Labels: Alberta, Calgary, comics history, comics scholarship

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To celebrate the first publication of Joe Shuster's groundbreaking co-creation, Superman, we thought it would be appropriate for us to organize an exhibit of artwork by Canadian comic book artists to salute this historic anniversary. With this in mind, we're contacting over a hundred different and diverse creators all across Canada and the world with a request for their individual take on this renowned character to be shown in our Visions of an Icon art exhibit on June 14th (which we hope to follow up with a publication of these works and a longer exhibition of the works at another venue --- both of which are in the planning and negotiations stage now).

We've tried to keep the artwork specs quite basic to maintain a consistency of picture size for the exhibit so what we're looking for is an image on a page of standard comic art paper (11" X 17" --- either one of those preprinted pages or 2 ply paper cut to that size) with a central 10" X 15" illo of Superman in pencil, ink or in colour -- your choice. The sky's the limit as to how an artist may decide to approach this artwork but as this is a tribute to Canadian-born co-creator Joe Shuster and to the 70th anniversary of this celebrated character our only request is that the illustration be in the spirit of that sentiment.

Labels: art show, awards, events, exhibits, Toronto, U.S. superhero franchises

Labels: analysis, bestsellers, BookManager, comic strips, comics retailers, graphic novels, manga, publishing

The Toronto Comic Jam runs this Tuesday, March 25th, 9:30 on in the back room of the Cameron House, 408 Queen St. W., Spadina & Queen. See you there!
-Dalton
www.torontocomicjam.com

Also:
** Next Friday, March 28th, Bax Bear hits Toronto including bears painted by Matthew Daley, Fiona Smyth, Chris Hutsul, J.B., etc. Opening Night Party 6 p.m.-10 p.m. Come out! The Vancouver party looks like it was great. http://torontocomicjam.livejournal.com/2942.html

** If you missed the Frederic Back screening March 22, you can always check out his fantastic web site at your leisure - www.fredericback.com He has a lot of scanned art and there's even a kids' art program!

**T.O. Comic Jam veteran Greg McCann has a new animated short - http://digg.com/comics_animation/Scratch_McLead_in_Fair_Warning

Labels: British Columbia, comic jams, Ontario, Toronto, Vancouver

Labels: book launches, comic jams, Edmonton, events, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Toronto, Winnipeg

• 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

Labels: canadians abroad, comics with music, exhibits, graphic novels

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Labels: British Columbia, comics retailers, comicshoptalk, graphic novels, Vancouver

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• Jeff Lemire has a new 5-page comic online.

• This past Saturday, Happy Harbor Comics in Edmonton hosted their annual 12-Hour Comic Challenge for charity. Jamie Hall of The Edmonton Journal has a report.

• No, it's not Guy Delisle. Sudbury cartoonist Sue Dewar writes about her trip to China.

• Patrick Berube reviews Delisle's Chroniques Birmanes for Comic Book Bin and cofrims it will be translated by D+Q.

• This Georgia Straight article makes coherent sense of the latest press release from Zeros 2 Heroes, including the news that Astral Media has committed $18,000 towards script development for the latest winner of the Comic Book Nation contest.

• Another Vancouver web-based company, Optimum Wound Comics, has announced their first graphic novel release, Croatian artist Danijel Zezelj's Rex. Comic Book Bin has the press release.

• Steve Murray writes about how his parents used comics as positive reinforcement for the National Post.

• Teletoon is airing a few animated episodes of U.S. cartoonist's Aaron McGruder's Boondocks after the offending eps were yanked from the Cartoon Network. I can't tell if this is news or not --this isn't really an animation blog and I don't follow the show in question (it's pretty crappy).

Labels: blogosphere, British Columbia, comics on film, comics on tv, Edmonton, graphic novels, publishing, reviews, Vancouver

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Labels: awards, bd, events, Montreal, Quebec, zines

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Labels: awards, events, Montreal

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Announcing the third annual Expozine Alternative Press Awards Gala!

Monday March 10, 2008, 9 p.m., free admission, Mainline Theatre, 3997 St-Laurent, Montreal.

Featuring entertainment by the Dan D Lyons, Simon Paquet and the evening’s MC, Jean Giscagne.

Come and celebrate the best of the nearly 300 small presses that took part in last fall’s Expozine small press, comic and zine fair!

Six prizes will be awarded (three in English and three in French), recognizing the best book, comic and zine sold at Expozine. Musical comedy troupe the Dan D Lyons and monologuist Simon Paquet will entertain with a bilingual show, and genial host Jean Giscagne will once again present the awards with flair.

The winners were chosen by an esteemed panel of judges out of the hundreds of publications submitted at Expozine in November. The gala is a rare chance for you to meet and mingle with the most talented up-and-comers of the local publishing scene, as well as purchase copies of the short-listed titles.

The short list of nominated publications will be revealed here shortly before the gala.

This event is sponsored by the Mainline Theatre, Libraire Drawn and Quarterly (211 Bernard O.) and libraire Port de Tête (262 Mont-Royal O.).

Labels: awards, events, Montreal, Quebec

• That image from last week's story about Canadian employment statistics makes more sense when it is used in a profile of the Beguiling.

• Quebecor World news: European assets still in limbo; fails to get $1 billion bankruptcy loan, gets 30-day extension.

• Canadian newspaper biz healthier than U.S.

• A look back at a superhero created for Canada Post.

• The Death of Captain Copyright: a fascinating article about the ill-fated character created to teach Canadian schoolchildren about copyright.

• Cartoonist Chad Solomon writes about how Chad Solomon donated a drum.

• This article profiles the University of Alberta Library's Special Collection, including an exhibit of Ally Sloper, one of the first British comic strip characters from the 1800s.

• A few reports from this past weekend's manga and anime event in Moncton, Animaritime are starting to find their way online. In the meantime, there are many links to photos and video at the Animaritime forums here and here. A video of the closing ceremonies (a charming illustrated definition of the term "amateur hour") is on youtube here.

Labels: Alberta, links, Moncton

Labels: comic strips, comics history

Labels: conventions, events, manga, Moncton, New Brunswick

• Rick Trembles gives more than I ever wanted to know about tweenybopper Hannah Montana, in his latest comic strip movie review.

• Welcome back, Michael Cho. The Toronto cartoonist just got over a 3-week bout of hospital-quality intestinal nastiness.

• Jay Stephens has a comics version of his Secret Saturdays animated tv show coming from DC in June.

• Scott Chantler has announced that his next graphic novel project is a non-fiction adaptation of his grandfather's wartime diary. Scheduled for a 2009 release from Tundra Books.

• The nominees for the BC and Yukon Community Newspapers Association's Ma Murray Awards have been announced: Dennis Parker (Gulf Islands Driftwood), Wendy Brown (Powell River Peak), Wyatt Tremblay (Yukon News). The winner will be announced in April.

• Upcoming: The Expozine Gala takes place this coming Monday, March 10. 9 p.m., free admission, Mainline Theatre, 3997 St-Laurent, Montreal.
  

Labels: awards, British Columbia, floppies, graphic novels, Ontario, publishing, Quebec, Toronto

Project Wonderful uses an auction process for it’s buyers and sellers. If you want to run an ad to attract visitors to your site, you need to compete with other sites doing the same thing. You can do this on a site by site basis (someone can advertise, for example, on one or both boxes on my GirlAMatic site) or you can do it as a campaign. In the latter case, you enter in criteria and have PW bid on your behalf on sites that meet your specs. Personally, I use a combination of both. For instance, I find that I get a really good Q Rating on Wahoo Morris, probably because the two stories are somewhat similar and both Craig Taillefer and I are Ottawa-based creators. 'Course, maybe it's something entirely different. Regardless, I keep on bidding on his site because I like the results that I get.

If we assume, just for a sec, that those 4112 are unique individuals, then my $108.60 ad spend is pretty amazing. Even if it's quarter of that (say 1000 unique individuals), then I'm only spending 11 cents on each person. When I compare that to how much I spent going to various conventions slogging my work (keeping in mind that I went to both the Alternative Press Expo and the Small Press Expo from an advertising point of view and NOT to sell things), it's remarkable. $100.00 doesn't even cover the table costs, let alone manufacturing, travel, lodgings and food. I would never get that type of awareness going to a convention and I've certainly learned my lesson. Your mileage, of course, may vary.

Labels: blogosphere, graphic novels, Ottawa, webcomics

• Zombies Calling creator Faith Erin Hicks is interviewed here.

• The deliciously cartoony art of J.Bone is featured in the latest New Frontier spin-off/promotional item, out this week. Bone draws Wonder Woman.

• The Bank of Canada tells history of counterfeiting in comic form.

• Niagara students produce film on comics nerds: "Sketch of Life."

• Upcoming: Jillian and Mariko Tamaki on stage in Toronto, March 24.

Labels: comics history, contest, floppies, graphic novels, links, Ontario, political cartooning, Toronto, U.S. superhero franchises

Labels: analysis, Quebec, statistics

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• Frank Santoro gets bored, talks to Dave Sim.

• Columnist Peter Pickersgill reminisces about his days as a political cartoonist in Ottaw and the dreaded "Budget lock-up".

• Heather Mallick takes Ezra Levant to task.

• New comics store in Montreal: Planete BD opens March 25, 3883 St-Denis, right across the street from another shop, DeBeDe.

Labels: links, Quebec

Labels: floppies, graphic novels, publishing

• Tom Spurgeon offers a preview of Haligonian Ray Fenwick's Hall of Best Knowledge graphic novel at Comics Reporter.

• A report on comics culture in Japan by a journalist/tourist, at the Brantford Expositor.

• Toronto-based UpTrend Media is the new promoter of Platinum Studios' drunkduck.com webcomics and online community effort.

• International: Marvel is hyping a midnight launch for the newest volume of its Stephen King adaptation, Dark Tower. The previous volume has been on the Canadian bestseller lists for awhile now and the second volume drops March 5 at "participating retailers". Only U.S. comic book shops are listed at Marvel's website.

• Catching up with Jim Bartleman, Ontario's former lieutenant governor who taught himself to read with comic books found at the local garbage dump.

• Robin Bougie has the updated censorship rules now being used by Canada Customs and also notes that the first printing of his collected Cinema Sewer book is basically sold out.

Labels: links, Ontario, Toronto