The Vancouver Province has a little piece on Kaare Andrews, his movie and his comics career.
In related news, his directorial debut for Anchor Bay – ALTITUDE – is set to be released to stores on DVD and Blu-Ray on Tuesday, October 26, 2010.
Kaare Andrews' homage to Michael Golden
Meanwhile, his X-Men: Xenogenesis rolls along. Issue 3 of 5 was recently released to comic book shops via Diamond Dist.
The Toronto Star asked four webcomicers to say good bye to Cathy
The creators involved are:
Angela Melick – creator of Wasted Talent – www.wastedtalent.ca
Ryan Pequin – creator of Three Word Phrase – threewordphrase.com
Mike Winters from Chamber of Comics – chamberofcomics.blogspot.com
and webcomics darling, New Yorker contributor (and current New Yorker), 2-time Joe Shuster Webcomic of the Year nominee and Doug Wright Emerging Talent winner (but we love you too, Kate!) Kate Beaton of Hark, A Vagrant fame – harkavagrant.com
If you look over there to the right, you’ll see a lovely link to what we like to call Canadian Creators – Webcomics where you can find all of these creators and many, many more. Our way of showing support to webcomic creators big and small. If you’re not listed on the page, get in touch with us, we’d be happy to link you (with proof that you’re Canadian). Besides, it’s the interweb, links are where it’s at!
Canadian comic book pioneer in Halifax to hold last public signing – The Chronicle Herald.
On doing a “last” signing this Friday and assorted events on Sunday:
He does mention that it was a decision set in motion by the recent death of indie comic curmudgeon Harvey Pekar (American Splendour), and that he’s overjoyed to be able to greet his fans one last time this weekend in Halifax, through the auspices of the award-winning comics store Strange Adventures, whose owner, Cal Johnston, won the honour in an online auction.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/09/16/ottawa-graphic-artist.html#socialcomments
Von Allan has a nod for best newcomer, best female character and book of the year at the U.S. awards, which are for comics by and about women.
But Von Allan is a man — and that has some women in the industry wondering how he could be named, especially in the best newcomer category.
Now I believe pretty strongly that there is a place for comic book awards that recognize the work of groups of specific creators. I think self-identification is important to some people – I identify myself as a Canadian and to me Canadian creator awards are important. It’s the underlying philosophy for these awards.
The Lulu Awards have always focused on women working in comics. That’s about as straight-forward and definable a philosophy as you can get. Of the women who worked in comics – here were the best according to the nominating committee. Even the categories lend themselves to that definition – of the women working in comics these are the best comics done that were aimed at younger readers, or the best graphic novel, or the creator with the best overall influence/work. A best female protagonist character award could and would be open to all because the gender definition is with the character, not the creator.
With so many men nominated this year that focus has gone. The list this year seems incongruous with the old intent of the awards, which is what has people up in arms and according to the article, the old head of the organization – Valerie D’Orazio has already resigned over the matter.
I don’t want this to be seen as a put down for the men who were nominated — for example Von Allen is very talented, his webcomic and graphic novel the Road Only Knows deserves recognition and closer scrutiny, and I love David Petersen’s Mouse Guard — but it does seem pretty odd to me that the Lulu Award is not focused specifically on the work of female creators. It just makes the Lulus like every other award. It takes away what made them unique.
And on that note, I think the CBC article’s title is MISLEADING. I don’t think Von Allen is in the hot seat here. He did a great job and he’s being recognized for it. I don’t really see how anyone could take issue with Von or any of the other male creators. If anything it is the organizers of the Lulu Awards that are in the hot seat, and they have already responded with the resignation of the chair/director.
***
The other issue that is of discussion by some on Twitter and elsewhere is the legitimacy of popular vote awards.
In my experience, Popular vote awards do not work unless you are intending for them to specifically be Fan Awards. You know, like the kind Wizard magazine used to run every year… Favourite character, etc.
In order to garner interest, we did do fan voted awards in the first few years and after doing that I have a strong dislike for the fan vote process. Why? Because (a) open votes, or even open votes with a restricted group are partial to manipulation — by ballot stuffing – getting friends and family members to vote on their behalf and therefore it is difficult to say it is an earned award. Personal experience with this process (reviewing and counting the ballots during the popular vote days) still leads me to believe that the cream does rise to the top and I stand by the winners in 2005-2007, but we’re in a much stronger place with a considered, juried award system. I believe that the jury takes everyone nominated seriously because they have the time to review each one individually before making up their minds… and then they discuss it and in some cases, change their minds after listening to their peers.
I strongly dislike that the fan vote process encourages you to vote for what you know against what you may not know or have given adequate consideration to. You know, I might have read Scott Pilgrim, but I may not read have read Asterios Polyp at the time so I vote for Scott Pilgrim only to find Asterios Polyp at a later point and regret my choice.
However, these are my personal opinions (hence the op/ed designation to this post).
Kevin Boyd
Chris Randle at the Gutteral Blog sat down with Bryan Lee O’Malley on the eve of the release of Scott Pilgrim Vol. 6: Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour. The interview was for the Globe & Mail and was truncated for publication. Scott was able to post the full interview online for your enjoyment.
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.
The Canadian Council on Learning has released research that in their opinion shows that boys are generally less inclined to read than girls and that when they do read they prefer reading fantasy, non-fiction and comic books.
We’ve covered the concerns that others have expressed elsewhere about the falling literacy rates for young boys when compared to young girls, and it’s interesting to look at the CCL research.
Universal spokesman Paul Pflug:
“Regardless of the perceived outcome we are proud of this film and our relationship with the visionary and creative filmmaker Edgar Wright. Studios need to continue to offer audiences good and original ideas/films. Edgar has created a truly unique film that is both envelope pushing and genre bending and when examined down the road will be identified as an important piece of filmmaking. We have always been aware of the challenges of broadening this film to a mainstream audience. We do wish a greater number of people went to see the film, but hope that people will still make the effort to see this wonderful film.”
Courtesy of Tribute.ca:
| this week |
last week |
Title | studio | weekend gross * |
total gross * |
total weeks |
| 1 | - | The Expendables | Lionsgate | $35.03M | $35.03M | 1 |
| 2 | - | Eat Pray Love | Columbia | $23.7M | $23.7M | 1 |
| 3 | 1 | The Other Guys | Columbia | $18M | $70.54M | 2 |
| 4 | 2 | Inception | Warner Bros. | $11.37M | $248.55M | 5 |
| 5 | - | Scott Pilgrim vs. the World | Universal | $10.53M | $10.53M | 1 |
| 6 | 6 | Despicable Me | Universal | $6.77M | $221.99M | 6 |
| 7 | 3 | Step Up 3D | Disney | $6.63M | $29.57M | 2 |
| 8 | 4 | Salt | Columbia | $6.35M | $103.57M | 4 |
| 9 | 5 | Dinner for Schmucks | Paramount | $6.32M | $58.82M | 3 |
| 10 | 7 | Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore | Warner Bros. | $4.08M | $35.1M | 3 |
| 11 | 9 | Toy Story 3 | Disney | $2.17M | $400.77M | 9 |
| 12 | 8 | Charlie St. Cloud | Universal | $2.08M | $28.73M | 3 |
| 13 | 13 | The Twilight Saga: Eclipse | Summit | $1.31M | $295.87M | 7 |
| 14 | 11 | Grown Ups | Columbia | $1.15M | $158.06M | 8 |
| 15 | 12 | The Sorcerer’s Apprentice | Disney | $1.1M | $59.52M | 5 |
| 16 | 14 | Ramona and Beezus | 20th Century Fox | $830,000 | $23.33M | 4 |
| 17 | - | Get Low | Sony Pictures Classics | $387,470 | $836,702 | 3 |
| 18 | 19 | Shrek Forever After | Paramount | $355,000 | $237.23M | 13 |
| 19 | 15 | The Last Airbender | Paramount | $347,000 | $129.69M | 7 |
| 20 | - | Winter’s Bone | Roadside Attractions | $227,675 | $4.86M | 10 |
| * USD | SOURCE: RENTRAK CORPORATION | |||||
The print version will be available at TCAF this weekend, but Max has placed the whole paper online for review over at Sequential.
Sad news from Montreal as another Canadian store has closed, this time it’s Montreal’s Librarie Fichtre!, nominated last week for the Harry Kremer Outstanding Canadian Comic Book Retailer. Fichtre! had been in business 14 years. From Saturday’s Le Devoir
En bref – La librairie Fichtre! ferme ses portes
Une petite-grande institution vient de s’éteindre. La librairie montréalaise spécialisée en bande dessinée Fichtre! vient de fermer définitivement la porte de son commerce, situé sur la rue De Bienville à Montréal.
L’établissement n’aura pas réussi à se sortir de sa dernière profonde crise financière et vient de choisir la faillite comme ultime solution, a indiqué au Devoir son propriétaire, Yves Millet. Ouverte depuis 14 ans, Fichtre! était devenue au fil des années un point de convergence des amateurs d’histoires à bulles, mais aussi de jeunes bédéistes qui y déposaient pour la vente leur création en autopublication. L’apparition de librairies spécialisées en bande dessinée, ailleurs dans la ville, tout comme l’engouement des bédéphiles pour les commerces en ligne a fait vaciller le marchand de livres, avant de le faire définitivement tomber.
The store before it closed. Courtesy of Le Lecteur.
Someone snapped a photo of the window as it appears now.
[google translation - not exactly 100% accurate]
(Robert Haines — a sad nod of the head to Bryan Munn at Sequential for the tip.)
Note that Fichtre! translates to Damn! in English.
3:15 UPDATE: Whoa! There are rumours circulating that this may not be the ultimate end of Fichtre!. People in Montreal are reporting that there is a sign posted on the papered up window that says that the store has closed for inventory check and reorganization and will reopen under new management.
4:30 UPDATE There is a report on Le libraire.org that while online sales and competition from other bookstores in town resulting in the closing of Fichtre!, ironically, thanks to the Internet, they “will continue to offer the works of independent publishers and authors” via the internet. “Indeed, an agreement has been signed between Jove and the pressman, a virtual bookstore dedicated to independent magazines in Quebec.”
The website fichtre.qc.ca is indeed up and running, offering a diverse amount of small press BD. There is a message at the top of the webpage which basically says:
About Fichtre.qc.ca …
To the great chagrin of the world of small publishing, Fichtre! closed its doors at the end of April 2010. Following an agreement reached deuce and the pressman, we are pleased to continue to offer the works of independent publishers and authors to address fichtre.qc.ca.
But then again, this blog post from employee Julie Delporte has a haunting sense of finality.
by Vincent Giard
The film adaptation of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim vs. The World movie comes out later this summer, and now word is coming out that Michel Rabagliati’s award-winning/nominated BD Paul à Québec is going to be making the jump to the big screen!
‘Paul à Québec’: Karine Vanasse produira l’adaptation de la bande dessinée
mercredi 21 avr, 12 h 00
Productrices Associés, la boîte de production de Nathalie Brigitte Bustos et Karine Vanasse, et André Rouleau de Caramel Films ont acquis les droits d’adaptation cinématographique de la bande dessinée ‘Paul à Québec’.
François Bouvier réalisera le film en plus d’en signer la scénarisation aux côtés de Michel Rabagliati, le père du personnage.
Le projet est présentement en développement et a été soumis aux institutions pour financement en écriture.
Dernier tome d’une série de six albums vendus à plus de 100 000 exemplaires, ‘Paul à Québec’ a récemment été la première bande dessinée québécoise à remporter le Prix du Public au Festival de la Bande Dessinée d’Angoulême.
Il a de nouveau reçu les honneurs lundi soir dernier à Montréal. Il a obtenu le Prix Bédélys de la Meilleure BD québécoise et le Bédélys de la Meilleure BD francophone.
Rappelons que la série ‘Paul’ est traduite en six langues.
‘À la suite de notre collaboration sur le film “Polytechnique”, le désir de développer un nouveau projet ensemble s’est manifesté très rapidement. Nous voulions aller vers un sujet plus léger mais à la fois touchant et rassembleur. Nous voulions parler de sentiment, d’amour, de joie et de la vie telle que plusieurs d’entre nous la vivons. “Paul à Québec” a été un véritable coup de coeur’, disent Nathalie Brigitte Bustos et Karine Vanasse dans un communiqué.
‘Dans ces temps particulièrement difficiles, il est important de revenir aux vraies valeurs et pour moi, l’amour et la famille en sont deux que Michel Rabagliati a su magnifiquement exploiter dans son livre. Il va donc de soi que le film en sera teinté tout au long et c’est ce qui compte à mes yeux’, déclare de son côté André Rouleau, qui a notamment produit le très attendu ‘Funkytown’ mettant en vedette Patrick Huard.
The Comic Book Bin took some time to look at the 2010 Joe Shuster Award Nominees whose works were published in French.
The full list of creator nominees whose work was published in French in 2009:
Artist/Dessinateur
* Marc Delafontaine – Les nombrils, tome 04: Duels de belles (Dupuis)
* Djief Bergeron – Saint-Germain, Tome 1: Le Comte des Lumières (Glénat)
Cartoonist/Créateur
* Philippe Girard – Tuer Velasquez (Glénat Québec)
* Michel Rabagliati – Paul, tome 06: Paul à Québec (La Pastèque)
Colourist/Dessinateur Couleur
* Maryse Dubuc – Les nombrils, tome 04: Deuls et belles (Dupuis)
* Francois Lapierre – Magasin général, tome 05: Montréal (Casterman)
Writer/Écrivain
* Hervé Bouchard – Harvey (La Pastèque)
* Maryse Dubuc – Les nombrils, tome 04: Duels de belles (Dupuis)
Cover/Couverture
* Paul Bordeleau – Faüne, tome 2: La maison du Faüne (La Pastèque)
* Marc Delafontaine – Les nombrils, tome 04: Duels de belles (Dupuis)
Presented yesterday at a ceremony in Quebec City as part of the 23rd Festival de la bande dessinée francophone de Québec (FBDFQ) the BÉDÉIS CAUSA consist of four awards – the nominees are listed below – with the winners in BOLD. Congratulations to all!
Prix Réal-Fillion
Auteur québécois, scénariste ou dessinateur, s’étant le plus illustré avec son premier album professionnel (Quebec author – either a writer or artist, who has produced their first professional graphic novel – i.e. best newcomer)
• JEAN-SÉBASTIEN BÉRUBÉ, avec Radisson t. 1 – Fils d’iroquois (Glénat Québec)
• PASCAL COLPRON, avec Mon petit nombril (La Pastèque)
• SÉBASTIEN RIVEST, avec Malaise (Mécanique générale/Les 400 coups)
Grand prix de la Ville de Québec
Meilleur album de langue française publié au Québec (Best French language graphic novel published in Quebec)
• PAUL À QUÉBEC, de Michel Rabagliati (La Pastèque)
• TUEZ VELASQUEZ, de Philippe Girard (Glénat Québec)
• JIMMY ET LE BIGFOOT, de Pascal Girard (La Pastèque)
Prix Albéric-Bourgeois
Meilleur album de langue française publié à l’étranger par un auteur Québécois, dessinateur ou scénariste. (Best French language graphic novel published outside of Quebec by a Quebec author – either a writer or artist)
• SAINT-GERMAIN T. 1 – LE COMTE DES LUMIÈRES, de Jean-François Bergeron et Thierry Gloris (Glénat)
• LES NOMBRILS T. 4 – DUEL DE BELLES, de Delaf et Dubuc (Dupuis)
• MAGASIN GÉNÉRAL, T. 5 – MONTRÉAL, de Régis Loisel et Jean-Louis Tripp (Casterman)
Prix Maurice-Petitdidier
Coup de coeur du jury pour album francophone publié à l’étranger (Jury’s choice for a French Language Graphic Novel published outside of Quebec)
• DIEU EN PERSONNE, de Marc-Antoine Mathieu (Delcourt)
• BLAST, de Manu Larcenet (Dargaud)
• PINOCCHIO, de Winschluss (Les requins marteaux)
The 6th in the Paul series by Francophone cartoonist Michel Rabagliati, Paul à Québec (La Pasteque) was selected as the winner of the Prix du Public Fnac-SNC this past weekend at the Festival International de la Bande Dessinée d’Angoulême in France.
Congratulations Michel!
Le Devoir
CBC
CBC (includes audio interview link with Michel Rabagliati
Sequential Spiltink
The list, selected by Rachelle Goguen and Carsten Knox, includes (follow the link above for the explanations):
ASTERIOS POLYP (Mazzuchelli)
BATMAN & ROBIN (Morrison & Quitely)
DAREDEVIL (Brubaker, Lark, et al.)
LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMAN: CENTURY – 1910 (Moore, O’Neill)
PLUTO: UROSAWA x TEZUKO (Urosawa)
POWER GIRL (Palmiotti, Gray & Conner)
I know, CB, me too! Nothing against the fine works that were selected. We’re just disappointed not to see any love for Canadian creators by yet another Canadian media outlet… :(
National Post cartoonist Steve Murray has reached a deal with publisher McClelland & Stewart to publish his graphic novel history of Canada, The True North: Graphic Tales of Canada.
Steve Murray, who is responsible for graphic features in the Post such as Newsmaker Fortunes and Extremely Bad Advice, will release the book in 2011.
“I cannot stress how tentative the title is,” Murray joked on his Twitter stream.
Check out Steve Murray’s Extremely Bad Advice column
Steve Murray is a graphic columnist for the National Post and sometimes comic book artist (under the name Chip Zdarsky). His weekly Arts & Life column, Extremely Bad Advice, appears every Thursday until the world runs out of problems that need solving. His illustrations have also appeared in The Globe and Mail, Canadian Business, New York Magazine and Toronto Life, to very little fanfare. He is the creator of the comic books Prison Funnies and Monster Cops, which he self-publishes under the company name Legion of Evil Press. Legion of Evil Press also publishes the Comics Festival! Free Comic Book Day specials that coincide with the Toronto Comic Arts Festival. Steve also helped co-found Toronto studio The Royal Academy of Illustration and Design.
This past weekend, The Globe & Mail released their list of the Top 100 books that they reviewed in 2009. They even have an obscure-ish, vaguely intellectual term to define works of sequential art aka comics and graphic novels - Graphica. Clearly Sequential & the DWA’s Bryan Munn is not pleased as the only three “Graphica” on the list are Asterios Polyp (which I felt was okay, but not great), Logicomix (which I looked at while I was in Indigo last night and was severely unimpressed with, but then again I left with the Bryan Talbot‘s Grandville and a hardcover collection of Star Trek: Countdown – hey, shoot me if I wanted to read the pre-movie backstory to old Spock’s appearance in last summer’s excellent Star Trek XI) and Crumb‘s adaptation of the Book of Genesis, which has been universally been declared as excellent, and definitely deserves to be on these end of the year “Best of” lists.
Of course, what’s wrong with the list is the lack of Canucks – perhaps they are waiting until the 2009 eligible works list is compiled next month, or perhaps they just didn’t review any “Graphica” by Canucks this year (note: see Bryan’s comment to this article – they actually did review some, including George Sprott)… and if they didn’t, well — shame on you Globe & Mail reviewers! You just plain suck for not promoting our country’s excellent creators, and in all seriousness – Bryan is absolutely correct – you have clearly missed the boat. Surely Steve Murray will not allow the National Post to be so lax when it comes to compiling any best of lists they put together, especially with all of that pro-Canadian TCAF coverage they ran back in May. Hopefully whoever compiles these types of lists at the Toronto Star will also know better… hey, they commissioned work by Darwyn Cooke back in August, and they ran an article on webcomics creators Kate Beaton and Lar De Souza & Ryan Sohmer – so we suspect that someone there knows at least something about Canadians producing comics and graphic novels…
Bryan points out the books that he is upset are missing, and we definitely agree on some (like Seth‘s George Sprott), and not so much on others. We’re clearly disappointed that such well-reviewed works as Richard Stark’s Parker Book 1: The Hunter by Darwyn Cooke was not there, or the beloved Bryan Lee O’Malley‘s Scott Pilgrim Vol. 5, Jeff Lemire‘s The Nobody, Sully‘s The Hipless Boy or even Red: A Haida Manga and a bunch of other books which were published in 2009. Then of course there’s the French-language double Governor-General Award winning Harvey. If you want to talk new reprint collections there’s also the gorgeous Prince Valiant Vol.1: 1937-38 hardcover by the late (Canadian Creator Hall of Fame Inductee) Hal Foster published by Fantagraphics.
Published earlier this week, Graphic novels: Canadian Splendour – How Quebec’s Drawn & Quarterly became a global powerhouse in the unlikely realm of graphic novels by reporter Jason McBride profiles the history, growth and overall success of Chris Oliveros’ Drawn & Quarterly. The article features lots of quotes from comics critic/historian Jeet Heer and the Beguiling owner Peter Berkimoe, as well as Oliveros himself.
D&Q is a small (by industry standards), independent publisher based in Montreal, known for its attractively designed, critically acclaimed graphic novels. The company’s stable of artists, which includes Seth, Julie Doucet and Adrian Tomine may not be household names, but among comic fans they are luminaries. As a result, D&Q now claims an annual revenue of $2 million (industry insiders estimate it to be much higher), with a profit margin of about 6%, $300,000 of which comes from a retail outlet the press opened in Montreal in 2007.
Jesse Jacobs, winner of the inaugural Gene Day Award for Canadian Self-Publishing at this year’s Joe Shuster Awards, is profiled on the Fabler blog.
