Labels: comic jams, events, Montreal, Quebec

• In anticipation of the concluding chapter of Y: The Last Man, Pia Guerra, who provides the beautiful artwork for that series, takes webreaders on a tour of the Dr. Who memorabilia-laden studio she shares with writer Ian Boothby. She is also interviewed by Newsarama's Zack Smith.

• Oshawa's Adam Prosser pens the first review of Dave Sim's Glamourpuss I've seen. Elsewhere, Sim himself took to the Comics Journal messageboard to field questions and promote his new comic book series. As Sim has taken pains to reiterate, he is using a computer located at LOOKIN' FOR HEROES here at 93 Ontario St. S. in Kitchener (one block away from the defunct Now and Then Books.

• Canadian cartoonist Takeshi Miyazawa (Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane) is interviewed about working as a mangaka in Japan and the differences between North American and Japanese comics editing.

• Magazine writer, editor and publisher John Macfarlane retired last week. Over the years, Macfarlane helmed such Canadian institutions as Toronto Life, Saturday Night, and Weekend magazine (home of cartoonist Doug Wright in the 1970s). The National Post's Katherine Govier has a few anecdotes.

Labels: floppies, interviews, interweb, manga, Newfoundland, Ontario, publishing, Toronto

Industry Night @ The Vic This Wednesday

Industry Night @ The Vic
Wednesday, January 30th, 7PM-onwards
The Victory Cafe, 585 Markham Street
FREE

The monthly social networking event for the Toronto comics community.

Labels: events, Ontario, Toronto

Cecil Castellucci (THE PLAIN JANES) and Scott Hepburn (STAR WARS)
signing this Wednesday!

CECIL CASTELLUCCI & SCOTT HEPBURN
For the new graphic novels The Plain Janes and Star Wars: Vector

Wednesday, January 30th, 5PM-7PM
The Beguiling, 601 Markham Street
(Around the corner from Honest Ed’s, at Bathurst TTC)
FREE

The Beguiling is proud to present CECIL CASTELLUCCI, author of
celebrated novel 'Beige' (named a 2008 Best Book for Young Adults by YALSA) and
the new MINX graphic novel THE PLAIN JANES (named a Great Graphic
Novel for Teens), alongside illustrator Scott Hepburn, artist of the brand
new year-long comics event STAR WARS: VECTOR, in a special all ages
in-store signing event. Both Castellucci and Hepburn will signing at The
Beguiling in support of their new books. In addition, the first 20
attendees to the signing will receive a FREE Minx Poster featuring The Plain
Janes, signed by Castellucci.

“We think this is going to be a really fun signing,” enthused Beguiling
Manager Christopher Butcher. “While Cecil and Scott may seem like an
odd pairing at first, they’ve both produced work aimed for a young adult
audience that has resonated with readers of all ages, and we think
that’s going to make for a diverse and interesting group of fans!”

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Cecil Castellucci is the author of the award-winning young adult novels
'Boy Proof', 'Queen of Cool', and 'Beige', all published by Candlewick
Press. Her first foray into graphic novels is THE PLAIN JANES, from DC
Comics/MINX, illustrated by Jim Rugg. Cecil’s work has received
numerous honours from The American Library Association (ALA) and the Young
Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), with 'Beige' and PLAIN JANES
receiving numerous awards just this week! Cecil can be found on the
internet at http://misscecil.com.

Scott Hepburn’s art career includes illustrating numerous RPG books
from White Wolf Publishing, and providing lead artistic duties for the
YALSA-nominated graphic novel series SENTINEL from Marvel Comics. He
provides the art for the new Star Wars comic series Vector, which begins in
the title 'Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic #25' which debuts
THAT DAY! A perfect introduction to the popular comics, this first issue
features characters from across the Star Wars Universe including Luke
Skywalker, Darth Vader, and many more. Scott is also currently creating
the online graphic novel The Port for Canadian webcomics collective
TRANSMISSION-X, at http://www.transmission-x.com/.

ABOUT THE BOOKS:
The Plain Janes is published by DC Comics/MINX, and is $9.99. Star
Wars: Knights of the Old Republic #25 (Vector Part 1) is $2.99. Copies of
all books will be available for sale at the event.

You can see more art from these creators at:
http://www.beguiling.com/2008/01/press-release-cecil-castelucci-scott.html

Labels: events, graphic novels, Toronto

• As we all anxiously await the opportunity to talk with Dave Sim at the Comics Journal boards on January 30 (today!), this post sums up his recent projects.

• Pascal Blanchet's White Rapids is reviewed at the McGill Daily.

• Tom Spurgeon discusses the year-end numbers posted at Comics Chronicles. According to numbers released by Diamond Distributors, the Direct Market had its best year since 1995. This means that Diamond had sales of $429 million through all merchandise wholesaled to comic book shops in the U.S. and Canada.

• In related news: The Beat publishes Diamond's 2007 Top 100 Graphic Novels list and the Top Publishers by percent of Direct Market share of 2007.

• Just for fun, the Dumbest Space Gods in science fiction. Jack Kirby lands at #3.

• Madeline Ashby reports on the transculturelle academic workshop on manga and anime, held this past weekend in Montreal. She also discusses Montreal and Scott Pilgrim.

• Thanks to the BDQuebec forums for this link: Craig Yoe presents an early cartoon from Canadian cartoonist Raoul Barre.

Labels: bestsellers, comics retailers, floppies, graphic novels, manga, publishing, Quebec, reviews

Labels: Alberta, cartoon reportage, comic jams, graphic novels, Ontario, Quebec, Toronto

Labels: comic jams, events, Montreal, Quebec

Labels: bd, new books, preview, publishing, Quebec

Labels: comic jams, events, Moncton, New Brunswick

• 365 Days author Julie Doucet is profiled in the National Post: "probably the most acclaimed or respected female cartoonist of her generation," says Peter Birkemoe, owner of Toronto comic shop The Beguiling (which also sells Doucet's artwork).

• Graphic novels help teach kids Inuktitut in Nunavut.

• A quickie interview with Nepean, Ont.-based Craig Taillefer of Wahoo Morris fame, from the Carleton University student paper.

• Lynn Johnston changes her strip again. 2007's biggest comics newsmaker tells Editor and Publisher she is tweaking the nature of her long-running comic strip yet again this year:

The current plan: Continue tying up loose ends with various "FBorFW" characters (a process that's taking longer than Johnston expected). Then, no later than this September, freeze all these cast members in time. After that, the 1979-launched comic will focus on the younger versions of the characters.

But that doesn't mean the post-September strips will consist entirely of rerun material. Johnston plans to change various elements of the comics, create new story lines, etc. -- but do all that in the drawing style she used to have.

Labels: comic strips, graphic novels, interviews, Lynn Johnston, Ontario, Toronto

Labels: cartoonists, events

Labels: British Columbia, events, Vancouver

• Punk cartoonist Rick Trembles is all over the movie Cloverfield in one of his semi-regular genre movie reviews in intense comic-strip form.

• Salgood Sam quietly launched Dream Life on Live Journal, with the first installment.

• The weekly installment of Stuart and Kathleen Immonen's Moving Pictures graphic novel is out today: page 45.

• With all the success of his Essex County graphic novel trilogy, it looks like Jeff Lemire has (temporarily) abandoned his Soft Instruments webcomic. He's also the subject of an ISR interview this week.

• Since November, the Butternut Squash team of Ramon Perez and Rob Coughler have been handing over the reins of their webcomic to a star-studded list of guest artists including Mike Cho and Cameron Stewart.

• Friday's at Transmission X is Andy Belanger's Raising Hell, but the site features a different strip everyday of the week.

• Fred Grisolm has a new artist (KC Green) for his Hate Song strip, meaning perhaps a more regular publishing schedule.

Labels: webcomics

Going into the comics industry with my graphic novel Therefore Repent! I was, in some ways, back at square one. The artist and I put together an ashcan (almost as encouraging a word as “slushpile“) that sampled the first chapter or so of our graphic novel, and blew the dust off my shotgun. I was pleasantly surprised at the responsiveness of the comics publishers as compared to the prose publishers: many of them emailed positive rejections in a prompt manner. One of the companies the artist had worked with had expressed interest, but when I explained that I’d be publishing an edition for the book trade in Canada (as I had with my previous three books) they said they’d have to try to convince their distributor to allow this.

Labels: graphic novels, how-to, publishing

So Cerebus must be clever, not powerful, in order to come out even, let alone ahead. Which is also very Canadian. A Canadian is someone who is running, just to stay where he is and feels accomplishment when he does so. He is a survivor. If he comes out ahead, it’s never for very long. This issue is is a good example of the survivor who knows all the tricks, never misses a beat or loses an opportunity. This, of course, is all hypothesis on my part. I’m not saying Dave is saying all this in Cerebus. I’m not saying he isn’t either.

Labels: analysis, blogosphere, graphic novels

Labels: comics scholarship

Labels: events, manga, Quebec

Labels: censorship, events, graphic novels, manga, Ontario, publishing, Quebec, Toronto

• More on Ezra Levant's cartoon case is kangaroo court, this time from A.M Lamey (who shares a blog with freedom fighter Jeet Heer).

• Herve St-Louis has an excellent essay about the general suckiness of comic book publisher websites, especially when considered from the point of view of journalists and bloggers.

• Cartoonist Sarah Lazarovic is one of the panelists reviewing the Persepolis film for the National Post.

• Xtra West reports that Little Sister's Book and Art Emporium is for sale. Long plagued by Canada Customs, the store has been fighting to freely import books and comics, regardless of sexual content. Here's hoping the new owners continue the good fight:

News that Deva and Smyth are relinquishing ownership of Little Sister's is being met with shock and sadness, but also with a sense of profound gratitude for the leadership role they've assumed on issues that resonate with the queer community. Issues like spearheading the response to Aaron Webster's murder in 2001; community policing; housing issues in the West End; and a community resource and gathering space.

But the store and its owners and manager are probably best known for their decades-long battle with Canada Customs (now Canada Border Services Agency) which began seizing their shipments in 1984 on the grounds that their gay and lesbian imports were obscene.

With its shelves sitting half-empty and shipments arriving in a tattered state, Little Sister's took Customs to court for the first time in 1987 for unfairly targeting the community's material.

Labels: censorship, interweb

Labels: British Columbia, events, exhibits, pod casts, Vancouver

the Board of Directors of the Company has authorized it to file for creditor protection under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) in Canada. A number of Quebecor World's U.S. subsidiaries are also covered by the CCAA filing in Canada as well as in the United States under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code. Application under the CCAA will be heard by the Quebec Superior Court on January 21, 2008 and the filing under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code will be made in the Southern Judicial District of New York.

Quebecor World's Board of Directors, in a unanimous decision, authorized the Company to take this action as the best alternative for the long-term interests of the Company, its employees, customers, creditors and other stakeholders. Operations outside of North America are not included in these filings.

The Company has also announced that it has entered into financing commitments with Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley for new financing in the amount of US$1 billion. This financing, which is subject to approval of Courts in both Canada and the United States, will allow the Company to meet all current operating needs, including wages, benefits and other operating expenses.

Jacques Mallette, Quebecor World's President and CEO said: "These steps allow the Company to continue operating as a going concern for the benefit of all those affected including our many loyal employees, customers and suppliers. The Company has a strong business and valuable assets located throughout the world. We believe that the steps we are taking today and the strong vote of confidence given to us by our new finance lenders will ensure that we will be able to protect the value of the business for our stakeholders."

Mr. Mallette added: "Today's filing is the result of industry pressures, particularly in Europe, combined with the inability of the Company to raise new capital in the current market environment and the inability to complete the sale of its European operations. The steps we initiate today will allow the Company to make changes which are necessary to ensure the long-term viability of the Company within a process that ensures fair and equitable treatment for all stakeholders."

Labels: Ontario, printing, publishing, Quebec, Toronto

Labels: Alberta, conventions, Edmonton, events, manga

Labels: British Columbia, comic jams, events, Vancouver

Labels: British Columbia, conventions, events, Vancouver

"The Price of Freedom" McLaughlin Senior Common Room, 140 McLaughlin College, York University. (www.yorku.ca) Noon. Iranian cartoonist and journalist Nik Kowsar will give a talk on "The Price of Freedom of Expression," as part of the series McLaughlin College Winter Term Lunch Talks 2008.

Labels: events, political cartooning, real world

Labels: art show, British Columbia, events, exhibits, Vancouver

Labels: Alberta, British Columbia, conventions, Edmonton, events, manga, Manitoba, Moncton, New Brunswick, Ontario, Quebec, Toronto, Vancouver, Winnipeg

Labels: awards, graphic novels, international, Ontario, Toronto

Labels: printing, publishing

Labels: bd, exhibits, fanzines, floppies, graphic novels, U.S. superhero franchises

Labels: art show, bd, comic jams, Montreal

Labels: Ontario, printing, publishing, Toronto

I think Rex has become legendary for being text heavy. If one cannot achieve fame, go for infamy and take kickbacks from ophthalmologists.

There are two reasons for its text heavy nature: first, it's about a librarian. Second, it's a reaction against text-light -- screenplay light, in many cases -- comics.

I liked '70s comics with their copious amounts of redundant explanatory text. That's a part of the genre for me.

I also wanted something that people could go back to and look at a second or third time and always discover something new. I have no objection to people skimming the text.

Comics with little text have little re-read value. That's one reason why I was so fond of Mad Magazine: they threw in all sorts of neat extras, from bogus product info to Sergio Aragones in the margins. You could reread a Mad Magazine a dozen times and always come away with value. I liked that. Great accompaniment for a bowl of late night cereal when you're a kid. You don't get that with the mainstream titles, some of which read like storyboards for movies. I could read one all the way through in five minutes while standing in the comic book store. Not that I'd do that, of course. We all know that would be wrong. You'd need several of these comics to last through a single cup of coffee.

Like most revolutionaries I swung the pendulum too far.

Labels: comics in libraries, floppies, graphic novels

Labels: Alberta, censorship, legal news, political cartooning, publishing

Speaking via phone from her studio in Corbeil, a town in Ontario, Canada, Johnston, 60, said that after tying up loose ends, she plans to stop writing material about the modern-day characters, although she will make a few mainly cosmetic changes to the classic versions. "I'll fix up some of the old illustrations that I want to improve, and flesh out some story lines," she said.

Although Johnston had originally planned to continue integrating the new and old versions of the comic when the strip ends, she's since decided that "going back in time is confusing to people," so she won't have Michael et al introducing the material.

Labels: comic strips, Lynn Johnston, Ontario

Labels: copyright, political cartooning, webcomics

Labels: Alberta, comics history, U.S. superhero franchises

If you were forced to describe Julie Morstad's drawings in a few quick words "subdued, languid creepiness" might do the trick. Subdued and languid: no matter how macabre the situation her characters find themselves in they never scream, their almond-shaped eyes vacantly stare out at their bizarre predicaments, and an air of genteel languor, as at an Edwardian tea party, hangs over every scene. Creepiness: insect and snakes crawl everywhere, limbs have a way of mutating into odd shapes (often looking like the furry squirrel tails), heads are frequently detached from bodies.

Labels: drawings, illustration, reviews

• the D+Q store is hosting a series of comix and silkscreening workshops --the classes are filling up fast!

• Seth is the featured artist in the most recent issue of Border Crossings, a Canadian art mag

• upcoming in January: Fire Away by Chris von Szombathy, Lucky Volume 2 #2 by Gabrielle Bell, Palooka-ville #19 by Seth, All We Ever Do Is Talk About Wood by Tom Horacek

Labels: comics in school, comics retailers, events, graphic novels, publishing, Quebec

Labels: pod casts

The choice to use comics was equally easy. "How do we make people who maybe don’t read the financial section of the newspapers aware of Canada's role in the mining industry around the world?" Widgington says of his decision. "It seemed like the perfect opportunity; to get some comics and some journalism together, and see what happened."

The result, released in December, is Extraction! Comix Reportage, an investigative graphic novel that reveals the dark side of the Canadian mining industry both internationally, in India and Guatemala, and at home in northern Quebec and Alberta's controversial oil sands.

Labels: cartoon reportage, comics history, interviews, political cartooning, Quebec

• Western Standard ex-publisher Ezra Levant goes before the Alberta Human Rights Commission today to "defend his former magazine's 2006 publication of a series of Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad," according to this article from the Calgary Herald. This court (really an interview to determine if the charge warrants a full hearing) is in session because the head of Islamic Supreme Council of Canada filed a complaint about the cartoons.


• No Bookstores for Sim: Dave Sim talks about his new comic book series Glamourpuss, insisting "that brick-and-mortar comic book stores be the only environments to profit from my work.

• Jog the Blog on Nog a Dod

• Speaking of Marc Bell, read all about how the Inkstuds gang is celebrating their 2nd anniversary with art shows and jams.

• Shuffleboil interviews Jeff Lemire about his graphic novel Essex County 2: Ghost Stories.

• As Kevin Boyd notes, the first draft of a list of all eligible artists, writers, and cartoonists who produced work in 2007 is up at the Shuster Awards site. Any additions should be emailed to them pronto.

• Rachelle Goguen's Best of 2007 list

• Madeline Ashby explains why manga is better than U.S. superhero comics

Labels: Alberta, Calgary, censorship, comics retailers, events, graphic novels, manga, political cartooning, U.S. superhero franchises

• The brighter and bigger location is just after Queen / Bathurst. Drop by and visit the new 3rd Quadrant Comics headquarters at:
  685 Queen Street West, 2nd floor
  Toronto, ON M6J 1E6
  Directions
  
• You can also find 3rd Quadrant Comics within the Black Market Clothing Megawarehouse.
  256a Queen Street West (near Queen / John), Lower Level, Toronto, ON M5V 1Z8
  
  • Directions

Labels: comics retailers, comicshoptalk, Ontario, Toronto

prices, particularly prices of Canadian titles, can only come down so far here, especially given the limited economies of scale available in a country of 33 million and the discounting practised by the country's dominant retailer, Indigo Books and Music. As Roy MacSkimming, author of The Perilous Trade: Book Publishing in Canada 1946-2006, observed yesterday: "If Canadian books had to be priced according to real costs in a totally sort of Adam Smith world, with no government support, they'd be way higher than they are already." Remarked Carolyn Quinn, executive director of the Association of Canadian Publishers: "You can't get blood out of a stone. Profit margins in this country are "very small ... and a book costs what it costs," even with subsidies from the federal government's Book Publishing Industry Development Program, among other publicly funded support networks.

At the same time, Quinn acknowledged that "the industry has evolved" in such a way that "people expect a book that you want to give someone for his or her birthday, whether it's a history of your 25,000-population town or it's The Da Vinci Code, is going to cost more or less about the same."

Martin acknowledged the Random Canada conglomerate, a wholly owned foreign subsidiary with imprints such as Knopf, Doubleday and Vintage, "is better able to withstand the coming storm" than, for example, a Canadian-owned independent like Toronto-based House of Anansi, which has to make most of its money from Canadian titles.

Labels: dollar, Ontario, publishing, Toronto

• Bedeis Causa

• Wright Awards

• Shuster Awards

• National Newspaper Award

• Prix Bedelys

• Expozine Awards

• Said Shiraga Rahimi, 1971-2007

• Muff Mills, 1923-2007

• Jocelyn Houde, 1960-2007

• John Collins, 1917-2007

• Alootook Ipellie, 1951-2007

• Peter Whalley, 1926-2007

-----
For a more detailed, month-by-month chronicle of the year in comics, you could do worse than take a stroll through the Sequential archives:

January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

Labels: analysis, British Columbia, Lynn Johnston, Ontario, Quebec, Toronto, Vancouver

• What does Canadian non-fiction cartoonist David Collier have to do with ancient Mexican civilizations? According to the Edmonton Journal's Gilbert A. Bouchard, quite alot. Bouchard also interviews Joe Sacco.

• Faith Erin Hicks' Zombies Calling graphic novel is the best-selling book at Strange Adventures in Halifax, according to Michelle Macleod of the Chronicle-Herald. The zombie-battling tale is a big draw for everyone over the age of 13.
  

Labels: comics retailers, comicshoptalk, Edmonton, graphic novels, Halifax, Nova Scotia

We're currently filling the spots available for professionals for the April 12-13 Fan Appreciation show. We've got an amazing selection of pros committed already, but as per the policy of my associates, announcements won't be made until February. Tiziano and I have been working very hard on this, and we are really trying to make this a special event for the fans and I think some jaws will drop when they see who is coming! If you are a pro, or know of a professional creator who wants to attend this event and set up a table, please let me know. I'll also be getting in touch with people I know locally as we finalize the remaining out of town guests. Everyone who is signed on by late January should make it onto the published list. So far we've got a great balance of modern popular artists and "legend" status creators with decades of experience.

Labels: conventions, events, hobbystar, Ontario, Toronto

• Chris Butcher blogs up a storm about "best-of" lists, internet jerks, Canadian comics, and lots of other stuff.
  



• Concordia University's Pierre Bartkowiak profiles comic book colourist Joel Seguin.

• The Comic Book Bin's Herve St-Louis sums up 2007 with a list of articles and a note about the continuing fight over copyright.

• The Comic Book Bin's Geoff Hoppe reflects on Marvel's 2007.

• The Brampton Library has a Manga Club.

• The creators of The Amaze-o-nauts Must Die!, a new play about the private life of a super-villain, are profiled in Edmonton's VUE Weekly.

• Canadian readers fall behind U.S.

Labels: comics on stage, links, manga, tools of the trade, U.S. superhero franchises