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! 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!
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
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.
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!
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
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!
28.Jun.2012 The C-List: C-Listing the Night Away
Cross-Canada comix newz check-up.
Item! Publishing a Kate Beaton calendar is such a good idea it kind of looks like a no-brainer in retrospect. They look great! Beaton is shaping up to be the Jim Unger of the 2010s (in a good way).
Item! The National Post “reports” on where Chester Brown lives, where he used to live, and where he really wants to live:
When I lived in Kensington in the late ’90s, it was … almost as if I knew the neighbours around me. I still like to hang out in the park at Augusta and Denison. Everything is still on street level, everything is on a human scale.
Item! Chester’s classic Ed the Happy Clown has just been re-released in graphic novel form by D+Q. Two good reviews here and here. I particularly like R.Fiore’s take:
Shock elements tend to lose their charge over time because the shocks depend on contemporary attitudes that are subject to change. Brown’s outrages remain outrageous because he approaches them not with a youthful sense of moral certainty but with the deadpan matter of fact detachment of someone who finds the world essentially mysterious. His approach is of one who has not yet passed judgment.
Item! The book is also noted in Macleans. I like their list of cartoonists Chester has inspired that follows a recounting of the reaction to Brown’s recent Paying For It:
“With the iron still hot, literary Montreal comics house Drawn & Quarterly decided to strike again, reissuing Ed the Happy Clown, the book that defined Brown’s early career—and won the Harvey award for Best Graphic Album in 1990—in a hardcover, note-appended edition. Since 1989, when the graphic novel was first published by now-defunct Toronto comics publisher Vortex, it’s been a cited influence for countless giants in the comics industry, including Seth, Chris Ware, Craig Thompson, Dan Clowes, Bryan Lee O’Malley and Anders Nilsen.”
Item! There is a preview of Emily Carroll’s next print comic, a contribution to Dark Horse’s revival of the 1970s horror anthology Creepy, up at Comic Book Resources:
Uncle Creepy doesn’t need a summer vacation when he can spend the time scuba-diving through comics’ darkest, murkiest waters. In this issue he’s surfaced with a batch of our most fearsome features to date, as Doug Moench and Kelley Jones (Batman: Unseen) continue their tale of Lovecraft insanity, Doselle Young (The Monarchy) delves into the murderous side of parallel universes, Emily Carroll (His Face All Red) brings horror from a spooky kitchen knife, and more, plus a classic reprint from Creepy magazine.
Item! Jillian Tamaki reminds you: you’ve got great personal style!
Item! Kid Koala is profiled in the Vancouver Sun on the subject of his new graphic novel performance piece and his daughter’s obsession with My Little Ponies:
The 37-year-old turntablist/DJ better known as Kid Koala is now a father of two girls, Maple and Ruby, the latter born just a few months ago.
“I’m impressed by Maple’s ability to differentiate them [the ponies] by just the colour of their hair,” San says of his three-and-a-half year old daughter. “She probably gets it from me because people call me on that all the time: ‘How do you differentiate between all your records?’ ‘Oh, I can just tell from the colour of the centre sticker or whatever.’”
San’s latest project, Space Cadet, the soundtrack to a graphic novel of the same name, was admittedly inspired in part by Maple’s birth…
Item! The latest from publisher La Pasteque is Evan Evans, the first solo graphic novel from cartoonist Laurent Kling, previously responsible for Les rois du pétrole with collaborator Vincent Bergier. The new book is billed as an homage of sorts to the vaudeville cinema of Laurel and Hardy.
Item! Lastly, Conundrum Press’s Andy Brown has let slip the news that Kerry Byrne’s Lillian the Legend graphic novel will be translated in France by Editions L’Agrume.
09.May.2012 Squidface & The Meddler interview Jesse Jacobs & present Britt Wilson’s Buttsex
Catching up with Squidface & The Meddler.
They interviewed Jesse Jacobs & published a story by Britt Wilson leading up to TCAF,
who both presented new books at the show.
08.May.2012 C-List: a post TCAF Round Up
Max here, just got back home to Montreal from TCAF in Toronto.
Waiting for my own half hour video journal to upload i thought i’d gather up some of the various posts and reports i’ve seen so far over the weekend about the big show. Up top is a very slick looking tour of it all put together by Ryan Couldrey.
Item[s]: The Doug Wright Awards got lots of press, the Gazette noted Aislin’s induction into Giants of the North, the Canadian Cartooning Hall of Fame. Yahoo news asked Who was Doug Wright and why is there an award named after him? The CBC noted the winners in their Arts & Entertainment section, and the National ran this report. And the QUILLBLOG posted about the awards a couple times.
Item: The QUILLBLOG also ran some other TCAF stories. A two part series called Killer comics. Part one covers Koyama Publishing and Conundrum Press, part two Editions Tchai, Top Shelf, and Jeff Lemire! And this post about Guy Delisle’s Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City.
Item: The Torontoist posted a couple of lists of Five. One near the end of the even, of Five Up-and-Coming Cartoonists they discovered at TCAF 2012. And one at the start by our own D.Hains of “Five Artists to Catch at TCAF this Weekend“. Both are still good lists to look at, you might just discover something!
Item: Eugene Zhilinsky posted his live sketches from TCAF on the Editions Tchai blog here.
Item: The comic book lounge ran some FCBD events in parallel with TCAF including a new late night panel/talk-show/bar room after-show chat thing called ON THE COUCH with Ty Templeton that will be posted online at some point [look for some highlights in my video journal including me getting called up to the couch for some questions]. And the nights talk was wrapped with the announcement of this years Joe Shuster Award nominees. The lists for the different categories are going up on their site a bit at a time right now, scroll around to find them all.
Item: BlogTO posted a photo report about Kid Koala’s Space Cadet tour, looks like it was quite the visual spectacle as well as an auditory one.
Item: The Ottawa Citizen ran a story on the 4th about “the rise of highbrow comics”. Sounds a bit to my ear almost like a “comics are not just for kids” piece really, but it’s all good. They spotlight the work of Zak Sally & Jeff Lemire.
Item: The IGN blog posted a photo report of their blogers visit to TCAF here.
Item: An to wrap it for this post, ‘cus you’r going to be a while getting through these, The National Post has run Q&As every year with new up and comers appearing at TCAF, this year there are a LOT of them.
MariNaomi, Leah V Wishnia, Benjamin Marra, Jesse Moynihan, Natalie Nourigat, Kristina Stipetic,
Beth Hetland, David Blumenstein, Simon Moreton, Jen Breach, Andrew Fulton, Leland Myrick,
Ed Choy, Matthew Holm, Maxeem Konrardy, Farley Katz, Matthew Sheret, Alison Acton,
Nina Bunjevac, Ryan Dunlavey, Larry Hancock, Michael Cherkas, Emi Lenox, Most Ancient,
Christopher Baldwin, The Devastator, Eugene Zhilinsky and Tatyana Yuditskaya, Deanna Echanique,
Maiji/Mary Huang, Paul Gilligan, Christine Redfern, Robert Ullman,
Mandy Ord, Jose-Louis Bocquet, Kris Mukai & Kris Pearn!
09.Apr.2012 The C-List: Easter Monday, Funday?
some late-afternoon linkblogging for a quiet Monday.
Item! I went to my local comic book shop this weekend, but the only comic I bought was 1999 by U.S. cartoonist Noah Van Sciver. I liked it. Compelling slice of life/coming of age plot in a scrabbly post-Ed Brubaker/Chester Brown mode with lots of inky black.
Item! From March 30, a collection of Canadian comics retailers weigh in on the new DC 52 and periodical comics sales in general as part of a regular feature for Toronto-based Comic Book Daily. I found these reports fascinating, with store owners honestly reporting on what has worked for them and the actual response of customers to new floppies. Several retailers mentioned an Image comic I have never heard of, The Strange Talent of Luther Strode by Justin Jordan and Tradd Moore, as something of a breakout hit that new comic shop visitors are discovering.
Item! The latest Quinntessential Comics episode at TDot Comics featured the Autobiography Book Club, a discussion of Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis and Chester Brown’s Paying For It.
Item! Jamie Coville has some great recordings of the Toronto Comicon from last month, including Jeff Lemire, George Perez, and Mark Bagley. Coville is the go-to guy for Toronto-area “converage” and always has tons of great audio-visual.
Item! Joe Ollman shows us what his original art looks like on the d+Q blog.
Item! Those Inkstuds podcasts are coming fast and furious. I can barely keep up! The three most recent Robin McConnell interviews are with three critically-acclaimed cartoonists who are sure to be worth listening to: Matt Forsythe, Bill Griffith, and Bill Sienkiewicz.
Item! 30-odd years after Marvel comics brought the Electric Company to comics with Spidey Superstories, Sesame Street gets the same treatment with a new series from something called Ape Entertainment.
Item! The Shuster Awards is walking readers through its nominating process, with the latest post about the second round of nominations for the English language artist categories.
03.Apr.2012 The C-List: He Got Gronch-zilla
Comics news and links from across Canada and beyond:
Item! The Edmonton Collectible Toy and Comic Show happened this past weekend. Totally didn’t get the memo on that, sorry. Matt Dysktra from the Edmonton Sun covered the con, which claimed attendance of 3000.
Item! The Globe and Mail profiles B.C. artist Glen Mullaly.
Item! Fun covers: Chester Brown and Seth fan art by Greg Elmensdorp and Anthony Vukojevich.
Item! And speaking of Seth and covers, an unobstructed view of Seth’s cover for the new Lemony Snicket book, and ancillary press.
Item! Strange Adventures in Halifax seems to be doing well with their Ladies Nights.
Item! Chris Butcher comments on the recent C.B Cebulski/Toronto Star/Marvel Comics page rates news/mini-tempest.
Item! TCAF’s full-page ad in the latest NOW.
Item! Are Viewmaster reels comics? My answer: some are, some aren’t.
Item! UDON Press is announcing a couple of new books: a collection of pin-up art by Mississauga’s Omar Dogan called Girl Seven and a book collecting work from a new generation of illustrators from the website PIXIV, sort of a Japanese version of DeviantArt, called PIXIV ALAMANAC.
Item! Forget about Sequential, the best comics journalism in Canada these days comes from the tireless Robin McConnell and his interviews on Inkstuds. The latest interviews include Kagan Macleod, who had an overlooked book last year with Infinite Kung Fu, and Gary Taxali, who has a new kids book line out.
Item! Robin was also at the Emerald City Comicon in Seattle this past weekend. He posted a long photo-heavy report, with tons of U.S. and Canadian cartoonists, journalists, fans and great comic book finds. Go there to see a photo of a very slender and healthy-looking Tom Spurgeon. (Spurgeon has a report from the con, too.) Robin also has audio of the panel he hosted with Adam Warren, Brandon Graham, and Bryan Lee O’Malley.
Item! I guess the big publishing news from a Canadian creator at that convention, besides the colour Scott Pilgrim I mentioned on Saturday, is that Orc Stain’s James Stokoe will be doing a Godzilla comic for IDW.
27.Mar.2012 The C-List: Kaare Andrews, Marvel Page Rates, and other news
some new links and quotes from the world of Canadian comics:
Kaare Andrews cover for Ultimates #1
(I’m also intrigued by Andrews’ view of the line between comics as “10 cent disposable newsprints” and comics as “a legitimate art form”. But he makes a good point about animation workers having a better standard of living. Say, do comics artists need a union or what?)
Item! TCAF has some new additions to announce. The big news is Konami Kanata, the bestselling manga creator of Chi’s Sweet Home. A huge name in Japanese comics and a major “get” for the festival. Elsewhere, dj and graphic novel creator Kid Koala will be returning to the festival and will be putting on a couple of live shows based around his comics, including the recently released Space Cadet.
Item! The National Cartoonist Society Divisional Awards have been announced. These are the awards sometimes referred to as “The Reubens” but only one of the awards is actually called that (the award for cartoonist of the year) and the rest are just called the NCS Awards. Anyway, Canadians Bruce McCall (magazine illustration), Darwyn Cooke (comic books), and Chester Brown (graphic novels) received nominations. The actual nominees for the coveted Reuben Award are U.S. cartoonists Brian Crane, Stephan Pastis, and Tom Richmond.
Item! A new French-language edition of Louis Riel comes out this week from Quebec’s La Pasteque.
Item! Every week or so some work of art or promotional product comes along that tempts me to drop my own personal Marvel Boycott. Usually it’s something that appeals to my sweater-wearing, senior citizen oldschool comics fan side. Ladies and gentlemen, isn’t this an interesting-looking, Steve Ditko style Dr. Strange syrocco figurine? Legitimate art, or what? (And it’s being offered by Dark Horse, not Marvel, for what it’s worth. I wonder if Steve Ditko gets royalties?)
Item! I don’t usually link to new webcomics on the C-List, partly because Max covers alot of that in his Hey Kids, Comix posts, and partly because I’m a senior citizen who can barely use the internet. However, I received an actual email alerting me to a new comic that combines several of my favourite things, including Golden Age comics, Marshal McLuhan, and detournement. The strip is Legacy System by Steve Wilcox, a Phd student in Waterloo, ON. It’s pretty smart stuff, sort of an academic take on internet censorship, video games, and the place where politics and new technology meet. Some times it makes me realize how many brain cells I’ve lost since university but mostly it’s just funny.
Item! At the Globe and Mail, cartoonist Lynn Johnston weighs in on the controversy that is shaking the nation. No, not robocalls, poutine, the NDP leadership campaign, Alberta oilsands, or Afganistan. Not even, “What makes Kaare Andrews such an expert on hacks?” No, the big issue of our day is the increase in size of the Tim Hortons coffee cups!
Item! Finally, Chris Dart and Dean Bradley report on last week’s grand opening of the Comic Book Lounge and Gallery for Torontoist. Great photos. (There is also a Facebook photoset from Guerilla Printing who share the same space and also had their grand opening as well.)
20.Mar.2012 The C-List: New Michael DeForge and more
Comix links and quotes from across Canada:
Item! Cartoonist-critic Matt Seneca interviews Michael DeForge about the latter’s latest comic book, Incinerator: “In general, the horror elements in my work come from things I personally find unsettling or upsetting. I don’t know if I have any specific strategies. Incinerator was mostly improvised, though. Everything just sort of worked out. I started the comic thinking it would mostly be gag-driven, but the tone would change as I drew it.
I actually thought it was one of my more lighthearted comics while I was drawing it – like, this fun, goofy thing. But then the finished product reads a bit differently, maybe? That happens, though.”
(the book is published by Los Angeles comics retailer Secret Headquarters)
Item! For Xtra, David Hains profiles the Little Heart anthology, inspired by the fight for same-sex marriage issues in the U.S.: “But the debate in Minnesota resonates beyond its borders, and among the 30 contributions are comics by Canadians Emily Carroll and Kate Craig, Michael DeForge and Maurice Vellekoop and a foreword written by Chris Butcher, manager of The Beguiling comic store on Markham St in Toronto.”
Item! David Collier’s collection of newspaper work, Collier’s Popular Press, is reviewed in one of the papers the work was originally published in, The Saskatoon Star Phioenix: “people in Ontario used to ask him how he’d got so good as a cartoonist so quickly. It was moving to Saskatchewan in 1990 that did it, he said. He joked that it was the uranium deposits in the province giving him superhuman powers, but then got serious and talked of such cartoonists as Denny Pritchard, Ed Sebestyen, Dave Geary, Brian Gable, and Cam Cardow – men either from here or who came here to work – and how Collier believes they were transformed by the people ‘in this community-minded province.’”
Item! Ottawa-area webcomic creator gets “10 to 100 visitors a day” to his website, according to community newspaper. Kind of like Sequential! Welcome to the big time!
Item! The Calgary Herald talks to Riley Rossmo, the creator behind a new Image Comics miniseries called Rebel Blood, about a park ranger who has to deal zombiefied animals who see human brains as ‘pic-a-nic’ baskets. Rossmo has what I think is an unusual creative process, hiring a writer to help flesh out story and dialogue issues; the reverse of the usual writer/artist collaboration: “Riley admits that he finds writing a struggle.
‘It’s hard,’ he says. ‘I can set up ideas but it’s difficult for me to build up narratives. It took me eight months to get an outline done. . . . Alex really contributed in rounding out the protagonists and their motivations.’ Even so, Rossmo plans to continue writing for future projects. ‘I like being the boss,’ he says. ‘I like being the director and having more control.’”
Item! Image is becoming something of a home to high-profile creator-owned Canadian titles, with the Calgary-based Peter Panzerfaust by Kurtis J Wiebe and Tyler Jenkins and Orc Stain by James Stokoe recently getting attention. No quotes here, just thought I’d point out that the books have been well-reviewed, and have benefited from some publisher hype.
Item! The Inkstuds team goes on a roadtrip to Portland for the launch of Brandon Graham’s King City. Lots of Pacific Northwest cartoonist cameos, amazing comics buys, and photos. Sample photo caption: “I had somehow talked Craig Thompson into traveling down to Eugene, Oregon with us to visit Michael Allred and film them talking comics with Brandon.”
Item! When I first saw the press release issued by this Brampton, Ontario business, I thought the comic shop in question was joining the Marvel Boycott, but it turns out they’re just taking sides in a promotion for an upcoming superhero miniseries event.
Item! I think I’ve missed linking to the last few episodes of Alice Quinn’s Quinntessential Comics video interviews. Episode #17 is C.B. Cebulski & Skottie Young, Episode #16 is Jason Loo, and Episode #15 is a book club edition.
And that’s that. Maybe I’ll “C” you next time on the C-List. Please let me know if you have a comic or comics-related event to hype or if you have recently covered same for your blog or other media.
13.Mar.2012 The C-List: 2012 Toronto Comicon Roundup
Hobbystar’s Toronto Comicon took place this past weekend. This year’s event takes the place of the Fan Expo Fan Appreciation Day of years past, merging it with the Spring anime event for something more reminiscent of the larger FanExpo which takes place in August.
I couldn’t make it to the show, but thanks to the internet, I feel like I did. Now you can too:
(Not sure of the exact origin of the photo above but it is of fan Jason Shayer and artist George Perez, with a picture of the Jack Kirby/Stan Lee co-creation Thor, drawn by Perez on commish)
Item! The show kicked off Friday night with a party hosted as part of a promotion, I think, by the website g33kpron, who have posted a photoset. The
Item! G33kpron has a more general photoset of the show here.
Item! Kevin Boyd has a succinct appraisal at The Joe Shuster Awards blog, with a note bout the new format for the show: “Chances are pretty good that the formula will be repeated again in 2013.”
Item! J.M Clark has a short report with a podcast attached: “There was an obvious lack of cos-play at the event. Costume of the day had to go to Bane. Very nicely done. Most who did bother to suit up were, of course, the Manga kids. The Manga kids, dressing up in their completely awkward, over sized, obscure, foam laden costumes with fifteen foot accessories clogging up the aisles for us respectable comic hunters. Fuck Manga.”
Item! BlogTO did a street style feature at the show.
Item! Adam Gorham has a report from the point of view of a vendor at the Big Sexy Comics table.
Item! Of course, Toronto Batman made an appearance.
Item! As did Toronto Tank Girl.
Item! Andrew Young of the Geek Hard podcast has a recap of the people he talked to for his show.
Item! Evan Annett covered the show on Day One and Day Two, and even did a couple of those Storify posts where you can link up people’s tweets and instagram photos into a semi-coherent narrative.
Item! Cosplay group and Korean bbq.
Item! Wired magazine’s Geek Dad, Roy Wood, took some snaps at the show.
Item! The nominees for the Constellation Awards, the Canadian sci-fi film awards, were announced at the con.
Item! The Toronto-based website Comic Book Daily usually has some good coverage. So far you can see Day 1 photos, and photos of Day 2.
Item! The triumphant return of Jason Truong and a Saturday con report, of sorts.
Item! The view from the crafters’ end of Artist Alley.
Item! A nice photo-set from a con virgin.
Item! A nice long-ish artist-centric con report from colourist Keiren Smith.
Item! Shopping for comics at the con.
Item! Frank Cho’s blog has some photos of the artist at the con.
Item! Some video I did not watch.
Item! Willow Dawson at the con.
Item! Ranting vlog guy.
Item! Alex Hoffman writes up the con for Bleeding Cool and mentions that the name change/amalgamation may be a clever marketing move to head off Wizard World Toronto, which is coming up in April.
Item! Toronto Comicon page on Facebook.
Item! The flickr results for Toronto Comicon 2012
Item! The Youtube video results from Toronto Comicon 2012.
still updating — more to come!
07.Mar.2012 The C-List: Dave Cooper’s (Potentially) Lucky Hat
All the Canadian comics news that will fit on your phone.
Item! Dave Cooper is profiled in the Ottawa Citizen on his painting career, comics, and a potential new series with Teletoon. The show is based on a kids book property and is called Bagel’s Lucky Hat.
Item! Apparently, Scott Pilgrim creator Bryan Lee O’Malley will be attending TCAF this year.
Item! Andrew Woodrow-Butcher interviews Matthew Forsythe for Broken Pencil magazine.
Item!Carte Blanche is now a print on demand magazine. The latest issue, designed by our own Salgood Sam, and with a comics selection edited by Salgood as well, is available here.
Item! Fiona Smyth is involved with a Kickstarter project. What Makes is a Baby? is written by “certified sexuality educator” Cory Silverberg and illo’d by Smyth. Lots of fun incentives.
Item! Fiona Smyth will also be appearing at Little Island in Toronto to talk about her book The Never Weres as part of a kids bookclub series on March 17.
Item! Great interview with Chris Ware includes a photo tour of his house. The interviewer is Christopher Irving who is also the man behind a new digital comics magazine, The Drawn Word.
Item! Scott VanderPloeg checks out the Dragon Mini-Con in Guelph this past weekend and quizzes the artists about sketching copyrighted characters.
Item! The best Alpha Flight costumes?
Item! The worst Alpha Flight costumes?
Item! DC comics is looking for a librarian.
Item! Playboy’s Doug Sneyd is profiled in Maclean’s magazine.
Item! The Vancouver Comic Arts Festival interview series continues with JJ McCullough talking to Brooklyn’s Christopher Hastings (Dr. McNinja).
25.Feb.2012 That Was the Week That Was (Comics): 8
From the ashes of Dragon Lady Comics emerges The Comic Book Lounge and Gallery, 387A College St.
A quick round-up of comic book things we talked about at Sequential this past week:
Monday: I posted a short opinion piece that summed up the history of efforts to organize comics folks into a union of some kind. Required reading?
Tuesday: The C-List of Canadian comics news links; a couple critics from Spain like a couple Canadian comics.
Wednesday: what the fuck happened on Wednesday?
Thursday: Wowee Zonk has big plans for TCAF.
Friday: News from Marc Tessier about the next Trip anthology and a new project from one of his Mac Tin Tac collaborators. Also, The Canadian Comics Bestseller List!
21.Feb.2012 The C-List: Exam Time
Item! Matthew Forsythe is profiled by the Montreal Gazette about his new graphic novel Jinchalo, which launched Sunday in Toronto. Among the interview news goodies: A three book children’s book deal with Simon and Shuster.
Item! This was a thing for a few minutes. Speaking of beef jerky, have you wondered about those Johnny Canuck Smoked Meat Sticks? Me too.
Item! The Shuster blog has news about Kickstarter campaign for an anthology called Little Heart, devoted to marriage equality. Contributors to include cartoonist Emily Carroll.
Item! The Comics Legends Legal Defense Fund has a very nicely-designed new logo.
Item! Kate Beaton answers a ton of your questions.
Item! Cartoonist and illustrator Leif Peng has a wonderful post up about the work of Blaine, the Hamilton editorial cartoonist who died last week. A touching remembrance with tons of art scans.
Item! James Turner (Rex Libris) has a new webcomic about a a rebellion in hell called Hell’s Lost. (via Comics Reporter via Robot 6)
Item! In addition to all the other work Michael DeForge does every week, there is an 8-page comic called “Exams” that I haven’t seen before.
18.Feb.2012 That Was The Week That Was (Comics) 7
Canadians and Americans team up against the Soviets in 1920s Russia. "By Rail to Vladivostok" by Chuck Dixon and John Severin. Savage Tales #3, 1986. John Severin died this past week at age 90.
What you missed on Sequential this past week.
Monday: Sequential posted its obituary for Hamilton cartoonist Blaine.
Tuesday: Valentine’s Day. Feeling the love for Jack Kirby and Canadian comics on The C-List.
Wednesday: That’s a whole lotta comic jams going on.
Thursday: The Canadian Comics Bestseller List, from bookstaores across the country.
Friday: In our Friday Foto spotlight, your intrepid journalist bags a candid shot of “Mr. Paying For It” himself, Chester Brown.
15.Feb.2012 NY | The unholy melding of Poetry and Comics’ superpowers
Mahendra Singh wrote us to let us know he’s taking part in a roundtable hosted by the NYU reading series on the 17th. Six artists that use both text and images in their poetry discuss the merging of two media into one art form. The conversation will feature poets Sommer Browning, Matthea Harvey, Mark Leidner, Mahendra Singh, Bianca Stone, and Paul Tunis.
The event will be moderated by Matthea Harvey, and some of the events are posted as pod casts so those not in NY for the event may be able to catch it here. Otherwise, the round table will be live on February 17, 2012, 2 – 4 p.m, held at Lillian Vernon Creative Writers House, 58 West 10th Street, between 5th and 6th Avenues, New York, NY.
info:212-998-8816
creative.writing@nyu.edu
Event URLs: cwp.fas.nyu.edu ~ www.poets.org
