Posts Tagged "can-con"

04.Jun.2013 The 2013 Joe Shuster Award Nominees

19.Apr.2013 Conundrum Press | 5 books for TCAF, team ups with Koyama & D+Q

Nova Scotia based Conundrum Press’s summer line press proudly declares they are “stepping up their game”, rolling out five titles at TCAF. Three authored by Doug Wright Award winners and two by featured guests of the festival.

One of those guests is Michel Rabagliati. His latest translated work, Paul Joins the Scouts will be a heavy hitter for Conundrum  likely, especially given the added attention of his DWA nomination this year for The Song of Roland. Also from the BDANG line is Obituary Man. The third book to be translated from the French from Quebec City native Philippe Girard.

Another featured guest, this one appearing for the first time in Canada is Hong Kong artist Chihoi. In support of his first book in English, The Library. A book of Kafkaesque stories, it’s the inaugural release under Conundrum International Imprint.

The Grey Museum is a galactic romp from former Doug Wright Award winner, Toronto native and recently, record shop proprietor, Lorenz Peter. And Science Fiction is the follow-up to Joe Ollmann’s widely popular Mid-Life which was nominated for a Doug Wright Award. Montreal-based Ollmann won the Doug Wright Award in 2007 for This Will All End in Tears.

Conundrum & Koyama Press are teaming up for the launch of two graphic novels, both by artists being published in English for the first time.  The Library by Chihoi will be presented with Journal by Julie Delporte at Librairie Drawn & Quarterly on Tuesday, May 14, at 7PM.

Conundrum’s publisher Andy Brown says he thinks it’s a significant event in part because it brings the three prominent Canadian publishers  Conundrum, Koyama, and Drawn & Quarterly together under one roof for a day, ”…all the Canadian comics publishers together in harmony”.

 

17.Apr.2013 Scott Thompson is this year’s Doug Wright Awards host

The Doug Wright Awards announced today that actor/comedian Scott Thompson [Kids in the Hall & Hannibal] will be the host for its 9th annual awards ceremony on Saturday, May 11, 2013 in Toronto!

One of the founding member of The Kids in the Hall, Thompson is known for his starring roles in the CBC Television show Death Come to Town, appearances on HBO’s The Larry Sanders Show, the 1996 feature film Brain Candy, and most recently is part of the cast of the NBC series Hannibal playing a forensics specialist!

He’s also a practiced host of awards, having done so for Canada`s Genie Awards in 2004, So if there was any doubt that the mind behind Buddy Cole would have any problem roasting. Hah! It should make for a fun night!

“With his outrageous sense of humour and impeccable comic timing, Scott is a perfect fit to helm our annual awards ceremony,” said Doug Wright Awards Director Brad Mackay. “As a long-time fan of his work on The Kids in the Hall and The Larry Sanders Show, I couldn’t be more happy that he`s agreed to lend his talents and time to our event. Welcome aboard!”

For more information, visit wrightawards.ca.

And now some Buddy…

 

Scott also has a very fun podcast, you should subscribe!

11.Apr.2013 The last week for Dracula Son of the Dragon, the kickstarter needs your help!

Full disclosure, this if a personal project of the publisher of this site.

Mark Sable (Graveyard of Empires, Unthinkable) and our own Salgood Sam (Sea of Red, Therefore Repent!) would like to tell you a story, about how the young prince of wallachia lots his soul and became Bram Stokers’ Dracula.

The book is called Dracula Son of the Dragon. To help get it started they’ve been holding a Kickstarter drive to fund the first book of a four part series.

Described as starting in young Vlad’s childhood, “he will learn hard early lessons in politics and betrayal, as a young prince in his native Wallachia. As a prisoner of the Ottoman Turks, how to inflict pain and instill fear in his enemies. And of the dark arts in a scholomance hidden on Lake Hermannstadt.”

Their Kickstarter got off to a great start but is in need of some help to make it’s goal. They are looking to raise 14k, to fund getting the book drawn, and pay for special editions created for the drive. With the bulk of the fund going to supporting Salgood Sam while he draws the book. A case of being able to directly back an independent creator while they make a book for you, personally!

They have a smart set of rewards that include a range of limited editions – drive only trade paperbacks, hand bound soft and hard leather bound editions. Art is on the table, writing chores, walk on parts for a few. One backer is even having Mark read the story to them poolside and getting swimming lessons!

Both creators have a track record in mainstream and independent comics of producing strong work. Dracula is a totally independent production, with the initial planned limited print editions being put out by Salgood’s boutique imprint Spilt Ink exclusively, And slated to be serialized in Salgood’s Revolver Quarterly for the general audience.

The same roof under which his upcoming graphic novel Dream Life will be released. Scheduled to drop at TCAF 2013 in Toronto, May 17-18th. A nearly full preview of Dream Life can be read online. It’s a different genre but contains some beautiful examples of his work. He completed that book as well with the help of a successful funding drive on Indiegogo, making this his second crowdfunding venture.

The Kickstarter dive is ending on the 17th of April, if they fall short of the goal it’s going to be by a slim margin, Mark and Sam are considering trying again there in that case, or using indiegogo perhaps. But would much rather entertain your pledges now to make it the first time.

21.Mar.2013 The 2013 Doug Wright Awards short-list

A feature event at TCAF, The Doug Wright Awards announced their 2013 finalists this morning.

The 9th annual awards short-list includes established creators, past winners, and many first-time nominees. They also unveiled the official poster drawn by 2012 Best Book Award winner & 2013 nominee, Ethan Rilly.

The 2013 Doug Wright Award nominees for Best Book are:

• Lose #4 by Michael DeForge (Koyama Press)
• By This Shall You Know Him by Jesse Jacobs (Koyama Press)
• The Song of Roland by Michel Rabagliati (Conundrum Press)
• Pope Hats #3 by Ethan Rilly (AdHouse Books)
• Wax Cross by Tin Can Forest (Koyama Press)

The 2013 Doug Wright Spotlight Award nominees are:
(a.k.a. “The Nipper” recognizing talents worthy of wider recognition)

• Nina Bunjevac for Heartless (Conundrum Press)
• Brandon Graham for King City (Image Comics)
• Patrick Kyle for Black Mass, Distance Mover, Wowee Zonk #4
• George Walker for The Mysterious Death of Tom Thomson (The Porcupine’s Quill)
• Eric Kostiuk Williams for Hungry Bottom Comics

The 2013 Pigskin Peters Award nominees are:
(Recognizing the best in experimental and avant-garde comics)

• Hamilton Illustrated by David Collier (Wolsak & Wynn)
• Hellberta #2 and “Sir Softly” from š! #12, by Michael Comeau
• Michael DeForge, Larry Eisenstein, Jesse Jacobs, Mark Laliberte (editor), Marc Ngui, Ethan Rilly, Tin Can Forest and Magda Trzaski for 4PANEL, a special comics features in Carousel Magazine #28 and #29
• Ginette Lapalme for “So, what should we do with ourselves?…” from Wowee Zonk #4 and  “Little Stump” in š! #12

The Giants of the North: The Canadian Cartoonists Hall of Fame announce that the Quebec cartoonist Albert Chartierwill be posthumously inducted uring the May 11, 2013 ceremony in Toronto. Chartier died in 2004 ending an extraordinary career that lasted more than 65 years during which he drew several popular comic strips including Séraphin, Les Canadiens and Onésime. Onésime is his most well-known work, running for 59 years from November 1943 until June 2002.

About the DWA: Founded in 2004, The Doug Wright Awards recognize the best in English-language comics (or translations of French) by Canadian cartoonists. Now in their ninth year, the Awards will be handed out at a ceremony at Toronto’s Marriott Bloor Yorkville Hotel on Saturday May 11 from 7:00 – 9:00 pm.

The Doug Wright Awards will also be holding a fundraising auction of original art this spring by more than a dozen well-known Canadian cartoonists, including Chester Brown, Seth, Michael DeForge, Michael Cho, John Martz, David Collier and David Boswell.

The finalists for the 2013 Doug Wright Awards were chosen from a long list of more than 120 100 works and submissions published during the 2012 calendar year. This year’s nominating committee included Jerry Ciccoritti, Seth, Bryan Munn, Chris Randle and Sean Rogers.

 For more information about the DWAs:
www.wrightawards.ca

 

Media inquiries: Shireen Cuthbert sfcuthbert@gmail.com

18.Mar.2013 Panel Recordings and Pictures of HobbyStar Toronto ComiCON

Jamie Coville, independent roving comics reporter,

sent us his selection of recordings and photos from the recent convention.

Ty Templeton’s How To Write a Graphic Novel (47:32, 43.5mb)

Ty gave a shortened version of the workshops he gives at his Comic Book Boot Camp. while walking around and engaging the audience. Ty is an excellent teacher, I’ll be putting this one on my ipod myself to hear what he has to say.

Mike Zeck Spotlight (40:00, 36.6mb)

Moderated by Fred Kennedy, Mike Zeck talks about his career and doing licensing work vs drawing comic book stories. I’ll give you a guess of a hint having not yet listened, it involves something that looks like a marked up S?

Sketch Duel: Mike McKone and Lee Weeks (50:34, 46.3mb)

Mike McKone and Lee Weeks draw the Hulk for the sketch duel while people in the audience give  suggestions? Thankfully, being a recording, while they sketch they answered some questions for the audience too.  The panel was moderated by Fred Kennedy too. He’s good so it should be a decent listen.

Sketch Panel: Joe Jusko (53:03, 48.6mb)

Scheduled to be a sketch duel between Joe Jusko and Mark Texeira but Texeira did not show up so Joe talks while he draws on his own.  No mention of moderator for this one.

Jamie Coville hosts these and much more on his site here.

17.Mar.2013 C-List: Spokescreature Bun Toons and other fun things

Been a busy week in a busy month in a, well you get the idea. Work on Dream Life still fills my days but not for much longer! And the wheels are up for the Dracula kickstarter on Monday. Busy busy. Glad for the occasional distractions from my friends. Such as these.

Item! Ty has new Buntoons! “Now that DC Comics has replaced their nearly-always-dead-Robin the Boy Wonder with Casper the Friendly Ghost, I thought it might be a nice opportunity to look back at a few other corporate, and institutional, mascots that have been replaced over the years.  It’s a fascinating history.”

Item! COLOSSE NEWS! “SHOCK REVELATION: the new COLOSSUS is called HOUBA PLUS”.

It contains new comics by Catherine Lamontagne-Drolet, Francois Samson-Dunlop, Carlos Vezina, Sara Hache, Sophie Bédard, Tuan Bui, Samantha Leriche-Gionet, David Turgeon, Vincent Giard and Luc Bossé. The limited run collection is dedicated to Mael Rannou.

Item! Gerhard reveals the cover of the Cerebus comic book that Oliver Ho and Sam Noir are contributing to.

Item! Colin Upton would like you to check out his tumblr. He’s posting a great deal of his back catalog there now.

Item! Rick Trembles shared an alternate version of the Motion Picture Purgatory strip he just did for Lech (Born to Lose: The Last Rock & Roll Movie) Kowalski’s new anti-fracking doc, DRILL BABY DRILL: “This is how revolutions start” -director Lech Kowalski

Item! Bernie Mireault has started a tumblr too!

“I plan to show the comic art I’ve done here but for a first post I’d like to put up a collaborative effort put together between 8 Montreal cartoonists years ago for a slick color magazine commemorating the redesign of the Austin Mini automobile, of all things! - I got to color the whole thing as well as contribute a sequence and I think it’s a successful collaboration that deserves to be shown again.”

Item! Andy Belanger got all Artsy on InnerSPACE hanging Shakespeare.

Item! Dave Cooper hanging in New York!

 

 

16.Mar.2013 Camosun College announces its first annual comics conference in Victoria BC

Comics & Graphic Novels Program at Camosun College announces its first annual comics conference!

Camosun College comics conference is a celebration of the artistic and literary impact of comics and graphic novels created locally, nationally, and internationally. The event is open to the public, free of charge, to view the students’ works, hear and see the process of visual storytelling, and discuss the medium with the creators, teachers, publishers, and other fans. It will take place on Sunday, April 7th from 11am until 6pm, on the third floor of the historic Young Building, on Camosun’s Lansdowne campus.

Our sixteen students will be in attendance in an “artists alley” display of their publications and original artwork. There will also be displays by established local creators Gareth Gaudin, Janine Johnston, Nelson Dewey, Ash Vickers, Glen Mullaly, Simon Roy, and Glen & Kay Lovett, as well as presentations by guest speakers Paul Chadwick (Concrete), Anne Marie Fleming (The Magical Life of Long Tak Sam), Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas (Haida Manga), and Sam Logan (Sam & Fuzzy).

Comics & Graphic Novels, a program unique in the Canadian post-secondary school system, was created to address the needs of students who have a desire to learn the language of visual storytelling. The program focuses on skills-based training for six career paths, which include creation (both in print and online) of comic books, comic strips, web comics, graphic novels, storyboards, and edutainment comics. Currently offering a one-year certificate, a two-year diploma credential will launch in the fall of 2014, which will continue the program’s focus on experiential skills-building specific to the requirements of the industry.

For more information please contact:

KEN STEACY
Program Leader, Comics & Graphic Novels
steacyk@camosun.bc.ca
www.camosun.ca/comics

Ken Steacy has worked in the comics industry for close to forty years as an author, illustrator, art director, editor, and publisher. The recipient of an Eisner and an Inkpot award, he was inducted into the Joe Shuster Awards Hall of Fame in 2009, a lifetime achievement award honouring Canadian comic book creators for their contributions to the industry.

03.Mar.2013 C-list – all the pretty pictures

Max here, thought i’d put in a post, we’ve been slow with the updates lately. Maybe a good time to also mention we’re always open to context appropriate guest blogging here at Sequential, if you’re interested in generally unpaid writing opportunities check out our about page to get out mandate and let us know if you have a story.

Item: Starting off this line up of links underlining the update we made a little while ago to our post about Joe Ollmann‘s next book, now called Science Fiction, previously Burden. Now being published by Conundrum, previously D+Q. The book moved from D+Q to Conundrum and re-titled ”Science Fiction” after D+Q backed out. Joe noted on his blog, “my latest book called Burden was supposed to come out from Drawn & Quarterly in January. It didn’t. They feel this book is not a good follow up to Midlife and decided not to publish it. I think Burden is a good book which is decidedly more serious in tone than the farce quality of Midlife, but it’s the book I want to do right now. So, the book is now being published by my old friend the good Andy Brown at Conundrum Press, and should debut at TCAF in May. As the book was already listed in catalogues and websites, we decided to change the name to simplify the publishing process.” – Kind of surprising D+Q backed away from something more serious? I guess i’ll have to reset some of my own assumptions about them. I’ve got a preview of the new book from Joe and plan to sit down with it soon with posting a review in mind.

Item: Three [1][2][3] sweet panels out of 4 from The Happy Undertaker, by written and illustrated by Drazen Kozjan.

Item: Rick Trembles says Happy 80th birthday King Kong! A film produced by a great, great great? Cousin as it happens.

Item: A clipping of a profile of Valium in the french press about his 35 years making art. Posted here first.

Item: Alan Bunce shared The Exciting Conclusion of his latest Funny Forest series! You can go read the whole 87 pages now!

Item: The Comic Book Lounge & Gallery, just after it’s 1 year anniversary of opening, threw lots of parties, and have really established themselves as one of the prime comics masons of Toronto in a very short time. Happy birthday and a bit guys.

Item: On youtube my old buddy George sat down with Jeff Lemire to discusses his approach to Animal Man and his work on Superboy.

Item: Over on the Fredcast, Fred had a great talk with writer Conor McCreery, of Kill Shakespeare fame.

Item: Once a great curmudgeon about the internet, Colin Upton has a tumbler page now!

Item: Nina Bunjevac posted the cover for the new french edition of her book, Heartless, to appear in April from Ici-Meme, and some more examples of her great rendering skill with this shot of Zemun, Serbia.

And there you have it. Keep up with all the little bits here on our page on Facebook, most of this was all posted there first. And in case you haven’t already follow us here on twitter.

For my own bit I’ve been busy, Dream Life comes very near being done, had the pleasure of illustrating something connected with Dr Daniel Levitin! Cool. Also had fun taking a swing at Lichtenstein for the IMAGE DUPLICATOR show being put on by Rian Hughes. Check this FB group to see more about that. See you after the page turn! – max

 

11.Feb.2013 Flashback: Arken Sword no.21, 1987

I own one of 500 copies of this 80s UK zine, a cherished item. Bought it new back in the day.

It featured large B&W reproductions of some of my favorite artists’ inks. Picked it up to study their lines.

Growing up in Toronto I also took note of this issue as it contained a section about home town talent.

“Mister X” feature with Chris Kelly art 1pg, Dean Motter & Seth interview with photo from UKCAC 1986 3pg, Dave McKean “Mister X” three-panel strip (“I asked Dave for a Mr X illo. The illo turned into a 3-page strip, which he has sent to Vortex on spec”) 1/2pg,

cover – 1, 2, 3, 4.

PausePlayPlayPrev|Next

seath and dean stylin

Cover of Arken Sword no.21, 1987

Mister X

Dean Motter

Seath

Seath

09.Feb.2013 C-list in the snow

Max here, waiting for the sun to come up so I can see how bad the balconies are and dig them out. We’ve been spotty getting back into posting the C-lists, here’s a summery of things we’ve posted on our Facebook page that are still relevant/current…

Item: Much as William Moulton Marston was in his day, Dr Will Brooker was tired of seeing female characters in pop culture that fell short of his ideals, overly relied on tight cloths, high heals and physical attributes. So he set out to invent a new icon. ‘My So-Called Secret Identity‘ [site is not up yet but their Facebook page is], drawn by Suze Shore, is the tale of Cat Abigail Daniels, the smartest person in Gloria City. She remembers everything she reads, sees how everything connects. And she’s getting tired of pretending, hiding, acting dumb to save other people’s feelings. If they won’t take her seriously as Catherine Abigail Daniels, the student and cop’s kid, maybe they’ll take her seriously in a costume. Looks pretty good, I like the primes and goals a lot.

Item: Due to the SNOW, Sherwin’s Toronto launch of Serial Villan has been postponed until March. He spent the evening playing video games in his hotel room. Sounds like his idea of a nice evening off!

Item:  In the bigger picture of north american comic, CNET posted “Bizarro world! Print comics boom as digital sales rise. The common wisdom is that as a medium goes digital, the physical sales plummet. But when it comes to comic books, the common wisdom needs a new guru.” – read the full story here.

Item:  On counterpoint to some extent, Robin at Inkstuds has a fantastic interview with teacher writer and comic artist Stephen Bissette. They talk for three hours, broken up into two parts about a lot of things. In all seriousness this is one of the best big picture views of the highs and lows of making comics today. Between his own time working at DC to his front row seat watching the current generation of creators he helps to train at CCS, If you want to make comics go listen to this. If you already make comics, go listen. If you gave up, yeah, go listen. Part 1 – Part 2.

Item: In Afin de subventionner adéquatement les auteurs, ”To adequately subsidize authors”, du Journal Montréal’s DB blogger Jean-Dominic Leduc posted last month about the so far unsuccessful attempts of Voro to get backing for a comics project relating to the province of Quebec. The post is mostly an open letter to ACC & CALQ, requesting an increase in funding of their grants for the medium. Check it out, and if you’re a fan or practitioner of comics in Quebec, consider writing your own letter, emails are provided in the post. More funding for comics! It’s a good idea. More posts by Jean-Dominic can be found here.

Item: Thumbs up review here from CBR for the big finally of the Rotoworld storyline, and Andy Belanger’s first DCU story/job. I had the pleasure of reading it a day early while scanning some old art and suffering a sugar crash. I haven’t been following the books so it was a bit of being dropped smack in the middle of madness, Andy should have played me some of his metal i think!  Would have gone well with this.  Art is good stuff, solid as always. Colors a bit heavy handed, did not help in distinguishing the detail in Andy’s stuff. First are always a little disappointing. I’ll bet they had to be done in a week or something. Crazy. Yanick Paquette’s Cover art looks really nice on the review site, unfortunate about the ‘graphics’ on the printed edition. Congrats for a very respectable first DC headliner Andy!

Item: Editions TRIP are proud to announce they will publish Billy Mavreas latest book : TIBONOM, 80 amazing pages of wordless comics for all ages. Featuring an introduction by, Joe Ollmann.

Item: Kevin A. Boyd on the Shuster blog posted this link to an article for the Hamilton Spectator, about Aram Alexanian’s contributions to Canadian and American Golden Age Comics before he went to work for the family carpet business. It includes a discussion of the Canadian Whites Walter Durajlija & Ivan Koczmarek.

Item[s]:  A positive review of Salgood Sam’s [yes that's me!] Revolver Quarterly, from Rachel Fenton, a reader of the digital edition in New Zealand. All places equal distant on the internet. Éric Thériault has a new facebook page to like,  Jai Granofsky posted some fun new doodles on his blog, George Todorovski posted a cool ‘Regulators’ trailer for Visionary Comics; A comic he worked on “a while back”.  Kalman Andrasofszky joined a collective! This is from their most recent show. Sleeping Lion Heart. Acrylic and silver leaf on wood. 3′x4′ – with the plywood collective for their “HEROES” exhibit. Ramon Perez sightings at Angouleme! Here and here. Having fun doing a victory lap in the EU. Check out this cool set of photos by and of David Boswell: Cartoonist, Photographer, Illustrator, Jaded Roué. Oh hey, it’s the Comic Book Lounge’s 1st Anniversary Minicon and Industry Night today! Congratulations guys!

Ok, sun is up, time for some food and morning exercise! Keep up with us on our facebook page here.

 

23.Nov.2012 CBC Documentaries: Drawn and Quarterly; King of the Graphic Novel

From The Sunday Edition, with  Michael Enright. Co: David Gutnick.

While the future of the book is in question, and independent Canadian publishers struggle just to stay afloat, Drawn and Quarterly is thriving.

In the earl 90s Chris Oliveros wanted the comic strips that he and friends drew to find a larger audience. On that kitchen table, he put together the first issues of a little magazine he called Drawn and Quarterly. Now D and Q is one of hottest publishers of graphic novels on the planet. David Gutnick’s documentary about them is called Graphic Chicken Soup for the Graphic Soul. 21 minutes 33 seconds.

Player appears after the bump.

(more…)

30.Oct.2012 C-List | the facebook roundup

It seems we all have more time to post casually on FB this past week than on the blog. So here’s a roundup of things that caught the sequential crews’ eye recently…

Item: 7 days left to get on board as a backer for True Patriot!

Item: 3 days left to pre-order Revolver for $10.

Item: Conor McCreery from Kill Shakespeare was on Main Street [halifax cbc radio show] talking about their popular book series and how they came up with the idea.

Item: Frozen Light Comics Presents Canada’s Newest batch of Superheroes for an all ages audience.

Item: Son Of Gothra: A new Indy comic by Fred Kennedy & Jeff Brown, art by Vincent Sunico &  Charles Prichett, cover by Kalman Andrasofszky. “Abrax is capture by the feared Imperial General Findalpha and begins his transition from tribal raider to stallion of the arenas. The slave of an Empire in turmoil, Abrax of Gothra must navigate his way through the intrigue of the courts and the violence of the arena.”

Item: Brad Mackay suggests If you’re in the Burlington, Ontario region Friday you should go to this.

Item: Becky Cloonan said : A little preview of Swamp Thing Annual, where we lull you into a false sense of security with all the cute romance. Written by Scott Snyder, out Wednesday. The issue features some bits by her beau, Andy Belanger.

Item: Eugene Zhilinsky said: “We did it! The latest (and already popular!) novel of Editions Tchai – Rock Testament – even better than our pilot version we did last year – it’s twice thicker, printed on better paper and has nicer cover color. This is the whole cinch of printing a big run offset. This book was already presented at TCAF 2012. More in our blog here.”

Item: Mirror Comics posted a preview of MISSION ARIZONA 2 here.

Item: The Drink & Draw Montréal site is seeking new bloggers and content creators.

Item: And speaking of Jams, the Ottawa, Montreal, and Picton Comic jams are coming up. The Toronto comic jam book for September 25, 2012 has been posted here.

Item: La Mauvaise Tête presents “Pinkerton”. by Alexandre Fontaine Rousseau & Francois Samson-Dunlop. Two newly single friends, sleeping away their failures, discover that their troubles have something to do with a nostalgic affection for the music of the 1990s. An album of this period holds their attention in particular. Will they finally overcome his bad influence? Pinkerton was a great success as a zine. A bittersweet comedy about love, music and drunken nights that end around a poutine. The Graphic novel includes an afterword by Nicolas Tittley. 176 pages, black and white. French text. In stores November 2012.

Item: Also, Les recrues de l’année | The rookies of the year. News about the studio of La Mauvaise Tête. A tight crew of talented Montrealers.

Item: NSFW: Rick finally gave in, and has done a brand new Motion Picture Purgatory for Noboru (Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead) Iguchi’s DEAD SUSHI: “How to Get Rid of Vaginal Odor!”

Item:  Colin Upton wrote: “I have unleashed my pent-up drawing comics rage! Ah! Finished the art of another new mini-comic, this one the first Famous Bus Rides in more than a decade! This one is drawn on black paper with black, white and grey coloured pencils. It’s the story about being stranded in the urban Hellscape of Columbus, Ohio while being too cheap to take a cab!” One assumes you can acquire the book from here.

Item: Robin McNerdel of Inkstuds said: “Hey, I posted an interview with Michael Deforge. I like that guy, and so should you!”

And that’s not even all of it. We’ve been very active on the Facebook fan page, come check it out, like, and keep up on the latest of Canadian comics!

12.Oct.2012 C-List | press fundraising publishing improvising conventioning & the other things

Max here. This is a roundup of things me and the rest of the Sequential crew have been posting the fan page.

Item:  Samuel Agro told us he contributed to an anthology from Alterna comics called Horror in the West, which hits the stands wednesday  They got a very favorable review on Horror Talk.

Item: NYCC: IDW Announce Kill Shakespeare: The Tide of Blood – on Comics Beat!

Item: The Evolution of “The Art of Todd McFarlane” – Part 1 – on Comic Book Resources

Item: CBR TV: Hope Larson Talks “A Wrinkle In Time” – Video on Comic Book Resources

Item: NYCC 2012 – Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World Vol. 2 Collector’s Edition on Sale – on Graphic Policy

Item:  Keith Grachow  posts some great digital paintings, portraits and characters.

 

05.Oct.2012 Comic Book Review: Lose #4

Lose #4
by Michael DeForge
44 pages, b&w interior, colour softcover
Koyama Press
ISBN: 978-0-9879630-0-0
$8.00

“This Isn’t An X-Ray. This Is An Ink Drawing.”

review by BK Munn

Once I had a small, raised mole on my shoulder. I’m not sure when it first appeared or if it had been increasing in size for some time, or what. I just know that I wasn’t born with it. At one point it wasn’t there, and then it was . After I became aware of its existence, I couldn’t stop touching it, couldn’t stop being hyper-aware of it. And then, just as I was getting up the nerve to see a doctor about it, fearing skin cancer or something worse, it was gone. I’m not sure if it just fell off or if my incessant fussing somehow had something to do with it (Did I lance it or otherwise remove it forcefully by accident, say while getting dressed? Did I probe it in my sleep?), but it was gone. What I remember is that when I instinctively checked for it one morning, all that remained was a tiny pinhole-sized indent. Today there is no evidence that I ever had any sort of growth in that space, just on the back of the shoulder joint. When I look at or feel my shoulder, I can’t even sense any difference from the skin around it. No hole. No scar. No blemish. I don’t know. Do moles do that? Maybe it was a cyst or some manifestation of benign carcinoma. I’m not a dermatologist so I can’t tell you. It looked and felt like a mole to me. A tiny little brownish-pink mole. But here’s the part that bothered me most: when I looked at the little hole where it where it had been, and I had to use a magnifying glass and a mirror to really see this, all that remained was a reddish-pink well at the bottom of which appeared to be tiny white filaments or roots.

Reader, the hair on my head still stands up just thinking about it!

The idea that this mysterious growth had roots or tubes extending down into my body, beyond my knowledge or control, was and is a source of a very specific form of extreme horror for me, a horror that is occasionally reawakened, probed, and stoked to an intense furnace heat by certain triggers, intentionally or unwittingly encountered. Medical photos and film can do it. Dreams can do it. And the infrequent work of art can do it.

Such is the case with the comics of Michael DeForge, whose Lose #4 has just been published by Koyama Press. Deforge has carved out a wide space for himself in the school of unnerving cartoon art, majoring in nihilistic humour and deadpan irony, with a minor in sexually-tinged body horror. Several of the pieces in this handsome square-bound comic book, which showcases many of the by now already-signature DeForge design hallmarks (heavy metal lettering, heavy use of solid blacks, and playful, exquisitely-paced variations on the nine-panel grid format), elicit the very same hair-standing-on-end, skin-rippling frisson of terror that the best examples of the genre are known for. Subitled “The Fashion Issue,” Lose #4 tackles themes of costume, ritual and social anxiety through a trio of adolescent coming-of-age narratives that share a fascination with bizarre exoskeletons, extreme body modification, and pop culture.

In “Someone I Know,” Deforge spins the noir tale of a university freshman who falls in with a group of older students and their film studies professor who all seem to be habitues of a fetish club that, in a Cronenbergian twist, turns out to be a front for a transhumanist cult based around a bondage gear virus. DeForge’s hero is propelled through the narrative by a sexual desperation tinged with a Holden Caulfield-esque fear of the “cheesy and lame”, his confusion and our growing unease amplified by the speed of events and his own loss of physical control, delineated with images alternating between psychedelic and textbook illustration clarity, and the near-relentless pacing of the nine-panel grid.

“Canadian Royalty: Their Lifestyles and Fashions” is another mockumentary in the style of DeForge’s 2010 Spotting Deer (the titular deer even makes a few cameo appearances here). This time out, the cartoonist tackles a different aspect of Canuck culture in the form of a Through-the-Looking-Glass style anthropological study of our political system and its monarchy, a caste of elongated, exoskeleton-wearing cannibalistic inbreds tasked with overseeing some of the more outre aspects of national life like The Annual Ontario Skin Peeling Ceremony, Horse Flogging Competitions, and Shame Services. DeForge’s approach here is to describe the mating and seccession rituals of his self-mutilating tribe through the use of rows of tiny little panels, like the frames of a film strip, juxtaposed with mock-serious historical narration, “archival” footage, reenactments, and a handful of larger drawings or portraits of the Royals, the result of which reads like a homage/parody of Seth (fake history with tons of elaborately-designed shields and crests) crossed with a disturbing NFB production (the National Film Board logo actually makes a cameo, detourned to become the mascot of The Canada Council of Aestethics aka Cat Parliament, the agency charged with designing costumes for the Royals). The whole thing ping-pongs between winking humour (in-jokes referring to fellow cartoonists and free-associated place names and characters stolen from real Canadian scandals and history) and disgusting imagery in a very satisfying package.

Besides a few one-pagers dealing with cartoon porn and fumbling adolescent attempts at sexuality and conformity, the book is rounded out with “The Sixties,” an eight-pager narrated by the teenage Diane, a small-town rebel on the verge of escape to the larger world and college. The only vegetarian in school “who even cares about politics and cool bands,” this rural Ontario proto-punker is hampered by the disfiguring stigmata that affects every human and animal down to the smallest insect in her town, the chilling affliction known as “Staceyface,” apparently the legacy of a messianic 1960s guru. Here DeForge gets his queasy effects by the contrasting of Diane’s diary-like rants with a straight-ahead cartoon tour of her town and environs, Lynda Barry style, if Lynda Barry wrote for Warren magazines in the 70s.

All in all, Lose #4 is another subtle, creepy collection from a creator who is just starting to exercise all of the mysterious body parts available to him as a cartoonist.

preview

 

27.Sep.2012 The C-List : The Facebook editon

Been spending a little more time than ussual on Facebook
the last week, promoting a crowdfunder.

In my spare moments collecting stories that float by
and posting them to our page a lot, here’s the last few days worth…

Item!: Bernie Mireault has posted a great long entry about his attending the latest Montreal Comic Con, and joining the EN MASSE crew there for the weekend. He was a regular at the Montreal Comic Jams over the years, he introduced me to them in fact. Sounds like he had a lot of fun with it. And he’s got photos of George Perezz painting with the EN MASSE crew too! Like Zoro!

Item!: New Snail is open, look forward to checking it out next time i’m in Toronto [been a long time since i had a good reason to be on that part of Young] in the mean time Ty took his kids and got to be the first customers, again!

Item!: Photos of a “drawing concert” with Philippe Girard, Todd Picard, Reine Du Mambo, Mathieu Girard, Fred Lebrasseur and Joe Ollmann!

Item!: J.Torres has been posting notices about contributors to his new comcis antholagy and Indigogo project True Patirot. Here’s linkts to their Facebook Page, and posts about  Howard Wong & Adrian Alphona, Tom Fowler, Agnes Garbowska, Jay Stephens, J. Bone, Jack Briglio & Ron Salas, Ramon Perez, Andy B, Scott Chantler, Faith Erin Hicks, and the book itself [1st]. Their funding drive on Indiegogo goes live Monday, October 1st.

Item!: Cameron Stewart has been putting up a lot of new pages of Sin Titulo on a regular bassis latley, I’m way behind. Also a bunch of new pin up sketches too.

Item!: My own little fund raiser goes well, but still the last 3rd to go. Check out the trailer, pitch clip, and perks, and consider supporting it?

20.Sep.2012 The C-List: Back to School

Around here we’re allways a little tardy, too busy out back first period smoking and playing Jacks.

~

Item! Dave Sim Responds, at length of course, to expressed publishing interest from Fantagraphics. Fantagraphics publishes his relopy in it’s entirety because that’s just how these guys roll [he said no, sort of] – Long time readers flash back to the letters pages and forums of TCJ yore.

Item! Via Evan at andoneshallsurelydie comes news of a planned anthology edited by J. Torres on the theme of Canadian superheroes entitled True Patriot. That sounds like fun!

Item! Speaking of superheroes, Faith Erin Hicks will be taking her popular newspaper strip and webcomic Superhero Girl to Darkhorse. Brigid Alverson at the Robot 6 blog interviews her about the strip.

Item! blogto.com posted a list of The Best Comic Shops in Toronto, including winner of this years Harry Kremer Award for Outstanding Comic Book Retailer [JSA], the Silver Snail [#2 on the blog to list], and The Comic Book Lounge and Gallery [#3], were winner of the JSA for Outstanding Comic Book Cartoonist Ramón K Pérez picked up his plaque [as seen in photo to the left]. Number one is the always classy Beguiling.

Items! I have not had time to curate a Hey Kids Comix! post in a while. Here’s some comics and webcomics review sites i’ve noticed online to help make up for that a little: Robbmirsky; YourWebcomics, Webcomic reviews, creator interviews; Dungeon Crawler, a rpg themed comic by a large group of rotating contributors including an old school mate of mine, George Todorovski!

Item! I met the guys behind Mirror Comics in passing at the Montreal Comic Con last week, they are appearing at CAN CON this coming weekend. Check out their line, here’s their schedule for the show.

Item! Speaking of which, CAN CON is this coming weekend! I hear it’s a nice little show on it’s way to being not so little. Wish i’d have had the forethought to budget a visit. Check it out and tweet us what you think of it!

Ok, that’s it for now, except this.

As well as being the publisher and sometimes blogger here [Bryan really does most of the heavy lifting these days], I’m also a creator myself. I often feel awkward about posting about my own stuff on this site but a little bit now and then is fair I think? Right now I’m trying to get the word out as wide as I can, about my Indiegogo funding drive to complete my latest book and bring it to market. Here’s my pitch clip and if you like what you see, check out this link to contribute! Thanks – Salgood Sam

16.Sep.2012 8th Annual Joe Shuster Awards Winners

In a nice and short, bilingual ceremony on Saturday night, this years Joe Shuster Awards were presented.

The night was hosted by Jason Rockman Host/Animateur AMPED! With the Rockman CHOM 97.7 – Astral Radio & Catherine Smith-Desbiens, also of Astral Radio.

Full disclosure, I was one of the jurrors this year. Soon as i can get a full list of the rest of the juries, i’ll post it here it is, a full list of nominating and selecting juries, and support crew.

The Joe Shuster Awards are given annually for outstanding achievements in the creation of comic books, graphic novels and webcomics by Canadians. There are additional awards for Retailers and Publishers and a hall of fame. The Awards were first given April 2005. They are administered by the Canadian Comic Book Creator Awards Association, a not-for-profit formed in 2004. And they are named in honour of Joe Shuster (1914–1992), the Canadian-born co-creator of Superman!

 This years winner are….

11.Sep.2012 D+Q, Kate Beaton and Tale of Sand at the Harvey Awards

Co: joeshusterawards.com

Saturday night, Baltimore, the Harvey Awards announced the 2012 winners.

Kate Beaton won three, and Jim Henson’s Tale of Sand took two. Drawn & Quarterly was well represented as the publisher of Kate’s book, as well as best repackaged book for Clowes’ Death Ray.

From the official list of winners:

BEST WRITER – Mark Waid for “DAREDEVIL”, published by Marvel Comics

BEST ARTIST – J. H. Williams for “BATWOMAN”, published by DC Comics

BEST CARTOONIST – Kate Beaton for “HARK! A VAGRANT”, harkavagrant.com; printed edition published by Drawn and Quarterly

BEST INKER – Joe Rivera for “DAREDEVIL”, published by Marvel Comics

BEST COVER ARTIST – J. H. WILLIAMS for “BATWOMAN”, published by DC Comics

BEST LETTERER – Chris Eliopoulos for “FEAR ITSELF”, published by Marvel Comics

BEST COLORIST – Dave Stewart for “HELLBOY: THE FURY”, published by Dark Horse Comics

BEST NEW SERIES – “DAREDEVIL”, published by Marvel Comics

BEST CONTINUING OR LIMITED SERIES – “DAREDEVIL”, published by Marvel Comics

BEST ONLINE COMICS WORK – “HARK! A VAGRANT”, by Kate Beaton, harkavagrant.com; print edition published by Drawn and Quarterly

BEST SYNDICATED STRIP – “CUL DE SAC”, by Richard Thompson, syndicated by Universal Press Syndicate

BEST AMERICAN EDITION OF FOREIGN MATERIAL – “THE MANARA LIBRARY, VOLUME 1: INDIAN SUMMER AND OTHER STORIES”, published by Dark Horse Comics

MOST PROMISING NEW TALENT – Sara Pichelli, for “ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN”, published by Marvel Comics

SPECIAL AWARD FOR HUMOR IN COMICS – Kate Beaton for “HARK! A VAGRANT”, harkavagrant.com; printed edition published by Drawn and Quarterly

BEST ORIGINAL GRAPHIC PUBLICATION FOR YOUNGER READERS – “ANYA’S GHOST”, published by First Second

BEST ANTHOLOGY – “DARK HORSE PRESENTS”, published by Dark Horse Comics

BEST DOMESTIC REPRINT PROJECT – “WALT SIMONSON’S THE MIGHTY THOR, ARTIST’S EDITION”, published by IDW

BEST SINGLE ISSUE OR STORY – “JIM HENSON’S TALE OF SAND”, published by Archaia Entertainment

SPECIAL AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN PRESENTATION – “WALT SIMONSON’S THE MIGHTY THOR, ARTIST’S EDITION”, published by IDW

BEST ORIGINAL GRAPHIC ALBUM – “JIM HENSON’S TALE OF SAND”, published by Archaia Entertainment

BEST BIOGRAPHICAL, HISTORICAL OR JOURNALISTIC PRESENTATION – “GENIUS ISOLATED: THE LIFE AND ART OF ALEX TOTH”, published by IDW

BEST GRAPHIC ALBUM PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED – “THE DEATH RAY”, published by Drawn and Quarterly

 

05.Sep.2012 A Catching up C-list

Some Items from over the workmen’s holidays.

I was off camping for one night, but mostly just flaked out at home for a week. You? These are some links i’ve bookmarked or came my way via the streams…

Item: Little bit of self promo. I gave a talk on a few of the different processes I use to a comics class taught by Kelly Tindall at synstudio recently. Showing how I go about building pages up from scrip to final art, and some thoughts about alternates to grid layouts that I like to play with. You can watch it here! Also half of it is a Q&A session, how do you get noticed [tell me if you figure it out!] how things have changed [i'm and old man] and who do you love! [notice i wore a tie?] Sigh. Need to do this more, get practice speaking publicly.

 More to come, but for now, go get some late summer sun!