and Hamilton is a working class city so it’s really natural here. We’ve got Dave Collier here, (a contributing artist in Bonk’d) who is one of the world’s most beloved cartoonists, and he loves this city so much and his work reflects the city so much. Everywhere I’ve gone, to comics festivals around the world, when I tell them I’m from Canada they ask me if I know Dave Collier.”
Another contributing artist, Ho Che Anderson, chose to include a throwback strip about his personal experiences running in nightlife circles in the ’90s.
“The story is set during the late-90s swing revival, which hit Toronto pretty hard, though I got the impression it was something in the culture all over North America,” said Anderson. “At that time I was working in the nightclub industry, and so I was exposed to what was happening on a weekly, if not nightly, basis, and also spent a lot of time actively taking part in it. Our two cities are kissing cousins so it didn't seem a stretch to imagine the cultural forces at play in Toronto were also at play in Hamilton.”
The Bonk’d team was able to fund their anthology project through the City of Hamilton’s City Enrichment Fund, a grant that helped the team pay each contributing artist.
“I think Bonk'd has already played a wonderful role in bringing together emerging, established, and all of the comic artists in between into one fantastic publication,” said Sonali Menezes, a contributing artist and author of Depression Cooking. “It has offered much needed space for many artists to publish their very first comics, such as myself, and be taken seriously, too. Bonk'd has proven that there's a thriving comics scene right here in Hamilton, and you don't need to go to Toronto to read great comics.”
Although the Bonk’d crew isn’t a fully functioning book publishing company, the editorial team is open to whatever the future has in store for them.
“We did one issue, and we’re aiming for a second one, and then we’ll see what happens,” said Ollmann. “If we could financially do it, we would probably do it.”
Grab a copy of the anthology series, and a new Hamilton themed postcard set, on the Bonk'd website.
Resources for cartoonists/animators
The Cartoon Foundry (IG: cartoonfoundry) is a yearly comic books fair where artists can sell their comics, and that offers a series of panels/talks that are free to attend.
Hamilton's Zineclub (IG: zineclubhamont) is a monthly meetup (second Tuesday of every month, fourth floor of the Central Library, 5-7 p.m.) where artists can work on their projects, meet other artists and find about all the latest events happening in and around the city.
Hamilton's Zineposium (IG: zineposium) is a yearly zine fair where people can sell and/or trade their zines, also offers free workshops, and is probably the best zine fair in Ontario.
Sow and Sew Cinema (IG: sowandsewcinema) is a new cinema collective that will be organizing screenings of cool movies, a different artist will get to draw the poster for each movie screened and be able to sell the poster at the screening event. For now, the collective will start reaching out to contributors of Bonk'd.
Hamilton Drawing Club (IG: hamiltondrawingclub) is a monthly drawing event at a local bar/pub for visual artists to gather and draw.
The Cartoonist Coop (IG: cartoonistcoop) is a cool initiative spanning North America but with a good number of Hamilton-based cartoonists being part of it. Members help each other by providing feedback to work, get comics promoted, etc.
Last but not least, Meredith Park's and Last Supper Book's Doodle Feast (IG: meredithplayground), another cool monthly drawing meetup hosted at Last Supper Books (IG: lastsupperbooks).
