Labels: cartoon reportage, publishing

Labels: bestsellers, comic strips, comics retailers, graphic novels, manga, U.S. superhero franchises

Labels: landmarks

• The Shuster Awards have announced a new prize, The Gene Day Award for Canadian Self-Publishing. The award is named for Day (1951-1982) is perhaps best known as an inker on Marvel's Master of Kung Fu in the 70s and as an early mentor to Dave Sim. He was also a pioneer self-publisher and zine publisher, specializing in horror, sci-fi and other genre material.

• Matt Forsythe blogs about the cover design to his Ojingogo graphic novel.

• Not too many cartoonists from the Great White North ever reach a level of success where large toy companies start making action figures of their creations. This small club now includes Jay Stephens.

• It's a Canada Goose! It's an Avro Arrow! It's ..... Superloonie. ATB Financial, a stock broker, has released a superhero comic designed to help people contribute to an RRSP at tax time.

• Jiving Jeet Heer, the wisest of Canadian comics critics, is interviewed about classic comic strips and Canadian comics culture at CBR's Robot 6 column.

Labels: awards, C-List, cartoon reportage, links

Sword of My Mouth #1
Jim Munroe (w) - Shannon Gerard (a)

If Ella didn't have her baby, she'd go crazy from the loneliness. But she might still go crazy from the guilt, because the baby isn't quite right. The world was simpler before the righteous floated away into the sky, and magic started working.

A stand-alone six-issue story continuing on from acclaimed graphic novel Therefore Repent! Sword of My Mouth moves the focus from Chicago, under siege by angels with machine guns, to the urban prairie of Detroit, where a different kind of struggle is faced.

Folks in the D have banded together to turn land with burned out crackhouses into farming tracts, and seem to be on a road to self-sufficiency... until Famine rides into town. This six-issue story arc will be written by creator Jim Munroe ("a pop culture provocateur" - Austin Chronicle) and drawn by Shannon Gerard.

B&W - 32 pages - $3.99
See PREVIEWS page 266.
Diamond Previews code: MAR09 4308

FREE DIGITAL COPY: If you want to preview the grafic novel Therefore Repent! it's now also available for download via the NMK site here.

Labels: digital comics, downloads, free, new books, Ontario, Toronto

The don't just write about comics on the internet, y'know.

Labels: publishing, zines

• Lynn Johnston tries a kids book.

• At the Shusters blog: Calgary retailer Another Dimension interviewed;

• Toronto Comics Arts Festival adds 13 more guests (for a total of 120), including Kate Beaton and Ho Che Anderson.

• Stuart and Kathryn Immonen are interviewed at Newsarama.

• Toronto comic shop The Beguiling on approved list of suppliers for Ontario schools.

• At the Globe and Mail, copyright lawyer Grace Westcott discusses the Google bookscanning legal decision ("Google is a behemoth, and the Google Settlement, if approved, will make it the behemoth of the book. It sits astride the textual murmurings of the world. Will the restraints of the Book Registry be enough to keep it from abusing such a position, or will they be like the ropes of the Lilliputians around the sleeping Gulliver?")

• Webcomics wunderkind Ryan Sohmer interviewed at CBR.

• The Inkstuds podcast interviews Vancouver underground legend George Metzger. (that's his comic up top)

Labels: C-List, links, undergrounds

Labels: comic jams, events, events links, Montreal, Quebec, social ink

Labels: comics in school, drawing classes, Montreal, Quebec, workshop

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Michael: "I have 2 exhibits almost lined up- one in Vancouver and one in Calgary. i'm aiming institution/museum scale and during my April trip to Ottawa (Pedal to the Meddle will be installed at the National Art Center), i'm gong to see what i might find for a exhibit space as well."

Labels: art show, British Columbia, Calgary, Vancouver

Labels: comic jams, events, Moncton, New Brunswick, social ink

Labels: aperances, bd, Montreal, Quebec

Labels: comic jams, social ink, Vancouver

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Labels: bestsellers, comic strips, graphic novels, manga, U.S. superhero franchises

• Canwest Global, the multinational media company run by the Asper family and publisher of the National Post, continues to have financial trouble.

• Conservative columnist Robert Fulford writes about the "newspaper deathwatch" hysteria.

• Chris Butcher catches the news that Diamond will no longer carry or distribute over 1000 manga volumes published by U.S.-based VIZ. For those not in the know, VIZ is essentially the publisher of the bestselling comics in Canada, even though the de-listed volumes may not be the bestselling comics currently (if ever).

• Speaking of which, the Beat discusses the Diamond bestsellers for January, featuring backlist titles.

• Win Darwyn Cooke stuff. Mail-in a postcard for a chance at rare publications, posters, etc.

• Seaguy sneak-peak: Cameron Stewart pencils for the upcoming Grant Morrison series. The latest installment of Stewart's Sin Titulo webcomic is now online.

• Chip Zdarsky writes a heartfelt valentine to comic books. "Sniff!" It's goddam beautiful!

• The McGill daily profiles Diane Obomsawin, whose Kaspar Hauser graphic novel has just been published by Drawn and Quarterly.

• A profile of Marni Stanley's university comics class at Vancouver Island University.

• Canadian sex columnist salivates over homosexual superheroes.

• Does the Canadian media and education system not do enough to promote Canadian books? Cormorant Books publisher Mark Cote argues this is the case in an essay for the Globe.

• Let's hear it for the Guelph Pen Club! Click to see the drunken scrawls of local cartoonists including Nick Craine and Jay Stephens.

Labels: C-List, links

"Since January 2008, Diamond Comics, the largest comic book distributor in North America has required that all products it distributes include barcodes that can be scanned by its staff and by North American comic book retailers. Diamond Comics has aggressively encouraged comic book retailers to adopt its point of sale (POS) scanning technology. Many Canadian retailers have adopted the scanning technology in their stores. However, many product vendors have stopped including specific Canadian prices on their products. In turn, Canadian retailers have begun using American prices on products ordered through Diamond Comics. Many comic book retailers use Diamond Comics exclusively as their distribution channel. Many stores now inform their customers that all prices are quoted in US dollars and adjusted at the checkout point to match the current Canadian/US dollar exchange rate."

Labels: comics retailers, news, sale

As usual, the 2009 DWA jury will be comprised of representatives from a wide swath of Canadian society, from arts and culture to politics and the media. The jury for the 5th annual awards is impressive. They are as follows:

Labels: awards, book launches, events, events links, festivals, tcaf

Labels: births, events

• For Valentine's Day, Miriam Libicki talks about sex in graphic novels.

• Vancouver artist Mark Atmos Pilon is interviewed on the inkstuds show.

• Ontario schoolkids create comic book.

• Bookninja shares some thoughts on the arts funding in the federal budget.

• More Bryan Lee O'Malley video.

• The Kindle e-book reader device is still not coming to Canada.

• Career-spanning interview with Mr. X designer Dean Motter.

• How does a major superhero artist jump from DC to Marvel? Dale Eaglesham walks you through his journey.

• The McMichael Gallery, known for its collection of Group of 7 and other iconic Canadian art, has an exhibit of Canadian war art featuring work by cartoonist Ken Steacy, among many others.

• Seth exhibit moves to Dundas, Ont (very cute pictures).

Labels: C-List, links

Labels: bestsellers, comic strips, comics retailers, graphic novels, manga, U.S. superhero franchises

Costumed characters on Hollywood's Walk of Fame allege attacks by music vendors, seek officials' help


Alex Brovedani, a 27-year-old actor who portrays such characters as Batman and Robin on the boulevard, said he has been assaulted four times by CD vendors.

"Sometimes they try to horn in when we're with tourists. Some characters will tell them to wait their turn. That's when they start threatening," Brovedani said.

"They beat up Nacho Libre and gave him a shiner. I've gotten punched in the face. I've been knocked down and kicked in the head. They beat Freddy Krueger with brass knuckles."

Being dressed as a superhero doesn't help, Brovedani said.

"With costumes on it's hard to fight back, even as Batman. Our costumes are so clunky we can't catch them when they run away."

Labels: cosplay, U.S. superhero franchises, video

Labels: bd, blogosphere, graphic novels

"there are 140,000 artists in Canada who spent more time at their art than at any other occupation in May 2006. Artists include actors, authors, choreographers, craftspeople, composers, conductors, dancers, directors, musicians, producers, singers and visual artists.
The number of artists is slightly larger than the number of Canadians directly employed in the automotive industry (135,000).
The report also notes that the broader cultural sector has about 609,000 workers and comprises 3.3% of the overall labour force in Canada. One in every 30 people in Canada has a cultural occupation. This is about double the level of employment in the forestry sector in Canada (300,000) and more than double the level of employment in Canadian banks (257,000)."

"At $3.2 billion, the total earnings of artists account for one-half of one percent of total earnings in the overall Canadian labour force (0.5%).
The average earnings of artists are $22,700, compared with an average of $36,300 for all Canadian workers. The gap between artists' average earnings and overall labour force earnings is 37%.
To bridge the earnings gap and bring the average earnings of artists up to the same level as the overall labour force would require an additional $1.9 billion in earnings for artists.
The average earnings of artists are only 9% higher than Statistics Canada's low-income cutoff for a single person living in a community of 500,000 people or more ($20,800)."

Labels: statistics

• More discussion about the decision by Diamond Distribution, the largest distributor of comic books to comic book shops, to raise its minimums, potentially pushing many small circulation books out of the comic shop market. Although Drawn and Quarterly had slowly been moving away from the serial comic/floppy format, the news that two series by Kevin Huizenga and Sammy Harkham were being cancelled seems to confirm the effect thie Diamond decision will have on small publishers and cartoonists. Tom Spurgeon talks about why this is a bad idea. Dirk Deppey notes that publisher Last Gasp is also a distributor and the only one with both access to comic shops and a large catalog of alt comics.

• In related news, on the occasion of the graphic novel conference attached to this past weekend's New York Comicon, ICv2 released a few reports on graphic novel sales. The upshot is that graphic novel sales (especially Alan Moore- and Batman-related) were up in 2008, while manga sales and floppies were down. This despite a downturn during the last 3 months of 2008. Click here for a list of the top ten non-manga and superhero graphic novels of 2008. Although there is only one Canadaian artist represented in the list, Canuck publisher D+Q has 3 books placed. Overall, retailers seem optimistic about the market.

• Bryan Lee O'Malley is profiled in the New York Times. He was also probably interviewed a million times over the weekend by smaller outfits. Here he is on a video from Comic Book Resources. The Shusters blog's Jason Truong has links about other Canadians who don't happen to have a highly-anticpated movie based on their work coming out (top image comes from a report about Dale Eaglesham going exclusive with Marvel).
  

• Not New York: Michael Cho has some basic tips about comics inking. You can also read the latest installment of his webcomic here.

Labels: C-List, links

Labels: comics on tv, creator's rights, movies, Ontario, Toronto

Labels: C-List, links

Labels: book launches, drawings, events, events links, Montreal, Quebec, video

Labels: change, comics retailers, conventions, Diamond, interviews, news, Ontario, paradise comicon, Toronto

Labels: bestsellers, comic strips, comics retailers, graphic novels, manga, publishing, U.S. superhero franchises

Labels: book launches, graphic novels, international, publishing

• As we mentioned in a previous post, Reed Exhibitions has been having trouble signing up publishers for its recently announced Fall book fair in Toronto. Quill and Quire broke the news yesterday that Reed has canceled the annual BookExpo, scheduled for June. The culprits? The large group of Canadian publishers (really branch plants of U.S. publishers) including Random House, Penguin and HarperCollins, who have decided that it's not profitable to devote resources to what is essentially a regional trade show. For good measure, Reed has canceled the proposed Fall show (aka "Booked!") as well. In terms of comics, BookExpo Canada, essentially a tame version of a comics convention that doesn't let fans in and focused on non-comics, had been following the lead of its New York counterpart in recent years, introducing a "Graphic Novels Tent" and some comics panels, in order to help sell this hot new category to publishers and book buyers. The Shusters blog has the CP article and a quote from Scott Chantler, who launched his Northwest Passage graphic novel at BookExpo in 2007 and notes that it lead to great things for him. It's hard to imagine that the show cancellation will have a major impact on the book business but its effect on individual authors and small publishers should be noticeable.

• Some reports from this past weekend's Toronto Comicon: Jason Truong, Nexus Studios, The Comic Store Critic

• Publishing: Four Vancouver area artists set to launch Dystopia comics anthology.

• Retail: The top 15 books of the month at Montreal comic shop Fichtre.
• Review: Some notes on Kelly Byrne's Lillian the Legend.
  

Labels: C-List, links

Labels: events, illustration, political cartooning, Toronto

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Labels: C-List, links