C'est le Monthly Monkeytown Comix Jam this Monday, June 30 at the Laundromat (corner St.-George and Cameron.)
This will be our big-ass whopping one-year anniversary jam, with literally several moderately talented comix artists likely to show up!!! It's a once-in-a-lifetime-of-unspecified-length event, the likes of which you've never noticed!!!!
Les jams commencent vers 19h/jams start around 7pm. Catch toi there!
The latest issue of Quill & Quire ("Canada's Magazine of Book News and Reviews") includes an article titled Graphica: the next generation: Five young creators who are making a mark on the Canadian scene. The cartoonists, Jeff Lemire, Bryan Lee O'Malley, Hope Larson, Scott Chantler, and Pascal Blanchet, are briefly profiled by writer Scott MacDonald who notes that "Canada has always seemed to punch above its weight in the realm of graphic novels." This is certainly true and, while it might be easy to name several other quintets that are equally talented (say, Jillian Tamaki, Joe Ollman, Jimmy Beaulieu, Lorenz Peter, and Genevieve Castree, for instance), there's no denying that the Q&Q list represents some of the best-reviewed and successful crop of relative newcomers to grab our attention over the past year.
Also reviewed in the issue: the new Bigfoot book by Graham Roumieu, Hall of Best Knowledge by Ray Fenwick (also interviewed in Mome Summer 2008), and the KRAZY! catalogue).
Benny Bunny On Wheels Unveiling and Signing Because two and a half years is a long time to wait.....
it's been a long time and many questions have been asked about a new Sean Ward comic. And now it's time to rejoice, as it's finally arriving! Be one of the first to get hold of it when we throw a special unveiling and signing party at the Silver Snail.
Benny is a happy-go-lucky bunny who loves his Carrot Cake but when he unwittingly becomes the champion of the skateboard scene, the head of the city’s biggest skating tournament will stop at nothing - from corporate sabotage to an evil robot attack - to shut him down. BENNY BUNNY ON WHEELS is a 21st century David & Goliath story, based on true events.
BENNY BUNNY ON WHEELS Unveiling & Signing Friday July 4 at The Silver Snail - 367 Queen Street West Unveiling at reading at 5 Signing and sketches from 5 to 8
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.
It's Comics Industry Night at The Vic! The last Friday of every month, comics industry pros and their friends are invited to come out and enjoy a drink at The Victory Cafe, just south of The Beguiling.
This month's event just happened to fall on Halloween, so what better way to celebrate than to officially launch Jeff Lemire's new graphic novel GHOST STORIES? Jeff will be doing a short reading, and we'll all enjoy a quick pint or two before heading out for our various spooky shenanigans.
The official book launch of the 'Chiaroscuro' graphic novel by Troy Little, published by IDW Publishing (Transformers, 30 Days of NIght, Star Trek)!
Come by and meet the author/illustrator at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery on November 9th at 7 pm. Get your book signed with a sketch! Books will be available for sale at the show compliments of The Comic Hunter.
Over 40 pages of original art are on display from the graphic novel as well as works by Seth, Charmaine Wheatly, Marc Gallant & Robet Harris as part of the on going "...And Other Stories" exhibit.
Chiaroscuro is the story of Steven Patch, an unemployed artist with a single blank canvas. Steven's busy living the introspective, angst-ridden life of your average twenty-something; drinking too much and complaining about his situation while doing little to improve it. A case of mistaken identity pushes Steven into a flow of events that bring him places he'd never imagined and forces him to make a choice between art and mere existence.
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.
Alootook Ipellie, the Inuit cartoonist, has died suddenly in Ottawa. He was 56.
Ipellie was well-known as a gallery artist and his comics work had only recently begun to be appreciated by a wider audience.
Raised in Frobisher Bay, Ipellie was artistically inspired by Superman comics as a youth. He dropped out of the lithography program at West Baffin Eskimo Co-Op in 1972 and went on to create single panel cartoons for Inuit Today magazine. He also worked as an editor and journalist before becoming a prominent artist, defying the stereotypes of Inuit art with his sexually charged, modern images. Ipellie also created the comic strip Nuna and Vut for the Nunatsiak News in the 1990s. His work was showcased in various galleries internationally and in Canada and in the recent Monster Island Three comics anthology, edited by Montreal's Billy Mavreas. Ipellie's book, Arctic Dreams and Nightmares was published in 1993. He also wrote a children's book, The Inuit Thought of It.
Ipellie died of a heart attack outside his Ottawa apartment September 8. He will be buried in Iqaluit. Ipellie is survived by his daughter Taina. --
My old work-mate, Gabriel Morrissette, brought me on board a rush project that he had to do for a young Canadian publisher by the name of Jackfruit Press.
I stepped in and after we wrapped that job up, I went on to illustrate a book in that same series about Sir Robert Borden.
After the Borden book, I agreed to do the design, layout and illustrations for a 96 page book about native land claims in Canada, called Your Home on Native Land, and it's turning out well. Written by Alan Skeoch. I'll put some pages up soon.
For something completely different.
Local Montreal animation moguls, Cinegroupe, have got me to do a newspaper-style comic strip for a website dedicated to their computer-animated Sci Fi comedy TV show, Tripping the Rift. To be updated on a regular basis. It will be a story in 52 parts. If you're interested in having a peek, go here on www.trippingtherift.tv and get ready for a little scrolling.
These are the things that fill my days now, aside from trying to figure out what to make for supper. There's a good possibility that an interesting collaboration involving comics writer Joe Casey, Oni comics and Hercules may happen after I clear away my current commitments. A 4 issue series that I would draw. That would be fun!
I'll try and get in the habit of posting to the blog more.
N'oubliez pas le prochain comix jam d'aout qui aura lieu comme d'habitude au cafe l'Utopik 552 Ste-Catherine Est, ce jeudi 30 aout a 20 heures. pres du metro Berri.
A la prochaine!
Don't forget August next Comix Jam at l'Utopik 552 St-Catherine East, 8PM August 30th. Near Berri Metro.
Classically trained Haida Artist and generally nice guy, Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas has been courting the Asian market with his unique Haida Manga comic art and stories since 2003 when he earned himself a top ten ranking for is "No Apologies Necessary" at the Tokyo Design Week, and at EXPO 2005 had a live painting exhibit in Canadian Pavilion in Nagoya Japan. Seems they love him there, and in Japan that means being ubiquitous as a shopping bag...
Haida artist hits it big in Asia Large retailer Seiju buys design to grace shopping bags Ashley Ford, The Province Published: Friday, April 06, 2007
Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas is a bird of many feathers.
Formally trained in classical Haida design, the Vancouver resident has taken his considerable artistic talents along new paths with his unique form of "graphic narrative" called Haida Manga, essentially part-Haida and part-Asian.
He takes Haida design and narratives and transforms them into socially relevant art. The object is to advance the Haida design traditions "to combat the simplistic narratives perpetrated about indigenous people of the Pacific Coast."
He is already a big hit in Japan and Korea where manga -- Japanese for comic -- is a multi-billion-dollar-a-year business.
And greater commercial success may just be around the corner.
Seiju, a large Japanese retailer with a major shareholding from U.S. retailing icon WalMart, wants to mount Yahgulanaas's Hachiridori, hummingbird design from one of his books with the English words "I do what I can" on its non-plastic, reusable bags.
Yahgulanaas says he doesn't know how enriching it will eventually be but is hopeful it will be enough for him to carry on his personal campaign of taking the Haida art tradition out to the rest of the world and not just in the traditional style.
The National post featured a 2-page strip by cartoonist Steve Murray this past Saturday. Ostensibly a funny series of interviews with people about Union Sation, the final 2 panels feature an interview with Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty who jokes about today's budget. Who knows, if Murray had bought a few more drinks for Flaherty, he could of had a major scoop on his hands...
Writing for the Cambridge Now! website, Thomas Hagey remembers cartoonist Muff Mills who died last week:
I remember the first time I met Muff Mills. He had an outwardly crusty disposition. I recall muttering under my breath, "What the heck is his problem?!?" But then, I didn't know the character ... or the character behind the character.
His friends would say to me, "Oh don’t worry, that's just 'Muff'! He really wouldn't hurt a fly." And they were right. He was looking through life with those little round glasses and what he saw was different than anyone else. This is why when someone like Muff moves on to greater things; the people they leave behind really, really miss them. Such was the case on Friday down at the Legion in Galt. His friends and family were missing him; stunned that Muff wasn't there to get them through yet another one of life's dramas.
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