I am now going to presume to tell you how to be successful in comic books.

Well, I'm not actually going to tell you that. No one can tell you that. If there was a magical club secret to finding success in sequential art and storytelling, it would have been leaked on a messageboard somewhere long ago. Then flamed. Then defended, flamed again, and, if it this hypothetical leak occurred anytime in the last year or so, tweeted.

Then it would have gone from tweeting to trending, and been retweeted and subsequently reposted across the blogosphere. The indie comic scene would have exploded overnight in a glorious flash of social-media-fuelled industry enlightenment.

...But, seeing as how that did not in fact occur, we'll assume that if there ever was such a secret, it died sometime before the age of digital technology.

Instead, I would like to take this opportunity to spout some thoughts at you, the reader, regarding observations I've made about the industry...--->>

Labels: Alberta, analysis, Calgary, can-con, cartoonists, comicshoptalk, interweb, tools of the trade

Labels: blogosphere, British Columbia, Calgary, graphic novels, interviews, PEI, profiles, Victoria

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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

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Labels: Alberta, British Columbia, Calgary, events, international, Ottawa, Vancouver

"I've been covering the comic book industry for years and have always found the level of professionalism and maturity of players involved lacking. Many times, I have written and said that what passes for public discourse in this industry would get all participants fired from their respective jobs, were they in any other mature industry." - Herve St-Louis

Labels: Alberta, analysis, awards, blogosphere, British Columbia, Calgary, can-con, cartoonists, Gatineau, grants, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Quebec, Toronto, Vancouver

• Jeet Heer on Harper's pretend populism and the cultural minefield he seems to have stepped into.

• Walrus blogger Sean Rogers writes about the Chester Brown series of promo comics about Toronto culture and nails Chester's approach to humour.

• Speaking of Mr. Brown, it looks like there is a new anthology to help fill the shelves in the Metis graphic novel section alongside Louis Riel: Now there is Stories of Our People: A Metis Graphic Novel Anthology, illustrated by cartoonist Carrie Saganace.

• Photos from the You Ain't No Dancer book launch at Lucky's Comics in Vancouver.

• The contributors to the above-mentioned anthology were interviewed on Inkstuds awhile back

• A report from the Calgary con by a U.S. comics person.

• Ryan Sohmer's webcomic Least I Could Do has just been collected in book form for the 5th time. Entitled Yield to Me, the book is available through this link.

Labels: Alberta, British Columbia, Calgary, links, Toronto, Vancouver

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

• This article about changes at Little Sister's bookstore in Vancouver and the freedom fighters who run it includes a quote from employee and cartoonist Ken Boesem.

• Derek McCormack writes about superhero costumes for the National Post.

• The newspaper in Milton, Ontario, reminds us that Free Comic Book Day is coming up this Saturday, May 2, and that Milton's comic book shop is called Geekdom.

• Quill and Quire covers the Canadian Eisner nominees (subscription required).

• Canadian icon, columnist, playwright, and champion of liberty Rick Salutin, reflects on the Siegel legal decision in the U.S. and ponders the chicken/egg nature of creation and myth.

• On the subject of showing the Mohammed cartoons on CBC.

• Jeet Heer interviewed about superheroes on the CBC.

• Gary Groth and a Toronto comic buyer with a scanner interviewed by the CBC about online comics piracy.

• Newsarama at Calgary Comic Expo.

• Chris Butcher is celebrating 6 years of blogging. Congratulations!

• "BIFF! BANG! POW! Music isn't just for kids anymore!"

Labels: Alberta, British Columbia, Calgary, censorship, comics history, copyright, events links, interviews, Ontario, pod casts, Toronto, U.S. superhero franchises, Vancouver

Labels: Alberta, Calgary, events

Labels: Alberta, Calgary, comics history, comics scholarship

• 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

Labels: Alberta, Calgary, graphic novels, links, misc, publishing, Quebec

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The cartoon currently appears in 36 newspapers in Canada, including the Toronto Star, Ottawa Citizen, Victoria Times Colonist, Regina Leader Post, Calgary Herald, and Edmonton Journal.

Chuckle Bros is the collaborative work of Brian Boychuk, a violinist with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, his brother Ron Boychuk, originally from Regina, and illustrator Ronnie Martin, also from Ottawa.

"With Torstar Syndication Services covering the Canadian market and now Creators Syndicate on board for both U.S. and worldwide distribution, the stage is set for one heck of a ride," said Brian Boychuk. "The Chuckle Bros are as ready as we'll ever be."

"The fabulous success of the Chuckle Bros launch was a great beginning, as editors found out what we already knew: this is a terrific little comic that people will love because it consistently delivers a solid punch line and outstanding art," said Robin Graham, Managing Director, Torstar Syndication Services. "Eight months later, we are still adding a steady stream of new customers."

"Chuckle Bros will make a great addition to our line-up and we're so excited to have them on board with their zany humour," said Margo Sugrue, National Sales Director, Creators Syndicate. "I first saw the panel in an editor's office at the Ottawa Citizen, and knew immediately that I'd love to have it."

Labels: Alberta, Calgary, comic strips, Edmonton, international, Ontario, Ottawa, Toronto

Soop used humor to point out social ills and to suggest things needed to be changed. From the time of his youth Soop lived with muscular dystrophy. As his disease progressed Soop focused less on journalism and became more of an activist in the aboriginal disabilities community and was awarded a Meritorious Service Medal posthumously in 2001.

Labels: Alberta, Calgary, events, exhibits, political cartooning

1. The Winnipeg Free Press reports on Lynn Johnston's induction into the Order of Manitoba:

Johnston, 60, rose to fame in the 1980s with her comic strip For Better or For Worse, now seen in over 2,000 newspapers worldwide.
Johnston, who now lives in northern Ontario, said she was "flummoxed" at the recognition.

"I'm ready to move back now," Johnston said, adding she feels a special place in her heart for our province.

"It would be great to call this home," she said.

2. The National Post interviews George Zotti, manager of Toronto comic book store Silver Snail, about what it takes to work for his elite organization:

if you want to work in his Queen West store, you'd better know your She-Hulk from your She-Ra, because Zotti has more questions than the Riddler when it comes to hiring a new clerk.

Do you like manga? Do you like action figures? Do you have a collection? And perhaps most crucial of all, are you a Marvel guy or a DC guy?

"That kind of gives me an idea if they know what they're talking about or if they're just trying to bluff," says Zotti. "Just because you have retail experience doesn't mean you're qualified to work here."

3. The Globe and Mail examines new trends in male-centric homedecorating, where the action figure is king. Interview subjects include Tom Spurgeon and Bart Beaty:

Bart Beaty, a University of Calgary professor who writes about comic books as visual culture, has confined his collection of comics and graphic novels to two areas of his house: The pamphlet-style Batman and Superman comics are in a closet in the basement, but the 3,000 European graphic novels he collected while researching his next book are on display in his dining room.

"We have people over for dinner and they sit there and stare and go 'What the hell is that?' " he said. "But I like the way it looks."

4. Toronto pop culture nerds are flocking to Friday Fright Night at the Bloor Cinema, according to The Globe:

Some horror fans are skeptical of Fright's claim that they screen real prints. But a visit to the projectionist's booth proved the reels were, in fact, real. Three months ago, the cinema acquired new, smaller lamp houses for their projectors, which help to create sharper colour and image.

Steve Manale, a 34-year-old comic-book artist, was one who noticed. "That print was perfect," he said, "I didn't see one scratch or splice."

5. The Globe's James Adams takes the pulse of Raincoast Books on the eve of the publication of the final Harry Potter novel. Raincoast is also a big graphic novel distributor, counting D+Q among its clients. Now that the Harry Potter craze may be winding down, how does Raincoast plan on filling the gaps in its publishing schedule?

As the Potter boom unfolded, Raincoast did expand editorially, buying the Polestar and Press Gang imprints in 2000, while moving more into children's literature (earlier this year it hired Tonya Martin, a New Yorker from Rowling's U.S. publisher, Scholastic, as children's books editor).

It had earlier brought in Joy Gugeler, managing editor for Vancouver's Beach Holme Publishing, to supervise a new Canadian adult-fiction program. But that program was folded last year, and while Raincoast's staff of 130 is almost double what it was a decade ago, the growth has been on the distribution, sales and marketing side.

"Still, you have to think that, had the latest Potter been released later this year, or in the spring of 2008, its suggested Canadian list price likely would be lower than $45, given the lag in price adjustment that seems to occur: in strictly mathematetical terms, the current price is actually a 2004 price"

That is not the case with the Honest Ed's store site, which would mean both the demolition of an iconic building and a jump across Bathurst for the development that has been creeping west along Bloor out of the city core.

Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone says that the city has not seen a proposal to redevelop the site. But if it does, he thinks redevelopment should not include Mirvish Village, the retail strip of converted houses along Markham Street, which the Mirvishes turned into arty stores and restaurants decades ago.

Labels: Alberta, Calgary, comics retailers, ephemera, events, links, Manitoba, Ontario, publishing, Toronto, Winnipeg

In fact, this is quite a touchy subject in Canada. Quebec-s nationalist movement has long been tainted with anti-Semitism. And Quebec is, without question, the most anti-Israeli and most anti-American of the Canadian provinces, earning it the nickname "Quebecistan." The anti-Semitic French comedian Dieudonne, for example, is hugely popular in Quebec (far more so than in France), invited to mainstream comedy festivals and onto publicly-funded radio, where he receives a sympathetic welcome.

This is not to say there is no anti-Semitism elsewhere in Canada. But were such cartoons to appear in the Globe and Mail (a national paper out of Toronto) or the Calgary Herald or Vancouver Sun, all hell would break loose.

More intellectually lazy still, some have tried to draw a parallel with the Danish Mohammed cartoons, stating that if one encouraged their publication, one should rejoice at these cartoons. I am not suggesting that these cartoons should not have run. Personally, I find them over the line, but each editorial page should decide such things for themselves. It should also be noted that Le Devoir was, to its credit, the only mainstream publication in Canada to run (one of) the Danish cartoons. I did believe the Danish cartoons should be published -- but I took no delight in the cartoons themselves, or the reaction they engendered. And that is where a more accurate comparison can be made.

So far, no one in Quebec's Jewish community -- or any Jewish community anywhere – has rioted, burned any embassies, threatened beheadings or caused the cartoonists in question to go into perpetual hiding.

Labels: Alberta, British Columbia, Calgary, Ontario, political cartooning, Quebec, Toronto, Vancouver

Labels: Alberta, blogosphere, Calgary, Edmonton, events

Labels: Alberta, Calgary, Edmonton, events, links

DECENSORTIZED NEWZ!

Wanna see my animated film Decensortized this weekend? Well then head on over to Calgary, Alberta cuz it's playing at The Fourth Calgary Underground Film Festival as part of the Mixed Shorts segment Saturday April 15th! Their program notes describe it as "deranged underground cartoonist (Rick) Trembles' uber-perverse anti-music video for his post-punk band The American Devices"! Yay! I'm a freaken cross-country pree-vert!

Labels: Alberta, blogosphere, Calgary, events, Quebec

"I would say that the academic study of comics right now is where the academic study of film was in the '60s," he says.

"Scholarship on film in the '60s tended to focus on certain things like genre and character, largely to the exclusion of visual elements." The arrival of acclaimed directors like Fellini, Bergman and Godard sparked more appreciation for film's more visual aspects, such as cinematography.

"With comics, a lot of the work that's going on takes place in literature departments," notes Dr. Beaty. Yet comics are usually produced by a writer and an artist working as a team. The best comics writers, creators like Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman, he notes, are respected in academic circles, "but we don't hear about the artists."

And while comics might be garnering more attention from academe, the same isn't always true for society at large. Dr. Beaty has written books on both television and comics, but at a party, "no one wants to talk to me about comic books," he says. "People are happy to get my take on Oprah or The Apprentice. That gets more respect than comics do."

Labels: Alberta, British Columbia, Calgary, comics scholarship, Quebec

Labels: Alberta, Calgary, comics history

Unpopular Culture not only makes a highly significant contribution to the field of comics scholarship, but also makes a major contribution to the field of cultural studies in general. The developments which it details and theorises represent the emergence of comics in Europe as an art form with an avant-garde, experimental tendency. The scholarship is remarkable, and the book is groundbreaking.

-Ann Miller-School of Modern Languages, University of Leicester

Labels: Alberta, Calgary, comics history, comics scholarship, links, new books, news, Ontario, Toronto

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"Calgary Police Service Dog Odin and his partner, Constable Bill Dodd, were tracking an armed man considered extremely dangerous. When surrounded,the suspect suddenly jumped up from his hiding spot and took aim at Constable Dodd. With lightning speed, the German Shepherd was able to knock the gun from the suspect's hand and force him to the ground - saving the life of his handler and friend, Constable Bill Dodd, and protecting the lives of the other officers."

Press Release

Labels: Alberta, Calgary

WEEKEND DIARY

FREEDOM, OR FINANCIAL FOLLY?
JAMES ADAMS

The folks at Western Standard magazine have to be asking themselves the question that appears on the cover line of their March 13 issue: "What Were We Thinking?"

It's all due to the fallout from the Calgary-based fortnightly's decision in February to publish eight of the 12 Danish cartoons that ignited protests throughout the Muslim world. Western Standard is now fending off a complaint filed by the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada with the Alberta Human Rights Commission -- an action that could cost the magazine $75,000 to fight, according to an on-line appeal for defence funds ("Help Us Defend Freedom") issued this week by publisher Ezra Levant.

As it is, Western Standard is hardly the healthiest business in the world. Billed as "the independent voice of the new west," it's just over two years old and, according to Canadian Advertising Rates and Data, its paid circulation last year was a decidedly modest 30,000, with almost 18,000 of that based in Alberta. (Western Standard claims it gets 8.6 readers per copy -- higher than Reader's Digest, Maclean's or Chatelaine, but about equal to Canadian Living.) Complicating matters is the recent decision by Air Canada to stop distributing 7,000 copies to business-flight passengers and patrons of its Maple Leaf Lounges. At first it seemed Air Canada was just nixing the Feb. 27 issue with the cartoons. However, an Air Canada rep told me that, in fact, it's every issue from here on.

Labels: Alberta, Calgary

Banff International Curatorial Institute
Comic Craze Symposium
www.banffcentre.ca/programs/program.aspx?id=521
www.banffcentre.ca/bici

Program Dates: May 4 - 6, 2006
Registration Deadline: April 28, 2006

The Comic Craze symposium is a public forum to exchange recent artistic, scholarly, and curatorial research associated with comic cultures. The symposium is co-organized by the Banff International Curatorial Institute and the Walter Phillips Gallery at The Banff Centre, in collaboration with the Vancouver Art Gallery, with the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts.

The symposium is a response to an increased interest by visual arts curators, critics, and scholars to investigate a diverse range of artistic practices and material cultures, such as comics books, hip-hop music, and relational aesthetics. And, as material from popular and alternative cultures finds its way into current art objects and artistic practices, curators are increasingly compelled by non traditional materials xB0;xA9;? music videos, food culture, tattoos, postcards, and low-rider cultures to name a few. This symposium will function as a platform to directly connect with comic material and culture, while critically engaging curatorial practices based on relationships between contemporary visual arts, popular culture, and other forms of material culture.

Comic Craze will engage with comic culture in four panel discussions:

- Engaging with objects of material culture
- Books, Books, Books: reading, publishing, collecting
- Interpreting comics
- Curating comics

Speakers include artists, scholars, curators, publishers, and comic fans:
Christian BxF6;k (poet, assistant professor, Department of English, University of Calgary), Bart Beaty (comic scholar, associate professor, Communication and Culture, University of Calgary), Rupert Bottenberg (comic artist, Montreal), Christopher Brayshaw (writer, Vancouver), Benoit Chaput (publisher, L?oie de Cravan), RenxE9; deGuzman (curator of visual arts, Yerba Buena Centre for the Arts), Robin Fischer (comic fan, broadcaster, Vancouver), Bruce Grenville (senior curator, Vancouver Art Gallery), Chris Oliveros (publisher, Drawn & Quarterly), and Randy Scott (comic librarian, University of Michigan)

Other related activities:
Comic Craze, a large exhibition of Canadian comics, curated by Sylvie Gilbert will open on May 4 at 7 p.m. in the Walter Phillips Gallery. The exhibition brings together over 400 recently published independent comic books, mini-comics, zines, and graphic novels. It features the best of English and French Canadian comics, capturing the different graphic and narrative styles that have made comic culture one of the most absorbing and experimental forms of _expression_ today.

ARLIS Annual Conference - Concurrent with the Comic Craze Symposium the Art Libraries Society of North America will be holding their annual conference in Banff from May 3 - 11 offering a unique opportunity to connect and exchange knowledge about comic culture. The ARLIS session titled Words on the Street: Graphic Novel and Comics Collections in Academic and Art and Design Libraries is sure to generate compelling discussion on the theme of comics.

For fees, accommodation information, and to register visit:
www.banffcentre.ca/programs/program.aspx?id=521

Or contact the Office of the Registrar:
Email: arts_info@banffcentre.ca
Phone: 403.762.6180 or 1.800.565.9989
Fax: 403.762.6345
Website: www.banffcentre.ca

Labels: Alberta, British Columbia, Calgary, Quebec, Vancouver

Graphic novels were a $75-million U.S. industry in 2001; they more than tripled to $245 million last year. "They've risen dramatically to the point where they've doubled our comic book sales," says Martin Rouse, owner of Phoenix Comics in Calgary. "And I don't see that changing; if anything, it'll get higher." Unlike a comic book, which, like a soap opera, carries its storyline through several issues, a graphic novel is a standalone story in comic book style -- hence the term "novel."

Which is why fans such as Calgarian Erin Collins, who estimates he spent nearly $10,000 on comics and graphic novels in the '80s, say they're the perfect medium to transfer to film. "It's easier to make a movie out of a graphic novel than a comic book, because it's a self-contained, 100-page screenplay with all the storyboards," he says. "It's easier to extract a Sin City story than a Spider-Man one, which is spread over thousands of comics. That's the logical reason why they're making so many film adaptations.

Labels: Alberta, Calgary, Ottawa

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