Crash Course in Cartooning
with Jay Stephens
4 WEEKS, FRIDAYS, JUNE 1-JUNE 29
7PM-10PM
Emmy-award winning cartoonist and animation producer Jay Stephens is teaching a cartooning course! Experienced in all aspects of comics (syndicated comic strips, superhero comic books, humour comics, and Saturday morning cartoons –he created Tutenstein and The Secret Saturdays!), and extremely well-versed in the history of comics, Jay has the power of serious knowledge, and he’s funny as well!
Details:
Professional cartoonist Jay Stephens presents this introductory-level class on the art of cartooning in all it’s forms, touching upon commercial illustration, comic strips, animation, comics history, and graphic novels, with a focus on basic skills and knowledge. No prior experience necessary.
MATERIALS: sketchbook (8×10″ or larger), pencil, eraser, black fine tip inking pens and/or brush pens, ruler
Marc Bell shows off the Cornelius edition of his Shrimpy and Paul, while the book's translator Emilie Le Hin looks on approvingly.
TCAF 2012
by BK Munn
So. Here I am. I ventured into the belly of beastly Rob Ford’s Toronto, fought valiantly, was dragged from the battlefield by Valkyries, drank mead with fellow fallen heroes in Valhalla, and have returned to Midgard clad in a new form.
I was feeling a little old and jaded after this year’s Toronto Comic Arts Festival. Don’t get me wrong, the event still overwhelmed me with its all-fronts comic book attack; a double-barrel blast of events, artists, music, and hordes of comix fans that still left room for surprises and new discoveries. It’s just that I’ve been to a few of these events now and feel a little burned out, mostly because I have a hard time balancing the time I spend at the actual festival with the social aspect of spending time with Toronto friends, shopping and dining, and often end up frantically running around on the Sunday afternoon of the show, desperately trying to make sure I’ve seen all the “buzz” books and met all the international guests. It never works and I’m inevitably left feeling equally bummed and elated, wishing I had experienced more but grateful for what I was able to see, hear, and buy.
Still, like a young Peggy Lee standing on the sidewalk in her pajamas after the whole world has gone up in flames, I often find myself back home after the inferno of TCAF’s 300-plus guests, parties, and ton after ton of beautiful comics, wondering, is that all there is?
I met fellow blogger (Comics Syrup) and comics historian Rachel Richey at the informal dinner that followed the Doug Wright Awards on Saturday night. Since Rachel is younger than me and is from Ottawa, and therefore perhaps less likely to be a cynical burnout, I was curious if her experience of TCAF was substantially different from my own spoiled, Toronto-centric view of things. I asked her for her thoughts about the show, images and highlights. Here’s what she wrote:
Rachel Richey
“Having spoken with Peter Dako and James Waley and others from Toronto who produced comics in the last few decades, my impression of TCAF is that we are very privileged to have an event where broad ranges of like minded people can gather and network to promote not only themselves but also the industry.
Having small press, avant garde and alt comics, with generally similar intentions with their work but stylistically different, allows exploration into different areas of art and comics styles. While more cynical voices might say the festival was commercialized, I would say it’s definitely the promotion of arts culture. I even saw the age old tradition of exchanging comics. So, in answer, a powerful image from TCAF, I think, was the variety, be it international guests or stylistic approaches.
More broadly, as I mentioned before, networking was key, whether it was at an after party or the awards, or whatever. Promoting this kind of community, again, will really only serve to develop the field itself. This was very apparent by the mass of tweets about TCAF and it’s success in developing friendships, etc. days after the event.
I also feel like Dustin Harbin was a pretty big presence at TCAF this year, all around. His presence at Koyama, his comic, after parties and being at the Doug Wrights as well signified an almost international value and appreciation for what we were doing.”
So, maybe the community thing, talking to people, partying, sharing ideas and art, is the best thing about TCAF? Maybe I shouldn’t feel bad about being mostly (though selectively) social? Maybe next year I should spend the whole weekend in bars and restaurants and forget about buying comics and fruitlessly trying to see “everything” on the floor of the show?
Come to think of it, my favourite and most enduring memories from TCAF are those moments when I was actually standing (or even sitting) still for more than 5 minutes, longer than it took to say “Hi, I like your art, can I buy your book?” These were the times when I actually made a (admittedly, sometimes fleeting or confusing) connection with people, enjoyed an epiphany, or bonded over mutual passions. With this in mind, a few regrets, raves, and rants about TCAF 2012:
Rave: One of the chief pleasures of TCAF every year is that moment when I return home and get to use my own toilet for the the first time in days. The comic book I chose to accompany me in this task was Agent of the Counter-Revolution by Max Mose (Secret Acres). I couldn’t have dreamed up a better choice. A beautiful comic book, sort of a psychedelic sci-fi Island of Dr. Moreau for the post-Forming set, this work of art receives my highest praise: it moved my bowels!
Regret: Chided by Jeet Heer on Saturday night for missing his new daughter at The Wright Awards, I resolved to do better the next day. Alas, while I think I saw father and daughter and mother Robin across the floor on Sunday, I became distracted by some shiny object before I could make my way over to the D&Q table.
Micol
Rave: I checked out the set-up of visiting French publisher Cornelius. They are sort of like D&Q, publishing about 20 books per year with a list made up of some arty French graphic novels mixed with translations of North American comics heavyweights (Crumb, Clowes, Chester Brown). I spent way too much money on comics I can barely read but then was lucky enough to meet TCAF Featured Guest Hugues Micol who spent about twenty minutes (!) sketching in my copy of his graphic novel “3″. Apparently French cartoonists are notorious for trying to outdo each other with elaborate free drawings during personal appearances, but I was really quite impressed with the time and effort the artist took to render such a beautiful image which has become one of my fetish treasures from TCAF.
Rant: I wish that TCAF’s venue the Toronto Reference Library was a bit less like a giant open-spaced library and more like a machine for exhibiting comics and their creators. Minor quibble maybe. I’ve marveled at how the space functions as a library all weekend, with people using the public computers and, I presume, researching stuff. I like this about the current incarnation of TCAF. But there are parts of the library space that are not super well-suited to TCAF’s set-up and the transition between the various areas isn’t always clear and clearly marked. Some of the people in the Wowee Zonk/small press area (in something called “The Browsery”?) of the show reported very light traffic through their tucked away to the side through a passageway that can look like the entrance to private offices (and I have to wonder about how publisher Secret Acres did with their table in the same passageway.) Also, the entrance to the library is not always the best covered in terms of volunteers, meaning that many people are sort of left to their own devices and just kind of wander in without being given a map or any other guidance. The show is free, so there are no official gatekeepers, but a bit more of an official presence/greeters at the gate wouldn’t hurt.
Rave: The gang from Montreal publisher Colosse, including cartoonist Jimmy Beaulieu, were all sporting the little red ribbon swatches in solidarity with the student protesters in Quebec. Doing their part to export the revolt while adding a stylish flare to their wardrobes.
Les Editions Colosse
Regret: Tons of sold-out books that unfortunately sold-out before I could get my hands on them. These include Benjamin Marra’s gorgeous tabloid size collection of drawings based on American Psycho. Sean Rogers showed this to me at The Wright Awards and now I have to order one online, I guess. Would have rather got a signed version! Other sell-outs include many of the new Conundrum releases like Nina Bunjevac’s Heartless, which she blogged about here. I also missed the Britt Wilson book and who knows what else at the Koyama Press table (again, I think I was distracted before I made it all the way down the line, and missed out on Dharbin’s Diary Comics and the latest from Tin Can Forest, Wax Cross).
Rave: Briefly met Fiona Smyth, whose graphic novel for kids, The Never Weres, was published last year by Annick Press. Smyth teaches comic art at OCAD and was actually selling her students’ comics!
Regret: Probably didn’t talk to, let alone see, at least half of the Featured Guests from the show. It really is that big and distracting. I didn’t even get Aislin to sign my copy of The Hecklers, the history of Canadian cartooning he co-wrote with Peter Desbarrats and one of my favourite books.
the Guelph gang
Rave: If you stand in one place at TCAF, you will be surprised who will walk by. Ran into some folks I know from Guelph who had an entirely different experience of the show than I did, and I was totally cool with that. People come to TCAF through different portals and viewpoints. Some through webcomics. Some through Scott Pilgrim. Some through manga. Many, judging from the continued huge line-ups for her signature, come to see Kate Beaton.
Rave: Talked to solicitous tablemates John Martz and his new wife Lindsay on Saturday night after the Wrights. The best part of that was getting Martz’s perspective on his experience as a Wrights juror and how that related to the process of selecting nominees for the Ruben Awards. You know, all that Dustin Harbin comics awards stuff. (Harbin was at the same table but he was involved in deep discussion of Jack Kirby with Seth, Chester Brown and Jeet Heer.) Interesting fact: Martz related how joining the NCS at the beginning of his illustration career made him feel like he was a professional for the first time.
Rave: Also had a beer with Sequential publisher and graphic novelist Salgood Sam after the end of the show on Sunday. Caught up on a lot of recent personal news and talked about, you know, comics and stuff. (What the fuck else would we talk about, our prostates?)
Rant: Not alot of artists sell original art at TCAF. I love original art and have a small collection because it’s fascinating to see an artist’s process and to own an intimate piece of a comic I enjoy. There were quite a few prints on offer but not much else. Once again, I bought a page from Keith Jones (from his latest self-published opus, Morons) for a criminally, dare I say, moronically, low price. And it was a giant splash page! That’s it on the table there!
Derek M Ballard, Keith Jones, and Peter Thompson
Rave: Some are born with comics. Some buy comics. Some have comics thrust upon them. Somehow I ended up with, bought, or was given over 60 comics and related ephemera. Could that be right? I did a rough count later but have forgotten exactly. I looked the proper bag lady lugging them down Yonge Street but once I got back to the place I was staying I found almost all of them fit into one of those METRO recycled plastic shopping bags! Hopefully this way I won’t misplace any like I did last year, discovering a small trove of unread TCAF comics in a paper bag in my closet 6 months later.
And that’s all I’ve got.
So, it looks like maybe the raves outnumber the rants and regrets? Good stuff! I feel better. Now, more blurry photos:
Doug Wright Awards crew: Brad Mackay, Jerry Ciccoritti, and host Geoff Pevere
Erstwhile Montreal buds Billy Mavreas and Pigskin Peters nominee Marc Bell
Doug Wright Spotlight Award nominee Betty Liang
Box Brown and Josh Bayer
Pat Aulisio (Bowman 2016) and his new publisher, Hic and Hoc's Matt Moses
Michael Comeau shows off the sequel to his Pigskin Peters Award-winning Hellberta, Hellberta II
Both were 'Losers' at the Wright Awards: Seth and Michael Deforge
I think that's Ines Estrada and Lala Albert, cartoonists and publishers of the boner-inducing Mexican porn comic Gang Bang Bong
If you squint you can make out Patrick Kyle (Wowee Zonk, Black Mass)
Sequential's Salgood Sam and cartoonist Dalton Sharp (Toronto Comic Jam, Grawlix anthology) at the end of TCAF on Sunday
There are probably 300 reports from TCAF 2012 on the internet, but here are a few I had bookmarked:
Francis Manapul's cover for Flashpoint: Grodd of War, published by DC, one of the nominees for Best Cover Artist
by BK Munn
The nominees for the 8th Annual Shuster Awards for Canadian comic book creators have been announced. The awards will be presented at a ceremony on September 15, 2012 at the Montreal Comic Con.
The categories and nominees are:
Artist / Artist Team:
Chris Bachalo Age of X: Alpha 1, Avengers 13, 15, Wolverine and the X-Men 1-3, X-Men 7-10 (Marvel Comics) Marc Delafontaine Les Nombrils T.5: Un Couple D’enfer (Delcourt) Stuart Immonen Fear Itself 1-7, “Queen, King, Off-Suit”/X-Men: To Serve and Protect 4 (Marvel Comics), “Say You’re Dead”/Outlaw Territory Vol.2 (Image) Fred Jourdain Le Dragon Bleu / The Blue Dragon (Éditions Alto/Ex Machina/House of Anansi Press) Jeff Lemire Jonah Hex 69 (DC Comics), “A Coffin for Mrs. Bishell”/ Outlaw Territory Vol. 2 (Image) Yanick Paquette and Nathan Fairbairn (with Michel Lacombe) Swamp Thing 1-3, Batman Incorporated 3, 5 (DC Comics) Cameron Stewart “Chapter 1: The School of Night”/Batman Incorporated: Leviathan Strikes! 1 (DC Comics), Suicide Girls 1-4 (IDW)
Cartoonist:
Chester Brown Paying For It: A Comic Strip Memoir About Being A John (D+Q) Darwyn Cooke “The Seventh”/Parker: The Martini Edition, “Betty Saves the Day”/Rocketeer Adventures 2 (IDW) Guy Delisle Chroniques de Jerusalem (Delcourt) Ray Fawkes One Soul, Possessions Book Two (Oni Press) Francois Lapierre Chroniques Sauvages (Glenat Quebec) Jeff Lemire Sweet Tooth 17-25 (DC/Vertigo) Ramon Perez Jim Henson’s Tale of Sand (Archaia Press) Michel Rabagliati Paul au Parc (La Pasteque)
Cover Artist:
Kalman Andrasofszky X-23 5-19, X-Men: Earth’s Mutant Heroes 1 (Marvel Comics), Stan Lee’s Soldier Zero 6-10 (Boom!) Kaare Andrews Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis 5, Ultimate Comics Hawkeye 1-4, Ultimate Comics Spider-Man 156, 1-5, Ultimate Comics X-Men 1-5, Ultimate Comics Ultimates 1-5 (Marvel Comics) Fred Jourdain Le Dragon Bleu / The Blue Dragon (Éditions Alto/Ex Machina/House of Anansi Press) Francois Lapierre Chroniques Sauvages (Glenat Quebec) Jeff Lemire Jonah Hex 69 (DC Comics), Sweet Tooth 18-28 (DC/Vertigo) Francis Manapul The Flash Vol.4 9-12, The Flash Vol. 5 1-4, Flashpoint: Grodd of War 1, Flashpoint: Kid Flash Lost 1-3, Green Lantern 4, Green Lantern Corps 62, Superboy 5, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents 5 (DC Comics) 7 Warriors (Boom!) Yanick Paquette Batman Incorporated 3-5, Knight and Squire 1-6, Swamp Thing 1-4 (DC Comics)
Webcomic Creator / Creative Team:
Jayd Ait-Kaci (artist) The Fox Sister, Sfeer Theory Emily Carroll (cartoonist) Comics 2011 (Anu-Anulan and Yir’s Daughter, Dream Journal Mar 30th, Margot’s Room, The Prince and The Sea) Tony Cliff (cartoonist) Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant Kate Craig (cartoonist) Heart of Ice Iris and Zviane (cartoonists) L’ostie d’chat – Le blog de Jasmin et Jean-Seb Drazen Kozjan (cartoonist) The Happy Undertaker Ty Templeton (cartoonist) Bun Toons
Writer / Writing Team:
Anthony Del Col & Connor McCreery Kill Shakespeare 9-12 (IDW) Francis Desharnais Motel Galactic (Editions Pow Pow) Maryse Dubuc Les Nombrils T.5: Un Couple D’enfer (Delcourt) Kathryn Immonen Avengers: Origins – Thor 1, Captain America and the First Thirteen 1, Wolverine and Jubilee 1-4, “Queen, King, Off-Suit”/X-Men: To Serve and Protect 4 (Marvel Comics), “Say You’re Dead”/Outlaw Territory Vol.2 (Image) Jeff Lemire Animal Man 1-4, Flashpoint: Frankenstein and the Creatures of the Unknown 1-3, Frankenstein Agent of S.H.A.D.E. 1-4, Giant Size Atom 1, Superboy 3-11 (DC Comics), Sweet Tooth 26-28 (DC/Vertigo), “-”/Brilliant! Tragic! The Comic Book 1 (Art Brut) Tristan Roulot Le Testament de Capitaine Crown T.1: Cinq Enfants du Putain, Goblins T.5: La Fleur au Canon, Psykoparis T.1 (Soleil) Kurtis G. Wiebe Green Wake 1-8, The Intrepids 1-6 (Image), “Logan’s Lost Lesson”/Marvel Holiday Special 2011 (Marvel Comics) Jim Zubkavich Skull Kickers 5, 7-11 (Image)
The Dragon Award – Comics for Kids
Ariane et Nicolas Tome 6: Les Toiles Mysterieuses Paul Roux (Les 400 Coups) Big City Otto Vol.1 Bill Slavin (Kids Can Press) Hyena in Petticoats: The Story of Suffragette Nellie McClung Willow Dawson (Puffin Books) L’Agent Jean Tome 1: Le Cerveau de l’Apocalypse Alex A. (Presses Aventure) Lone Hawk: The Story of Air Ace Billy Bishop John Lang (Puffin Books) Luz Sees the Light Claudia Davila (Kids Can Press) Silly Kingdom: Alengrimrickshaw’s 211th Birthday Katie and Steven Shanahan (Self-Published) Three Thieves Book 2: The Sign of the Black Rock Scott Chantler (Kids Can Press)
Gene Day Award – Self-Publishing
Silly Kingdom: Alengrimrickshaw’s 211th Birthday by Katie and Steven Shanahan Ghost Rabbit by Dakota McFadzean Drupe by Jeremy Bourgeois Raymonde 21 Journeys by the Cloudscape Comics Collective, Fifteen Months by Colleen MacIsaac
Harry Kremer Award – Outstanding Canadian Comic Book Retailer
Amazing Stories (Saskatoon, SK)
Another Dimension (Calgary, AB)
The Comic Hunter (Moncton, NB)
Comic Readers (Regina, SK)
Golden Age Collectables (Vancouver, BC)
Heroes (London, ON)
L’Imaginaire (Quebec City, QC)
Silver Snail (Toronto, ON)
Studio 9 Comic Shop (Montreal, QC)
Warp 1 Comics and Games (Edmonton, AB)
Conundrum seems to be maturing into a very strong
independent publisher, sounds like they had a great show.
I wish I had enough cash to go crazy and buy everything they put out this year.
Damn, didn’t even register Nina’s book was there, missed my chance!
Was too busy chatting with friends at their table to pay proper attention to the spread!
Rats. Andy has posted a short upbeat report and some good photos of the show, check it out…
“Well TCAF this year was the bestest ever! Everyone seemed to have $20 bills in their pockets and were willing to spend. The quality of work throughout the room was unprecedented. There was actually a line up at the Conundrum table! We sold out of all our debut titles!” – Read the full post here.
This is a truncated version, as I had already posted a lot of the audio stuff before so I just linked to that content here. If you want to read the full version check it out here.
Recorded some of the sights and sounds of various events on my trip to Toronto for TCAF this year.
I was a tourist this time for a change, so was able to take in a lot of stuff. Great fun and got to spend some quality time with lots of old friends. Also met and talked a few times briefly with Fabio Moon which was nice. Been an admirer of his and his brother’s work for years. Ran into him last at the wrap party but was so wasted I probably gave him a funny impression! Ah well, they seem like very laid-back guys. Hope to chat with them under more calm, less profession-defined circumstances one day. Also had a few good short chats with Tom Neely, enjoyed a nice diner with James Turner, Brian Evinou, and Noel Tuazon. Also had a nice dinner on the last night with my primary collaborator here on Sequential Bryan Munn. We only see each other in person a few times a year so that was great. Met Jason Bradshaw in person finally and got a full set of his Boredom pays minis including he said the last copy left ever of his first issue. Had a warm chat on the TCAF floor with Artist and printer Tyrone McCarthy. Oh I could go on and on probably but can’t recall all the names I should right now so lets get on with it. Here’s my Video log, links to stuff, and some of the audio I recorded over the course of the 4 days. For the full experience make sure to have annotations turned on when you play the clip.
A few highlights of the first instalment of The Comic Book Lounge’s On the couch [should that not be chesterfield?] with Ty Templeton! His guests were Mark Askwith (producer, InnerSpace), Award-winning cartoonist Scott Chantler (Three Thieves, Two Generals), artist & designer Ken Lashley (Blackhawks), and Will Pascoe (director, Lost Heroes Movie).
And I got roped into this one too at the end. Sorry about my quite voice and poor rhetoric, i don’t level well in a setting like that, I have to be right on top of the mic to be audible most of the time. very low voice and I’m not in the habit of projecting it a lot.
That’s followed but a good 12 or so min of table porn, i tried to scan everything that was on display at TCAF. I missed a room in the back and a few other small spots but otherwise this is just about ever inch of exhibitors spreads, shot in the last hour of the show on Sunday.
Some shots of my Haul from the trip, 22 books I traded for, was given or bought. Look for a nice clean shot of that at the end of the post here.
Some footage of the kick off event, Jeff Smith, Gabriel Ba, and Fabio Moon in conversation moderated by Mark Askwith! Listen to it here.
And last, some snaps of the drawing jam between Becky Cloonan & Zach Worton at the Third Annual Official TCAFête.
It was all a blast! This is just a tiny bit of what I saw and did. TCAF gets bigger every year and this is my first time just going to hang out and take in the sights [I've exhibited I think every year since 2005?] It’s a hell of a lot more fun to attend than exhibit I have to say.
For more on the festival go here, for more reporting on the festival go here.
Blogger Julia Caron posted about an expo at Galerie Morgan Bridge, and Jimmy Beaulieu‘s work on the theme of the student strikes in Quebec. The exhibit was part of the FBDFQ, the Festival de la Bande Dessinée Francophone, which ran last month. It’s always interesting to get the perspective of someone not totally dedicated to comics, but most of all I wanted to mention it for this image from the show that she posted. Check out the rest of the post for more of Jimmy’s work and Julia’s notes on it all.
Max here, just got back home to Montreal from TCAF in Toronto.
Waiting for my own half hour video journal to upload i thought i’d gather up some of the various posts and reports i’ve seen so far over the weekend about the big show. Up top is a very slick looking tour of it all put together by Ryan Couldrey.
Item[s]: The Doug Wright Awards got lots of press, the Gazette noted Aislin’s induction into Giants of the North, the Canadian Cartooning Hall of Fame. Yahoo news asked Who was Doug Wright and why is there an award named after him? The CBC noted the winners in their Arts & Entertainment section, and the National ran this report. And the QUILLBLOG posted about the awards a coupletimes.
Item: The Torontoist posted a couple of lists of Five. One near the end of the even, of Five Up-and-Coming Cartoonists they discovered at TCAF 2012. And one at the start by our own D.Hains of “Five Artists to Catch at TCAF this Weekend“. Both are still good lists to look at, you might just discover something!
Item: The comic book lounge ran some FCBD events in parallel with TCAF including a new late night panel/talk-show/bar room after-show chat thing called ON THE COUCH with Ty Templeton that will be posted online at some point [look for some highlights in my video journal including me getting called up to the couch for some questions]. And the nights talk was wrapped with the announcement of this years Joe Shuster Award nominees. The lists for the different categories are going up on their site a bit at a time right now, scroll around to find them all.
Item: BlogTO posted a photo report about Kid Koala’s Space Cadet tour, looks like it was quite the visual spectacle as well as an auditory one.
Item: The Ottawa Citizen ran a story on the 4th about “the rise of highbrow comics”. Sounds a bit to my ear almost like a “comics are not just for kids” piece really, but it’s all good. They spotlight the work of Zak Sally & Jeff Lemire.
Item: The IGN blog posted a photo report of their blogers visit to TCAF here.
Item: An to wrap it for this post, ‘cus you’r going to be a while getting through these, The National Post has run Q&As every year with new up and comers appearing at TCAF, this year there are a LOT of them.
Canadian Comics big night and one of the spotlight events of TCAF, the Doug Wright Awards!
Undoubtedly the awards were documented but I failed to make it to the show myself this year. Was enjoying dinner a little too far from Jackman Hall to make it in time. Sorry folks!
First chance we get we’ll post photos or other media as it becomes available. But for now, here are this years winners…
The show was hosted by writer, journalist and broadcaster Geoff Pevere.
Best Book went to Kate Beaton, for Hark! A Vagrant, published by Drawn and Quarterly. This is her second Doug Wright Award. Previously Beaton’s self-published Never Learn Anything About History won the 2009 Doug Wright Award for Best Emerging Talent. And And Hark! A Vagrant won the 2011 Harvey Award for Best Online Comics Work, after being nominated in the same category the year before, and was nominated for a Joe Shuster Awards in 2009 and 2010!
Formally the emerging talent award, the Doug Wright Spotlight (a.k.a. “The Nipper”) recognizing talent deserving of wider recognition went to Ethan Rilly for Pope Hats #2, published by AdHouse Books. Previously Ethan won the 2010 Gene Day Award for Self-Publishing for Pope Hats #1.
And not least, the Pigskin Peters Award recognizing the best of avant-garde or experimental comics was awarded to Hellberta by Michael Comeau, published by Koyama Press.
The 2012 winners were decided by a jury that included: visual artist Shary Boyle, cartoonist John Martz (A Doug Wright Award Best Emerging Talent nominee in 2010 and Pigskin Peters Award nominee in 2008), book artist and professor George Walker and Julie Traves, deputy arts editor for The Globe and Mail.
Speaking on behalf of the jury, Shary Boyle praised Beaton’s book. “The world of comics can be a sequestered and dusty place,” she said. “As the comic community bemoans its shrinking readership and dying forms, Beaton rises up and throws open the doors to a whole new audience – welcoming one and all with her generous vision and sense of sophisticated, inclusive playfulness.”
Jurist John Martz had this to say about Ethan Rilly (aka Hartley Linn): “Hartley is a cartoonist who takes his time to get it right, and what we as fans might lose in quantity, we most definitely gain in quality. This scrutiny and attention to detail did not go unnoticed by the jury, who recognize and applaud Hartley’s skilled draughtsmanship and the maturity of his writing. It can be no easy task to write a story about an introspective Toronto law clerk, and have it be so compelling, so rewarding to study, and be filled with such warmth. It is most deserving of this award.”
Jeet Heer, of the Wright Awards nominating committee which chooses the annual Pigskin Peters Award, described Hellberta as “Many things — a pastiche of superhero comic, a political satire, a post-apocalyptic fable – all melded together to form a single nightmarish vision. Michael Comeau brings to this tradition an energetic line, a fertile imagination, and the courage to put his most outrageous ideas on paper.”
“One of Daniel Clowes’ strangest creations, The Death Ray, satirizes classic superheroes, creating not only a unique deconstruction of superhero tropes, but an indictment of the fans of those escapist comics. Death Ray is the story of a teenage outcast-turned-vigilante who is almost immediately corrupted by his newfound abilities. It is notable for how thoroughly it debunks any of the presumed illusions of superhero stories. Unlike Marvel characters’ origins, which are typically tied to their selfless acts, (such as Daredevil rescuing a blind man away from a speeding truck), The Death Ray’s Andy acquires his superhuman strength when he starts smoking. Clowes’ protagonist has an immature, reductionist sense of right and wrong, and becomes increasingly detached from anybody who can help him understand the responsibilities that come with his power. While other stories provide readers with escapist fantasy in which good invariably triumphs over evil, the Death Ray is far more nihilistic, and suggests a darker side to that appeal.
With this essay, I will place The Death Ray on a continuum of superhero stories. I will also discuss prior and subsequent efforts of comics creators to deconstruct superhero narratives. While other creators, such as Alan Moore, developed their seminal critiques of superheroes after decades of writing them, Clowes identifies superheroes as a staple of “mainstream” comics and describes his work as a deliberate counter-balance to that mainstream. Superhero subversions such as Kick-Ass depict their characters with colorful, dynamic styles and invariably include moments where characters must make noble sacrifices, but Clowes’ artistic and narrative decisions deliberately downplay dramatic release, denying readers any sort of catharsis.” – Edward Hornick
Edward Hornick is a graduate of Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio and the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in Portland, Maine. A lifelong comics reader, he presented on Truth Serum, Achewood, and Evan Dorkin at past New Narrative conferences.
Noir and the Fantastic in Comics. TCAF 2012 KICK-OFF EVENT! Jeff Smith, Gabriel Ba, and Fabio Moon in conversation moderated by Mark Askwith. In The Bram and Bluma Appel Salon
Marni Stanley teaches English and Women’s Studies at Vancouver Island University in Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada. Her academic research and publication areas include Nineteenth Century Women Travellers, television, cinema, and graphic narrative.
In a Queer Time & Place Judith Halberstam argues that metronormativity—the assumption that one can only be out and proud in urban spaces, and that rural and small town homosexuals should be pitied—dominates in gay and lesbian literature. The metronormative narrative sees the city as a space of liberation and formation of identity. But urban environments have their own threats, and the power of identity politics can make urban cliques exclusionary as well as welcoming. How do gay and lesbian comic artists use the urban spaces associated with the enabling of identity—bars, sex shops, the neighborhood—to explore the complexity of finding community in the complexity of urban space? Examples will be drawn from the work of some of the following: Ariel Schrag, Leanne Franson, Eric Orner, Tim Barela, Tim Fish, Alison Bechdel, and Howard Cruse.
Sequential’s own David Hains moderated this panle with creators Kate Beaton & Bryan Lee O’Malley. Part of the Bodies/City: A Symposium conference the panel tied that event with the next days New Narrative V presentations [more exclusively comics related than the first days events]. Conversation ran the gambit from what got them hooked on comics to collaborative work with others.
On-stage interview and Premiere Documentary Screening
@ The Carlton Cinema, 20 Carlton Street (at Yonge)
Thursday, May 3rd, 2012
Doors at 7pm. Event starts at 7:30pm sharp.
Admission $5.00*
The Toronto Comic Arts Festival welcomes Featured Guest Guy Delisle to a special celebration of his body of work, and official Toronto launch of his new graphic novel The Jerusalem Chronicles. Delisle will appear in person at a special TCAF event on Thursday May 3rd, 7PM, at The Carlton Cinema, in an event which will include a rare live interview, short documentary screening, Q&A and autograph sessions.
Comic Convention Was Temporarily Shut Down on Saturday Due to Overcrowding
by BK Munn
In another sign of the growth in popularity of the pop culture events known as comic cons, the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo was temporarily shut down by fire marshalls this past weekend when the occupancy of the BMO Centre exceeded recommended limits. Crowds were larger than expected and more tickets were sold than space permitted at any one time. The result was that many ticket holders were not able to enter or re-enter, and many who had pre-paid for specific time events (ie, photo-ops or panels with guest celebrities) missed their events entirely. The show was closed to new arrivals for two hours Saturday and the Expo actually stopped selling tickets at the door on Sunday morning. Now the organizers of the con have announced a variety of refunds for ticketholders who missed out or were denied entry (see below for full details).
photo via Ryan North
It sounds like the Expo was, for a short time at least, a victim of its own success. By all accounts the show was otherwise a massive success, with an estimated 50,000 attendance and with big name comics guests like Kate Beaton and Stan Lee, as well as a much-publicized Star Trek: The Next Generation cast reunion electrifying fans. The organizers have apologized while referring to the shut down and other gaffes as “hiccups” that will be corrected in future.
The Calgary Expo will be working with the Calgary Stampede and the Fire Department to create strategies to better manage crowds and line controls for our 2013 event. We are all committed to building an event that supports local businesses, pop culture enthusiasts, and Calgary as a community.
For those of you seeking refunds, please direct your emails to the appropriate email below:
For Admissions
If you purchased your ticket online (at calgaryexpo.com or Event Brite), please include your name, email address, and order number or ticket barcode and email us at:
onlineticketrefund@calgaryexpo.com.
For those who purchased their pass from a store, we are scheduling dates in Calgary, Red Deer,and Edmonton where we will set up stations where you will be able to receive a refund.
For those who purchased their passes from a store in Calgary: Please come to the Eau Claire Market Community Room (where the old cinema used to be) on May 15, 20, or 27 between the hours of 4 PM and 11 PM to receive your refund. The address is 200 Barlcay Parade Southwest, Calgary, AB, T2P 4R5.
We will post the dates/locations for the Edmonton and Red Deer stations as soon as the information becomes available.
For Photo Ops
If you purchased a photo op ticket online, please include your confirmation number, and email us at: support@conaddict.com
If you purchased a photo op ticket at the Expo, but weren’t able to redeem it, please email us your name and the six digit barcode to photoops@calgaryexpo.com
All refund requests must be submitted by May 31, 2012 to be honored.
An orgy of major comic book goodness
is happening across Canada over the next few days,
so let’ get to it!
Item! Dustin Harbin announced he will be one of the presenters at The Wright Awards on Saturday.
Item! An angry review of Guy Delisle’s Jerusalem. Brad Mackay also reviews it for the Globe, the AV Club profiles Delisle here, and Macleans profiles it here. The book has its Canadian debut at TCAF and apparently 100,000 copies have been printed.
Item! A progress update from the Shuster Awards. The awards are scheduled to announce their nominees Saturday night, after the Wright Awards conclude.
Item! The aforementioned announcement being the capper to the Free Comic Book Day activities at The Comic Book Lounge in Toronto. Across town, Little Island Comics has an event scheduled as well with Andy Runton. Others? Well, there is Strange Adventures, with events at all 3 of their stores. Jay Stephens will be at my local store, The Dragon in Guelph. Kurtis Wiebe (Peter Panzerfaust) will be at Regina’s ComicReaders, Tom Grummett will be at 8th Street Books & Comics in Saskatoon, and a giant cohort of comics artists including Marcus To will be at Brampton’s Stadium Comics. All the stores in London, ON have a cool crossover for FCBD. I’m sure there are tons more, but I haven’t stumbled across them.
Item! I highly recommend checking out this article about a collection of mass-produced figurines based on designs by Vancouver cartoonist Len Norris. Norris was one of the great Canadian political cartoonists of the 20th Century and I had no idea these artifacts existed. There are really very few “collectibles” of this sort based on Canadian comics. A handful of paper ephemera items and toys from World War II, souvenirs featuring Jasper the Bear, a stuffed Cerebus, various mugs and t-shirts, and that’s about it.
Item!The Toronto Star interviews Kid Koala about his Space Cadet graphic novel and his musical performance of same scheduled as part of TCAF.
Item! I’m one day late on this, but rabble.ca previews a graphic history of May Day, a comic produced by a collective of Canadian artists.
Item! Not exactly comics, but the second annual Star Wars Day TO will take place at the Toronto Underground Cinema on Friday, May 4th, 2012 and all proceeds from the 2012 event will go to the SickKids Foundation. The goal is to bring together Star Wars fans of all ages and levels of interest. This family-friendly event celebrates the series through fan-created materials and activities including costume contests, trivia, special guests, prizes and more.
Item! I gotta say, the last half-dozen or so posts on the They Stand on Guard blog describing very obscure Canadian superhero comic books like this one have been hilarious. Check it out!
I’m having a bit of a worker’s holiday today. I was working on a double review, comparing the politics of Otto Soglow and The Little King to Ernie Bushmiller and Nancy and Sluggo, but as deadline loomed and my eyelids started to droop, I said fuck it, I’m taking the day off instead. A sort of Sequential strike in solidarity with all the folks working in comics under the work-for-hire system, I guess, not to mention the various Occupy actions going on today. (Check out Occupy Indie Comics here, Susie Cagle here and here, and Occuprint posters here.)
Herewith, a few quotes and notes from Fredric Wertham’s Seduction of the Innocent, tangentially related to my theme.
Wertham on Bushmiller on comic books:
E. Bushmiller (“Nancy”) told the San Diego County Women’s Clubs, “I wish you would differentiate between the newspaper comics and the comic books. Most newspaper comics are wholesome, but a large percentage of the comic books are cheap junk and just turned out for a quick sale.”
The history of medicine records a controversy about whether young children who have to do industrial work at night need sunlight for their health. It is not yet a hundred years since a physician had to defend in detail that sunlight is good for the immature organism, and that at least part of the day children should have sunlight in order to remain healthy. He was in just such direct contradiction to the employers who made these children work long hours at night as I am to the comic-book publishers. Similar arguments took place on the question of whether children need regular meals, sleep, how old they should be for heavy work and how many hours they should work. Nowadays the intellectuals are just as anxious to guard the freedom of children to read crime comics. In those days, as Lord Elton writes, they were eager to preserve the liberty of children of six to work eleven hours in the mines.” Then they used to quote Bentham; now they quote Freud.
Wertham on stunted growth and delinquency: reading Seduction, it becomes fairly obvious Sluggo must read tons of crime comics.
One is apt to forget that besides delinquent and emotionally disturbed children there are many children who are just plain unhappy. That is particularly true of adolescents. If you gain their confidence and give them a chance to talk to you under suitable circumstances you will find that one of their most frequent and serious worries has to do with the growth of their bodies [...] No better method could be evolved to cause such worries or to aggravate them than the advertising in childrens’ comic books. I understand that there are advertising associations or advertising councils interested in keeping products advertised, as well as the manner of their advertising, on an ethical level. If that is true,they must have looked the other way with regard to the stupendous amount of advertising in comic books. Inany case, they “raised no cry.” Advertising is, or could be – quite apart from its selling aspect – a wholesome educational influence. That in comic books is not only anti-educational, but has done untold harm to children from the point of view of public health and mental hygiene, not to speak of common human decency.
Wertham on child homosexual prostitution: I’m sure this doesn’t apply to Sluggo since Sluggo rarely goes to school.
Homosexual childhood prostitution, especially in boys, is often associated with stealing and with violence.For all these activities children are softened up by comic books. Their super-ego formation with regard to sex is interfered with in a subtle way: everything is permitted to men in comic books and there is constant sex stimulation. Charles was studied at the Quaker Emergency Service Readjustment Center. At the age of twelve he engaged in regular prostitution. He did not play hookey, but followed this occupation after school hours. He said, “I meet the men in office places or places of business. They give me a dollar or fifty cents. I wondered how they’d be so generous. Some men are about thirty-five.” The outstanding feature in this boy’s examination was his moral confusion. Comic books contributed to this. “I usually read comic books, Gangbusters or True Comics, about ten or fifteen a week, about two a day. I trade them.”
Wertham on comics criticism: I want to say that the situation has remained unchanged, but really,comics (and my life!) has been enriched by some great criticism over the past two decades, including Bart Beaty’s critical biography of Wertham.
Every medium of artistic and literary expression has developed professional critics: painting, sculpture,drama, the novel, the detective story, the seven lively arts, musical recordings, television, children’s books.The fact that comic books have grown to some ninety millions a month without developing such critics is one more indication that this industry functions in a cultural vacuum. Literary critics evidently thought that these accumulations of bad pictures and bad drawing were beneath critical notice. I have convinced myself often that they were ignorant of the material itself unless it was brought home to them in their own families.One literary critic had been very permissive about comic books and had not included them in his other excellent critiques of life and literature. He changed his mind one evening when after reprimanding hischildren, aged seven and five, he overheard the older saying to the younger: “Don’t worry. In the morning Ikill both of them!”There have been other excellent critics, but they came later. Marya Mannes has expressed her opiniontersely: “Comic books kill dreams.” She discerned the monopoly position comic books had obtained amongthe educationally less privileged: “In one out of three American homes, comic books are virtually the onlyreading matter.” John Mason Brown had this to say: “The comic books as they are now perpetually on tapseem to me to be not only trash but the lowest, most despicable and most harmful and unethical form of trash.” When heckled by a comic-book publisher about what his own children think of his opinion, he made the classical reply: “They have been so corrupted by you that they love them.”The closest critics of the poison tree should be the parents. Gilbert Seldes has correctly seen as a key problem of comic books “the paralysis of the parents.” In his recent book The Great Audience he says: “. . unlike the other mass media, comics have almost no esthetic interest.” (I would question his “almost.”) After quoting testimony that connects comic books with delinquency and evidence of their brutality and unwholesomeness he goes on: “Most of these outcries represent the attitudes of parents searching for a way to cope with a powerful business enterprise which they consider positively evil. . . . The liberal-minded citizen dislikes coercive action, tries to escape from corruption privately, and discovers that his neighbor, his community, are affected. . . . Year after year Dr. Fredric Wertham brings forth panels showing new ugliness and sadistic atrocities; year after year his testimony is brushed aside as extravagant and out-of-date. The paralysis of the parent is almost complete.”What causes this paralysis of parents? I do not think it is a real paralysis; it is helplessness. The vast majority of mothers have been outraged when they read the crime comic books their children read.
My good pal, cartoonist and Sequential publisher Salgood Sam, has a couple good deals on offer with his solo anthology comic, Revolver. Both Revolver 1 and the recent Revolver 2 are available as print-on-demand comics through Magcloud at a special Spring Sale price of $4.88, or 25% off the regular price (purchase includes free digital issue/digital edition alone=$0.99).
Revolver 2 features two short stories & assorted bits! ‘Widows’, ‘Honolulu Lorie’s Lava Love Lounge and Poodle Emporium’, and more. Also some more old Monthly Montreal Comix Jam pages. Colaberations with Jai Granofsky, Billy Mavreas, Jesse Bochner, Marr, Peter Ferguson, and Sherwin Sullivan Tjia.
Sequential exists to give Canadian creators and the Canadian comics industry a stronger independent voice in the greater north american market. To raise the profile of new and talented creators, promote the local. Quality over quantity. Revive our history. And celebrate our avant garde. We believe this is the best way to help build our own markets and readerships.
Canadian Comics big night and one of the spotlight events of TCAF, 
The show was hosted by writer, journalist and broadcaster 
