I'm a little surprised, as some things he's said about grant funding in his last post seemed to run kind of counter to this one politically.
I'm also a bit put off by the idea he ends on, which suggests possilby a degree of editorial influence from the state via funding that I'd have to object to fundamentally...
If we agree that Canada should have a distinctive policy for its comic book industry, then the next question is what strategy to must use to enact its policy. Should the Canadian Government and provinces be actively supporting the comic book industry through grants, loans, tax credits, or help for representation abroad? Should for example, a special push be made to create comic books for special groups like children and aboriginal Canadians? In the book world, most type of literature is supported, but material such as cookbooks and travel material are not supported to the same extent as fiction. In the film world, the government does not support pornography, reality television, and game shows. In animation, because most of the contents is geared towards children, there are stricter guidelines and requests for clear overt Canadian contents in the works. In video games, there doesn't seem to be any oversight over the contents of the products, probably because the job creation aspect is the ultimate objective of the government as opposed to the promotion of Canadian culture.
There are many genres of comic books touching very different target markets, not sound support strategy can be generated without first understanding what it is one seeks to promote. In hindsight, perhaps Canadian comic book readers should take their local industry more seriously and start asking themselves what kind of comic books they would like their fellow Canadians to create.
Hmmm, now that last bit is a bit problematic. I know where he's coming from - it's an audience oriented argument - but i think he's failing maybe to see the implications of making that kind of thinking federal policy.
But, It's hard to argue with the feeling it be nice to be taken a bit more seriously on some levels by the government. On this i can relate to what he's saying.
I think to some degree things are moving in the direction wished for already, in a very short time really comics by any name have been getting a lot more attention and credit for what they have to offer.
I'd point out that in all the National, Provincial and City level Grants [none of which were available to comics about just 5 years ago] all to at least some degree - I'm not clear just on how much - have various priority categories already. For example it won't win you a grant on it's own - the work has to be up to it competitive standards still - but for some time now in any class of Canadian Council Grant for anything; if you present work that is intended to address Native, Visible Minority, Children's and Women's issues or concerns, then that wins you points in the Judging. If you present a credible voice on the subject you fit the profile of one of the Councils' Mandates to make an efort to give special attention to those groups.
So to some degree we already live in the world he describes, though as far as I know it's not a Comics Policy per say but merely the mandate.
No argument, depending on the content of it, I'd love to see Ottawa acknowledge comics with an official independent policy.
I have to say I doubt it'll happen until we make a lot more money than we do - The culture argument he makes is good, I'd say that's a great angel and I can think of at least one creator who already is doing that for his own work - we do need to do things like that more. But as an industry I suspect we'll need to show a bit more green to carry it to the heights of a policy.
Personally my own expectations and hopes for more are tempered by reminding myself that there's a long list of other pressing issues I'd like my government to spend it's energy on before they get around to trying to pay some formal lip service to my favorite form of story telling and show they talked to the right geeks by making all the right references - So for now I'm ok to settle for counting ourselves lucky we survived the last round of cuts and shuffles at the Council, and gently remind them how much we rock by rocking. And making shure they get the memo of cource.
It would be nice to be taken as seriously as those other mediums. But having my ass kissed is not how I was taught to be a man, if you'll pardon the macho sentiment. And to some degree it's in our advantage to be underestimated at times, one of the things that's made us a powerful subversive form. I can see the lights of a strong argument along that line too.
Also frankly I'd be a bit afraid to see what kind of messages THIS government would ask us to promote abroad in exchange for it's favor. Think i'll wait till after the races, to see who it is i'd be writing my letters too.
Con*Cept is Montreal's fan run annual science-fiction and fantasy convention.
It kicks off this year Friday October 17 and runs till the 19th , and attempts to cover all aspects of fandom: literature, television, comics, art, gaming, and more.
A detail that caught my eye from their facebook group is...
The Montreal Centre of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada will be attending Con*Cept. Weather permitting, there will be telescopes day and night! Yes, the sun is a star, and can be observed through specialized telescopes. Two Center members are planning to bring their hydrogen alpha and calcium K solar telescopes.
Also what looks like some tentative programing notes: More details here on the main site.
Programmation pour les Fans du Futur
Sam. 10h00-12h00: Il était une fois... (activités à nature historique et géographique incluant la présentation de fossiles)
13h30-18h00: Terre de contes (ateliers créatifs, un ou deux invités spéciaux, et préparation des costumes de nos fans du futur avant la mascarade)
Dim. 09h30-12h30: Explorations spatiales (un autre invité spécial, jeux et ateliers sur la galaxie)
13h30-18h00: Fou de la science (expériences amusantes et autres activités)
We have a tentative schedule for the Young Fans programming.
Fans in Training
Sat. 10:00 to 12:30: Long Ago and Far Away (activities of a historical and geographical nature including a fossils exhibit)
1:30 to 6pm: Land of Make-Believe (imaginative crafts, a very special Guest or two and preparation for the Fan in Training fashion show before the Masquerade)
Sun. 9:30 to 12:30: Spatial Explorations (another special Visitor, galactic games and crafts)
1:30 to 6pm: Mad About Science (experimental fun and other activities)
All our Guests of Honour will be visiting our young fans!
With a charged OP ed piece by Herve St-Louis, the publisher and editor for comicbookbin.com has kicked off a pretty intense conversation over the question of whether or not The Doug Wright Awards has the "right" to call itself a Canadian award.
I have a problem with the tone taken at the start by St-Louis myself; I feel he was pretty wildly hyperbolic in his analogies, and presents a basically false premise. And he seems upon a little asking around, to be speculating a lot about the intentions of the DWA organizers without information. There was a small amount of communication with our own Bryan Munn informally as a DWA representative on the subject, but it seems St-Louis cut that short and ran with his story.
But from a purely rhetorical point of view, many have made some very good points on the broader subject.
Bryan, who is responsible for most of the posting here on Sequential now, is bowing out of commenting on the debate on our site as he's closely involved with the Doug Wright Awards, so I'm going to try to keep on top of this for Sequential, work schedule permitting.
I will be thinking on it and perhaps posting my own perspective more in the future but at this time a few things seem clear to me.
First I think that it's clear the DWA's present themselves as A Canadian award, not THE Canadian awards. A point made by Brad MacKay but also consistent with my impression of their promotion of the awards. St-Louis's argument seems to be build a lot on the idea that something other than this is true.
The About page's first short opening paragraph from the DWA site.
About The Doug Wright Awards
The Doug Wright Awards were established in 2005 to cast a spotlight on the range of cartoonists and comic artists working in Canada.
And, the very relevant last one...
Language of work [SeqEd:accepted for submissions]
For the first year at least, The Wrights will only consider works that are available in English or are wordless. (French-language works that are translated into English will be eligible.)
And if testimony is required, going back to the first year of the awards, I can confirm from my own discussions with the organizers, that what Brad MacKay says in his official statement as true; That there has all along been very active discussion of how eventually to address the question of, at some point, bringing in a french language category. But that for now they lack the resources to do so. There has been no active discrimination against french creators in anyway, or a flat refusal to address the issue. Only a recognition that they are unequipped to review french language submissions at this time in a manor suited to the standards they set out for the DWA.
And far from being presented as THE Canadian comics award, they are more like A Literary Canadian Comics Award in affect. And yes we could be really precise and call them The Doug Wrights, A Literary English Language Canadian Comics Award, but frankly as precise as that would be, it would be a terrible, terrible name!
OK yes I'm being a little dramatic, but The Doug Wright English Canadian Comics Awards is truly not too much better. So it's the The Doug Wright Awards, period.
As Hervé points out; hyphenation, and over qualification is a pain in the arse.
The idea is to make the awards appealing, and interesting. Not boring and didactic.
Now It's all very fine and well to say they could make the contacts here in Quebec, associate with a local award or start a parallel operation.
But it takes two to tango, and speaking as an Anglo, living in Montreal, I have to say the French community here at least, when not too busy with their own things to be bothered, is seldom very welcoming or enthusiastic of this kind of collaboration over all. Nor do they reach out often themselves in a collaborative manner to make such things happen. It's like herding cats here on both sides of the language divide.
Maybe in Alberta where Hervé lives now, he's unaware of this. He started out here so he should know. It was true more so when he lived here!
It's true that in their own language sphere many people have done amazing things to promote local French work to an international French audience. But making the effort to promote their work to an audience that overwhelmingly won't be able to read it is never appealing to any publisher. Frankly I for one can't fault them for that.
And far from generally being ignored by English Canada, I and many Anglo's have come to Montreal thinking we would be able to connect and build bridges with the french community, only to find a wall of often disinterested backs turned on us because we speak French as poorly as many of the Quebecois speak English.
For those who are more engaged and welcoming - and there are many now - it's shrugs and a lack of interest in general. Not to say it's always cold, but I have not experienced a culture in a hurry to be embraced by it's English neighbors. They want more than not to be admired in their own language in their own region or in the EU. For those few desiring more English attention, they look south, like a lot of us here, were there are many many millions more in the audience than here. A practical issues more than not.
I would put it to Herve that this often kind of insular approach, and a love of confrontation and conflict expressed to me by many of my Francophone Montreal peers, and as exemplified by the rather inflammatory examples in his post - Is as much if not more a problem than any active bigotry in the English community...
"If the Harvey Awards, were to refuse all comic books by blacks or women, until they bleached their skin white or undergo hormone therapy to change their gender, it would be clear to everybody that their policy and the support of those awards was morally wrong"
Really? Comparing asking for translations to bleaching skin, AND forced gender reassignment. Was one over the top inaccurate analogy not enough? Hmmmmm.
Numerous times have I inquired locally in Montreal, as to why more effort is not made by French creators and publishers to translate the huge amounts of work produced here into English for the larger North American market. Or why there are so few sites promoting the Quebec community outside of the Francophone sphere.
Coverage and effort has improved, yes, far more of both things happen now than just 5 years ago. But it's been very, very slow.
And my said inquiries are more often than not responded to with shrugs and the refrain that they rather someone else do the work. They are too busy, it's as simple as that. No bigotry, no conspiracy, no surprising undercurrent of hate.
I've done my own best when I've had the time to do so to promote local work, regardless of language, as has Bryan who is I'll repeat an active member of the DWA organization.
I have tried at some length to recruit contributors for this very site to help cover the Quebec scene, as well as trying to find people on the coasts and in the mid west.
I have constantly failed to find interested parties on all counts.
Even Herve's own site spends most of it's time reporting on American, English comics. On the site's menu there is not even a way to filter the posts to view QC or Montreal stories. Just Cunuck. And I invite you to look for yourself to see how many are for French Language books....
It seems to me Herve is asking, demanding, others to confer praise for work he seldom promotes himself. No he does not call himself THE Canadian comic news site anymore than the DWA call them selves THE Canadian comic awards, but then this only furthers my point.
I can understand that there are a lot of bruised egos, as I'm always reminded when I talk to my peers here in Montreal about this sort of thing. It does not come up nearly as often as Herve's article would suggest but sure, some feel a little left out.
But I have a hard time giving too much credit to said egos, when they do so little to change the situation themselves through constructive positive actions. But rather it seems - when bothered to do anything - prefer to rant at supposed arms length about it. In this case at Provincial length, and without foundation or information speculating in an overwhelmingly demonizing way about the intentions of the 'Others' they think someone may perceive themselves slighted or ignored by.
So what do I think they should do instead?
How about this; I've not talked to anyone about this so I don't know if the will or means can be mustered, but say they do and could be. Say someone in QC, or the french community outside of QC cares about this all that much, and wants to do something.
Say maybe the Prix Bedelys have any interest in this, that they take the initiative to put together a jury and reading list for a French language award to spotlight Original French books to the rest of Canada and the English comics reading world and any French readers who may be paying attention, to be presented at The Doug Wright Awards.
They can also help raise funds locally for the prize and to pay for the trophy, and The Doug Wright Awards in turn give them the additional press and attention. The DWA orginization have the current problem of a lack of resources and means on their side addressed in this way.
Maybe as a way to make this a mutual trade - not to besmirch anyone's best intentions; but the Bédélys trophy is not, well, all that impressive. Perhaps they also might be able to persuade the Doug Wright Awards rather famous trophy builder to help them out as well?
Call it a trade for mutual benefit, and fix the problem by doing something about it, rather than making over the top and inaccurate analogies to civil rights abuses and the intentions of others you don't actually talk with before speculating on publicly.
But in the mean time, until the French Comics community is willing or wants to be bothered to take on the task of promoting their own work to the rest of the world regardless if it's Francophone or not, I think it's a little disingenuous for someone in the to cry discrimination in this manor.
A lack of means does not equate a intentional bigoted refusal.
Promotional film for full-length documentary on Hoverboy- one time hero of radio, comic books, and TV. Now a forgotten footnote of 20th Century popular culture. Featuring interviews with Rick Green (PRISONERS OF GRAVITY, RED GREEN SHOW) and writer/artist Ty Templeton (BATMAN, AVENGERS) who is preparing to release the first Hoverboy comic in more than 30 years. For more Hoverboy history go to www.hoverboy.com
Local illustrator Salgood Sam and author Jim Munroe create a post-Rapture work in Therefore Repent!
by VINCENT TINGUELY
When prolific indie author, quick and dirty filmmaker and DIY organizer Jim Munroe got a grant to create Therefore Repent!, a full-length "post-Rapture" graphic novel, Montreal-based, long-time Munroe fan and sometime collaborator Salgood Sam jumped at the chance to render it. "I'd read an early Munroe novella at a zine fair when I was 19 or 20 and I really liked it," says Sam. "I've been following his stuff ever since. When you really identify with a writer's vision, they've tapped the voice you hear inside yourself, they're appealing to you on that level." Sam spent more than a year meticulously bringing Munroe's ideas to life, drawing on skills honed in both the indie comics realm and through years of grunt work for the likes of Marvel. "Jim's a good writer to collaborate with because he was into gearing it into what I was into doing," Sam says. "I didn't have to do any contortions to visualize the script as I was reading it." Munroe agrees. "He's perfect, because he can do the hipsters and the hellspawn," says Munroe. "He can do urban settings very well and true to life, but also fascinating fantastical things."
Therefore Repent! begins with the arrival of the fascinating and fantastical Raven and Mummy in a near-future Chicago. Munroe, who's based in Toronto, set the story in an American city because, as he quips, "They go together like peanut butter and jelly, America and the Rapture." 144,000 Christians have floated up to heaven, Jesus has joined George W. in the White House, and heavily armed angels from on high are descending to do the Lord's dirty work on Earth. Things would seem quite hopeless for the rest of us godless (i.e. not fundamentalist) sorts, except that magic is afoot...everything from Eastern cosmic insights to transubstantiation actually works. Soon enough, a grassroots magical insurgency starts to form.
"I was inspired by this idea that the most powerful people in America purport to literally believe in Christians floating into the air, into heaven, which is what George W. Bush says he believes in," says Munroe. "That's pretty mind blowing, that in their own mythology they'd have something that wild-especially when the conservatives have problems with Harry Potter."
After a more ambiguous approach to the idea of evil in An Opening Act of Unspeakable Evil, Munroe decided to go for a dark fantasy scenario in which, if miracles, angels and such were to be given free play, then other forms of magic would be just as valid. "Well, if people are going to float into the air, how about less top-down magical manifestations?" Munroe says. "Religion is very top-down, it's God or who God specifically anoints. But if there is magic from on high, then it is going to emerge from below as well, if people are willing to explore it and not kowtow to the powers that be. I like the idea of it being nascent in all of us, but only if we embrace it-individual power, rather than waiting for other people to anoint us. The whole DIY, coming from the grassroots thing."
Therefore Repent! launches this Saturday, Dec. 8 at 7 p.m. at the Drawn & Quarterly Bookstore (211 Bernard W.)
Therefore Repent! is a graphic novel set in a Chicago neighborhood after the Rapture. Once the Christians have floated bodily into the sky, life goes on pretty much as usual for the immoral majority... except that magic works, if you're willing to risk demonic mutations. CNN reports that Mr. Christ and Mr. Bush are on a speaking tour of the red states. And an angelic army appears to have been deployed to mop up the sinners. But through it all, outsiders Raven and Mummy face the possibility of a bigger problem than the end of the world: the end of their relationship.
In the tradition of The Book of Revelations, Therefore Repent!, courtesy of novelist Jim Munroe (Flyboy Action Figure Comes With Gasmask) and acclaimed artist Salgood SamSea of Red) is a lurid, dark fantasy tale. By taking the apocryphal scripture as literal truth - as the American powers-that-be claim to do - the story also explores the political and spiritual ramifications of God abandoning humanity.
TPB-FC 6" x 8" $14.99 160 Pages ISBN: 978-1-60010-146-1
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.
Almost Missed this one...But I'll be there, not square!
Toronto
Hotel Canzine Sunday, October 28, 2007 The Gladstone Hotel 1214 Queen St. West (Queen just East of Dufferin) 1pm - 7pm
$5 at the door gets you the new Horror Issue of Broken Pencil Magazine and access to hundreds of zines, all-day horror screenings, DIY Gore workshops, readings, and all sorts of other madness.
Canzine is an annual event organized by Broken Pencil, the Magazine of Zine Culture and the Independent Arts.
Contact Broken Pencil, PO Box 203, Station P, Toronto, ON, M5S 2S7, email: editor@brokenpencil.com, phone 416-204-1700
Hotel Canzine Giant Zine Fair!
Over 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! Be amazed at the creativity, ingenuity, and sheer weirdness! (Those interested in booking tables can register online at www.brokenpencil.com.) Launch of the New Issue of Broken Pencil "Indie Horror"
Featuring Ghost Stories at the Canzine Camp Fire, all day Indie Horror Videos, and our Cheap Thrills Special Effects exhibit In celebration of the brand new Horror Issue that will launch at Canzine, we feature six great indie writers telling ghost stories in front of the Canzine Campfire. The fake log will be glowing weakly, the marshmallows will be room temperature straight from the bag, but that shiver up your spine will be real! Also: Canzine Gorefest! Take the Canzine workshop on do-it-yourself gore, then ham up your fake black eye, bloody lip and severed hand at our "Cheap Thrills Special Effects Exhibit". Plus: All day indie horror movies in the Canzine screening room.
The Canzine Whodunit
Help! Someone's killing local zinesters, picking them off one by one like ripe grapes plucked from the vine! Can you solve the crime and stop the serial destruction of our indie culture? This year, for the first time ever, Canzine will present an all day murder mystery game going on all over the Gladstone! Join the game and solve the crime or just watch the antics. Hotel Room Installations
Canada's brightest and weirdest will be creating one day unique environments to explore. Including: Tara Bursey's Haunted Room of worry bead diet pills and baby rat bedsheets. Friendly Rich and the Lollipop People's room of scary music and tortured puppets. Shannon Gerard's room of crocheted cancer prevention. The Special's room of mystery featuring the amazing Mysterion.
Campfire Ghost Story Readings
Sit around the Canzine campfire and enjoy 10 minute ghost stories throughout the day by great indie writers like Tony Burgess, Kate Story (an up-and-comer featured in our new horror issue), Maggie MacDonald and more! Free marshmallows! All Day Underground Video Screening
Open Screening and Curated program by James King. Special horror program. All are welcome to bring videos (VHS or DVD only, 10 minutes and under) to show to the world. Register in advance by emailing canzinevideo@brokenpencil.com. Or just show up with your video.
Workshops
Do It Yourself GoreFest: Special Effects on the Cheap
Indie Artist, Promote Yourself: A How-to Guide to DIY Promotion lead by indie promoter extraordinaire Trevor Coleman.
Kicking off the Expozine launch season, Cumulus Press presents EXTRACTION! A new Journalistic graphic novel about the dirty business of global resource extraction in the 21st century.
Edited by Frederic Dubois, Marc Tessier & David Widgington. Featuring comix art by Joe Ollmann, Phil Angers, Ruth Tait & Stanley Wany. Reportage by Dawn Paley, Petr Cizek, Sophie Toupin & Tamara Herman. And additional illustration by Alain Reno, Jeff Lemire & Carlos Santos.
Since 2000, most energy and mineral prices have been skyrocketing. Junior mining prospectors and unscrupulous transnational corporations rush into new territories to suck what's hot out of the earth's lucrative veins. In today's gas, oil and mining industries, the pace of exploration, extraction, transformation and delivery of the world's resources is mind boggling. The German magazine Der Spiegel speaks of a Third World War for the world's resources. It is more like a blitzkrieg.
EXTRACTION! looks into the exploration, exploitation and extraction of oil, uranium, bauxite and gold, from a common-good social justice perfective.
David Widgington Cumulus Press 514-523-1975 info AT cumuluspress DOT com
EXTRACTION! Comix Reportage Edited by Frederic Dubois, Marc Tessier and David Widgington November 2007 ISBN 978-0-9782474-1-6 128 pages
Award-winning graphic novel writer and former Edmonton resident Derek McCulloch will return to his old stomping grounds this October to pass on a little of what he's learned about the blues in his time in America. On Friday, October 5th, McCulloch will appear first at Happy Harbor comics, where he will sign copies of his graphic novel, Stagger Lee. Later that evening, he will appear at the Edmonton Public Library, where he will give a slide show and lecture on the history and myth of Stagger Lee.
Appearing with Derek is local comic historian and professional reviewer Tim Lasiuta who will be signing copies of his book "Brush Strokes With Greatness - Life & Times of Joe Sinnott" and will be available to talk to fans about other great comic legends. You can listen to Tim's weekly, live comic webcast on World News Radio's COMIC ZONE every Wednesday at 2 pm Pacific!
Friday, October 5th, 4 p.m - 6 p.m. - Signing at Happy Harbor Comics, 10112 - 124 Street, (780) 452-8211 7 p.m. - Slide show, reading, Q&A, and signing at Edmonton Public Library, Centre Core, Centre for Reading and the Arts, Stanley A Milner Library, 7 Sir Winston Churchill Square, (780) 496-7000
Bonjour a tous le 5 octobre prochain, dans le cadre du festival Atenne_a, lancement du prochain fanzine bidon accompagne d'un cd du groupe (swedish) death polka. et une merveilleuse couverture realisee par Valerie Morency. 5a 7 plus spectale a 19hr a la chapelle de l'amerique francaise a Quebec. histoire ecrite par samuel murdock basee sur le premier effondrement du pont de quebec 2, cote de la Fabrique. merci et au plaisirs http://www.swedishdeathpolka.com/ http://www.antenne-a.com/http://pishier.blogspot.com/http://kabochenook01.blogspot.com/
Expozine, Montreal's annual small press, comic and zine fair, will take place on Saturday, November 24 and Sunday, November 25, 2007, from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. at 5035 St-Dominique (Eglise Saint-Enfant Jesus, between St-Joseph and Laurier, near Laurier Metro) MAP. Free admission!
This incredible event brings together over 250 creators of all kinds of printed matter - from books to zines to visual art and comics - in both English and French.
In the past six years, Expozine has become one of North America's largest small press fairs, attracting thousands of visitors as well as exhibitors from as far afield as Chicago, Toronto, Ottawa, and Quebec City!
It is one of the city's cultural success stories, and due to its ever-increasing growth, this year's edition will be expanded to two days.
Expozine brings together a multitude of publications and printed works that are often difficult to find in the first place, much less altogether in the same room! The result is a rare opportunity to peruse the work of hundreds of young and emerging authors, publishers and artists, and to see what the winners of last year's Expozine Alternative Press Awards are up to. Not to be missed!
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.
L'Oie de Cravan is proud to invite you to the launch of Obom's (Diane Obomsawin) new comic book KASPAR and introduce you to the sad and instructive story of monsieur Kaspar Hauser.
We will also take this opportunity to launch our new edition of Obom's first book PLUS TARD
There will be a screening of Obom's short animation films and some fine live music by Lou Babin, Luc Proulx, Némo Venba and Christine Lajeunesse. Alcool will also be proposed.
All this at G.I.V. 4001 rue Berri, corner of Duluth Room 195 in Montréal Monday may 7th from 6 to 10.
When Rich Johnston posted some rumours about the Quebec City company Dreamwave on his Lying in the Gutters column last week, Sequential immediately contacted Pierre-Andre Dery, the nominal editor-on-chief of the company, for comment. Dery would not comment on the record about the fortunes of Dreamwave or its future plans (Dery's brother Christian Dery bought the intellectual property assets of Dreamwave at auction in 2005). However, Pierre-Andre Dery did give a few quotes, posted in the April 23 Lying in the Gutters, to Johnston about Dery's former studio Grafiksismik, which has been bankrupt and has slowly been paying off its former employees and freelancers since its major employer Speakeasy stopped paying its bills in 2005.
Johnston's original post was full of several misstatements and uncredited assertions. While most of Johnston's assertions are still unsubstantiated, Dery's actual quote is below (note: Johnston refers to the Christian Dery-owned Dreamwave as Dreamwave II):
Pierre-Andre Dery is still a member of the board of Grafiksismik, but not of Dreamwave II. However, Dreamwave II is owned by Dery Capital Inc, controlled by Pierre's brother Christian Dery. And Capitain Blitzkrieg is owned by Valerie Martineau, Pierre's long term partner.
[...]
I spoke with Pierre over the weekend and he told me "Grafiksismik went bankrupt in the fall of 2005 after being unable to collect tens of thousands of dollars owed by Speakeasy... At the time every Grafik staffer were up to date with their payments with some freelancer debts remaining. The former stockholders have been slowly (Meaning too slowly, but still as fast as they can) paying those freelancers from their own pockets with a couple left unpaid to this day. When we'll be done paying freelancer debts this fall, it'll will have taken two years to pay up everyone the money we expected at the time from Speakeasy.
"While I have freelanced for Capitaine Blitzkrieg in different capacities in the past, I am not currently affiliated with this studio, I've been working full-time for a video game developer for over a year."
This month, the Montreal Comix Jam will try on a new experience by changing the venue for the next Jam this coming Thursday, April 27 at 8PM. The new secret lair will be located at café L'Utopik, 552 Ste-Catherine Est, next to Berri-UQAM métro station. As usual, bring your drawing tools. This change of venue for this month will help us to evaluate if it is more convenient for our needs. The café is a easy-going place, with cozy little salon filled with alternative litterature, offering fair-trade coffee, vegan food as well as good ol'beer. After the jam, we will ask about your opinion whether we should change or not our meeting place.
See you there on Thursday, Jane
Bonjour à tous!
Ce mois-ci le Comix Jam va tenter une nouvelle expérience en changeant d'endroit pour notre prochaine réunion qui se tiendra ce jeudi, 27 avril à 20 hres au café L'Utopik, 552 Ste-Catherine Est, métro Berri-UQAM. Comme d'habitude, apportez votre attirail d'artiste. Ce changement d'endroit nous permettra d'evaluer s'il est plus convenable pour nos besoins. L'Utopik est un café très relax, avec des petits salons confortables, offrant littérature alternative, café équitable ( juste pour toi Michèle!), bouffe véganne (juste pour toi Richard!) et bien sûr de la bonne vieille bière (pour la vieille qui vous envoie ce courriel). Ensuite, nous aimerions connaitre vos impressions afin de décider d'adopter ou non l'Utopik comme nouveau lieu officiel du jam avec l'accord bien sûr des patrons de l'endroit.
received this via email, from yesterday's National Post:
Captain Canuck Is Dead; National Hero Since 1975 By BRAD McCOY National Post Published: March 31, 2007
Captain Canuck, Canada's superhero, is fatally shot by a sniper in the latest issue of his eponymous comic, which arrived in stores yesterday. The assassination ends the guardian of the north's fight for right, which began in 1975.
Captain Canuck, while heading to the Parliament Buildings, is shot and killed.
The last episode in Captain Canuck's life comes after a turbulent publishing career. Created by writer Don Fleishman and artist/co-writer Richard Comedy, the original Captain Canuck first appeared in Captain Canuck #1 (July 1975). The story followed Tom Evans, a Canadian secret agent who gained superhuman strength from contact with extraterrestrials. This first version of the Canadian superhero ran 14 issues, ending in 1981, and was drawn mostly by George Freeman taking over from Richard Comedy. The series was revived in 1993 and again in 2004. In 2006 a fourth incarnation of the character was featured in a new series.
The decision to make the new Captain a woman polarized the superhero fan community. Captain Canuck (whose true identity is Sally Maple) is a staunch feminist and fights for women's rights and multiculturalism. Her adventures often lead her to interact with government officials and to petition the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa.
But in the current issue of her title, Captain Canuck takes bullets in the shoulder and stomach while on the steps of Parliament. The assassin is alleged to be Redcoat, an intelligence agent romantically involved with Captain Canuck. He was apparently under the control of Mr. Gold, a supervillain. "It seemed a little radical when it was first brought up," said Richard Comedy, the president and publisher of Canuck Comics, about the hero's death. "But sometimes stories just take you places."
"We as publishers and as creative people knew where the ending was going to go for a long time," he said. "We knew people might not like it, but I think we delivered a compelling story that made everyone think."
He added: "The stories we have planned dealing with Cap's death are really compelling too."
This is not Captain Canuck's first brush with death. In the 1970s he battled alien invaders and was presumed dead but was actually transported back in time to the period when Vikings first discovered Canada. Years later the character was thawed out to continue his career.
More recently, Kebec, the Captain's francophone partner --who was thought killed by an explosion as he tried to defuse a bomb-- was revealed to be alive. Kebec was saved by sovereignist forces, who put him on ice and thawed him for their own missions. Captain Canuck broke the separatist hold on Kebec, and the two had a brief reunion. Kebec, who has taken on the name Kapitain Kebec, is now on a quest to redeem his actions.
Cultural commentators from the world of comic books have begun to weigh in on the event, expressing opinions on the philosphical and economic underpinnings of the red-and-white clad hero and the implications of her death. Jeet Heer, a Regina-based writer and academic, puzzles over the very existence of a Canadian superhero, implying that the death of Captian Canuck was a forgone conclusion. "Ingrained in the superhero genre is a sense of America's invincibility, its inherent goodness, and its world historical destiny," he says. "National heroes from other country (be they Captain Canuck, England's Union Jack, Frances's Superdupont, or Israel's Shaloman) always seem parodic and desultory. Despite its faltering in Iraq, the United States is the world's only superpower and for that reason it's the only country that creates confident and commercially successful superheroes."
The commercial viability of Captain Canuck may be the main reason for the Captain's death, at least in the minds of some comic book retailers. According to Harold Pottermole, owner of the Sirens' Song bookstore in Toronto, superhero comics and their publishers may be a dying breed. "Everything that these companies do is in complete isolation from true market forces. They are not now, nor have they been for thirty years part of the mass-media. Companies run by fans with comics drawn by fans rarely think of catering to anyone but themselves, which unfortunately means comics aimed primarily at adult men who still want to read comics featuring characters suited to children's entertainment."
Trying to incorporate aspects of the real world --like death and the struggle for women's rights-- into superhero comics is like someone "writing a Berenstain Bears novel for adults," Pottermole adds.
So is this the end of Captain Canuck? "He's very dead right now," Mr. Comedy said.
Still, these are comic books, where characters have a history of dying and returning. Most famously, DC published "The Death of Superman" in November 1992. That comic was a best seller, but the Man of Steel eventually returned to the land of the living in August 1993.
Fans on newsarama.com, a Web site devoted to comic book news, quickly posted their reactions to Captain Canuck's death. They ranged from a cynical "Yeah, right!" and "I know it's temporary" to the more media-savvy: "I'm fairly sure killing Cap with a movie in development would not be very sensible. So, I shall wait and see." Others were even less forgiving: "This is just a blatant attempt to cash in on recent trends in U.S. comics."
On March 28th 1957, parliament passed the Canada Council act, making today the Canada Council for the Arts' 50th anniversary.
Jim has taken the occasion to post an interesting conversation with the Senior Communications Manager Donna Balkan when she was in town for the Governor General's Awards.
The Globe and Mail's Anthony Jenkins is in hot water over an editorial page cartoon published this past weekend. The cartoon, depicting a group of space explorers determined to hunt new lifeforms on Mars, has stirred controversy because of its anti-sealhunt stance and because Jenkins mixes up the Innu (who are not part of the sealhunt) and the Inuit (who are). In a CBC report, Jenkins, who was nominated for a National Newspaper Award in 1996, is paraphrased as saying that the pro-sealhunt lobby hasn't done enough to educate the public about who they are; hence his confusion. The cartoon itself is pretty innocuous-seeming and graphically understated, if not exactly bland.
Toronto's Xtra catches up with the proprietors of Little Sister's bookstore and their fight against Canada Customs after their latest setback (they are looking at fundraising options). As well, the Toronto Star cites the Little Sisters case as an example of the prohibitive cost of legal fess and the the Canadian legal system.
From Xtra:
The store's cause is starting to get support from individuals across the country.
Toronto-area resident Terry Lewis, who describes himself as "perfectly straight," says he was so outraged by Little Sister's troubles that he's trying to mount his own fundraising campaign.
"You can't call it anything less than abuse by Canada Customs," says Lewis. "Someone in Canada Customs has decided they don't like the material that Little Sister's imports. The problem with that kind of abuse of authority is there's no knowing where it's going to stop."
The 2nd Expozine Alternative Press Awards Gala! Featuring as master of ceremonies perennial favourite Jean Giscagne, who will share the stage with musical/ lyrical entertainment by Montreal's Les Abdigradationnistes, plus special guests and surprises! You'll also have the chance to purchase copies of the nominated books, zines and comics!
To reflect the wide diversity of printed matter that was represented last November at Expozine, Montreal's only annual small press, comic and zine fair, six prizes will be awarded: three prizes in English and three in French, for the following categories: Best book, Best comic, Best zine. Each of the more than 200 Expozine 2006 participants were asked to submit their best creation for consideration for the prizes. The shortlist was selected by an esteemed panel of judges, and are listed below.
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