Our buddy, journo Brad Mackay, had a piece about black superheroes in the Star on Sunday. Turns out the editors massaged the piece a bit and inserted a few things (like an impromptu paragraph about female superheroes, etc.). The mini-debacle is documented at Mackay's new blog, The Cultural Magpie where the original version of the article is now posted. The whole thing is a fascinating glimpse behind the scenes of the creation of a newspaper feature.
The only thing Brad didn't touch on the article was the few instances of black comics crossing over into film and video: Steel, Static, and Black Lightning at least have had some form of second life in movies and tv, I think...
Quebec cartoonist (Pride of Baghdad) Niko Henrichon talks to Newsarama about his venture into X-Men territory and the differences between comics in France and North America:
"In American comics, for instance, most of the comics are superheroes or close variations of superheroes. It's not that I dislike the genre but I wish there was more room for the other genres. In Europe, you can find a broader range of genre and they all sell very well. So that's one advantage in Europe.
On the other hand, I find the actual American market being more dynamic these days. In the sense that many great books were published during the last years. Writers like Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, BKV and many others make the comic world very lively."
Local cartoonist Nick Craine is profiled in the Guelph Mercury, marking his return to the graphic novel format:
So when we heard that Nick Craine was illustrating a new graphic novel about William Shakespeare's life, we thought here's a way to get all age groups interested in Shakespeare, even if critics can't figure out what songs by The Clash have to do with the Bard. Craine's idea to create a book that would detail the playwright's life from his childhood home in Stratford-upon-Avon to his time working in London is an excellent way to reach out to those who may not consider themselves fans of the Bard.
"I wanted to identify William as a punk rocker and as someone on the fringes," Craine said this week. Some academics and theatre critics may cringe at such words. The entire Shakespeare festival being staged in the city until May has elements of the unusual and unconventional. But there is something for everyone and Craine's book will appeal to many.
Writing for the Cambridge Now! website, Thomas Hagey remembers cartoonist Muff Mills who died last week:
I remember the first time I met Muff Mills. He had an outwardly crusty disposition. I recall muttering under my breath, "What the heck is his problem?!?" But then, I didn't know the character ... or the character behind the character.
His friends would say to me, "Oh don’t worry, that's just 'Muff'! He really wouldn't hurt a fly." And they were right. He was looking through life with those little round glasses and what he saw was different than anyone else. This is why when someone like Muff moves on to greater things; the people they leave behind really, really miss them. Such was the case on Friday down at the Legion in Galt. His friends and family were missing him; stunned that Muff wasn't there to get them through yet another one of life's dramas.
SECRET ROSES EPISODE IX: CHECKPOINT X-RAY THE SECRET ROSES A serial novel by Patrick Goddard Illustrated by Tim Moerman Designed by Marta Cooper The Secret Salon launches Episode 9 Monday, February 26 8 pm (Doors open at 7:30 pm) MainLine Theatre 3997 Saint-Laurent $5 (includes free copy of book) Hosted by Estelle Rosen
The adventure continues! Patrick Goddard launches episode 9 of his fantasy serial novel, The Secret Roses, at 8 pm on Monday, February 26 at MainLine Theatre (3997 Saint-Laurent).
The Secret Roses tells the story of a group of army brats stuck on a Canadian base in 1980's West Germany. To fight off the boredom of their surroundings, they start a role-playing game in which they play themselves - only as comic book super-heroes.
In Episode 9, our heroes reveal the secret origin of their super-hero names.
The Secret Roses is self-published by Patrick Goddard. In homage to the story's comic-book roots, the novel is serialized in monthly issues. Each issue also contains a "character sheet" from the role-playing game, illustrated by Tim Moerman.
CKUT's Estelle Rosen hosts the evening. Special musical guest Nick Carpenter and Patrick take us underneath the Berlin Wall for a 1980's cabaret history of 20th century Germany. Patrick will read from Episode 9, and the salon topic is "Names". How did you get your name? Did you ever change your name? What's your nickname? What's your secret nickname?...
Doors open at 7:30 pm. Show starts at 8 pm. Admission is $5 and includes a free copy of Episode 7. A 6-issue subscription is available for $15. The Secret Roses is also on sale through www.patricktgoddard.blogspot.com.
Cartoonist Matthew Blackett, whose minicomic/webcomic m@b has been collected in book form, has decided to end his well-liked strip. Blackett is scheduled to wind up a book tour today.
"The lava lamp became a symbol in m@b as a time and space for my character to say or think something poignant," writes Blackett in a letter sent to m@b's various supporters. "The fact that I haven't replaced the light bulb in my real-life lava lamp metaphorically speaks volumes about what kind of importance the comic has in my life nowadays."
Blackett, a prominent Toronto comic artist, writer and indie publisher (he's also the creative/art director at Spacing Magazine, a local public space advocacy publication, has been drawing m@b for almost nine years.
But the creative spark behind the loveable joe-schmo character has fizzled out.
"The spark of inspiration (I got) when I saw someone do something insane or say something off-kilter has dulled and rarely (happens) these days," he writes. "I'd rather play Tetris on my cellphone than try to eavesdrop on the people sitting in front of me on the streetcar."
For loyal fans, all is not lost. Blackett still plans to release that graphic novel he's been promising.
via The Beat comes news that Oddville cartoonist Jay Stephens has sold another tv show. The Secret Saturdays will be produced for the U.S.-based Cartoon Network.
Doc, Drew and Zak Saturday are a family of world-saving adventure scientists called The Secret Saturdays. They live in a hidden base and are part of a network of scientists who protect against all the hidden and terrifying things in this world. To The Saturdays, ordinary folktales aren’t just legends—they are real-life mysteries and adventures. Traveling from the hot Gobi Desert to the icy Marianas Trench, they explore ancient temples and bottomless caves and tangle with twisted villains, including the masked madman V.V. Argost and his half-human/half-giant spider.
Stephens has had previous success with Tutenstein, an NBC cartoon based on a comic book characters he created. The retro-monster stylings that Stephens pioneered in his Land of Nod comic book series (Jetcat, Space Ape) have influenced a generation of animators (Craig McCracken, for one, seems stylistically indebted to Stephens) and it's a good sign that the Cartoon Network is catching up.
via Boing Boing comes more details about the upcoming Rand Holmes celebration that Patrick Rosencranz is helping to organize. It looks to be the most important comics-related event in Canada for 2007, next to this summer's TCAF.
March 17 & 18 at the Lasqueti Community Hall.
Rand Holmes, famous Canadian counter-culture cartoonist and creator of Harold Hedd comics, was laid to rest on Lasqueti Island, B.C., five years ago. Most of his artwork remains undisturbed on the remote island where he spent his last twenty years. His family and friends in the island community now want to share his artistic legacy with the rest of the world during a two-day exhibit on March 17 & 18 at the Lasqueti Community Hall.
Holmes and his wife Martha moved to a homestead in the Inland Passage in 1982 to get away from the rat race and back to the land. Far from his former life as star cartoonist at the Georgia Straight in Vancouver, Holmes continued to produce pen and ink illustrations for comic books and magazines. During his last decade, he began making surreal oil paintings using the old fashioned methods of the great masters. They were slow laborious creations, which took months to complete. He refused to title or describe them, for fear of weakening their visual symbolism. They are now mute testaments to his inner visions.
Some of these and other paintings (still-lifes, landscapes, and scenes of island life) were sold or traded to neighbors as barter for goods or services, but very few have left the island. They will be shown all together for the first time at this Retrospective and Celebration of the Life of Rand Holmes. There will also be on display examples of his comic book pages from Slow Death Funnies, White Lunch Comix, Fog City Comics and Harold Hedd, along with his editorial and political art from the Georgia Straight and Vancouver Star, and collections and foreign editions of his work. It is a national treasure trove of art.
Cartoonist and Mr.Comics mastermind Ty Templeton is interviewed by Jamie Coville for Coville's Clubhouse. Matters discussed: working for Marvel, Steve Gerber, Bongo Comics, Max the Mutt Animation School, DC Comics' policy towards writer/artists, and the nationalist backgrounds of the creators of the Planet of the Apes comic book miniseries:
"EVERY single person working on the book was a hockey playing, French speaking, bacon eating, igloo dweller, like myself."
The Guelph Mercury profiles Richard Comely, one of the creators of Captain Canuck. Comely is teaching a comics course in Brantford and hyping the latest incarnation of his patriotic superhero, a new comic book series begun last Fall, and has some funny things to say:
"Comely admits the superhero's changing persona irritated some readers. 'But I felt that since I'm the writer, I'll do what I want,' he says bluntly.
Comely estimates sales of the 25 issues of Captain Canuck produced since 1975 at 2.3 million across North America.
He says some of his most hard-core fans are Americans, and Canadian expats, who ask him to send Captain Canuck badges that they sew on their coat sleeves. He mails them out and 'hopes they don't get beat up at school.'"
On a related note, Halifax fan-historian Phil Latter has just posted an exhaustive critical history of the character --Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Captain Canuck But Were Afraid to Ask.
BlogTO's regular webcomic feature, WebcomicTO, presents an interview with Toronto's Debbie Ridpath Ohi conducted by Ryan Couldrey. Ohi is the cartoonist behind Will Write for Chocolate, a webcomic about writing, publishing and blogs. Taking the maxim "write what you know" to heart, Ohi has set herself the unenviable task of coming up with topical gags about the life of a freelance writer and aspiring novelist and manages to produce an intelligent strip in a breezy modern style with only the occasional lapse into sub-Guisewite angst. The interview also covers her other cartooning and blogging activities (she did a popular strip about waiting in line to see The Lord of the Rings), as well as various extracurricular activities like being in a band.
Halifax fan and comics historian Phil Latter interviews Canadian cartoonist Claude St. Aubin at Silver Bullet Comics. St. Aubin has been contributing to U.S. mainstream superhero and adventure books for years (and is winding up a run on Penny Farthing Press' The Victorian), but long-time fans may remember his contributions, as Jean-Claude St. Aubin, to the 1970s incarnation of Captain Canuck. Back then, St. Aubin inked George Freeman's pencils and pencilled and inked "Beyond", the lushly-illustrated, well-remembered, early sword-and-sorcery back-up strip in Captain Canuck. A career-spanning interview, of sorts.
Go with me, like good angels, to my end: And, as the long divorce of steel falls on me, Make of your prayers one sweet sacrifice, And lift my soul to Heaven.
According to Heidi at THE BEAT, Dave Sim's longtime companion, friend and background artist has severed his connections with the Aardvark-Vanaheim, the publishing company founded by Sim that is responsible for printing the various Cerebus graphic novels. Gerhard apparently owns 40% of the company and Sim is in the process of buying out his former partner's shares.
T.M. Maple was one of the most widely published comic book letter writers of the 1980s. His real name was Jim Burke and he was, of course, from Canada ("The Mad Maple" was his official name). He also published his own fanzines and contributed to many others: his column "The Canuck Stops Here" was a regular feature of Gene Kehoe's seminal It's a Fanzine. Sadly, T.M. died in 1994 of a heart attack. Over at The Comics Journal Message Board, older readers and fans share memories of him, including a comic strip.
The Hamilton Spectator provides a pair of articles following up on the death last week of Said Rahimi, the Afghan cartoonist who was struck by a train while delivering pizzas in Hamilton. There was a huge turnout of 500 people for a memorial service at Rahimi's mosque yesterday and a fundraising effort has been started for his wife and six children. According to the Spectator, a Canada Trust bank account has been set up and donations can be deposited directly to Hamilton's Barton Street East TD Canada Trust account number 1026339535. Donations can also be made to the Ibrahim Jame Mosque, 678 King St. E. in Hamilton.
Hi all, Salgood Sam here, this time with something of my own. First I've posted some more art from my current work in progress, Therefore Repent! on my flickr site. And I've gotten quite a few visits from taddlecreekmag.com ever since the book was featured in their latest winter issue.
Here's something Jim just posted obout this over on NMK, Check it out!
Said Rahimi, an Afghan-born cartoonist living in Canada, was killed early on the morning of January 15 in Hamilton.
Rahimi had recently emigrated to Canada with his family and was working as a pizza delivery man while studying English and preparing an exhibit of his cartoons. He was killed on the job when his van was hit by a train at a railroad crossing at approximately 1:30 am.
Rahimi was born in Kabul, Afganistan but lived in Iran and Azerbaijan during the reign of the Taliban. He published political cartoons in several Iranian magazines and also submitted cartoons to international contests. His cartoon output and opinions made both countries inhospitable to him and he brought his family to Canada in September 2005. His ambition was to work as a forensic artist.
A funeral was held at a Hamilton mosque on Tuesday and Rahimi was to be buried at Chapel Hill Memorial Gardens in Stoney Creek.
Said (Saeid) Rahimi was 35. He is survived by his wife of 21 years, five daughters and two sons.
I missed this when it was posted a few weeks back: The Torontoist blog reviews Xeric-winning Toronto cartoonist Jeff Lemire's new book, Tales From the Farm. Lemire is also creating a sci-fi strip for U.R. magazine. Very expressive cartooning with lots of bold blacks.
Dan Nadel was the guest this week on Inkstuds, the Vancouver radio show hosted by Robin McConnell. Last week the guest was Dave McCaig, a local comic book colourist. You can hear podcasts of the show here.
The Toronto Star picks up on Lynn Johnston's plan to continue with a hybrid zombie form of her popular For Better or For Worse strip. The Comics Reporter's Tom Spurgeon is quoted:
Internet chat rooms and discussion groups continue to buzz with opinions about the strip, particularly about the romantic future of Elizabeth Patterson, who has three suitors: former high school boyfriend Anthony, new love interest Paul, a policeman, and dark horse Warren, a helicopter pilot.
"I think it's great that a comic strip can have that reach and that effectiveness," said Tom Spurgeon, executive editor of The Comics Reporter.
"That really speaks to the kind of affection people have for the strip and the skill with which (Johnston) has developed her setting and characters over the years," he said.
Hamilton Spectator policart Graeme MacKay won a Citation of Excellence from the United Nations Correspondents Association Ranan Lurie Political Cartoon Awards. The Citation, for a cartoon published last July on the crisis in Palestine and Israel, is not to be confused with the $10,000 first prize (or second or third).
The big news in the Canadian and International comic strip world is that Lynn Johnston has decided to keep producing new For Better or for Worse strips after the previously announced date for the strip to end.
As reported in Editor and Publisher (link courtesy of Tom Spurgeon) yesterday, the strip will remain in papers as a hybrid, a combination of new framing sequences and classic strips from the past 28 years.
Johnston had previously complained of the grind of researching and drawing a daily strip for over a quarter century and had announced she would be ending the strip over the next year after winding up her current continuity with the intention of working on other projects and taking a few trips (and maybe returning to the characters off and on in other formats).
According to E&P:
In the hybrid, many previously published "FBorFW" strips and scenes will be reprinted. The jumping-off point for those comics (which could include some redrawn and recolorized content) might be Michael looking at old photos or scrapbooks.
Johnston will also offer a certain amount of new material about Michael; his sisters, Elizabeth and April; his parents, Elly and John; and various other major and supporting characters. But one of the signature elements of "FBorFW" — the gradual aging of its cast — will come to a halt. "What I'd like to do is freeze the characters at the ages they are now," said Johnston, who turns 60 this May. "No people will grow older. No dogs will grow older and pass away."
While the move may please many longtime fans, many other young cartoonists who may had been anticipating the massive hole in the daily comics page worldwide, with an eye towards greater syndication for their own strips, will now be disappointed. Blog reactions to this "rerun" news have been slow in coming out but Sequential will keep you posted.
Vancouver's Xtra West profiles local cartoonist Tyler Dorchester and his comic strip chronicle of queer life, The Brotherhood:
"In fact, he reserves his sharpest criticism for the body conformity and materialism pressures of the queer party scene.
'I think our culture has been hijacked by circuit boys,' he says. 'The ante just seems to go up and up. Now you need to be uncut, have a big dick, and have plastic surgery. But, I like an unshaved boy in a vintage tee.'
The Brotherhood, which premiered in Xtra West in October of 2005, is the story of a tight clique of five very different gay Vancouver guys as they navigate through some very bizarre adventures. As well as the mundane, these boys occasionally bump into Martians, religious zealots, Jesus Christ and even the Grim Reaper. They've toured Vancouver's West End, deepest darkest Alberta, and the 10th circle of hell--the one for damned homophobes."
Publisher's Weekly interviews Kitchener's Svetlana Chmakova, who Johana Draper Carlson calls "among the best known non-Japanese manga-ka." The short talk covers the artist's love of romantic comedies and range of experiences with manga.
PWCW: You seem more professionally experienced than many of those creators, having Web comics, how-to-draw books, animation, toy design and RPG manuals on your resume. Has that affected your experience with Tokyopop?
SC: My credentials actually sound much more impressive than they really are; they were just random freelance jobs here and there. I was still very much a newbie when Tokyopop found me. The fact that I was slightly more experienced than some of my fellow new creators probably made it easier for me to learn on the job, but it was still quite challenging to learn how to write and draw a full-length graphic novel in several months.
The Winnipeg Sun profiles Greg Waller whose new comic book series Magnitude is being published by San Diego, California's Ape Entertainment. The comic has lots of local colour:
His all-ages series is filled with references to or cameos of the city's recognizable personalities, landmarks, and businesses.
"I'm proud of being from Winnipeg," said Waller, 31, who lives in North Kildonan. "It's my way of giving something back to the city, I guess."
Friend Adrienne Batra, provincial director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, is given a starring role as the inspiration and likeness for the character Gen. Batra.
"I'm very excited and honoured Greg chose my name to represent one of his characters," Batra said. "She is so integral in helping Magnitude."
Mayor Sam Katz, Sun city editor Kathleen Martens, and Coun. Russ Wyatt also make cameos.
Transcona City's landscape is dotted with images of Esplanade Riel, Fort Garry Hotel, and Canad Inns Stadium.
Logger Cartoonist Created one of Canada's First Graphic Novels
Gilbert Joseph (Bus) Griffiths, a cartoonist, logger and fisherman, died of prostate cancer in Comox, B.C., on Sept. 25, 2006. Griffiths was best known as the creator of Now You're Logging, a 119-page graphic novel about the 1930s logging industry in BC.
Born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Griffiths was raised in British Columbia, first in Penicton and then in Burnaby. As a teenager he was interested in cartooning but was unsuccessful in finding work in the newspaper field. As a young adult he illustrated catalogues for Massey-Harris but left that job to work as a logger during the 1930s Depression.
Giffiths specialized as a faller, a logger tasked with dropping trees so that they do not cause damage to or become entangled with neigbouring trees. By his own account, Griffiths was very good at his job and loved every aspect of the industry, even though it was seasonal and prone to lay-offs, especially during the 1930s. His logging career began in the Fraser Valley and the Mainland coast of BC, but he eventually migrated to Vancouver Island.
After a decade in the bush, Griffiths married his wife Maragaret in 1940. He also managed to find jobs as a cartoonist, creating work in the 1940s for Vancouver's Maple Leaf publishing, one of the short lived Canadian comics publishers that sprang up during World War II. At the same time, he produced an 8-page children's comic book about logging for the BC government. An editor for BC Lumberman magazine encouraged Griffiths to submit strips about logging to the magazine --a project that would eventually lead to the creation of a much longer work.
Giffiths retired from logging in 1961 and began working as a fisherman out of Fanny Bay, where he had moved in 1944.
In 1972, at the urging of his wife, and using her as a model, Griffiths began working on a longer comic book about logging in his spare time. This was published in 1978 by Harbour Press as Now You're Logging.
The book concerns the adventures of two young loggers in the 1930s who learn the ropes from an older camp-boss. Full of period detail, Now You're Logging is almost a primer on the basics of the business from the days before the advent of the chainsaw, and contains many lengthy explanations of the techniques and tools of the trade. Graphically, the book looks something like a cross between a textbook and a love story illustrated by a heterosexual Tom of Finland. Griffiths cartooning combines muscular figures with tightly rendered machines and landscapes to charming effect.
Shawn Conner, writing in the Comics Journal in 1996, characterized the book as "a true anomaly: written and drawn by a man with decades of experience in the woods, it's a book with no clear antecedent, more intent on documenting a way of life than telling a story (though it does that, too)," noting that, "it might just change your perception of what comics are, what they can do, and why we need them."
Indeed, although published during the same period that U.S. based cartoonists were beginning to refer to their long-form comics as graphic novels, Griffith's book seems totally divorced from the world of North American comics of the time. In this sense it has more in common with other sui generis graphic novels of the past, such as The Four Immigants Manga or Frans Masereel's woodcut novels.
Now You're Logging went through 3 printings but is now out of print. In later years Griffiths continued to pursue artistic endeavours: he illustrated a few other books about BC subjects and several of his oil painting hang in local museums. At the end of his life he was preparing a series of short prose stories about his logging career.
According to Grant Shilling's Globe and Mail obituary, Griffiths "was a small man with a big chest, a lovely lilt in his voice and a twinkle in his eye. He was built more like Popeye, with well-developed forearms grown strong from working a saw and an axe for a living."
Griffiths experienced a stroke in 2003 and had been living under extended care since then. He is survived by his wife Margaret, two sons, five grandchildren and three great grandchildren. A memorial service was held October 21.
Shawn Connor, "Beyond the Grid, Later, up in the woods...," The Comics Journal, 187 (May 1996), 111-2. (the same issue also includes an interview with Giffiths and samples of his work)
Tom Spurgeon interviews Montreal's Joe Ollman about This Will All End in Tears, possibly the best English-language comic published in Canada in 2006.
"Thematically. it seems I like sad stories. I guess, but I always hope that they are tinged with a sense of humor so they are not mere poe-faced saddy-sad goth-kid bullshit. I hope. Life's never that simple; you can be on top of the world and win the Pulitzer Prize and find the perfect mate or lose one and at the same time cancer could be quietly eating away your colon like a carnivorous little caterpillar. At the same time, even in the most depressed, drunken, suicidal moments of your life, there are those funny moments that intrude and almost make you pissed for disrupting the flow of your beautiful sad-on."
Does anyone have any book reviews, events, or press releases about Canadian comics today? No? Okay then, you asked for it:
What does everyone's second-favourite syndicated Canadian strip cartoonist have on the table for the holidays?
"Between Friends" comics creator and cartoonist Sandra Bell-Lundy mails out greeting cards, has dinner with her girlfriends, even organizes a tobogganing party at her home in Welland, Ontario.
Every year she helps plan the annual Christmas party for the Canada Chapter of the National Cartoonists Society, which she chairs.
It's important, she said, for cartoonists to connect face to face, rather than through phone calls and e-mail.
"The nature of this business is that we are far-flung and don't get to see each other often," said Bell-Lundy, 48 and married with two kids.
"Keeping in touch is an obligation ... but it's a good obligation because it forces you to connect with people," she added. "Time has a way of passing so quickly when you are busy. I enjoy the effort after I have made it."
Dave Sim covers the Ragmop Party in Toronto last week. The event was a booklaucnh for Rob Walton's Ragmop and Udon comics' Jim Zubkavich's Makeshift Miracle --both self-published collections. Jim's friend Matt also reports on the event, as does Rob Walton himself --who also mentions the appearance of Sim's "cartoon sidekick, Chester Brown".
Jamie Coville interviews Leon from Toronto's Hairy Tarantula comic book store for the Coville's Clubhouse feature at Collector Times:
Jamie:
You've accumulated a *lot* of books, mainly manga. Is there a method to your madness of having that much manga in stock?
Leon:
The method entails madness - it just happens when you're dedicated to keeping everything in stock for as long as possible. People bringing books in are tripping over people taking books out, and we duck and weave the restocks onto the shelves as soon as we can.
The madness is my simple retail philosophy, which I will share free of charge (because knowing is only half the battle): A customer cannot buy that which is not available for sale.
Somewhere, a Warner Brothers lawyer is firing up his Cease and Desist template:
Grade seven students launch their own comic book - Shazaam!
TORONTO, Nov. 29 /CNW/ - Tonight, students of Second Street Junior Middle School officially launched Shazaam!, a comic book of their own creation. Freeze DNA, a local graphic design company, delivered in-class training at the school that focused on art techniques, creativity, literacy and communication skills. Through group dynamics and team building, students created their own story and storyboard. Each student then completed one page of the comic book. The book has been professionally printed and each student, homeroom teacher, and the school librarian will receive a full colour copy. Shazaam! is a joint partnership between the City of Toronto, the Lakeshore Community Partnership, Toronto District School Board, Lakeshore Arts and Humber College. The comic book format offers an open, inclusive method to engage the students in drawing, design and writing while enabling their teachers to adhere to the curriculum and to reach out to youth who may be struggling and give them an alternative way of expressing themselves. "This is an opportunity for young people to discover their artistic and writing talents and to develop them in a fun and non-academic manner. It also offers students a chance to be mentored by professionals in the comic book business," said Toby Fletcher, president of the Lakeshore Community Partnership. Shazaam! is the first step in a pilot program that will grow every year to include the next grade and extend into high school, giving students a unique opportunity to explore career choices in art and graphic design at the post secondary level. "Through this creative process the participants have developed skills not only in making art, but also in leadership, co-operation and personal empowerment," said Nadira Pattison, Manager, Arts Services, Toronto Culture. "They will be able to take the skills they have learned into the future. They have discovered a new vehicle with which to express themselves, in a medium where anything is possible."
In a press release from the International Cartoonists Rights Network, Nik Kowsar, the exiled Iranian cartoonist who now lives in Canada, talks about Mana Neyestani, another Iranian cartoonist who has just left Iran and is looking for a new home:
Neyestani's months-long search for an appropriate visa has been followed by his cartooning colleagues and they are alarmed that UNHCR seems to be his last resort. "Western countries who claim to have enlightened policies in support of freedom of expression like to have their cake and eat it, too," said Nik Kowsar, a cartoonist who encountered Iranian protesters in 2000 due to one of his cartoons. He, too, fled Iran and now lives in Canada. "They position themselves as supporting freedom of expression, but now make achieving asylum almost impossible for the individual who is at risk for exercising it." Kowsar serves on the board of directors of Cartoonists Rights Network, International.
1. Scott Chantler is profiled in the Toronto Star about his Northwest Passage series and has a few words to say about the evolution of the graphic novel:
"There's a real movement within the comics medium into that sort of middle ground, between corporate superhero comics and the independent artsy comics that veer toward mopey autobiographies," says Chantler. "That whole middle ground has been largely unexplored. The rise of the graphic novel format in the last couple of years has created an opportunity for people like myself and these others to stake out that middle ground."
Chantler was scheduled to be at the Triple Threat event in Toronto last night. The Star hypes the event and ABC news has a piece on female manga fans that quotes Svetlana Chmakova.
2. Expozine
In addition to Jack Ruttan's slide show that Max linked to yesterday:
The Victoria BC Victoria news profiles local cartoonist Robin Crossman who has a show on at a local coffee house. Crossman has worked in animation and for Sesame Street and is currently working on a Gary-Larson-style strip, apparently.
"more than 30 local artists are hoping to sell all the art they've made for the new exhibition Design Emporium at SAW Gallery's annual fundraising garage sale dubbed Item.
The exhibition was originally created to draw attention to the ingenuity of the local arts community with designers, architects, fashionistas, photographers and illustrators coming up with redesigns of everyday objects.
But when curator Stefan St-Laurent saw the mind-boggling imagination and productivity at work, he also saw a chance for Item to raise more money for the gallery.
So now, patrons will be able to buy one-of-a-kind artifacts -- costing between $1-$1,000 with the majority falling in the $50-$100 range -- by local notables such as architect Douglas Cardinal, illustrator Dave Cooper, cartoonist Howie Tsui and 2006 Sobey Art Award-winner Annie Pootoogook."
In the wake of the Harper government's announced plans to implement a version of secret U.S. no-fly lists --lists of suspected terrorists who are not allowed on planes-- comes an update on Canadian editorial cartoonist Shahid Mahmood's efforts to find out why he is on a U.S. list and why Canadian airlines seem to be taking their cues from foreign governments.
The oronto Star: "Shahid Mahmood is still awaiting an answer as to why he was denied a ticket for an Air Canada flight.
Despite his tenacity, an impressive array of correspondence from government agencies and an appearance in Parliament, Mahmood is really no close
Stumble It!
