Dale Eaglesham is a veteran comic book illustrator who has been working in the industry since 1986. He has worked with DC Comics, Marvel, Dark Horse, and CrossGen, among others. In January 2009, he signed an exclusive contract with Marvel, where he will be illustrating the Fantastic Four. Working on this legendary series is a childhood dream come true for Dale.
He most recently illustrated the critically-acclaimed relaunch of Justice Society of America for DC Comics, where he worked alongside superstar writer Geoff Johns and cover artist Alex Ross. The book was DC Comics’ second best-selling book almost every month and was in the overall Top 15 since its relaunch.
Before working on the JSA, he also illustrated the very popular Villains United series, which was written by Gail Simone. He is also known for his work inaugurating Batman: Gotham Knights, as well as his two-year run on Green Lantern.
Dale has been included several times on the coveted Wizard Magazine’s Hot 10 Artists list, and in June 2008, he received the Joe Shuster Award for Outstanding Canadian Comic Book Artist of the Year for his work on Justice Society of America.
In 2009 he became the new regular artist of the Fantastic Four for Marvel Comics.
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The piece shown above is one of over 40 pieces of original artwork featuring Wolverine donated to the Joe Shuster Awards for the Visions of an Icon Art Show and Sale by Canadian artists. The pieces were exhibited twice in 2009 – at the Joe Shuster Awards Ceremony in September and at the Speakeasy Comic Art Show in November. The original art pieces will be auctioned off on eBay in March 2010. Watch for announcements on this site!
Every day we will try to post an original piece and some information on the artist(s) that donated the work.
Rebecca Kraatz was born in British Columbia in the Okanagan Valley. She has worked at a car racetrack in the ticket booth, in a candy store, putting screws on car battery terminals, as a layout artist for newspapers, as a make-up artist and hair-stylist, as a rag picker, a seamstress and selling vintage clothing. Nova Scotia is where she lives today.
Rebecca is currently working on woodburns and a graphic novel.
For her comic book, House of Sugar, Rebecca won the 2007 Doug Wright Award for Best Emerging Talent.
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The piece shown above is one of over 40 pieces of original artwork featuring Wolverine donated to the Joe Shuster Awards for the Visions of an Icon Art Show and Sale by Canadian artists. The pieces were exhibited twice in 2009 – at the Joe Shuster Awards Ceremony in September and at the Speakeasy Comic Art Show in November. The original art pieces will be auctioned off on eBay in March 2010. Watch for announcements on this site!
Every day we will try to post an original piece and some information on the artist(s) that donated the work.
Né à Québec en 1971, Philippe Girard publie sa première bande dessinée à l’âge de huit ans dans le magazine ‘Je me petit débrouille’. En 1997, il lance avec Jean-François Bergeron et Leif Tande le fanzine Tabasko!, une publication mensuelle qui paraîtra régulièrement pendant deux ans. En 2000, il participe à l’album collectif “Avons-nous les bons pneus”, qui sera l’acte fondateur de l’écurie Mécanique Générale. En plus de diverses collaborations avec des magazines et des quotidiens, il est l’auteur de dix albums de BD chez différents éditeurs ainsi que la série jeunesse Gustave et le capitaine Planète à la courte échelle (5 tomes). On a également pu lire son strip Béatrice pendant un an dans le journal La Presse, puis dans Spirou hebdo.
En 2008, il participe à deux projets de bande dessinée soulignant le 400e anniversaire de la ville de Québec. Son livre ‘Les Ravins’, dans lequel il relate un court séjour en Russie, sera traduit en anglais au cours de l’année 2010 par l’éditeur Conundrum Press et en russe par Boomkniga. À l’automne 2009, il fait paraître ‘Tuer Vélasquez’, un récit autobiographique dans lequel il raconte ses démêlés avec un prêtre pédophile.
Outre de nombreuses nominations au Québec et au Canada, il a reçu un prix Bédéis causa en 2001 pour son premier album ‘Jim le Malingre : avatars ataviques’, ainsi que le Bédélys Québec et le prestigieux Joe Shuster Award en 2008 pour le scénario de l’album ‘Danger public’.
Born in Quebec city in 1971, Philippe Girard published his first comic in a kid’s magazine at the age of eight. In addition to various collaborations with magazines and daily newspapers, he has published ten books of comics and six novels for children. One also could read his strip ‘Béatrice’ for one year in the newspaper La Presse (Montreal), and later in the weekly magazine Spirou. In addition to many nominations in Quebec and Canada, he received a Bédéis causa award in 2001 for his first Jim album ‘Jim le Malingre: avatars ataviques’, as well as the Bédélys Quebec award and the Joe Shuster Award in 2008 for the scenario of the album ‘Danger public’. In 2008, he took part in two projects of comics underlining the 400th birthday of his hometown, Quebec city. His book ‘Les Ravins’, in which he reports the death of his best friend and a short trip to Russia, will be translated in English by Conundrum Press and in Russian by Boomkniga.
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The piece shown above is one of over 40 pieces of original artwork featuring Wolverine donated to the Joe Shuster Awards for the Visions of an Icon Art Show and Sale by Canadian artists. The pieces were exhibited twice in 2009 – at the Joe Shuster Awards Ceremony in September and at the Speakeasy Comic Art Show in November. The original art pieces will be auctioned off on eBay in March 2010. Watch for announcements on this site!
Every day we will try to post an original piece and some information on the artist(s) that donated the work.
Shane submitted two pieces for the gallery show and auction:
Shane Heron does the artwork for the online comic Awesome Marcus Ninja (Shane came onto the strip with Season 5) as well as working on a creator-owned mini-comic starring his character, Shagaharamesh, who battles champions, gods & demons on his quest to become the Almighty.
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The piece shown above is one of over 40 pieces of original artwork featuring Wolverine donated to the Joe Shuster Awards for the Visions of an Icon Art Show and Sale by Canadian artists. The pieces were exhibited twice in 2009 – at the Joe Shuster Awards Ceremony in September and at the Speakeasy Comic Art Show in November. The original art pieces will be auctioned off on eBay in March 2010. Watch for announcements on this site!
Every day we will try to post an original piece and some information on the artist(s) that donated the work.
Jay Stephens was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 1971, and moved around a lot as a kid. Much of his youth was spent contemplating the wonders of movies, music, television, and comic books, without any undue criticism from the surrounding grown-ups, for which he is eternally grateful. Jay’s maternal grandparents lived in a very large old manor house in Brampton, Ontario where he always felt most at ease. They and his mother are British, and told many stories about ouija board seances gone awry, phantom photographs, and the haunted house across the street. Occultism, apparently, was the Warren family religion. Jay’s father, who left the family when he was 5, was a professional advertising photographer who had an ancient log cabin on several wild acres of land up near Gull Lake where he would take the boys every summer. Jay and his younger brother, Matthew learned to boat, fish, hunt, chop wood, and drive tractors and snowmobiles here, whether they liked it or not. Jay spent his Punk Rock adolescence in the decaying ghost-town of central Brampton before returning to the streets of Toronto on his own at the age of 17. During this period Jay was the drummer for several Punk bands (The Stiffs, Bad Day For Machines…) and played a few gigs in seedy Toronto clubs like Club Slither and Lee’s Palace. While making money as a muralist and selling hand painted T-shirts on the corner of Queen St. and John St. (in front of Much Music), Jay spent a year and a half at the Ontario College of Art, enrolled as a fine-art painter, but left to pursue a cartooning career in the early ’90′s when he started getting paid for it. He never looked back.
Jay has written and drawn several of his own titles since starting out in the so-called ‘alternative’ comics scene in 1991, including THE LAND OF NOD, which many consider to be his best work to date. The series was nominated for the Harvey Kurtzman ‘Special Award For Humor’ in 1997 and 1998, and the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards in 1998 (for ‘Best Limited Series’- The Land of Nod), and 1999 (for ‘Best Humor Publication’, and ‘Best Graphic Album: Reprint’- The Land of Nod Rockabye Book). The Land Of Nod is also significant in that it introduced future television stars JETCAT and TUTENSTEIN to the world. Work-for-hire has included ALIENS, BATMAN, FELIX THE CAT, STAR WARS, and TEEN TITANS, among others.
Jay’s first weekly comic strip, ODDVILLE! was begun in 1994 for Seattle’s legendary alternative paper The Stranger by request of art director James Sturm, and later ran in Albuquerque’s Nu-City, and Montreal’s Vice for two years. The strip was revived as a full-color, half-page weekly in 2003 called WELCOME TO ODDVILLE!, and appeared every Thursday in the Toronto Star’s Brand New Planet section for a few years. In 1997, Jay Stephens created another strip called NOD that ran monthly in Exclaim! Magazine for three years featuring characters from his earliest, underground efforts. Jay was also one of the original cartoonists to contribute to NICKELODEON MAGAZINE back in 1994, and continued to showcase comics and illustrations in the magazine for many years. Various freelance comic strips and gags have appeared in YTV Whoa!, Slant, Owl, Scholastic, Star Wars Insider, and Too Much Coffee Man, among others.
In 1999, Jay created a new children’s comic page for the 20th anniversary of chickaDEE Magazine, and wrote and drew the popular CHICK & DEE strip for five years, also contributing many covers, posters, puzzles and spot illustrations featuring the characters. Jay also created the new ‘summer special’ digest format which showcased longer form comic stories featuring Chick and Dee. For this work, Jay was nominated for a 2002 National Cartoonists Society Reuben Award in Magazine Illustration.
Auction will include a digitally coloured print of the line art by Jay!
Jay’s first experience with animation was for the short-lived YTV kids sketch comedy show, ‘Squawkbox’ in 1994, for which he was hired to write various live-action skits. Jay managed to slip in 8 cartoon shorts featuring a character called WONDERDUDS created by Jay specifically for the show. Jay was also the voice of the hapless title character! In 1999, Jay’s pint-sized comic book hero JETCAT made it onto the air in 4 shorts produced for Nickelodeon’s ‘KaBlam!’ cartoon anthology series. Jay was heavily involved in the writing, design, and art direction of this show, and fortunate to be nominated for the 1999 Annie Award for ‘Outstanding Individual Achievement for Production Design in an Animated Television Production’ for the pilot episode, ‘Sacred Identity’. Jay’s Emmy Award winning TUTENSTEIN show (based on another character from his comic books) premiered in the fall of 2003 on NBC Saturday mornings as well as throughout the week on Discovery Kids, broadcast around the world in several languages. A Tutenstein float in the famous Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade first appeared in 2004. 40 episodes and a TV movie have been produced to date. Jay Stephens is also the Creator, Art Director, and Executive Producer of THE SECRET SATURDAYS animated series for Cartoon Network, featuring a family of Cryptozoologists. Created specially for television, the series first aired in the Fall of 2008. Jay has also freelanced for Walt Disney Television Animation and Warner Bros.
In 2004, Jay designed and co-illustrated the Chickadee EAT IT UP! cookbook for kids, written by Elisabeth de Mariaffi, and featuring the cast from Jay’s Chick & Dee comics. In 2007, Lark Books published three drawing instruction books called MONSTERS!, HEROES!, and ROBOTS! Written and illustrated by Jay Stephens. For his work on these books, Jay was nominated for a National Cartoonists Society Reuben Award in 2007.
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The piece shown above is one of over 40 pieces of original artwork featuring Wolverine donated to the Joe Shuster Awards for the Visions of an Icon Art Show and Sale by Canadian artists. The pieces were exhibited twice in 2009 – at the Joe Shuster Awards Ceremony in September and at the Speakeasy Comic Art Show in November. The original art pieces will be auctioned off on eBay in March 2010. Watch for announcements on this site!
Every day we will try to post an original piece and some information on the artist(s) that donated the work.
Joe Shuster Award winning cartoonist Jeff Lemire (Essex Country Trilogy, Sweet Tooth, The Nobody) will be producing an original, 250 page graphic novel entitled THE UNDERWATER WELDER to be published by Top Shelf in 2012.
Pressure. As an underwater welder on an oilrig off the coast of Nova Scotia, Jack Joseph is used to the immense pressures of deep-sea work. Nothing, however, could prepare him for the pressures of impending fatherhood. As Jack dives deeper and deeper, he seems to pull further and further away from his young wife, and their unborn son. But then, something happens deep on the ocean floor. Jack has a strange and mind-bending encounter that will change the course of his life forever. … Equal parts blue-collar character study and mind-bending science fiction epic, The Underwater Welder is a 250-page graphic novel that explores fathers and sons, birth and death, memory and truth, and treasures we all bury deep down inside.
Rich Dannys is a cartoonist/illustrator based in Toronto, Canada who has been working in the Animation business, for 20 years now. His company – Flying Dutchman Studios, Inc., has provided creative services for various projects in Advertising, Marketing, and Comic-Books. In 2003, Rich published a sketchbook of his work WANG-DANG-DOODLE! He is also the moderator of the Instruction section of the Drawing Board community of artists.
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The piece shown above is one of over 40 pieces of original artwork featuring Wolverine donated to the Joe Shuster Awards for the Visions of an Icon Art Show and Sale by Canadian artists. The pieces were exhibited twice in 2009 – at the Joe Shuster Awards Ceremony in September and at the Speakeasy Comic Art Show in November. The original art pieces will be auctioned off on eBay in March 2010. Watch for announcements on this site!
Every day we will try to post an original piece and some information on the artist(s) that donated the work.
It’s an excellent interview, and it touches on some points that we do try to address with the annual Joe Shuster Awards, especially in regards to the material that’s coming out of Quebec that rarely sees the light of day in the other Canadian provinces – except when translated for the English market by publishers like Drawn & Quarterly (who carry the work of Michel Rabagliati, Guy Delisle, Julie Doucet and Pascal Blanchet) and now Conundrum Press (with Philippe Girard).
I’m actually surprised that other English language publishers, Canadian or otherwise, don’t look into translating and republishing the great books that come out every year from French Canadian creators. The material that does get translated into English tends to be more in line with the overall publishing philosophies of companies like D+Q and Conundrum. They generally avoid the genre focused BD – such as sci-fi/fantasy, historical, horror, suspense, fantasy, comedy and children’s BD. Most of us know about widely distributed and translated French language comics like Tintin, or Asterix & Obelix, or even Blacksad… but we here at the JSA would love to see series by Canadians like Les Druides, Magasin général or Les Nombrils getting picked up and given wider distribution. There’s a reason why these books keep getting nominated year after year.
The Quebec BD market is probably the strongest non-superhero material comics market we have in North America.
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Anyway, Conundrum Press is doing a great job and we can’t wait to see what they have coming up this year and beyond. Make sure to drop by their table if you are going to TCAF this spring.
He’s also busier on the comic book front than he’s been in years. He continues to ink “Haunt,” the book he co-created with Robert Kirkman, as well as inking “Spawn.” While still too busy to do more than guest-pencil the occasional issue or cover (he’s doing one of the seven covers for Spawn #200, due out February 24), he does admit to missing the monthly grind.
“It has been fun, but the [big difference] is that when I used to do it on a regular basis, that was my only job,” he said, adding that it’s tough to find time for creative work “and run the corporations at the same time. I’ve got three kids now, so I’ve been trying to figure out how to do all that and still spend time with my wife and sleep.”
“I believe that once my 15 minutes of fame goes away and my life winds down,” McFarlane said, “I’ll probably return to comic books. Not because I need to make money, not because I want to be famous… just because I enjoy drawing.”
Sam Agro began his career in 1983, working as a storyboard artist in the animation industry producing hundreds of storyboards for shows like Ewoks and Droids, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and The Ripping Friends. Sam has written for TVO’s Polka Dot Shorts, the animated segments of Elliot Moose is on the Loose and many, many scripts for DC’s Looney Tunes and Block Party comics. Sam regularly performs improv and sketch comedy with the groups The Wrecking Crew and The Canadian Space Opera Company.
The piece shown above is one of over 40 pieces of original artwork featuring Wolverine donated to the Joe Shuster Awards for the Visions of an Icon Art Show and Sale by Canadian artists. The pieces were exhibited twice in 2009 – at the Joe Shuster Awards Ceremony in September and at the Speakeasy Comic Art Show in November. The original art pieces will be auctioned off on eBay in March 2010. Watch for announcements on this site!
Every day we will try to post an original piece and some information on the artist(s) that donated the work.
I was born in Winnipeg in 1960 and moved out to the West Coast at age four to West Vancouver. My father was a professor of Canadian history, our home was full of books up on art and history. However, learning disability and serious behavioural problems that persisted into early adulthood disturbed my childhood. I began drawing as a treatment for dyslexia. At an early age I discovered both Asterix the Gaul and the work of Herge, creator of the classic comic Tintin, whose work has heavily influenced my own. Later I discovered Monty Python, underground comics, punk rock and the autobiographical comics of Harvey Pekar. Entering the Emily Carr school of Art in 1979 I took design and life drawing but my heart was really in cartooning. I dropped out in my 3rd year after a nervous collapse caused by the early death of my father.
MINI-COMICS
After five lost years and 8 months of treatment I felt better but after a fruitless search for a job I found myself broke and bored on welfare. In 1985 I printed my first mini-comics, Socialist Turtle and The Granville
Street Gallery, in a basement on a borrowed gestnar. Switching to offset printing I eventually self-published over 60 mini-comics and digests of my own material. I co-founded the Vancouver small press digest series New Reality, I somehow amassed a large collection of alternative comics and became vice-president of the Vancouver Cartoonist Society – just before it collapsed. Otherwise, I kept busy as a co-host of the noise program Newsounds Gallery on Co-op Radio, sitting as a volunteer at the Pitt Gallery, performing with the audio art band The Haters and drumming for the rock band Puke Theatre.
BIG THING
In 1990 the first Big Thing comic was released, bankrolled by a local patron of the arts, Ed Varney, consisting of mostly autobiographical material. Big Thing was then picked up by Fantagraphics Books who published four issues, containing a greater variety of stories, fiction, fantasy, humour and autobio, to thundering indifference from readers and critics. In 1992 I traveled with a group of North American cartoonists to the largest comicon in France at Angouleme and the next year I was a guest at a convention in Porto, Portugal, travelling with Naughty Bits artist Roberta Gregory.
INCUBUS
After Fantagraphics cancelled Big Thing I fell into a long dry period, despairing of my future in comics. I was smarting from the indifference or outright hostility of the critics, I have always been too thin-skinned and easily hurt. And it does hurt, believe me it hurts. During this period I created a few stories for anthologies, including several illustration jobs for comics writer Dennis Eichhorn, and returned to mini-comics publishing. I also put out two issues of my cash-cow comic, the erotic comic Incubus, who’s first issue sold more than all my previous comics combined. However, the publisher left comics to create pornographic card games. I have the third issue of Incubus pencilled, sitting in a drawer.
BIG THING RETURNS
In 1994 Aeon released a one-shot Big Thing that earned some small favourable critical and readership response, particularly a story (Chris) about the damage done to a young couple’s relationship by the demands of political correctness. Also that year Starhead released the Big Black Thing, reprinting selected mini-comics material, mostly as a comics industry in-joke which I will not explain here as it would take too long. For years I was a regular visitor to the San Diego Comicon. but relative poverty has limited my appearances in the last several years to the A.P.E. conventions in San Jose until 1998.
BUDDHA ON THE ROAD
In 1995 I began my most ambitious project, Buddha on the Road, an anti-religious adventure epic that last six issues until the publisher folded. In 1997 I went on a five city signing tour of the East Coast with Roberta Gregory and Donna Barr that ended at SPX in Silver Hills, Maryland.
CARTOONS, ILLUSTRATIONS, ART
Over the years my comic strips have appeared in Vancouver freepapers, zines, anthologies and comicbooks. I have created award winning illustration work, mostly historical work for Flagship games of California. I have also done performance art, paintings and just recently completed my first equestrain portrait!
PERSONAL LIFE
You can find me hanging out in art galleries, visiting galleries and liberaries, drinking tea with friends and urban hiking around Vancouver’s tree-lined streets. l am living comfortably, independently impoverished in Vancouvers hip and trendy nieghbourhood of Mount Pleasant. Currently I am co-hosting a weekly UBC radio show about comics. I am living with my cat, Lomu the Wicked, who hates you.
VITAL STATISTICS
I am a pale penis person of the hetero persuasion, anglo- swedish- american, blue-eyed, brown haired. 6ft. 300pds. Ugly with sensitive skin that has a tendency to break out into rashes. I vote N.D.P. (socialist). I am an atheist, pro-choice, anti-gun and pro-frees peech. I wear black. Oilskin, denim or leather jackets, plaid shirts, doc martens, and I collect hats (7 ¾ ) when I can buy I buy books, mostly English and Russian novels, some Indian, American and Canadian novelists but I mostly read non-fiction. I study history; military, political, art, religious, comedy, and I take an interest in current events. I wish I understood more about media studies and economics – I think we’re being had. I listen to punk alternative, any sort of slightly weird pop music and Gilbert and Sullivan. I like comedies, spaghetti westerns, samurai epics and Chinese martial arts fantasies. I don’t know how to drive, I don’t drink, smoke or do drugs. I do tea, I’m trying to lose weight. Sometimes I feel like a patriotic Canadian. Sometimes I’m not sure. I have never been arrested.
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The piece shown above is one of over 40 pieces of original artwork featuring Wolverine donated to the Joe Shuster Awards for the Visions of an Icon Art Show and Sale by Canadian artists. The pieces were exhibited twice in 2009 – at the Joe Shuster Awards Ceremony in September and at the Speakeasy Comic Art Show in November. The original art pieces will be auctioned off on eBay in March 2010. Watch for announcements on this site!
Every day we will try to post an original piece and some information on the artist(s) that donated the work.
While we rarely delve into the collectibles side of the comic book hobby here on the Joe Shuster Awards website, we’ll make an exception here as a rare higher grade copy of Action Comics #1 – the first Superman story by Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel – sold earlier this week for an unprecedented one million dollars.
The comic in question:
It’s a Bird…It’s a Plane…It’s the First Million Dollar Comic Book! First Superman Comic Shatters All Records with Unprecedented $1,000,000 Sale
Rare Action Comics #1 Unveiled in New York
For Immediate Release: February 22, 2010
They said it couldn’t be done. They said that no comic book—no matter how rare—would ever sell for $1,000,000. This week, they were proven wrong. And in the midst of a recession, no less!
That’s because ComicConnect.com, one of the industry’s leading online auction/consignment sites, just sold an extremely rare, top-condition copy of the world’s most coveted comic book for exactly $1,000,000. That figure is more than three times higher than the prior record-holder, also set by ComicConnect.com.
That comic book, of course, is Action Comics #1, which marked the debut of Superman in 1938 and promptly changed the course of pop culture forever.
This particular copy has been in a private collection for more than 15 years, and it’s likely to disappear again once it’s been turned over to its new owner. However, ComicConnect.com will allow the media to view it briefly in its New York City showroom (873 Broadway, Suite 201, 212-895-3999). The showroom is also home to ComicConnect.com’s affiliate, Metropolis Collectibles (metropoliscomics.com), the largest vintage comic book dealer in the world.
“It’s the Holy Grail of comic books,” says founder Stephen Fishler, one of the leading experts on collectible comics.
“Before Action Comics #1, there was no such thing as a superhero or a man who could fly,” notes Fishler, who created the 10-point grading scale which today is used universally to evaluate the condition of comic books.
“It’s the single most important event in comic book history,” adds ComicConnect.com co-owner and COO, Vincent Zurzolo.
Only about 100 copies Action Comics #1 remain in existence, and of those 100, only two have received a grading of 8.0 (Very Fine) or higher. This particular book is one of them, making it among the rarest of the rare.
Up until now, the record-holder was another Action Comics #1, this one with a grading of 6.0. It sold on ComicConnect.com for $317,200 in 2009.
According to the Overstreet Price Guide to Comic Books—the industry bible—Action Comics #1 is indisputably the highest-valued comic book of all time. In second place is Detective Comics #27, which marked the first appearance of Batman in 1939. An Action Comics #1 graded 8.0 or higher is priced about 25% higher than a comparable Detective Comics #27.
Until last week, some collectors weren’t aware of the existence of this million dollar copy. Fishler, however, knew it well, because 15 years ago, he sold it for $150,000.
But why the big jump in price?
“High-grade copies are rarely, rarely offered for sale,” explains Zurzolo. “When they do come on the market, you can expect to see a big leap in value.”
“I knew that someday, there would be a seven figure comic book sale, and I dreamed of being part of that historic moment. But I didn’t think it would happen so soon, particularly given the current state of the economy.”
Imagine: back in 1938, this very comic book sold for ten cents, its sole purpose to entertain a child. 72 years later, some very fortunate adult is willing to spend $1,000,000 for the privilege of owning it—something most experts believed would never happen.
“Is it worth it?” says Fishler. “Absolutely. There is nothing else like it.”
As far as we know it wasn't purchased by Dr. Evil.
Toronto artist Nick Postic’s eerie and photorealistic style is reminiscent of the work of artists such as Bill Sienkiewicz, Tommy Lee Edwards, John Paul Leon and Alex Maleev. His work has appeared on titles such as the Underworld movie adaptation (for IDW), Nothingface (for Digital Webbing), Nightwolf: The Price (for Devil’s Due Publishing), The Impaler (for Image Comics) and Secret Invasion: Home Invasion (for Marvel Comics).
Secret Invasion: Home Invasion was originally presented as an online comic at Marvel.com and was eventually collected in a single trade paperback edition. The Underworld Movie Adaptation was later reprinted as a mini-comic and included with copies of the Underworld special edition dvd.
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The piece shown above is one of over 40 pieces of original artwork featuring Wolverine donated to the Joe Shuster Awards for the Visions of an Icon Art Show and Sale by Canadian artists. The pieces were exhibited twice in 2009 – at the Joe Shuster Awards Ceremony in September and at the Speakeasy Comic Art Show in November. The original art pieces will be auctioned off on eBay in March 2010. Watch for announcements on this site!
Every day we will try to post an original piece and some information on the artist(s) that donated the work.
Cover to Red: A Haida Manga by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas
A book that we here at the Joe Shuster Awards have been talking about for months has finally been shipped through Diamond, arriving in comic book stores on Wednesday, February 17th (only 3 months later than book stores).
Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas
Red: A Haida Manga, created by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, is a visual retelling of a story from the oral tradition of the Haida Gwaii. This cautionary tale of anger, pride and revenge, is woven with an eye towards former President George Bush and the policies and actions of the post-9/11 years. This is the story of Red, a leader so blinded by revenge that he leads his community to the brink of war and destruction.
Printed as 108 hand-painted colour pages, this book is the next step in Yahgulanaas’ move beyond traditional Haida design. Yahgulanaas’ growth as an artist these past 20 years has been his continual pushing against the boundaries of traditional Haida art, as he merges gorgeous and, in his words, “fairly complex to the point of appearing to be abstract”, Haida images with many of the features of Japanese manga.
Yahgulanaas, the gallery artist, has stepped into the world of comics and has truly created something original.
Staying true to thousands of years of tradition, Red is richly painted with the traditional 3-colour scheme of black, red and blue-green elements, while embracing the revolution of the 80′s, when the full spectrum of the colour palette was added to modern Haida artwork. Yahgulanaas’ painted pages are filled with rich, swirling colour, helping the eye move through the book.
Colour scheme in Red: A Haida Manga
Even still, Red is a challenging work, filled with non-uniform panel borders that slip and slide as characters interact with the borders, grabbing hold, laying down, leaning against; the pages dripping with little details that gave even this veteran comic reader some pause, occasionally missing the correct order.
An example of a character interacting with the panel border.
The sequential narrative follows in a traditional manner, each page reads left to right (unlike Eastern manga), top to bottom (for the most part), but each two page spread has a larger panel construction, and this structure, a grander, overall image, plays throughout the spread.
multi-page spread. Click to enlarge.
You see, Red was constructed as a single giant mural work, 4.5 metres tall by 2 metres wide. This large single image, consisting of three animals; the central figure is a beaver to this readers eyes (though given the allegorical connection to GWB, perhaps a hawk would have worked), provides the universal image in which the panels and pages interplay. In traditional Haida art, the formline is the delineating force of the painting or engraving, the way a panel border is to comics. Formlines are continuous. Used as an outline or an design element, an abstract composition or internal detail, this comics panel borders/formlines sweep and swell like the tide, a direct connection to Yahgulanaas’ thoughts on Haida art: “restrictions and expression within these restrictions”, compression and expansion that he equates to a waterline between tide and shore.
click to enlarge
The panel borders of each page interact with those around them, forming a larger mosaic. Playing with structure and time, examining what it is to tell a story, these pages not only link with the directly previous and following pages (in most cases) but, due to the original mural layout, pages that also appear prior and later in the story.
There are comics which have played with story structure, examining what it is to be a comic; the recently released and quite masterful Asterios Polyp by David Mazzuchelli being one such work. Highly praised for looking at and breaking down the structure of comics, attempting to tell a tale while poking and prodding at what makes comics unique, Asterios Polyp plays on the ability to move back and forth within the moment as the reader controls their universe; examines the use of colour, and the use of word balloons to construct a story, while using the main character’s figure to pull us out of the rendered 3D world, reminding us that this is all occuring in a 2 planes.
In a similar vein, Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas has challenged what comics can be with Red: constructing a giant singular image, then playing within that image. Having the characters interact with panel borders, Yahgulanaas goes one step further: at the end of the book he writes, “I welcome you to destroy this book”, encouraging the reader to rip the pages from the binding and lay the story out as one gigantic image on the floor; the story is not meant to be trapped within the panel by panel, page by page sequential structure of a comic, while working as a comic. Instead the reader interacts and reconstructs the work of art in the mural style originally intended.
Another reason to celebrate Red is we have another work by a First Nations person which contains their undiluted voice. Douglas & McIntyre acquired the rights sight unseen, “(w)e didn’t read anything. There was nothing to read, in fact.” Not a page had been drawn, this was a publisher supporting the work of an artist wholly, “Michael told us he wanted to do a graphic novel based on a traditional Haida oral tale, and because we were already huge fans of his art, we thought we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to do something special in terms of a graphic story,” said Douglas & McIntyre’s Chris Labonte.
More than that, Red is a challenge to Canada. Yahgulanaas’ bio says he “spent much of the 1980s and ‘90s dedicated to public service and political activism. For a period, he was an elected chief councillor for the Haida, and he also sat on numerous committees, negotiating jurisdictional disputes between the Haida and various levels of government.” This is a man who has felt ignored, left behind and diminished has he grew up in Canada, looking to Japan for friendship. Japan represented a “place of safety and comfort and welcome for Haidas”, where men could “walk through the streets just like an ordinary human. They could go to the restaurant, could use public restrooms, they could shop and move freely and live freely as regular humans. Of course, that [was] not the situation here in British Columbia, in Canada, where if you’re even allowed in the movie theatre you had to sit in the Indian side.”
“Red becomes a real test of whether there is an interest, I think, in Canada, to explore the mythology of what is the Indian, in a populist form,” he says. Slowly, Canada has begun to embrace the wonderful and diverse culture of the First Nations, Inuit and Metis; the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics showing a lot of reverence to what parts of the rest of the world have long admired. While I don’t believe the Olympics represent the first step, as we have been walking this path for some time, it is obvious that these old wounds and injustices are not completely in the past; the recent Caledonia confrontations over land claims were thick with hate speech and threats of violence.
Yahgulanaas recently gave a talk on social justice and how that relates to his story Flight of the Hummingbird. It is quite inspiring and can give some insight into the evolving relationship that the people of Haida Gwaii, and Yahgulanaas, have lived through.
Red: A Haida Manga is a very important work, a highlight creation of the past decade, that deserves to be examined and experienced. Yahgulanaas has created something fresh, unique and innovative; a unique, creative voice who has found a means of expression through comic storytelling. I highly recommend this book.
We are fortunate to have recently had other undistilled works available to us from First Nations and Metis creators. The last few years have seen a number of creators self-publishing the stories they want to tell, tapping into the traditions, passing along oral histories, or pursuing a social agenda, as Yahgulanaas has with Red and before that Flight of the Hummingbird, and all of these were done in comic form.
Chad Solomon has been self publishing his Rabbit & Bear Paws books for many years now.
I have read criticism of Solomon’s work, specifically that he plays into damaging stereotypes, from a reviewer interested in multicultural and Native American issues (his words); worth mentioning but not worth focusing on.
The fact is that Solomon is telling his stories the way he wants to. Further, Rabbit and Bear Paws received an endorsement from the John Beaucage, Grand Council Chief of the 42 communities of the Anishinabek Nation verifying that Rabbit and Bear Paws is “an informative and entertaining way for North Americans of all ages to learn more about First Nations history, cultures and traditions.”
Stories of Our People: A Metis Graphic Novel Anthology
Stories of Our People: A Metis Graphic Novel Anthology was the first graphic novel produced in Saskatchewan and the first uniquely Metis graphic novel made in Canada. Published and available through the Gabriel Dumont Institute (GDI) of Native Studies and Applied Research. Metis oral traditional stories were recorded as interviews, then translated into comic stories by Metis artist Carrie Saganace.
Sean Muir and the Healthy Aboriginal Network, a non-profit endeavour to the promote the health, literacy, and wellness of First Nations youth through the use of visual art as a medium to effect change, began creating targeted comics in 2005. The goal was to provide comics which were “culturally appropriate, written and drawn by Aboriginal youth”, as a means to examine and address issues within the community.
Their first comic, Darkness Calls, was created to start the conversation about high suicide rates amongst First Nations teens. Illustrated by First Nation comic book artist Steve Sanderson, Darkness Calls is loosely based on the author’s own experience and a desire to expose the startling statistic that within the youth age group 15-25, the Aboriginal suicide rate is estimated to be 5 to 6 times higher than that of non-Aboriginal youth.
A film version of the comic was developed, and spoken in Gitxsan. This was done for the additional benefit of language retention. Muir says, “The cool thing about the short is that the youth couldn’t speak their language previous to starting the project. They learned the words and phrases necessary to speak the dialogue.”
In the years since, the Healthy Aboriginal Network has continued to create comics with the intention of addressing difficult subject matter which have been issues in their communities gambling awareness, diabetes awareness, staying in school, mental health and gang activity.
Red: A Haida Manga, Flight of the Hummingbird and the Rabbit and Bear Paws volumes are available through comic retailers. The various Healthy Aboriginal comics and Stories of Our People: A Metis Graphic Novel Anthology can be purchased directly from the publisher, though if you’re interested in reading any of these works, please encourage your retailer to seek out the publishers and to stock this material.
Location: Metro Toronto Convention Centre, North Building Room 206 – Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Guests: GUY DAVIS (B.P.R.D.) (see below) CAMERON STEWART (Batman & Robin) RAY FAWKES (The Apocalipstix) FRANCIS MANAPUL (Adventure Comics, The Flash) AGNES GARBOWSKA (You, Me & Zombie) MARCUS TO (Red Robin) RICHARD ZAJAC (Adventure Comics) KELLY TINDALL (Proof) MARCIO TAKARA (Disney/Pixar’s The Incredibles) ERIC VEDDER (Darkstalkers) JOE VRIENS (Darkstalkers)
plus TY TEMPLETON (Star Trek: Mission’s End) courtesy of the Toronto Cartoonists Workshop
Dealers:
A&C Games, All New Comics, Canstar Toys, Comic Book Addiction, Comic Age Entertainment, Conspiracy Comics, DragonStar, HaganLand, Harley Yee Rare Comics, Heavy Mental Designs, The Labyrinth, Mad Men Comics, Major Comics, Manish Mistry, Milo Accessories, Myths Legends & Heroes, Pendragon, Red Nails/ Blue Ribbon, Shockwave Comic Books, Unknown Worlds, Wyldstar
Artists Alley/Other Exhibitors
Gavin McCarthy, DMF Comics, J.E. Lozano, Heroes of the World, Max the Mutt Animation School, Toronto Cartoonists Workshop
ALSO, held in conjunction with this event:
ART ORIGINALS.CA PRESENTS: Of Mystery and the Macabre: The Guy Davis Exhibition 2009 Eisner award winning artist makes rare Toronto appearance
Editor’s Note: although the artist featured isn’t Canadian, we thought you might find this of interest because the event is being coordinated by new Canadian company artoriginals.ca (the group that put together last fall’s Darwyn Cooke exhibit and workshop) and the Toronto Cartoonists Workshop, which holds regular classes taught by comics professionals like Ty Templeton.
artoriginals presents master of the macabre and B.P.R.D. artist Guy Davis, who will be making a special Toronto appearance at the Gladstone Hotel on Saturday, February 27 for an interactive workshop and exhibition followed by an appearance at the Toronto ComiCON as a featured guest on Sunday, February 28.
Davis, recipient of the 2009 Eisner Award for Best Artist, is best known as the penciler and inker on Mike Mignola’s long running series B.P.R.D., chronicling the supernatural tales of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. Mignola, best known as the creator of Hellboy (who was a former member of the B.P.R.D. team), is also the series co-writer, along with John Arcudi. The Hellboy property has spawned two feature films and several animated versions. Fans and many industry insiders believe that B.P.R.D. is likely to be the next Mignola property that will be adapted for the big screen.
Selected works spanning Davis’ career, including Sandman Mystery Theatre, B.P.R.D. and The Marquis, will be featured in the exhibition along with an interactive and insightful workshop for registered patrons.
Schedule of events
Saturday, February 27
Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen Street West
Constructive Storytelling: The 180 Minute Master Class, 1 – 4 pm: Master artist Guy Davis is set to provide patrons with the key components of his vast storytelling bible. The lecture, demonstration and Q&A elements are a unique opportunity to get inside the head of one of the industry’s most renowned visionaries.
$105 per person – limited spots available (15 participants). Email info@artoriginals.ca to register.
Of Mystery and the Macabre, 7:30 – 11:30 pm: featuring selected works from Davis’ award-winning projects including Sandman Mystery Theatre, Mike Mignola’s B.P.R.D. and The Marquis. A brief question and answer period hosted by Mark Askwith of SPACE will precede the exhibit.
Free admission
Sunday, February 28
Metro Convention Centre, 255 Front Street West
Toronto ComiCON, 11 am – 5 pm: Guy Davis will be a featured guest at Toronto ComiCON.
Please direct all inquiries to: Sean Menard, Director, Marketing and Publicity – artoriginals
647.328.1656 info@artoriginals.ca http://www.artoriginals.ca
For an early preview of the Guy Davis exhibit, you can visit Toronto store THE LABYRINTH at 386 Bloor Street West. Selected pieces from the exhibit will be on display in the store between now and February 26th. The Labyrinth will also be setting up a booth at ComiCON!
J. Bone is a Toronto based illustrator and comic book artist. Past credits include Allison Dare: Little Miss Adventures, Jingle Belle, Mutant Texas, Mr. Gum, Gotham Girls, Solar Stella, Madman Adentures, Bad Girls and many others. With Darwyn Cooke he has worked on: Justice League: The New Frontier Special, The Spirit, Batman/Spirit, Witchblade Animated, Spider-Man’s Tangled Web and Wolverine/Doop. Bone is the cover artist for Johnny DC comic book The Super Friends.
Darwyn Cooke is a graphic designer and animator who turned his attention toward cartooning in the late nineties. Known primarily for his work on the DC line of superheroes, Cooke has always had an affinity for crime fiction and has often cited the Parker books as a great source of creative inspiration. Cooke has won multiple Eisner, Harvey and Joe Shuster Awards as well as the National Cartoonist Society’s Best Series Award. In 2008 Cooke was Emmy nominated for the animated adaptation of his magnum opus The New Frontier.
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The piece shown above is one of over 40 pieces of original artwork featuring Wolverine donated to the Joe Shuster Awards for the Visions of an Icon Art Show and Sale by Canadian artists. The pieces were exhibited twice in 2009 – at the Joe Shuster Awards Ceremony in September and at the Speakeasy Comic Art Show in November. The original art pieces will be auctioned off on eBay in March 2010. Watch for announcements on this site!
Every day we will try to post an original piece and some information on the artist(s) that donated the work.
Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors #1 Cover by Alvin Lee & Christine Choi
Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors #1
UDON Entertainment US$3.95
Written by Ken Siu-Chong. Artwork by Joe Vriens, Eric Vedder and Joe Ng. Inks by Crystal Reid. Cover by Alvin Lee. Cover Colours by Christine Choi. Preview at UDON Entertainment
Models, Inc. Trade Paperback
Marvel US$14.99
Inks by Terry Pallot.
New Avengers #62 Cover by Stuart Immonen
New Avengers #62
Marvel US$3.99
Artwork and Cover by Stuart Immonen. Colours by Dave McCaig. Preview at Comic Book Resources
New Avengers Vol. 12: Power Loss Hardcover
Marvel US$19.99
Artwork and Cover by Stuart Immonen. Colours by Dave McCaig.
Northlanders #25
DC/Vertigo US$2.99
Colours by Dave McCaig.
Black Terror #8 Cover by Stephen Sadowski
Popgun Vol. 4 Trade Paperback
Image US$29.99
Featuring Works by Attila Adorjany, Derek McCulloch, Salgood Sam, Alison Acton. Colours by Jim Charalampidis. Full list to be added at a later date. Preview at Comic Book Resources
Robocop #2
Dynamite Entertainment US$3.50
Variant Cover by Johnny Desjardins.
Soulfire #2
Aspen MLT US$2.99
Artwork and Cover by Marcus To.
Soulfire #2 Cover by Marcus To
Star Trek: Romulans: Pawns Of War Trade Paperback
IDW US$19.99
Written, Artwork and Cover by John Byrne.
All nominating committees are currently making their selection choices for the 2010 Joe Shuster Awards.
The nominees for the following awards are expected to be announced in mid-March:
- Artist
- Cartoonist
- Colourist
- Cover
- Achievement in Publishing
- Webcomic creator / creative team
- Writer
It is likely that nominees for the following awards: Comics for Kids, Kremer Retailer and definitely the Gene Day Award for Self-Publishing won’t be announced until later in the spring.
Jury
The Executive has decided that we will have five distinct juries in 2010:
- Comics for Kids
- Retailers & Publishers: Kremer Retailer & Achievement in Publishing
- Gene Day Award for Self-Publishing
- The Art Awards: Artist, Colourist, Cover Art
- The Story Awards: Cartoonist, Webcomic creator/creative team, Writer
The change for 2010 is the division of the creative awards (listed above as the “Art” and “Story” Awards) into two distinct juries instead of one single one (as we did in 2008 and 2009). Breaking up the juries in this manner allows for each jury to have less awards to finalize and allows them to concentrate more thoroughly on the awards they have to work on.
Presentation Date
Is still undecided at this time but should be finalized by the time of the March press release announcing the 2010 Nominees.
This weekend is Con-G, the anime/manga convention which takes place in Guelph, ON.
This convention is a manga / anime focused event, very heavy on the community building with an assortment of events like J-Pop dance, Masquerade, Trivia and Games, overnight Anime.
There is an Artist Alley, consisting of amateur cartoonists doing their thing and the retailers at this event include some internet based anime dealers, such as Funimation and Right Stuff!, as well as local brick and mortar comic/manga store The Dragon.
Con-G hours:
Saturday 9am – 10pm (Dance runs 10pm to 1am, some anime programming running overnight)
Sunday 9am – 4pm
Dale Eaglesham is a veteran comic book illustrator who has been working in the industry since 1986. He has worked with DC Comics, Marvel, Dark Horse, and CrossGen, among others. In January 2009, he signed an exclusive contract with Marvel, where he will be illustrating the Fantastic Four. Working on this legendary series is a childhood dream come true for Dale.
Darwy
