Panel One Comic Creator Festival 2025

And TCAF Info!

This past Saturday I was at the Panel One Comic Creator Festival, a yearly event put on by our local indie comic society Panel One. I didn’t get to go last year due to a bad cold, so I was super excited to go this year and get back in touch with everyone.

My outfit for the show was lauded as the robes of “the Queer Comics Wizard” which was the most euphoria I’ve felt in a while.

Turns out this year was the ninth year of Panel One festivals, which surprised me. I don’t know man, nine years doesn’t feel like the same amount of time in 2025 as it did in 2005. That means next year is going to be TEN years of indie comic festivals in Calgary. You might not know this but Calgary has a small but mighty comics community of mega talented weirdos who frequently look down the barrel of artistic insignificance and reader apathy and whisper “fuck you, I’m doing this anyway”. I respect the heck out of everybody in that room because they’re doing what they love.

I got to meet Noah Spencer through Courtney this year, their comic “Dead End Job” is very cool.

This year Courtney Loberg, one of my favourite Albertan comic creators came down from Edmonton to join us. I was very excited to get a chance to support their work in person and hang out. I picked up their book The Rangeroads, which has an eerie and mysterious atmosphere. I haven’t read it the whole way through yet, but based off of their past work I am excited.

Documentation of Ryan Danny Owen’s outfit for archival purposes.

Kat Simmers and Ryan Danny Owen were there promoting Lily, the newest chapter in their Pass Me By series. Ryan was wearing the most amazing outfit anyone had ever seen. I love these two, I feel like having them on the scene opened some unspoken floodgates for many creators, and we have a lot more queer content than we did before. I know I’ve felt a lot more comfortable being out about my identity having them around. There was definitely a very queer vibe at the festival this year which (while always accepting and protecting of our folks) didn’t feel as visible before.

At the show I had two new zines Say Goodbye to the Sun and the Flowers, and Sketchbook Sketchbook. Both were experimental stabs to get back into zine making. For Sketchbook Sketchbook I borrowed Ryan’s printer and made them at home. I felt really reconnected to zine making for the first time in a while. Listen, it’s hard to release an entire graphic novel and SIMULTANEOUSLY be making ink AND zines. Something fell along the wayside. For Say Goodbye I sent them out to get printed which was a big relief but also looked amazing. Like, LOOK at this!

Very professional product shot taken on my bed.

Say Goodbye to the Sun and the Flowers is an experimental collage comic, using painted collage and drawing elements with cut-up style word balloons from a variety of sources (which I cited on the back of the zine because in this age of ai bullshit I felt like a jerk not doing so). I sprinkled the word balloons over my collage pages like confetti and rearranged until a narrative emerged. It was totally wild and weird.

Festivals are hard for me

I feel like I suck at these kinds of events. I’m mega hard on myself for not always coming off as the most charming and cool person. I hope my work speaks for itself on some level, because I am such a bad spokesperson. What’s helped for me is to instead focus on other people instead of myself. If I focus on connecting with others (especially other comic artists) I feel way more cool and calm.

Specifically regarding M. U. Smith’s zines

There are so many people making comics in Calgary now that feel “young” to me. When I started making comics here it felt like there were four other people making indie comics, and while most of them were nice they weren’t anyone I related to. Oh man, one of my first anthology publications I did with a few other AFAB creators, we got some guy to write an intro for it. All I remember is “gee wiz, these chicks sure can make some comics, heh!” I felt more like a sideshow than anyone who belonged. That’s definitely changed.

Some parting words of wisdom

Thanks Panel One for a great festival, I had an amazing time. This upcoming weekend I am going to be at TCAF!! That’s right! They could not deny me!! MWHAHA! I will be with Kat Simmers and Ryan Danny Owen, booths 150/151 in the HOCKEY ARENA! I will have copies of Cheryl, Lake Jehovah, my new zines, stickers, and prints! If you’re coming definitely say hi (I’m looking at YOU dear reader), also say hi to Gytha Cooperative and Dirty Water Comics who will also be there. There’s going to be a good amount of Albertan weirdos this year (probably because no one from the states wants to come for obvious reasons).

Thanks for reading, and if you want more rambling, deeply biased, two glasses of wine deep scene reports, let me know!