• The Gazette profiles Francis Desharnais, creator of the strip collection Burquette (400 Coups), the story of a teenage girl forced to wear a burka.

• Double Jolt of Jeet: aside from writing about history and politics for a variety of publications, Jeet Heer occasionally writes about comics. This week, at the Sans Everything blog, Jeet muses about Archies' girls, Betty and Veronica, and bring Northrop Frye along for the ride. Then, Jeet reviews David Hajdu's The 10 Cent Plague for the Globe and Mail:

In 1949, E. Davie Fulton, an up-and-coming Tory MP from British Columbia, got Parliament to pass a private member's bill banning crime comics from our pristine dominion. Fulton's efforts were loudly praised by a 10-year-old Baie Comeau boy named Brian Mulroney, who delivered an award-winning speech denouncing crime comics.

• Chris Butcher thoroughly reviews the first issue of PiQ magazine, ostensibly devoted to fans of anime, comics, manga, and video games, and includes an interview with a local OTAKU to prove a point.

• Toronto cartoonist Jacob Blackstock was the hit of SXSW in Austin, Texas, with an application that helps users create webcomics, according to this CBC article. Bitstrips has caught the attention of the Facebook team and Wired magazine.

• The Comic Book Bin's Philip Schweier offers COMIC SHOP ETIQUETTE 101, a survival guide to Wednesday/New Comic Book Day.

• Nathalie Atkinson reviews graphic novels for kids in the Globe.

• Actor Michael Cera is the latest name associated with the Scott Pilgrim movie project. There is even some form of script floating about.

• Quebec language police investigate D+Q over signage, website.

• Vito Pilieci writes about Superman's 70th anniversary for Canwest News Service, thankfully omitting any "Superman is Canadian" nonsense.

• Jian Gomeshi interviews New Yorker cartoonist S. Gross about his new book of swastika gags on the Q podcast (the interview is right off the top).

Labels: British Columbia, comics history, comics on film, comics retailers, manga, Ontario, Quebec, Toronto, U.S. superhero franchises, webcomics