They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?

EVERYTHING happens for a reason, they say. This Scuttlebutt comes to you from Germany because of a catastrophic car accident. Your pal here packed up and split back to the fatherland to care for his still-woozy-and-in-stitches better half, who somehow escaped a total wreck without any permanent damage. That guy ain’t going anywhere for a bit, and neither is yours truly. On the heels of a record no-showing at MoCCA, guess who’s the only no-show for this year’s Toronto Comic Arts Festival? Good guess! Good thing we have an all-star gang of four to hold down the proverbial Secret Acres fort.

 

 

First, foremost and forever, Eric Kostiuk Williams, hometown hero of Toronto, sets the alarm for 2AM Eternal. We really do owe Eric our big, gay gratitude for this book. It hits us hard, in so many ways. As city-dwellers, we watched entire neighborhoods, our friends and families, chosen and otherwise, get priced out of town. Queers and artists serve as the avantgarde of gentrification, harbingers of our own displacement. Of course, the broke, the queer and the artsy must be homesteaders; when nobody wants you around, you go where nobody wants to go – and then you make a scene. Lest you think we get too hyperbolic to take our word for it, here’s Jillian Tamaki on 2AM Eternal: “I’m so happy this book exists. Toronto is a city that seems hellbent on scrubbing itself of everything interesting about itself, I don’t think it’s hyperbolic to say that this is an incredibly important document and will probably change a few lives too.” See.

 

 

We present yet another queer comics compadre, the one and only L. Nichols, filling in as captain of the good ship Secret Acres ahead of their big fall debut, I Am Only Foreign Because You Do Not Understand, or IAOFBYDNU if you prefer a catchy acronym. We guarantee IAOFBYDNU reduces everyone to tears, but more on that later. Please land some birthday punches on L. in our absence. To keep the queer coming, you get Adam Griffiths, returning to the scene of the crime of last year’s TCAF where we managed to sneak a couple advance copies of his Washington White over the border. 2AM Eternal and Washington White function as fabulous bookends on all things queer gentrification. Those guys ought to take it on tour (and they will, come CAKE). Finally, Zak Sally, believe it or not, hits TCAF with Recidivist IV for the first time ever, considering COVID cancelled TCAF in 2020, and again in 2021, and then cancelled Zak in 2022. Hell, for all we know, Zak could be queer, too. A little wishful thinking never hurts. And, if you are the lucky person who keeps hounding us about Shadow Hills, there’s a little something waiting for you at the Secret Acres table.

 

 

We will miss TCAF more than you, whoever you are, reading this. We swear by all that is holy, if there were a way to go with the will, we’d have found it by now. Unless you are saddled with a hobbled spouse and a jetlagged toddler on a different continent or worse, quit making excuses and get yourself up north. You can skip worrying about the TCAF Scuttlebutt rundown because L.’s got that covered. L. returns a week from today with all things TCAF. We swear. We promise even a look ahead to the aforementioned Chicago Alternative (K)omics Expo, because, goddammit, we want to do a show with Eric behind the table. Oh, the injustice.

Your Pal,

Leon

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