"Stratichuk says that new comics and graphic novels made up 50 per cent of The Comic Shop's business in the last five years.
'...It's only been since 2004 that we've seen graphic novel sales surpass new comic totals. We see this as an indication that the collectible/speculator side of the marketplace is on the decline, while comic readers that actually read their comics are taking up the slack.'
Stratichuk pegs the average Comicshop customer as between 18 and 30 years old, mostly male although the fantasy, adventure and romance aspects of the Japanese Manga genre are improving what he terms the shop's 'gender- inclusive outlook.' "

1. ATLANTIC ­ CANADIAN Animation
with HEATHER HARKINS in person
April 2 (***this Sunday!)

2. STEVE WOLOSHEN in person
April 4-5

3. THE ANIMATORS' INCUBATOR
April 6

4. STOP MOTION PRIMER
with CORPSE BRIDE Animator
Drew Lightfoot
April 18

5. TAIS at the IMAGES FESTIVAL
April 18-19-20

6. LEGALESE FOR ANIMATORS and
OTHER ARTISTS
May 2

7. TAIS at the TORONTO JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL
May 10-11

------------------------------
Toronto Animated Image Society
60 Atlantic Avenue, suite 102
Toronto, Ontario
M6K 1X9

tais@bellnet.ca
www.tais.ca
416-533-7889

Adapting Histories: Appropriations, Migrations, Re-animations from Louis Riel to Abu Ghraib

Sponsored by
Canadian Studies at University College
University of Toronto

A Roundtable Presentation & Discussion
Friday, March 31 from 1 to 3 pm
University College, Room 140

In her forthcoming book, A Theory of Adaptation (Routledge), Linda Hutcheon describes adaptation as "a process of appropriation, of taking possession of another's story and filtering it through one's own sensibility, interests, talents."

In this roundtable discussion, artists and scholars will address theories and practices of adaptation - its processes and reception - across a wide and wild range of media and genres. The discussion will migrate from Louis Riel to South African AIDS activist Zackie Achmat, from Cape Town to Abu Ghraib, and from Tashme internment camp to the Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia. Artists and writers will illustrate and discuss their approach to adaptation, what Hutcheon has called a double-pronged act of interpretation and creation. Hutcheon herself will address her theorizing of adaptation: the "Who? What? Why? How? Where? When?" of it.

Panelists include Stephen Andrews, visual artist; Chester Brown, graphic novelist; George Elliot Clarke, poet, novelist, Professor of English, University of Toronto; John Greyson, video artist, filmmaker, Assistant Professor, Film, York University; Linda Hutcheon, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, University of Toronto; and Kerri Sakamoto, novelist, Barker Fairley Distinguished Visitor, University College. The discussion will be moderated by Mark Cheetham, Director, Canadian Studies Program, University College, University of Toronto.

No tickets required
For further information: uc.programs@utoronto.ca
http://www.utoronto.ca/canstudies/events.html

Mobile Manga
IGN - Brisbane,CA,USA
March 29, 2006 - TOKYOPOP has teamed up with mobile entertainment maker uclick to deliver TOKYOPOP Mobile Manga to cell phone users around the world. ...

Artists flock to Vancouver, but T.O. pays the big bucks
JAMES ADAMS
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail

Artists in Toronto have the highest average incomes in Canada while Vancouver has the highest number of professional artists as a percentage of its total work force, according to a survey to be released today that analyzes the status of painters, TV producers, writers, musicians and actors, among others, in the country's largest cities.

Using data from the 2001 census for 92 municipalities with populations of 50,000 (such as Caledon, Ont.; Medicine Hat, Alta.) and up, Hill Strategies Research of Hamilton found that Toronto artists on average earned $34,100 a year. That's almost $11,000 more than the national average for artists and almost $15,000 more that what artists in St. John's get -- but 11 per cent less than the average earnings for Toronto's total labour force. Moreover, dancers in Toronto were found to earn on average less than $20,000 a year...

JESSICA BRADLEY ART + PROJECTS
Fantasia: Daniel Barrow, Shary Boyle, Cooper
Battersby and Emily Vey Duke
Opening Saturday April 1, 2-5 pm (until April
29)
1450 Dundas Street West (at Gladstone)Toronto M6J
1Y6 416-537-3125
www.jessicabradleyartprojects.com
Noon to 5 pm Wednesday through Saturday and by appointment

Featuring drawings, prints, sculptures and video by Daniel Barrow, Shary Boyle and the collaborative video artists Cooper Battersby and Emily Vey Duke, Fantasia invites the viewer into the personal yet familiar worlds these artists explore. In their work the conflicted, sometimes humourous and often unsettling undercurrents of the inner life are seen in a collision course with the constraints of the social world. The enchanting directness of outsider art and the incisive commentary found in underground comics come to mind. Fantasy and desire infuse the narratives at play in this exhibition with both terror and delight.

Winnipeg-based artist Daniel Barrow is best known for performances in which he narrates his intricate drawings while manipulating them on an overhead projector to create animated sequences. Barrow has accompanied musical performances by The Hidden Cameras with his live projections and last year created a solo event for the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art. He will show a suite of new drawings and collages entitled "Every time I see your picture I cry."

Toronto's Shary Boyle works in several media using imagery that, like Barrow's, recalls the anxieties, longing and bittersweet fantasy worlds of childhood and adolescence where innocence and disturbance meet. Sculptures, drawings and new etchings by Boyle will be on view. A solo exhibition featuring her porcelain figure sculptures is also on view at the Power Plant through May 28, 2006.

Currently living in Syracuse, NY, Emily Vey Duke and Cooper Battersby perform various roles in their critically acclaimed videos described by Cinema Scope writer Jason MacBride as "some of the most witty, charming and yes, sexy, video art this side of Spike Jonze."

HarperCollins and TokyoPop Enter Into a Manga Marriage
Book Standard - New York,NY,USA
HarperCollins is joining the manga craze as soon as 2007, with a new line of co-branded manga titles in an alliance with manga distributor TokyoPop. ...

HarperCollins, Tokyopop Announce Co-Publishing, Sales and ...
Anime News Network - Canada
... and TOKYOPOP today announced the companies will join forces in a unique co-publishing agreement to create a progressive new line of co-branded manga titles. ...

Attention News Editors:
AJAs Finalists Announced

HALIFAX, March 27 /CNW/ - The Atlantic Journalism Awards is pleased to
announce the finalists for the 2005 AJAs. The finalists' names are listed in
alphabetical order by last name in 25 separate categories.
All finalists will receive an AJAs framed Certificate of Excellence in
Journalism. One of the three finalists will be honoured as the overall Gold
Award Winner. The awards will be presented during the gala event at the
Halifax Marriott Harbour Front Hotel on Saturday, May 6th, 2006. To purchase
tickets, go to www.AJAs.ca and click on Tickets, or call (902) 425-2727.
***
Editorial Cartooning
Michael de Adder - The Daily News, Halifax, NS - Show Of Work
Bruce MacKinnon - The Chronicle Herald, Halifax, NS - Show Of Work
Greg Perry - Telegraph-Journal, Saint John, NB - Show Of Work

NCS Picks Five Cartoonists as Reuben Award Finalists

By E&P Staff

Published: March 27, 2006 2:19 PM ET
NEW YORK Five creators have been nominated for the National Cartoonists Society's Reuben Award as cartoonist of the year.

They include editorial cartoonist Mike Luckovich of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Creators Syndicate as well as four comic cartoonists: Bill Amend ("FoxTrot"/Universal Press Syndicate), Dave Coverly ("Speed Bump"/Creators), Brian Crane ("Pickles"/Washington Post Writers Group), and Dan Piraro ("Bizarro"/King Features Syndicate)...

having a fucked up back means drawing can be excruciating at times. one of the few positions that is actually GOOD for my back is laying on my stomach with my back arched (kinda like when you're watching tv on your stomach with your chin in your hands). trouble is, after about 30 minutes your shoulders and neck get exhausted, plus you can't slide huge pieces of paper under yourself like you would under a table, onto your lap. this thing addresses all those concerns. the adjustable chest angle thing supports your shoulders, the padded piping supports your head, and the whole thing is on a superwide frame that's lifted about 1 inch off the ground. BRILLIANT. and for added appeal, mom upholstered all the padding in the same world war II airplane fabric that she made my son's little duvet case out of.

Labels: links

This page is designed to provide helpful information, samples, lessons and tutorials for university level technical illustration students and professional technical illustrators. Hopefully, you will find the contents of this site to be of assistance in your endeavors. Please feel free to e-mail comments and suggestions so that we may taylor the site to your specific needs.

In order to make the information contained in each tutorial as useful and possible, pages and sample images are updated periodically. Upon re-visiting a tutorial page, you should re-cache your browser to make sure you are viewing the correct images.

We hope you enjoy your time with us. Please bookmark this site and send a link to a friend.

Labels: links

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For many Canadians born since the Second World War, Alfred Joseph (A.J.) Casson was the public face and our best known connection with a movement that defined Canadian art for more than a generation - The Group of Seven. Casson, the man, was much more than that.

A.J. Casson: Behind the Scenes, which opens at Markham's Varley Art Gallery in Unionville April 2, 2006, explores not only Casson's art, but looks beyond his contribution at the easel to sketch a portrait of one of Canadian art's most staunch supporters. The exhibition has some of his best work in watercolour and oil and for the first time brings his commercial work together with his artwork in the same exhibition. Curator Christopher Jackson said "The show gives the most complete picture of Casson's contribution to both fields to date."

***
With a particular focus on the art of portraiture, The Varley Art Gallery on Main Street in historic Unionville features innovative public programs and new exhibitions. The gallery's permanent collection includes the work of one of Canada's foremost portrait artists, Frederick H. Varley, in whose honour the gallery is named, and works by his fellow members of Canada's famed Group of Seven.

Contact: John Ryerson, Gallery Director
905-477-9511 ext 233
jryerson@markham.ca

Business Plan 101 For Comic Book Publishers
By Herve St.Louis
Mar 25, 2006, 19:15
In a previous article, I wrote about the hardships of small comic book publishers. Like Speakeasy Comics which influenced the original article, other publishers will fail. Instead of waiting for the next guy to fall, I�ll would rather focus on the classic shield used to prevent businesses from failing, a business plans. I wrote many business plan and will probably write many more. Once you get used to them, they are not scary...

Eric Theriault is re-presenting his 90's Indy comic as a webcomic now...

"I should have done that a long time ago on this board (as i've done on others...) : I'd like to invite you to visit my webcomic; Veena.

Some may already know about it since i've had this character in one form or another since the early '90s. At first it was a mini-comic and I used Factsheet Five and Broken Pencil as means of promotion. That was way before the Web and it's easy connectivity. I did six issues that way… …Trade paperback is now THE format. So, that may be the eventual route i'll go. In the meantime, I decided to make my early stories available on the web. That way, you can read it without ordering it in a "cool" comic shop.
I'd love to hear your comments about it."

Eric Theriault

Labels: links

Labels: links

Hello To All!
Just a few words to say that the next Comix Jam will
go on at Sala Rossa's Restaurente (4848 St-Laurent),
this coming Wednesday, March 29, 8 PM. Don't forget
your pens, pencils, clips boards and fertile
imagination.

See You there!

Jane - Jam's High Priestess

Bonjour a Tous!
Juste pour vous rappeller que le prochain Comix Jam
aura lieu au Restaurente de la Sala Rossa (4848
St-Laurent) mercredi prochain le 29 mars a 8 PM.
N'oubliez pas vos crayons, stylos, "clip boards" et
votre imagination printaniere et fertile.

A la revoyure!

Jane - Grand Pretresse du Jam

Harvey Pekar, Jessica Abel & Matt Madden Presentations
Innis Town Hall, 2 Sussex Ave, Toronto (at St George St, one block north of Harbord St)
Wed April 26, 7-10pm (doors 6:30pm)
Tickets $5 plus tax @ The Beguiling's and Pages Books & Magazines
ON SALE NOW!

A THIS IS NOT A READING SERIES EVENT
Presented in partnership with The Beguiling, (that's us)

SPACE Producer Mark Askwith hosts an evening of comics! First, Jessica Abel and Matt Madden will present an a/v show of their work, then Harvey Pekar will sit down with Mark Askwith to talk about his life and work.

The graphic novelists will be discussing the following books:

Harvey Pekar - Ego & Hubris (Ballantine)
Jessica Abel - La Perdida (Pantheon)
Matt Madden - 99 Ways To Tell A Story (Penguin Group)

Maurice Vellekoop Book Launch and the CBC Opera Quiz
Gladstone Hotel Ballroom, 1214 Queen St W, Toronto
Tues, Apr 25; 7-10 pm (doors 7pm)
FREE

A THIS IS NOT A READING SERIES EVENT
Presented in partnership with The Beguiling, (that's us!)

Join graphic artist Maurice Vellekoop as he launches his hilarious illustrated look at a fictitious opera world. Quiz Master Stuart Hamilton, of CBC Radio Two's Saturday Afternoon at the Opera, will lead Vellekoop and other panelists in a live taping of CBC's Opera Quiz.

PS: I saw a copy of the book and it is FABULOUS. Seriously, beautifully illustrated and hilarious. If you're an opera fan (or know someone who is), get a copy of this and make sure to come out to the book launch.

The Toronto Animated Image Society in partnership with the National Film Board of Canada present:

STOP MOTION PRIMER with Corpse Bride Animator Drew Lightfoot.
Tuesday, April 18, 2006 at 7pm
NFB Cinema, 150 John Street (at Richmond, across from The Paramount)
$15 general admission, FREE to TAIS members
www.tais.ca

A fascinating introduction to stop motion by a leading animator geared toward emerging and experienced animators from other mediums. The lecture will consist of video clips and visuals to support instruction and theory. Questions that will be addressed include: How do you plan for motion with no key frames? How do you make characters jump or fly? How do you ensure models stay still betweens shots? Is video assist necessary? What kind of equipment can you use to record?

Find out the answers to these and other questions at the event!

ARTCADE: Video Game Art Show
@ Microplay, 632 Queen Street West (W. of Bathurst)
April 5 - May 17, 2006
Opening Night Party April 5 @ &PM
FREE

Some of Toronto's best comic artists and illustrators splash their love for video games across a canvas in ARTCADE: Video Game Art Show at video game retailer Microplay. The show is set to feature work from:

J. Bone, Matt Daley, Christopher Hutsul, Michael Lylloff, Steven Charles Manale, Brian McLachlan, Kagan McLeod, Noel Middleton, Ramon Perez, Rui Ramalherio, and Steve Wilson.

WELTSCHMERTZ Book Signing April 8th!

Weltschmerz Book Signing
Saturday, April 8, 2006 - 2pm-5pm
@ The Beguiling, 601 Markham Street (S. of Bloor & W. of Bathurst)
Free!

Everyone knows the comic strip ‘Weltschmerz’ appearing weekly in Eye Magazine. Well now you can carry the comic strip around in a more permanent edition with Weltschmerz: Attack of the Same-Sex Sleeper Cells. Cartoonist Gareth Lind will be signing his book at The Beguiling on Saturday, April 8th from 2-5pm. Come out and meet the author, and pick up a copy of the new book.

For more information, visit www.lindtoons.com.

Banff International Curatorial Institute
Comic Craze Symposium
www.banffcentre.ca/programs/program.aspx?id=521
www.banffcentre.ca/bici

Program Dates: May 4 - 6, 2006
Registration Deadline: April 28, 2006

The Comic Craze symposium is a public forum to exchange recent artistic, scholarly, and curatorial research associated with comic cultures. The symposium is co-organized by the Banff International Curatorial Institute and the Walter Phillips Gallery at The Banff Centre, in collaboration with the Vancouver Art Gallery, with the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts.

The symposium is a response to an increased interest by visual arts curators, critics, and scholars to investigate a diverse range of artistic practices and material cultures, such as comics books, hip-hop music, and relational aesthetics. And, as material from popular and alternative cultures finds its way into current art objects and artistic practices, curators are increasingly compelled by non traditional materials xB0;xA9;? music videos, food culture, tattoos, postcards, and low-rider cultures to name a few. This symposium will function as a platform to directly connect with comic material and culture, while critically engaging curatorial practices based on relationships between contemporary visual arts, popular culture, and other forms of material culture.

Comic Craze will engage with comic culture in four panel discussions:

- Engaging with objects of material culture
- Books, Books, Books: reading, publishing, collecting
- Interpreting comics
- Curating comics

Speakers include artists, scholars, curators, publishers, and comic fans:
Christian BxF6;k (poet, assistant professor, Department of English, University of Calgary), Bart Beaty (comic scholar, associate professor, Communication and Culture, University of Calgary), Rupert Bottenberg (comic artist, Montreal), Christopher Brayshaw (writer, Vancouver), Benoit Chaput (publisher, L?oie de Cravan), RenxE9; deGuzman (curator of visual arts, Yerba Buena Centre for the Arts), Robin Fischer (comic fan, broadcaster, Vancouver), Bruce Grenville (senior curator, Vancouver Art Gallery), Chris Oliveros (publisher, Drawn & Quarterly), and Randy Scott (comic librarian, University of Michigan)

Other related activities:
Comic Craze, a large exhibition of Canadian comics, curated by Sylvie Gilbert will open on May 4 at 7 p.m. in the Walter Phillips Gallery. The exhibition brings together over 400 recently published independent comic books, mini-comics, zines, and graphic novels. It features the best of English and French Canadian comics, capturing the different graphic and narrative styles that have made comic culture one of the most absorbing and experimental forms of _expression_ today.

ARLIS Annual Conference - Concurrent with the Comic Craze Symposium the Art Libraries Society of North America will be holding their annual conference in Banff from May 3 - 11 offering a unique opportunity to connect and exchange knowledge about comic culture. The ARLIS session titled Words on the Street: Graphic Novel and Comics Collections in Academic and Art and Design Libraries is sure to generate compelling discussion on the theme of comics.

For fees, accommodation information, and to register visit:
www.banffcentre.ca/programs/program.aspx?id=521

Or contact the Office of the Registrar:
Email: arts_info@banffcentre.ca
Phone: 403.762.6180 or 1.800.565.9989
Fax: 403.762.6345
Website: www.banffcentre.ca

Graphic novels were a $75-million U.S. industry in 2001; they more than tripled to $245 million last year. "They've risen dramatically to the point where they've doubled our comic book sales," says Martin Rouse, owner of Phoenix Comics in Calgary. "And I don't see that changing; if anything, it'll get higher." Unlike a comic book, which, like a soap opera, carries its storyline through several issues, a graphic novel is a standalone story in comic book style -- hence the term "novel."

Which is why fans such as Calgarian Erin Collins, who estimates he spent nearly $10,000 on comics and graphic novels in the '80s, say they're the perfect medium to transfer to film. "It's easier to make a movie out of a graphic novel than a comic book, because it's a self-contained, 100-page screenplay with all the storyboards," he says. "It's easier to extract a Sin City story than a Spider-Man one, which is spread over thousands of comics. That's the logical reason why they're making so many film adaptations.

Little Nemo in Comicsland
Jeet Heer, editor of Arguing Comics, will present on the influence of early comic artist Winsor McCay--particularly on Art Spiegelman. A retrospective of Spiegelman's print work will be on display on the exhibit hall outside the auditorium. (Virginia Quarterly Review, UVa Harrison Institute)

You too can draw like this!
Vanessa Farquharson, National Post
Monday, March 20, 2006
Two of Canada's most celebrated cartoonists will soon draw even more attention as they step out of their dark studios and into the public eye -- breakfasting with fans and holding public workshops on how to draw comics...

Toca Loca
@The Music Gallery - Friday, March 24, 2006, 8pm
They will never wear three-piece seventeen-button
suits with matching ascots, and will never fill tour
buses full of eager artistic consumers from Buffalo or
Detroit, but Toca Loca continues to defy gravity and
the musical elite as they bring you their latest,
ONE-TIME ONLY project.

A partial list of things you may never get a chance to
experience again:

Frederic "the Mozart to Steve Reich's Salieri"
Rzewski - Coming Together
Vinko (those who don't know his music are a little
less complete) Globokar - Toucher
Rick "Darmstadt Prodigy" Burkhardt - Great Hymn of
Thanksgiving
"Lyrical Pitbull" Wakefield Brewster
Dan Yashinsky, ace storyteller, reads Star Child
Melanie Manos does Off With Her Head - Marie
Antoinette Presents the Cyberfeminist Manifesto and
AKA (Also Known As)
Receive a free, limited-edition, brand new comic from
Diana Tamblyn.
The Toca Loca Postal Outreach Program.

With Aiyun Huang (percussion), Wallace Halladay
(saxophone), Gregory Oh (piano), "Friendly" Rich
Marsella (fankicks), Quinsin Nachoff (saxophone),
Darren Sigesmund (trombone), Elissa Lee (violin),
Sebastian Krunnies (viola), Andrew Staniland (electric
guitar) and Dallas Bergen (baton).

The Music Gallery is located at 197 John St, north of
Queen. TTC to Osgoode Station. www.musicgallery.org.
(416) 204-1080. Tickets are $20 reg, $15 arts wkr,
$10 stu.

Daniel Gallina, team leader for Transcontinental's comics and RPG marketing team, says the printer formed the comics marketing team about two years ago to target the market; since then, the printer's U.S. comics business has grown 200%. Transcontinental has four plants (out of its 60) devoted to printing graphic novels and comics periodicals.

Gallina cited the growth of graphic novels and the shift from periodical publishing to book publishing in the comics industry. "We see this a chance for us to become an important player in the U.S. market," says Gallina. "We're really focused on this industry, and analyzed the market," he says. "Comics and games look good for growth. We want to partner with publishers and show what Transcontinental can do."

In the end I felt it all matters little though, this is after all a tempest in tea pot folks, a debate over the correct history of events now long past, by people who are at best small to mid sized fish like myself, in an otherwise very big pond that will happily not care about our communication issues and old vendettas.