Dave Howard has been a long time supporter of comics and independent artists in Toronto, mostly through his published book reviews, extended interviews with cartoonists and comics industry professionals, but also through small press publishing and community organizing. He studied Creative Writing and Literary Criticism at York University in the early 90’s, and it was here he first began his love of comics as a literary medium.
To help artists get a foothold, from 1994 to 2008, Dave published 18 issues of Don’t Touch Me Comics (the last six with Dave Lapp), a small press anthology of comics from independent comics artists along with a long interview with a professional. The purpose was to give artists a space to share their work with each other and gather some advice on the art, business and craft from established artists. Some past contributors include Joe Ollmann, Marc Bell and now New York Times bestselling creator Nina Bunjevac. His interview with Dan Clowes was included in University Press of Michigan’s book Conversations: Dan Clowes in 2010.
November 1996 to 2004 he founded and ran the Toronto Comic Jam, a monthly meet-up for cartoonists to connect and share ideas while drawing comics together in a safe and creative environment. It was featured on the cover of the once-popular but now-defunct eye magazine, and is still running today both as a monthly physical meet up and a weekly gathering online.
Dave wrote a column reviewing comics and comics zines for Exclaim in the mid 90’s called The Comics Shelf and in the mid 2000’s wrote graphic novel reviews and the occasional article for Quill and Quire. In the early 2010’s he wrote reviews, interviews and comics industry news for the torontoist, a Toronto based blog with a reach comparable to blogto today.
Dave has worked happily as a reporting and business systems analyst in the telecom industry for over 20 years. For Dave’s professional profile, please see Linked In
He lives in downtown Toronto with his partner Theresa.
Dave Howard 