21.Apr.2012 Hey Kids! comics!
Oh my, it’s been a busy spring. Sanity is almost in sight, but I’m currently planing to probably undue that and go to Toronto in a couple of weeks for TCAF. Hey did you know Megabuss is having a seat sale now? Good cheep way to get there. Not going to be tabling I think, no new books – check out the RAID studio gang in the same spot as Transmission X has been in past years – I could sell prints but you know I just want to go see the show for myself this year. Taking in the sights and recording some of it for the site here.
Oh and yes, I think i’ve mentioned it already but also there is not going to be a pulp edition this year, just don’t have enough human resources on hand to make it this time. Think you will see something in print again but only when we can do it right.
So all to say, don’t be surprised if my comics posts like this continue to be erratic in the near future.
Lots of talk about boycotts and ethics, and being a moderate I often find myself in the hairs between absolutes.
I just found this, going to go read it next – a set of scanns of a a keynote speech by Frank Miller to Diamond Comic distributors retailers seminar,
June 12th, 1994. That should be interesting.
Any who, this is about comics, not blogs about comics!
Ty posted this pointed strip for BunToons today
about the whole creators rights and dastardly publishers
and court cases and IPs, with the qualifier of
“CAUTION: Satire and irony ahead”.
…I thought it made a good additional note
to this series of Burning Itch cartoons
from Richard Pace. In order of appearance,
Also political, but less bellybutton comics related, Colin Upton posted a few old cartoons on G+ including this one. He wrote “These are cartoons I did for Degrowth Vancouver, a local free paper devoted to slowing down rampant developement. Political caricature is not something I do often (indeed I was asked to “tone down” the orginial drawing I did of mayor Robertson) but I gave it a shot. The paper also includes cartoons by rabble rousers Ted Dave, Andy Singer & Julian Lawrence! And it’s free”
And now for something more casual,
also the west coast.
Jason Turner posted
a new bit of True Loves 3…
…oh, well. Hmmm. Ok how about this,
something from that other J.Turner, James Turner? The one in Toronto?
He recently started a new Max Zing strip at Drunk Duck. This is the 5th…
“Fun to attempt the strip format.
One, two, three, zing(er).”
New Digital Book!
Marrowbones, by Eric Orchard. Just released digitally, issue #1 clocks in at 47 pages for a scant 2$.
The tale is a horror book aimed at kids that has been an idea for some time in the head the author!
Here is an interviews, a review, something short from Eric they call an essay…?
and some peeks at the art pulled from all over.
Looks pretty good! Hope it sells well for him,
this is a special close to the hart kind of project!
Also have high hopes for the whole digital sales factor myself…
…so go, support Eric and read your kids a scary bed time story!
Also big day a couple of days ago for Jonathon Dalton,
posted the 200th page of his comic A Mad Tea-Party!
Benchmarks are good.
Last bit i’ll add is one for me too,
Dream Life has reached 100 pages! yay!
ok, that’s it for now!
cheers!
18.Apr.2012 art-making for Kids! Monastiraki boutique
More art-making for Kids!
Monastiraki boutique’s next round of classes are coming up.
I think we make more canadain comic books by making more canadain comic book artists, so art classes early, get them hooked young eh? 
This is getting to be a regular thing at the boutique, they report having had a lot of fun and is looking forward to more! Here’s the details.
Classes run from May 12th – June 3rd.
Saturday mornings 10:30 – 11:30
is for 2 – 4 yr olds with a parent
Sunday mornings 10:30 – 11:30
is for 5 – 8 yr olds (on their own)
$60 all materials included. Pre-registration is preferred to secure a spot.
Billy has told me in the past it’s a popular thing with the local moms so if you want in probably you should not dally.
Happen to be in the area? Drops-ins are $18 per class, if space is available!
Contact Emilie or Billy
514-278-4879
They have plans to hold classes for older kids too so we’ll keep you posted.
17.Apr.2012 Hey Kids, Comix! (Podcasts)
What the heck is going on here? The other day Max posted a C-List and now here I am doing the Hey, Kids! thing. The world is turned upside down!
This feature is usually devoted to webcomics but instead I thought I’d use it to highlight a trio of podcasts from the past week and around the web.
First up, Alice Quinn interviews the kindly and sharing Chester Brown on the penultimate episode of her Quinntessential Comics video series. Go to her site to check out the youtube thing. The show has wrapped up its first season (you can go watch the finale party here) and really should be commended for earnestly and breezily doing a series of comics-related interviews and reviews that actually involved real live comics creators from Toronto: the season ran the gamut from guys who draw superhero comics for DC to Maurice Vellekoop. Most video stuff I see online is either focused around celebrity appearances at conventions or takes the form of a couple guys in an apartment reviewing the latest Marvel and DC offerings. So bravo to Quinn and co. for trying something a little bit different, and doing it on a regular basis.
Next is the regular podcast from the Mindless Ones blog, Silence! hosted by Gary Lactus and The Beast Must Die (the Beast is cartoonist Dan White, not sure about Gary’s secret identity). This is a weekly thing that is basically two polite English blokes who make fun of the latest comics (which they take pains to point out are available from Dave’s Comics of Brighton) and talk about old comics they find in boot sales, etc. They also do a funny little song each week. You can listen to the whole podcast of course, but the reason I’m linking to this recent episode is the song “Not For Kids” which starts around the 2 minute mark and contains the rap lyric “Comics! Not just for kids/they’re about how Canadians don’t have relationships.” Genius.
Lastly, it’s the latest Inkstuds podcast. I link to Robin’s show alot in the C-List and he’s been very busy lately with interviews from the Emerald City convention and his regular gig, but I thought I’d highlight this interview with U.S. cartoonist Evan Dorkin because I actually listened to the whole thing the other night and I’m kind of proud of myself (I had to do my taxes anyway). More of a monologue than an interview, the thing is basically over two hours of the Milk and Cheese and Dork! creator rambling on about his love of comics and how out of touch with popular culture he feels. Dorkin is fun to listen to and even schools Robin a bit on crappy comic strips and manga.
Until next time!
10.Apr.2012 Mortimer the Slug
In the first of the weekly Mortimer the Slug colour comics, Dave the Dust Particle’s passion for bubble gum has unintended consequences.
05.Apr.2012 The 10th Prix Expozine
Co: Expozine
The Expozine 10th Awards Gala was held April 4, 2012, 8 p.m., @Le Divan Orange, 4234 Saint-Laurent.
Featuring Simon Paquet as MC, readings by Jean-Pierre Tremblay and Jese Gordon and ended with a great dance party performance by Montreal’s premier synth showman, Super Fossil Power!
The Expozine Alternative Press Awards recognize the best publications that were on display at the Expozine small press fair in the fall of 2011.
THE WINNERS:
ENGLISH ZINE
Prologue, Jonathan Reid Sévigny
An exquisitely printed zine of large-format colour drawings, huge tableaus of characters and scenes that are simultaneously cute and violent, surreal and storybook plain. You could look at each one for hours wondering what the heck they’re supposed to mean – the unicorns, the gallows, the mermaids, the guillotines, the corner dépanneur as some sort of fairy oasis. Stunning.
HONOURABLE MENTION (TIE):Jese Gordon’s Korea deserves an honourable mention as a superbly presented literary zine. The semi-transparent mylar pages complement the almost voyeuristic feel of the texts.
The zine Drop Target from Vermont gets its honourable mention for excellence as a real “old school” type zine: by and for fans of pinball, yet with a good enough presentation and variety of content (essays, reviews, comics etc.) that non-fans would enjoy it as well.
ENGLISH BOOK
You Are A Cat! by Sherwin Tjia
This book takes a premise that possibly shouldn’t work and works it beautifully in every direction. From teenage lesbian suicides to psychopathic killers- with fresh cream, naps and feline sex in between – as you ‘pick your own plot’ this book provides genuine insight into what it actually might feel like to be a cat.
ENGLISH COMIC
Pope Hats No. 2, Ethan Rilly, Adhouse Books
Rilly has a fully developed graphic and storytelling style of his own in this highly existential series.
~~~
FANZINE FRANCOPHONE
Impossible voyage, Celine Huyghebaert
Petite collection de pensées à la fois nostalgiques et autoréflexives entourant un voyage d’une certaine Louisa-Nar sur des cartes d’identification de bagages. Chaque petite carte d’embarcation est sérigraphiée en noir et blanc. Objet d’art finement assemblé et numéroté. À méditer!
MENTION SPECIAL FANZINE FRANCOPHONE:Salade de crudités” de Boris Paillard, ouvrage de collaboration entre la poésie de Paillard et différents illustrateurs tous plus incroyables les uns que les autres. Tout le livre est sérigraphié d’où son incroyable authenticité tant au niveau de la texture que de la couleur. Flamboyant, pertinent. Bravo!
LIVRE FRANCOPHONE
Typographie inusuelle, Marc Pantanella, Éditions L’Oie de Cravan et Finitude
D’abord pour la beauté de l’ouvrage, la maquette de couverture, le papier, la qualité d’impression puis ensuite pour l’humour surprenant, bon enfant et réjouissant qui nous pousse de page en page.
BANDE DESSINÉE FRANCOPHONE
Boumeries, volume 1, par Boum (Samantha Leriche-Gionet), auto-publication
Des petits moments du quotidien empreints d’humour, racontés avec candeur et spontanéité. Le dessin, expressif à souhait, illustre le tout de façon très efficace sous forme de strips qui font plaisir à lire.
15.Mar.2012 Mortimer the Slug
Mortimer the Slug is an updated-every-weekday webcomic which now has an archive of nearly 550 individual strips containing many continuing storylines
20.Feb.2012 MON QUI TOWNE: SOME PEOPLE EAT VEGGIES
04.Feb.2012 Football
The Globe and Mail has this great John Martz Super Bowl Sunday strip that has 0 football in it!
A Superbowl Party Glossary
03.Feb.2012 CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS : CARTE BLANCHE 15
A reminder to all cartoonists, the submissions deadline for Issue #15 of carte blanche are coming up in a month!
There is more than one way to tell a story.
Carte Blanche would like to know how you would!
There’s no theme for this issue, it’s wide open. There is a small honorarium, and you retain all rights to your work.
Stories can be 1 to 25 pages long – If you want to hit us up with something longer write first before submitting. We accept original submissions through our online submission form. See here for instructions. If you have problems using our submission form, please send us an email.
For comics/graphic fiction, we’ll consider work that has been published in a limited venue, say on your personal blog or via a small press local/regional publication. Work that has not had wide exposure.
For an idea of our editor’s taste [that would be me, max douglas aka Salgood Sam.] check out the last few stories we’ve published. Stories by Daniel Ha, Ainsley Olsen, James Romberger, Shannon Wheeler, Nina Bunjevac, Mara Sternberg, & Dustin Harbin!
01.Feb.2012 Technique d’encrage pour Le Dragon Bleu
Fred Jordan demonstrates his technique for the gorgeous looking adaptation of Marie Michaud & Robert Lepage’s Dragon bleu.
Bande-annonce du Dragon bleu from Le Dragon Bleu on Vimeo.
Esquisse eau et encre from Le Dragon Bleu on Vimeo.
Du crayonné à l’encre from Le Dragon Bleu on Vimeo.
Technique d’encrage from Le Dragon Bleu on Vimeo.
Technique d’encrage 2 from Le Dragon Bleu on Vimeo.
24.Jan.2012 MON QUI TOWNE: FOUR TIMES WARM
23.Jan.2012 Hey Kids, Comix! The now and then edition
A little something old, a lot of something new.
First, Reading this next blog post i realized it’s been a while, since before I started doing the hey kids comics posts, that we mentioned “Stig’s Inferno“ around here.
Comics a-go-go.com posted this glowing review of what I agree, was one of the funniest comics to come out of Vortex. With Stig’s and Mr. X it was one of the coolest line ups during the B&W boom.
“Long story short, Stig’s Infernois hilarious and should be read. Written and illustrated by comic book veteran Ty Templeton, it’s one of the books that lived too short a time after Vortex Comicsimploded. Why, oh why must the good ones pass on so soon?! Oh, the humanity!
But, at least we can enjoy what actually made it to print. Ty’s brother posted all of the issues in their glorious entirety for your reading and viewing pleasure. Seriously, take our word for it – this is funny stuff.”
It’s all true. Here, read it for yourself!
Ok, so that’s a classic.
Here’s the new wave.
Zack Soto, the southern born Portland cartoonist and instigator used to publish a nice little anthology of comics and art called Studygroup12. There were 3 issues the last of which won an Ignatz award. Extent little books from what I recall.
Zack has just relaunched Study Group as a Magazine and Webcomics site. And I have to say he could have not picked a cooler line up of artists from what I can see to feature for the first issue of the reborn series! Farel Dalrymple, François Vigneault, Ian MacEwan, Jason Leivian, Jennifer Parks, Kazimir Strzepek, Levon Jihanian, Malachi Ward, Michael DeForge, Milo George, Simon Roy, Tom Neely, and Zack himself!
Go see, be amazed.
15.Jan.2012 MON QUI TOWNE: REGAL EAGLE
Hey kids, Comix!
Damn it’s cold out today.
First, Ty has a diary memoir dedicated to the soon to be closed Dragon Lady in Toronto…
It’s sad to see the old lady go. I had been wanting to paint them a new sign at some point.
So I must say, thanks to their need to index all and sundry for the awards, the folks at the Joe Shuster Awards have put together one of the most comprehensive lists of Canadian related comics links.
For the next while i’m going to tour their list of can-con web comics and post some of the highlights. First sessions is in the ‘A’s, starting with…
Asymptote by Simon Banville is a classic newspaper style gag strip available in both English and French.
Adventuresome by Keith Mclean is another gag comic, more web oriented though…
Faith Erin Hicks‘ Superhero Girl is also a classic strip, and all kinds of awesome. She’s still at it but she put up a fun holiday comic last…
Alison a fini l’école [ Alison finished school] by Alison McCreesh is a French & English art blog on which she sometimes posts comics, some of which are very good.
Ant Comic by Michael DeForge is updated a lot more regularly than i realized!
Along with other doodles he puts up a new strip roughly Every second Monday.
That guy is prolific! Damn you DeForgeeeee!
Vincent Giard is another prolific talented surealistic cartoonist, he posts doodles and cartoons often here on his blog.
He also organises the 48 hour comics international festival
and leads the St-Hubert workshop; French language comics classes held in Montreal.
Jonathon Dalton is currenlty posting a short story called The Unconquerable City as a brake from his ongoing comic A Mad Hatter Tea Party.
And that’s it for today.
As always have a look at my own comic Dream life,
i’ve set up a new site for it with improved navigation to make reading easier.
And now for a comic moment of zen:
From Poutine, a “place for Noel Tuazon and Jason Coplandto experiment, sequentially speaking.” This is ’Cookie’ by Noel Tuazon.
10.Jan.2012 Call for submissions : Carte Blanche 15
There is more than one way to tell a story. Carte Blanche would like to know how you would
We’re taking submissions now for the spring issue. The submission deadline is March 1st - for publication in May.
There’s no theme for this issue, it’s wide open. Stories can be 1 to 25 pages long – If you want to hit us up with something longer write first before submitting.
We accept original, previously unpublished submissions through our online submission form ONLY.
See here for instructions. If you have problems using our submission form, please send us an email.
For comics/graphic fiction, we’ll consider work that has been published in a limited venue, say on your personal blog or via a small press local/regional publication. Work that has not had wide exposure.
For an idea of our editor’s taste [that would be me] check out the last few stories we’ve published. Stories by Daniel Ha, Ainsley Olsen, James Romberger, Shannon Wheeler, Nina Bunjevac, Mara Sternberg, & Dustin Harbin.
Last issue we had a really strong batch of stories submitted, looking forward to what people send in this time!
