I’m exhausted and sore, but getting up to begin another day of work at my regular job… the 2011 Toronto ComiCON Fan Appreciation Event wrapped up yesterday and the guests have all headed home. What I liked about the show, and what I’m also hearing from the dealers, guests and fans that were there also… Read More Fans = Appreciated
The Eisner nominations were announced yesterday and I thought I’d take a nationalistic look at how Canadians were represented beyond just highlighting their names in red. The big individual Canadian creator nominee of this year is IAN BOOTHBY, who is nominated three times this year: – Best Humor Publication for The Comic Book Guy: The… Read More A Look at the Canadians nominated for Eisner Awards in 2011
Before I left on my trip of the Maritimes the esteemed Kevin Boyd presumed that I would be hitting comic shops all across the region. I strongly refuted that assertion but that didn`t last, obviously. Over the last two weeks I visited, and secret shopped, 22 comics stores: Fantasy Realm – Cornwall, ON Librairie Première… Read More Retailer Roundup – March 2011 & The great comic shop tour of 2011
Last weekend we had three regional comics events in Canada, as well as one large convention in the US. There are hardly any reports from the smaller one day comic shows, such as the ones that were held in Edmonton and Vancouver, but there have been a few reports from the 3-day Wizard Toronto Comic… Read More Too much of a good thing or too little? Trying to get a handle on Toronto Con reports
Amy Chop and the staff of Guelph, ON store The Dragon discuss the nominees in the Outstanding Artist and Cartoonist categories in Part 1
The Joe Shuster Awards, among the majority of the comics industry’s other awards, are primarily awards for print-based work. That is, comics that have been created specifically for sale in comic book stores and other retail outlets. By honouring said work in such a fashion, awards (like these Joe Shuster Awards) hope to (in no… Read More Why do we have a Webcomics category?
Newfoundland Missed it, but Timemasters turned 20 in January. New Brunswick The Comic Hunter, and their Kremer nomination, was featured by Here NB. Strange Adventures manager Jason Arnold is interviewed about that Godzilla-cover-thing that’s been floating around. Plus a civilian university student dropped by the shop to have a look around. She might not “do… Read More Retailer Roundup – February 2011
Yesterday the Canada Reads jury decided on the best book in Canada over the last decade: The Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis. Sadly, it wasn’t The Collected Essex County by Jeff Lemire, as it was the first of the top 5 voted off the list. However, the folks at CBC decided to run an… Read More Canada Reads wrap-up: Essex County wins the people’s choice. Final thoughts.
Diamond released some sales stats today, and it isn’t pretty, ICV2 always provides some great analysis. As feared, January 2011 saw a huge drop in new product sales ordered through Diamond Distribution. Compared to January 2010 units ordered are down a whopping 23% and dollars earned on new comics are down a comparable 22%. Even… Read More Uh oh… comic sales down 23% in 1/11 compared to 1/10
So Wizard magazine is being cancelled, and the magazine’s staff has been fired. Not too shocking (the cancellation), it seemed lacking when they changed to a slightly larger format and the publishers slowly abandoned it. It must be tough coming up with Top 10 lists every month. People have been predicting this for a couple… Read More US Comics Industry happenings…
Our friend Jeffery Klaehn over at the Pop! blog has done another edition of his retailer panel discussion, and the participants are 50% Canadian: Panel Discussion Participants Gerry Gladston is co-owner of Midtown Comics in New York. Peter DeCourcy is manager of Blue Beetle Comics in Barrie, Ontario, Canada. Jay Bardyla is the owner of… Read More Pop! Retailer Panel Discussion – 1/2011 edition and some personal thoughts…
Press release after the cut.
Direct Market comic retailers across North America grow up a little bit next week, as they join their friends in the video game and book retailing industries in receiving product prior to street date sales. “What?!”, you ask? In most other businesses the product that is to be sold on a specific date arrives PRIOR… Read More Day-Early Delivery begins next week (on 1/11/11)
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… Read More Happy New Year! 7th Annual Joe Shuster Awards Process Update
Brian Hibbs, a well known San Francisco retailer who has owned and managed Comix Experience in San Francisco since 1989 and is a founding board member of ComicsPro, has long taken on the responsibility of comic retailing advocate. Brian has written a sign post examination of the comic industry from the viewpoint of retailer and… Read More Comic Retailing – What will 2011 bring?
I’ve just spent some time reading some pretty doom and gloom essays and I must say, I really am concerned about where we are heading and how our Canadian retailers are going to do going into the new year. Aside from the inevitable Boxing Day/Week sales on the 26th of December and beyond, January and… Read More Some early 2011 Books I’m Looking Forward to Getting
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… Read More JSA Holiday Update
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.… Read More Even The Giants by Jesse Jacobs
The new and much talked about release from Taschen Books is 75 Years of DC Comics – The Art of Modern Mythmaking by Paul Levitz. While not specifically Canuck, there is a lot of great content on the history of DC comics and some Joe Shuster related information. But what people really want to know… Read More 75 years of DC Comics – the book
Diamond Comics has rolled out a new program called kidscomics.com. This website will allow retailers deemed ‘kids-friendly’ to be located through the comic shop locator search function. The end goal is for customers interested in age relevant / age appropriate / kid friendly comics to find a comic shop location to purchase product.
THE JOE SHUSTER AWARDS 