Labels: comic strips, political cartooning, webcomics

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• Another obit for Robert Bierman, the political cartoonist who passed away April 16.

• The Comic Book Bin chronicles the move from print to web by cartoonist Karl Kerschl.

• Ivan Anchukov of Voronezh, Russia, won the 8th Annual International Competition for Editorial Cartoonists from among 700 cartoons submitted from 40 countries, in an award handed out in Ottawa May 2nd in honour of International Press Freedom day (May 3).
  

• The comics critics: "Jog" tackles Dave Sim's Glamourpuss comic while Tom Spurgeon casts a wide net over Michel Rabagliati's graphic novel Paul Goes Fishing.

• Chris Butcher wants your help in i.d.-ing the hottest obscure manga.

• The second volume in the Cosmos Cafe album series by Quebec bedeist Tristan Demers in now out.

• Newsarama interviews graphic novelist Faith Erin Hicks.

Labels: awards, censorship, graphic novels, links, political cartooning

Labels: obituaries, political cartooning

• Zombies Calling creator Faith Erin Hicks is interviewed here.

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

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

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

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

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

Labels: censorship, legal news, political cartooning, publishing

As journalists left the Halifax Daily News, several said they're worried a free newspaper aimed at commuters will mean a decline in the city's journalism.

Michael de Adder, an award-winning cartoonist for the newspaper, said "it doesn't sound like it (Metro) can serve the population as well as a daily newspaper can or two daily newspapers can."

De Adder said cartoonists across the country are starting to wonder about their craft.

"What is the future? It looks pretty bleak today," he said.

Labels: media monopolies, Nova Scotia, political cartooning, publishing

Labels: canadians abroad, illustration, political cartooning

Labels: floppies, interweb, pod casts, political cartooning

"The Price of Freedom" McLaughlin Senior Common Room, 140 McLaughlin College, York University. (www.yorku.ca) Noon. Iranian cartoonist and journalist Nik Kowsar will give a talk on "The Price of Freedom of Expression," as part of the series McLaughlin College Winter Term Lunch Talks 2008.

Labels: events, political cartooning, real world

Labels: censorship, legal news, political cartooning, publishing

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The choice to use comics was equally easy. "How do we make people who maybe don’t read the financial section of the newspapers aware of Canada's role in the mining industry around the world?" Widgington says of his decision. "It seemed like the perfect opportunity; to get some comics and some journalism together, and see what happened."

The result, released in December, is Extraction! Comix Reportage, an investigative graphic novel that reveals the dark side of the Canadian mining industry both internationally, in India and Guatemala, and at home in northern Quebec and Alberta's controversial oil sands.

Labels: cartoon reportage, comics history, interviews, political cartooning

• Western Standard ex-publisher Ezra Levant goes before the Alberta Human Rights Commission today to "defend his former magazine's 2006 publication of a series of Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad," according to this article from the Calgary Herald. This court (really an interview to determine if the charge warrants a full hearing) is in session because the head of Islamic Supreme Council of Canada filed a complaint about the cartoons.


• No Bookstores for Sim: Dave Sim talks about his new comic book series Glamourpuss, insisting "that brick-and-mortar comic book stores be the only environments to profit from my work.

• Jog the Blog on Nog a Dod

• Speaking of Marc Bell, read all about how the Inkstuds gang is celebrating their 2nd anniversary with art shows and jams.

• Shuffleboil interviews Jeff Lemire about his graphic novel Essex County 2: Ghost Stories.

• As Kevin Boyd notes, the first draft of a list of all eligible artists, writers, and cartoonists who produced work in 2007 is up at the Shuster Awards site. Any additions should be emailed to them pronto.

• Rachelle Goguen's Best of 2007 list

• Madeline Ashby explains why manga is better than U.S. superhero comics

Labels: censorship, comics retailers, events, graphic novels, manga, political cartooning, U.S. superhero franchises

• Convention promoter and blogger Kevin Boyd offers up his list of the top graphic novels of 2007. He provides 30 mostly superhero titles which he winnows down to a top 10.

• Robin Bougie posts his top 10 graphic novels of 2007, in response to that lame Time magazine list. And Bougie's list is pretty good!

• Chris Butcher takes a stab at Dirk Deppey-style linkblogging, including pointers to some "best-of" lists and sneak peaks of Kean Soo comics. As well, Butcher has photos from the Faith Erin Hicks/Svetlana Chmakova signing at the Beguiling, including a great snap of the snow-bound front entrance to the store.

• Maclean's profiles several programs devoted to teaching comics at the university level.

• CBC reports on a new Fantastic Four comic created for the Puerto Rican market. They get it wron, however, when they claim that the franchise is "en espagnol for first time."

• Greg Roch of Comics Readers in Regina reports on sales of gonorrhea in his shop.

• Eye Weekly's Sasha gives the nod to Steve MacIsaac's comics in a Best of 2007 round-up.

• The Tyee reports on cartoonists Dan Murphy and Bob Krieger being dumped by the Vancouver Province newspaper:

Murphy and Krieger were told by Province management that their cartoons would no longer be regularly published on the editorial pages of The Province, they were offered other positions at the newspaper as well as the option of leaving the employ of The Province with buy-out payments.

Labels: blogosphere, comics retailers, graphic novels, political cartooning, U.S. superhero franchises

• Writing for Xtra, Chris Butcher provides a primer on Yaoi tranlations and OEL Yaoi available to North American readers.

• Leroy Douresseaux reviews Jeff Lemire's Essex County 2 for Comic Book Bin.

• Man who blocked Vancouver bridge dressed as superhero in 2004 loses appeal for appeal.

• The National Post's policart Gary Clement snags a top 10 berth on the Time magazine list of best editorial cartoons of 2007. It's actually a sequential gag, to boot.

• Writing for Boston's Edge magazine, Steve Stiffler provides an exhaustive overview of the problems with Canada Customs vis a vis comics: "A far more insidious quality of life incursion is being perpetrated by our neighbors to the north. Yes, the "friendly giant" of Canada has not been so friendly--or at least gay-friendly--of late.

Labels: blogosphere, censorship, graphic novels, manga, political cartooning, reviews

At a press conference Tuesday morning at the law offices of Bakerlaw, at Christie and Dupont streets, Mahmood and his lawyer Nicole Chrolavicius, announced they would be filing a human rights complaint against Air Canada over the country's unofficial No-Fly list.

The complaint was being lodged with the Canadian Human Rights Commission, with support from the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group, the Canadian Arab Federation, the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations and local MP Peggy Nash (Parkdale-High Park).

Mahmood, a High Park area resident, is a Canadian citizen, who is also a Muslim. He and his wife were headed to a wedding in May three years ago and wanted to take a connecting Air Canada flight from Vancouver to Victoria - they had flown from Toronto to Vancouver on a Jetsgo flight and had no problems.

"In the Vancouver airport, immediately after processing our credit card payment and being reassured of the availability of seats, I was told that I would not be allowed to board the flight because my name was 'flagged' in the system," Mahmood told reporters.

Air Canada's corporate office in Montreal told their Vancouver desk staff that evening that Mahmood was not to board any Air Canada flights the following day. His wife however, Chiliean-born and non-Muslim was told she was free to board and travel onwards to Victoria.

"I was told that in the future, I would always be asked to show a Canadian passport at check-in," Mahmood said. "We ended up renting a hotel and then a car and driving to Victoria the following day just in time for the wedding."

The complaint, according to Chrolavicius, would be filed by fax and by mail. The Canadian Human Rights Commission will then decide whether to hear the complaint and follow up with an investigation.

Mahmood was shocked to find out he couldn't board that flight, especially when he provided the appropriate identification and arrived for the trip in plenty of time.

"The idea that my name was somehow 'flagged' in the security system was extremely unnerving," he said. "I am just as in the dark, with no tangible answers from Air Canada now as I was three years ago."

Mahmood says he wonders if this would have happened if he wasn't Muslim. He also has questions about how these lists are created and what he needs to do to remove himself from them.

In a letter to Nash on May 17, 2007, Air Canada did acknowledge that there was some kind of list in existence, said Chrolavicius. Nash said she met Mahmood back in 2004 and when she found out what had happened, she got in touch with Vancouver International Airport.

"They said there is a list, that there is a procedure that if a name is flagged, a supervisor must be called," Nash told The Villager.

According to Gale Paul, a privacy officer with Air Canada's Law Branch, in the letter to Nash, "Air Canada does not, and did not, practice racial profiling... Passenger bookings are automatically flagged if the name of a passenger is a close match to a name appearing on a security list."

Labels: political cartooning, real world, Shahid Mahmood

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.

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.'"

Labels: events, graphic novels, links, misc, political cartooning, reviews

Labels: obituaries, political cartooning

Soop used humor to point out social ills and to suggest things needed to be changed. From the time of his youth Soop lived with muscular dystrophy. As his disease progressed Soop focused less on journalism and became more of an activist in the aboriginal disabilities community and was awarded a Meritorious Service Medal posthumously in 2001.

Labels: events, exhibits, political cartooning

Over 200 people attended the event on Saturday June 23rd to honour the life of Shiragha Rahimi, celebrate his cartoons, and raise funds for the post-secondary education of the seven children he left behind when he was killed in a car accident in January. Early estimates suggest the event raised over $10,000.

Labels: events, political cartooning

In fact, this is quite a touchy subject in Canada. Quebec-s nationalist movement has long been tainted with anti-Semitism. And Quebec is, without question, the most anti-Israeli and most anti-American of the Canadian provinces, earning it the nickname "Quebecistan." The anti-Semitic French comedian Dieudonne, for example, is hugely popular in Quebec (far more so than in France), invited to mainstream comedy festivals and onto publicly-funded radio, where he receives a sympathetic welcome.

This is not to say there is no anti-Semitism elsewhere in Canada. But were such cartoons to appear in the Globe and Mail (a national paper out of Toronto) or the Calgary Herald or Vancouver Sun, all hell would break loose.

More intellectually lazy still, some have tried to draw a parallel with the Danish Mohammed cartoons, stating that if one encouraged their publication, one should rejoice at these cartoons. I am not suggesting that these cartoons should not have run. Personally, I find them over the line, but each editorial page should decide such things for themselves. It should also be noted that Le Devoir was, to its credit, the only mainstream publication in Canada to run (one of) the Danish cartoons. I did believe the Danish cartoons should be published -- but I took no delight in the cartoons themselves, or the reaction they engendered. And that is where a more accurate comparison can be made.

So far, no one in Quebec's Jewish community -- or any Jewish community anywhere – has rioted, burned any embassies, threatened beheadings or caused the cartoonists in question to go into perpetual hiding.

Labels: political cartooning

Labels: links, political cartooning

Labels: political cartooning

The tragic death of a father who left seven children and a wife behind is still affecting many lives months later.

Said Shiraga Rahimi, a talented political cartoonist, was driving home one night in late January, when a train struck his van. Mr. Rahimi was killed instantly. He was delivering pizza to help support his family.

As the main source of income for his family, Mr. Rahimi's death has left his children and wife struggling to get by.

The community has reached out to this family with fundraisers to benefit his children and wife.

On June 23, Hamilton art gallery The Pearl Company is holding Cartoon Speak from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. where 40 of Mr. Rahimi's political cartoons will be on display.

CBC radio host Jeff Goodes will host the event.

Three renowned political cartoonists have been invited to speak to the crowd.

Terry Mosher from the Montreal Gazette, Brian Gable from the Globe and Mail and Graeme MacKay from the Hamilton Spectator will make a public address at 8 p.m. that evening.



Tickets are $30 and can be bought at The Hamilton Spectator, Bryan Prince Bookseller, Arts Hamilton Jackson Square, The Carnegie Gallery, La Jardinere Locke Street, OPIRG McMaster University, and The Immigrant Cultural & Art Association.

The Pearl Company is located at 16 Steven St.

For more information, email cartoonsspeak@gmail.com or call (905) 524-0606.

Labels: charities, events, political cartooning

In total, the Council for Canadian Unity and Option Canada received $10.9-million from Heritage Canada between the PQ's arrival in power in 1994 and the referendum. Most was spent in the run-up to the official referendum campaign, which was not illegal.

Among the acceptable federal expenses noted by Mr. Grenier was $160,500 for 30,000 copies of the book Dear Canada/Cher Canada, by the late cartoonist Ben Wicks, presumably intended to win the hearts of wavering Quebecers.

Labels: links, political cartooning, real world

Labels: charities, events, political cartooning

On a spring morning spilling with sunshine, a group of Muff Mills' friends gather at Danny's barbershop in Cambridge to remember the artist.

Muff was a real character, a guy who was so interested in people he collected friends like a child collects wild flowers: each valued for its beauty and uniqueness.

"He had that ability to make you feel you were the only one, that you were very special . . . (from) babies up to seniors," said friend Shirley Murdoch. "When anyone met him, you'd never forget him."

Labels: political cartooning

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Dave acquired Albert's collection of old photographs and other items about seven years ago when his uncle moved into a senior citizens' home. There would have been no room at the home to store the many boxes, so Dave decided to bring them to his house in St. John's for safekeeping until a decision was made about what to do with it.

However, Dave is now in the process of downsizing and will not have room for the collection, so decided the local heritage society was the best place for Albert's visual history of Grand Falls-Windsor.

Labels: comics history, political cartooning