Labels: British Columbia, events, exhibits, graphic novels, political cartooning, Quebec, Vancouver

• Halifax-based Bryan Lee O'Malley provides a public service by dissecting the new Tokyopop contract. O'Malley, who has a successful series of books in print and a major Hollywood film based on his books planned, knows a few things about creative control and, I would expect, contracts. All contracts, Hollywood, webcomic, or book, should be looked at by a lawyer (better still, a lawyer who is familiar with publishing or copyright).

• Reanna Alder of The Tyee interviews Vancouver curator Bruce Grenville and has a nice review of both the show and catalog for the KRAZY! exhibit. I saw the book myself at the Beguiling last week and it is quite a handsome volume, with great visuals and nice notes by all the co-curators on their selections.

• Sequential didn't get the press release, but the Beat reproduces the pertinent text of the inductees to the Shuster Awards hall of fame. The inductees this year are U.S. citizen John Byrne (co-creator of Alpha Flight), 1930s-40s cartoonist/writer Ted McCall (creator of the Men of the Mounted and Robin Hood comic strips), satiric cartoonist Pierre Fournier (Capitaine Kebec), and 70s satirist Stanley Berneche (Fuddle Duddle, Captain Canada). The induction ceremony will be part of the awards Saturday, June 14th in Toronto.

Labels: awards, British Columbia, copyright, events, exhibits, graphic novels, Halifax, legal news, manga, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Toronto, Vancouver

Labels: conventions, events, manga, Toronto

• Real World: This news item is the perfect example of what has come to be called "not comics" --the only tangential relation to comics is that is was forwarded by ex-comics publisher David Widgington. Anyway, readers of Sequential may want to follow this story, about Canadian mining giant Barrick-Gold slapping Montreal publisher Editions Ecosociete with a nuisance lawsuit in an attempt to block publication of a book critical of corporate practices in Africa (the book links Barrick Gold Corp. to the alleged 1996 deaths of miners in Tanzania). The publication of the book, Noir Canada: Pillage, corruption et criminalite en Afrique, was delayed after the $6 million (!) lawsuit appeared, but the publisher is fighting back with a solidarity campaign and responses from the Canadian Labour Congress and press coverage.

• Publishing: Robin Bougie and Maxine Frank present MAXIMUM SUPEREXCITEMENT #2: LIBRARIAN ISLAND.

• Publishing: Stuart Immonen has just released CENTIFOLIA, an art book collecting sketches, strips, and finished art. I saw a copy in my local shop today and it is a handsome package.

• Retailing: Ben Benedict talks to Brahm Wiseman of London, Ont.'s Heroes on the occasion of its grand re-opening this past Saturday.

• Conventions: Andrew Nguyen posts the first report from this past weekend's Anime North event in in Toronto.

• Weird: Chester Brown redrew this classic Jack Kirby story, the cover of which was recently plagiarized in The New Yorker, last year for the Wright Awards.

• The Critics: Jeet Heer on John Stanley and Carl Barks; Chris Butcher on smut comics for Eye Weekly; Eddie Campbell on Dave Sim; Laura Hudson on Dave Sim (and Chester Brown); Shannon Smith on Dave Sim's Glamourpuss; Ken Parille on Glamourpuss.

Labels: comics retailers, graphic novels, Ontario, Quebec, real world, Toronto

Bonjour a Tous!

Le Comix Jam se tiendra au Bar des Pins, 3714 rue du Parc Jeudi prochain, le 29 Mai a 20hres. Comme d'habitude amenez votre attirail du dessinateur et votre bonne humeur!

The next Comix Jam will be held at Bar des Pins, 3714 Park, this coming Thursday, May 29 at 8 PM. As usual, bring your artist gear and good humor!

A la Prochaine!
See You there!

Jane

Labels: comic jams, events, Montreal, Quebec

T.O. Comic Jam time again. Toronto Comic Jam This Tuesday May 27th, 2008, 9:00 p.m. onwards in the back room of the Cameron Public House, 408 Queen St. W., (Queen-Spadina). All welcome. B.Y.O.pens and stuff, paper provided.

See you there,

Dalton

Also, if you have some music you want to hear bring a CD and we'll play it, otherwise it's the Led Zeppelin in Paris bootleg again.

www.torontocomicjam.com

Labels: comic jams, Ontario, Toronto

Labels: conventions, events, Ontario, Toronto

On April 5, during Cumulus Press' 10th anniversary celebration, publisher David Widgington
stood up on a chair, thanked everyone for helping celebrate 10 years of independent publishing,
then prior to cutting into the massive cake of Cumulus' logo, announced that Cumulus Press was
shuting down.
"This is not a funeral," Widgington said to more than 100 people in attendance. “It is a wake to
celebrate 10 great years!" He also stated that several of Cumulus' titles will remain in print and
carried by other publishers like Montreal's Conundrum Press. "Cumulus Press books will live on
through these types of collaborations," the publisher added.
Widgington stressed that he is not ending his publishing career because he of a difficult financial
situation but rather because he is changing his medium of communication. "I loved publishing
books that criticize established structures and propose new ones even though it is increasingly
difficult to do so," which he emphasized with the $6-million SLAPP lawsuit by Barrick Gold
against non-profit Les Editions Ecosociete and the authors of the title, Black Canada: pillage,
corruption and criminality in Africa. "I will continue in the same direction as Cumulus but will
evolve further with documentary filmmaking, which I have been dabbling in for many years as
member of video collective Les Lucioles."
Widgington thanks all of the authors, editors, publishers and others that he has collaborated with
over Cumulus Press' ten-year lifespan. "I look forward to sharing my film work with them in the
future," he said.

Labels: Quebec

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The new Bieres et bandes dessinees contest has been organized in
conjunction with Oleg Dergachov, MA, cartoonist and sculptor, and Deborah
Wood, home brewer and Master of Arts degree holder. Contest participants must
invent a cartoon featuring beer: beer and women, beer and politics, beer and
the environment, etc. A six-member international jury will select the winners.
Winners will receive cash prizes: GOLD Beer Stein: $1500; SILVER Beer Stein:
$1,000; and BRONZE Beer Stein: $500.

Labels: awards, contest, events, Montreal, Quebec

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Labels: book launches, events, graphic novels, Montreal, publishing, Quebec

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Labels: Alberta, Calgary, comics scholarship, events, graphic novels, New Brunswick, Ontario, Quebec, Toronto

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I talked with a variety of retailers and pros at the end of the convention to see how they did. Most of the responses ranged from slow to okay. One unhappy dealer said he only made his table costs. Nobody seemed particularly enthusiastic about the show. One dealer said the entire market is slow right now. He says people have money and they're seeing stuff they're interested in, but they need some enticing to spend it. He was giving discounts in order to do that. That dealer was selling TPBs only. Another dealer who was only selling back issues said pretty much the same thing. He said he dropped his prices by half, something he very rarely does, but it did move a lot of stuff. Overall there was a bit of disparity between retailers and dealers. Retailers that participated in the 10 dollar voucher to promote the con got their tables for free, while dealers had to pay for them.

Almost every retailer/dealer I talked to gave me a different answer for what moved well for them. One said the expensive wall comics, another Captain America books, another Bronze/Modern bins, another Hardcovers, another Golden Age books, another Manga and 1-2 dollar bins, a few said Trades. Some of those with a mix said everything sold equally well. I noticed a lot of sellers seemed to be specializing. Some come with only back issue bins, some come with only trades. Even with the back issue bins it broke down to dollar bins with bronze to moderns, some silver-bronze, some gold.

I talked to a handful of pro's and they were split about Saturday or Sunday being better for them. My general impression was that Saturday drew out the die hard readers willing to spend some money. The "Free" Sunday attracted a different crowd, likely a more budget conscious group. Some of them appeared to be more casual readers or still quite new to comics.

Labels: conventions, events, hobbystar, Ontario, Toronto

• Another obit for Robert Bierman, the political cartoonist who passed away April 16.

• The Comic Book Bin chronicles the move from print to web by cartoonist Karl Kerschl.

• Ivan Anchukov of Voronezh, Russia, won the 8th Annual International Competition for Editorial Cartoonists from among 700 cartoons submitted from 40 countries, in an award handed out in Ottawa May 2nd in honour of International Press Freedom day (May 3).
  

• The comics critics: "Jog" tackles Dave Sim's Glamourpuss comic while Tom Spurgeon casts a wide net over Michel Rabagliati's graphic novel Paul Goes Fishing.

• Chris Butcher wants your help in i.d.-ing the hottest obscure manga.

• The second volume in the Cosmos Cafe album series by Quebec bedeist Tristan Demers in now out.

• Newsarama interviews graphic novelist Faith Erin Hicks.

Labels: awards, censorship, graphic novels, links, Ottawa, political cartooning, Quebec

Labels: British Columbia, obituaries, Ontario, political cartooning, Toronto

• Zeros 2 Heroes' latest endeavour involves recruiting a writer for an internship at big video game company BioWare. According to the Z2H press release, the contest is being co-sponsored by the National Screen Institute, a tradeschool with 60% of its funding coming from government sources: "As part of increasing their capacity, BioWare has joined the NSI playWRITE competition --a Telefilm-funded collaboration between the National Screen Institute and Zeros 2 Heroes --as a partner who will provide an internship to a winner announced in August 2008. To find out how to pitch, go here.

• Vancouver cartoonist Jonathan Dalton was the hit of the Portland, Oregon comics convention, Stumptown, according to Tom Spurgeon.

• Related: Tom Spurgeon has some nice things to say about Canadian resident Hope Larson's Chiggers graphic novel.

• Want updates? Cartoonist Jason Copland (Mortal Coils, Digital Webbing Presents) has just created a monthly newsletter with the promise of free art.

• Law student and D+Q cartoonist talks to the National Post about his collection, All We Ever Do Is Talk About Wood.

• The son of political cartoonist Yardley Jones, Spyder Yardley-Jones, is an artist in his own right.

• The Montreal Gazette profiles Jesse Heffring's attempt to produce a sci-fi graphic novel.

Labels: British Columbia, graphic novels, links, Quebec, Vancouver