Von Allan at the Vanier Artisans Christmas Market

Vanier Artisans 2025 Christmas Market poster in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada on November 29 2025 that Von Allan will be exhibiting at

In what has become a Christmas tradition, I’ll be one of the artists at the Vanier Artisans 2025 Christmas Market! For those in the know, I’ve been doing these for the past number of years and they are always a tremendous experience with a diverse group of artists and craftspeople. And since I live in the community (Vanier Strong!) and I also did the art for the poster, I can honestly say it’s my favourite market of the year.

This is the first time that we’re doing the event at a new venue! St. Margaret’s Anglican Church was kind enough to collaborate with the Vanier Artisans and host the event this year. It’s a truly lovely venue, in the heart of Vanier, and will have a nice Christmas vibe to it. It was actually built way back in 1887, so it’s architectural design is pretty unique. And it’s in a great location, at the corner of Montreal Road and Cody Avenue on a major bus route and with easy access to parking in the back.

As the City of Ottawa notes on it’s website, “The cornerstone of this solid limestone heritage building lined with brick, often described as Vanier’s oldest building, was laid by Lady Agnes Macdonald, wife of Sir John A., in 1887. Its belltower is in the old English style. Initially a mission of St. Bartholomew’s Church in New Edinburgh, it functioned as a “chapel-of-ease” on the main dirt road from Ottawa to Montreal, in an area that became the community of Janeville. By 1915, it began providing regular services in English to its membership of mostly poor immigrant families.”

As always, I’ll have everything on my “shop” page, so that includes a full compliment of WOLF’S HEAD graphic novels, plus other comics and graphic novels (including SHEBA THE GREAT!, LOVE, LAUGHTER, AND LOSS: A COMICS COLLECTION, and STARGAZER), as well as Christmas cards, art prints, and so on! Some photos are at the end of this post!

Here are the details! A formal press release is at the end of this post, too!

Date: November 29, 2025

Time: 3:00 PM to 8:00 PM

Location: St. Margaret’s Church, 206 Montréal Rd, Ottawa, ON K1L 6C9

Cost: Free admission!

Facebook Event Page: Vanier Artisans 2025 Christmas Market Facebook Page

Amenities and Features of St. Margaret’s Church:

Public washrooms
Accessible access
Free parking
Metered/paid parking
Family friendly
OC Transpo nearby

Here are some Photos of What I’ll Have Available!

And there will be a few surprises, too!

Various art prints, comics, and graphic novels by Von Allan

Wolf's Head trade paperback graphic novels (Volumes 1, 2, and 3) by Von Allan

Wolf's Head Book 1 Hardcover by Von Allan

Love, Laughter, and Loss Hardcover by Von Allan

Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Shop Local, Give Handmade: The Vanier Artisans Christmas Market Returns in a New Festive Space!

Ottawa, Ontario – November 25, 2025 — The holiday spirit is shining brighter than ever in Vanier. This year’s Vanier Artisans Christmas Market returns with fresh energy, a stunning new venue, and a warm invitation to shop local and bring home something truly special.

Now hosted at St. Margaret’s Anglican Church (206 Montreal Road), this community favorite Christmas Market celebrates local talent and craftsmanship. Each purchase directly supports Ottawa’s makers and helps keep Vanier’s creative traditions thriving.

Organized by Charlotte Taylor and a passionate team of volunteers, the market features an exciting range of handcrafted goods, from preserves, candles, soap, and baked treats to art and photography prints, knitted and crocheted items, jewelry, and comics and graphic novels. Many items are made in small batches, so visitors are encouraged to shop early and secure their favorites before they’re gone.

“We’re so excited about our new home at St. Margaret’s,” shared organizer Charlotte Taylor. “It’s the perfect place to bring people together to celebrate the season and support our local artists. Every purchase makes a difference and keeps creativity alive in our community.”

Event Details

Date: Saturday, November 29, 2025
Time: 3:00- 8:00pm
Location: St. Margaret’s Anglican Church, 206 Montreal Road, Vanier, ON K1L 6C9
Admission: Free
Questions: VanierArtisans@gmail.com or https://www.facebook.com/share/1D4EKgjH6d/

About the Vanier Artisans Christmas Market

The Vanier Artisans Christmas Market is a cherished, community led event that showcases the heart and talent of Ottawa’s local makers. It’s a celebration of community, creativity, and the joy of giving handmade, one meaningful gift at a time.

Ottawa’s Digital Arts Resource Centre and Comics Creator Von Allan team up for an Exhibition

Von Allan, an Ottawa-based cartoonist and comics creator, will be exhibiting artwork from his ongoing comic book and graphic novel series ‘Wolf’s Head’ at the Digital Arts Resource Centre (DARC) in Ottawa’s historic Arts Court building. The exhibit will run from September 22nd through to October 20th and will take advantage of DARC’s 2.13m (7ft) LED display. Rather than being a static display of artwork from ‘Wolf’s Head’, the artwork presented at the exhibition will be animated, transforming ‘Wolf’s Head’ into a unique and altogether different format that readers of the series have never experienced before.

“Presenting artwork from the ‘Wolf’s Head’ for the LED exhibit was a wonderful opportunity to experiment and play with artwork from the series,” said Allan. “It gave me a chance to not only animate some of the characters and sequences from the story, but also to recombine my art in a way that is very different than its original presentation in graphic novel form. That part was exciting, but also a challenge: could I reconstruct disparate elements from the story, present it to viewers of the LED display, and still create a narrative flow? That took some thinking and experimenting, but I’m really pleased with the result. I think it will give viewers a chance to see my comics in a unique way. The LED display is different than the ‘normal’ experience of reading comics and I think the reaction of passersby will be fascinating to see. And, of course, the sheer size of the LED display is a big part of the whole experience; no one, including me, has ever seen my art presented that big.”

Wolf’s Head’ features Lauren Greene, a young woman who quits her job as a police officer in Metro Detroit after becoming frustrated with growing police violence. At the same time as Lauren is quitting, a secretive corporation across town has managed to create a seemingly perfect AI for war and profit; however, before the corporation can use the AI, Lauren’s mother, Patty, a janitor at the corporation accidentally finds it. Patty is literally the kindest person the new lifeform has ever met and, as a result, it bonds to her, rejects its purpose and creators, and orchestrates a huge accident to cover an escape. Patty, overwhelmed, asks her daughter Lauren for help. Despite being broke and a bit lost herself, Lauren agrees to help; two humans, an AI, and a dog versus a warmongering corporation.

“One truly unique aspect of the exhibit is that it’s presented without sound,” added Allan. “And so I had to be sure that all of my artwork and storytelling could be followed without sound. In a way, adapting my art to the digital format felt like a bit like it must’ve felt for artists adapting work for the old Silent Film Era. As part of that adaptation, I also got to experiment with the use of intertitles to help connect various aspects of the narrative. In a way, I’m familiar with the idea of intertitles; comics and graphic novels often use words to do exactly this when it comes to panel and scene transitions. But, doing it for the LED exhibit meant that I had to be careful about the number of words used and the amount of time each sentence would show on the screen. The project was a really fun challenge and I’m thrilled to be able to see it on display.”

About Von Allan: Von Allan was born red-headed and freckled in Arnprior, Ontario, just in time for “Star Wars: A New Hope.” The single child of two loving but troubled parents, Von split his childhood between their two homes. Additional information about Von Allan can be found at https://www.vonallan.com/.

Von was featured in “I Am Still Your Child,” a documentary film (http://iamstillyourchild.com/); was the recipient of the Corel Endowment Fund for the Arts Award in 2014 and the CBC Trailblazer Award in 2019; and was a finalist for the 2020 Peter Honeywell Mid-Career Artist Award. Von also received two separate rounds of grant funding for ‘Wolf’s Head’ from the City of Ottawa (a $4,000.00 grant in 2020 along with an additional $4,000.00 grant in 2022, both in the Literary Arts — English category).

Digital Arts Resource Centre (DARC) logomark

About Digital Arts Resource Centre (DARC): Digital Arts Resource Centre (formerly SAW Video) is a not-for-profit, artist-run media art centre that fosters the growth and development of artists through access to equipment, training, mentorship, and programming. Our mission is to support a diverse community of media artists empowered by technology, programming, and the exchange of ideas.

Our core principles are independence of expression, affordable access to all, and paying artists for their work. Digital Arts Resource Centre values diversity and actively promotes equity for all artists regardless of race, age, class, gender, sexual orientation, language, or ability.

The Digital Arts Resource Centre is located at 67 Nicholas Street. Additional information about DARC can be found at https://digitalartsresourcecentre.ca/.

Cover of ‘Wolf’s Head’ Book 1 in hardcover:

Cover of the hardcover of Wolf's Head Book One graphic novel by Von Allan

Love, Laughter, and Loss—A Comics Collection now available in Hardcover

This has been a long-time coming, but I’m very pleased to announce the publication of my latest comics collection! And, for the first time, this is a premium hardcover! Titled LOVE, LAUGHTER, AND LOSS: A COMICS COLLECTION, this edition features nine short stories in full colour. The printing and colour fidelity are top-notch; in fact, I don’t think my work has ever looked this beautiful.

Cover of Love, Laughter, and Loss: A Comics Collection by Canadian comics writer and artist Von Allan

These stories have appeared in print before, mainly in two separate periodical collections that are now out of print. The first periodical was titled WIZARDS FOR HIRE — CHEAP! while the second periodical was titled STORIES! 2015 TO 2019. While I was very happy to see these two editions published, keeping saddle-stitched editions in print was, frankly, a pain. Publishing LOVE, LAUGHTER, AND LOSS is a much better way of keeping them in print. On top of it, many of these stories were recoloured for this new hardcover. And that means a number of these stories have never looked this good before. Am I happy with it? Oh yes!

All of these stories have also been released on this very website in webcomic form. In other words, there’s no need at all to guess on what’s included in the collection. All of these stories can be found at https://www.vonallan.com/p/comics.html — and you can navigate from there to find each individual story. The stories included in this hardcover collection are as follows (with links to make direct navigation even easier):

I just want to reiterate how pleased I am with this edition. I was actually pretty nervous about it; I’ve never printed a hardcover before and there were a few logistical issues that I ran into that slowed production as I took my time ensuring the best quality control possible. I was holding my breath when the physical proof copy arrived and I was pretty nervous when I “unboxed” it. My fears were misplaced; everything turned out beautifully.

If you love comics, especially independent/small press comics, I think you’ll fall in love with this edition. I know I have — and that’s saying something!

Links to Purchase

LOVE, LAUGHTER, AND LOSS: A COMICS COLLECTION is still “propagating” out there, but here are some initial purchasing links that I know of for sure. More will be added as they appear.