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Vol. 19 Iss. 8 July 25th, 2015

What is a Comic Jam? One person draws a begin-ning panel, then a different person continues with a following panel, and so on until you have a finished comic page. From comic book professionals to oc-casional scratch pad doodlers, everyone is welcome. It’s a time when you can let loose with your imagi-nation and not worry if it’s perfect or not.

The Toronto Comic Jam runs the last Tuesday of every month except December.

TorComJam.comTheTorontoComicJam@gmail.com

Founder: Dave HowardHockey Player: Dalton SharpJr. Vice President: Zann PreneyUltra-Editor/Wordsmith: David BConsultant: Leanne REditor: Shane SteponasWebmaster: Tom King

Logo Design: Robb Mirsky

ISSN: 1705-303X , Vol. 19, No. 7, July 28, 2015. All contents © the authors and artist who participated at the Comic Jam. The TCJ re-serves the right to print or reprint all sub-missions in any future publication. No un-authorized reproduction except for brief excerpts for text or review purposes only.

Artists.Favourite Thing.

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Few people have been coming to the Toronto Comic Jam for as long

or as consistently as Thomas King. As the “Ty Cobb” of the Comic Jam, who else would be better able to describe the Jam’s history as succinctly as Tom; “It’s always stayed in the Cameron and it’s pretty well always been the same. That’s not a very exciting story.”

Tom might not be selling it that well but there’s some-thing about the Comic Jam that’s kept him coming back since 1999. When pressed he explained, “it’s just been a bunch of people with their noses into the boards. I guess that’s why it’s likeable; it hasn’t changed much.”

Well, the same can be said of Tom King; he’s reli-able, consistent has always been there. But that’s not to say he’s lived an unevent-ful life. Like a Toronto Forest Gump but with drawings,

Tom has quietly been in-volved with the some of the works of art that make up our collective nostalgia. This month, the Toronto Comic Jam provides a spotlight on Tom King looking at his life and his hopes for the future.

Tom was introduced to the Comic Jam back when he was working in the animation industry. He has fond memo-ries about working on the classic Canadian cartoon the Raccoons. “I was in the paint department, so we used to have to mix paints and match these pigments. It was actu-ally painted with household paint! It was about a quarter the price of typical cell paint that you would use that came from California.”

Maybe stories like that are why Tom doesn’t talk about his work in anima-tion that often. But people tend to overlook those who labour behind the scenes to get the cartoons we watch

out. Tom King was one of those humble cogs at Atkin-son Film-Arts, the animation studio behind not just the Rraccoons but also a couple of scenes from 1981’s cult classic Heavy Metal.

People forget that Heavy Metal was a Canada film thanks to co-producer Ivan Reitman getting Canadian filmmaking finances to com-plete the film. Not only did 75% of the film’s production have to be Canadian but it had to be completed in a year or else each animation studio would have to pay a $20 000 a day penalty. Tom was do-ing cell painting and camera work at Atkinson while he was still practically a kid. “I worked a 106 hour week once and if you do the math

on that, it’s crazy!”

He later parlayed that hard work and reli-ability into his work at Nelvana. He was always

there to help out, especially when they needed a writer on The Care Bears. “The only reason I got into the (story) department was that back then a computer was expen-

Spotlight on Thomas King by David B

“I often tell people I ended up writing six episodes of Care Bears.”

sive and they basically found out that I had a computer so I could do word processing. So I brought it in. It was a com-modore 64. That was enough to get me a job back then!”

Yes, Tom King has always been a reliable guy, not just in the animation industry, but to his friends as well. Back when he was at York Univer-sity he was also a good friend to the likes of Paul Bellini and Scott Thompson. Tom and Scott even shared an apart-ment together before

the Kids in the Hall took off. Tom recounted how Scott has “always been funny, always a

great performer,” and how even then Scott Thompson had to put up with fans. “There were these two girls, and they were enthralled by him. They would arrive (at the apartment) and they would say ‘Is Scott here?’ And I (said) ‘yeah but he’s asleep right now.’”

The fans were not deterred but good ‘ol Tom King was a steadfast and reliable roommate. “‘Oh, do you think we can just go in and watch him sleep?’ And I said ‘I guess so.’” That’s just the type of good friend Tom King is. “So these two young girls (were) sitting cross-legged watching him sleep!”

He didn’t limit his kind-ness to Scott Thomp-son and was kind enough to draw some early posters for the

Kids in the Hall back when they were performing at

the Rivoli. But Tom King isn’t one to constantly dwell on the past. Now-a-days he tries to share his reliability and

kind-ness with his fellow Comic Jammers.

Even though Tom is currently doing programing work and website design that he says is “slowly trying to kill” him, he’s taken the time out to build websites for fellow Comic Jammers Saraƒin and Frank Bedek. He’s also the web-master for TorComJam.com. And because he doesn’t get to draw much in his life, Tom gladly volunteered to help a friend make drawings for a class assignment about help-ing children process grief. The following pages are the culmination of that project; a grief colouring book.

Now’s your chance fellow Comic Jammers! Take the following pages and colour them to your heart’s content and share the results with us next month! We’ll select the best one and give the win-ner a prize! Until then, enjoy Tom’s drawings.

tjk@thomasjohnking.cawww.thomasjohnking.casuper8king.deviantart.com

“I used to watch Scott Thompson sleep.”**Never once uttered during the interview

Poster for a Kids in the

Hall show from 1987.

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Label your Comic Jam drawings at

TorComJam.com

Copies of the Toronto Comic Jam books are currently available at:

Dr. Comics44 Kensington Avenue,Toronto, ON M5T(416) 479-0920

The Beguiling601 Markham St,Toronto, ON M6G 2L7(416) 533-9168

The Hairy Tarantula354 Yonge StToronto, ON M5B 1S5(416) 596-8002

The Silver Snail329 Yonge St,Toronto, ON M5B 1R7(416) 593-0889

And now... the Artists’ NewstandChester Subway Station (1pm-7pm)

22 Chester Avenue, Toronto, ONartists.newsstand@gmail.com @ChesterNewsies

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