Just in time for next week's Doug Wright Awards comes news of this great gallery show of work by a wonderful selection of some of the best comics creators in the country, including panels from Chester Brown's Louis Riel graphic novel (parts of which have been on display previously). Co-curated by Sean Craig, who has been working with the organizers of the Wright Awards over the past year, the show has its opening reception just two days before the actual awards are handed out (August 7 and 9, respectively) at the Katherine Mulherin gallery. See the Facebook page of the event here.
The Doug Wright Awards for Canadian Cartooning and BOARD OF DIRECTORS, a curatorial project at Katharine Mulherin Contemporary Arts Projects, are pleased to present an exhibition of original work by some of Canada's most recognized and promising cartoonists.
Strip Stories features works by artists who focus on sequential arts and graphic novels, many of whom have either won a Doug Wright Award in the past or have received nominations.
The show also marks the first time Toronto audiences will get a chance to view originals from Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography, Chester Brown's critically-acclaimed graphic novel. Originally published in comic book form, Louis Riel was released as a book in 2003 . Publisher's Weekly hailed it as "a strong contender for the best graphic novel ever."
Alongside Brown will be King cartoonist (and 2008 Doug Wright Award juror) Ho Che Anderson, Lorenz Peter, the 2006 Wright Award Best Emerging Talent winner for Dark Adaptation, and Montreal's Joe Ollmann who won the 2007 Best Book Award for his collection of short stories This Will All End in Tears.
Also included in the show will be Halifax-based artist/cartoonist Ray Fenwick, the mind behind the world's only typographic graphic novel, Hall of Best Knowledge, and 2008 Best Emerging Talent nominees:
Jason Keiffer, for Keiffer#1
Jeff Lemire, for Essex County
Nick Maandag, for The Experiment
Ethan Rilly, for Pope Hats
As well, 2008 nominees for the inaugural Pigskin Peters Award for Non-Narrative Cartooning, Emily Holton (Little Lessons in Safety) and John Martz (Excelsior 1968), will exhibit their experimental and progressive redefinitions of cartoon art.
Strip Stories will consist entirely of works with sequential, narrative or relative qualities. The exhibit presents viewers with a rare opportunity to witness the comics medium outside of conventional mass distribution.
Runs August 7-23.
Opening reception: August 7, 7pm.
Featuring works by
Ho Che Anderson
Chester Brown
Ray Fenwick
Emily Holton
Jason Kieffer
Jeff Lemire
Nick Maandag
John Martz
Joe Ollman
Lorenz Peter
Ethan Rilly
and Doug Wright!
The show is curated by Katharine Mulherin, Erin Stump, and Sean D.B. Craig.
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.
Bruce MacKinnon, editorial cartoonist of the Halifax Chronicle-Herald, is at the centre of a new controversy being investigated by police and the Nova Scotia Human Rights Tribunal.
A MacKinnon cartoon that appeared April 18, depicting Cheryfa MacAulay Jamal, the wife of Qayyum Abdul Jamal, one of the so-called "Toronto 17" --men arrested in 2006 on the grounds that they were members of a terrorist cell-- has been accused by the Halifax-based Centre for Islamic Development, represented by Will King and Zia Khan, of inciting hatred.
The cartoon depicts Cheryfa MacAulay Jamal with a a sign declaring "I want millions" --a reference to her reported intent to sue the federal government after charges against her husband were stayed. The cartoon also depicts Jamal as saying "I can put it towards my husband's next training camp" --a reference to the alleged terrorist activities of the Toronto 17.
MacKinnon recently won the Atlantic Journalism Award for editorial cartooning.
This past Saturday, May 3, was Free Comic Book Day across the U.S. and Canada, an event intended to promote comics through local comic book shops. I largely agree with Kevin Boyd that the event should be an opportunity to reach out to the larger community of people who might not venture into comic shops normally or even read comics. This is a great time for local shops to get some free press coverage and lots of potential new customers. With few exceptions, I don't really see this happening. For the most part, the people who show up for this event usually have found out about it in one of their weekly visits to the shop. No press releases are sent out and no outreach or cross-promotion with other organizations is ventured. When I wandered into my own local comic shop around 5 pm to ask how things went, the teenage clerk painting a role-playing model at the large table that takes up the front window of the empty store informed me that most of the free comics vanished in the first hour of the promotion, around 9am, gesturing to a pile of brochures and 3 copies of the VIZ/Shonen Jump giveaway to indicate all that remained. As far as I could tell, the sole message to the outside world that something unique was happening today was a lone poster in the window, competing with the other posters.
The events that I heard of before hand include the signings at the Silver Snail and the Beguiling event at the Toronto Public Library (which began at noon).
Faith Erin Hicks (Zombies Calling!) is serializing a new story as a full-colour comic strip in the Halifax Chronicle Herald, according to this profile. (above image)
Is Michel Rabagliati the new Charles Schulz? I don't think so, but Henry Chamberlain at Comic Book Bin does.
If I didn't know better, I'd say that this Dave Sim response to a Heidi MacDonald post from awhile back is part of a long series of seemingly willful misunderstandings on Sim's part.
Links from hither and yon about comics, not necessarily Canadian:
For The Guardian, Regina's Jeet Heer writes on the recent Siegel/Superman decision, with a history of the case and some thoughts ton capitalism and morality. Sample quote: "The battle between the cartoonists and their publisher was a cultural clash as much as an economic one. Bookish boys from the lower-middle class, Siegel and Shuster simply weren't prepared to deal with wise guys like Donenfeld."
On a related note, new court dates have been scheduled for the case, as noted by newsarama's new legal expert, Jeff Trexler.
Speaking of newsarama, one of my favourite features at the newsarama blog is the weekly "Quote/Unquote", with a round-up of the choicest utterances from the comics blogosphere.
Writing for The Montreal Gazette, John Kalbfleisch provides a look back at JW Bengough, the 19th Century cartoonist and member of the Giants of the North. Like many of his inky-fingered breed (Little Nemo's Windsor McKay, for one), Bengough had a side career as a sort of vaudeville humourist, giving "chalk talks" involving quick caricatures and jokey picture stories delivered on the lecture circuit.
Tintin becomes a target in an exhibit of hockey-themed art at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.
Chris Butcher looks back at his 2006 comics industry predictions for 2007 and sees how his oracular powers worked out.
Photos from the Michel Rabagliati exhibit Paul vu par le Fanzine Bidon at the Galerie Morgan Bridge in Quebec City (see sample photo above; link via bdq)
Canada's Udon Entertainment is the new distributor of Apple, an anthology of Korean art & comics: APPLE stands for "A Place for People who Love Entertainment", and features original stories and illustrations from the best creative talent Korea has to offer. Over 40 artists from the video game world are represented in APPLE Volume 1, including the artists behind the mega-hit Lineage MMORPG series, superstar Hyung-Tae Kim (Magna Carta, War of Genesis), and dozens of other pro illustrators, animators and graphic artists.
Avril Lavigne is selling another comic, according to this Canadian Press "article". Her website is offering the item for sale and it turns out it is written by U.S. superheroine Gail Simone.
Chris Butcher rounds up the links about the upcoming Toronto appearance of cartoonist Michel Rabagliati.
Speaking of Chris Butcher, Kevin Boyd does the math and comments on a Butcher's recent rant about the general crappiness of 99% of the 3000+ graphic novels published last year. Nothing is safe from Boyd's curse of "derivative", not even fan faves Scott Pilgrim and Essex County.
Speaking of Kevin Boyd, both he and Robin Bougie note the passing (at 53!) of U.S. cartoonist Dave Stevens, who created the Rocketeer in the 1980s.
Graphic art and cartoon drawing workshop with Faith Hicks, author of best selling graphic novel, Zombies Calling, takes place 1-3 p.m. at the New Glasgow Library, Nova Scotia. All materials supplied. For children ages 9 to 15. It will be followed by a book reading with Hicks 3:05 - 3:30 p.m .
The CBC radio programme As It Happens features an interview with the Danish filmaker behind Killer Cartoons who discusses the recent arrests in the alleged cartoonist assassination plot. (podcast, second 1/2 hour)
The Halifax Daily News has been closed down and replaced by a free daily, according to severalsources. All of the paper's staff, including journalists and cartoonists, have been fired.
The Daily News was owned by Quebec-based Transcontinental. It's replacement, Metro Halifax, is part of the cross-Canada Metro line and will be produced Metro International S.A. and Torstar Corp.
Begun in 1974, The Daily News employed award-winning editorial cartoonist Michael De Adder.
According to the Canadian Press article:
As journalists left the Halifax Daily News, several said they're worried a free newspaper aimed at commuters will mean a decline in the city's journalism.
Michael de Adder, an award-winning cartoonist for the newspaper, said "it doesn't sound like it (Metro) can serve the population as well as a daily newspaper can or two daily newspapers can."
De Adder said cartoonists across the country are starting to wonder about their craft.
"What is the future? It looks pretty bleak today," he said.
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.
Big changes may be afoot for the Joe Shuster Awards, Kevin Boyd hints at his blog. These may include venue, sponsor and rule changes. Boyd is one of the organizers behind the awards and his recent move away from the award's previous host Paradise may have prompted some movement. Also, check out what Kevin has to say about the so-called Bronze Age of comics (basically, U.S. comic books from the 1970s).
Faith Erin Hicks is profiled by hometown paper The Halifax Daily News about her graphic novel, Zombies Calling: ""When I was a kid, I really wanted to be a journalist like Tintin," she said, referring to the popular European comic-book character, created before the Second World War. When she grew a little older, Hicks began to read more mature comic books, such as Bone."
The Post's book guy Robert Wiersema refers to something called "graphica" before reviewing some of the more popular U.S.-published genre comics of recent times.
Apparently, the new graphic novel by Alan Moore, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier, is not for sale in Canada, a fact asserted in the recent Beguiling mailing. The mailing also asserts that the Beguiling does have copies of the book in stock.
The Globe reports that Quebecor World, the giant printer (comics and everything else), continues to have money problems, including a refinancing scheme and a tumbling stock. Discussion here. Stock talk. CBC. Quebecor World is owned by Quebecor, a multimedia empire that owns Videotron cable, Sun newspapers, the Montreal Mirror, and everything else. The printing arm has been losing money due to price wars (the dollar and China), less business, and general, good old-fashioned Canadian "operating inefficiencies". (via Journalista!)
The first of Jeet Heer's 2 articles on David Michaelis's Schulz bio prompts a response from Schulz's widow Jeannie.
Strange Adventures in Halifax hosted a signing for Faith Erin Hicks and her new graphic novel, Zombies Calling, over the weekend. The publisher's blog has a wrap-up of links about the event.
Wright Award winner Lorenz Peter is launching his new book this Wednesday: Side-Effects is a collection of short works and will be launched at the Katharine Mulherine Contemporary Art Projects, 1080 Queen Street W at 6:30 PM
a little late, but here are some photos from the Halloween costume party hosted by Strange Adventures, the Halifax comic shop
for good measure, here are the pics from the Silver Snail's Toronto costume party
Please send Sequential your news about cartooning, comics and graphic novels in Canada so we do not have to post links to stories tangentially related to Alpha Flight and pictures of people dressed as superheroes!
Looking over the links to news and reviews about people who create sequential cartoon images and/or static caricatures reveals a short list of interest to loyal Sequential readers. Seemingly no-one published the great Canadian graphic novel over the weekend. But then again, nobody ever does.
1. Halifax policart Michael deAdder has a new book of cartoons out, according to this Daily News profile. de Book is published by the Daily News and features 88 pages culled from the artists distinctive brand of daily craft and bile:
his finest work, including a depiction of Bert and Ernie heading to Canada for a gay marriage, and Premier Rodney MacDonald living rent-free and playing video games in his parents' house - after getting a substantial raise.
2. Cartoonist Norm Muffit remembers daredevil pilot, Flying Bandit "Willy" Laserich, and a time when crawing a cartoon could jeopardize a plum government job:
Northern News Services cartoonist Norm Muffitt, a former RCMP officer, pilot and Transport Canada official, remembers the controversy well. He drew many a cartoon in support of Laserich, which made for an uncomfortable moment when applying for an enforcement job with Transport Canada.
"I had done a cartoon of a Transport Canada guy behind a desk, and on the desk was a nail with a cord attached to it. The other end was fastened to Willy's licence," said Muffitt.
"When I went in for my interview, the first thing that happened was the guy sat down with this cartoon in front of me and said, 'before we start, maybe you'd like to explain this.'"
3. Writing for the Vancouver Courier, Shawn Conner reviews a trio of the latest contenders for great Canadian graphic novel status: White Rapids, Southern Cross, and Therefore Repent, by Sequential's own Salgood Sam. (link via BDQ)
4. Pierre-Luc Gagnon reviews two new French-language graphic novels by Leif Tande that had their debut at this past weekend's Salon du livre de Montreal. Great Canadian Graphic Novels (GCGN)? Time, and translation, will tell.
Some reports from the various Word on the Street events from last week. I spent a fun 2 hours at the Toronto event myself. Brad Mackay and I talked onstage about cartoonists from Canada's past. Later, we watched Chester Brown talk about the series of strips he did for the Live with Culture program. Chester created a zombie romance comic that is currently being serialized in NOW magazine --his first new published work in a while! Chester is very funny and it's too bad that the Live with Culture hierarchy nixed putting his strip on giant banners around the city (the banners they are currently using have generic clip-art style images on them). I also took in the panel on artist/writer collaborations hosted by Chris Butcher. Writers Jim Munroe and Ray Fawkes talked about divvying up the cash and riding herd on artists, while artist Willow Dawson talked about how not to waste a cartoonist's time if you have a pitch to make. This panel was a real eye-opener for me in the sense that there were people (wannabe published writers, mostly) actually taking notes and asking questions about how to meet cartoonists, etc. Butcher is a good host for these sorts of events and kept the ball rolling smoothly. Most of the talks at the Comics and Graphic Novels tent had a fair crowd of between 25 and 50 people. The Beguiling had a book table set up as well as its own tent where artists were doing signings, as did several comics publishers.
This Sunday, September 30th, at the Word on the Street literary festival, a sort of mini comics festival is taking place. Last weekend, the Halifax event hosted J. Torres, Mike Lobel, Scott Chantler, Darwyn Cooke & Steven McNiven. This week, both Vancouver and Toronto host comics-themed events.
1. In Vancouver, the Word Under the Street event is a zine and comics fair. The show has been relocated to the front of the Canada Post Main Post Office building, at the corner of Homer and Georgia Streets, across the street from Library Square.
2. In Toronto, The Comics and Graphic Novels Tent features appearances by Chris Butcher, Peter Birkemoe, Chip Zdarsky, Kagan McLeod, Mark Asquith, Eric Kim, Svetlana Chmakova, Noel Tuazon, Jim Munroe, Chester Brown, Ray Fawkes, Willow Dawson, Csott Chantler, Jeff Lemire, Zach Worton, Ty Templeton, Jim Zubkavich, Ryan North, John Martz, and Nadine Lessio. Also on the agenda, the Brad and Bryan Show, wherein "comics historians" Brad MacKay and Bryan Munn (ahem) offer up 30 minutes of Canadian Comics History in a chatty, informal session, hopefully abetted by some pretty pictures.
Peter Whalley, cartoonist, sculptor, Giant of the North. One of only two or three important postwar Canadian magazine cartoonists, Whalley died Tuesday, September 18.
Whalley, the son of an Anglican clergyman, was born in Brockville, Ont., on Feb. 20, 1921. He grew up in Halifax, where he attended the Nova Scotia College of Art.
He sold his first cartoon when he was 16, but the Second World War interrupted his budding artistic career. He served in the merchant marine during the war.
After the war, he moved to Montreal with intentions of becoming a serious artist, but once he began working for the Standard, "cartooning won out. It paid more," he once said.
He moved to Morin Heights in the Laurentians, joined the local volunteer fire brigade, and for the rest of his life worked out of his home office.
He hit his stride in the 1960s and '70s, when he turned out covers for Maclean's, Weekend and the Montrealer magazines and did other commercial work.
He was a regular contributor to the CBC's Observer television program, in which he illustrated the week's top news stories with cartoons, and he did film strips for the National Film Board.
1. There is now a Halifax Comic Jam --they've already had a few meetings and published a zine:
HALIFAX COMICS JAM. Artists of all styles and skill levels creating collaborative comix (somebody draws the first panel, somebody draws the next, etc.) Anyone over 19 can participate and don't forget to bring your own pens. Gus' Pub, 2605 Agricola Street, 7PM to 1AM, 423-7786
2. Mark Oakley, the cartoonist behind the Thieves and Kings graphic novel series, has set up his I Box publishing shop in an old building in Halifax.
In what the Toronto Star is calling a legal precedent for the protection of artists' works, Superior Court Judge Thomas Lederer ruled yesterday that Richard Harnett is not the legal owner of over 2800 cartoons left behind by the son of cartoonist Ben Wicks.
As Sequential reported almost two weeks ago, the long-simmering case that the Wicks estate launched against Harnett several years ago when the existence of the cartoon hoard became known finally reached Superior Court in Toronto. After a week of testimony, the judge retired to write up his 11-page report, framing a verdict that seems in retrospect inevitable. In his judgement he has ordered that the artwork in Harnett's possession, found in several garbage bags when Wicks' son Vincent Wicks moved from Toronto to B.C. in 1992, be returned to the Wicks family and that $450 Harnett made selling two of the drawings also be remitted.
The 26th annual Atlantic Journalism Awards were held Saturday night in Halifax and Michael de Adder won in the category Editorial Cartoonist. De Adder is the policart for the Halifax Daily News and is the president of the Canadian Association of Editorial Cartoonists.
He has won two previous Atlantic Journalism Awards. The award was based on a portfolio of deAdder's work submitted to the jury.
Free Comic Book Day took place last Saturday. I was at the Clothing Show so I missed out on the festivities (I was also away from my computing machine and missed the reminder about the Paradise Comics event from Kevin Boyd --sorry Kevin). FCBD is like a big world-wide comic book convention. The Clothing Show is sort of like a comic book convention, except with lots of fashion-obsessed women instead of cosplayers and comic book fans. I only spotted a few young women in Supergirl & Wonder Women t-shirts, one joker in a West Coast Avengers tee, the now ubiquitous "I Love You! I Know!" gay Batman and Robin image, and this leather masterpiece from the kids at MonsterMuffin:
As for the rest of Canada, Free Comic Book Day went something like this:
The Atlantic Journalism Awards has announced its 2006 finalists. The awards will be handed out at the Halifax Marriott Harbourfront Hotel on Saturday, May 12. Finalists receive a framed Certificate of Excellence in Journalism. One of the 3 finalists in each category receives the "Gold Award".
Editorial Cartooning Finalists
- Michael de Adder - The Daily News, Halifax, NS - Bruce MacKinnon - The Chronicle Herald, Halifax, NS - Greg Perry - Telegraph-Journal, Saint John, NB
The Q & A with Halifax comic shop owner Calum Johnston went so well I'm going to try to make it a regular feature. This time around the profiled shop is a little closer to home: The Dragon in Guelph serves a city of 100 000, including 10 000 or so university students. Dragon manager Amy Restemayer was kind enough to answer the short list of questions emailed to her.
Q. What is the general age/gender breakdown of your customers?
The general age for graphic novel and manga customers ranges between about 15 and 30, with the odd older collector getting into newer series via trades. Graphic novels and trades are higher sellers for males and manga is mostly females.
Q. What do you sell more of by volume, graphic novels (including trades and manga) or monthly comic books?
A. By volume we sell more monthly comic books than graphic novels and manga combined.
Q. What do do you sell more of by dollar value?
A. Also comics, the sales of single issues outweigh all other print material in our store.
Q. What are your top 10 bestselling books?
A. Top ten books would be Inu Yasha, Fullmetal Alchemist, Fables, Ultimate Spiderman, Fruits Basket, Naruto, Bleach, Walking Dead, Angel Sanctuary and Berserk.
Q. What are your bestselling non-manga graphic novels?
A. Top ten non-manga titles are Fables, Ultimate Spiderman, Walking Dead, Y the Last Man, Sandman, Preacher, Runaways, Kingdom Come, Watchmen and Sin City.
Q. What are your bestselling non-superhero graphic novels?
A. You will notice the theme here, Fables, Walking Dead, Y the Last Man, Sandman, Preacher, 300, Sin City and V for Vendetta would be the top sellers (yes, I consider V a non-superhero book, though other may argue that). The other two top spots would be a mix of titles such as Goon, Conan, Bone, Blankets and Strangers in Paradise.
Q. What percent of your manga sales are driven by "TheYTV effect" and other media (anime, movies, toys, etc)?
A. It's hard to say just how much of the manga industry is fuelled by other media. Though they are still heavily editing the shows broadcast in North America they are not as strict with the manga translations and therefore we get a lot of crossover for titles such as Inu Yasha, Fullmetal Alchemist and Bleach, which are airing on YTV, because fans want to know the whole story. The manga story is also usually different from the anime, depending on the control of the original creator. I would estimate that something close to 80% of readers were introduced to manga through other media, whether going from an anime to the manga it was based on directly or from an anime to a similarly themed manga.
Q. What do you see as the major trends in graphic novels and comics retailing over the next year? The next 5 years?
A. Over the next year I think that the trends of the new comic book based movies will cause those properties to skyrocket. We've already seen it with 300 and the movie is only being released this month. My hope is that over the next five years Vertigo will continue to lead our sales due to the speed at which they release their trades and the low costs of each volume.
Q. Any upcoming events/signings?
A. We are hoping to make our November signing a yearly occurrence, but we don't have any firm plans as of yet.
The Dragon 3 Wyndham Street North Guelph, Ontario
(top photo: cartoonists Jay Stephens & Cameron Stewart @ The Dragon, 2005)
The Halifax comic book store Strange Adventures is celebrating its 15th year of continuous operation on Friday, March 2nd. Founded in 1992 by Calum Johnston, the business has since expanded to a second location and become the center of a thriving East Coast comix culture that includes cartoonists like Darwyn Cooke and Hope Larson.
In honour of this landmark anniversary, Sequential lobbed a few questions to owner Calum Johnston via email and began by asking about the store's beginnings.
Johnston started Strange Adventures with his own "large comic collection on March 2nd 1992 in a small second floor location in Fredericton, NB. It's moved a couple of time to larger spots, now located on [the] ground floor in beautiful downtown Fredericton. Opened second location in Halifax, NS on April 1st, 1995. Why? I love comics and sharing the joy of comics is a wonderful feeling. That I can make an okay living and employ some nice folks is an additional blessing."
Johnston describes his staff as follows:
"In the Fredericton shop, we have long-suffering mangler Derek who started out with me in 1992 filling in one or two days a week and in 1994 was asked if he could do 2 weeks of full-time while Calum went to Halifax for a contract design job. Thirteen years later, Derek's still filling in for Calum at the Fredericton shop while Calum opened the Halifax location. Derek is ably assisted by artist, musician and raconteur, Jason."
In Halifax, Dave (our resident Supersnipe cartoonist) is the manager and the staff is made up of Mike (voted Halifax's best salesperson two years in a row by a weekly newspaper reader's poll), Tiina [yes, (Mrs. Grant Morrison and the bassist in The Stolen Minks), Ben (gonzo cartoonist), Cassandra (the fairy pirate girl), Jaime (Vitamin J), Addison (our kids comics advisor and daughter of the boss) and Rachelle (Mrs. Batman and keyboards in The Stolen Minks)."
For Johnston, some of the best memories of the past 15 years center on the experience of his customers and their growth as comics readers. He has seen some of his customers "go from Spawn to Grendel to Mage to Morrison and Moore and Eisner, as well as going from elementary school, to high school, university, jobs, marriage, kids and now getting their kids hooked on comics!" In addition, the store has been a rich source of family memories, including the time when Johnston's wife Sandy came into the Halifax shop to tell him she was pregnant. In fact, Jonston can't think of any negative experiences relating to his business: "I always make lemonade out of lemons, so I don't have any really bad memories."
Over the years, Johnston's customers have been treated to the occasional sight of well-known visiting personalities, cartoonists, musicians, and actors. "We've been lucky enough to have several "celebrity" sightings in the shops over the years: Billy Bragg, Linda Hamilton, Corbin Bernsen, Snow, Tom Selleck, Rick Mercer, Cathy Jones, Dean Cain, Gilbert Gottfried, Sarah Dunsworth, Colin Mochrie. We've played host to numerous signings, including Seth, Chester Brown, Mark Oakley, Stuart Immonen, Bryan Lee O'Malley, Darwyn Cooke, Steve McNiven, David Finch, J. Bone, J. Torres, Steve Rolston, Scott McCloud and Mike Holmes."
In terms of store demographics, Strange Adventures attracts an interesting mix of customers: "all ages, and all genders, customers from 4 to 94 and roughly 60% male, 35% female, 5% other."
This crowd has equally wide-ranging shopping habits reflective of current trends in the comics marketplace. In reference to Milton Griepp's recent report about North American graphic novel sales, Johnston is leery of indulging in graphic novel triumphalism. "Remember that the ICv2 folks, like everyone, have their own agenda and read it with that in mind," he writes. Johnston further notes, "I hate the term graphic novel, they are comic books. Comics are published in various forms. Some are periodicals, such as the serialized adventures of Superman; and others are published in book form, such as Pride of Baghdad; and some are collected editions of the peiodicals, such as Batman: Year One. In sales terms, it's just about the same, periodicals are bigger one month, then the next it's books."
It is this open-minded policy that may be the secret to Johnston's success. And he is pragmatically optimistic about the future: "More comics in more outlets, hopefully good comics in good outlets so we don't get another artificial "boom" like the early 90s."
(Strange Adventures in Fredericton is celebrating the anniversary with a 2-day 25%-off sale this Friday and Saturday and the Halifax store is planning a big event for this summer.)
Strange Adventures 5262 Sackville St., Halifax NS & 68 York St., Fredericton NB www.strangeadventures.com
(Calum Johnston enjoying the perks of comics-store ownership: the comic book featuring the first appearance of Spider-Man, found at a local auction)
The Saint Mary's University professor who posted the controversial Mohammed cartoons on his office door last year has entered the intellectual freedom arena once again with a promise to debate a U.S. white supremacist. Philosophy prof Peter March stirred up controversy on his Halifax campus when he posted copies of the 12 Danish cartoons last February in order to engage public discussion, part of his job as a philosopher. This time around, March is facing off against white supremacist Jared Taylor who was banned from speaking at Dalhousie University and had an encounter with protesters on January 16 of this year. According to the Halifax Chronicle Herald, the debate, a sort of Suzuki vs Rushton II, will take place March 6.
Popular Halifax-based cartoonist and Wright Award-winner makes a special trip back to Toronto for an appearance sponsored by the Toronto Public Library. There is also a live online chat with O'Malley today:
Sit down with critically-acclaimed graphic novel creator Bryan Lee O'Malley, the man behind the witty and hilarious Scott Pilgrim series. This bestselling series will soon be transformed into a big-screen movie by the team behind the fan-favourite zombie flick Shaun of the Dead. So come out and discover why Entertainment Weekly selected Scott Pilgrim as the Independent Comic of the Year (2006).
Also: Meet the comic book superstars of tomorrow as youth from Second Street Junior Middle School and the Albion Manga Club exhibit their amazing creations.
Location: North York Central Library (Concourse) Date and TIme: Tues. Feb. 20, 6 - 7:30 p.m. This event is presented in partnership with The Beguiling, Toronto's pre-eminent comic book store. The Beguiling's Peter Birkemoe hosts.
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