PREVIEWSworld.com New Releases
Shipping 5/11/2011
Each week PREVIEWSworld.com provides a list of comics, graphic novels and other pop-culture merchandise arriving at your local comic shop.
Please check with your retailer for availability, as not all releases may be on sale in all areas at the same time.
We don’t have a poster per se this year (thanks to those that offered!) because we really don’t have anywhere we need one for at this time. Instead, art director Tyrone Biljan took some design elements on hand and put together this simple and effective image that we are using now for this website and for the Facebook and other social media outlets and will encourage others to us to promote the ceremony and any post-ceremony reports. The background image in the sky is something Darwyn Cooke sent us for another upcoming project. The Awards logo itself is based on a design Dave Sim did for us that Tyrone adapted for the original logo, which is in itself a homage to Joe Shuster’s own stylistic form of lettering.
Unlike Day 1, I was able to spend much more time at TCAF on Sunday. I came down for open at 11 and stayed until about 3:30. Sunday was a much more reasonable day for the crowds, probably because it was also Mother’s Day. It was definitely busy but the lines were quite manageable and one could move around and see a lot of people.
I had some primary goals for the day (1) to check in with Joe Shuster Award nominees and see who was coming to Calgary that hadn’t been announced, (2) invite a few people to Fan Expo and (3) look around and find some books that I’m interested in that were debuting at TCAF.
All three goals were met easily.
Day Two Purchases: Cat Rackham Loses It by Steve Wolfhard ($5), Centifolia II by Stuart Immonen ($20), Just the Usual Superpowers by Faith Erin Hicks ($12), Aurora Borealice by Joan Thornborrow Steacy ($15), Even the Giants by Jesse Jacobs plus a limited edition print $40, and finally That Night In June – mini-comics by Emily Carroll ($15). If I wasn’t broke from some art purchases the week before and May rent I would have bought more.
I felt that Sunday was a much more enjoyable day to attend this event because the crowds were a bit lighter and the space was more manageable. I still feel that the library is a tight fit and that if TCAF 2012 returns to this space that the library needs to retreat a lit further back. I don’t think there are enough washrooms in the facility in easily accessible locations, and the presence of the homeless who usually inhabit the library made for a few uncomfortable moments, especially in the washrooms.I did not attend any programming on Sunday.
Overall I felt that TCAF 2011 was a massive success and kudos should go to the organizers of the event and to the volunteer staff. Every creator and attendee I talked to was in a happy, exuberant mood – even when the show was at it’s most chaotic. The comics community, at least the creative (for the most part non-superhero comics) crowd, was having one giant group hug and I never felt there was any ill will towards anybody or anything at TCAF. There was just a lot of comics love.
As you know, I also work on Fan Expo in late August and I think the two events are a huge compliment to the city of Toronto for having such a large population of comics people. Plus they bookend the summer. Some observers think that these events are in some kind of popularity race, when I don’t think that is the case at all. They have different goals, different ambitions but cater to overlapping interests. You can love both for different reasons, or just go with the one that you feel is the right fit. Fan Expo isn’t free, sadly. It also isn’t subsidized by the government so your admission fees do go towards paying for the space and the guests we bring in.
I walked into TCAF tired and a little worn out from a week of announcing guests for Fan Expo and walked out energized and excited about the upcoming Calgary Expo in June and Fan Expo Canada in August. Now that TCAF and the Wright Awards are done with for 2011, I need to get down and finish my work for 2011 and I’m refreshed and ready to go!
My recommendations: Get the library to retreat further back and clear more space, or move to a different venue (which is not easy to do or find), please don’t book on Free Comic Book Day again (you are still part of a larger community and that community does rely on FCBD exposure), think about doing a weekend other than Mother’s Day (perhaps the second weekend in May instead of the first?), and find better locations for some of your more popular webcomics creators so that the lines don’t mingle or block other tables.
SATURDAY: I had a few things to do before Deb and I headed down to TCAF. Because I was only going to be there for a few hours my report is truncated significantly.
2:30-2:45. Arrived. What’s with the construction blocking the one entrance? Interesting that there’s a girl handing out flyers telling people to go The Labyrinth for Free Comic Book Day right outside the main door. Good Lord — there are too many people here on the main floor. I can’t move down any of these aisles to look at anything. The Chester Brown line is HUGE. Noise level is insane. Librarians must be in hiding.
2:45-3:15 Nice to see Scott Chantler and the guys from Transmission-X and Kill Shakespeare. Couldn’t move around to see anything/anyone else. Scott made a print out of the D-Day double-splash from Two Generals that I bought from him last fall.
3:15-4:30 Decided to go to the Canadians in the Mainstream panel at 3:30 at the Pilot Tavern. Why is there a celtic band playing while the panel is going on? Anyways — beer, Darwyn and the Immonens plus McConnell, Fawkes, Jillian Tamaki. Special guest Ken Steacy. Special non-guest: me. I gather the consensus was that being Canadian in comics doesn’t mean much except that one feels slightly different when in a room with Americans because we are more aware about what’s going on in the rest of the world, there’s a slight detachment but creatively everyone strives to be an individual and do their best and that’s universally true. Some felt that there’s a definite “can do” spirit here because of the smaller population and lack of resources. All agreed there is no comics industry per se in Canada, that working with international publishers is their economic choice, but that because of the rising Canadian dollar against a falling US dollar that they’ve all had to take a significant pay reduction. Americans don’t seem to grasp the concept of currency exchange and geographical perspective. Toronto, for example, is not near Vancouver.
(Darwyn asked me if I had any questions, and I didn’t at the time, but listening to their replies I started to wonder if a better question would have been directed to the audience: “Does the fact that these creators are Canadian matter to you, audience members, as Canadians?” It would have been curious to see what their responses would have been like. Obviously I believe that it does matter to them, as that’s why we have awards for Canadians like the Joe Shusters and the Doug Wrights to raise awareness of Canadians working in the industry in order to help promote and support them.)
My view at the Pilot - from L to R on stage: Robin McConnell, Ray Fawkes, Darwyn Cooke, Jillian Tamaki, Stuart Immonen, Kathryn Immonen. Ken Steacy's head is just on the lower right, second from the bottom.
4:30-4:45. Panel ends. Nice chat with Darwyn about the awards and we head back over to the library.
4:45-5:15. Show ends at 5. Really? 5? Barely enough time to go back in and look at anything. Ran into Rob and Jenn, Tyrone and Alana McCarthy and J. Torres. Had a nice chat about venue problems in Toronto. Talked briefly with Andy from Conundrum.
5:15-10:30. After the show closes: off to dinner with Robert and Jenn, Ross Campbell and Scott Chantler. We went to the slowest restaurant on the planet: The Ethiopian House. My innards are still complaining. I think the waitress is still getting us more water. No Wright Awards for us this year.
10:30-1:30. TCAFete at Pauper’s Pub after dinner. Great fun. Best $5 spent all weekend. Saw and talked with a lot of comics folks.
End of Day Thoughts: TCAF has outgrown the library. If they want to keep the venue viable the library has to close down during the 2 days that TCAF is on, extend the hours they re open, and move more things out of the way. It was too crowded and virtually impossible to browse the tables on the main floor on Saturday. Everyone is in great spirits though.
Purchases during show hours: 1 Mill Street Tankhouse Ale at the Pilot. $8.50 with tip. 1 copy of Sequential Pulp III: free. Hope to see something to buy on Sunday.
To be continued…
Not every comic city is engaging in a battle for attention. London, ON is holding it’s annual passport to FCBD event, where the comic shops in the city actually work together (…for the most part, 5 out of 6 is a great number…) for the good of the industry and the retail environment in the city.
If you are in London, you need to pick up a passport to get a chance to win one of many fabulous prizes donated by these amazing stores:
L.A. Mood Comics & Games
Heroes
Comic Book Collector
Neo Tokyo
Worlds Away
Visit these 5 stores and the Central Branch of the London Public Library and get your passport stamped at each place, and drop your ballot off at the last stop for the draws! Winners will be announced on Monday May 9th, 2011.
The Library will be hosting the first official FCBD Costume Contest at 2:30 PM, open to all ages, register before 2:15PM. Prizes will be awarded in various age categories. $50 in gift certificates and Downtown Dollars for Best in Show in each category, $10 gift certificates for 2nd prizes in each category and graphic novels for the runners up! Prizes donated by the Comic Shop Crossover stores!
Here’s some news coverage: Metro News, Londoner
Have fun, kids of all ages (and the retailers, too)!
It’s a COMIC. it’s an APP, It’s a GAME – It’s Teenage Satan, created by Stephanie Buscema, Marsha Cooke and Candis Cooke. Animation by Darwyn Cooke . For more information visit http://teenagesatan.com Music “Hello” by Martin Solveig featuring Dragonette copyright Atlantic Records. Buy the song now here http://bit.ly/awdh8Y
Don't forget the show is 4 days this year!August 25-28
International Guest Coordinator Tiziano De Santis and I (Kevin Boyd, your Canadian guest and Artist Alley Guest Coordinator) as well as the rest of the administrative team for FAN EXPO CANADA (TM) 2011 are very pleased to announce the Comic Book Expo Guest List. We’ve been assembling this list for many months now, and while this is the majority of the creators attending, it is by no means the final list for the event as more creators are still in the process of being signed on for the event and as we get closer to the event schedules sometimes change. Please Note: This list does not include paid Artist Alley Creators. Applications are still being accepted at this time and are going to be processed later this month.
FEATURED GUESTS
As well, at least 100 additional creator guests were announced as well in the ALSO APPEARING section:
Some publishers and studios were also announced as attending, including:
as well as
So last night the Canadian Federal Election took place and the result I was least expecting happened: A Conservative majority government, the rise of the NDP as official opposition party, the Liberal Party being humbled down to a mere 34 seats and the utter decimation of the Bloc Quebecois.
For a while now we’ve been locked in a West (Conservative) vs. East (Liberal) vs. Quebec (BQ) vs. over-enlightened hipster urbanite (the NDP) battle for Parliamentary supremacy where one would get the barest minimum of a leg up over the other.
After last night, for the first time in a long time, Canadian regional bias in politics at the federal level aligned to either the left (the NDP) or the right (the Conservatives). Even the traditional urban vs. rural lines were blurred as the NDP now find themselves representing large rural areas, where the issues are completely different than their more traditional areas of support in places like urban Toronto and Vancouver.
I live in the riding of St. Paul’s in Toronto, and we somehow managed to keep one of those Liberal MPs that were being discarded (for the) left or right last night. As a traditionally Liberal, middle of the road kind of guy I’m a little dismayed over this new status quo — the government and it’s opposition are philosophically quite far away from my personal beliefs on economic and social issues.
So what does this mean for comics? Probably not a lot… yet. A Conservative majority government certainly doesn’t strike me as being supportive of the Arts, so who knows what this will mean for federal Arts grants over the next few years. I’m glad our Association doesn’t rely on grant money, but many Canadian cartoonists, publishers and related businesses do so we’ll be watching what happens next very closely.
PREVIEWSworld.com New Releases
Shipping 5/4/2011
Each week PREVIEWSworld.com provides a list of comics, graphic novels and other pop-culture merchandise arriving at your local comic shop.
Please check with your retailer for availability, as not all releases may be on sale in all areas at the same time.
Thanks to Kevin Hickey at Brampton’s STADIUM COMICS for forwarding along these two videos they have shot in anticipation of FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2011:
First is a video they shot of going through all the available releases for FCBD, to give people a sense of what they might find at their local shops on FCBD this Saturday:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEKe_PE-e00
Second is a video that gives some info on what FCBD is all about, as well as some details on Stadium Comics’ guests for the day, and the sales they’ll be having:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UFUByC8HJw
STADIUM COMICS – 499 Main Street South, Unit #104, Brampton, ON L6Y 1N7, 905-451-3751
www.sidekickcomics.ca
Canada is set to love comics this weekend as we go in for the first major comics weekend of the year with multiple events taking place all over the country.
On Thursday, May 5th Fan Expo Canada (TM) will be announcing the bulk of the comic book guests for the annual event that takes place this year on August 25-29. I am the Canadian Guest/Artist Alley/Comics Programming Coordinator for the Comic Expo aspect of this event and together with the AMAZING guests booked by our International Guest Coordinator, colleague Tiziano De Santis, we know that people are going to be excited by Fan Expo Canada (TM) 2011. Four days means a lot more excitement and opportunities for meeting some amazing creators from here and abroad and attend some top-notch comics programming! With more comics publishers attending than ever before this looks to be the biggest FanExpo for comics fans yet! UPDATE: TO SEE THE GUESTS – VISIT THE NEWS STORY POSTED MAY 5TH
On Friday, May 6th, Canadian comic book fans will be flocking to their local multiplexes to see THOR, the major motion picture based on the Marvel Comics version of the Norse God of Thunder created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Advance word of mouth is that this movie is as good as or better than the first Iron Man film, and no wonder as it has a great ensemble cast led by Chris Hemsworth (Star Trek), Sir Anthony Hopkins, and Natalie Portman. I know where I’ll be on Friday night!
This Saturday, May 7th is FREE COMIC BOOK DAY. The annual extravaganza where the various local comic book stores across the world welcome comic fans, new and old, into their businesses to check out the store and receive some free promotional comic books as well. Many stores have arranged for day-long events, including signings, contests and barbeques. On the weekend Robert posted a link to as many of the FCBD events happening across the country that he could find. If we missed any please let us know at retailers@joeshusterawards.com! Make sure you go and support for comics in Canada by visiting your local comic book store!
Finally, this weekend in Toronto, it’s the return of the Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF), the 2-day FREE affair at the Toronto Reference Library. It’s got a massive line-up of the best and brightest of the webcomics and independant/artistic comics creative community on display for your interactive enjoyment, and has a ton of programming to boot. There are a lot of Canadian creators debuting books at the event. Visit TORONTOCOMICS.COM for information on all happenings & programming, guest list and more – including a number of parties and special events that are taking place this week before the actual event.
