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.
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.
Looking over the links to news and reviews about people who create sequential cartoon images and/or static caricatures reveals a short list of interest to loyal Sequential readers. Seemingly no-one published the great Canadian graphic novel over the weekend. But then again, nobody ever does.
1. Halifax policart Michael deAdder has a new book of cartoons out, according to this Daily News profile. de Book is published by the Daily News and features 88 pages culled from the artists distinctive brand of daily craft and bile:
his finest work, including a depiction of Bert and Ernie heading to Canada for a gay marriage, and Premier Rodney MacDonald living rent-free and playing video games in his parents' house - after getting a substantial raise.
2. Cartoonist Norm Muffit remembers daredevil pilot, Flying Bandit "Willy" Laserich, and a time when crawing a cartoon could jeopardize a plum government job:
Northern News Services cartoonist Norm Muffitt, a former RCMP officer, pilot and Transport Canada official, remembers the controversy well. He drew many a cartoon in support of Laserich, which made for an uncomfortable moment when applying for an enforcement job with Transport Canada.
"I had done a cartoon of a Transport Canada guy behind a desk, and on the desk was a nail with a cord attached to it. The other end was fastened to Willy's licence," said Muffitt.
"When I went in for my interview, the first thing that happened was the guy sat down with this cartoon in front of me and said, 'before we start, maybe you'd like to explain this.'"
3. Writing for the Vancouver Courier, Shawn Conner reviews a trio of the latest contenders for great Canadian graphic novel status: White Rapids, Southern Cross, and Therefore Repent, by Sequential's own Salgood Sam. (link via BDQ)
4. Pierre-Luc Gagnon reviews two new French-language graphic novels by Leif Tande that had their debut at this past weekend's Salon du livre de Montreal. Great Canadian Graphic Novels (GCGN)? Time, and translation, will tell.
Toronto Sun policart Andy Donato is part of a group show at the Kipling Gallery. Mondo Italiano showcases the paintings of local Italian-Canadian artists.
Roxboro Library (110 Cartier St., Montreal) exhibits Benoit Laverdiere, illustrator and cartoonist --until Nov. 30. For more information, call 514 684-8247.
Also in Montreal, beginning Monday November 12, original art exhibit at Studio 9, from the collection of Martin Desroches comes work by Milton Caniff, Berke Breathed, Gene Colan, Dan Decarlo, Tony Millionaire, Raymond Poivet, Bill Ward, and more. 5835 Saint-Hubert. (info@studio9cs.com 514-272-6043. 7pm.
Jody Haucke and Chris Maxwell, owners of Ottawa's The Comic Book Shoppe on Bank Street, are hosting an art gala for local artists to exhibit their comic art and genre-themed work.
via Drawn, the exquisite illustration and toys of Gary Taxali are on display in Chicago.
Reviews
Pascal Blanchet's White Rapidsreviewed in the National Post.
Interviews/New Books
Megan Stewart interviews graphic memoirist Sarah Leavitt about her new book, My Mom Got Sick and Died, the story of her mother's experience of Alzheimer's.
Jennifer Contino interviews Jay Stephens, who has travelled back in time to work with the legendary U.S. superhero scribe Bob Haney on Teen Titans: The Lost Annual.
CBC Arts profiles Ann Marie Fleming, who has created a collage graphic novel about the life of her great-grandfather, Vaudeville magician Long Tac Sam, based on her award-winning 2003 film.
Retailing
Quillblog's Derek Weiler roundsup recent news about how booksellers are dealing with the strong loonie. One reaction involves "variable discounting," which sounds like a way of averaging out wild price differences at the wholesale end of things.
Related: a Canadian blogger reflects on recent changes to the cover prices of Marvel and DC comic books
2. Haida manga artist Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas is profiled by Heather Ramsay for The Tyee on the subject of representations of First Nations people in Canadian museums.
3. Gilbert A. Bouchard recaps the history of non-fiction cartooning in North America for the Edmonton Journal.
4. The Comic Book Bin's Avi Weinryb reports on the DC panel from FanExpo and has some great video coverage.
5. Brendan Blom writes about reading Tintin in Canada for Culture magazine. After Django Reinhardt, Georges Simenon, and Charlemagne, is Herge the greatest Belgian?
(top, in honour of Omega Flight, a random superhero image by Owen McCarron)
Another link round-up of comics and comics-related news from across the dominion:
1. Via The Beat comes this Editor and Publisher profile of Lynn Johnston explaining recent changes in her comic strip and recent major changes in her life (quick version: she's splitsville with her husband).
2. The Harvey Awards were handed out in Baltimore over the weekend, and several Canucks were honoured with awards named for the cartooning genius behind Mad, Frontline Combat, Trump, Goodman Beaver, and Help. Congratulations to J. Bone, Darwyn Cooke, Bryan Lee O'Malley, Niko Henrichon, and the Canadian contributors to the Flight anthology: Johane Matte, Michel Gagne, Kean Soo, and Matthew Forsythe! As well, D+Q tied with itself for the best foreign reprint award with Moomin and Abandon the Old in Tokyo.
3. Ho Che Anderson and Dave Cooper are among the cartoonists donating art to the Fantagraphics legal defense fund.
4. The CBC profiles Troy Little's Chiaroscuro. Originally self-published by its PEI creator, the book has been picked up by IDW in the U.S.
An exclusive program dedicated to animation influenced by the New Yorker Magazine illustrator Saul Steinberg. Best known for his "View of the World from 9th Avenue,". Steinberg's elevated self-consciousness, reduced design to its essentials; freely melded the naive with the modern, and more than any other 20 century artist obliterated the wall between media and art. Animators as varied as Stefan Schabenbeck, Candy Kugel, Mo Williams and the "modernistic" designs from UPA and Zagreb owe much to Steinberg. The influence goes beyond the surface to include an abstract view of space, identity, and language. Curated by New York animator George Griffin.
3. Lynn Johnston's For Better of For Worse began it's new format Sept. 3 with a rerun some old strips framed by a journey through an old photo album. The strip is online here.
4. Toronto comics blogger and Beguiling employee is visiting Japan and already has a selection of manga retailing-related photos online.
5. Mike Aragona is a writer and the man responsible for keeping alive the long-running Canadian APA/zine Comicopia. He is currently going through some tough times concerning the health of his youngest child, as you will see from the updates from his livejournal page. If you know Mike or can identify with his situation, I'm sure his family would appreciate a note of encouragement or support.
2. This Canadian Press article profiles policart Serge Chapleau and the animated tv show he provides designs and voices for, "Et Dieu crea Laflaque" ("And God Created Laflaque").
4. Yellowknife cartoonists Kelly Steeves and Shawn Riopelle have an exhibit of their graphic novel artwork up at Squatterz Books and Curiosities, the best bookstore in the Northwest Territories.
4. Mark Siegel of U.S. publisher First Second, whose employees were chatting up several Canuck cartoonists all weekend, says TCAF is the "best comics festival around"
1. Diana Tamblyn has a new minicomic that will debut at TCAF (see above). The Rosie Stories is a 13-page volume retailing for $3. Tamblyn has more info and also has write-ups and links to several other TCAF-bound creators at her blog.
2. John Marz of RobotJohnny fame previews a couple of offerings he's bringing to TCAF. Want more TCAF previews? Okay: Jeff Lemire announces that Volume 2 of his Essex County graphic novel series, Ghost Stories, a 224 page graphic novel, will be available in September. In the meantime, Lemire is bringing lots of related goodies to TCAF, including paper dolls.
5. In non-TCAF news, this article may or may not clear up any confusion about the future shape of Lynn Johnston's For Better or For Worse, as Tom Spurgeon notes.
1. Read about the problems of Canadian online comics retailers: AllNewComics.com's Brian Garside has some harshwords for Free Comic Book Day and associations devoted to "bricks and mortar" comic book stores.
2. The final guest list and event schedule is up at the TCAF site: find out who to see and what to do (or vice versa) at this weekend's Toronto Comic Arts Festival.
3. Isa Tousignant reviews a ton of new comics for Hour.ca: Aline and the others by Guy Delisle, Kaspar and Plus Tard... by Obom (L'Oie de Cravan), Little Lessons in Safety by Emily Holton (Conundrum Press), Exit Wounds by Rutu Modan (Drawn & Quarterly) & Billy Mavreas' Monster Island Three (Conundrum Press).
Some recent links related to Canadian comics and cartooning:
-Darwyn Cooke files a con report at Tom Spurgeon's site
-Lynn Johnston denies she is retiring For Better or For Worse
-speaking of comic strips, some webcomics are easier to get into than others: Steve Manales Superslackers is a fun kids comic without decades of continuity that needs to be explained --I hope there are books collecting it
-pretty badges of Canadian superheroes by Ramon Perez
-Stuart Immonen rounds up recent comics-related stuff from the CBC: a rare 19th Century First Nation's pictograph that is arguably a comic, and a radio show about comics hosted by the Barenaked Ladies' Steven Page
-this University of Saskatoon exhibit on Dief the Chief contains some cartoon content
-Dominique Desbiens' Il manque aux humains un predateur was launched last night in Montreal
-editorial cartoonist Serge Chapleau has come under fire for alleged antisemitism in a caricature of Quebec politician Mario Dumont
-you can now read the Full Text of Jeet Heer's review of Invaders from the North --the article is a great short history of Canadian comic books and a criticism of superhero comics
-the latest issue of the comic/fanzine Mensuhell is now on sale, including comics stories by EdLAB, Patrofskynoff, Jean-Marc Pacelli, Victor Brideau, 'El Quesnel, Nicolas Plamondon, Kurt Beaulieu, Jacques Boivin, Guert, Sirkowski, & Karl (link via BDQ Forums)
-one of my favourite things in the world are comics by young fans and Janet Hetherington (a comics fan from the 70s who has made a career in comics for herself as an adult) has just posted an old romance comic she created as a youngster on her new blog
Not much romantic going on in Canadian comics right now, unless you count all of the people who heart comics: people who create comics, people who find the love of their lives thru comics somehow (hint: try wearing a homemade Love and Rockets t-shirt on your second date --it worked for me!), and people who write blogs about comics. Below this entry you will also find a larger-than-usual helping of comics news and links about comics scholarship, exhibits, and webcomics. Some midweek links:
1. Mascot Battle. Ever since Conservative PM Harpermuttered something about wolverines last week, the jokes haven't abated. Is the misanthropic, violent and stinky wolverine a better symbol for Canada than the industrious beaver? Let the blogospheredecide! I wanted to post pictures of John Byrne's Wolverine and Rand Holmes' cover to All Canadian Beaver Comics (or maybe Dave Sim's "The Beavers") but that seems like alot of work.
2. Blake Bell, the Toronto comics scholar and Steve Ditko expert, has a new blog with lots of interesting stuff (he's been doing a great job reviewing the Ignatz line of books from Fantagraphics, for instance). This post about "gateway comics" --those largely theoretical comics that might lead non-comics readers to become hardcore comics fans-- includes a short discussion of the "golden age" of 1980s alt comics output, including references to Dave Sim and Seth. Bell asks, what if non-superhero comics became so popular that "artists like Seth can abandon commercial illustration and start pumping out issues of Palookaville like Pez" (maybe forgetting that Seth has been devoting his time for the last six months almost exclusively to a weekly graphic novel serial for the New York Times?). Bell also talks about Seth and Sim in the context of the latest issue of Comic Art magazine.
3. There's a Joe Shuster Way? Learn how this blogger connects Chester Brown Bryan Lee O'Malley, and U.S. cartoonist Joe Shuster.
4. Lastly, Chris Butcher plugs a few webcomics at his blog, and includes a mini-review of Rosana Fung's Tomatoes and Other Stories.
1. New blog for Butcher: so what if he seems to talk more about Japanese comics than Canadian --the revamped comics212.net promises to continue with sharp retailer insights and detailed reviews from the longtime Beguiling staffer Chris Butcher
2. Joe Matt: he's not Canadian but alot of his comics output has been set in Toronto. That's why this review of Matt's
Spent
at BlogTO is interesting.
3. Deal with IT! The Halifax Chronicle-Herald profiles a series of books for kids that contain work by Canadian cartoonists.
-Newlywed Game: cute kid interviews Hope Larson and Bryan Lee O'Malley in Halifax attic
-Stuart Immonen finds a letter from Mort Weisinger in a Jules Feiffer book
-Dave Sim announces the nominees for the 2006 Day Prize, an award given to U.S. minicomics creators by Dave Sim in honour of his friend Gene Day (1951-82), a Canadian cartoonist who worked mostly for U.S. superhero comics companies but was also an underground and fanzine pioneer. No word yet on the role Sim's former partner Gerhard, who used to help pick and present the award, has in this year's nomination process. The winner will be announced at the annual SPACE Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo happening April 21-22 in Columbus, Ohio.
-Darwyn Cooke interviewed about his take on Wil Eisner's The Spirit
-Chris Butcher posts his schedule for the coming year, including hints about TCAF, a Bryan Lee O'Malley reading in T.O. and the second issue of the anthology/free comic book day giveaway, Comics Festival.
-Chip Zdarsky's digitized penis invitation to a New York party
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