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Joe Ollmann Brings His Midlife Crisis to D+Q ![]() Award-Winning Cartoonist Talks About Turning 40 and being a Mid-wife to Mid-Life by Bryan Munn Joe Ollmann is one of my favourite cartoonists. His scratchy angular angry big steaming slice-of-life comics are beautiful and bittersweet mini-masterpieces. The Montreal-based cartoonist has several book collections of his graphic short stories out, the last one, This Will All End In Tears, won the Doug Wright Award for Best Book in 2008. Ollmann's latest opus, a mostly-autobiographical graphic memoir entitled Mid-Life, has just been picked up by Drawn and Quarterly and will be published in 2011. Of the book, Ollmann has said with typical self-deprecation, "until now, I've been the un-marketable entity that made short story comics when the slavering masses are drooling for 'GRAPHIC NOVELS.' With this book, in which I appear in my underpants on what seems to be 90% of the pages, I am sure to be catapulted into some kind of hot-property-like-comicy-stardom." Sequential caught up with Ollmann via email just as he was about to plunge into a pair of new projects and asked him about the process of bringing the book to print. "I finished the book last summer, but then spent a long time, scanning, editing, redrawing, fixing lettering etc. Sam Haywood at Transatlantic is my agent, she wanted a good, clean version of the book before we shipped it around. I have an agent since the last book won the Doug Wright Award and thought the cred from that could help get the book placed with a bigger publisher. I sent the book to D&Q unofficially as we live in the same city and I see Chris and Tom and Peggy at barbecues and kid parties, so there was that, then Sam sent the manuscript officially as a submission and they sent us an offer and we accepted it. Well, I was a lot more excited than that. I've followed D&Q since the first issue of the comic back in the day and I have massive amounts of respect for Chris and the company, so it's a dream come true to be published by them. The book is scheduled to come out in winter 2011, which seems like a hundred years when the book was done last summer, but that's part of being published by a bigger company, they move slower and make sure everything is done correctly." Was he at all tempted to self-publish under his own Wag Press imprint? "I self-published in the 80's and I'd rather be shot in the face than do that again, I've got the business acumen of a turd." Is he having a mid-life crisis? "The book is called Mid-Life and it is partially based on real events, of having turned 40, having a kid with my younger second wife after turning 40 and also having two adult kids from my previous marriage. But there are a bunch of other story lines in there that are fictional or semi-fictional. Not sure how much I will get into discussing what's real and what's fake yet. But shit, yeah, I'm still having a mid-life crisis. Getting old is traumatic." Joe Ollmann talks a bit about the the creative process: "The creative process is the same old story for any cartoonist, at the end of the day, go down the stairs, sit at the drawing table and work for as long as you can, eventually you'll have something at the end of it. Just, dumb old slogging really. When the script was done, I sent it to all the people who have fictitious counterparts in the story and then got down to drawing it." What's next for Joe Ollmann? "I'm writing 2 new books right now, one is three long, short-stories of the depressing kind that appeared in my previous books, the other is a long biography of the 1930's adventure/travel writer William Seabrook. He was an alcoholic bondage enthusiast, and a one-time cannibal. he brought the word zombie into the English language, was one of the highest paid writers of his day, and he's virtually unknown today. So, that one is requiring a lot of research and buying expensive old books and trying not to make it read like bad old classic comics: 'World war Two happened, then he fell in love. He caught TB' all in one panel, you know?" ----- Joe Ollman bibliography: Chewing On Tinfoil, Insomniac Press (2002) The Big Book Of Wag, Conundrum Press (2005) This Will All End in Tears, Insomniac Press (2006) Ollmann will be appearing at TCAF, May 8-9. website ![]() (images from Mid-Life, copyright Joe Ollman) Labels: graphic novels, interviews, memoirs, publishing - Stumble It! - Leave a comment!| 1comments - Richard Comely interview | origins and history of Captain CanuckJust got this in the mail, hot off of blogger! Jeffery Klaehn has an interview with Comely on his blog POP! One of many interviews posted on his site. Captain Canuck #1 (cover dated, July 1975) hit newsstands in May 1975. In the years since Captain Canuck has been featured in a range of media, including The Toronto Star, The Los Angeles Times, The National Post and The Record, Time and Maxim magazines, many online periodicals, as well as some very cool online fan/tribute sites. In 1995 Captain Canuck was immortalized on a Canadian postage stamp. More recently, Captain Canuck has inspired scholarly articles, been featured in textbooks, and fueled much online speculation about the possibility of a Captain Canuck major motion picture. IDW recently published two beautiful hardcover volumes reprinting Captain Canuck issues #4-14, along with the Captain Canuck Summer Special, all remastered from their original coloring. In this interview Richard Comely discusses the origins and history of Captain Canuck. Labels: blogosphere, can-con, canadian superheroes, capes, interviews - Stumble It! - Leave a comment!| 0comments - Thursday, February 25, 2010 Interview with Conundrum Press publisher Andy Brown My latest torontoist.com inverview, this one with Conundrum Press publisher Andy Brown! Conundrum Press is a well established mid-size Canadian publisher based in Montreal, that has been making the transition from prose publishing to graphic novels. Lately focusing on translating Quebec artists for English Canada. Dave. conundrumpress.com Labels: Andy Brown, books.torontoist, comics, Conundrum Press, interviews, Montreal, publishing, Quebec - Stumble It! - Leave a comment!| 0comments - Wednesday, February 17, 2010 Interview with Brad Mackay, Doug Wright Awards Co-founderHere's an interview with Doug Wright Awards co-founder Brad Mackay, about the inspiration behind the award, how it came about, and some general ideas on the current state of comics. http://tinyurl.com/y8fxnuo Labels: awards, books.torontoist, Brad Mackay, Doug Wright Awards, graphic novels, interviews, tcaf, TCAF 2010 - Stumble It! - Leave a comment!| 0comments - Wednesday, February 10, 2010 Interview with Jeet Heer on Comics ScholarshipHere's an interview with Jeet Heer on the rise of new comics scholarship in the last 10 years http://books.torontoist.com/2010/02/interview-with-jeet-heer-on-comics-scholarship/ Labels: books.torontoist, comics scholarship, interviews, Jeet Heer, Toronto - Stumble It! - Leave a comment!| 0comments - Saturday, February 06, 2010 Transmission X on London UK radioOriginally broadcast 04/02/10 as an episode of Strip! on Resonance 104.4 FM Listened to this last night, it's a very good interview I think. Starting of a month dedicated to web comics, UK talk host Alex Fitch sat down with three members of the Canadian webcomics collective Transmission X - Ramon Perez Karl Kerschl and Cameron Stewart - in an interview recorded during last year's Comica festival after a signing. They talked about working in a variety of genres on the web, how this contrasts with their superhero comics for more famous publishers and the experience of updating web comics on a regular basis. Stream or download from this page. Labels: international, interviews, pod casts, webcomics - Stumble It! - Leave a comment!| 0comments - Wednesday, February 03, 2010 Interview with Chris Butcher, TCAF Director ![]() Sequential's own Dave Howard had a chance to interview Beguiling manager, book buyer, TCAF Director, and all-around Toronto alt-comics catalyst Chris Butcher about comics212.net, the history of TCAF, his own history, and his take on Canadian publishing. Labels: books.torontoist, Chris Butcher, interviews, TCAF 2010, Toronto - Stumble It! - Leave a comment!| 0comments - Thursday, January 28, 2010 Interview with Kean Soo [by Dave Howard]Kean Soo was very generous as I tortured him through two interviews - the first one I realized after I'd hung up the phone that the tape had run out very early on. We stayed up late the following evening to get the second one done - thanks so much for your patience Kean. Read the results here on books@torontoist Keaner dot net Labels: books.torontoist, interviews, Kean Soo, kid lit, kids comics, Ontario, profiles, Toronto - Stumble It! - Leave a comment!| 0comments - Monday, December 07, 2009 Jack Ruttan at the Montreal Comic ConThe Montreal Comic Con had it's December one day event this past Sunday. Despite plans to attend i missed it, but local writer and cartoonist Jack Ruttan [utopiamoment.ca] was there and has uploaded another impressive set of interviews and photos. We've collected the video into a playlist you wan watch bellow, along with the slide show of photos bellow that. Read Jack's musings about it on his site here. "Didn't I just do one of these in September? And then there was Expozine last month. So, many of these artist seemed like old friends. It was fun brandishing around my little Lumix DMC-FS3 and talking to artists. Sound was a little off (and some interviews are in French), but I think things are audible if you turn up the volume." In the playlist appears Convention organizers Oscar and Elizabeth. Eric Theriault, Isabelle Stephen, Michel Lacombe, Sid Vane and Gloria, Patrick Langlois, Troma, Jimmy Suzan, Fred Mahieu, Steph Dumais, Noumier Tawilah, Jipi McCloud, And Janardan. Labels: conventions, events, interviews, Montreal, photos, Quebec, video - Stumble It! - Leave a comment!| 0comments - Thursday, November 05, 2009 Sully on Inkstuds ![]() Sherwin Tjia aka Sully, one of my favorite people, is the latest interview subject of Robin McConnell on Vancouver's Inkstuds. Great interview, just finished listening myself.The guys talk about his latest book Hipless boy with conundrum press, the slow dance nights and strip spelling b's, some good writing and proses talk, monastiraki, and language dynamics in love. Also, really nice selection of music played throughout selected by Sully I think. Good one. Also the inkstuds mix tapes continue to rock. Labels: interviews, interweb, Montreal, pod casts, Quebec, Vancouver - Stumble It! - Leave a comment!| 0comments - Tuesday, September 15, 2009 Tonite: Back + Forth Booklaunch, Toronto ![]() Marta Chudolinska Interview Marta Chudolinska is the artist behind the new linocut novel, Back + Forth, which launches tonight at Toronto's McNally Robinson Bookstore, 1090 Don Mills Road at Lawrence, 7PM to 8PM. The book is published by Porcupine's Quill and is part of their new graphic novel line. A recent grad of the Ontario College of Art and Design, and a student of woodcut artist George Walker, Marta was kind enough to answer a few questions for Sequential: Can you talk a bit about your OCAD experience, being taught by George Walker, his influence, and genesis of the book? Working and studying with George has always been an extreme pleasure. From the first lecture of the first class, I knew that he was special. Not many profs put sound effects into their presentations! That small example expresses a lot about George. He has an energy for art and books and life that is absolutely infectious. There are people who believe in life and are able to manifest their dreams and desires. George Walker is one of those people and he leads by example. He is also an extremely generous teacher. He gives so much of his time and care to his students. I think a lot of OCAD print students have benefited from his warmth. In that first class, which looked at the book as an art object, I created a wordless book of linocuts with 16 prints (In a way, Back + Forth picks up where this book left off). In my last year at OCAD, I asked George to be my advisor for an independent study course where we would determine the parameters of the course. I was very interesting in creating a graphic novel, but I imagined a more conventional style and format: a hand-inked comic featuring words. It was at this point that George introduced me to the idea of working with Tim Inkster of the Porcupine's Quill, who had just started to publish a series of wordless novels created in the tradition of 19th century printmaking. I made the novel over a period of eight months, starting slow and doing most of the work in the last two harrowing months. I would have occasional meetings with George to check in and get feedback on the story's development. The course itself was only a half credit but after preparing, cutting and printing 90 linocuts, it ended up being more work than the rest of my entire senior year! Work well worth doing, of course. Can you extrapolate on how the experience of moving between two cities suggested time travel to you and how this in turn became a theme in your book? Traveling has been a very important act in my life and the journeys I've taken have really shaped me as a person. When I moved to Vancouver in my first year of university, it was as if I had created a brand new life for myself. This new life had no connection to my life back home and I was free to create it, and the image of myself, as I pleased. While at first, this left me feeling exhilarated and liberated, it eventually wore me out. Trying to synthesize in my mind these two identities I had created left me feeling a bit crazy, to be honest! The stories from Back + Forth are loosely based on two periods of my life that were particularly important to my development. There was something that intrigued me about interweaving these two times together, in order to create a contrast and to use these (painful) experiences to learn something about myself. Though I was constantly diligent on how certain images may be interpreted, I made this book primarily for myself, as a way to understand. As my close friends may know, I am absolutely obsessed with the idea of time travel and time itself. Maybe I've had too much postmodern education, but it makes no sense to me to see time as a linear path. While things may seem to happen in a particular order, the way we experience or organize our memories about our past is closer to chaos. There's a link to a Frans Masereel site on your blog. Do you think that there is something about our current time that makes the creation of wordless picture novels particularly apt? Why this format? What's its appeal to you? While doing research for this project, I went to the Toronto Reference Library, which has an incredible art room where you can request to view items from their rare book collection. There I was able to handle and read beautiful old copies of wordless novels produced in the early 20th century, mostly by Frans Masereel and Lynd Ward. These books really spoke to me as a lover of visual narratives. Not depending on words, Masereel especially was able to produce characters and images that none the less screamed with meaning. He was tapping into a way of expressing emotion that is beyond language, something that does not need to be translated. There is a primal appeal to it. It also forces the reader to work harder to understand and to use their imagination to smooth out the parts that don't make sense. Words tend to pin things down more precisely. Not using them frees up the interpretation of the story, allowing readers to incorporate their own experiences. I have always loved comics in their every shape and form, from my brother's X-Men to the sexist tales of Archie and friends, to instructional comics in my school textbooks. I have read just about every graphic novel at my local library, on just about any subject, in just about any style. I have such a hunger for this stuff, and I've been really happy to see in recent years that the market and demand for graphic novels has ballooned and there is more out there for me to savour. I think as we become more sophisticated at reading images, we can handle more complex and non-traditional presentations of narrative. Labels: book launches, events, graphic novels, interviews, Toronto - Stumble It! - Leave a comment!| 0comments - Wednesday, September 02, 2009 FanExpo 4 Co: Patrick Berube; Been slow to post this, crazy town here at HQ! My fridge started blowing fusses! Got these links the other day, Two vids with more to come promises Patrick Berube, Comic Book Bin's new editor. Andy Doan & Herve St-Louis took a camera to the Expo this year. First a discussion with James Armstrong, the giant brain behind the machine. They talk mostly about the growth of the event, and how it's effected what they do. There's a bunch more posted in the last 4 days here that look to be from the FanExpo, pretty good though a bit more info and links to their work in the descriptions would be nice. Looking around i found more vids too. A nice little how too with Roger Corman! ...And a talk with Walter Koenig... If you want more, check this page for the cosplay all kinds of fun. Labels: events, fanexpo 2009, interviews, video - Stumble It! - Leave a comment!| 0comments - Wednesday, July 15, 2009 The C-List: Canadian Comics in the SummertimeSome quick links. Item: Dinosaur Comics' Ryan North talks internet woes with the Globe and Mail. Item: Ed Brisson notes that there will be no Vancouver Comics Jam in July. Item: Walrus comics blogger Sean Rogers talks about David Mazzucchelli. Item: Robert Fulford writes about Harvey Kurtzman and Mad for the Post. Item: Seth tells us why George Sprott will be one of Amazon's best books of 2009. Item: The Wizard Toronto comic convention has a new logo. Item: Iranian-Canadian policart Nik Kowsar talks to the Washington Post about his experiences on the wrong side of the law in Iran. Item: In case you missed yesterday's Summer Reading entry, the big (old) news is that Les 400 Coups has started a new imprint for genre comics/bd, entitled Rotor. Item: Montreal weekly The Hour reviewed Adrian Tomine's 32 Stories and Shortcomings published by D&Q Labels: British Columbia, C-List, comic jams, conventions, international, interviews, links, new books, Ontario, publishing, Quebec, social ink, Toronto, Vancouver, webcomics - Stumble It! - Leave a comment!| 0comments - Tuesday, July 07, 2009 CBR - LEMIRE ON "ESSEX COUNTY" & NEW VERTIGO WORKJust came across this, new post on CBR, looks like a nice interview with Jeff Lemire about his newest books! "Jeff Lemire has a feel for small towns. His "Essex County" trilogy of graphic novels, a multigenerational saga exploring the relationships between and within families in a small farming community, has won awards from the American Library Association, taken the Joe Shuster Award honoring Canadian cartoonists, and has been nominated for an Ignatz, a Harvey, and two Eisner Awards. Labels: can-con, international, interviews, new books, Ontario - Stumble It! - Leave a comment!| 0comments - Tuesday, June 30, 2009 New Interviews with Canadian Comics People ![]() Check out the new series of interviews with comics creators and businesspeople over at The Fabler Blog, part of Calgary's Zensoft Studios interesting new project thefabler.com, a social networking comunity for Comics Creators. So far blogger Kevin de Vlaming Jay Bardyla (owner of Happy Harbor Comics) Gareth Gaudin (of Legends Comic and Books in Victoria BC, & The Magic Teeth Dailies) And more, here. Labels: blogosphere, British Columbia, Calgary, graphic novels, interviews, PEI, profiles, Victoria - Stumble It! - Leave a comment!| 0comments - Wednesday, June 10, 2009 Q&A with Mariko Tamaki & Jillian Tamaki CBC Book Club 2PM EST June 11 Sign up for the eventreminder to catch it live here on the CBC web site. And you can listen later in the archives here after it's posted. www.jilliantamaki.com www.marikotamaki.com Labels: interviews, radio, skim - Stumble It! - Leave a comment!| 0comments - Friday, May 08, 2009 Sequential Pulp in the pixels
Labels: comic strips, comics criticism, comics history, comics in libraries, interviews, Montreal, new books, Ontario, profiles, Quebec, Sequential Pulp, tcaf, TCAF09, Toronto, Vancouver - Stumble It! - Leave a comment!| 0comments - Thursday, April 09, 2009 The Mindless ones net Cameron Stewart for 13 questions "We captured Cameron Stewart after many hours spent stalking him through the streets of Montreal, Canada.""We then set about beating him with bamboo canes through the thin webbing of the net in which he was held. Cameron withstood the breaking process for 5 days, but ultimately, through clenched teeth, agreed to answer 13 exquisitely crafted questions. He swore he'd die before answering any more." --->> Labels: can-con, interviews, Montreal, pod casts, U.S. superhero franchises, webcomics - Stumble It! - Leave a comment!| 0comments - Friday, April 03, 2009 Onomatopoeia BEM This week on The Onomatopoeia Show!The long awaited interview with indie creator Bernie Mireault. I'm betting good monet Robin and Bernie geeked out big time, they will be talking about POTA, Gaimen, Grendel, Allred and a guy named The Jam. Bernie's got a very distinctive way of telling stories that i was blown away as a kid by myself when i saw his work in Grendel years ago. Check out his stuff at his site and tune in this Sunday online. The Onomatopoeia Show - Sundays from 3-4pm (eastern time) www.cartoongal.com or www.cjlo.com Labels: interviews, Montreal, pod casts, Quebec, radio - Stumble It! - Leave a comment!| 0comments - Friday, March 27, 2009 The C-List: A Weekend Quickie Catch-Up New Blog: Follow Guy Delisle's adventures in Jerusalem as he creates the follow-up to his Burma book.Over at the Comicanuck blog, Robert Pincombe offers an extended examination of the weird recent story covering the comic series from France about a Canadian fighter pilot ("Dan Cooper RCAF") that may have a connection to the 1970s DB Cooper heist. Or, you can read his essay on the first season of everyone's new favourite Canadian tv series, Being Erica. [max: ohhh, i like that one too.] Podcast: Inkstuds interviews the Pohadky creators, Marek Colek and Pat Shewchuck. At the Walrus blog, Sean Rogers runs down the nominees for the Wright Awards with a series of capsule reviews, and notes what's left out. Ephemera: check out the "Quotes on Comics" site, courtesy of a link from the National Post's Ron Nurwisah. Webcomics: a short Kate Beaton interview. Publishing: Chris Butcher has all the news about the latest issue of Comics Festival, the free comic book that is published for the Toronto Comic Arts Festival and given away for Free Comic Book Day. Lots of great, kid-friendly comics: Check it out! History: a WWII Canadian political cartoon by the Star's Les Callan. Canadian manga star Svetlana Chmakova, whose collected Dramacon is a regular on the Sequential Canadian Bestsellers list, is interviewed by Publisher's Weekly about her latest series, Nightschool (published by Yen Press). Classics: Canadian comics historian John Adcock digs up an old article about U.S. comic strip creators from 1935. Labels: blogosphere, C-List, cartoon reportage, interviews, links - Stumble It! - Leave a comment!| 0comments - Saturday, March 21, 2009 The Onomatopoeia Show is Back! | Pat McEwon ![]() After a 3 year hiatus and a move cross country, Canada's oldest radio show about the graphic arts and host Robin Fisher has found a new home at Concordia Universities radio station, CJLO.Interviews, on scene reporting, music, reviews, readings, radio plays, comics, creators, cartoons, action figures, poster art, graphitti, debates about the afore mentioned and more. Onomatopoeia embraces every arm of the graphic arts octopus. For more information and the podcast go to www.cartoongal.com This week on The Onomatopoeia Show Robin interviews the legendary Pat McEwon! From his beginnings at Aircel with Dave Cooper to now, we discover there's no resting on Grendel laurels in the world of McEwon. The music will be artists' choice. ![]() ![]() ![]() Site Feed Labels: interviews, Montreal, pod casts, Quebec, radio - Stumble It! - Leave a comment!| 0comments - Thursday, February 05, 2009 Coville's Clubhouse The Febuary edition of Collector Times has and interview by Jamie Coville with Doug Simpson, manager of Paradise Comics "about the state of the industry, including the changes recently announced by Diamond Distributors.""I understand that Diamond is having to deal with a harsh economic reality and I know they are doing what they have to do to survive. Our shop has a very dedicated group of buyers and we know what will sell for us and what will sit on the shelf. I realize that some retailers are happy that they will not have as much work but some real quality books will be lost. I'll just have to order directly from the publisher in those cases. " Labels: change, comics retailers, conventions, Diamond, interviews, news, Ontario, paradise comicon, Toronto - Stumble It! - Leave a comment!| 0comments - Tuesday, November 11, 2008 Watchmen in Toronto ![]() Sure to be one of the big international comics stories of this year and next, the attendant fanfare for the Watchmen movie, including the tie-in book Watching the Watchmen by Dave Gibbons has been hard to ignore. Gibbons was in Toronto last week for a signing. Quillblog has some photos here (that's one above, with Mark Asquith as Dr. Manhattan). The guy in the Rorschach costume has a blog here. As well, Gibbons and Beguiling owner Peter Birkemoe were interviwed on CBC's Q and you can hear the podcast here. Best quote: Birkemoe's closing opinion of the movie. You can also watch the whole interview on Q-Tube. Labels: blogosphere, graphic novels, international, interviews, Toronto - Stumble It! - Leave a comment!| 0comments - Wednesday, October 22, 2008 Things going on in Toronto this weekend Lynda Barry at IFOA in Toronto!: Lynda Barry presents What it is and is interviewed by Peter Birkemoe. @ Queens Quay West. CanzineOver 150 zines from across Canada on display and for sale! The heart of the event, indie publishers both in print and online come from across the country and the continent to show their wares! Canzine, the festival of zine culture and the independent arts, is Canada's largest zine fair and only festival of underground culture. The event features over 150 zines from across Canada, as well as all day underground film and video open screening, panel discussions, readings and more. Canzine is an annual one day event put on by broken pencil magazine. Be amazed at the creativity, ingenuity, and sheer weirdness! $5 includes a copy of Broken Pencil Magazine Sunday @ the Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen Street West, Toronto [view map] 1 pm - 7 pm Labels: book launches, Canzine, cartoonists, comics on stage, events, events links, interviews, Ontario, Toronto - Stumble It! - Leave a comment!| 0comments - Monday, April 28, 2008 Weekend News and Comment Catch-Up
Labels: Alberta, British Columbia, Calgary, censorship, comics history, copyright, events links, interviews, Ontario, pod casts, Toronto, U.S. superhero franchises, Vancouver - Stumble It! - Leave a comment!| 0comments - Wednesday, April 16, 2008 Comic Shoppe Talk: Neo Tokyo, London, Ontario ![]() This edition of Comic Shoppe Talk features Robert Chamberlain, owner-san of Neo Tokyo, The Anime Store, located in downtown London, Ontario. As regular readers of the Sequential Bestseller List know, manga dominates comics sales in Canada. We welcome this opportunity to get a snapshot insider's view of the retail side of this phenomenon. My thanks to Neo Tokyo for taking the time to answer the standard battery of Comic Shoppe Talk questions. Neo Tokyo is a little over 700 square feet with the space about evenly divided between manga, anime (DVD rentals & sales), and merchandise. It is located close to London's core, having opened its doors in June of 2003 expanding ever since. It left its original location (just not big enough) in Oct of 2007 and moved up the street a few blocks to double its floor space. According to Robert Chamberlain, "We continue to refine the art of packing more into a small space than we have any right to expect." You are next door to a more traditional comic book shop, The Comic Book Collector. What is your relationship? Are you in competition? Not at all, Neo Tokyo began as an out-growth from The Comic Book Collector with the owner, Tim Morris, and I moving into the next door store front as partners. I've since bought out Tim (very amicably) and the two stores continue to work in partnership each attracting their own circle of customers but with a great deal of cross interest. I believe this helps both shops by bringing out customers that may not make the trip to either store on their own but if they're already at one they'll explore the other. What is the general age/gender breakdown of your customers? What is the general culture of your store? I'd say that the age range is from 10-30 with the majority in the 16-26 range. The gender breakdown would be in the 60/40 (female/male) area. The culture I try for in the store is one of a sort of club house. I try to make sure that everyone coming through the door feels like an old friend. What do you sell more of by volume, graphic novels (including trades and manga) or monthly comic books (floppies)? We don't actually sell any floppies. Having grown out of a more traditional comic store we never had the need to sell any. We focus entirely on manga / manhwa Japanese / Korean books with very few exceptions. ![]() Bestsellers? Bestselling I would say easily are Bleach and Naruto with Fullmetal Alchemist a strong contender. What are your bestselling non-manga graphic novels? If I were to be a purist and not consider the Korean books manga, I would say that it would have to be Banya The Explosive Delivery Man. Though the korean books still only represent a small fraction of the graphic novels I sell in a month. The manga question. Manga represents the future of comics in my opinion. Find a teen-ager reading a comic and odds are it is either manga or so heavily influenced by it as to be as good as. TV spreads the word of manga fairly well to younger readers but only a minority of my customers watch their anime on TV. Magazines / anthologies also seem to function primarily as an introduction but most new books are seen first via the internet. What do you see as the major trends in retailing over the next year? The next 5 years? I believe that manga will continue to explode and that North American retailers will have to adapt to that. ![]() What books do you find yourself recommending the most? Depending on the age of the person asking I find myself making personal recommendations for Eden Endless World, Claymore, Bleach, Dragon Head, Uzumaki, King of Thorn, Planetes, and Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service. Usually the first question is what have you read that you liked? What comic/manga would you recommend for an 8-year-old girl? I have recommended Aria and First Adventure King for younger readers but even then I recommend someone read with them to help with more complicated visual concepts. What comic/manga would you recommend for a 40-year-old urban professional? Depending on taste I'd recommend Eden Endless World, Translucent, Satsuma Gishiden, Tanpenshu. Why are you a comics retailer? I've always been a fan of a good story in whatever format you find it. I became a comic retailer because I was in the right place at the right time to make it my job to deal in interesting stories. What bothers you the most about the current comics industry? I have less involvement with the 'comics industry' than most comic book stores. I don't have to deal with back issues or grading at all but any problems as far as missed deadlines and delayed books are made much worse by the fact that they start out in Japan and have to work their way through the entire machinery to make it to my shelves. How important is the web to your business? As far as the day to day business it isn't all that important, it is an important means of communication with my suppliers and customers (most of whom are extremely web-savvy). I hope to make it more important by breaking into online shopping cart sales to allow me to tap into and service the surrounding satellite communities in our area. What is the comics scene like in London? Much as I would like to see more of it and I would like to support local artists and events London hasn't, as yet, had much activity of that sort. I would very much like to see a local con happen but it needs someone who knows how to put on such an event rather than a fan, no matter how enthusiastic, without the know-how. Neo Tokyo 787 Dundas St London, ON N5W 2Z6 phone: (519) 642-7862 Labels: comics retailers, comicshoptalk, graphic novels, interviews, Ontario - Stumble It! - Leave a comment!| 0comments - Wednesday, March 12, 2008 Comic Shoppe Talk: Comic Cave, Winnipeg ![]() Boy, I haven't done one of these in a while. This time around, James Cassels of the Comic Cave in Winnipeg, Manitoba, agreed to answer a few email questions about the shop he works in. Comic Cave occupies 1000 sq ft at 1104 Corydon Ave in the 'Peg and has been in operation for 11 and 1/2 years. The set-up: "New Material and Comic Sets are set up on the eastern half of the store, Back Issues and Subscription Racks/Sales Counter on the western side. Other merchandise will likely be located near the back issues although gaming material is located behind counter." Cassels is in charge of Product Orders. Q. What is the general age/gender breakdown of your customers? What is the culture of your store? Mostly Male 20's - 30's. Most have been collecting since they were younger. People who recently pick up comic reading are often book purchasers. No particular culture. Q. What do you sell more of by volume? Still sell more monthlies although a substantial amount of trades are sold. Q. Do you have a store specialty or area of expertise? What makes your store unique? Active subscription service with discounts. Q. What do do you sell more of by dollar value? What percentage of your business is comics? What is the state of the back-issue market? Comics of either format make up most of the business. New comics are bread and butter although back issues are still important. Q. Bestsellers? Amazing Spider-man, JLA, JSA, Avengers, Astonishing X-men, All Star Superman, All Star Batman, Any Ultimate title, The Boys, Captain America. Q. Bestselling graphic novels? Walking Dead, Fables, Y the Last Man, The Boys, any Ultimate TPB. Most Vertigo series that are kept in print continue to sell. Superhero trades are generally weaker sellers. Most people would rather maintain their collection as monthlies. Q. The manga question. I sell a modest amount of it mostly to non-manga fans who just happen to latch on to a particular title. Not being located near either of Winnipeg's Universities inhibits manga sales. Q. What do you see as the major trends in graphic novels and comics retailing over the next year? The next 5 years? More large collections of back material coming out. Q. What comics do you find yourself recommending the most? The Boys, Scalped, Ultimate Spider-man, Punisher (Max), Black Summer, 100 Bullets, Blade of the Immortal and more. Pretty much anything that's on my pull list. Q. What are your favourite comics? Maus, Watchmen, From Hell, V For Vendetta, Transmetropolitan, Adolf: A Tale of the 20 Century, Sandman, DC: The New Frontier, Brat Pack, Planetary. Q. What comic would you recommend for an 8-year-old girl? A 40-year-old urban professional? Not sure anymore although in the past I would normally recommend manga since manga publishers actively make comics targetted at young girls.. Not up on current manga series for younger girls. Generally, I don't like recommending comics that I don't read. Q. Why are you a comics retailer? Beats working for some corporate dirtbag. Q. What bothers you the most about the current comics industry? Too much emphasis on marketing grandiose super soap operas. I get that some people like a big shared universe for their men in pervert suits but it seems the story is secondary to the event sometimes. Not nearly enough emphasis on self-contained stories. I don't normally recommend super hero comics but two properties I tend to recommend (Ult Spiderman and Punisher MAX) are very self-contained. Q. How important is the web to your business? We do a modest amount of mail orders but most sales are local. Q. Winnipeg is a very artistic city. Both the Royal Art Lodge and Captain Canuck have roots there. What is the comics scene like in Winnipeg? Are there any local creators/zines/minicomics that you promote in store? Minimal. I'll willingly promote local work but nothing much seems to be happening. ----- COMIC CAVE www.comiccavewinnipeg.com 1104 Corydon Ave Winnipeg, MB Canada R3M 0Y8 phone:204-284-2210 email:comiccave@shaw.ca Labels: comics retailers, comicshoptalk, interviews, Manitoba, shop profiles, Winnipeg - Stumble It! - Leave a comment!| 0comments - Monday, February 11, 2008 Things to See and Read: Monday
Labels: British Columbia, cartoonists, graphic novels, interviews, Ontario, Quebec, reviews, Toronto, Vancouver, webcomics - Stumble It! - Leave a comment!| 0comments - Wednesday, February 06, 2008 Midweek Linkage: Sim, Simone, Butcher, etc
Labels: comic strips, comics history, floppies, graphic novels, interviews, interweb, Quebec, reviews - Stumble It! - Leave a comment!| 0comments - Monday, February 04, 2008 Broken Pencil on Webcomics: AwesomeThe latest issue of indie guide Broken Pencil has an article about webcomics by Richard Rosenbaum. "Paper is Boring. Comics are Awesome." traces the migration of self-published comics online and includes some choice quotes from Dinosaur Comics' Ryan North: "I don't think you can make a living selling your comic online," says North. "There are so many free comics—worse, so many really fantastic free comics—that it's hard for someone to sit down and enter in credit card information to read your story when there's one just as good as it a click away. "If you look at it really cynically --really cynically-- you can say 'Oh Ryan, you adorable dunderhead. You're not a cartoonist. What you create are graphic ads for your T-shirts, a new ad every day. That's not cartooning.' And yeah, the comics support the shirts and the shirts support the comic, so there's a symbiosis there. But even if there weren't merchandise, I think I'd still be doing the comic online. Creating art in any form is hard, even comics. If you're just in it for the money it'll show, and you'll hate your job. I am satisfied to give the comic away for free and sell merchandise. I don't really see a conflict there, even though it is a bit odd to explain to someone encountering the idea for the first time that you're a full-time cartoonist, and yeah, you give the comics away for free." Labels: interviews, webcomics - Stumble It! - Leave a comment!| 0comments - Thursday, January 31, 2008 Pia Guerra vs Dave SimNot really, but here are some comics-related links concerning both:
Labels: floppies, interviews, interweb, manga, Newfoundland, Ontario, publishing, Toronto - Stumble It! - Leave a comment!| 0comments - Monday, January 28, 2008 Monday Links: Doucet, Johnston, Taillefer, Nunavut ![]()
The current plan: Continue tying up loose ends with various "FBorFW" characters (a process that's taking longer than Johnston expected). Then, no later than this September, freeze all these cast members in time. After that, the 1979-launched comic will focus on the younger versions of the characters. Labels: comic strips, graphic novels, interviews, Lynn Johnston, Ontario, Toronto - Stumble It! - Leave a comment!| 0comments - Friday, January 11, 2008 Brad Mackay on Comics Journalism ![]() For This Magazine, Brad Mackay writes on the history of reportage by cartoonists, with a behind-the-scenes look at the origins of Extraction!, the Cumulous Press collection of comics stories about mining. Along the way, he also touches on Joe Sacco, Art Spiegleman, the 19th Century cartoonist JW Bengough and early comics reportage in Canada (like the image of the Riel Rebellion from The Canadian Illustrated News above):
Labels: cartoon reportage, comics history, interviews, political cartooning, Quebec - Stumble It! - Leave a comment!| 0comments - Tuesday, December 11, 2007 bpnichol or Julie Doucet: Great Cartoonist, or Greatest Cartoonist? ![]() Some comic book links from around Canada for Tuesday:
Labels: blogosphere, comic strips, graphic novels, interviews, poetry - Stumble It! - Leave a comment!| 0comments - Friday, November 30, 2007 This Weekend ![]() Sequential was a bit busy this morning, so many of these links have already been rounded up over at The Comics Reporter and Journalista. For the record:
his new comic, a graphic novella, on Saturday December 1st upstairs at The Victory Cafe. I have to apologise because I can't remember what it's named, but I have seen a bunch of the art for it and it's really cool, unique stuff. Show up at The Vic, second floor, around nine or ten to start partaking of the festivities. The Victory Cafe is just down the street from The Beguiling, at 581 Markham." Labels: book launches, events, graphic novels, interviews, links, Ontario, pod casts, Quebec, Toronto - Stumble It! - Leave a comment!| 0comments - Thursday, November 29, 2007 Thirsty Thursday
Labels: awards, British Columbia, charity, exhibits, Global Links, graphic novels, interviews, Lynn Johnston, Vancouver - Stumble It! - Leave a comment!| 0comments - Thursday, November 22, 2007 Linkology ![]() Some comics news and links for Thursday:
Labels: graphic novels, interviews, links, misc, Ontario, reviews, Toronto - Stumble It! - Leave a comment!| 0comments - Tuesday, November 13, 2007 Cameron Stewart: Sin TituloCartoonist Cameron Stewart has made the big leap to self-publishing his own work online in the form of a webcomic called Sin Titulo, part of the Transmission X line-up. Brian Warmoth profiles Stewart for Wizard, and they talk about the Transmission X penalty system, Claudia Davila's awesome new comic, and Stewart's hi-tech artistic process:
Labels: interviews, webcomics - Stumble It! - Leave a comment!| 0comments - Friday, November 09, 2007 Friday Links ![]() Exhibits/Events:
Reviews
Interviews/New Books
Retailing
Labels: comics retailers, exhibits, graphic novels, interviews, links, misc, Ontario, publishing, Quebec, Toronto - Stumble It! - Leave a comment!| 0comments - Monday, August 27, 2007 Lynn Johnston Interview: No RegretsBrad Mackay interviews Lynn Johnston for CBC Arts and gets some choice biographical info as well as comics criticism: We lived with the comics growing up -- we loved them. My grandfather and my father would analyze them, and my father was quite a good cartoonist but never pursued it. So all my life I remember looking at the comics not as an entertainment, but rather as a piece of art. I loved comic books too, [especially] any one where the female character was believable or strong. I liked Little Dot, Little Lulu, and of course I liked Peanuts, because even though Lucy was kind of a crab, she was strong. Labels: comic strips, interviews - Stumble It! - Leave a comment!| 0comments - Thursday, August 09, 2007 Chester Brown Interviewvia Michel Viau comes word of this interview with Chester Brown in Subjects Magazine:
Labels: graphic novels, interviews - Stumble It! - Leave a comment!| 0comments - Thursday, July 12, 2007 Patricia Storms InterviewDebbie Ohi interviews Toronto cartoonist/illustrator/blogger Patricia Storms for BlogTO: Quite a bit of my cartoon work is a little racy, so I knew it would never see the light of day in print. I guess I wanted to share the irreverent, kooky side of myself to a larger audience, and see if people enjoyed it, or were totally freaked out by it. Surprisingly, most people liked my wacky cartoons and ideas. But I also wanted to be a part of a larger conversation regarding discussing books and authors and ideas and the fascinating world of publishing. Labels: blogosphere, interviews, Ontario, Toronto - Stumble It! - Leave a comment!| 0comments - Archive by Region Alberta - British Columbia - Calgary - Gatineau - Halifax - Moncton - Montreal - New Brunswick - Newfoundland - Nova Scotia - Ontario - PEI - Quebec - Saskatchewan - Saskatoon - Toronto - Vancouver - Victoria - Winnipeg - Archive by Month August 2002 - September 2002 - October 2002 - November 2002 - December 2002 - January 2003 - February 2003 - March 2003 - April 2003 - May 2003 - June 2003 - July 2003 - August 2003 - September 2003 - October 2003 - November 2003 - December 2003 - January 2004 - February 2004 - March 2004 - April 2004 - May 2004 - June 2004 - July 2004 - August 2004 - September 2004 - October 2004 - November 2004 - December 2004 - January 2005 - February 2005 - March 2005 - April 2005 - May 2005 - June 2005 - July 2005 - August 2005 - September 2005 - October 2005 - November 2005 - December 2005 - January 2006 - February 2006 - March 2006 - April 2006 - May 2006 - June 2006 - July 2006 - August 2006 - September 2006 - October 2006 - November 2006 - December 2006 - January 2007 - February 2007 - March 2007 - April 2007 - May 2007 - June 2007 - July 2007 - August 2007 - September 2007 - October 2007 - November 2007 - December 2007 - January 2008 - February 2008 - March 2008 - April 2008 - May 2008 - June 2008 - July 2008 - August 2008 - September 2008 - October 2008 - November 2008 - December 2008 - January 2009 - February 2009 - March 2009 - April 2009 - May 2009 - June 2009 - July 2009 - August 2009 - September 2009 - October 2009 - November 2009 - December 2009 - January 2010 - February 2010 - March 2010 - |