Tuesday, March 16, 2010  
Daniel Clowes Presents: WILSON, official TCAF 2010 Kick-Off Event

:: Posted by max @ 3/16/2010 02:44:00 AM
Daniel Clowes

presents

WILSON


Friday, May 7th, 2010 @ 7PM
The Bram & Bluma Appel Salon, Toronto Reference Library, 789 Yonge Street
Free Tickets via: http://danclowes.eventbrite.com/
Facebook Event page

Presented by Toronto Public Library, Toronto Comic Arts Festival, and Drawn & Quarterly

Daniel Clowes will kick off the 2010 Toronto Comic Arts Festival in style with the presentation of his new graphic novel WILSON, published by premiere Canadian publisher Drawn & Quarterly. WILSON is hotly anticipated by graphic novel fans worldwide and Clowes’ appearance at TCAF will make this one of the most eagerly anticipated comics events of the year. Clowes will present on WILSON, and be interviewed on stage.

Copies of WILSON as well as much of Clowes' back-catalogue will be available for purchase on site. A signing by Clowes will follow the event. For more information please visit http://www.torontocomics.com.

Event begins at 7pm sharp. Doors open at 6pm. No admission after 7:30pm.

Strict limit of 2 tickets per registrant enforced. Photo ID will be required to pick up tickets at the door.

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   Friday, March 12, 2010  
6th annual Doug Wright Awards awards @ TCAF!

:: Posted by max @ 3/12/2010 07:10:00 AM
George Sprott, 
and Aboriginal manga 
lead nominations 
for the 2010.


March 12, 2010 Toronto -- Running the gamut from the acclaimed to the unconventional, the 15 finalists for this year's Doug Wright Awards were announced today in Toronto.

Hand-picked by an esteemed panel of comics experts, the 2010 finalists represent the finest, most thought-provoking work produced by Canada's vibrant comics community.   

The shortlist contains works that explore diverse subjects, from the legendary life of Kasper Hauser and the fictional life (and death) of a fading TV host, and spans a range of formats, from wordless lino-cuts graphic novels to "manga" inspired by Western Canadian Haida mythology.

The Doug Wright Awards finalists for Best Book are:

Back + Forth by Marta Chudolinska (The Porcupine's Quill)
George Sprott: (1894-1975) by Seth (Drawn and Quarterly)
Hot Potatoe by Marc Bell (Drawn and Quarterly)
Kaspar by Diane Obomsawin (Drawn and Quarterly)
Red: A Haida Manga by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas (Douglas and McIntyre)

The Doug Wright Awards finalists for Best Emerging Talent are:

Adam Bourret I'm Crazy
Michael DeForge Lose #1 (Koyama Press), Cold Heat Special #7 (Picturebox)
Pascal Girard Nicolas (Drawn and Quarterly)
John Martz It's Snowing Outside. We Should Go For a Walk.
Sully The Hipless Boy (Conundrum Press)

The finalists for the 2010 Pigskin Peters Award (for unconventional, "nominally-narrative" comics) are:

Bebete 
Simon Bosse (L'Oie de Cravan)
Dirty Dishes by Amy Lockhart (Drawn and Quarterly)
Hot Potatoe by Marc Bell (Drawn and Quarterly)
The Collected Doug Wright Volume One by Doug Wright (Drawn and Quarterly)

Founded in 2004 (in a dimly lit Toronto bar) to celebrate the finest in English-language comics and graphic novels, The Doug Wright Awards have since evolved into one of North America's foremost comics awards and one of its most anticipated events.

Wright Awards finalists defy easy categorization, and include past and present masters of the form and off-the-beaten-path newcomers alike, all vying for one of the most unique and coveted trophies in comics.

This year's nominees were chosen by a five-member panel who chose from works released in the 2009 calendar year. The panel included: comics historian and author Jeet Heer; filmmaker Jerry Ciccoritticartoonist Chester BrownWalrus comics blogger Sean Rogers, and; writer and Sequential.ca publisher Bryan Munn.

The winners are chosen by a jury that includes cartoonists, writers, actors, directors, musicians and, on occasion, politicians.

A featured event of the Toronto Comics Arts Festival (TCAF), the 2010 Doug Wright Awards ceremony will take place on Sat. May 8, at 7 pm at the Toronto Reference Library's new Bram & Bluma Appel Salon.  


For more information, please contact:

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   Wednesday, February 17, 2010  
Interview with Brad Mackay, Doug Wright Awards Co-founder

:: Posted by Dave Howard @ 2/17/2010 10:42:00 AM
Here's an interview with Doug Wright Awards co-founder Brad Mackay, about the inspiration behind the award, how it came about, and some general ideas on the current state of comics.

http://tinyurl.com/y8fxnuo

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   Friday, August 21, 2009  
Comics and Graphic Novels @ The Word On The Street

:: Posted by max @ 8/21/2009 09:49:00 PM

We're proud at Sequential, to be participating in some small way to this years events in Toronto! At the invitation of TCAF, we're co-sponsoring two panels on the program...
Link- The Toronto Comic Arts Festival is proud to once-again be partnering with Canada's national book festival, The Word On The Street, to provide a full day of programming for fans and practitioners of comics and graphic novels. Designed to provide material for the comics neophyte AND the comics hardcore, the comics and graphic novel tent will feature something for everyone!

The Beguiling will once-again be exhibiting at WOTS, and a number of other graphic novel creators will be set up around the Festival and at The Beguiling, Drawn & Quarterly, and Comics & Graphic Novels tents. Look for more details closer to the date!

I've got a bit more reading up to do myself to bone up for this. Also wanted to post my own reading list soon and make sure I've read all the panelists work myself!

There's a really full list of events centered around this blog's favorite bound media, the full WOTS event schedule is on the site here. But Chris from The Bugiling has fuller descriptions posted for the comic's events here, if i may highlight two of them in particular....
3:00 - 4:00 :: Sequential Presents: Oh, Canada. Surveying the Landscape of Canadian Comics
What does it mean to be a Canadian graphic novelist?
What is the state of Canadian comics & graphic novels,
and what is its future?
Just what makes a comic Canadian anyway?*
Join Bryan Munn and Salgood Sam, editors of Sequential, the Canadian comics, news and culture blog as they discusses the state of Canadian comics. Joining them will be representatives of Canada's dual national cartooning awards, Brad Mackay and Jeet Heer from The Doug Wright Awards and Kevin Boyd from The Joe Shuster Awards, as well as a few as yet unnamed award-winning Canadian comics creators.
Sure to be a lively discussion!
*{ed: probably taking the middle two Q: more seriously as topics - lots there to discuss - and have a laugh at the other two topic's expense, yeah?}

4:00 - 5:00 :: Sequential Presents: Three New Comics Set in Canada
Following the discussion of the state of Canadian graphic novels, Sequential - who thinks repeating full tittles get's a bit winded :) - will be presenting readings featuring three new graphic novels set in Canada! New books, woot!
One story is published on the Internet, one published by an American publisher and even one published in Canada! Uh...yeah...psst, what's that mean exactly guys? Anyways i do know these folks and we're talking about some great work. Top drawer panelologists, paneling about their panels, they is! I've been watching too much Mighty Boosh this summer....
Willow Dawson, 100 Mile House; Jeff Lemire, Essex County; and Evan Munday, Quarter-Life Crisis. All three will be giving readings of their work and if there's time talk a bit about it. Should be a nice round.
That's really just a small part of what's planed for the day, there are 8 presentations for the whole. Here's hoping i don't play the total burk. :) Bryan and I will be moderating these two. I'll attempt to record them as well for posting here the same day if i can.

For the other WOTS events it seems not as much had been planed specifically for Comics, The Halifax WOTS Graphic Novel listing's are not up yet but they say
"We promise to entertain adults and youth alike with panel discussions by graphic novelists. Aimed primarily at 12 years and older."
So that sounds promising. I'll check up with some folks i know there and see what's happening.

In BC the Vancover fest will be holding the comix portion of the events undergrount, at The Word Under The Street. "Local alternative comic book artists and 'zines. Including exhibitors, events, readings, and presentations. Inside the Library, Alice McKay Room downstairs"


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   Friday, June 19, 2009  
TCAF Goes Annual!

:: Posted by Bryan @ 6/19/2009 10:50:00 AM
In an email wrap-up, Toronto Comic Art Festival director and co-founder Chris Butcher has confirmed the rumors and announced that the festival will now be an annual event!

The next TCAF is less than a year away now, scheduled for early May 2010 in the same location as the 2009 show!

Quote:beguiling.com
"That's right, the next Toronto Comic Arts Festival will be held Saturday May 8th and Sunday May 9th, 2010, at the Toronto Reference Library. YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST. And yes, we know that's Mother's Day. All of the cool moms read comics.

What, so soon, you ask? Following up on feedback from our partners, our guests, our staff, and attendees, we've decided to build on the incredible momentum of having a new home and incredibly supportive presenting sponsor in Toronto Public Library, and produce our first annual show. This is something of an experiment for us, and I can't say for sure that we're "going annual" with the event, but we feel that a 2010 event is the best course of action to ensure that TCAF stays a fun, vital, and prominent festival both within the city of Toronto and in the larger comics community. That's around the corner so we'll be running a tight ship, and further details about TCAF 2010 (including exhibitor application & information) will be released later this summer."

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   Thursday, May 28, 2009  
Seth at TCAF from flickr by "the doodlers"

:: Posted by max @ 5/28/2009 03:13:00 PM

An apropriately pondering moment with the man from Inkwell's End.

Thought i'd share this, nice catch by Scriptwriter/Director (John) and Storyboard Artist/Director (Arna), of DancingMonkeys.com

They have a lot of photos from the festival they've been posting on in their stream for the last few days.

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   Monday, May 18, 2009  
More TCAF audio | the "Post-Kirby" panel on Inkstuds

:: Posted by max @ 5/18/2009 02:50:00 PM
Dustin Harbin mentioned this in one of his event reports, now we can listen for ourselves...

"The idea that Frank and I had going into this, is to look at comics in the context of a literary tradition and to create an understanding of how comics of a continuum of influences." - Robin McConnell

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   Sunday, May 17, 2009  
The C-List: TCAF Link Round-Up, Part 4

:: Posted by Bryan @ 5/17/2009 06:00:00 AM
Wow, that's a lot of links! I think this should be it for the link round-ups, unless something amazing emerges. Click the "TCAF" tag at the bottom of this post or see the "Previous Posts" sidebar to get the rest of the links.


NOW magazine covers the Tatsumi/Tomine/Seth event


Sean Rogers reviews 2 TCAF books: Kate Beaton's Never Learn Anything from History and Anya Davidson's Consciousness 3.

J.Bone vs Kensington Market: which is more interesting?

Fixed: Jason Truong

TCAF gets a mention in the National Post podcast

U.S. cartoonist Jeffrey Rowland documents TCAF using his webcomic Overcompensating

Pigskin Peters award winner Matthew Forsythe on the festival and the Wright Awards

D+Q publicist Peggy Burns has a flickr set of 128 photos

Brian Evinou blogs his experience

Deb Aoki interviews Tatsumi

Seth puts Ryan Sand to sleep but he wakes up for Tatsumi

Festival organizer and tower of strength Chris Butcher has a short recap

Corrected: Jan Op De Beeck does not make the trek from New York with ex-pat Rina Piccolo

Cartoonist Dustin Harbin has two great full reports. One Two
--including the inside scoop on the controversial "Post-Kirby" panel


Jeff Lemire has a sneak peak at his next project: Sweet Tooth


Jillian Tamaki blogs twice One Two

Matt Kindt (Superspy)

Milo says: "every nerd that went to TCAF has a blog"


Tom Kaczynski has a succinct summary

The amazing Michael Cho's Spider-Man!

Mariko Tamaki has candid photos and a link to the UK edition of Skim

Picturebox publisher Dan Nadel has photos proving that Jeet Heer and Bill Kartalopoulos were separated at birth, and dubs Francois Ayroles' Key Moments from the History of Comics (published by The Beguiling) his "favorite work of general comics history in years"

The Tara McPherson show at Magic Pony

TCAF panorama

Tom K's photos

Wright Awards official photos

The TCAF Vepo Studio video doc that everyone has already seen thanks to boing boing

the wonderful and very funny Best Book nominee video from the Wright Awards ceremony (I can be objective about this link since I had nothing to do with the video besides helping to nominate the books)

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   Thursday, May 14, 2009  
TCAF panels | Jamie Coville's MP3's

:: Posted by max @ 5/14/2009 10:39:00 PM
Thanks to Jamie Coville the following recordings from this years Toronto Comic Arts Festival are now available Here. Scanned them and the sound very compressed, mess with your levels a bit and it's fine, very clear.

The Secret History of Manga in North America! (46mb, 50:20) [mp3]
Jason Thompson a long time editor, writer, historian of various Manga related books takes us through Manga's journey in the North American market. He goes through the magazines, comic books, publishers, people and events that have shaped the industry. The panel is both educational and funny as Jason tells some behind the scenes anecdotes that have happened over the years.

International Perspectives on Manga (46.7mb, 51:01) [mp3]
Bryan Lee O'Malley (Scott Pilgrim), Becky Cloonan (East Coast Rising, Demo) Eric Ko (UDON), Antoine Dode (Armelle et Mon Oncle) and Jason Thompson (Manga: the Complete Guide) talk about their experiences with Manga. The panel is hosted by About.com Manga guide (and cartoonist) Deb Aoki. [who also took a lot of great photos!]

Scott McCloud Panel. (69.4mb, 75:51) [mp3]
Scott McCloud talks about comics, comics, comics and does so very enthusiastically. The panel is hosted by Mark Askwith. The audience also asks questions as well. Note: Scott occasionally uses foul language, but very politely.

Craig Yoe and Secret Identity: the Fetish Drawings of Superman's Co-Creator Joe Shuster. (35.7mb, 39:03) [mp3]
Craig Yoe talks about his new controversial book about a previously unknown period in Joe Shusters life where he began drawing dirty comics. The characters bare a very close resemblance to Superman, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen and others. Yoe also talks about Frederic Wertham's involvement in the situation and reveals some information regarding correspondence between himself and Shuster's sister. The panel is hosted by Douglas Wolk.

5th Annual Doug Wright Awards. (116mb, 127:38) [mp3]
The awards this year were hosted by Actor, Writer and Director Don McKellar. Also seen cruising the awards and geeking out a little bit it looked like. Among the presenters are Stuart McLean, Andrew Coyne, Jeet Heer, Adrian Tomine and a video from Bob Rae [member of this years awards jury].
The ceremony was as follows:

Burlington City Councilor announces the new Doug Wright Drive.

Pigskin Peters Hat/Award: Matt Forsythe for Ojingogo.
Best Emerging Talent: Kate Beaton for History Comics.

A talk between Brad Mackay, Seth and Chris Oliveros about the new Doug Wright Collection.

A surprise award to Chris Oliveros for 20 year anniversary of Drawn and Quarterly.

A surprise gift from the Doug Wright Family to Seth, Brad Mackay and Chris Oliveros for their work on the Doug Wright Collection.

Giants of the North, Canadian Cartoonist Hall of Fame inductee Jimmy Frise.

Best Book: Jillian & Mariko Tamaki for Skim.

Will Libraries Save Graphic Novels? (50.6mb, 55:21) [mp3]
Lisa Heggum (Librarian, Toronto Public Library), Diana Malizewski (Teacher, Toronto District School Board), Scott Robins (Blogger Book Comics for Kids/SLJ), Kent Allin (Teacher, Hastings and Price Edward District School Board), Jim Ottavini (Comic Writer, Editor and Publisher of G.T.Labs) & Douglas Davey (Librarian, Halton Hills Public Library) talk about Graphic Novels in libraries and schools. The panel is hosted by Jason Azzopardi, the Beguiling's Library Services Coordinator.

Comics, Newspapers and the Internet. (68.6, 75:00) [mp3]
Rich Stevens (Diesel Sweeties), Brendan Buford (Comics Editor for King Features Syndicate), John Martz (Chair of the Canadian Chapter of the National Cartoonists Society and co-creator of Drawn.ca), Stuart Immonen (Artist Ultimate Spider-Man, and webcomic artist) & Scott McCloud (cartoonist, Understanding Comics series, Zot) talk about the webcomics, newspaper print comics, and the Internet. Hosted by the very funny Chip Zdarsky/Steve Murray (cartoonist for National Post and Prison Funnies). Note: Scott McCloud occasionally swears! :)

Co: Jamie Coville
http://www.TheGraphicNovels.com
http://www.CollectorTimes.com


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   Tuesday, May 12, 2009  
The C-List: TCAF Link Round-Up, Part 3

:: Posted by Bryan @ 5/12/2009 05:59:00 AM


More incredible links about the incredible Toronto Comic Art Festival:

More photos from Dr. Squid, Day 2

JM Douville reports

Ryan's Disneyland Autograph sketchbook

Transmission X's Eric Vedder


Ty Buttars says TCAF 2009 should be called "the Tatsumi show"



TCAF guest and manga blogger Deb Aoki has a full report and photo gallery


TCAF pics


Patrick Kyle of the Wowee Zonk collective on their booklaunch and TCAF show


Webcomicer and TCAF volunteer misidentifies Bryan Lee O'Malley


Kate Beaton was driven towards motherhood at TCAF, apparently

Kevin Boyd of the Shuster Awards blogs his impressions (that's the Dave Sim print the Shuster folks were selling at the show up top)

Photos from the Tugboat Press gang

The Doodlers photostream, including the james Turner Rex Libris action figure

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   Monday, May 11, 2009  
The C-List: TCAF Link Round-Up, Part 2

:: Posted by Bryan @ 5/11/2009 06:28:00 PM
tcaf poster photo

More links from this past weekend's big event, The Toronto Comic Art Festival:

Doug Wright juror and Globe and Mail books editor Martin Levin blogs about the awards

Ron Nurwisah blogs TCAF for the National Post

Torontoist has photos

BlogTO

Re-Love report

Chris Pitzer from AdHouse books has a long post (that's his photo up top)

Scott McCloud's post-TCAF notes: what the master learned and who he met

A very strange report that reads like it has been translated twice by a computer

Vince Chui sums up his experiences

Owl Magazine's Wendy Ding drew pictures for kids

TCAF volunteer Dave Merrill blogs the fest

Brian Evinou photos

Tyler2009's flickr stream

Cartoonist Jonathan Mahood looks back over the weekend

Tatsumi video1

Tatsumi video2

Tatsumi video3

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   Sunday, May 10, 2009  
The C-List: TCAF Blogosphere Wrap-Up 1

:: Posted by Bryan @ 5/10/2009 10:14:00 PM

A summary of links about the recently-completed Toronto Comic Art Festival:

Sequential magazine contributor Jamie Coville has 106 great photos of TCAF!

Matthew Rooney on TCAF Day 1

Peggy Burns blogs TCAF

Jeet Heer reviews Guy Delisle's Burma Chronicles for the Literary Review of Canada

CBC Arts reporter Jessica Wong on the Wright Awards

Behind the scenes with a TCAF volunteer

Cartoonist Evan Munday on the books he got

Screenwriter Oliver Brackenbury blogs about Paul Pope (that's his photo up top)

Jimmy Aquino's day via Twitter feed

Kate Beaton blogs about Day 1 and her Wright Award win

Got Poetry covers the Tatsumi/Tomine/Seth event Friday

"Dr. Squid" has some nice photos --it looks like almost everyone who was at the festival ended up photographed here (albeit with no identification or description) --check out the flickr stream

Here's an excellent flickr stream with excellent notes by Gil Roth!

The 2009 Wright Awards jury, minus Bob Rae (he was a no show at the ceremony too, but the video he sent instead was awkwardly hilarious)

Day 1 report and photos

TCAF from a webcomics fan's perspective: "the internet live"

Paul Pope was there

Shannon Gerard in Now Weekly

A great collection of sketches!

Peter Kenter writes about Doug Wright's love of cars for the National Post

youtube video 1 --crowd walking

youtube video 2 --birdseye view of TCAF

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   Saturday, May 09, 2009  
The C-List: TCAF Edition

:: Posted by Bryan @ 5/09/2009 12:01:00 PM
Sequential's regular list of links relating to comics in Canada. This time out, a very TCAF-heavy post in honour of the Festival currently running in Toronto. I know this seems kind of Toronto-centric, but keep in mind the festival is full of people and publishers (New Reliable, Conundrum) from other provinces and from around the world. Plus, there are a ton of non-artists attending the festival, including Deb Aoki, Bart Beaty, Jeet Heer, Dan Nadel, Douglas Wolk, and Bill Kartalopoulos. For a full list of events, go to TCAF Programming.

Item: At the same time as the regular festival signings and artist/publisher tables, there is an academic conference going on at TCAF, taking place in a series of rooms in the Reference Library ("Another New Narrative"). Organized by U of T's Andrew Lesk, the schedule was unavailable at press time.

Item: One of the few emails Sequential received from individual artists appearing at the festival was from Miriam Libicki. Sunday afternoon from 4:30-5:00, in learning centre 2 at the Reference Library: "Miriam Libicki brings her innovative comics reading/slideshow to the Toronto Comic Arts Festival! Join the acclaimed autobiographical cartoonist as she dramatically reads from her Israeli Army memoirs, as well as her provocative drawn essays Towards a Hot Jew, Ceasefire, and Jewish Memoir Goes Pow! Zap! Oy! In between, Miriam will discuss her influences, what led her to choose comics as a format, why she started the jobnik! series, her self-publishing experience and how her work has been received thus far (in Israel and elsewhere)."

Item: May is Ontario Graphic Novel Month, according to Whazamo, a website run by Open Book Toronto and the Organization of Book Publishers of Ontario. The site features video and features about Ontario comics and Owl Magazine's C-Ton is the cartoonist in residence.

Item: Chris Butcher, TCAF director and Beguiling spokesperson, is interviewed at Comic News Insider about the festival.

Item: It's worth noting that, at the same time the Wright Awards are happening at the AGO (7 PM Saturday), there is an event called "Comics Are Totally Gay" at Fire On The East Side Bar & Restaurant, 6 Gloucester Street, 4 blocks south of Toronto Reference Library.

Item: Speaking of which, don't forget the Wright Awards, Saturday at 7pm at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Item: And speaking of speaking of, don't forget to pick up a copy of the print edition of Sequential while at TCAF.

Item: Bart Beaty previews the major European talents who will be at TCAF. Beaty will be talking about Eurocomics and interviewing several artists all weekend.

Item: Those National Post profiles of TCAF guests just keep on coming.

Item: More than anything, this edition of TCAF is really a celebration of Drawn and Quarterly's 20th Anniversary. They have a big slate of beautifully impressive major books out for Spring, and the festival programming is chock-a-block of D+Q artists. The Globe and Mail's Kenton Smith does a good job of summing up the history and impact of D+Q over the last 20 years, with a few choice interviews.

Item: Speaking of D+Q, comics historian John Adcock reviews the Collected Doug Wright.

Item: Comic critic superstar Paul Gravett reviews Seth's George Sprott graphic novel, as does Rob Clough.

Item: And the Globe's James Adams profiles the man himself. There is also some Seth video.

Item: I've seen Jordyn Bochon's "The Day After V-Day" in print form but now you can read it online. It's quite pretty and even funny.

Item: Miriam Libicki tries to get at the heart of what makes a Mary Sue character.

Item: The Shuster Awards are having some signings at their booth at TCAF and Dave Sim has done a print for them. Kevin Boyd profiles Kelly Tindall here.

And that's that. Have a good weekend!

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   Friday, May 08, 2009  
Sequential Pulp in the pixels

:: Posted by max @ 5/08/2009 06:00:00 PM
get the big one for the best art!
Large | Medium | Small


was available in the Pulp at TCAF '09

Comics
- page 1 -
Fiona Smyth
www.fionasmyth.com

- page 2 -
Robot Johnny
www.robotjohnny.com

- page 6 -
Mahendra Singh
justtheplaceforasnark.blogspot.com

- page 10 -
Willow Dawson
www.willowdawson.com

- page 11 -
Danny Zabbal
dannyzabbal.com

& Sean Ward
www.seanward.net

- page 14 -
Salgood Sam
www.salgoodsam.com

Articles
- page 2 -
A Million Mouths to Read: The Jesse Jacobs Interview
By Bryan Munn
sequential.spiltink.org

- page 4 -
The Wright Stuff
By Brad Mackay
bradmackay.com
- page 5 -
Jimmy Frise (1891-1948)
By Bryan Munn
sequential.spiltink.org

- page 6 -
The end of a love story in three parts
By Robin Fisher
www.cartoongal.com

- page 8 -
Web Comic Reviews & Panels and Pixels of the North.
By Jamie Coville
www.thecomicbooks.com

- page 10 -
10 Ways to Get Your Writing Out There
By Jim Munroe
nomediakings.org

- page 12 -
Mr. Trembles: Artist, Exhibitionist, Enigma
By Robin Fisher
www.cartoongal.com

- page 14 -
Two-Way Street: Quebec Graphic Novels Struggle for Acceptance in France
By Bryan Munn
sequential.spiltink.org

- page 20 -
You are about to become a Master of Time.
By Robert Pincombe
www.comicanuck.com

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This Weekend: TCAF

:: Posted by Bryan @ 5/08/2009 06:00:00 AM


The 2009 Toronto Comic Arts Festival

Saturday and Sunday at the Toronto Reference Library
789 Yonge St., Toronto
Free Admission

Come visit with hundreds of cartoonists, writers, and comic book artists as they show their comics, sell comics, and talk about comics!

The show also features the debut of our new magazine, Sequential print edition. Come get a free copy!

As well, the 2009 Doug Wright Awards will be handed out Saturday night across town at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) at 7pm. Admission is free. Come see who will win the trophies for best graphic novel and best young artist. As well, come see who wins the weirdest trophy in comics, a derby hat named for Canadian comic strip character Pigskin Peters and awarded to the best experimental or avant-garde comic. The event also features the launch of the new book, The Collected Doug Wright.

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Friday Night: Seth, Tomine, Tatsumi

:: Posted by Bryan @ 5/08/2009 12:01:00 AM

Authors at Harbourfront Centre: Seth, Adrian Tomine, and Yoshihiro Tatsumi
In association with The Toronto Comic Arts Festival
Friday, May 8 at 7:30 pm
Brigantine Room, York Quay Centre, 235 Queens Quay West
Tickets $8.00, available at harbourfrontcentre.com

Authors at Harbourfront Centre helps jump start the 2009 Toronto Comic Arts Festival with an evening of world-renowned graphic artists/novelists: Seth, Yoshihiro Tatsumi, and Adrian Tomine. Seth (George Sprott: (1894-1975)) and Tomine (Shortcomings) debut their latest graphic novels, followed by a discussion between Tomine and Tatsumi about Tatsumi's latest work, A Drifting Life. All three authors appear courtesy of Drawn & Quarterly (Montreal).

This event, presented in partnership with The Beguiling, will also feature a corresponding visual art exhibition Graphic Novels: The Creation of Art and Narrative, located in Harbourfront Centre's York Quay Centre.

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   Thursday, May 07, 2009  
Publishing: Papercut Hearts by Ian Sullivan Cant

:: Posted by Bryan @ 5/07/2009 06:41:00 PM

Papercut Heart
by Ian Sullivan Cant
Conundrum Press
ISBN 978-1-894994-38-5
$15

Ian Sullivan Cant's zines / illustrated poems are collected here into his first book, Papercut Heart. In deceptively simple pages, he tackles love, death and dreams with a wistful existentialism. Chia pets frolic with narwhals under banners that flutter with secret hope, Frankenstein's creation speculates on the nature of self, and a story written entirely in Morse Code weaves through silent statuary. Cant's writing confronts the tragic disparity between fantasy and ideal, and the disappointment of reality, but always seeks to touch the reader with melancholy. His obsession with B-horror movies allows him to find the beauty in trash culture, either in the form of a hidden and subversive genius, or the tenderness and vulnerability of unskilled creative passion. Cant's instruction in zen poetry is evident in his clean, delicate linework which belies the depth of his sentiments. Ruminations on the temporal nature of all things are thrown into stark relief by the accompanying drawing, be it a cupcake, a matchbook, or the image of a lost love, and many, many, talking ravens.

Cant will be at TCAF at the Conundrum booth:


Conundrum Press TCAF Signing schedule:


SAT MAY 9
noon-1 Howard Chackowicz
1-2 Jillian Tamaki
2-3 Shary Boyle
3-4 Emily Holton, Kerry Byrne
4-5 Michael Hind, Ian Sullivan Cant

SUN May 10
noon-1 Dave Lapp (DWA Nominee for Drop-In)
1-2 Michael Hind, Kerry Byrne
2-3 Ian Sullivan Cant
3-4 Howard Chackowicz

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   Wednesday, May 06, 2009  
Canadian Bestsellers: May 6 (TCAF Edition)

:: Posted by Bryan @ 5/06/2009 01:35:00 AM
bookmanager logo

compiled/edited by B. Munn

Just in time for the Toronto Comic Arts Festival and the debut of the first print issue of Sequential, it's the weekly edition of the Sequential Bestseller List!

The Top 30 Graphic Novels in Canada, courtesy of BookManager. The full list by BookManager is available, with some work, here. The list is compiled by BookManager based on sales through over 400 independent bookstores, including several comic book stores and the D+Q store. Sales through most comic shops and larger retailers like Chapters-Indigo are not reflected in this list. For balance, you might want to try the Amazon.ca and Chapters-Indigo lists. This list has two parts, the top 30 overall and (at the bottom) the top 30 by Canadian creators. See here for last week's list. Last week's rankings are in parentheses.

Top 30 Comics and Graphic Novels in Canada

1. (1) Watchmen, Moore/Gibbons (DC)
2. (3) Naruto 42, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
3. (3) B is for Beer, Tom Robbins (Harper Collins)
4. (5) Naruto 43, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
5. (4) Naruto 44, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
6. (7) Vampire Knight 6, Matsuri Hino (VIZ)
7. (6) Fruits Basket 22, Takaya Natsuki (Tokyopop)
8. (10) Naruto 39, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
9. (9) Naruto 41, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
10. (8) Garfield Just Desserts, Jim Davis (Random)
-----
11. (14) Naruto 40, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
12. (11) Naruto 38, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
13. (19) Naruto 37, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ
14. (12) Chibi Vampire 13, Yuna Kagesaki (Tokyopop)
15. (13) Manga Metamorphosis, Kozumi Shinozawa (Tyndale)
16. (16) Naruto 36, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
17. (22) Naruto 1, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
18. (15) Negima! 21, Ken Akamatsu (Random House)
19. (-) Maximum Ride, Vol. 1, James Patterson (Yen)
20. (17) Naruto 35, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
-----
21. (-) Hobbit, Tolkien et al (Harper Collins)
22. (-) What It Is, Lynda Barry (D+Q)
23. (24) V for Vendetta, Moore/Lloyd (DC)
24. (21) Skim, Mariko Tamaki/Jillian Tamaki (Groundwood)
25. (-) Wolverine 1: Prodigal Son, Tortosa/Johnston (Random House)
26. (-) Vampire Knight 5, Matsuri Hino (VIZ)
27. (-) The Wallflower 19, Tomoko Hayakawa (Random House)
28. (25) Louis Riel, Chester Brown (D+Q)
29. (20) Naruto 2, Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ)
30. (-) Otomen, Volume 2, Aya Kanno (VIZ)


Standard explanation:
The pattern that emerges from looking at these lists over a period of weeks is that certain books, especially manga series, continuously jostle with each other, sliding up and down the longer list on the strength of a new volume or a spate of purchases for the kiddies. This week: That new Wolverine manga has a strong-ish debut. Is it the only movie tie-in?

Canadian Content: You have to wade through an awful lot of translated Japanes manga, U.S. superhero fantasies, and collected editions of Sherman's Lagoon to come up with a list of 30 bestselling books created by Canadians. In total, BookManager lists over 4000 graphic novels, trades, and strip collections, the vast majority of which are not by Canadians.

Sequential's All-Canadian Top 30 from BookManager

1. (1) Skim, Mariko Tamaki/Jillian Tamaki (Groundwood)
2. (2) Louis Riel, Chester Brown (D+Q)
3. (5) Nightschool 1, Svetlana Chmakova (Yen)
4. (3) Big Foot, Graham Roumieu (Plume)
5. (4) The Burma Chronicles, Guy Delisle (D+Q)
6. (6) Scott Pilgrim 5, Bryan Lee O'Malley (Oni)
7. (-) Scott Pilgrim 1, Bryan Lee O'Malley (Oni)
8. (8) Home Sweat Home, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
9. (7) Scott Pilgrim 4, Bryan Lee O'Malley (Oni)
10. (16) Plain Janes, Castelucci/Rugg (Minx/DC)
-----
11. (11) Scott Pilgrim 3, Bryan Lee O'Malley (Oni)
12. (9) Pyongyang, Guy Delisle (D+Q)
13. (13) Doug Wright: Canada's Master Cartoonist, Doug Wright (D+Q)
14. (19) Scott Pilgrim 2, Bryan Lee O'Malley (Oni)
15. (15) Ojingogo, Matt Forsythe (D+Q)19503
16. (10) Baloney, Pascal Blanchet (D+Q)
17. (12) Middle Aged Spread, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
18. (29) Drop-In, Dave Lapp (Conundrum)
19. (14) Senior's Discount, Lynn Johnston (Andrews McMeel)
20. (17) It's a Good Life..., Seth (D+Q)
-----
21. (18) Adventures of Rabbit and Bear Paws: The Voyageurs, Chad Solomon (Little Spirit Bear)
22. (20) Essex County 1, Jeff Lemire (Top Shelf)
23. (21) I Never Liked You, Chester Brown (D+Q)
24. (22) Adventures of Rabbit and Bear Paws: The Voyageurs, Chad Solomon (Little Spirit Bear)
25. (23) Shenzhen, Guy Delisle (D+Q)
26. (24) Essex County 2, Jeff Lemire (Top Shelf)
27. (26) Paul Goes Fishing, Rabagliati (D+Q)
28. (27) Spirit 1, Darwyn Cooke (DC)
29. (28) Essex County 3, Jeff Lemire (Top Shelf)
30. (30) the great hopeful someday, Elizabeth Belliveau (Conundrum)

-----
Please feel free to comment or email about these lists.

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   Monday, May 04, 2009  
Pope Hats / Laff Depot launch

:: Posted by max @ 5/04/2009 10:01:00 PM

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   Sunday, May 03, 2009  
Sequential Pulp @ TCAF

:: Posted by max @ 5/03/2009 04:03:00 AM
The 2009 Toronto Comic Arts Festival is fast approaching, and we've got some cool news.

In the past we've mostly reported at a distance before and after TCAF, but this year we're going to be right there in the midst.

I'm pleased to announce the first Special Print Edition of Sequential.

It's free, it's full of amazing comics and articles, and it will be all over TCAF. I'll also be publishing a PDF of the 22 page magazine here on the blog the weekend of the festival so if you're not there you'll still be able to enjoy it. Here's the index for the magazine, and I'd like to send out a special shout out to guerrilla printing for their support of the project.



Comics
- page 1 -
Fiona Smyth
www.fionasmyth.com

- page 2 -
Robot Johnny
www.robotjohnny.com

- page 6 -
Mahendra Singh
justtheplaceforasnark.blogspot.com

- page 10 -
Willow Dawson
www.willowdawson.com

- page 11 -
Danny Zabbal
dannyzabbal.com

& Sean Ward
www.seanward.net

- page 14 -
Salgood Sam
www.salgoodsam.com

Articles
- page 2 -
A Million Mouths to Read: The Jesse Jacobs Interview
By Bryan Munn
sequential.spiltink.org

- page 4 -
The Wright Stuff
By Brad Mackay
bradmackay.com

- page 5 -
Jimmy Frise (1891-1948)
By Bryan Munn
sequential.spiltink.org

- page 6 -
The end of a love story in three parts
By Robin Fisher
www.cartoongal.com

- page 8 -
Web Comic Reviews & Panels and Pixels of the North.
By Jamie Coville
www.thecomicbooks.com

- page 10 -
10 Ways to Get Your Writing Out There
By Jim Munroe
nomediakings.org

- page 12 -
Mr. Trembles: Artist, Exhibitionist, Enigma
By Robin Fisher
www.cartoongal.com

- page 14 -
Two-Way Street: Quebec Graphic Novels Struggle for Acceptance in France
By Bryan Munn
sequential.spiltink.org

- page 20 -
You are about to become a Master of Time.
By Robert Pincombe
www.comicanuck.com

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   Friday, March 27, 2009  
TCAF season | Sponsorships! - guerilla printing wants you!

:: Posted by max @ 3/27/2009 09:11:00 PM
Now this is going to be timely and handy for someone, new small run printer Guerilla Printing is giving away 5 $500 sponsorships in print and marketing materials with a deadline that syncs up for TCAF rather well: April 10 2009. TCAF is May 9/10.

If you are chosen, you will get 500 Business Cards, 250 Postcards, 30 Posters, 50 Buttons, 100 Stickers, 1 Table Sign, 1 Banner & 2 T-Shirts (Black) - sounds like a con kit!

Guerilla is co founded by Tyrone McCarthy, but they don't just do comics - they say they're looking for musicians, writers, self publishers, illustrators, graphic artists, fine artists, & etc along with us panologists. So, pass it on!

To apply check their site for the Application PDF form. I think i'll be doing some business with these guys myself, always nice to do so with people you know when you can. Talking now about it. They use a digital output system, not sure if i've seen anything by them yet already but Tyrone's own books always looked sharp!

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   Monday, March 16, 2009  
Doug Wright Awards announce 2009 finalists

:: Posted by max @ 3/16/2009 10:43:00 PM
Filmmaker Don McKellar to host 5th annual Canadian comics awards at the Art Gallery of Ontario

Toronto, ON — March 16, 2009 - Representing everything from the funny and the forthright to the traditional and the avant-garde, the finalists for the 2009 Doug Wright Awards (DWAs) were released earlier today in Toronto.

Founded in 2004 to recognize the best English-language graphic novels and comics, The Doug Wright Awards have grown into one of Canada's premier cartooning events.

This year's eclectic batch of 13 nominees range from first-person travelogues and heart-felt autobiography, to brainy historical comedy and post-modern gag cartoons.

The 2009 finalists for Best Book are:

Burma Chronicles Guy Delisle (Drawn & Quarterly)
Drop-in Dave Lapp (Conundrum Press)
Paul Goes Fishing Michel Rabagliati (Drawn & Quarterly)
Skim Jillian & Mariko Tamaki (Groundwood Books)

The 2009 finalists for Best Emerging Talent are:

Kate Beaton (History Comics)
Caitlin Black (Maids in the Mist)
Jesse Jacobs (Blue Winter, Shapes in the Snow)
Jason Kieffer (Kieffer #2)
Nick Maandag (Jack & Mandy)

The finalists for the DWAs second annual Pigskin Peters' Award, which recognizes avant-garde comics and other non-traditional works, are:

Hall of Best Knowledge Ray Fenwick (Fantagraphics)
Ojingogo Matthew Forsythe (Drawn & Quarterly)
All We Ever Do is Talk About Wood Tom Horacek (Drawn & Quarterly)
Small Victories Jesse Jacobs (self-published)

The DWAs are also pleased to announce that filmmaker Don McKellar will host this year's awards ceremony, which will be held at the Art Gallery of Ontario's (AGO) Jackman Hall. A Gemini- and Tony-award- winning actor, writer and director, McKellar is a long-time comics' fan and served as a jury member for the inaugural Wright Awards in 2005.

The winners of the Best Emerging Talent and Best Book trophies will de decided by the 2009 DWA jury which includes; Bob Rae (the Member of Parliament for Toronto Centre and 21st premier of Ontario), Andrew Coyne (national editor for Maclean's and political panelist on CBC Television's The National), Martin Levin (books editor for The Globe and Mail and contributor to What I Meant to Say), cartoonist Joe Ollmann (author of the 2007 DWA Best Book This Will All End in Tears) and cartoonist Diana Tamblyn, the Ignatz-nominated author of several mini-comics including The Rosie Stories and There You Were.

A featured event of the Toronto Comics Arts Festival (TCAF), the 2009 Doug Wright Awards will take place on Sat. May 9, 2009 at 7:00 pm.


The Doug Wright Awards

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   Monday, February 16, 2009  
5th annual Doug Wright Awards at TCAF '09 - the Jury

:: Posted by max @ 2/16/2009 10:10:00 PM

Toronto, ON - The 2009 Doug Wright Awards for Canadian Cartooning will be handed out Saturday, May 9th at the Art Gallery of Ontario's Jackman Hall in Toronto, Ontario, as part of the Toronto Comics Arts Festival (TCAF).


Now in its fifth year, The Wright Awards are Canada's premier awards event celebrating the best in English-language cartooning, from renowned cartoonists to the best in emerging talent and experimental comics.

This year's ceremony will also serve as the official launch party for The Collected Doug Wright: Canada's Master Cartoonist, the first of a two-volume retrospective to be published by Drawn and Quarterly.

The launch will feature an on-stage discussion of the life and career of the seminal Canadian cartoonist between Seth, the book's co-editor and designer, co-editor and writer Brad Mackay and Chris Oliveros, the book's publisher.

As usual, the 2009 DWA jury will be comprised of representatives from a wide swath of Canadian society, from arts and culture to politics and the media. The jury for the 5th annual awards is impressive. They are as follows:
Andrew Coyne, the national editor for Maclean's magazine and regular political panellist on CBC Television's The National.

Martin Levin, the books editor of The Globe and Mail and a contributor to several anthologies, including What I Meant to Say.

Joe Ollmann, a Montreal-based cartoonist and author of This Will All End in Tears, winner of the 2007 Doug Wright Award for Best Book.

Bob Rae, the Liberal Party of Canada's foreign affairs critic and the Member of Parliament for Toronto Centre. Rae served as the 21st premier of Ontario from 1990 to 1995.

Diana Tamblyn, an Ignatz-nominated Canadian cartoonist and author of several mini-comics, including The Rosie Stories and There You Were.

The Doug Wright Awards recognize the finest in Canadian comics in three categories: Best Book, Best Emerging Talent and the Pigskin Peters Award (which acknowledges the best in non-narrative or experimental comics).

Over the past five years, The Wright Awards have proudly featured a Who's Who of Canada's fertile comics scene at its podium, including Seth, Bryan Lee O'Malley, Michel Rabigliati, Lorenz Peter, Mariko and Jillian Tamaki, Joe Ollmann, Rebecca Kraatz, Ann Marie Fleming, Jeff Lemire and Julie Morstad.

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   Friday, August 15, 2008  
More hot air about the so called DWA controversy.

:: Posted by max @ 8/15/2008 03:33:00 PM
In response to The Doug Wright Awards' so called 'Canadian' language controversy, re: your defense of the Doug Wright Awards
from Robert Haines.


With all due respect to Robert, and due warning to future commenters. I don't have time to manually post comments for you.

That's why we use an automated blogger system for the site, so I don't have to do things like that. It's password protected so that we don't get spammed to death.

If you want to participate sign up.

And if you waste my time with poorly thought through crap in my Email, If i do anything, it's more likely to be this - post you on the front page of the site to tear it apart.

Don't get your hopes up, not doing it again for this subject. This one time to make a point, USE THE COMMENTS.

Hello Max, I do not have a blog account and so I am unable to comment directly at Sequential. Please post this comment as found below:

I'm glad to see Sequential address this issue and not run away. I think you are ignoring the truth about how the DWA's advertise themselves. Place the words 'Canada's premier comic award' or 'the country's premier comic award' into google and see what comes up (don't forget to look at the cached results, also). There can be no debate that the DWA's refer to themselves this way.

So, Bryan Munn is deeply involved with the DWA's and Sequential? That might explain his Sequential post on June 27, 2008: "... the 4th Annual Doug Wright Awards, the country's premier comics awards ...", though that was lifted right off of the DWA's website. Or on The Comics Journal message board, Brad MacKay wrote, "...Canada's premier cartooning awards meets Canada's best-known cartoonist" and, "...the 4th Annual Doug Wright Awards, the country's premier comics awards...". Check The Beguiling's website, as well as the TCAF site, to see the same sentiment. Brian and Brad are both deeply involved in the DWA's and they are the ones writing these words. A lot of people don't see any difference between being 'Canada's premier awards' and 'THE Canadian awards'. In fact, the DWA wording of 'premier' is probably more pretentious and self serving than 'THE'.

Herve may have been over the top with some of comparisons, but he certainly brought a long discussed topic out into the open. I cannot speak for Herve but it would seem to me that the issue really is that the DWA's are self described as 'Canada's premier awards', while containing no French Canadian content.

Further, your suggestion of having the Wright's merge, or work alongside, the Prix Bedelys is an strange suggestion. There is another, much more obvious, pairing. But we all know that would never happen, and only because the DWA membership meeting would resemble a scene from Cronenberg's Scanners at the suggestion.

Best,
Robert Haines


Bryan is deeply involved? I said closely involved, he helps organize at the events. I didn't characterize it as deep. I'll leave that for him to comment on if he feels inclined but it's truly irrelevant to the charge of discrimination. What this was about primarily.

As for the the Prix Bedelys/hypothetical solution i proposed - I just suggested a collaboration, a sharing of resources, not a bloody "merger"!

And how the hell is 'work alongside' any different from my 'trade for mutual benefit' or your 'pairing'. Don't be a prat.

NOTHING comes up for the solid phrase "Canada's premier comic award"

"Canada's premier comics and graphic novels awards" gets two hits, one is a TCAF/DWA site, the other is Dave Sim talking about the same auction as the first.

To get anything else you have to take it out of quotes, and what you end up proving is that they are in fact well known in Lit circles, and have courted an elite profile from the start.


Not THE.

Take a look at the Jury Lineups. The press they get. The critical awareness of the work the nominate and awarded.

Look up "Doug Wright Awards" in the news search.

EXCLUDE us. EXCLUDE Brads past day job work at the CBC. what do you have?

Along with many other sites, Walrus Magazine, Quill & Quire, Editor & Publisher, Publishers Weekly, Globe and Mail, etc.

Not all nice long articles at all but some good coverage in some very prominent, NON comics media. The first two being Literary in fact.

Do the same of ANY of the other awards currently in Canada. In the News search I ran on "The Shusters", not even "The Joe Shuster Awards" which draws a blank - I got one hit today, in an article about the DWA. It's a short reference about how the ONE thing they do, "nominally" better is award french language books....! hah! I love irony.

Hey, I love that they are out there too, doing what they do. It's great they put together a special comity to nominate FR language books. I haven't got one bone to pick with any of the awards. But no others are an elite award with anything like a national profile!

O_o [ <-this is me giving the hairy eye] The Shusters are a fan pick. And that's great, and different.

Populous.

Not elite.

Not critically Primer.

[ed: seems they switched, from their site-"Although these awards were chosen, in their first three incarnations, by a public vote, the process changed in 2007 to decision by a jury of individuals [not listed anywhere] to ensure each nominee is given adequate consideration" They don't provide the Names of these individuals or their credentials, so if anything, it's gone from populous to anonymous! Ok, got ahead of myself, here's their list now, and it' was along side this "Creator nominees are nominated for their BODY OF WORK during the previous calendar year, not just for one specific work, although they may have only had one specific work published. Winners are selected by a jury."]

For the DWA, the Past Jury list includes Bruce McDonald, Mark Kingwell, Judy MacDonald, Lorenz Peter, Jessica Johnson, Ho Che Anderson, Marc Glassman, Katrina Onstad, Helena Reckitt, Mariko Tamaki. Chester Brown. Rebecca Caldwell, Nora Young, Jerry Ciccoritti & Don McKellar.

Every year a film maker, at least one prominent member of the media if not two, someone from the Arts or Academia, and a critically significant cartoonist.

With it's Jury's CV's on it's sleeve, and a purely Critical standard, ED: nominating a SINGLE book per Creator, The DWA are currently the most prominent, critically elite, highest standard bearing Award that ANYONE and EVERYONE in the country can be eligible for assuming they can fit into what is still, JUST TWO AWARDS CATEGORIES in ONE language. Because for now, it's a small operation despite it's critical standing and they do not have the time and money to do more! Would love to, but nope.

ED: The Shusters have never had a Literary profile, it's not how they present themselves, or how the books they choose come off exclusively as a rule, as it pretty much is for the DWA. Great that they got a kick ass Jury now, but it's just true. Even the prize is a lot more classic comic book humble. Compared to this? The JSA don't promote an elite image, it's just a fact. They are not intentionally Literary at all.

The DWA does, and is. And I don't think they are going to apologize for that. It's how they started, it's what they are all about.

All of this only proves they have one front
on which they truly discriminate, QUALITY.


You can call it a small operation. Call it elitist. You can point out how incredibly small the community is leading to some very close associations that are frankly unavoidable. This is true for all awards let alone the all the comics awards in Canada.

You could suggest we should sit around and wait for someone outside of the community to notice the work - which would be stupid. Far better we got off our asses and brought the outside in to see the work.

Hey, you can even talk about how funny it was when Seth was given the very trophy he built himself the first year, and turned bright red and said himself how someone should have stopped that from happening as the jury sat and chuckled at him. Darwin Cooke also i suspect was bright red, when he stormed out of the ceremony yelling 'this is bullshit' and went to drink some more at the bar.

That was pretty funny.


But excluding Seth's book from the list, given it was the most wildly reviewed and lauded comic of the season hands down even without the nomination! Would have made the DWA claim to be for the Best Book false. It would have been the best book, barring having to compete with Seth's.

He was asked to make the trophies before his book came out and was eligible for the list, or the list had even been drawn up. What ya' going to do?

It's a small fucking scene people, thousands of creators but the cream is a thin skim on the top of it. And as it turns out a few creators of that caliber are amongst the ones who thought recognition for this kind of achievement was lacking in Canada and took it upon themselves to begin to do something about it.

I personally cant thank them enough, even know I also personally felt out of my place at times being nominated that first year.

Yep, that's right, I was nominated and here I am, dyslexic and too damn busy but still the guy running the ONLY web site so far dedicated exclusively to Canadian comics coverage and who cant get any of you other geeks to contribute unless it's to try to tear down shit.

When if ever are more people in the 'community' going to work towards something instead of against?

It's a FUCKING small scene and a lot of it is bloody lazy or superficial. Pardon my french.

And you can complain all you like about that stuff. I, and I'm sure the DWA organizers will shrug and say, what's your point? Do you suggest it would be better not to have the DWA at all? 'cus these are the options for now.

No one else was stepping up to do the job, to put an award like this together at all! The Shusters started around the same time and have very different goals. Before that, ZIP for a dog's age.

So a group of Journalists, Critics, Super Fans and a couple of creators got together and made it happen with the help of the Wright family and some amazing volunteers. What have you done Robert? Better be good trying to pull this one. And I mean outside of being Deeply Involved with the Shusters yourself? That's great you doing that, but it brings your critique into some light don't it?
Course line of it's a small world after all goes here.

Calling the DWA anything else is BS. Calling it pretentious is redundant, and calling it, or suggesting it's bigoted against French comics or French creators is not only steaming hot BS, it's also offensive, dirty politics gaming, confrontational, and unsubstantiated. AND TO BE CLEAR, that was what Herve charged the DWA with.

100% FAIL

Good day sir.
Max Douglas, aka Salgood Sam.

PS: want to comment on this? USE THE COMMENTS.

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