Canadian Comix News & Culture

   Monday, October 06, 2008  
Skim Wins Ignatz

:: Posted by Bryan @ 10/06/2008 02:46:00 AM

The graphic novel Skim, by Jillian and Mariko Tamaki, has won the 008 Ignatz Prize for Outstanding Graphic Novel. The prize was awarded this past weekend at the Small Press Expo in Bethseda, Maryland.

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   Wednesday, October 01, 2008  
HArvey Awards: Cooke, Lee O'Malley

:: Posted by Bryan @ 10/01/2008 01:26:00 AM
Darwyn Cooke and Bryan Lee O'Malley are among the winners of this year's Harvey Awards, handed out in Maryland this past weekend. The awards, named after MAD founder and Little Annie Fannie creator Harvey Kurtzman, recognize the most popular in U.S. comics production, as voted on by comics pros. Cooke won Best Cartoonist for his run on The Spirit for DC. O'Malley won Best Graphic Album --Original for the latest in his Scott ilgrim series, Scott Pilgrim Gets it Together, published by Oni Press. Sequential congratulates all the winners.

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   Friday, August 15, 2008  
More hot air about the so called DWA controversy.

:: Posted by max @ 8/15/2008 03:33:00 PM
In response to The Doug Wright Awards' so called 'Canadian' language controversy, re: your defense of the Doug Wright Awards
from Robert Haines.

With all due respect to Robert, and due warning to future commenters. I don't have time to manually post comments for you.

That's why we use an automated blogger system for the site, so I don't have to do things like that. It's password protected so that we don't get spammed to death.

If you want to participate sign up.

And if you waste my time with poorly thought through crap in my Email, If i do anything, it's more likely to be this - post you on the front page of the site to tear it apart.

Don't get your hopes up, not doing it again for this subject. This one time to make a point, USE THE COMMENTS.

Hello Max, I do not have a blog account and so I am unable to comment directly at Sequential. Please post this comment as found below:

I'm glad to see Sequential address this issue and not run away. I think you are ignoring the truth about how the DWA's advertise themselves. Place the words 'Canada's premier comic award' or 'the country's premier comic award' into google and see what comes up (don't forget to look at the cached results, also). There can be no debate that the DWA's refer to themselves this way.

So, Bryan Munn is deeply involved with the DWA's and Sequential? That might explain his Sequential post on June 27, 2008: "... the 4th Annual Doug Wright Awards, the country's premier comics awards ...", though that was lifted right off of the DWA's website. Or on The Comics Journal message board, Brad MacKay wrote, "...Canada's premier cartooning awards meets Canada's best-known cartoonist" and, "...the 4th Annual Doug Wright Awards, the country's premier comics awards...". Check The Beguiling's website, as well as the TCAF site, to see the same sentiment. Brian and Brad are both deeply involved in the DWA's and they are the ones writing these words. A lot of people don't see any difference between being 'Canada's premier awards' and 'THE Canadian awards'. In fact, the DWA wording of 'premier' is probably more pretentious and self serving than 'THE'.

Herve may have been over the top with some of comparisons, but he certainly brought a long discussed topic out into the open. I cannot speak for Herve but it would seem to me that the issue really is that the DWA's are self described as 'Canada's premier awards', while containing no French Canadian content.

Further, your suggestion of having the Wright's merge, or work alongside, the Prix Bedelys is an strange suggestion. There is another, much more obvious, pairing. But we all know that would never happen, and only because the DWA membership meeting would resemble a scene from Cronenberg's Scanners at the suggestion.

Best,
Robert Haines


Bryan is deeply involved? I said closely involved, he helps organize at the events. I didn't characterize it as deep. I'll leave that for him to comment on if he feels inclined but it's truly irrelevant to the charge of discrimination. What this was about primarily.

As for the the Prix Bedelys/hypothetical solution i proposed - I just suggested a collaboration, a sharing of resources, not a bloody "merger"!

And how the hell is 'work alongside' any different from my 'trade for mutual benefit' or your 'pairing'. Don't be a prat.

NOTHING comes up for the solid phrase "Canada's premier comic award"

"Canada's premier comics and graphic novels awards" gets two hits, one is a TCAF/DWA site, the other is Dave Sim talking about the same auction as the first.

To get anything else you have to take it out of quotes, and what you end up proving is that they are in fact well known in Lit circles, and have courted an elite profile from the start.


Not THE.

Take a look at the Jury Lineups. The press they get. The critical awareness of the work the nominate and awarded.

Look up "Doug Wright Awards" in the news search.

EXCLUDE us. EXCLUDE Brads past day job work at the CBC. what do you have?

Along with many other sites, Walrus Magazine, Quill & Quire, Editor & Publisher, Publishers Weekly, Globe and Mail, etc.

Not all nice long articles at all but some good coverage in some very prominent, NON comics media. The first two being Literary in fact.

Do the same of ANY of the other awards currently in Canada. In the News search I ran on "The Shusters", not even "The Joe Shuster Awards" which draws a blank - I got one hit today, in an article about the DWA. It's a short reference about how the ONE thing they do, "nominally" better is award french language books....! hah! I love irony.

Hey, I love that they are out there too, doing what they do. It's great they put together a special comity to nominate FR language books. I haven't got one bone to pick with any of the awards. But no others are an elite award with anything like a national profile!

O_o [ <-this is me giving the hairy eye] The Shusters are a fan pick. And that's great, and different.

Populous.

Not elite.

Not critically Primer.

[ed: seems they switched, from their site-"Although these awards were chosen, in their first three incarnations, by a public vote, the process changed in 2007 to decision by a jury of individuals [not listed anywhere] to ensure each nominee is given adequate consideration" They don't provide the Names of these individuals or their credentials, so if anything, it's gone from populous to anonymous! Ok, got ahead of myself, here's their list now, and it' was along side this "Creator nominees are nominated for their BODY OF WORK during the previous calendar year, not just for one specific work, although they may have only had one specific work published. Winners are selected by a jury."]

For the DWA, the Past Jury list includes Bruce McDonald, Mark Kingwell, Judy MacDonald, Lorenz Peter, Jessica Johnson, Ho Che Anderson, Marc Glassman, Katrina Onstad, Helena Reckitt, Mariko Tamaki. Chester Brown. Rebecca Caldwell, Nora Young, Jerry Ciccoritti & Don McKellar.

Every year a film maker, at least one prominent member of the media if not two, someone from the Arts or Academia, and a critically significant cartoonist.

With it's Jury's CV's on it's sleeve, and a purely Critical standard, ED: nominating a SINGLE book per Creator, The DWA are currently the most prominent, critically elite, highest standard bearing Award that ANYONE and EVERYONE in the country can be eligible for assuming they can fit into what is still, JUST TWO AWARDS CATEGORIES in ONE language. Because for now, it's a small operation despite it's critical standing and they do not have the time and money to do more! Would love to, but nope.

ED: The Shusters have never had a Literary profile, it's not how they present themselves, or how the books they choose come off exclusively as a rule, as it pretty much is for the DWA. Great that they got a kick ass Jury now, but it's just true. Even the prize is a lot more classic comic book humble. Compared to this? The JSA don't promote an elite image, it's just a fact. They are not intentionally Literary at all.

The DWA does, and is. And I don't think they are going to apologize for that. It's how they started, it's what they are all about.

All of this only proves they have one front
on which they truly discriminate, QUALITY.

You can call it a small operation. Call it elitist. You can point out how incredibly small the community is leading to some very close associations that are frankly unavoidable. This is true for all awards let alone the all the comics awards in Canada.

You could suggest we should sit around and wait for someone outside of the community to notice the work - which would be stupid. Far better we got off our asses and brought the outside in to see the work.

Hey, you can even talk about how funny it was when Seth was given the very trophy he built himself the first year, and turned bright red and said himself how someone should have stopped that from happening as the jury sat and chuckled at him. Darwin Cooke also i suspect was bright red, when he stormed out of the ceremony yelling 'this is bullshit' and went to drink some more at the bar.

That was pretty funny.


But excluding Seth's book from the list, given it was the most wildly reviewed and lauded comic of the season hands down even without the nomination! Would have made the DWA claim to be for the Best Book false. It would have been the best book, barring having to compete with Seth's.

He was asked to make the trophies before his book came out and was eligible for the list, or the list had even been drawn up. What ya' going to do?

It's a small fucking scene people, thousands of creators but the cream is a thin skim on the top of it. And as it turns out a few creators of that caliber are amongst the ones who thought recognition for this kind of achievement was lacking in Canada and took it upon themselves to begin to do something about it.

I personally cant thank them enough, even know I also personally felt out of my place at times being nominated that first year.

Yep, that's right, I was nominated and here I am, dyslexic and too damn busy but still the guy running the ONLY web site so far dedicated exclusively to Canadian comics coverage and who cant get any of you other geeks to contribute unless it's to try to tear down shit.

When if ever are more people in the 'community' going to work towards something instead of against?

It's a FUCKING small scene and a lot of it is bloody lazy or superficial. Pardon my french.

And you can complain all you like about that stuff. I, and I'm sure the DWA organizers will shrug and say, what's your point? Do you suggest it would be better not to have the DWA at all? 'cus these are the options for now.

No one else was stepping up to do the job, to put an award like this together at all! The Shusters started around the same time and have very different goals. Before that, ZIP for a dog's age.

So a group of Journalists, Critics, Super Fans and a couple of creators got together and made it happen with the help of the Wright family and some amazing volunteers. What have you done Robert? Better be good trying to pull this one. And I mean outside of being Deeply Involved with the Shusters yourself? That's great you doing that, but it brings your critique into some light don't it?
Course line of it's a small world after all goes here.

Calling the DWA anything else is BS. Calling it pretentious is redundant, and calling it, or suggesting it's bigoted against French comics or French creators is not only steaming hot BS, it's also offensive, dirty politics gaming, confrontational, and unsubstantiated. AND TO BE CLEAR, that was what Herve charged the DWA with.

100% FAIL

Good day sir.
Max Douglas, aka Salgood Sam.

PS: want to comment on this? USE THE COMMENTS.

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   Thursday, August 14, 2008  
The Doug Wright Awards' so called 'Canadian' language controversy

:: Posted by max @ 8/14/2008 06:00:00 PM
With a charged OP ed piece by Herve St-Louis, the publisher and editor for comicbookbin.com has kicked off a pretty intense conversation over the question of whether or not The Doug Wright Awards has the "right" to call itself a Canadian award.

Tom Spurgeon has started to act as something of a neutral presenter of the issue, posting several responses to the first posting from St-Louis on The Comics Reporter. And there's alot of back and forth in the comments of PW The Beat. So far i've found the debate very interesting.

I have a problem with the tone taken at the start by St-Louis myself; I feel he was pretty wildly hyperbolic in his analogies, and presents a basically false premise. And he seems upon a little asking around, to be speculating a lot about the intentions of the DWA organizers without information. There was a small amount of communication with our own Bryan Munn informally as a DWA representative on the subject, but it seems St-Louis cut that short and ran with his story.

But from a purely rhetorical point of view, many have made some very good points on the broader subject.

Bryan, who is responsible for most of the posting here on Sequential now, is bowing out of commenting on the debate on our site as he's closely involved with the Doug Wright Awards, so I'm going to try to keep on top of this for Sequential, work schedule permitting.

I will be thinking on it and perhaps posting my own perspective more in the future but at this time a few things seem clear to me.


First I think that it's clear the DWA's present themselves as A Canadian award, not THE Canadian awards. A point made by Brad MacKay but also consistent with my impression of their promotion of the awards. St-Louis's argument seems to be build a lot on the idea that something other than this is true.

The About page's first short opening paragraph from the DWA site.

About The Doug Wright Awards

The Doug Wright Awards were established in 2005 to cast a spotlight on the range of cartoonists and comic artists working in Canada.

And, the very relevant last one...

Language of work
[SeqEd:accepted for submissions]
For the first year at least, The Wrights will only consider works that are available in English or are wordless. (French-language works that are translated into English will be eligible.)

And if testimony is required, going back to the first year of the awards, I can confirm from my own discussions with the organizers, that what Brad MacKay says in his official statement as true; That there has all along been very active discussion of how eventually to address the question of, at some point, bringing in a french language category. But that for now they lack the resources to do so. There has been no active discrimination against french creators in anyway, or a flat refusal to address the issue. Only a recognition that they are unequipped to review french language submissions at this time in a manor suited to the standards they set out for the DWA.

And far from being presented as THE Canadian comics award, they are more like A Literary Canadian Comics Award in affect. And yes we could be really precise and call them The Doug Wrights, A Literary English Language Canadian Comics Award, but frankly as precise as that would be, it would be a terrible, terrible name!

OK yes I'm being a little dramatic, but The Doug Wright English Canadian Comics Awards is truly not too much better. So it's the The Doug Wright Awards, period.

As Hervé points out; hyphenation, and over qualification is a pain in the arse.

The idea is to make the awards appealing, and interesting. Not boring and didactic.


Now It's all very fine and well to say they could make the contacts here in Quebec, associate with a local award or start a parallel operation.

But it takes two to tango, and speaking as an Anglo, living in Montreal, I have to say the French community here at least, when not too busy with their own things to be bothered, is seldom very welcoming or enthusiastic of this kind of collaboration over all. Nor do they reach out often themselves in a collaborative manner to make such things happen. It's like herding cats here on both sides of the language divide.

Maybe in Alberta where Hervé lives now, he's unaware of this. He started out here so he should know. It was true more so when he lived here!

It's true that in their own language sphere many people have done amazing things to promote local French work to an international French audience. But making the effort to promote their work to an audience that overwhelmingly won't be able to read it is never appealing to any publisher. Frankly I for one can't fault them for that.

And far from generally being ignored by English Canada, I and many Anglo's have come to Montreal thinking we would be able to connect and build bridges with the french community, only to find a wall of often disinterested backs turned on us because we speak French as poorly as many of the Quebecois speak English.

For those who are more engaged and welcoming - and there are many now - it's shrugs and a lack of interest in general. Not to say it's always cold, but I have not experienced a culture in a hurry to be embraced by it's English neighbors. They want more than not to be admired in their own language in their own region or in the EU. For those few desiring more English attention, they look south, like a lot of us here, were there are many many millions more in the audience than here. A practical issues more than not.

I would put it to Herve that this often kind of insular approach, and a love of confrontation and conflict expressed to me by many of my Francophone Montreal peers, and as exemplified by the rather inflammatory examples in his post - Is as much if not more a problem than any active bigotry in the English community...

"If the Harvey Awards, were to refuse all comic books by blacks or women, until they bleached their skin white or undergo hormone therapy to change their gender, it would be clear to everybody that their policy and the support of those awards was morally wrong"

Really? Comparing asking for translations to bleaching skin, AND forced gender reassignment. Was one over the top inaccurate analogy not enough? Hmmmmm.


Numerous times have I inquired locally in Montreal, as to why more effort is not made by French creators and publishers to translate the huge amounts of work produced here into English for the larger North American market. Or why there are so few sites promoting the Quebec community outside of the Francophone sphere.

Coverage and effort has improved, yes, far more of both things happen now than just 5 years ago. But it's been very, very slow.

And my said inquiries are more often than not responded to with shrugs and the refrain that they rather someone else do the work. They are too busy, it's as simple as that. No bigotry, no conspiracy, no surprising undercurrent of hate.

I've done my own best when I've had the time to do so to promote local work, regardless of language, as has Bryan who is I'll repeat an active member of the DWA organization.

I have tried at some length to recruit contributors for this very site to help cover the Quebec scene, as well as trying to find people on the coasts and in the mid west.

I have constantly failed to find interested parties on all counts.

Even Herve's own site spends most of it's time reporting on American, English comics. On the site's menu there is not even a way to filter the posts to view QC or Montreal stories. Just Cunuck. And I invite you to look for yourself to see how many are for French Language books....

It seems to me Herve is asking, demanding, others to confer praise for work he seldom promotes himself. No he does not call himself THE Canadian comic news site anymore than the DWA call them selves THE Canadian comic awards, but then this only furthers my point.

I can understand that there are a lot of bruised egos, as I'm always reminded when I talk to my peers here in Montreal about this sort of thing. It does not come up nearly as often as Herve's article would suggest but sure, some feel a little left out.

But I have a hard time giving too much credit to said egos, when they do so little to change the situation themselves through constructive positive actions. But rather it seems - when bothered to do anything - prefer to rant at supposed arms length about it. In this case at Provincial length, and without foundation or information speculating in an overwhelmingly demonizing way about the intentions of the 'Others' they think someone may perceive themselves slighted or ignored by.


So what do I think they should do instead?

How about this; I've not talked to anyone about this so I don't know if the will or means can be mustered, but say they do and could be. Say someone in QC, or the french community outside of QC cares about this all that much, and wants to do something.

Say maybe the Prix Bedelys have any interest in this, that they take the initiative to put together a jury and reading list for a French language award to spotlight Original French books to the rest of Canada and the English comics reading world and any French readers who may be paying attention, to be presented at The Doug Wright Awards.

They can also help raise funds locally for the prize and to pay for the trophy, and The Doug Wright Awards in turn give them the additional press and attention. The DWA orginization have the current problem of a lack of resources and means on their side addressed in this way.

Maybe as a way to make this a mutual trade - not to besmirch anyone's best intentions; but the Bédélys trophy is not, well, all that impressive. Perhaps they also might be able to persuade the Doug Wright Awards rather famous trophy builder to help them out as well?

Call it a trade for mutual benefit, and fix the problem by doing something about it, rather than making over the top and inaccurate analogies to civil rights abuses and the intentions of others you don't actually talk with before speculating on publicly.

But in the mean time, until the French Comics community is willing or wants to be bothered to take on the task of promoting their own work to the rest of the world regardless if it's Francophone or not, I think it's a little disingenuous for someone in the to cry discrimination in this manor.

A lack of means does not equate a intentional bigoted refusal.


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   Monday, August 11, 2008  
Big News Links: Lynn Johnston, Steven Harper, Muhammad

:: Posted by Bryan @ 8/11/2008 01:00:00 PM

  • Conflict of Interest Dept: As we reported in the previous post, The Wright Awards were held last Friday. I guess the big news, besides the winners of course, was a few comments by Lynn Johnston about the "absolute" end date of For Better or For Worse (August 31) and her intention to redraw the old strips for re-syndication. Nancy Beiman has a blog post with some Johnston quotes from the Q&A event, knitted together and somewhat out of context, but largely accurate. The CBC coverage has a straightforward report with more great quotes. Editor and Publisher has a short blurb/Johnston backgrounder. And see here for Best Emerging Talent-winner Jeff Lemire's earliest comics memories.
  • Does Harper Hate Comics? Dept: The Harper government has cut funding to PromArt, the federal agency responsible for promoting Canadian art and performance abroad. The agency granted money ($4.7 million annually) to artists to pay for travel, to exhibit, perform, attend conferences, etc. As the name of the agency indicates, this was one of the major ways for creative types to promote art from this country in other countries. Conservative media like the National Post have heralded the move as a vote for free markets (and more starving artists, I guess). The government spin is the usual - "Certainly we felt some of the groups were not necessarily ones we thought Canadians would agree were the best choices to be representing them internationally,". Saner minds see a connection to political interference in arts funding, a la Bill C-10. The Canadian Press has the story.
  • Censorship Dept: The Alberta Human Rights Commission has dismissed the complaint against Ezra Levant and the Western Standard for republishing the Danish Muhammad cartoons. You can read the official dismissal report here (pdf file). It is a fascinating document and I urge everyone to read it. The dismissal was based on the fact that Levant reprinted the cartoons as part of a news article discussing the issue, without obvious (or at least extreme) bias (which would be a crime in Canada). The conclusion reads, in part, ""While the cartoons do, in isolation, reinforce existing stereotypes of Muslims, the cartoons placed in the context of the accompanying article, cannot be said to express deep seated feelings of hatred and contempt against Muslims." So the report concludes, "A reasonable person would not consider that the republication of the cartoons in the context in which they were republished, would expose Muslims to the very strong feelings of hatred and contempt. Again, while the republication of the cartoons in isolation would likely promote existing stereotypes, and Muslims are a relatively vulnerable group, the effect of this communication as a whole (cartoons and accompanying article) would not make it more acceptable to others to manifest hatred or contempt against the Muslims." You can read the Western Standard's own report here, Levant's press release here.

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   Friday, August 08, 2008  
Wright Awards Winners

:: Posted by Bryan @ 8/08/2008 09:10:00 PM
CO: Brad Mackay via facebook.

The envelopes are opened, the drinks are drank, and the 2008 Doug Wright Awards are over for another year. For those of you who couldn't make in person (I'm talking to you CoCo!) here are the winners:

The 2008 DWA winner for Best Book is:
The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam by Ann Marie Fleming
(Riverhead Books)

The 2008 DWA winner for Best Emerging Talent is:
Essex County Vol. 1 Tales From The Farm & Vol. 2 Ghost Stories by Jeff Lemire
(Top Shelf)

The winner of the inaugural Pigskin Peters Award* is:
Milk Teeth by Julie Morstad
(Drawn and Quarterly)

The trophies were handed out at the Toronto Reference Library, the historic main branch of the Toronto Public Library, in a 90-minute ceremony that featured Lynn Johnston.

Johnston, the ceremony's guest of honour, was on hand to discuss her 32-year career and to be inducted in The Giants of the North, the Canadian Cartoonists' Hall of Fame. The medal was presented to her by Seth.

(* The Pigskin Peters Annual Award for Nominally Narrative Cartooning – or PPAANNC - is intended to recognize progressive works by Canadian cartoonists that are more experimental in nature and/or lack a traditional narrative structure. It is named after a character in the classic Canadian comic strip Birdseye Center, by Jimmy Frise.)

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Tonite: The Doug Wright Awards

:: Posted by Bryan @ 8/08/2008 05:00:00 AM

The 4th Annual Doug Wright Awards for Canadian Cartooning will honour the career of Canadian cartoonist Lynn Johnston, of For Better or For Worse fame.

Friday, August 8, 7-9 p.m.
Toronto Reference Library
789 Yonge St.
Free admission

Presented with Toronto Public Library, the event will feature:

* A retrospective of Johnston's more than 30-year career
* A moderated Q&A
* A book signing

The 2008 Wrights will also see announcement of the winners of:

* The Best Book trophy
* Best Emerging Talent trophy
* The brand-new "Pigskin Peters" award


The awards are decided by a jury made up of members of the country's arts and culture community, including: author Katrina Onstad, cartoonist Ho Che Anderson, book seller Marc Glassman, writer Mariko Tamaki and Power Plant curator Helena Rickett.

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   Monday, July 28, 2008  
Coming Soon: Strip Stories / Wright Awards Gallery Show

:: Posted by Bryan @ 7/28/2008 12:01:00 AM
panel from louis riel by chester brown canadian graphic novel
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.

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   Friday, June 27, 2008  
Lynn Johnston to be Inducted Into Giants of the North

:: Posted by Bryan @ 6/27/2008 12:39:00 AM


Straight from the source:

Lynn Johnston to headline the 2008 Doug Wright Awards for Canadian Cartooning

Event to be held at Toronto Reference Library

The Doug Wright Awards for Canadian Cartooning is pleased to announce that Lynn Johnston, the award-winning cartoonist behind the long-running strip For Better or For Worse, will be the guest of honour at their 2008 awards ceremony.

Organized in partnership with the Toronto Public Library, the free event will take place Friday Aug. 8 at 7 p.m. at the Toronto Reference Library during which time Johnston will be inducted into the "Giants of the North"; the Canadian Cartoonists' Hall of Fame.

Carried in more than 2,000 newspapers around the world, For Better or For Worse has been collected in more than 30 best-selling books since it first appeared in September 1979; making Johnston arguably the best-known and most successful Canadian cartoonist ever.

Over her three-decade career Johnston has received a number of honours including a Gemini Award (for her animated FBorFW TV series), a Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist (the first woman winner in the history of the National Cartoonists Society) and a Pulitzer Prize nomination for her controversial gay storyline in the early 1990s. In addition, in 1992 she became a Member of the Order of Canada.


On August 8, Johnston will join other giants of Canadian cartooning like Peter Whalley, George Feyer and Doug Wright, when she is inducted into the Giants of the North Hall of Fame. The event will feature a retrospective of her more than 30-year career, a moderated Q&A with the audience and a book signing with Johnston.

The ceremony will comprise just part of the 4th Annual Doug Wright Awards, the country's premier comics awards, which recognizes the best in new and established cartoonists and graphic novelists. The 2008 Wrights will see announcement of the winners of the Best Book trophy, Best Emerging Talent trophy and the "Pigskin Peters" award; a new category dedicated to non-traditional or non-narrative cartooning. (To learn more about the 2008 nominees, visit www.wrightawards.ca.)

As usual, The Wright Awards will also play host to the best and brightest in Canada's cartooning community from Chester Brown (Louis Riel) and Seth (Palookaville) to Ho Che Anderson (King) and Mariko Tamaki (Skim).

The awards will be decided by a jury made up of members of the country's arts and cultural community, including: author and film critic Katrina Onstad, cartoonist Ho Che Anderson, Toronto book seller Marc Glassman, writer, performer Mariko Tamaki and Power Plant curator Helena Rickett.

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   Thursday, June 19, 2008  
Bryan Lee O'Malley, William Van Horn Lead Harvey Noms

:: Posted by Bryan @ 6/19/2008 03:24:00 PM

Two Canadians, William Van Horn and Bryan Lee O'Malley, dominate the nominations for the U.S. Harvey Awards, released yesterday. Van Horn, the long-time B.C. resident and Donald Duck cartoonist, was nominated in the Best Writer, Artist, Cartoonist, Cover Artist, and the Special Award for Humor categories. As well, two titles that Horn contributes to, Walt Disney' s Comics and Stories (Best Anthology) and Uncle Scrooge (Best Continuing Series) received nominations. O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim 4: Scott Pilgrim Gets it Together was nominated in the Cartoonist, Original Graphic Album, and Special Award for Humor categories.

Other Canadian nominees include Darwyn Cooke (Best Cartoonist), Scott Chantler (Previously Published Graphic Album, Excellence in Presentation for Northwest Passage and Best Single Issue for Stephen Colbert's Tek Jansen), and Jeff Lemire (Best New Talent). Montreal publisher Drawn and Quarterly had several of its books by foreign creators nominated, including Exit Wounds, Moomin, and Walt and Skeezix.

Sequential congratulates all of the nominees. The winners will be announced September 27, 2008 in Baltimore.

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   Monday, June 16, 2008  
Shuster Award Winners

:: Posted by Bryan @ 6/16/2008 05:00:00 AM


The Shuster Awards were handed out on Saturday in Toronto. Here are the results:

OUTSTANDING CANADIAN COMIC BOOK WRITER

- Cecil Castellucci for The P.L.A.I.N. Janes (DC/Minx)

OUTSTANDING CANADIAN COMIC BOOK ARTIST

- Dale Eaglesham for Justice Society of America #2-4, 6-7, 9-11 (DC Comics)

OUTSTANDING CANADIAN COMIC BOOK CARTOONIST (WRITER/ARTIST)

- Jeff Lemire for Essex County Vol. 1: Tales From The Farm, Essex County Vol. 2: Ghost Stories (Top Shelf)

OUTSTANDING COVER BY A CANADIAN COMIC BOOK ARTIST

- Steve Skroce for Doc Frankenstein #6 (Burleyman)

OUTSTANDING CANADIAN COMIC BOOK COLOURIST

- Dave McCaig for Nextwave, Agents of H.A.T.E. #12, New Avengers #27-35, Fallen Son – The Death of Captain America #1: Wolverine, Marvel Comics Presents #1-4, Wolverine #50, Avengers Classic #7 (Marvel Comics) DC Infinite Halloween Special #1 (DC Comics), The Other Side #4-5 (DC/Vertigo) Stephen Colbert’s Tek Jensen #1 (ONI Press)

OUTSTANDING CANADIAN COMIC BOOK &/OR GRAPHIC NOVEL PUBLISHER

- Drawn & Quarterly

OUTSTANDING CANADIAN WEBCOMICS CREATOR / CREATIVE TEAM

- Ryan Sohmer and Lar De Souza for Least I Can Do and Looking for Group

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT BY A CANADIAN RELATED TO COMIC BOOKS

David Watkins for using comic books as a teaching tool

CANADIAN COMIC BOOK CREATOR HALL OF FAME

Stan Berneche
John Byrne
Pierre Fournier
Edwin R. "Ted" McCall

FAVOURITE CANADIAN COMIC BOOK CREATOR - ENGLISH LANGUAGE PUBLICATIONS

Faith Erin Hicks - Zombies Calling

FAVOURITE CANADIAN COMIC BOOK CREATOR - FRENCH LANGUAGE PUBLICATIONS

Philippe Girard aka phlppgrrd - Danger Public

FAVOURITE INTERNATIONAL (NON-CANADIAN) COMIC BOOK CREATOR

Ed Brubaker - Captain America, Criminal, Immortal Iron Fist, Uncanny X-Men

HARRY KREMER OUTSTANDING CANADIAN COMIC BOOK RETAILER

Big B Comics - Hamilton, Ontario

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   Saturday, June 14, 2008  
Today: Shuster Awards

:: Posted by Bryan @ 6/14/2008 06:00:00 AM

SEQUENTIAL ART SYMPOSIUM / VISIONS OF AN ICON / JOE SHUSTER AWARDS

JUNE 14, 2008

Lillian H. Smith Library Auditorium, 239 College Street, Toronto

see here for details

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   Friday, June 13, 2008  
Saturday: Shuster Awards and Symposium

:: Posted by Bryan @ 6/13/2008 05:59:00 AM
This weekend is the annual Shuster Awards at the Lillian H. Smith Library in Toronto, preceded by a Comics Symposium and art show centered on Superman co-creator Joe Shuster. The event features comics-historian John Bell and a host of comics creators.

SEQUENTIAL ART SYMPOSIUM / VISIONS OF AN ICON / JOE SHUSTER AWARDS

JUNE 14, 2008

Lillian H. Smith Library Auditorium, 239 College Street, Toronto

Schedule:

Lobby Reception Area - Opens at 10 am and runs until 5 pm

Joe Shuster Awards table

Constellation Awards table

A selection of graphic novels and comic books by Joe Shuster Awards nominees - past and present - will be on sale courtesy of Allnewcomics.com

Flyers and promotional items for upcoming shows and events.

Room A Opens at 10 am and runs until 5pm

Signing Room --- there will be approx. 20-25 guests in the signing area.

2008 Poster signing with Tom Grummett and Paul Rivoche will take place from 11-12

Room B Exhibit opens at 10 am and runs until 4-4:30 pm

Visions of an Icon: Canadian Visions of the Man of Steel- Art Exhibit

A large array of original art piece by Canadian comic book creators will be on display.

Room C - Discussions start at 11 am and run until 5 pm

Panel Discussions - Topics will run 45-50 minutes and start on each hour (11, 12, 1, etc)

Tentative Schedule:

11 am --- Comics & Kids: Teaching with Sequential Art

12 noon --- Sequential Art on the Internet: Webcomics

1 pm --- Writing for Sequential Art

2 pm --- Darwyn Cooke's Next Frontier

3 pm --- Superman @ 70: 7 decades of superheroes & comics

4 pm --- John Bell's Invaders From The North: Canadians and Comics
with 2008 Hall of Fame Inductees Pierre Fournier and Stanley Berneche


Then it's break for dinner time at 5 as the library closes and everyone goes for a dinner break while we reconfigure the space for the Awards ceremony, which will take place in Rooms A, B & C (wall dividers will be removed to open the full area up).

7:30 pm --- seating for the Awards ceremony begin.

8 pm --- Joe Shuster Awards Ceremony with Master of Ceremonies Rick Green

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   Tuesday, June 03, 2008  
Wright Awards Noms Announced

:: Posted by Bryan @ 6/03/2008 01:40:00 AM
2008 Finalists for the Doug Wright Awards for Canadian cartooning

Best Book

365 Days -Julie Doucet (Drawn and Quarterly)
Spent - Joe Matt (Drawn and Quarterly)
The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam -Ann Marie Fleming (Riverhead Books)
Southern Cross -Laurence Hyde (Drawn and Quarterly)

Best Emerging Talent

Essex County & Vol. 2 by Jeff Lemire (Top Shelf)
Pope Hats by Ethan Rilly (self-published)
Kieffer #1 by Jason K (self-published)
The Experiment Nick Maandag (self-published)


"Pigskin Peters" Award
(new for 2008)

Milk Teeth by Julie Morstad (Drawn and Quarterly)
Little Lessons in Safety by Emily Holton (Conundrum Press)
Excelsior by John Martz (self-published)
Fire Away by Chris von Szombathy (Drawn and Quarterly)

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   Wednesday, May 28, 2008  
Midweek News and Reviews

:: Posted by Bryan @ 5/28/2008 01:51:00 AM
men of the mounted ted mccall canadian comic book rcmp big little book


  • 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.

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   Wednesday, May 14, 2008  
Beer and Comics Contest

:: Posted by Bryan @ 5/14/2008 03:19:00 PM
A new contest has been announced in conjunction with the Montreal beer festival, Mondial de la Biere.

The 15th anniversary of this huge festival, taking place May 28-June 1, will incorporate the "Bieres et bandes dessinee" contest, which is shaping up to be the most lucrative comics-related prize in Canada, according to this press release:


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.

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   Tuesday, May 13, 2008  
Serge Chapleau Wins National Newspaper Award

:: Posted by Bryan @ 5/13/2008 01:02:00 AM

Cartoonist Serge Chapleau of Montreal's La Presse has won his sixth National Newspaper Award for editorial cartooning. The awards, given annually by the Canadian Newspaper Association, were handed out May 9 in Toronto. The awards are considered to be the premier journalism awards in the country and the NNA for editorial cartooning is the big policart prize, period. Chapleau has been nominated nine times and has won in 1997, 1999, 2000, 2002, and 2003. This year, he beat out fellow nominees Patrick Corrigan (Toronto Star) and John B. Larter (Brandon Sun/freelance).

full press release

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   Monday, May 05, 2008  
News and Views

:: Posted by Bryan @ 5/05/2008 12:00:00 AM
Some comics-related links from the past few days:

  • 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.

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   Thursday, April 24, 2008  
Things I've Been Meaning to Link To

:: Posted by Bryan @ 4/24/2008 10:38:00 AM

  • The Eisner nominees: Darwyn Cooke, Pia Guerra, Jeff Lemire, Karl Kerschl, Scott Chantler, and several international volumes published by D+Q were among the nominees. It is worth noting also (if only for the purposes of vanity and self-promotion) that the category of "Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism" includes at least two nominees featuring the work of Canadians: Comic Art #9 has articles by Jeet Heer and myself; The Comics Reporter regularly features Bart Beaty's Eurocomics column. Sequential congratulates all the nominees! The winner will be announced July 25.

  • Tom Spurgeon previewed Montreal cartoonist Billy Mavreas' upcoming (May) graphic novel, Inside Outside Overlap (Timeless Books) a few weeks ago.

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   Tuesday, April 22, 2008  
Bedeis Causa Winners

:: Posted by Bryan @ 4/22/2008 01:35:00 AM
Note: this is a corrected version of this post. The original featured last year's winners (thanks to Michel Viau for the heads up).

The winners of the Prix Bedeis Causa were announced at last week's Festival de la Bande Dessinee de Quebec. The prize is one of the two top prizes devoted to French-language Quebec comics.

Prix Real-Filion :
Best first album

Pierre Bouchard, for L'Ile-aux-Ours (Mecanique generale)

Prix Ville de Quebec :
Best French-language album from Quebec

Kaspar by Obom (Diane Obomsawin), publisheds by L'Oie de Cravan

Prix Alberic-Bourgeois
Best foreign album by a Quebec creator

Chroniques Birmanes by Guy Delisle (Shampoing/Delcourt)

Prix Maurice-Petitdidier
Jury prize for best foreign album

Chaque chose by Julien Neel (Gallimard)

Prix Albert-Chartier
Important contribution to Quebec bd.

Mecaniques Generale

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   Monday, April 14, 2008  
Nominees: Bedeis Causa

:: Posted by Bryan @ 4/14/2008 06:00:00 AM