25.Sep.2012 Wednesday: Comics Vs Art Booklaunch, Toronto
Comics Versus Art Book Launch
With author Dr. Bart Beaty
Wednesday, September 26th, 2012 @ 7PM
The Central, 603 Markham Street, Toronto
Free to attend!
Comics Versus Art: Comics in the Art World
by Bart Beaty
University of Toronto Press
ISBN-10: 1442612045
ISBN-13: 978-1442612044
On the surface, the relationship between comics and the ‘high’ arts once seemed simple; comic books and strips could be mined for inspiration, but were not themselves considered legitimate art objects. Though this traditional distinction has begun to erode, the worlds of comics and art continue to occupy vastly different social spaces.
Comics Versus Art examines the relationship between comics and the most important institutions of the art world; including museums, auction houses, and the art press. Bart Beaty’s analysis centres around two questions: why were comics excluded from the history of art for most of the twentieth century, and what does it mean that comics production is now more closely aligned with the art world? Approaching this relationship for the first time through the lens of the sociology of culture, Beaty advances a completely novel approach to the comics form.
07.Sep.2012 Friday Flashback: The Comic Shop, Vancouver, 1978
The Comic Shop
3638 West 4th Avenue
Vancouver
photo from c. 1978
click to enlarge
(you can clearly see some Marvel titles on the rack, including Howard the Duck and The Invaders, not to mention EC reprints and Pogo)
source: The First Vancouver Catalogue by Pam Harrison and Colin Dobson (Ensemble Publications, 1978)
27.Aug.2012 Let’s Help Sandeep
As a result of last week’s devastating fire in Waterloo, Aardvark-Vanaheim communications director Sandeep Atwal was left homeless.
I understand that not only the equipment and negatives being used for the Cerebus digital project but also Atwal’s collection of Dave Sim sketches and drawings, among other personal possessions, were destroyed.
When I contacted him via email, Atwal shrugged off his loss, noting he was physically okay and the things he had lost were “just stuff”. I’m sure he could use a bit of cheering up and maybe some new stuff?
Luckily, the Cerebus Fangirl blog has stepped up and started a Paypal donation fund for Atwal. Click here to “help Sandeep.”
17.Aug.2012 Friday Flashback: Paul Bunyan by Adrian Dingle
by BK Munn
Adrian Dingle (191-1974) is best known in comics circles as the creator of Nelvana of the Northern Lights, Canada’s first female superhero.
But Dingle had a long, post-comics career as a teacher, painter and illustrator, with tons of high-profile work published in Canadian magazines and books. Here he is working on another Canadian superhero of sorts, the legendary folk hero Paul Bunyan, in illustrations for Logging with Paul Bunyan by John D. Robins (The Ryerson Press, 1957). The author was a folklorist and University of Toronto professor.
21.Jul.2012 San Diego Panel Recordings and Pictures
Jamie Coville wrote us with the links for his haul of goodies.
He’s posted online a whooping 16 panels, and the Will Eisner Awards!
Job well done Jamie!
It’s all posted here, and 174 Photos here.
And he prepared the following post, pared with photos for us, after the jump…
17.Jul.2012 A C-list impostor | Is that an Atwood?
Item: Starting off the last C-list was news of Michael Deforge’s Ant Colony graphic novel being published by D&Q. Deforge has until now being published by Koyama Press, his Lose series continues to be. So for us canucks that was some big news.
But arguably the other name in the same cycle of pree SDCC press from D+Q merited a mention. It was Art Spiegelman. Drawn & Quarterly announced it acquired North American and UK rights to Spiegelman’s Co-Mix: A Retrospective Of Comics, Graphics And Scraps. An expanded English-language version of the bilingual edition published by Flammarion. The work began as a major museum retrospective appearing first at Angouleme during his recent presidency, and then moving to the Centre Pompidou in Paris. The show version will continue on to Cologne, Vancouver and New York City over the next several months. Co-Mix will be distributed in the US by Farrar, Straus & Giroux, in Canada by Raincoast and in the UK by PGUK. Matthew Bloomgarden of the Wylie Agency represented Spiegelman in negotiations.
Item: Evan A. posted a nice list of Canuck achievement for SDCC, here’s a synopsis; Captain Canuck Feature producers sign on a writer; D+Q gets infested with ants; Margaret Atwood cosplays as Margaret Atwood; One of a kind Merch from Jeff Lemire & Bryan Lee O’Malley; & Canada cleans up at the Eisners!
Item: Revisiting that last point, along with much deserved trophies for Darwyn Cooke’s work on Parker, D+Q’s edition of Shigeru Mizuki’s manga Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths, and The Dragon netting the retailer’s award, here are freind of the blog Ramón K Pérez’s trophies for Best Graphic Album – New & Best Penciller/Inker or Penciller/Inker Team. They also scooped Best Publication Design – the book was designed by Eric Skillman.
Item: Rachel Richey on Comic Syrup talks about Dustin Harbin’s ode to the DWA, “The Doug Wright Awards 2011: An Essay in Comics, by Some American”.
Item: Robin from Inkstuds has a new project, archiving lost obscure Canadian comics! Check out the Canadian Comics Archive, “A collection of rare, unusual, forgotten and inspiring Canadian comics history”.
12.Jul.2012 Terry Mosher petitions The Canada Council for the Arts
On the heels of the convention he hosted here in Montreal, Mosher is appealing to the Council to recognize cartooning formally and give the medium its own section in the grant structure.
He feels the form needs the support in light of the contracting print market, which calls for fewer political cartoons and strips. Right now the council funds Graphic Novels under the writing program, and would probably accept a cartoonist’s drawings under the arts. But cartooning and the publishing of cartooning is not recognized as its own art form yet. Sign the petition here if you like the idea.
04.Jul.2012 The C-List: Of Policarts, Prizes and Prints
The Vancouver Province
censored its political cartoonist
over threats from advertiser.
Item! The big news this past week is that The Vancouver Province censored its political cartoonist over threats from an advertiser. Cartoonist Dan Murphy created a video parody of an ad by Northern Gateway oil-pipeline company Enbridge and Enbridge threatened to pull a million dollars worth of advertising if the paper didn’t remove the cartoon from its website. The paper removed the cartoon, citing copyright infringement:
Murphy’s video used an Enbridge (TSX:ENB) ad extolling the virtues and safety of the Northern Gateway proposal, a highly controversial pipeline that would bring oilsands bitumen from Alberta to West Coast ports. The cartoonist took Enbridge’s original animated ad and undercut the pastel images of trees and happy families with occasional dollops of oil and interjected voice-overs.
Item! The controversy was on everybody’s lips this past weekend in Montreal, where the Association of Canadian Editorial Cartoonists had its annual meeting. The meeting was also the occasion for the launch of a new exhibit on Quebec’s policart tradition, titled Cartooning Calamities at the McCord Museum, accompanied by a book Caricature – Cartoon Canada, edited by Terry (Aislin) Mosher. According to the exhibits curator in Montreal Gazette,
Long snubbed by the art world, editorial cartoonists deserve recognition as artists who cut through political bafflegab and corporate spin to help us make sense of an ever-changing world, says Hardy.
“They’re people we feel are always on the lookout for us, to try to make sense of the complexities of the governments we live under,” he says.
Item! As part of the event in 
Montreal this past weekend, Drawn and Quarterly’s Chris Oliveros was on hand to flog some books and he and writer Brad Mackay happened to bump into former Prime Minister Paul Martin who waxed enthusiastic for Doug Wright! You can read all about it on the D+Q blog. Great photos!
Item! Bryan Lee O’Malley gives us a sneak peak of the cast of his upcoming 2013 graphic novel Seconds. A limited edition print of the drawing (200 copies) will be offered on a first-come basis at the San Diego Comicon.
Item! The nominations for this year’s Harvey Awards have been announced. There were some Canadians on the list, including Canadian publisher Drawn and Quarterly, who ironically received 3 nominations for Best American Edition of Foreign Material. (Does a Canadian publisher not count as “foreign” for a U.S. award? Granted, we are all “Americans” here but then shouldn’t Mexican, Argentine, etc, publishers be included?) In addition, D+Q books received nods in the Special Award for Humor (Kate Beaton), Best Graphic Album Previously Published (Big Questions and The Death Ray), Best Cartoonist (Kate Beaton), and Best Single Issue (Optic Nerve #12). Individual Canadian nominees include the aforementioned Beaton (who was also nominated in the Best Online Comics Work category), editor Michael Choquette (Best Anthology and Special Award for Presentation: Someday Funnies), and cartoonists Darwyn Cooke (Special Award for Presentation: Parker Martini Edition), Ray Fawkes (Best Graphic Album Original: One Soul), Kagan McLeod (Best Graphic Album Original: Infinite Kung Fu)), Ramon Perez (Best Single Issue or Story and Best Graphic Album Original: Jim Henson’s Tale of Sand), and Jeff Lemire (Best Writer: Animal Man). Congrats to all seven Canadian nominees and best of luck in the final voting!
Item! In the other U.S. comics awards news, two Canadian comic shops have made the long list of nominees for the Eisner Awards Spirit of Retailing Award. The shops are Happy Harbor of Edmonton, and my own local comic shop, The Dragon of Guelph. Congrats to both shops!
Item!Today is a patriotic holiday in the U.S. Did you know that the U.S. national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner, was inspired by an event from the War of 1812? Also inspired by the War of 1812? A new graphic novel called The Loxleys and the War of 1812. As reviewed by Don MacPherson, the book features art by Claude St. Aubin, of Captain Canuck fame:
“…this was a time the Americans were trounced. Of course, the facts don’t necessarily bear that out; the script makes it clear both sides had their victories. But the Americans are also depicted as being uncivilized, unscrupulous and even barbaric at times. It’s hard to know how much of it is fact and how much is a matter of perspective. The Canadians and natives are portrayed as being ethical and honorable to the point of incredulousness, and the Americans as being greedy and hungry for territory they don’t need. It’s certainly an interesting change of pace, as Americans have been predominantly cast as the white knights of history throughout pop culture. It might make this something of a tough sell to an audience beyond Canadian borders.”
Item! Lastly, I saw this on The Comics Reporter today and had to share. The Australian Comics Journal is a blog/magazine devoted to “Australian Sequential Art” and chock-a-block full of great reviews and previews of great-looking comics you have never heard of. Always nice to see another English-language comics site devoted to a single country comics culture. Hail the Commonwealth of Comics!
29.Jun.2012 Friday Flashback: Thunderfist Wishes You a Happy Canada Day
By BK Munn
Every day is Canada Day here at Sequential, dedicated as we are to Canadian comics past, present, and future, but I felt I should at least make a token effort, from deep in the heart of “Summer Postin’” territory, to put something Canadian heritage-y up for the holiday. How can I do this with the least effort possible from my hammock? Why, by scrolling through my hard drive for old scans of classic comic books. Ah, here we go….
Thunderfist was the creation of writer E.T. Legault (featured last week in Friday Flashback) and artist Murray Karn. A generic secret identity superhero feature, it was nevertheless redeemed by that weird 1940s sweatshop logic and fanciful approaches to storytelling, both literary and graphic. Thunderfist was in reality the very un-Canadian Randolph Steele, the socialite fiancee of Beverly Holmes who fought crime in an Art Deco New York City with a combination of short pants and electrical power.
Below find 3 scans of the Thunderfist story from Active Comics #2, 1942: the vibrant cover, a very striking and atmospheric splash page, and a vaguely dynamic action page (how anyone can make superheroes fighting dinosaurs boring is beyond me). The plot is simple: Thunderfist and his girl are on a train that is attacked by a T-Rex. Fisticuffs ensue and T-Fist rides a pterodactyl back to the lair of the mad scientist responsible. All in a day’s work for THUNDERFIST!
18.Jun.2012 Summer Reading: Lou Skuce in Comic Books, 1941
“Say, Aint You Fellas Gonna Work?!”
by BK Munn
Journeyman cartoonist Lou Skuce (1886-1951) has one of the most distinctive styles of pre-war Canadian cartoonists. Strong compositions, a flowing line, and bold-yet-warm Art Deco-style lettering. Add to that a memorable name and a signature character (he often signed his work with a cartoon goose, Lou Skuce/”Loose Goose”), and there is no mistaking a Skuce cartoon. Primarily an internationally known sports cartoonist, Skuce was a fixture on the Toronto newspaper scene, working for most of that city’s dailies at one time or another during the first half of the 20th Century, and equally adept as art director, adman, illustrator, comics journalist, gag cartoonist, and comic stripper, as we can see from his stabs at producing strips for U.S. syndicates.
Seemingly not one to pass up any paying cartoon work, Skuce showed up to lend some professionalism and style to the issues of Bell Features’ various titles, contributing covers, filler pages and illustrations to Joke Comics and Wow Comics beginning in 1941. The work is breezy and dumb, with some Norman Rockwell-ish, sub-J.R. Williams small-town saccharine, mixed with casual racism, topical humour, cute grotesques, and some striking colour pieces.
Dog's Life, Lou Skuce
Earl McCready, wrestling cartoon, Lou Skuce, Wow Comics #2 (1941)
Blackout gags, Lou Skuce, Joke Comics #1 (1941)
Friendship gag cartoons, Lou Skuce, Joke Comics #1 (1941)
Summer cartoon, Lou Skuce, Joke Comics #1 (1941)
06.Jun.2012 Ray Bradbury, Comic Book Writer
by BK Munn
News of the passing of science fiction and fantasy grandmaster Ray Bradbury (1920-2012) trickled out earlier today. I’m sure in the days to follow there will be many lengthy obits and memorials of the author, noting his many contributions to literature and film. It’s worth noting here that Bradbury also made his mark in the comic book field, most famously with an unwitting contribution to the efforts of 1950s powerhouse publisher EC Comics.
As the story goes, EC editors William Gaines and Al Feldstein began swiping Bradbury’s short stories for their horror and science ficton comics in 1951, plagiarizing the plots and not crediting the writer. Bradbury, being a voracious devourer of all things sci-fi, and a fan of EC comics to boot, soon caught on and politely asked for a $50 fee. Along with a cheque, Gaines sent a note asking for permission to officially adapt more of Bradbury’s stories, and quickly began featuring the writer’s name prominently on the cover, beginning with an adaptation of “There Will Come Soft Rains” in Weird Fantasy #17, with a cover by Feldstein and story art by Wally Wood. In all, 27 of Bradbury’s short stories were adapted by EC for Tales from the Crypt, Vault of Horror, Haunt of Fear, Crime SuspenStories, Shock SuspenStories, Weird Science, and Weird Fantasy, and illustrated by EC legends like Johnny Craig, Jack Davis, George Evans, Graham Ingels, Bill Elder, John Severin, Al Williamson and Jack Kamen. 16 of them were collected in the Ballantine paperbacks, The Autumn People (1965) and Tomorrow Midnight (1966), with new covers by Frank Frazetta. Bradbury was a perfect fit for EC’s style of twist-ending, atmospheric comics and the deal was a win-win situation, with EC getting a “name” author to write (very good) comics and Bradbury getting some extra change, classy illustrations, and newsstand billing as “America’s Top Science-Fiction Writer”.
While Bradbury never wrote any fiction specifically for comics, his favoured medium of the short story, matched with his visually descriptive prose style and fanciful plots were seemingly tailor-made for comics adaptation. He later lent his name to several eponymous anthology comics series in the 1990s, including 3 issues of The Ray Bradbury Chronicles in 1992 (Byron Preiss Visuals/Bantam Spectra Books) featuring art by P. Craig Russell, Daniel Torres, Dave Gibbons, and Tim Truman, select EC reprints, and new introductions by the author. The series was continued for four issues by NBM, and then picked up by Topps for another 5 issues as Ray Bradbury Comics, with contributions from Kenneth Smith, Harvey Kurtzman, Matt Wagner, Richard Corben, Mike Mignola, Dave McKean, Moebius, and Jon Jay Muth, among others. Topps followed up with two one-shots in 1994, The Illustrated Man (Guy Davis) and The Martian Chronicles (Steranko, Kaluta).
go read: “Outcast Of The Stars” illustrated by Joe Orlando
05.Jun.2012 Hey Kids! Comics #45
Ah, comics comics comics. Yes.
Trying to get inspired to work on my own, looking at other peoples.
First something you should know about.
Aspen and DC Comics artist Oliver Nome was diagnosed with a brain tumour. His supporters are passing the hat here for help paying for his surgery and after-care. A cancer survivor myself and the privileged beneficiary of our wonderful Canadian healthcare system, I can’t say more how important it was not to have to worry about making ends meet. Got stupid lucky, had savings to cover the months I was unable to work at full steam and there were no hospital bills to speak of whatsoever. If you can, make recovery as easy for Oliver. They take both paypal and credit cards.
Noted: Oliver’s friends are using indiegogo.com for their fund raiser.
With a few distinct differences, including the option to be used for charity like this, and keeping whatever amount you do raise, even if less than your goal, Indiegogo is essentially the same thing as Kickstarter. Though fewer, a number of comics are funding creation or publication using Indiegogo. All to point out this link, all the independent creators at the moment seeking support in Canada. Here’s a link showing those that have used it in the past or already surpassed their goals. Think I’ll try funding a RevolveЯ print run with them this year.
Lookseelisten: Nicholas Rombes posted an interesting review on oxfordamerican.org of EU artist Gabriella Giandelli’s Interiorae, which was reputedly drawn to Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s first album, F# A# ∞.
The Manif de Bonhommes marches on, Mountains of new Bonhommes are yet to be added, and you can join in still if you like here.
Funny on the youtube: Writing Comics 101 with Ricky Lima, Fearless Fred, and Adam Gorham: Silver Surfer. Check out their book Teuton on BSC.
Da Comics! BD!: Associated with FBDM this weekend, was the launch of the Collectif BD Montréal-Lyon. A transatlantic project that unites 24 authors from the cities of Montreal [Qc, Canada] and Lyon [franc]. Daily during the month of June 2012, the collective will post original stories on the theme of City. Here’s a selection of the art so far. The latest by Richard Suicide, is about our mutual corner market store… I don’t think he likes it.
Lots more of that to come, check back here daily for the latest this month.
31.May.2012 For immediate release: Eagle Awards continue to fly high!
Just got this in the mail now, thought i’d get it up asap seeing as I talked about this in my last post about the awards – “Jeff Lemire lands one of the last Eagle Awards“ – It seems news of the name change was, premature.
“People often say ‘Don’t believe everything you read on the Internet’ and this is one of those times,” announced Eagle Awards chair Cassandra Conroy.
Referring to an announcement made by MCM Expo’s Bryan Cooney at the conclusion of 2012 Eagle Awards ceremony on Friday night, she added, “To paraphrase Mark Twain: The reports of the Eagles’ death have been greatly exaggerated.
“Neither my father (Eagle Awards founder Mike Conroy) nor I attended Friday night’s ceremony, which we were boycotting in response to actions that are now being reviewed by my lawyer. Thus we don’t know exactly what Bryan said,” she explained. “However, with Bleeding Cool posting that Friday night’s ceremony was ‘the end of the road for the Eagle Awards after 30-some years and from next May, there’d be something called The MCM Awards instead.’ and others suggesting that next year the Eagles would be transformed into entirely new awards. I feel the need to put the record straight…”
“The Eagles are neither dead nor morphing into anything else. MCM Expo is in no position to announce, imply or indicate otherwise,” Conroy stated. “In fact no third party can casually discard what my father has developed over the past 36 years. The Eagles will continue to soar into 2013 and beyond. We’ll be announcing further details of our plans for next year in the near future.”
For interviews or further information on the Eagle Awards contact:
Cassandra Conroy: cassandraconroy@gmail.com
Mike Conroy: demigod@btconnect.com
25.May.2012 Jeff Lemire lands one of the last Eagle Awards
Kevin Boyd broke the news on the shuster blog, Jeff Lemire won the Best Newcomer at the Eagle Awards, presented earlier today at the MCM Expo in London.
Another fine feather in Jeff’s hat. It could not happen to a more soft spoken and deserving fellow! I just hope his head does not explode!
Kevin also mentioned that it was announced at the ceremony that after 35 years the Eagle Awards name is being retired in favour of the MCM Expo Awards…Really?
Well, really not a good name but there you go.
Named originally after the “fifties and sixties” UK comic Eagle [see left] because the Eagle symbol was perceived by co founder, 2000 AD Editor Richard Burton, to stand “for a standard of quality that is seldom reached today”. A proper aspirational notion.
MCM stands for “Movie Comic Media”. The Movie Comic Media Expo Awards. Way to go for the gold guys. ಠ_ಠ
No other Canadian creators were nominated in 2012 either, so that means Jeff gets to claim the last Canadian Eagle for his own too.
Congratulations Jeff, again!
For the historian nerds, the image on the right is cropped from this, posted here. Scroll down to “Comicon 77 and beyond”.
To Get Her by Bernie Mireault
One of the last books to receive an Xeric grant, Bernie Mireault’s long awaited follow up to his old ground braking comic the Jam, ‘To Get Her’ is out!
It’s been so for a while actually! But we’re just now learning of it after checking out the new word press site he’s set up as well! He’s had the first run of books in hand since February. Good to see he’s doing well!
To Get Her
by Bernie Mireault
A sequential look at Love…
Montreal Style.
176 pages - English
Published by BEM Graphics.
Price: $25
Note: S&N Limited Edition.
You can read a review of the book here on equential highway, a nice long post of previews and information here, read an interview with him by Tom Spurgeon on The Comics Reporter. And listen, to the THEME SONG…yes, performed by Bernie himself, with Mark Lang.
And here’s a great presentation by Bernie about his work!
You can order the book from Bernie directly, first edition, each copy signed, numbered and with a little self-portrait drawn in ink! Sweet.
Or find it at these fine establishments.
Montréal,
Studio 9 – 5835 St. Hubert St. & Drawn and Quarterly Bookstore - 211 Bernard Ouest & La Boîte à B.D. – 3161-B Dagenais Ouest, Laval
Halifax, NS – Dartmouth, NS – Fredericton, NB
Strange Adventures – 3 stores: 5262 Sackville St. Halifax, Nova Scotia. (902) 425-2140 & 101 Portland Street, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia (902) 444-2140 & 68 York Street, Fredericton, New Brunswick (506) 450-3759
Toronto
The Beguiling – 601 Markham Street
Guelph
The Dragon – The Old Quebec Street Mall, 55 Wyndham Street North, Unit T19B
San Francisco
Comix Experience – 305 Divisidero St.
Portland
Floating World Comics – 400 NW Couch St.
& Online @ adhousebooks.com
06.May.2012 Doug Wright Award winners for 2012!
Canadian Comics big night and one of the spotlight events of TCAF, the Doug Wright Awards!
Undoubtedly the awards were documented but I failed to make it to the show myself this year. Was enjoying dinner a little too far from Jackman Hall to make it in time. Sorry folks!
First chance we get we’ll post photos or other media as it becomes available. But for now, here are this years winners…
The show was hosted by writer, journalist and broadcaster Geoff Pevere.
And the ceremony featured an on-stage discussion between writer Rick Salutin and political cartoonist Terry “Aislin” Mosher who is this years inductee for the Giants of the North: The Canadian Cartoonists Hall of Fame.
Best Book went to Kate Beaton, for Hark! A Vagrant, published by Drawn and Quarterly. This is her second Doug Wright Award. Previously Beaton’s self-published Never Learn Anything About History won the 2009 Doug Wright Award for Best Emerging Talent. And And Hark! A Vagrant won the 2011 Harvey Award for Best Online Comics Work, after being nominated in the same category the year before, and was nominated for a Joe Shuster Awards in 2009 and 2010!
Formally the emerging talent award, the Doug Wright Spotlight (a.k.a. “The Nipper”) recognizing talent deserving of wider recognition went to Ethan Rilly for Pope Hats #2, published by AdHouse Books. Previously Ethan won the 2010 Gene Day Award for Self-Publishing for Pope Hats #1.
And not least, the Pigskin Peters Award recognizing the best of avant-garde or experimental comics was awarded to Hellberta by Michael Comeau, published by Koyama Press.
The 2012 winners were decided by a jury that included: visual artist Shary Boyle, cartoonist John Martz (A Doug Wright Award Best Emerging Talent nominee in 2010 and Pigskin Peters Award nominee in 2008), book artist and professor George Walker and Julie Traves, deputy arts editor for The Globe and Mail.
Speaking on behalf of the jury, Shary Boyle praised Beaton’s book. “The world of comics can be a sequestered and dusty place,” she said. “As the comic community bemoans its shrinking readership and dying forms, Beaton rises up and throws open the doors to a whole new audience – welcoming one and all with her generous vision and sense of sophisticated, inclusive playfulness.”
Jurist John Martz had this to say about Ethan Rilly (aka Hartley Linn):
“Hartley is a cartoonist who takes his time to get it right, and what we as fans might lose in quantity, we most definitely gain in quality. This scrutiny and attention to detail did not go unnoticed by the jury, who recognize and applaud Hartley’s skilled draughtsmanship and the maturity of his writing. It can be no easy task to write a story about an introspective Toronto law clerk, and have it be so compelling, so rewarding to study, and be filled with such warmth. It is most deserving of this award.”
Jeet Heer, of the Wright Awards nominating committee which chooses the annual Pigskin Peters Award, described Hellberta as “Many things — a pastiche of superhero comic, a political satire, a post-apocalyptic fable – all melded together to form a single nightmarish vision. Michael Comeau brings to this tradition an energetic line, a fertile imagination, and the courage to put his most outrageous ideas on paper.”
05.May.2012 TCAF PODCASTS: NEW NARRATIVE V: Edward Hornick, “I Was a Teenage Death Ray”
“One of Daniel Clowes’ strangest creations, The Death Ray, satirizes classic superheroes, creating not only a unique deconstruction of superhero tropes, but an indictment of the fans of those escapist comics. Death Ray is the story of a teenage outcast-turned-vigilante who is almost immediately corrupted by his newfound abilities. It is notable for how thoroughly it debunks any of the presumed illusions of superhero stories. Unlike Marvel characters’ origins, which are typically tied to their selfless acts, (such as Daredevil rescuing a blind man away from a speeding truck), The Death Ray’s Andy acquires his superhuman strength when he starts smoking. Clowes’ protagonist has an immature, reductionist sense of right and wrong, and becomes increasingly detached from anybody who can help him understand the responsibilities that come with his power. While other stories provide readers with escapist fantasy in which good invariably triumphs over evil, the Death Ray is far more nihilistic, and suggests a darker side to that appeal.
With this essay, I will place The Death Ray on a continuum of superhero stories. I will also discuss prior and subsequent efforts of comics creators to deconstruct superhero narratives. While other creators, such as Alan Moore, developed their seminal critiques of superheroes after decades of writing them, Clowes identifies superheroes as a staple of “mainstream” comics and describes his work as a deliberate counter-balance to that mainstream. Superhero subversions such as Kick-Ass depict their characters with colorful, dynamic styles and invariably include moments where characters must make noble sacrifices, but Clowes’ artistic and narrative decisions deliberately downplay dramatic release, denying readers any sort of catharsis.” – Edward Hornick
Edward Hornick is a graduate of Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio and the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in Portland, Maine. A lifelong comics reader, he presented on Truth Serum, Achewood, and Evan Dorkin at past New Narrative conferences.
TCAF 2012 KICK-OFF EVENT! Jeff Smith, Gabriel Ba, and Fabio Moon
Noir and the Fantastic in Comics. TCAF 2012 KICK-OFF EVENT! Jeff Smith, Gabriel Ba, and Fabio Moon in conversation moderated by Mark Askwith. In The Bram and Bluma Appel Salon
TCAF PODCASTS: New Narrative V: Marni Stanley – “Sex in the City: Metronormativity in Queer Comics”
Marni Stanley teaches English and Women’s Studies at Vancouver Island University in Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada. Her academic research and publication areas include Nineteenth Century Women Travellers, television, cinema, and graphic narrative.
In a Queer Time & Place Judith Halberstam argues that metronormativity—the assumption that one can only be out and proud in urban spaces, and that rural and small town homosexuals should be pitied—dominates in gay and lesbian literature. The metronormative narrative sees the city as a space of liberation and formation of identity. But urban environments have their own threats, and the power of identity politics can make urban cliques exclusionary as well as welcoming. How do gay and lesbian comic artists use the urban spaces associated with the enabling of identity—bars, sex shops, the neighborhood—to explore the complexity of finding community in the complexity of urban space? Examples will be drawn from the work of some of the following: Ariel Schrag, Leanne Franson, Eric Orner, Tim Barela, Tim Fish, Alison Bechdel, and Howard Cruse.
04.May.2012 TCAF Podcasts: “Graphic Bodies” panel, with Kate Beaton & Bryan Lee O’Malley
Sequential’s own David Hains moderated this panle with creators Kate Beaton & Bryan Lee O’Malley. Part of the Bodies/City: A Symposium conference the panel tied that event with the next days New Narrative V presentations [more exclusively comics related than the first days events]. Conversation ran the gambit from what got them hooked on comics to collaborative work with others.
