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.
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.
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'sgreat, 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."]
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 EVERYONEin 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.
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.
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.
Wow, four days between Sequential updates! For all our loyal readers who have been cramming our inboxes with queries of "What is going on in the world of Canadian comics?!?", we bring you the following news-y tidbits:
The amazing Norwegian cartoonist Jason was in Toronto yesterday, and as Ty Buttars notes, his original art is sold exclusively through The Beguiling.
Kevin Boyd has some "behind-the-scenes" notes about the upcoming Shuster Awards (this Saturday!) as well as links to the Superman-related event the awards-planners have cooked up. As well, Boyd comments on several controversial nominees for the Wright Awards.
Jian Gomeshi interviews the curator of Vancouver's KRAZY! gallery show about some of the controversial inclusions over at the CBC's Q podcast.
Speaking of podcasts, Montreal's Billy Mavreas is interviewed by the Inkstuds gang about his new graphic novel. As well, Canadian Underground comix pioneer Marv Newland is interviewed.
1. Brad MacKay reveals the secret history of Canada's own Iron Man, created by Vernon Miller:
White's Iron Man (which preceded Marvel's by a couple of decades) was the sole survivor of a destroyed civilization who lived and brooded underwater, surfacing occasionally to help out a couple of trouble magnets named Ted and Jean.
2. John Adcock has a new blog devoted to Canadian comics history and delves into the work of Hector Brault, two-fisted Western cartoonist:
I have had a small collection of clippings of the comic pages for about ten years now but always figured they were reprints of European bande dessinée and British comic art. Recently I bought the issue pictured, from 19 septembre 1942, and noticing Hector Brault's signature on the comic pages looked him up to discover that he was from Québec and a cartoonist. Needless to say I was visibly chuffed to rediscover such an interesting fellow in Canadian comic history.
Great news from cartoonist Diana Tamblyn: she is hard at work on her first graphic novel, a biography of Canadian scientist Gerald Bull. As Tamblyn explains on her blog, she has recently moved to London and secured a Canada Council grant to work on the project. In the same vein as her critically acclaimed minicomic bio of Frederick Banting, the Bull bio will focus on the weird life of the Canadian-born inventor of the Super-Gun and international man of mystery. Tamblyn has recently secured an agent and will be shopping the book around after initial research is completed this summer.
A massive report by the con's only volunteer, Ty Buttars. (The above photo of Michael Cho, a young comics fan, and a drawing of Wolverine one of the many photos from Buttars blog.)
Chris of The Blurst of Times, with a short report about buying comics.
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.
A bad week for Mr. Big Thing, aka Vancouver cartoonist Colin Upton. He got turned down for a Canada Council grant and then he got some crappy medical news.
This past Saturday, Happy Harbor Comics in Edmonton hosted their annual 12-Hour Comic Challenge for charity. Jamie Hall of The Edmonton Journal has a report.
No, it's not Guy Delisle. Sudbury cartoonist Sue Dewar writes about her trip to China.
Patrick Berube reviews Delisle's Chroniques Birmanes for Comic Book Bin and cofrims it will be translated by D+Q.
This Georgia Straight article makes coherent sense of the latest press release from Zeros 2 Heroes, including the news that Astral Media has committed $18,000 towards script development for the latest winner of the Comic Book Nation contest.
Another Vancouver web-based company, Optimum Wound Comics, has announced their first graphic novel release, Croatian artist Danijel Zezelj's Rex. Comic Book Bin has the press release.
Steve Murray writes about how his parents used comics as positive reinforcement for the National Post.
Teletoon is airing a few animated episodes of U.S. cartoonist's Aaron McGruder's Boondocks after the offending eps were yanked from the Cartoon Network. I can't tell if this is news or not --this isn't really an animation blog and I don't follow the show in question (it's pretty crappy).
Von Allan is an Ottawa-based cartoonist who is serializing his graphic novel, the road to god knows..., on the Girlamatic webcomic site. In this massive blog post, Allan takes a long, hard look at all the numbers available to him, page views and hits as recorded by his own page counter, Girlamatic, and advertisers. Serious serial strips by relatively unknown talents, as opposed to humour strips or genre adventures written by Warren Ellis or a webcomics collective of perhaps lesser-known, well-established cartoonists like Transmission-X, seem like the hardest sell to a generally inattentive, nebulous webcomic audience, as Allan notes, but the actual data he presents is worth a look. I'm particularly interested in the mechanics of Project Wonderful, the hands-on indy business shared advertising model that many bloggers and webcomics participate in.
In my opinion, Allan is doing a good job promoting his work and getting the word out about his book, which I am assuming will eventually be collected in print somewhere after the online run is finished and archived at the end of this Summer. He's not making any money, but neither does about 99% of all webcomics.
Project Wonderful uses an auction process for it’s buyers and sellers. If you want to run an ad to attract visitors to your site, you need to compete with other sites doing the same thing. You can do this on a site by site basis (someone can advertise, for example, on one or both boxes on my GirlAMatic site) or you can do it as a campaign. In the latter case, you enter in criteria and have PW bid on your behalf on sites that meet your specs. Personally, I use a combination of both. For instance, I find that I get a really good Q Rating on Wahoo Morris, probably because the two stories are somewhat similar and both Craig Taillefer and I are Ottawa-based creators. 'Course, maybe it's something entirely different. Regardless, I keep on bidding on his site because I like the results that I get.
If we assume, just for a sec, that those 4112 are unique individuals, then my $108.60 ad spend is pretty amazing. Even if it's quarter of that (say 1000 unique individuals), then I'm only spending 11 cents on each person. When I compare that to how much I spent going to various conventions slogging my work (keeping in mind that I went to both the Alternative Press Expo and the Small Press Expo from an advertising point of view and NOT to sell things), it's remarkable. $100.00 doesn't even cover the table costs, let alone manufacturing, travel, lodgings and food. I would never get that type of awareness going to a convention and I've certainly learned my lesson. Your mileage, of course, may vary.
Kevin Boyd has news about the 2008 Shuster Awards at his blog. Since Boyd, one of the big organizers of the Awards, split with previous host Paradise con last summer, the new location of the event has been up in the air for awhile. The new location is the Toronto Public Library's Lillian H. Smith branch, 239 College Street, and the show goes on Saturday, June 14th. The date coincides with the 70th anniversary of the publication of Action Comics #1, featuring the first published Superman story illustrated by Canadian ex-pat Joe Shuster.
The Awards are taking on a different format this year as well, with a jury taking responsibility for most of the prizes and a fan-vote for favourite artists. As well, the day-long event will include a few panels/symposiums/workshops, including Superman's 70th Anniversary, Joe Shuster Award Nominees, Canadian Comic Book History, How to Create Comics, etc.
An interesting essay about Dave Sim by David Fiore, quoting Sim's ex-wife Deni Loubert:
So Cerebus must be clever, not powerful, in order to come out even, let alone ahead. Which is also very Canadian. A Canadian is someone who is running, just to stay where he is and feels accomplishment when he does so. He is a survivor. If he comes out ahead, it’s never for very long. This issue is is a good example of the survivor who knows all the tricks, never misses a beat or loses an opportunity. This, of course, is all hypothesis on my part. I’m not saying Dave is saying all this in Cerebus. I’m not saying he isn’t either.
Sequential predicts: 2008 will be great! Lots of great comics, lots of bad comics, and lots of dopey internet blather about both!
One last go around: Some quick links about comics in Canada.
Convention promoter and blogger Kevin Boyd offers up his list of the top graphic novels of 2007. He provides 30 mostly superhero titles which he winnows down to a top 10.
Robin Bougie posts his top 10 graphic novels of 2007, in response to that lame Time magazine list. And Bougie's list is pretty good!
Chris Butcher takes a stab at Dirk Deppey-style linkblogging, including pointers to some "best-of" lists and sneak peaks of Kean Soo comics. As well, Butcher has photos from the Faith Erin Hicks/Svetlana Chmakova signing at the Beguiling, including a great snap of the snow-bound front entrance to the store.
Maclean's profiles several programs devoted to teaching comics at the university level.
CBC reports on a new Fantastic Four comic created for the Puerto Rican market. They get it wron, however, when they claim that the franchise is "en espagnol for first time."
Greg Roch of Comics Readers in Regina reports on sales of gonorrhea in his shop.
Eye Weekly's Sasha gives the nod to Steve MacIsaac's comics in a Best of 2007 round-up.
The Tyee reports on cartoonists Dan Murphy and Bob Krieger being dumped by the Vancouver Province newspaper:
Murphy and Krieger were told by Province management that their cartoons would no longer be regularly published on the editorial pages of The Province, they were offered other positions at the newspaper as well as the option of leaving the employ of The Province with buy-out payments.
Happy New Year, Sequential readers! Sequential will return sometime in 2008 with new features and our year-end wrap-up.
(top: image by Pascal Blanchet from Saturday's National Post)
The website for Dave Sim's long-awaited post-Cerebus comic book project is now up. Apparently, the project is an on-going monthly series entitled Glamourpuss, available through comics retailers in April 2008. The website bills the comic as a combination fashion magazine parody, Alex Raymond homage, and superhero adventure.
At the same time as the publicity for this project has launched, Sim has also announced he will be discontinuing his weblog, Dave Sim's blogandmail, the main forum for the last few years, outside of the Following Cerebus fanzine and yahoo discussion group, for Sim's political, philosphical, and artistic musing. According to Sim, a computer crash has helped the project along:
As for me, it seems my "lifelong" prison sentence has turned out to be just short of four years: a year answering the backlog of mail when CEREBUS ended, keeping up with the mail (total of a little less than 3,000 pages) and doing the Blog & Mail (probably another 2,000 pages) as well as various articles, interviews, reviews, etc. As I said all along, I was just reading into the record and it looks as if God decided that I didn't have much to add (I was starting to wonder: I think I've answered every question at least five times!).
I will be spending roughly 100 hours on the Internet promoting my new bi-monthly title (starting, God willing, January 30 at 6 pm EDST on the Comics Journal Message boards and then going on from there. I'll be posting my schedule at that time).
I know this was supposed to be the official launch of the new title here on Boxing Day but, you know, in a strange way it IS! The official launch will now take place when Jeff Tundis declares the website officially and totally up and running. We'll pick up from there January 30 through most of the month of February when the ordering period is.
Most people are not aware of this, but the Superfriends cartoon was one of the most profound and artful tv shows of all time. Now it will be more readily obvious to more viewers in Ontario, thanks to Cogeco picking up Teletoon retro. (Not comics, really, but I couldn't resist).
Morefallout for the Western Standard over Mohammed cartoons, sort of.
Dave Sim and Chester Brown discuss scripture. Sim has a new bi-monthly comic book scheduled for 2008. He will announce the details on Boxing Day and the thing should be solicited by February. Caveat: as usual, you have to scroll past the first half of all of Sim's blog posts before you get to the "meat".
The Globe and Mail finally gets around to eulogizing Peter Whalley, cartoonist and sculptor extraordinare. Some choice quotes included.
An exhibit of original art from Regis Loisel and Jean-Louis Tripp's Magasin Feneral album series continues through January:
Galerie Attakus 5333 av. Casgrain, 6eme etage, suite 603, Montreal (Metro Laurier or bus 55 St-Laurent, Fairmount stop) Monday to Friday, 12-6
Nathalie Atkinson's quartetly review of comic books and graphic movels for the Globe, Graphica, features lots of Can-con, including laurels for Therefore Repent! and Long Tack Sam.
Despite gay marriage and other actions, Canadian customs officers have been quietly but systematically blocking U.S.-made erotica. Their actions have had the effect of severely limiting free speech. Lest you think this is only about curtailing the masturbatory options of law-abiding Canadians and wreaking havoc on the profit margin of of the sex-industry, it is, in fact, a broad assault on civil liberties that should worry people on both sides of the extensive border."
Some comic book links from around Canada for Tuesday:
Debbie Ohi interviews Lori Emerson, editor of a collection of bpnichol poetry. Besides writing for Fraggle Rock, nichol was one of Canada's greatest poets, a comic book fan, and the creator of several 1970s comix/graphic novels.
The Walrus has an online-only interview with Canada's greatest cartoonist Julie Doucet, as well as a pdf excerpt from her drawn diary: "It seems that the world of contemporary art got curious about comics in the past 3-4-5 years... and the comic world opened itself to more experimental work. So yes, it was natural... in the end. I still live from my royalties, and comics original sales... art is not very lucrative!" Besides a collection of her diary drawings from D+Q, Doucet has also just released a collage collection thru L'Oie de Cravan.
Sandra Bell-Lundy, one of Canada's most popular cartoonists based on the syndication of her strip Between Friends, blogs about sticking to your creative guns, especially when it comes to drawing women in bikinis (via Journalista).
Jeet Heer provides a nice chrestomathy (yeah, I had to look it up) of John Updike's utterances on comics.
The Shuster Awards are calling for submissions from Canadian creators in order to "compile the list of eligible creators and their works published in 2007 for the 2008 Joe Shuster Awards, which will be presented in mid-2008 at a time and location to be announced." Details at Kevin Boyd's blog.
(image: the sort of cartoon storytelling device that fascinates John Updike, according to Jeet Heer; an example of fair use for the purposes of news reporting, parody, and criticism; and a thinly-veiled analogy of the Harper/Bush relationship, perhaps? Probably copyright Warner Bros/DC.)
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.
Tonite: Industry Night at the Vic --the monthly gathering of comics industry-related types at the Victory Cafe in Toronto. Drop by and kvetch. No special event or booklaunch this time around. Wednesday, November 28th, 8pm-Close, Victory Cafe, 581 Markham Street (South of The Beguiling).
The first volume of Kean Soo's Jellaby graphic novel is now available for preorder. A successful webcomic, Jellaby was picked up by Hyperion Books. More news at Jellaby's online home, The Secret Friend Society.
Kevin Boyd reviews the 20 (!) comic book conventions he attended over 2007, a wild year, at least for Kevin and the Toronto con scene.
Sandra Bell-Lundy (creator of the comic strip Between Friends) lists her biggest cartooning influences in this interview and blogs about her road to syndication on her own blog: parts 1, 2, 3 and 4.
Ho Che Abderson is interviewed for an Italian website about his influences as a cartoonist, his latest project (Godhead), and the genesis of his graphic novel biography of Martin Luther King.
None of the three mascots actually exist in real life. Miga the Sea Bear is a combination of an orca and a sea otter. Sumi, the Paralympic mascot, is a Thunderbird but looks more like a bear with wings. And Quatchi is the first Sasquatch in history to actually make an appearance before human beings.
Mukmuk is the only real animal. But the committee said it isn't really a mascot and will only make appearances on its website.
The mascots are the creation of Vancouver graphic designers Vicki Wong and Michael Murphy, who own Meomi Design. The committee said that although the two provided more than 20 different concepts, it was Quatchi, Miga and Sumi that they first proposed and which were selected as winning designs.
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 resp
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