Prairie Comics Festival creates opportunities for artists

Everyone attending this weekend’s Prairie Comics Festival — more than 90 artists and hundreds of comics enthusiasts — will be reminded where they stand courtesy of a land acknowledgment illustrated by Mike Zastre.

It wasn’t until Zastre was in his 40s that he began to meaningfully engage with his Métis heritage. At last year’s comics festival, he was encouraged by a fellow Indigenous artist to move past imposter syndrome and discover his roots.

“The older I get, the more I want to connect,” says the artist and journeyman iron worker, who’s currently working on his first graphic novella, Communion, about “love, loss and interdimensional horrors.”

Those anxious feelings returned when Zastre was approached by the local festival to develop its first illustrated land acknowledgment — a method of recognizing a territory’s original Indigenous inhabitants used by comics festivals in Vancouver and Toronto. But he was encouraged by the festival’s board, his partner and by productive conversations with the Manitoban Métis Federation to take on the project.

“I ended up really enjoying the process,” says Zastre, who worked closely with the festival on the final product, which showcases Manitoba landscapes, animals and a message about shared responsibility inside panels shaped like the letters of the phrase “Land Back.”

“The 2025 Prairie Comics Festival takes place on Treaty One Territory, the ancestral lands of the Anishinaabeg, Anisininew, Ininiwak/Nehethowuk and the Oceti Sakowin/Dakota Oyate peoples, and also the national homeland of the Red River Metis,” the text begins before thanking Shoal Lake 40 First Nation and Treaty Five nations for their respective gifts of water and hydroelectric power.

“All of these treaties were originally signed by Indigenous elders and First Nations people in the spirit of co-operation, not surrender,” the text continues. “For them, stewardship of the land and water was an intrinsic way of being — a responsibility meant to be shared by all people. It’s up to each of us to try and embody the lessons of stewardship in every action we take so we may impart that wisdom to future generations.”

Zastre says that in creating the piece, he reflected on the responsibilities of natural stewardship on treaty lands, his childhood camping trips throughout the Whiteshell and Rushing River, as well as his familial roots in the Dauphin-Ste. Rose du Lac region.

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Nine years ago, the first Prairie Comics Festival started small, with 20 vendors filling the Millennium Library’s Carol Shields Auditorium.

This year, the festival — featuring Canadian headliners Jeff Lemire (Sweet Tooth) and Jenn Woodall (Magical Beatdown, Marie and Worrywart) — is bigger than ever, shifting to the Manitoba Museum for the first time.

The festival has also become more than a one-weekend affair. A registered non-profit, the festival’s board runs skill-building workshops and programming year-round, including the weekly Comic Coven, held Wednesdays from 6 to 8 p.m. at the festival offices on Arthur Street.

“It’s an open studio to meet other creators, whatever their skill level,” says festival co-founder S.M. Beiko. “People typically use it as a body-doubling opportunity. We had one individual come and ink an entire comic page every week.”

For educators, the festival has developed a 50-page programming guide, along with several free modules on its website.

“There’s a huge demand for comics as a literacy tool,” Beiko says.

It’s not just at the elementary or high school level: the festival is partnering with Red River College Polytech to launch a micro-credential program in comic foundations taught by local artists Rhael McGregor and Natalie Mark.

Beiko says the festival does its best to keep costs low. While attendance for guests is free, the cost for presenting artists— $25 for half a table, $50 for a full table — is minuscule in comparison to corporate comic conventions. At those events, running a table typically costs $400 to $1,000, Beiko says.

“At every turn, we’re trying to make opportunities for artists to have thriving careers. Everyone at the festival who’s exhibiting owns all their own (intellectual property). You won’t see Spider-Man or Batman, what you’re going to see is all original creations.”

ben.waldman@freepress.mb.ca

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