Category Archives: Gene Day Award

Somehow it all just comes together in the end… JSA Update 1/16

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* Originally posted on 1/14 – revised and updated 1/16

The English nominating committee has submitted their choices for the categories of Artist, Cartoonist, Colourist, Cover Artist & Writer. All entries have been received and tabulated and we have our nominees for 2011.  Our five member French nominating committee got started a little later this year on the same categories — they have an extra 2 weeks to make their selections. In the end we will be looking at an average of 7 nominees per category – 5 English, 2 French. Although we would prefer to have five nominees per category, we feel it’s a fair split and gives proper representation to the two main Canadian comics traditions.

Our deadline for the Publisher and Webcomics selections is next Wednesday, January 19.

We’ve decided that the proposed Executive Choice Graphic Novel Award is not the way we want to go, as it would undermine the importance of our core awards. However, there is talk of making it into something different which I think is actually much better in the long run. Stay tuned on that.

Our Gene Day Self-Publisher Award committee has a few late admissions to review – please note that we are still accepting books until the end of the month. We have been assembling our choices based on what we have reviewed, we’ll bump them around if there are new arrivals that the committee likes.

The Comics for Kids administrators are, as far as I know, hard at work picking their selections.

The 2 Hall of Fame inductees for 2011 have been selected.

10 Canadian Retailers have been selected for further evaluation by the Harry Kremer Retailer Award committee. They will be notified this month and announced in early February. They will be asked to submit further materials for evaluation in the spring to narrow the field down to a top 5.

Happy New Year! 7th Annual Joe Shuster Awards Process Update

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Welcome to 2011! Now that the new year has begun we are ready to kick into action and officially start the process that will be completed on the evening of Saturday, June 18th at the Calgary Comic Expo!

Between now and early February we will be selecting the nominees for the many of the Award categories. Here’s an update:

- Our 15 member nationwide English nominating committee for the following awards (Artist, Writer, Cartoonist, Cover Artist, Colourist) have been given a list of eligible comics and creators and cover images and will be selecting their choices between now and the end of the month.

- Our 3 member French nominating committee for the same awards begin the same process this coming week.

- Our Kremer Retailer Award Committee has selected 10 retailers from across Canada who are in the running for the Retailer Award. They will be contacted this month and they will be asked to provide more information and complete a survey. The responses will allow our committee to narrow the list of 10 down to 5 in the spring.

- the Comics for Kids Award team has their list of eligible books

- the Webcomics selection team has their list of eligible sites, and we are narrowing down the selections for Outstanding Publisher

- we have received over 100 entries for the Gene Day Award, and from these we will be narrowing down the choices for the February announcement (much earlier than in previous years)

- the Hall of Fame committee has been discussing potential inductees for 2011 (in order to be eligible the creator would have had to have at least one project published professionally prior to December 31, 1985)

- we are putting the final touches on our Executive Choice Graphic Novel Award, and I hope to have more news on that in mid-January.

So overall, I am happy to report that we are on track to have our best year yet! I cannot thank our team enough for their contributions this year and last. Associate Director Robert Haines is to be particularly commended for the work he has done in gathering information on and communicating with Canadian comics retailers across the country. Our outgoing releases manager Jason Truong (whose last official day was yesterday) is to be commended for gathering information on the weekly releases and for updating our creator database, we are hard pressed to replace him and we will suffer for his absence, but we will do our best. Our art director, founding member Tyrone Biljan and our publisher liaison Allison Covey also deserve special recognition for their efforts last year and will have their jobs cut out for them when we get our list of nominees for the 7th Annual Joe Shuster Awards next month.

Until then, all the best to you and yours! Happy New Year!

Kevin A. Boyd
Executive Director

JSA Holiday Update

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As we are nearing the end of 2010 (15 days – only two shipping weeks!) we have a lot to be thankful for, and not many more new releases left to anticipate! This has been another big year for the Canadian comics scene and we are really excited to see what our nominating committees will choose as the most “outstanding” creators, stores and publishers of 2010.

We’re really ‘amping it up’ here at JSA central in order to make sure we have all of the nominees in every category selected by the February 1st deadline. This includes our Gene Day Self-Publisher, Harry Kremer Retailer and Comics for Kids categories, which have traditionally been announced later. The reason for why we are aiming for a February 1 date? We want everyone who is nominated to have 4+ months to determine whether or not they can attend the awards ceremony at the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo on June 18th (the Calgary Expo runs June 17-19).

Jason Truong’s departure is something we’ve been aware of for a while now, he’s been scaling back on things over the last year and yet still was a very important part of our team in 2010 as he provided the weekly updates and assembled the eligible English creators list. We wish him all of the best and hope he’ll still stop by from time to time to give us a convention report or correct our mistakes.  I suspect we’ll face some new challenges in getting the weekly list up, but we’ll do our best in his absence.

I’d like to welcome Matthew J. Allen to our blog team. Matt has been helping out for a couple of years at some Toronto area events and he will be contributing interviews to the site with various creators. We hope you enjoyed his first interview with Red Robin artist Marcus To and he’s promised some more exclusive interviews in 2011.

Incidentally, if anyone reading this would like to be a part of the blog team and contribute new content to the site, please contact me at kevin@joeshusterawards.com — make sure you read the editorial submissions requirement first though. It’s under the ABOUT US section of the website.

From everyone here at the Joe Shuster Awards we want to wish everyone a very safe and happy holiday season! Hey, if you are looking for a great gift for someone special in your life, why not buy them a graphic novel?

Thanks for reading!
Kevin Boyd,
Executive Director

Even The Giants by Jesse Jacobs

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Original Art from Even The Giants by Jesse Jacobs (from the collection of Robert Haines)

Gene Day Award winner Jesse Jacobs will have his first solo book, Even The Giants, released in 2011 through Adhouse Books.

I am a huge supporter of his work and I can’t wait to see the final product. If it’s as good as it looks, it should be a major contender for the 2012 awards.

Click here for a PDF preview

From the publisher:

Even The Giants by Jesse Jacobs. Published by AdHouse Books

Jesse Jacobs bursts onto the comic scene with his first published work EVEN THE GIANTS. The work beautifully captures the isolation of the Great White North while also giving the artist a sequential canvas to explore and experiment. This book will be printed in three Pantone spot colors. Jesse’s work has been nominated for the Doug Wright award and has won the Gene Day award.

details:
2C cover
80 3C pages
8.5″ x 5.5″ SC
$9.95 US funds
ISBN 978-1-9352331-0-7
Shipping in May 2011

Jesse Jacobs also has work in an upcoming book titled Root Rot, published by Koyama Press.

Reminder: Send in your 2010 self-published comics for the 2011 Gene Day Award

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Photo: Ethan Rilly accepting the 2010 Gene Day Award and $500 bursary for his self-published comic Pope Hats No.1 at the June Joe Shuster Awards ceremony.

Hey all you self-publishers of comics/comix/zines, we’re nearing the end of 2010 and it’s time to submit your self-published comics for consideration of the 2011 Gene Day Award.

The Gene Day Award for Self-Publishing honours Canadian comic book creators who self-published their work during the previous calendar year. The award includes a bursary of $500.

In order to qualify you must be a citizen and current resident of Canada. Anyone who writes and illustrates a comic book of their own creation (includes creative teams) and publishes and sells that comic independently of any other publishing company and did not currently have said works originally distributed by a third party distributor may submit their publication for review.

Format and content is at the discretion of the creators but the work must include new content, not reprinted material from other sources (such as webcomics). All entries will be reviewed by an independent jury. Entries will be judged individually based on originality, literary and artistic merit, and overall presentation. There are no language restrictions for this award.

Entries should be sent to:

GENE DAY AWARD
C/O THE JOE SHUSTER AWARDS
PO BOX 67031 – 2300 YONGE ST.
TORONTO, ON
M4P 3C8

We maintain a list of self-publishers, and maintain a list of Gene Day submissions, with links to your websites and blogs. This is to support the creative efforts and provide recognition for the work being done.

Previous winners:

2008 – Jesse Jacobs – Blue Winter, Shapes in the Snow
2009 – Ethan Rilly – Pope Hats

Canzine adventures

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I spent a 4 hours at Canzine this past Sunday, and I was quite pleased as Canzine is one of my favourite comic art events. The show was larger than ever, jammed with tables and creative types.

I was there gathering books for the Gene Day Award and building our Self-Published Creators contact list.

Comic Zines I picked up:

.Life Is Long.” by Evan Moore

Bok Choy Bash & The Sashimi Adventures by Dirchansky and Koyar

Bok Choy Bash & The Sashimi Adventures AGAIN by Dirchansky and Koyar

Boredom Pays #2 by Jason Bradshaw

Expired Seafood by various creators of the evilsmile.net crew

Freelance Blues #2 & #3 by Ian Daffern & Mike Leong (art by US citizen Vicky Tierney)

Frequently Asked Question about threesome by Hyein Lee

genevieve vol. 1 by Efehan Elbi

hello orange, hello squirrel by Mary Huang

Streakers by Nick Maandag

The Book Of Irrational Fears by Juhyun Daniel Lee

The Gentlemen by Kristi McConnel & S.J. Romm

The Worst In Everything by Jason Bradshaw

Three Girls by Hyeine Lee

trigger happy #1 by Francis Lee

Happenings: Canzine – Sunday, October 24 – Toronto, ON

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Canada’s Largest Zine Fair and Festival of Alternative Culture

Sunday, October 24, 2010
1pm – 7pm
The Great Hall
1087 Queen Street West
Toronto

Entry is $5, but you get a free copy of the lastest issue of Broken Pencil

Canzine Toronto Schedule
1-7pm Giant Zine Fair

Over 100 zines, book publisher, comic artists and crafters will take over The Great Hall. Plus play homemade video games on the Hand Eye Society’s video console and buy tiny poems from the Toronto Poetry Vendors poem vending machine.

2pm Workshop: The Arduino and what it can do for you

Join Derek Winkler and Brooke Ford as they show you how to add computer power to your art or how to hook your art to the Internet using new, surprisingly simple technologies available at low cost.

Derek Winkler is the Broken Pencil web king. His first novel Pitouie is forthcoming from The Workhorsery.

Brooke Ford is a graduate student and a Broken Pencil associate editor.

3pm 1-2 Punch Book Pitch

Live on our mainstage in front of a crowing crowd, you get two minutes to pitch your book to our panel of judges. They get one minute each to tell you why you’ll never get published in a million billion years or why they want to see your manuscript in their in-box asap! The winner gets bragging rights and a Broken Pencil Prize pack worth $200! (This contest is open to all, but space is limited and participants should register in advance to avoid disappointment: to do so email canzine@brokenpencil.com with 1-2 Punch in the subject line. Include a short description of the project you want to pitch, along with your name, email and phone number.)

The 1-2 Punch Judges:

Jenny Sampirisi – Managing Editor, Book Thug: Jenny Sampirisi is the author of is/was, a novel. She’s the managing editor of BookThug, co-director of the Toronto New School of Writing and associate director of the Scream Literary Festival.

Emily Schultz – Editor, Joyland.ca: Acclaimed writer Emily Schultz is co-founder and editor of Joyland.ca and author, most recently, of the novel Heaven is Small (House of Anansi Books).

Hal Niedzviecki – Fiction Editor, Broken Pencil: Hal Niedzviecki is the publisher, founder and fiction editor of Broken Pencil magazine. He is the author of eight books of fiction and nonfiction. His collection of short stories Look Down, This is Where it Must Have Happened, will be published in Spring 2011 by City Lights Press.

4:30pm Puppet Slam

For the first time ever puppets and puppeteers are coming to Canzine! In Canzine’s Puppet Slam, five competitors will take the stage, using various styles of puppetry (from sock puppets to marionettes) to impress the audience in five-to-10 minute skits until one is ultimately crowned winner of the Puppet Slam. Participants include Jamie Shannon who will re-imagine the Ugly Duckling fable as an adult puppet comedy and Adam Earle who will tell the story of Sreb, a guy who wants to help people with next-to-impossible tasks, but seems to hinder more than he helps. Come explore the world of underground puppetry.

6pm Radical Reading Series

Every year, we present the best and brightest of the independent press at the Canzine radical reading series. Featuring:

Mark Sedore – Snowmen a novel (3 Day Books): Mark Sedore is a writer and graduate student living in Toronto. He is the winner of the 2010 3 Day Novel Contest. He enjoys writing, dancing and visiting the cold places of the Earth. Snowmen is his first published novel.

Teri Vlassopoulos – Bats Or Swallows (Invisible Publishing): Teri Vlassopoulos lives and writes in Montreal. Her first collection of short stories, Bats or Swallows, will be published by Invisible Publishing in October 2010. She’s been making zines for over 10 years and wrote, photocopied, stapled and sometimes sewed the zines Melt the Snow and The Second Part. Her most recent zine, Places and Things, will be also be available in the fall.

Damian Rogers – Paper Radio (ECW Press): Damian Rogers was born and raised in suburban Detroit. She has published poems in various North American magazines, including Brick, The Walrus, Matrix, Maisonneuve, This Magazine, and MoonLit. Her first collection, Paper Radio, came out with ECW Press in October 2009 and was nominated for the Pat Lowther Memorial Award. Rogers lives in Toronto.

Daniel Scott Tysdal – The Mourner’s Book of Albums (Tightrope Books): Daniel Scott Tysdal is the author of Predicting the Next Big Advertising Breakthrough Using a Potentially Dangerous Method (Coteau 2006), which received the ReLit Award for Poetry (2007) and the Anne Szumigalski Poetry Award (2006). His second book of poetry, The Mourner’s Book of Albums, is forthcoming in the Fall from Tightrope Books. He teaches creative writing at the University of Toronto Scarborough.

Happenings: Canzine West – Saturday, October 16 – Vancouver, BC

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Canada’s Largest Zine Fair and Festival of Alternative Culture

Saturday, October 16, 2010
1pm – 7pm
W2 Storyeum
151 West Cordova Street
Vancouver, BC

Event Schedule:

1-7pm Giant Zine and Craft Fair

The heart of the festival! Over 100 zine, book, and comic publishers, and some of the area’s best independent crafters. Also interactive fun: All day comic jam and collage areas.

1-2pm Canzine West Radical Readings

Kicking off Canzine with 3 readings by some of Canada’s most exciting writing talent, radical readers culled from the best of the independent presses. Featuring:

Anna Swanson – The Nights Also (Tightrope Books): Anna Swanson has paid the rent by planning festivals, selling books, serving drinks, making maps, walking on stilts, bowling with teenagers, writing press releases and watching for forest fires. She lives in Vancouver and works as a children’s librarian.

Grant Buday – Dragonflies (Biblioasis): Grant Buday’s most recent novel, Dragonflies was shortlisted for the Metcalf-Rooke Award. He has a story in the latest Best Canadian Stories anthology, and his poem “Even Orc’s Get the Blues,” won second prize in the subTerrain magazine Lush Triumphant contest.

Amber Dawn – Sub Rosa (Arsenal Pulp Press): Amber Dawn is a writer, filmmaker and performance artist. She is the author of the novel Sub Rosa, editor of the Lambda Award-nominated Fist of the Spider Woman and co-editor of With a Rough Tongue: Femmes Write Porn. Her award-winning, genderfuck docu-porn, “Girl on Girl,” has been screened in eight countries. She is the director of programming for the Vancouver Queer Film Festival.

2-3pm Lecture and Discussion

Peep You: Exploring the rise of Peep Culture with Hal Niedzviecki
Noted cultural observer Hal Niedzviecki will explore how Peep Culture (blogs, social networks, video sharing, Reality TV) is replacing pop culture and teaching us to love watching ourselves and our neighbors. Is Peep Culture the triumph of indie culture, or its ultimate demise? Discuss.

Hal Niedzviecki is Broken Pencil magazine’s founder, fiction editor and publisher. He is author, most recently, of the acclaimed book The Peep Diaries: How We’re Learning to Love Watching Ourselves and Our Neighbors (City Lights Press)

3:15-4pm Readings from Can’t Lit:

Presenting The Vancouver Area Contributors to Can’t Lit: Fearless Fiction from Broken Pencil Magazine (ECW Press)

McKinley M. Hellenes: A Vancouver ex-pat, McKinley M. Hellenes lives and works in Mission, BC. Her stories have appeared in magazines such as Broken Pencil, Kiss Machine, The Frequent & Vigorous Quarterly, and Joyland. She is currently writing a novel about postwar Vancouver.

Kevin Spenst: Kevin Spenst is the author of Fast Fictions, which was launched with a 50-venue, one-day-only reading tour of Vancouver. To date he’s written over 1,111 short-short stories online. His latest adventure in persistence and technology has involved writing poems online everyday since December of 2008. He’s working on a poetry manuscript and pursuing his MFA at the University of British Columbia.

Josh Byer: Josh Byer is a journalist, screenwriter, and copywriter living in Vancouver, Canada. A Journey Prize nominee, he is also the winner of a Praxis Story Editor Internship, and a Canada Arts Council grant recipient.

4-5pm The 1-2 Punch Book Pitch

Live on our mainstage in front of a crowing crowd, you get two minutes to pitch your book to our panel of judges. They get one minute each to tell you why you’ll never get published in a million billion years or why they want to see your manuscript in their in-box asap! The winner gets bragging rights and a Broken Pencil Prize pack worth $200! (This contest is open to all, but space is limited and participants should register in advance to avoid disappointment: to do so email canzine@brokenpencil.com with 1-2 Punch in the subject line. Include a short description of the project you want to pitch, along with your name, email and phone number.)

The 1-2 Punch Judges:

Kris Rothstein – Literary Agent: Kris Rothstein is a literary agent with the Swayze Agency. She reviews books for magazines like Broken Pencil, Herizons, and Geist and is the proprietor of a micro-press, Smart Cookie.

Hal Niedzviecki – Author/Editor: Hal Niedzviecki is the publisher, founder and fiction editor of Broken Pencil magazine. He is the author of eight books of fiction, and nonfiction. His collection of short stories Look Down, This is Where it Must Have Happened, will be published in Spring 2011 by City Lights Press.

Brian Kaufman – Publisher: Brian Kaufman has been passing judgment on other people’s writing since 1988. He founded subTerrain Magazine to promote emerging and experimental writers and, under the imprint of Anvil Press Publishers, has issued upwards of one hundred books into print in all literary genres.

5-6pm Poetry & Improv Armando

Poetry and improvisation go head-to-head! Fear the poet, not the poem! Heckle or just sit back and enjoy as poets and sketch performers riff off each other’s work to create spontaneous works of genuine weirdness.

6-6:30pm VJ/DJ Sammy Chien

Watch as emerging creator Chien merges cinema, sound art, new media and dance into stunning performance pieces.

Aaron Costain on Architecture and Comics

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Aaron Costain, creator of the self-published Entropy series and Calamity Coach one-shot, has written a great essay examining the way architectural drawings and comics are read. Interesting stuff.

Aaron makes great comics, I always look forward to the next installment of Entropy. His comics can be found at finer comic shops including: Legends Comics and Books (BC); Strange Adventures (NS, NB); The Beguiling (ON); The Dragon (ON); Librairie Drawn + Quarterly (QC).

Killing Shakespeare for Fun & Profit

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Kill Shakespeare #2 Retailer Incentive Cover by Andy Belanger

Calvin Reid at Publisher’s Weekly delves into the Kill Shakespeare phenom. Kill Shakespeare is a six issue mini-series by writers Anthony Del Col and Conor McCreery, with art by Andy Belanger. The trade paperback collecting the mini-series is planned for November 2010.

In related news, McCreery and Del Col will be moderating a panel at the upcoming Fan Expo entitled Drawing Ahead: The Future of Comics (Saturday August 28th, 11AM, Room 205B) with panelists Ramón Pérez (Kukuburi, Butternut Squash), Andy Belanger (Kill Shakespeare, Bottle of Awesome), Cameron Stewart (Sin Titulo, Batman and Robin), Scott Chantler (Northwest Passage, Two Generals), Willow Dawson (No Girls Allowed), and Max Douglas aka Salgood Sam (Dream Life, Sequential Spiltink).

Here’s the panel description:

While the art and craft of graphic storytelling remains unchanged, there are a variety of new mediums for creators to use to deliver their visions to the world. With the boom in mobile digital devices, paper and print are no longer the limit, and many artists are finding success creating and distributing their work in digital form. Join a panel of leading comics creators to discuss the evolution of comics distribution, the benefits and drawbacks of working with or independently from a publisher, and their current and future projects. A great forum whether you’re an aspiring creator, an established pro considering your options, or a fan interested in new ways of reading comics.

Our condolences…

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Joseph Nathan Day (b.2/7/1958-d.7/12/2010) passed away yesterday at the age of 52.

Joe was the brother of the late Gene Day (1951-1982 – Hall of Fame inductee and namesake for the Gene Day Award for Outstanding Canadian Self-Publishing) and the brother of artists Dan and David Day.

Our thoughts and prayers go to the Day family at their time of loss.

Comics eligible for the ‘Great Canadian Lit Hunt’

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A call to all you self-publishers out there. The Great Canadian Lit Hunt now includes comics!

___________________________________

The 14th annual Great Canadian Literary Hunt has begun. For 14 years now This Magazine has surveyed this vast country for the best and brightest in Canadian new fiction and poetry and this year, just to keep things interesting, we’ve added a new category. For the first time, we’ll award a prize for best graphic narrative (think graphic novel, but way shorter).

It’s the same great contest you know and love with great cash prizes, plus publication in an issue of This Magazine and exposure to our nationwide readership that includes top publishers, writers, artists and editors.

Past winners of the Great Canadian Literary Hunt have gone on to be recognized by the National Magazine Awards, the Journey Prize, and the Trillium Book Award; many have been published by the top houses in the country and are among the most exciting talent in fiction and poetry today.

You could be next! Just send your entries by July 2, 2010 and join This Magazine’s 44-year tradition of heralding the brightest talents in Canadian arts and letters.

Questions? Just email hunt@this.org or visit this.org/lithunt for more information.

The Great Canadian Literary Hunt Rules of Engagement

1. Original, unpublished poems of up to 100 lines, short stories of up to 2,500 words and graphic stories of up to two pages (8”x11”) by Canadian citizens or residents are eligible.

2. Emerging new writers, opposed to well-established authors, are encouraged to participate.

3. First prize in each category is $750 plus publication in a special literary supplement to the Nov/Dec 2010 issue. Second and third prize in each category is a lovely This Magazine prize pack, plus publication in the literary supplement.

4. Entry fees: $25 for one short story, two poems, or one graphic story. Entry fee includes a one-year subscription to This Magazine*. Each additional entry is $5. Entry fees can be paid by Paypal, personal cheque or money order payable to This Magazine.

5. Entrant’s name MUST NOT appear on the submission itself. All entries must be accompanied by a separate cover sheet with entrant’s full name, address, postal code, telephone number, e-mail address, submission title(s) and category.

6. A list of winners will be available at this.org. Mailed manuscripts will not be returned. Winners will be contacted by telephone.

7. Entrants must agree to be bound by the contest rules. Judges’ decisions are final.

8. Entries should be submitted electronically to: hunt@this.org (graphic stories must be submitted in PDF form), or postmarked no later than July 2, 2010 and mailed to: THE GREAT CANADIAN LITERARY HUNT c/o This Magazine, 401 Richmond St. W., Suite 396, Toronto, Ontario M5V 3A8

*This Magazine subscribers will have an additional year added to their subscription term.
We’re still finalizing our panel of judges. Previous judges have included Gil Adamson, R.M. Vaughan, Erin Mouré, Christian Bök, Priscila Uppal, Michael Winter, Andrew Pyper and Camilla Gibb—just to name a handful. For regular updates on The Great Canadian Literary hunt or more information about This Magazine, visit this.org

–
Natalie Samson
Great Canadian Lit Hunt Co-ordinator
hunt@this.org
this.org/lithunt
416-979-9429

Gene Day Award nominees, Hall of Fame inductees Announced

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JOE SHUSTER AWARDS CELEBRATE THE 35th ANNIVERSARY OF CAPTAIN CANUCK

Final Nominees Announced for Gene Day Award, HALL OF FAME Inductees Named

Toronto, Canada — May 26, 2010.

Since it was established in 2004, the Joe Shuster Award has been Canada’s national awards program for recognizing the outstanding achievements of Canadian comic book creators, publishers and retailers. The awards are named after pioneering Toronto-born artist Joe Shuster who, along with writer Jerry Siegel, created the iconic super-powered hero, Superman.

In March 2010, the Awards Association announced the nominees for the categories of Outstanding Artist, Cartoonist, Colourist, Cover Art, Webcomic Creator/Creative Team and Writer. These nominees can be viewed here: http://joeshusterawards.com/2010/03/17/nominations-for-the-2010-joe-shuster-awards/

In April 2010, the Awards Association announced the nominees for the categories of Comics for Kids, the Harry Kremer Retailer and Outstanding Publisher Awards. These nominees can be viewed here: http://joeshusterawards.com/2010/04/28/outstanding-publisher-harry-kremer-retailer-and-comics-for-kids-award-nominations-announced/

CEREMONY DATE, LOCATION & TIME

The winners of the 2010 Joe Shuster Awards will be announced at a free admission public ceremony in Toronto starting at 8PM on the evening of Saturday, June 5th, 2010 at the University of Toronto’s Innis Town Hall, 2 Sussex Avenue. The Master of Ceremonies will be Jonathan Llyr. The presentation ceremony date also coincides with the 6th Annual Toronto ComiCON Fan Appreciation Event at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on June 5 & 6, 2010.

***

CANADIAN COMIC BOOK CREATOR HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES

In honour of the 35th Anniversary of the publication of  CAPTAIN CANUCK #1 in 1975, the three creators most closely associated with the character will be added to the Canadian Comic Book Creator Hall of Fame: including co-creator and writer/artist/publisher Richard Comely, artist George Freeman and artist Claude St. Aubin, all of whom are being included for their many contributions to the Canadian comics community since the 1970′s (not just for Captain Canuck).

In addition to the Captain Canuck trio of Comely, Freeman and St. Aubin, the Hall of Fame Selection Committee also selected three individuals with long and varied contributions to comics and comic book publishing in Canada – Cartoonist and animator Serge Gaboury, Publisher Deni Loubert, as well as Writer and Retailer Dave Darrigo (who also co-founded these awards in 2004).

Canadian Comic Book Creator Hall of Fame / Temple de la renommée Créateur Canadien de Bandes Dessinées

RICHARD COMELY (1950-)

GEORGE FREEMAN (1951-)

CLAUDE ST. AUBIN (1951-)

DAVE DARRIGO (1954-)

SERGE GABOURY (1954-)

DENI LOUBERT (1951-)

Full biographies of the inductees will be published on this site after the ceremony on June 5th.

The 2010 inductees were selected by: Scott Dutton, Joe Kilmartin, Phil Latter, and Robert Pincombe. Thanks to John Bell and Bob MacMillan for their input in the early stages of the selection process.

***

THE GENE DAY AWARD

Gene Day

We are honoured to announce the nominees for the Gene Day Award for Canadian Self-Publishing, which honours Canadian comic book creators or creative teams who self-published their work during the previous calendar year. In order to qualify for the award, the creators must be a citizen and current resident of Canada who wrote and/or illustrated a comic book of their own creation (includes creative teams), which they published and sold independently and did not have said works initially distributed by a third party distributor.

The winner of the Gene Day Award also receives a $500 bursary from the Awards Association.

The Gene Day Award for Canadian Self-Publishers / Le Prix Gene Day pour Éditeurs Direct Canadian de Bandes Dessinées

Adam Bourret – I’m Crazy
Evan Munday - Quarter-Life Crisis: Only the Good Die Yung
Ethan Rilly - Pope Hats 1
Benjamin Rivers – Snow 2
Tory Woolcott – Mirror Mind

Nominees for the Gene Day Award were selected by members of the Award Association’s Executive Committee. The nominees were selected from over 60 individual publications submitted for review.

About Gene Day (1951-1982)

Gene Day (1951-1982) began his career in the Canadian alternative comix scene, working with and encouraging a new generation of Canadian comic creators create their own comics. In the seventies he began his own publishing imprint, Shadow Press / House of Shadows and put out over twenty issues of Dark Fantasy, a horror/fantasy/sci-fi digest that featured the early writings of Joe Lansdale, Charles De Lint, John Bell and Charles R. Saunders, amongst others; a short-lived comic publication, Out of the Depths and various other one-shots, portfolios, and prints. Those early roots led Day to be noticed my larger publishers, Day continued working in comics until his untimely death. Dave Sim credits Gene Day as his earliest and most influential mentor and the inspiration for his own self-publishing efforts. Gene Day was inducted into the Canadian Comic Book Creator Hall of Fame in 2007.

About Master of Ceremonies Jonathan Llyr

Jonathan Llyr is one of the most recognizable geeks in Canada today. As host of the nationally broadcast SPACE Channel’s SPACEY AWARDS for their first five years, Jon earned the respect of Hardcore Nerds everywhere when, over the years, Richard Dean Anderson had him ‘thrown off’ the set of STARGATE SG-1 (with a bonus instruction of “one shot to the kneecaps”), Bruce Campbell attacked him in the woods behind his house with a chainsaw, and Katie Sackhoff let him climb into her Viper.

Jon got his start on TV in 1998, after years of honing his skills as a professional actor and the artistic director of the Shakespearean theatre company, Tempest Theatre Group, SPACE needed someone who would wear a rubber turtle shell on his head (shades of Alan Rickman in GALAXY QUEST, anyone?) and it was a perfect fit. So, for several years, Jon appeared weekly on the cult TV show SPACEBAR as Grot, the loveably clueless alien barfly cum barkeep. Eventually trading shell for battered orange ball-cap, Jon was then seen five nights a week on DRIVE-IN CLASSICS as the genially pontificating drive-in theatre projectionist, Drive-in Dick – font of all B-movie knowledge and wisdom.

Jon’s subsequent stint as host, reporter and interviewer for HYPASPACE and HYPASPACE WEEKLY put him in close contact with stars like Patrick Stewart, Andy Serkis, William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy (at the same time in what proved to be an awesome media scoop!), David Hayter, Jolene Blalock, George Takei, Tricia Helfer, Steven Spielberg and many others.

Heading out into strange, new worlds with The HardcoreNerdity Network is his latest challenge.

None of this is surprising, considering Jonathan’s formative years. When he was a kid, his mom used to write him sick-notes so he could ditch school and line up on opening day for STAR TREK movies. She let him glue his Lego together in the shape of a phaser and paint it silver. She looked the other way when he put her good oven mitts on his feet so that he could be ‘Cornelius’ from PLANET OF THE APES. She made the rest of the family be quiet as he sat in front of the t.v., painstakingly making audio-cassette recordings of STAR TREK episodes so he could play them back at bedtime. That was in the days before VCRs. And when the family got one of those – Jon’s mom bought him his very first movie. It was SUPERMAN. And she let him stay home from school (again) to watch it before she wrapped it up as his Christmas present (he had to promise to look surprised when he opened it). So, really? This is all her fault.

About Joe Shuster (1914 – 1992)

With the permission of his estate, the Joe Shuster Awards are named in honor of the great artist, JOE SHUSTER (1914-1992), whose clear, dynamic style and inventive visual flourishes set the standard for graphic storytelling during the infancy of the North American comic book industry. It was Superman, a co-creation of Shuster and Siegel, which electrified the industry 71 years ago and, almost overnight, transformed comic books into an enormous pop-cultural phenomenon that endures to this day.

About The Joe Shuster Awards

Created in 2004, the Joe Shuster Awards are Canada’s first national achievement award program for Canadians working on comic books, graphic novels and webcomics. The Joe Shuster Award program is administered by the Canadian Comic Book Creator Awards Association, a not-for-profit organization.

For more information please contact info@joeshusterawards.com or visit www.joeshusterawards.com

Comics in Broken Pencil #47

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The newest issue of Broken Pencil showed up on my doorstep (a result of the subscription special offered at Canzine 2009) and there is some comic related notes in the issue:

  • Jason Turner’s regular comic column
  • regular appearing comics: Geofriends, I already know how my life will go, and the very cool, Mr. Monitor
  • a 5 page excerpt from Jason Keiffer’s The Rabble of Downtown Toronto

    •  
    the always great (but not necessarily timely) reviews of comic zines:

  • including Jordyn F. Bochon‘s The Day After V-Day, which was a 2009 Gene Day Finalist
  • Michael DeForge‘s Gags
  • Naomi Cook‘s The GMO Zoo
  • Team Loose Nucleus’s Pizza World News

    •  
    and graphic novels:

  • like Adam Bourret‘s I’m Crazy
  • Simon Roy’s Jan’s Atomic Heart nominated for a 2010 Joe Shuster Award for Best Cartoonist
  • Lezley Davidson’s Peeling Onions.

JSA Update

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So here’s where we stand as of today:

The 3rd wave of Visions Wolverine auctions end tomorrow night – April 27th – and there’s a lot of interest in some of the pieces already, especially the one by Francis Manapul. Expect the 4th wave to launch tomorrow as the 3rd comes to a close. Still have enough for probably AT LEAST one more round after that (which would make it five in total). So far so good.

***

The nominees for the following categories will be announced on Wednesday, if all goes as planned:

Outstanding Publisher

Harry Kremer Outstanding Retailer

Comics for Kids

***

While we have decided the individuals who will be joining the Canadian Comic Book Creator Hall of Fame this year, we won’t be announcing them until mid-May as we would like to make sure they or their families (if deceased) have been notified before the general public.

***

This year we’ve broken down our Jury into two units:

1. The “ART JURY” — will be looking at the artwork only categories of OUTSTANDING ARTIST, OUTSTANDING COLOURIST, and OUTSTANDING COVER ART.

2. The “STORY JURY” — will be looking at the categories that involve writing elements such as OUSTANDING CARTOONIST, OUTSTANDING WRITER and OUTSTANDING WEBCOMIC CREATOR / CREATIVE TEAM.

We decided to subdivide our jury so that we can ensure that we don’t overwhelm those people helping us out with too much material (although some of our jury members are eager to devour that much comics material – we have two individuals who will be participating in both). We selected the natural break of ART and STORY categories in that members of the STORY jury are required to be able to read material published in both of our national languages – French and English. FYI We won’t be announcing WHO the jury members are until AFTER they’ve made their decisions so that they can deliberate in anonymity.

The Jury member names will be announced in the May press release that reveals who the Hall of Fame inductees are as well as the nominees for the GENE DAY AWARD FOR SELF-PUBLISHING.

***

Speaking of The Gene Day Award, we should be getting the entries from Calgary early next week and we’ll be accepting entries right up to the day after TCAF (which is May 10th). We’re reviewing the entries as they arrive and we should have the shortlist of nominees ready for the May 19th Release. There is still time to send in your entry!

Happenings: Jason Kieffer discussion – Thursday, April 22

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Jason Kieffer is giving a presentation on his most recent comic book, The Rabble of Downtown Toronto.

Cartoonist Dave Lapp will join Jason for an onstage interview about the book.

——-

Jason Kieffer Presents His Latest Comic Book

The Rabble of Downtown Toronto

With Dave Lapp

Thursday, April 22nd, 2010 — 8 PM

The Central (603 Markham St.)

2010 JSA Master of Ceremonies: Jonathan Llyr Returns

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Returning as Master of Ceremonies in 2010 is Jonathan Llyr.

Jonathan Llyr is one of the most recognizable geeks in Canada today. As host of the nationally broadcast SPACE Channel’s SPACEY AWARDS for their first five years, Jon earned the respect of Hardcore Nerds everywhere when, over the years, Richard Dean Anderson had him ‘thrown off’ the set of STARGATE SG-1 (with a bonus instruction of “one shot to the kneecaps”), Bruce Campbell attacked him in the woods behind his house with a chainsaw, and Katee Sackhoff let him climb into her Viper.

Jon got his start on TV in 1998, after years of honing his skills as a professional actor and the artistic director of the Shakespearean theatre company, Tempest Theatre Group, SPACE needed someone who would wear a rubber turtle shell on his head (shades of Alan Rickman in GALAXY QUEST, anyone?) and it was a perfect fit. So, for several years, Jon appeared weekly on the cult TV show SPACEBAR as Grot, the loveably clueless alien barfly cum barkeep. Eventually trading shell for battered orange ball-cap, Jon was then seen five nights a week on DRIVE-IN CLASSICS as the genially pontificating drive-in theatre projectionist, Drive-in Dick – font of all B-movie knowledge and wisdom.

Jon’s subsequent stint as host, reporter and interviewer for HYPASPACE and HYPASPACE WEEKLY put him in close contact with stars like Patrick Stewart, Andy Serkis, William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy (at the same time in what proved to be an awesome media scoop!), David Hayter, Jolene Blalock, George Takei, Tricia Helfer, Steven Spielberg and many others.

Heading out into strange, new worlds with The HardcoreNerdity Network is his latest challenge.

None of this is surprising, considering Jonathan’s formative years. When he was a kid, his mom used to write him sick-notes so he could ditch school and line up on opening day for STAR TREK movies. She let him glue his Lego together in the shape of a phaser and paint it silver. She looked the other way when he put her good oven mitts on his feet so that he could be ‘Cornelius’ from PLANET OF THE APES. She made the rest of the family be quiet as he sat in front of the t.v., painstakingly making audio-cassette recordings of STAR TREK episodes so he could play them back at bedtime. That was in the days before VCRs. And when the family got one of those – Jon’s mom bought him his very first movie. It was SUPERMAN. And she let him stay home from school (again) to watch it before she wrapped it up as his Christmas present (he had to promise to look surprised when he opened it). So, really? This is all her fault.


2010 JSA Venue: Innis Town Hall, University of Toronto

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ITHlogo-Summer2008INNIS TOWN HALL --- photos # 1

catwalk 23The Joe Shuster Canadian Comic Book Creator Awards will once again be presented at the University of Toronto’s Innis Town Hall, 2 Sussex Avenue in Toronto, Ontario.

The 6th Annual JSA ceremony will take place on the evening of Saturday, June 5, 2010.lobby 23

Happenings: Cloudscape Launches ‘Exploded View’ – March 6, Vancouver

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Cloudscape Comics is pleased to announce the launch of their fourth publication, Exploded View, a science fiction anthology featuring twenty-five artists, all current or former residents of Vancouver, which showcases the broad range of talent in the comics artist community.

Cloudscape will be launching their new book at the Ayden Gallery in Tinseltown, Vancouver on March 6th at 7pm. Most of the artists will be in attendance to sign autographs. This will be your first opportunity to purchase this fantastic new book.

Ayden Gallery: 88 West Pender Street (2nd floor) International Village (Tinseltown) Vancouver, BC
Phone: 778-891-431
email: info@aydengallery.com
website: www.aydengallery.com

Notable contributors include:

  • Camilla d’Errico, notable titles such as “Burn”, “Tanpopo”, and “Sky Pirates”
  • children’s book Illustrator Scot Ritchie
  • Angela Melick, creator of Wasted Talent Webcomic
  • John Christmas, the artist on the recently released “Barack the Barbarian”
  • Jonathon Dalton, creator of A Mad Tea-Party
  • Edison Yan, whose work can be seen on “Scribblenauts” on the Nintendo DS
  • Colin Upton, who has been pioneering mini-comics in Vancouver since 1985
  • Local Rocker, actor, and Illustrator Toren Atkinson
  • Jordyn Bochon, a contributor to “You Ain’t No Dancer”

The group includes established artists, underground cartoonists, web comic creators, animators, illustrators, and manga artists all working together. Their focus is on telling meaningful, intelligent stories through the medium of comics.

This book represents the Cloudscape comics collective’s most ambitious project to date, with a huge roster of talented artists and their highest production quality.

______________________

The Cloudscape collective submitted Historyonics for the Gene Day Award last year, while a number of their members submitted individual works, including finalist Jordyn Bochon.

I’m looking forward to this new book, a number of very talented creators!