Labels: awards, comics history, events, floppies, graphic novels, Toronto, U.S. superhero franchises

Labels: comics retailers, events, floppies, real world

Acadieman goes number two with the help of his friends

MONCTON - Acadieman Comics number two will be launched April 25th at the Cafe Aberdeen in Moncton. A year after releasing the first issue of the Acadieman series, artist Dano LeBlanc and Short Circuit Publishing have finally managed to get their act together and publish a second comic starring the popular Acadian superhero.

"It's about friggin' time", says Dano LeBlanc. Publisher, Andre Wilson claims it's mostly Dano's fault the second comic wasn't released, as planned, last October. But he forgives him. "Hey, we had a best seller with the first one. So what if he's a little slow getting the second comic finished. Besides, Dano was supposedly pretty busy this past year."

In his defense Dano says : "I'm not a machine!"

This second comic continues the story of Acadieman's origins and also presents a number of other local artists. These strips include Sniper Ninja Bears (Samuel Chiasson et Jean Sébastien Levesque), Voodoo Gun (Mark Young), l'Histoire de l'Acadie selon Roger (Daniel Fournier), The Strange Men (Adam Beaumont), Gothic Beach Party et Don't Just Stand There, Kill Something (Tim Moerman), as well as 11 comics created by sixth grade French-immersion students from Besborough school.

Asked what this second comic book represents for the arts scene in New Brunswick, LeBlanc says : "I don't have a clue." He's nonetheless happy that he's able to promote other comic book artists from the region.

This second comic contains other surprises which won't be revealed until the book launch. A comic book signing will take place during the launch. Another will be held the following day at The Comic Hunter as part of the Frye Festival.

Labels: floppies, New Brunswick, publishing

• Rick Trembles gives more than I ever wanted to know about tweenybopper Hannah Montana, in his latest comic strip movie review.

• Welcome back, Michael Cho. The Toronto cartoonist just got over a 3-week bout of hospital-quality intestinal nastiness.

• Jay Stephens has a comics version of his Secret Saturdays animated tv show coming from DC in June.

• Scott Chantler has announced that his next graphic novel project is a non-fiction adaptation of his grandfather's wartime diary. Scheduled for a 2009 release from Tundra Books.

• The nominees for the BC and Yukon Community Newspapers Association's Ma Murray Awards have been announced: Dennis Parker (Gulf Islands Driftwood), Wendy Brown (Powell River Peak), Wyatt Tremblay (Yukon News). The winner will be announced in April.

• Upcoming: The Expozine Gala takes place this coming Monday, March 10. 9 p.m., free admission, Mainline Theatre, 3997 St-Laurent, Montreal.
  

Labels: awards, floppies, graphic novels, publishing

• Zombies Calling creator Faith Erin Hicks is interviewed here.

• The deliciously cartoony art of J.Bone is featured in the latest New Frontier spin-off/promotional item, out this week. Bone draws Wonder Woman.

• The Bank of Canada tells history of counterfeiting in comic form.

• Niagara students produce film on comics nerds: "Sketch of Life."

• Upcoming: Jillian and Mariko Tamaki on stage in Toronto, March 24.

Labels: comics history, contest, floppies, graphic novels, links, political cartooning, U.S. superhero franchises

Labels: floppies, graphic novels, publishing

• The Comic Book Bin's Christopher Moshier takes a page from the Overstreet Price Guide and probes the early "Platinum Age" history of DC Comics.

• Winnipeg bouncer creates superhero to protect children, Canadian Shield. (bonus: video)

• International: in a move sure to be reflected on Canadian bestseller lists, VIZ has announced the publication of a new Naruto series, following the adventures of the titular ninja student as a teenager: the launch of the long-awaited new NARUTO manga story arc begins with Volume 28, "which is the first to feature Naruto as a teenager. The volume is expected to hit stores nationwide on March 4 with an estimated retail price of $7.95"

• Free speech and Alberta Human Rights Commission to become election issue after cartoon controversy?

• Robin Bougie and co-conspirators are interviewed on the Inkstuds podcast about the recent launch of Cinema Sewer and Sleazy Slice.

• Lisa Fortuner at the Newsarama blog offers up some compelling reasons for not reading Dave Sim's Glamourama.

Labels: censorship, comics history, floppies, international, manga

• Christopher Butcher on the issue of publishers selling books at conventions and the Beguiling's attitude to same.

• The aptly-named John Law writes about comics downloading for the Niagara Falls Review, including some interviews with local retailers Netral Zone and Mostly Comics and cartoonist Karl Kerschl.

• Dave Sim takes his Glamourpuss messageboard tour on the road and has some long exchanges with U.S. comic book writer, mother, and former hairstylist Gail Simone at the Sequential Tart boards.

• Tom Spurgeon reviews Therefore Repent! at Comics Reporter.

• Also at Comics Reporter, an interview that Montreal cartoonist Bernie Mireault had with himself.

• If you know your Canadian history, you know that one of Brian Mulroney's first political acts involved a campaign to ban horror and crime comic books in this country. Newly declassified British documents reveal that Winston Churchill discussed the same issue as one of his last political acts.

• The Montreal Gazette gets feedback on changes to its comics page.

Labels: comic strips, comics history, floppies, graphic novels, interviews, interweb, reviews

Labels: floppies, interweb, pod casts, political cartooning

• In anticipation of the concluding chapter of Y: The Last Man, Pia Guerra, who provides the beautiful artwork for that series, takes webreaders on a tour of the Dr. Who memorabilia-laden studio she shares with writer Ian Boothby. She is also interviewed by Newsarama's Zack Smith.

• Oshawa's Adam Prosser pens the first review of Dave Sim's Glamourpuss I've seen. Elsewhere, Sim himself took to the Comics Journal messageboard to field questions and promote his new comic book series. As Sim has taken pains to reiterate, he is using a computer located at LOOKIN' FOR HEROES here at 93 Ontario St. S. in Kitchener (one block away from the defunct Now and Then Books.

• Canadian cartoonist Takeshi Miyazawa (Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane) is interviewed about working as a mangaka in Japan and the differences between North American and Japanese comics editing.

• Magazine writer, editor and publisher John Macfarlane retired last week. Over the years, Macfarlane helmed such Canadian institutions as Toronto Life, Saturday Night, and Weekend magazine (home of cartoonist Doug Wright in the 1970s). The National Post's Katherine Govier has a few anecdotes.

Labels: floppies, interviews, interweb, manga, publishing

• As we all anxiously await the opportunity to talk with Dave Sim at the Comics Journal boards on January 30 (today!), this post sums up his recent projects.

• Pascal Blanchet's White Rapids is reviewed at the McGill Daily.

• Tom Spurgeon discusses the year-end numbers posted at Comics Chronicles. According to numbers released by Diamond Distributors, the Direct Market had its best year since 1995. This means that Diamond had sales of $429 million through all merchandise wholesaled to comic book shops in the U.S. and Canada.

• In related news: The Beat publishes Diamond's 2007 Top 100 Graphic Novels list and the Top Publishers by percent of Direct Market share of 2007.

• Just for fun, the Dumbest Space Gods in science fiction. Jack Kirby lands at #3.

• Madeline Ashby reports on the transculturelle academic workshop on manga and anime, held this past weekend in Montreal. She also discusses Montreal and Scott Pilgrim.

• Thanks to the BDQuebec forums for this link: Craig Yoe presents an early cartoon from Canadian cartoonist Raoul Barre.

Labels: bestsellers, comics retailers, floppies, graphic novels, manga, publishing, reviews

Labels: bd, exhibits, fanzines, floppies, graphic novels, U.S. superhero franchises

I think Rex has become legendary for being text heavy. If one cannot achieve fame, go for infamy and take kickbacks from ophthalmologists.

There are two reasons for its text heavy nature: first, it's about a librarian. Second, it's a reaction against text-light -- screenplay light, in many cases -- comics.

I liked '70s comics with their copious amounts of redundant explanatory text. That's a part of the genre for me.

I also wanted something that people could go back to and look at a second or third time and always discover something new. I have no objection to people skimming the text.

Comics with little text have little re-read value. That's one reason why I was so fond of Mad Magazine: they threw in all sorts of neat extras, from bogus product info to Sergio Aragones in the margins. You could reread a Mad Magazine a dozen times and always come away with value. I liked that. Great accompaniment for a bowl of late night cereal when you're a kid. You don't get that with the mainstream titles, some of which read like storyboards for movies. I could read one all the way through in five minutes while standing in the comic book store. Not that I'd do that, of course. We all know that would be wrong. You'd need several of these comics to last through a single cup of coffee.

Like most revolutionaries I swung the pendulum too far.

Labels: comics in libraries, floppies, graphic novels

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.

Labels: blogosphere, floppies, publishing

• More troubles for Quebecor World: the printing giant's CEO quit yesterday.

• Was Joe Shuster inspired by a newspaper in Chatham, Ontario?

• Tonite: Booklaunch: "Revue Vestibulles"

• Another online comics retailer I did not know about.

• 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".

Labels: blogosphere, book launches, comics retailers, floppies

• 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.
  

• Madeline Ashby provides a Canadian academic's take on anime fansubs and the lag time between the publication of popular manga like Bleach and Death Note and their eventual translation for tv.

• I really liked this review of a classic Archie comic story

• Tv chef James Barber was also a cartoonist

• Herve St-Louis has been doing a bang-up job of covering the upcoming introduction of U.S.-style copyright law to Canada. Most recently, he tried to get some answers from Industry Minister Jim Prentice about why the Harper government seems to be bowing to pressure from the U.S. government, Hollywood, Microsoft, and the U.S. music industry. Check out the links at the bottom of St-Louis' article for more background, or read this column at rabble.ca for an overview and steps Canadian citizens can take to avoid getting sued by Warner Bros now that the fair use laws (in Canada, we call it "fair dealing") are in danger.

• Robin Bougie hooks you up with the best banned porn comics, courtesy of the Canadian government.

• This Canadian Press article explains how a propaganda comic about the Afghan legal system, created in part by Canadians, is being distributed in Kandahar province.

Labels: awards, blogosphere, censorship, copyright, floppies, links, manga

Labels: cultural imperialism, floppies, international, links, U.S. superhero franchises

Labels: awards, events, floppies, international, paradise comicon, U.S. superhero franchises

In a Tuesday interview from his home in Cambridge, Ont., Captain Canuck creator Richard Comely chuckles when asked how the latest edition of the all-Canadian comic book, Captain Canuck: Unholy War #4, works with other editions of the series.

"Without giving too much away, it gets a little complicated," says Comely. "I think Captain Canuck might be the most complicated superhero series ever to be constructed."

Labels: floppies

Labels: charities, comic strips, floppies

Marvel is pleased to announce that Omega Flight #1, featuring the debut of Canada's new super team, has sold out at Diamond. Featuring the talents of writer Mike Oeming (Thor) and Scott Kolins (Avengers: Earth Mightiest Heroes), the inaugural issue of this limited series has struck a chord with both retailers and fans.

To meet demand for this issue, Marvel Comics is going back to print on Omega Flight #1 with a variant cover featuring interior art by Scott Kolins.

In the wake of Civil War, Canada has put together its own super-team called Omega Flight, the last line of defense for the Great White North against super villain insurgents from abroad. Unfortunately for the Canadians, before Omega Flight can band together, a powerful team of villains have decided to turn their northern neighbor in a playground for plundering.

Note, Omega Flight #1 may still be available at the retailer level. Marvel advises that retailers check their orders for upcoming issues as Omega Flight continues to benefit from strong reviews and word of mouth. Also, don't miss your chance to find how it all began—check out Alpha Flight Classic Vol.1, in stores now, presenting the first 8 issues of the Canadian superteam's adventures.

Labels: floppies, international, publishing, U.S. superhero franchises

Acadieman a connu un succes enorme lorsque la chaine de television Rogers a decide de produire une série au sujet de cette icone de la culture acadienne. Avec cette nouvelle BD, le createur d'Acadieman, Dano LeBlanc, fait un retour au medium qui l'interesse depuis toujours.

"Acadieman a commence comme une BD. Je n'avais jamais l'intention de faire une serie animée avec le personnage. Mon reve, depuis un tres jeune age, etait de creer ma propre BD", atteste l'auteur et illustrateur du livre.


Le lancement de cette BD signale l'arrivee d'une nouvelle forme d'art en Acadie. "Je pense que c'est une des premieres BD acadiennes. J'espere que ca va changer la perception de la bande dessinee. Ce neest pas seulement pour les jeunes. Il faut que les gens commencent a comprendre que c'est le 9e art et que la BD est aussi legitime que la peinture ou la sculpture. Maintenant, au Quebec et en Europe, tu peux faire un bac en BD. Il faut aussi noter qu'Art Speigelman a gagne le prix Pulitzter en 1992 pour son roman graphique MAUS", souligne Dano LeBlanc.

Ce premier numero d'une serie de quatre livres explore les origines d'Acadieman. Lehistoire debute a l'East End de Moncton ou le premier superhero acadien est ne. Ensuite, on le retrouve dans la foret alors qu'il grandit. A la fin, Acadieman revient en ville apres avoir subi un entraînement physique et spirituel guide par son maitre, Farty.

Cette BD se veut parallele a la teleserie. Au cours des divers volumes, nous apprendrons comment Acadieman se lie aux personnages tels Coquille, sa mere et Johnny Dieppe. Le premier numero a ete colore par le graphiste Sean Dowd, lequel affirme posséder une passion pour les BD.

Labels: comics on tv, floppies, publishing

Labels: floppies, international, U.S. superhero franchises

Labels: blogosphere, floppies, people, publishing, U.S. superhero franchises

"In American comics, for instance, most of the comics are superheroes or close variations of superheroes. It's not that I dislike the genre but I wish there was more room for the other genres. In Europe, you can find a broader range of genre and they all sell very well. So that's one advantage in Europe.

On the other hand, I find the actual American market being more dynamic these days. In the sense that many great books were published during the last years. Writers like Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, BKV and many others make the comic world very lively."

Labels: floppies, people, U.S. superhero franchises

Labels: comics history, floppies, publishing

Buried deep in a bunker beneath Parliament Hill, a secret government agency is quietly plotting the deployment of Canada's newest line of defence.
At least that's Marvel Comics' story.
The world-renowned comic book publisher is turning its attention to Canada with the release of a new five-part monthly series called Omega Flight. The first instalment of the comic will hit bookstores on April 4.
The Omega Flight team will feature a hand-picked roster of super-heroes who find themselves based in Ottawa, fighting evildoers in a bid to defend the borders of the Great White North.
The funny thing is, only two of the team are actually Canadian. The team also includes three expatriate Americans and one alien.
"It's an interesting element," said Andy Schmidt, editor of the new Omega Flight comic. "When we first let people in on the roster there was a lot of outcry. Canadians don't like it -- they don't want the Americans to come in."
Mr. Schmidt said mixing Americans into the newly-formed group allows the comic's creative team to explore some storylines related to Canada-U.S. relations.

Labels: can-con, cultural imperialism, floppies, publishing

Labels: events, floppies, publishing

To find singer-songwriter Corb Lund's first appearance in a comic book, you would have to go back more than 20 years.

Somewhere in the dusty back copies of DC Comics' action-packed Sgt. Rock series is a letter written by a young Corby Lund of Taber, Alta.

The then 10-year-old rancher's son thought he had spotted a typo in a drawing of a sign outside a German village in one of Sgt. Rock's Second World War adventures. The comic-book fanatic felt obliged to alert the good Sergeant's team of editors to the mistake.

"It seemed really important at the time," says Lund, who admits he had forgotten about his letter being printed until a friend showed him a copy of the issue. "But the editors answered the letter, saying that's how the word was spelled in German. I was just stoked to be in there."

More than 20 years later, Lund has been immortalized proper in his own comic book title.

Labels: floppies, music

Labels: comics retailers, floppies, graphic novels, international, publishing

"EVERY single person working on the book was a hockey playing, French speaking, bacon eating, igloo dweller, like myself."

Labels: floppies, interviews, people, publishing

Illustrator and comic book artist Bob Prodor has known Lund for a while --long enough to refer to him as Corby-- and has worked with the musician on "gig posters, and I did some drawings for Five Dollar Bill, but they didn't get used," says the easygoing Prodor, who has a number of projects under his belt, including his own long-running comic, Wine, Women and Song.

"I wouldn't normally work with anyone else on a comic," he adds. "I have my own stories. But Corby is an old friend, and it's not what he does. He usually needs a band to say what he wants to say. So it's different. I still get to put my visual ideas in there."

Labels: floppies