Canadian Comix News & Culture
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Thursday, May 15, 2008
Round-Up Time
:: Posted by Bryan @ 5/15/2008 06:00:00 AM Links to news and reviews of Canadian comics and graphic novels.
Tom Spurgeon reports on U.S. publisher Fantagraphics signing an exclusivity deal with Diamond Books to distribute their books and comics to "direct market" comic shops in Canada and the U.S. The deal means that Fantagraphics will no longer be distributed by Raincoast in Canada (Fantagraphics is distributed to bookstores in the U.S. by WW Norton). One tidbit from the article is the information that Canada accounts for only about 5% of Fantagraphics' business. Beguiling employee Chris Butcher, whose store probably accounts for a sizable chunk of that 5%, is quoted extensively in the article and bemoans the end of his direct relationship with the publisher of Love and Rockets, Dan Clowes and The Complete Peanuts.
Speaking of Chris Butcher, a recent blog post reveals he would like to see a well-funded online magazine devoted to graphic novels. Speaking as someone who helps maintain a totally-unfunded blog and only occasionally finds time to write the odd review, I can echo those sentiments. The Comics Journal is still the bible of print-coverage of comics, as far as I'm concerned, with Publisher's Weekly earnestly trying to carve out an online niche, but it is the two bloggers with the closest ties to the Journal, Tom Spurgeon and Dirk Deppey, who seem to cover best what, for lack of a better term, I'll call the "graphic novel market". But even these two sites woefully lack the resources to do more than the occasional "pro" reporting piece and only Spurgeon manages regular reviews and interviews. There are tons of other English-language sites, many of which actually pay contributors, but most of them are genre-specific, focusing on U.S. superhero and adventure comics or translated Japanese manga for teens almost exclusively.
Interview: Busy Jessica Smith from my own hometown paper, the Guelph Mercury, interviews webcomics phenom Ryan North, with a few comments from paper comics giant Seth.
Interview: ( interview with cartoonist Denis Rodier at Comic Book Bin about his two new albums being published in France.
Jillian and Mariko Tamaki collaborated on a Mother's Day-themed strip for the New York Times.
The summer schedule for the Inkstuds podcast is up.
Some recent reviews of Canadian graphic novels: Essex County 2, Glamourpuss,Labels: graphic novels, links
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