Category: Comics

AGO Course - Intro to Comics

6/22/2019

Althea Balmes of Kwentong Bayan Collective will be teaching an Introduction to Comics course at the Art Gallery of Ontario this summer!

Have fun with comics and cartooning. Inspired by comic genres ranging from surreal psychedelic to autobiographic graphic medicine, you’ll enjoy a variety of exercises and create a mini-zine by the workshop's end.

Materials for the first class are provided.

You’ll receive a list of materials required for subsequent classes.

Register online

Komiks Zine Fair article

8/1/2018

Thanks to Ysh Cabana for writing about the Komiks Zine Fair in The Philippine Canadian News. Read article

"Toronto-based artists Jo SiMalaya Alcampo and Althea Balmes have been hosting pulp fiction weekly meet-ups since July 2017. Participants have been encouraged to network, to create and bring their comics/komiks to completion..Zines, tiny photocopied and stapled books that are often with political text and images, deck the Lillian H. Smith Library branch. Kwentong Bayan Collective believes that a new model for komiks and pop culture events will take shape over time."

Komiks Zine Fair

7/1/2018

We're celebrating the 1 year anniversary of our weekly Comics / Komiks Meet-Up at the library with a Kwentong Bayan - Komiks Zine Fair!!

All-ages activities include short films about comics, button-making station, merch tables, a Filipino Komiks reading corner, & raffle prizes.

Saturday July 21, 2018
1 PM - 4:30 PM
Lillian H. Smith Branch - Toronto Public Library
239 College St. (at Spadina), Meeting Room A, Lower Level
FREE EVENT

Thanks to our community partners, the Toronto Public Library -Lillian H. Smith Branch, The Beguiling Books & Art, and Comics/Komiks Meet-up artists. Please join us!

First Solo Exhibition

1/12/2018

BALIKBAYAN runs Jan 24 to Apr 21, 2018.

Kwentong Bayan Collective will launch our first solo exhibition at the Workers Arts & Heritage Centre. BALIKBAYAN features a visual timeline of 150+ year history of caregiving in Canada by radicalized women, and balikbayan box sculptures that share labour and migration stories.

In a series of gatherings, workers from Hamilton and Toronto will participate in a healing soup circle, create storytelling wearables, and plant native seeds. At each gathering, folks can create their own pasalubong (gifts) to take home and share with others.

Comics / Komiks Meet-Up

6/27/2017

Kwentong Bayan Collective is pleased to announce our new partnership with the Toronto Public Library! Please join us for Comics / Komiks Meet-Up - a regular workspace for those wishing to network, create and bring their comics/komiks to completion.

Filipino Komiks featured on CBC Arts

6/7/2017

"Filipino 'komiks' have always been a political act - a form of resistance against our colonizers." - Althea Balmes, Kwentong Bayan Collective

Thank you to Amanda Parris, the host of Exhibitionists on CBC Television and Marvin's Room on CBC Radio, for featuring our work in her weekly column for CBC Arts.

Read: The newest comic-book heroes are real-life Filipino caregivers

Conversation on art and social change

6/4/2017

Kwentong Bayan Collective will be in conversation about art and social change with Marisa Jahn (CareForce Project) and Christine Shaw (Blackwood Gallery). Moderated by Marissa Largo. Presented by A Space Gallery + Yyz Artists' Outlet.

Monday, June 12th @ 7 PM
401 Richmond St. W, Suite #140

Remember | Resist | Redraw - Poster #03

3/8/2017

Check out the full poster & essay online: https://goo.gl/Tre1jC

For International Womxn's Day, we are launching new work that examines the 150+ year history of care work performed by racialized women in Canada, including Live-in Caregivers

We created this artwork for Remember | Resist | Redraw - a radical history poster project produced by the Graphic History Collective (GHC) that aims to intervene in the Canada 150 conversation. Collectively, we hope to encourage people to critically examine history in ways that can fuel our radical imaginations and support struggles for radical change.

Thank you to Dr. Ethel Tungohan, GHC and all the caregivers, advocates and community allies whose support makes our work possible.

Comic-making Workshop + Residency

11/21/2016

Althea Balmes is facilitating a new comic-making program for Asian* youth, newcomer youth, new generation, 1.5, LGBTQI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, queer/questioning, intersexual) and/or with disability between 16-29 who:

Have interest in being part of an art community;
Have the desire to hone their comic-making skills;
Want a positive space to share their experience of being Asian in Canada;
and want to explore their visual storytelling style with other Asian storytellers and cartoonists!
The deadline for submission is December 7th

APPLY ONLINE

Noodles & Doodles - Comics 101

10/31/2016

Curious how to turn your doodles into a story? Wanna make comics with other Asian youth while sharing Asian noodle-inspired snacks?

Althea Balmes will be facilitating
Noodles & Doodles - Comics 101
Wednesday, November 9, 2016
from 5 PM - 7 PM
at SKETCH Working Arts

This workshop is for self-identified Asian youth who are mixed race, newcomer youth, new generation, 1.5, LGBTQI, folks with disabilities, between 16-29.

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