June 5th was Hobbystar’s Toronto ComiCON event at the convention centre followed by the presentation of the Joe Shuster Canadian Comic Book Creator Awards.
So it’s tough to ignore Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim series this month as we are currently caught in the “eye of the hurricane” between the release of the 6th volume of the popular series (Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour) and the release of the Edgar Wright directed movie (Scott Pilgrim vs. The World) on August… Read More Scott Pilgrim mania enters the “eye of the hurricane”
Over at Sequential, David Hains writes about the Bloor/Bathurst area and attempts to shed some light on the closing of long-lived area fixture Yesterday’s Heroes. Aside from YH, Toronto has many long-lived comic shops – the Silver Snail on Queen arrived in the mid-1970’s – spinning out of the back room of science fiction bookstore… Read More On the closing of Yesterday’s Heroes
On Wednesday, June 30th we lose another comic book shop. Allstar Cards, Comics And Collectables, in Brantford, ON, will be closing its doors. Allstar opened about 20 years ago, when comics were still in a real boom phase. The only comic book shop in Brantford at the time was Comic Connection, having outlasted the late,… Read More Retailers – RIP Allstar Cards Comics And Collectables
You will note that in the ceremony, for the first time, there are no remarks from the Executive Director of the Awards Association. Instead I will post them here, in writing. I’m omitting them from the ceremony for three reasons: 1) there are a lot of awards to present and I don’t want to slow… Read More Executive Director’s Remarks on the 2010 Awards Process
This is entirely my own op/ed. This is a news site for Canadian comics, and this organization presents awards for creative categories, publishing and retailing. We do not have a convention award, nor are there any plans to have one. So on that note… being up front and honest — this is a weird event… Read More My handful of hours at Wizard
Okay, so yesterday was the latest of Hobbystar’s seasonal comic events – this time it was the winter Toronto ComiCON, and that took place at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. From where I was standing (mostly running the admissions table) we had great attendance numbers, somewhere around 1000 attendees, which is pretty much the best… Read More Busy busy busy
A book that we here at the Joe Shuster Awards have been talking about for months has finally been shipped through Diamond, arriving in comic book stores on Wednesday, February 17th (only 3 months later than book stores). Red: A Haida Manga, created by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, is a visual retelling of a story from… Read More Red: A Haida Manga by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas
(Ye Editor’s Note: The JSA’s Director of Publisher Relations Allison Covey is well-known for her photo-blogging, as she is very involved in a number of different activities and organizations. She just posted her photos from the Awards ceremony and Word on the Street which we thought you might enjoy!) The 2009 Shuster Awards were held… Read More Joe Shuster Awards ceremony, after party & Word on the Street photos & report
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… Read More The Globe & Mail must not review any comics by Canadians
Last week I wrote about age appropriate comics and the role that retailers have in stocking this material. That was in response to retailer comments about the lack of quality all ages reading material available and the role of comic retailers in sustaining their own markets with the cultivation of new, young customers. One issue… Read More Reluctant Readers: Getting Boys to Read
Within comic retailing circles there seems to be an ongoing discussion about age appropriate material. Comics are for Kids! Comics aren’t for Kids! There are no good comics for children! Just this week it erupted again on the news site ICv2. Buddy Saunders of Lone Star Comics on Comic Book Content ‘Comics Aren’t for Kids… Read More Comics for Kids are out there — you just need to look for them.
As many of you may be aware, Saturday September 26th, 2009 was the 5th Annual Joe Shuster Awards. I’ve been a part of the Executive Committee since October 2008, and this was my first awards ceremony in that role. I was a part of the Nominating Committee back in 2006 and 2008 (for the 2nd… Read More JSA Reports: Jason Truong
Robert Pincombe, previously a member of the JSA Hall of Fame selection committee and a presenter of the Hall of Fame Award for George Menendez Rae, as well as a presentation to the family of 2008 inductee Ted McCall , provides an interesting commentary on the Saturday evening ceremony as well as a lot of… Read More JSA Reports: Robert Pincombe
Okay, title’s a bit dramatic, but as this is one of my OTHER jobs, I thought I’d just give a quick update on Fan Expo Canada 2009. One word comes to mind, and it’s one that gets over-used in conjunction with it…. HUGE. This event was massive and everything this year was bigger than ever.… Read More How I survived Fan Expo 2009 and lived to tell the tale
My CCBCAA associate Robert Haines posted an article yesterday re: the distribution of Sword of My Mouth, the follow-up series to the well-received graphic novel Therefore Repent, and I echo his sentiments — it’s an interesting solution to some of the problems the industry is facing during what I continue to call a “transition period”.… Read More Format Wars: Distribution and Marketing in the Digital Era II
Jim Munroe is a smart, savvy, independent thinker and I’m always interested in seeing what he’ll do next. Well, Jim is out there trying new ideas in marketing and distributing his new comic: Sword of My Mouth. Sword of My Mouth is the follow up to ‘Therefore Repent’, a 2007 graphic novel written by Jim… Read More Format Wars: Distribution and Marketing in the Digital Era
In an extensive op/ed piece, Comics Reporter Tom Spurgeon discusses the rejection of Canadian creator James (rex Libris) Turner’s mini-series follow-up to the Warlord of Io & Other Stories one-shot by Diamond Distributors (solicited by Slave Labor Graphics) as the original one-shot (which was published and distributed) did not sell well enough to the Direct… Read More Rejected by Diamond: James Turner’s Warlord of Io mini-series
This afternoon Peter Fisico and I returned from our visit to Alberta for the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo. Thanks to organizers Kandrix and Ken and the rest of the Calgary Expo staff and volunteers for putting on such a great convention! It was fun to meet the many Albertans who came by to visit… Read More Back from Calgary
Is anyone else sick of these Watchmen question headlines? Well I came up with one more, so you can burn me in effigy. Here’s a shot of the Silver Snail’s elaborate window display promoting the arrival of the Watchmen movie. Toronto’s Silver Snail has always been very pro-Watchmen. When he was in Toronto last November… Read More Who Uses the Watchmen?
THE JOE SHUSTER AWARDS 