Canadian Comic Art Centre: All the Latest News

Dive in to Our New Book! The Comic Art of George Feyer

2006-09-12T01:59:00.004-04:00

The Canadian Comic Art Centre is pleased to announce "Feyer: The Comic Art of George Feyer".

This 24-page booklet collection of cartoons by the late George Feyer coincides with Feyer's induction into Giants of the North: The Canadian Cartoonist Hall of Fame.

Learn how George Feyer eluded the Russian Bear and went on to live a full and happy life as one of Canada's greatest cartoonists!

The booklet will be available at the Doug Wright Awards being presented 8pm Thursday, September 14th at The Gladstone Hotel in Toronto (1214 Queen St West).

It Happened in Canada!

2006-07-24T02:08:00.000-04:00

The Canadian Comic Art Centre is proud to present "It Happened in Canada: The Art of Cartoonist Gordon Johnston" by Jeet Heer.

It Happened in Canada is the best-known strip by Johnston, a skilled cartoonist and illustrator who worked for many years at the Ottawa Citizen. The strip was a daily dose of Canadian history in the single panel style pioneered by the American Robert Ripley (in fact, it is rumoured that the Believe It or Not folks once took a legal interest in Johnston's strip).

Book collections of It Happened in Canada were very popular a few decades ago but are now largely out-of-print. Now, thanks to Jeet Heer, we learn a little something about the strip and its creator.

For those who may not know, Jeet Heer is a respected journalist, academic and comics historian who is based in Toronto. Considered one of our most important comics critics and scholars, he has written on the comics artform (and many other subjects) for the National Post, Boston Globe, Comics Journal, and others. As an editor, he is responsible for two remarkable book projects: Walt and Skeezix, the complete Gasoline Alley by Frank King (Volume 2 just came out), and Arguing Comics: Literary Masters on a Popular Medium (with Kent Worcester).

Our thanks to Jeet for this article:

It Happened in Canada

Prehistoric Simpkins

2006-07-07T06:49:00.000-04:00

Jim Simpkins is mostly remembered as the cartoonist behind Jasper the Bear, which ran for decades as a single panel gag cartoon in Maclean's Magazine. Jasper and Simpkins are always linked together and other aspects of the artist's career are rarely mentioned. What a pleasure then to discover another little-seen Simpkins strip.

For several years, Simpkins also drew an infrequent comic strip about cavemen. In the vein of Johnny Hart's B.C. and Edward Reed's prehistoric cartoons for Punch, these cavemen cartoons show another side of Simpkins. They are sequential where Jasper is a static panel and somewhat racy where Jasper is sweet and childlike. Several of the cavemen strips (like the one featured here) are variations on a battle of the sexes theme and feature dim-witted, club-weilding cavemen pursuing toothsome cavewomen.

The example featured here is from Weekend Magazine, November 26, 1966.

(apologies for the blurry scan)

Summertime!

2006-06-30T07:30:00.000-04:00

To celebrate the beginning of Summer and Canada Day, the Canadian Comic Art Centre presents this great panorama by cartoonist Peter Whalley. Taken from the cover of the August 16, 1958 issue of Maclean's Magazine, Whalley's cartoon illustrates the enormous difference a generation makes in the experience of the seasons. The huge colourful image of frolicking kids --probably taken from Whalley's own childhood memories-- in contrast with the dull black-and-white tableau of the tv-addicted boys of the 1950s is a perfect mute comment on technological change and the loss of innocence, issues that continue to preoccupy us today.

Whalley was a prolific contributor to Maclean's and other major publications during the 1950s and 60s, with many cover credits, interior feature illustrations, ads, cartoons and comic strips. He was inducted into our Hall of Fame in 2005.

Early Ben Wicks

2006-06-19T03:50:00.000-04:00

Ben Wicks was one of the most successful cartoonists ever to live in Canada. He had his own tv show for many years and his cartoons appeared worldwide. Perhaps best known for his syndicated strip The Outcasts. Interested in literacy, his family continues a reading program in his name. Born in England in 1926, Wicks came to Canada as a youth and eventually found his way to cartooning after a variety of jobs. He received many honours during his lifetime before dying of cancer in 2000 (full bio). He is also memorialized in the Ben Wicks Pub in Toronto --Wicks was co-owner of the popular watering hole for some time and the place still features his artwork throughout (exterior and interior).

The sequential cartoon above is from an early 1960s issue of the Saturday Evening Post, a defunct U.S. magazine that shared the best cartoonists with The New Yorker and a few other magazines for a time. Wicks broke into this tough U.S. market when he was just starting out and went on to conquer most other outlets then available to him, including editorial cartooning and children's book illustration.

Giants of the North

2006-03-09T00:24:00.000-05:00

Introducing our new logo for the Giants of the North!

The great design above, for the Canadian Cartoonist Hall of Fame, is by renowned cartoonist Seth. Thanks to Seth for taking time out of his busy schedule to work on this project!

A new inductee to the Giants will be announced at the 2006 Doug Wright Awards.

Giants of the North

Iron Man

2006-01-20T02:38:00.000-05:00

New at the Canadian Comic Art Centre:

Vernon Miller's Iron Man

-a new page featuring a great image of the first comic book super-hero published in Canada with links to the full story

Iron Man by Vernon Miller

New Site for French Centre

2006-01-08T08:16:00.000-05:00

CNBDI to Move in 2008

According to Egon (via ActuaBD):

"The Centre National de la Bande Dessinée et de l’Image (CNBDI) in Angoulême, France will move to a new facility in 2008, Actua BD reports. As approved by the syndicat mixte du Pôle Image, the museum will move across the Charente river to occupy an antique wine storage facility. The transfer in venue comes amidst institutional changes and a re-envisioning of the museum to include expanded reading rooms and an in-house comics workshop, among other new additions."

The CNBDI is already by all accounts the best comics museum in existence with a world-renowned library and close affiliation with the Angouleme festival. These new arrangements demonstrate a commitment from all involved, from the French government to scholars to the town of Angouleme, to the ideals of the centre and comic art in general.

Le Musee national de la BD d’Angouleme prepare sa mue pour 2008 - Actua BD:comics news

CNBDI Homepage

New Domain

2005-12-18T17:19:00.000-05:00

The Canadian Comic Art Centre has a new domain name!

www.canadacomics.ca

Just in time for Christmas --the new address has links to our Christmas page as well.

Canadian Comic Art Centre

MoCCA Reorganizes

2005-12-02T13:39:00.000-05:00

NYC Museum Founder Leaves

Heidi MacDonald reports on the new leadership at MOCCA, the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art in New York:

MILE HIGH COMICS presents THE BEAT at COMICON.com: MoCCA Reorganizes

Tom Spurgeon has some thoughts about what Laurence Klein's absence will mean for the museum, over at the Comics Reporter:

"Klein's departure may prove to be beneficial for getting a new public face out there and with it a potentially different general approach to fundraising. Most people seem to like new president and former COO Ken Wong; my few dealings with him were positive as well."

Animation Gallery

2005-11-28T05:18:00.000-05:00

New Proposal

The curator of Sault Ste Marie's Art Gallery of Algoma has proposed an addition to the gallery devoted to animation. According to a local web-tv station, curator Michael Burtch has asked his city council to consider an $8 million Animation Centre to house a donated collection of animation cels and original art. The results of a feasability study for such a centre were approved by the city in March 2004. Such a centre would be the first of its kind in Canada, outside of holdings attached to film centres like the Montreal cinematheque.

LTVNEWS.COM - Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario - Local Television that Clicks!
Art Gallery

Safety First for CCAC

2005-11-21T00:28:00.000-05:00

Local Cartoonists sign at Local Shop

Cartoonists Nick Craine, Jay Stephens, Cameron Stewart, Scott Chandler and Svetlana Chmakova(standing).

Stephens and Stewart

Scott Mooney

Scott Chantler signing North-West Passage

Dragon staff: Owner Jennifer Stewart and Amy Restemayer

Stewart chats with Chmakova

Nick Craine and Jay Stephens

Full Story:
Sequential Comics News

George Feyer

2005-11-16T22:11:00.000-05:00

New at the Canadian Comic Art Centre:
Brief bio and cartoon --George Feyer, Jewish-Canadian cartoonist.
1921-1967

George Feyer

Bookshelf Booklaunch

2005-11-10T01:18:00.000-05:00

The Canadian Comic Art Centre was on hand for the launch of Parting Ways, a new graphic novel written by Edmonton's Andrew Foley and illustrated by Guelph cartoonists Scott Mooney (pencils and inks) & Nick Craine (inks). A small crowd of comics afficionados and family gathered at the Bookshelf Cafe to chat with the artists who signed books and offered nachos.

Also present was legendary Guelph cartoonist John MacLeod (below). John self-published the seminal minicomic Dishman in the 1980s and 90s.

The book, published by Speakeasy, concerns a suicide who survives his own death but becomes separated from his soul. A meditation on death, love and the contemporary art world, Parting Ways is Mooney's first major comics project. Nick Craine is responsible for two previous graphic novels and is an experienced journeyman inker for U.S. comics behemoth Marvel.

above: Mooney with a copy of his book

Scott Mooney Home Page

Email

2005-11-06T16:24:00.000-05:00

The Canadian Comic Art Centre is currently experiencing email problems.

Little Monsters

2005-10-31T04:49:00.000-05:00

Super-monsters

Superheroes and monsters have quite a bit in common. They both seem to inhabit similar worlds filled with mad scientists and invading aliens and they are both often victims of scientific experiments gone wrong. Even though they are natural enemies, superheroes and monsters tend to solve problems with more brawn than brains, and they have hard times getting dates.

There is one type of superhero, however, that combines the ugliness of monsters with the heroics of heroes: the monster turned hero. Quite rare, famous monsters-turned-heroes include versions of Frankenstein's monster, Dracula (Dell Comics) and other vampires (Morbius), werewolves (Werewolf by Night), not to mention all the assorted swamp creatures and robots. Cartoonist Jack Kirby created some of the most famous, including The Hulk, The Thing, and the philosophic Karkas (from The Eternals). But even these classic creations pale in comparison to Spider and Web, the superheroic alter egos of Gold Key's Little Monsters.

The Little Monsters were created for Gold Key most likely to cash in on the 1960s monster craze without having to pay licensing fees to big-name properties. Legendary editor Chase Craig was probably the man responsible. According to writer Mark Evanier, Craig was an idea man and scripter responsible for many of the little nuggets of the Gold Key universe, including Magnus, Robot Fighter and Mary Jane and Sniffles.

The Little Monsters debuted as a back-up in The Three Stooges comic in 1964 and graduated to their own title later that year. The title characters are two tiny flat-headed, bolt-necked horrors named 'Orrible Orvie and Awful Annie. Their parents also resemble Frankenstein's monster and the whole family live in a run-down mansion full of goofy horror-movie props, just like the Addams Family or the Munsters. Dad Mildew is a typical sitcom-style oaf who doesn't know his own strength and is often helped out of a fix by his slightly smarter children. Mom Demonica is a hatchet-faced, top-knot-wearing housewife in the Wilma Flintstone mold.

The series was suspended as the monster craze waned but was brought back in the early 70s for a brief revival which may have been intitiated to use up some left-over stories. This seems to be the case with Little Monsters #19 from November 1972, featuring "The Return of the Spider."

This story begins with Orvie and his sister Annie watching their favourite TV show, "Fatman and Slobin" --an obvious parody of the 1960s Batman show starring Adam West and Burt Ward, with all the sound effects intact. The kids are inspired by the show and are given a source of inspiration for their own costumes when "a bolt of lightning illuminates an eerie shadow on the living room window." The giant spider they see resembles the bat that Bruce Wayne sees fly through his window in Bob Kane and Bill Finger's Batman origin story from the 1930s.

Annie and Orive dig up their old Halloween costumes, with spider and web insignias, masks and capes, and decide to "roam the night" while the narrative caption reads: "Thus was born the Gruesome Twosome, those fearsome, fearful, fighters of crime ...Spider and Web!" When they tell their folks about their new identities, Demonica tells them it's getting late and sends them to bed!

Next morning, back in front of the TV, the Gruesome Twosome hear that The Hoaxer, a "notorious criminal," is heading for their town and planning a crime spree. Suiting up, Spider and Web hop on their broomstick and go flying out over the town in search of the villain and his gang. After the Hoaxer steals and entire bank, the pair trace him to his lair on top of the Ritz Hotel and use a few Batman-like tricks to get in, including the tossing of a "spider-hook" and walking up the side of the building. After their web breaks, they decide to just fly up on their broom, whereupon they are easily captured by the adult gang and thrown into a hall of mirrors.

After smashing out, the brats are easily captured again and literally hoisted with their own petard when they are suspended by spider web over the edge of the building, only to be saved in the nick of time by a trio of monstrous superheroes led by their own superstrong father. Safe at home, the kids are in for one final scare when their parents find a giant caped spider to replace them as town superhero!

The art chores on Little Monsters were most likely by either Pete Alvarado or Phil DeLara, the workhorses of Dell and Gold Key funny animal and animation-related comics. Both had extensive experience in animation and kept one foot in the Hollywood animation studios and the other in the world of comics and strips, churning out thousands of pages of humour comics in a clean, emotive style, although without a lot of variety in terms of linework. Some of the character designs in the comic are pretty clunky and sometimes the figures seem to lack weight or dimension. Both Mark Evanier and Scott Shaw have identified the artist on this story as John Carey, a cartoonist closely identified with Woody Woodpecker comics.

The writer on the series (none of the stories are credited) could have been Craig or may have been another workhorse like Vic Lockman, a writer and cartoonist who now specializes in religious comics. Either way, the script in "The Return of the Spider" is full of knowing references to superhero comics and manages to be both amusing and well-plotted. A perfect Halloween treat for the superhero monster (or monster-superhero) fan!

Thanks to Mark Evanier.

Halloween Comics

2005-10-31T03:01:00.000-05:00

Just added: a collection of strips and links with a Halloween theme.

Canadian Halloween Comics

Happy Birthday to The Smurfs

2005-10-23T05:39:00.000-04:00

Happy Smurfday?

According to the Wikipedia, today is the anniversary of the first appearance of Belgian cartoonist Peyo's little blue creatures.

The Smurfs - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

US Museum Picks Designer

2005-10-17T19:19:00.000-04:00

Tom Spurgeon links to a story about Mort Walker's National Cartoon Museum, located in the Empire State Building, New York City. The museum has hired a major design firm, Ralph Appelbaum Associates, to design its space.

Interesting news for those of us pondering the feasability of comics-related museums worldwide. According to Spurgeon, "Depending on how you look at these things, this is either good news that the museum will be handled in such a first class manner or troubling news that the NCM is overreaching, as seems to have happened in previous locations."

Editor and Publisher story

More Simpkins

2005-10-13T00:50:00.000-04:00

A new page of sample cartoons by James Simpkins has been added to the CCAC gallery, including a gag cartoon of Chopper the beaver and an example of Simpkins' long-running "Story of Canada". Both comics are from Canadian Boy, the scouting magazine.

More Simpkins

George M. Rae

2005-10-07T18:30:00.000-04:00

New page at the Canadian Comic Art Centre featuring George Menendez Rae. Rae was a cartoonist for the Canadian Whites comics of the 1940s and contributed cartoons and illos to magazines and newspapers (Family Herald, etc) before pursuing a career as a painter. The page is just a place-holder, with a longer article and more pictures to follow.

George M. Rae

Seth on Thoreau MacDonald

2005-10-07T02:29:00.000-04:00

The Canadian Comic Art Centre attended a packed house at the AGO's Marvin Gelber Print and Drawing Study Centre, where over 60 art-lovers were on hand to hear the cartoonist Seth present a prepared one-hour talk on the life and work of Thoreau MacDonald. MacDonald, a book-designer, artist, and publisher, received a glowing tribute and the Gallery made "treasures from the AGO’s collection of works on paper" available for the audience to view alongside Seth's original cartoon art and illustrations. Seth talked about MacDonald's influence on his own aesthetic and the connections between MacDonald's "memory pictures" and the art of cartooning. Later, Seth amiably answered several questions about his own work and the nature of nostalgia before mingling with the audience and signing some of his work.

Seth's exhibit of pages from "Clyde Fans" and other ephemera continues until October 16th at the AGO:

Art Gallery of Ontario

(photo: Seth chats with unidentified female audience members at the AGO)

the WORKING-CLASS HEROES PROJECT

2005-09-05T04:21:00.000-04:00

"The super-hero comics of the 1940s also had this rough, working class quality. A cartoonist like Jack Kirby is a perfect example. His characters -- Captain America, for example -- were an extension of himself. Kirby was a tough little guy from the streets of New York's lower East Side, and he saw the world in terms of harsh, elemental forces. How do you deal with these forces? You fight back! This was the message of all the comic strips created during the Great Depression of the 1930s, from Popeye to Dick Tracy to Superman." --Robert Crumb, quoted in The R. Crumb Handbook

Working Class Heroes

In honour of Labour Day in Canada and the U.S., a few notes on the dearth of actual, blue-collar workers among the legions of superheroes created since the 1930s. The Working Class Heroes Project is a work in progress.

Introduction:

Most superheroes were created by working-class cartoonists in the sweatshops of the 1930s, 40s, 50s and 60s. Ironically, very few superheroes are actually working-class. Outside of Bob Burden's Mystery Men, where are the superheroic truck drivers, mechanics and steelworkers?

While many superheroes held down day-jobs as white-collar workers or professionals of various stripes, very few secret identities would qualify as blue-collar, industrial workers. At their point of origin, and as wish-fulfillment fantasies, superheroes are generally a privileged lot, and seem to fall roughly into four categories: playboy millionaires/royalty; educated professionals (doctors, journalists, pilots, scientists); professional athletes, entertainers, and broadcasters; and agents of the state (soldiers, police).

As Ariel Dorfman writes in The Empire's Old Clothes, "the superhero's triumph is based on the omission of the working class, the elimination of a community or collective which could transform the crisis and give it a meaning or new direction."

Here, then, is a tentative list of the rude mechanicals and producers of wealth who moonlight as superheroes, be they prole or lumpen.

(Thanks to Jeet Heer and the various Oddball Comics and Superman fans who have contributed thoughts on this project).

The List:

Shoeshine Boy/Underdog -- shoeshine boy
Luke Cage/Powerman --Hero for Hire
Johnny Chambers/Johnny Quick --newsreel camera operator
Fred Drake/Stuntman --stuntman and movie double/extra
Pat Dugan/Stripesy --chauffeur to rich kid Sylvester Pemberton (Star-Spangled Kid)
Freddie Freeman/Captain Marvel JR --crippled newspaper delivery boy
Barbara Gordon/Batgirl --librarian
Louise Grant/The Blonde Phantom --secretary to P.I. Mark Mason
Buford T. Hollis/Razorback --truck driver
Ma Hunkel/Red Tornado --housewife/mother/grocery store owner
Kato --limo driver
Dinah Lance/Black Canary --florist
Hollis Mason/Nite Owl I --mechanic
Obelix --menhir delivery man
Peter Parker/Spider-man --photographer
Diana Prince/Wonder Woman --princess who works as nurse
Penrod Pooch/Hong Kong Phooey --janitor
Popeye --sailor
Chuck Taine/Bouncing Boy --delivery boy

Please feel free to add additions or corrections to this list. I am especially interested in heroes from the "Golden Age" (1930s-40s) or earlier (even Hercules cleaned stables --and David herded sheep).

Quirky Caveats

Masked adventurers and comic-strip stars welcome. Please note: for the purposes of this list, I am only interested in heroes with working-class jobs (ie, blue-collar/pink-collar/"proletarian"). I will accept tradespeople, factory workers, farm workers, unemployed/poor, craftsmen, etc. NO white-collar workers, rich people, politicians, government agents, or cops. I will accept Private Eyes and small business owners ("petit bourgeois") in a pinch.

Related Links: Canadian May Day Cartoons

Sim on Museum

2005-08-08T02:02:00.000-04:00

Dave Sim's proposal for a Canadian Graphic Novel Museum is now online:

"The recently completed experiment with Lithograph No.1: Neil Gaiman—as a benefit for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund—actually originated in my thinking of how to do fund-raising for a possible Canadian Graphic Novel Museum not unmindful as I am of the fact that any sort of Museum is a risky proposition which is why I want to have a solid foundational home for the preservation of all material at an enduring institution like Wilfrid Laurier or U of W or NYU or McMaster or York before taking even the most preliminary steps in setting such a project in motion. So, what I wanted to do was a series of extremely limited edition prints of and related to Canada’s Graphic Novelists and to auction them pretty much in the same way that Lithograph No.1: Neil Gaiman is being auctioned: trickling them out—anywhere from a single impression to a handful of impressions a year and keeping the total number of impressions down to around 50 and no higher than 75. Basically what I envision is financing the preservation (and, ultimately, the display of the artwork) through the selling of signed limited edition copies of our work."

"The management of the Canadian Graphic Novel Museum should always be in as few hands as possible and the control over that management should be in as many hands as possible, the latter controlling the livelihood of the former. Ideally, management should be on a volunteer basis with the preservation and proper display of the material as the only material reward. "

Dave's Cerebus Archive Report

CCAC @ Sequential

2005-07-28T01:34:00.000-04:00

Strange Tales Indeed!

Posted today: an interview with Michael de Adder (above) and others about arrested Burmese cartoonist Chit Swe.

Sequential

(image copyright de Adder and Halifax News)

CCAC at AGO

2005-07-01T07:29:00.000-04:00

Photos from Seth's Opening

The AGO was home to huge crowd of comics cognoscenti, art patrons, rock stars, and people desparately seeking respite from the 33 degree heat of downtown Toronto on June 29th, 2005.

The billboard outside the AGO featuring Seth's poster for the show.

The centrepiece of the exhibit, the town of Dominion.

The cartoonist and his creations.

Seth and his beautiful wife Tania.

Despite the catalog notes about a "new comics underground" reacting to the "cooption of art," the Gallery still has to pay its bills. In the foreground, a framed example of the limited edition (of 200) silkscreen print of the exhibit poster.

T-shirts in art-hipster black ...

...and "Seth green"

Peter Birkemoe (The Beguiling), Nathalie Atkinson (Publishers Weekly), and Chris Oliveros (Drawn and Quarterly) were on hand for the opening.

Chester Brown and his "posse".

Art Gallery of Ontario
Full report at Sequential

CCAC @ TCAF

2005-06-03T03:28:00.000-04:00

Photos from the Toronto Comic Arts Festival

Max Douglas with his mom

Saddest moment at TCAF:
enraged fan erases Kevin Huizenga's drawing of Firestorm
from sketchbook

A nonplussed Kevin with Sammy Harkham
moments after the tragic event

Anders Nilsen is equally shaken up

Benoit Chaput of L'Oie de Cravan

Billy Mavreas & Mark Ngui
(thanks to Mark for running the power-point slideshow
at the Doug Wright Awards!)

Ho Che Anderson & Seth

Jeffrey Brown signing books for the kids

Actual quote: "I was looking at a girl's ass."

Jo Cook and the Perro Verlag Group

Lorenz Peter

Wright Awards volunteer Kara L. and one of Bloor Street's landmarks

See more!
Photos: Doug Wright Awards

The Doug Wright Awards

2005-05-29T08:43:00.000-04:00

New Award for Canadian Comics
(Toronto) The innaugural Doug Wright Awards honouring the best in Canadian Cartooning have been announced. The awards were presented to two cartoonists based on work published in 2004 in a ceremony at the Toronto Comic Art Festival on Saturday.
The winners:
-Best Emerging Talent: Bryan Lee O'Malley
-Best Book: Clyde Fans, Book One by Seth
In addition to the awards, 4 inductees into the Canadian Cartoonist Hall of Fame were announced.
Details:
The Doug Wright Awards

PRIX BEDELYS 2004

2005-05-18T04:33:00.000-04:00

The Sixth Annual Bédélys Prize For French Comics

By Bryan Munn

On Monday, May 16, 2005, the Promo 9e Art Foundation, based in Montreal, Canada presented the sixth annual Bédélys Prize offered to French comic books from the Province of Quebec. The awards were announced at the Bibliothèque nationale du Québec.

This year, the Foundation gave out three awards:
1. The Bédélys d'Or, offered by the Corporation des Bibliothécaires Professionnels du Québec (Professional Librarians) is attributed to the best French speaking graphic novel.
-Le Photographe Book 2, by Guibert, Lefèvre & Lemercier
-published by éditions Dupuis
-graphic novel about Doctors Without Borders set in Afghanistan
-$1000 prize

2. Bédélys Québec, offered by the Association des libraires du Québec. This prize celebrates the best graphic novel published within the Province of Quebec.
-L'abîme by Jean-Paul Eid & Claude Paiement
(pictured above, celebrating their win)
-second volume in the Naufragé de Mémoria series
-published by Éditions Milles-Îles
-$1000 prize

Special Mention
-Té malade, toi!, by Line Gamache
-published by Zone Convective

3. Prix Bédélys Jeunesse - Ville de Montréal, offered by the City of Montreal for the best graphic novel for the 7 to 12-year-old market. Voted on by a jury of children.
-Lou: Journal infime by Julien Neel
- published by Glénat

Site Officiel de Promo 9e Art -Press Release
Background (in English)
Photos
Nominations

CACTUS

2005-05-11T02:08:00.000-04:00

QUEBEC HUMOUR ZINE CELEBRATES 10 YEARS
"Semaine de la Bande Dessinee"
May 12-22, 2005
Centre culturel Jacques-Ferron
Longueuil, Quebec
Conferences, exhibits, and special guest Michel Rabagliati.
Cactus
Centre Culturel Jacques-Ferron

BD MONTREAL

2005-05-11T01:36:00.000-04:00

Just announced:
le Festival de BD francophone de Quebec and the Salon du livre de Quebec, in association with the Just for Laughs Comedy Festival present:
'BD Montreal'
July 14-24 2005
le boulevard de Maisonneuve, Montreal
& Just for Laughs Museum
Guest of Honour: Jean-Paul Eid ('Les Aventures de Jerome Bigras', 'Le Naufrage de Memoria')
Other guests to include: Tristan Demers, Jimmy Beaulieu, Line Gamache, Bruno Laporte, Francois Lapierre, Marc Delafontaine, Thierry Labrosse, Regis Loisel, etc.
Over 6000 comics for sale! Art shows, round tables, and cartoons for the kids!
ToutenBD.com
Le Devoir

D&Q 2005 RELEASES

2005-05-10T02:23:00.000-04:00

Courtesy of Yakov Chodosh on the Comics Journal Messageboard and Tom Spurgeon, comes this list of upcoming and, in some cases, already published book projects from Drawn and Quarterly. Some works are translated into English for the first time.
The Canadian cartoonists include:

GENEVIEVE CASTREE-EVELRUM
DRAWN AND QUARTERLY SHOWCASE,VOLUME 3
JULY 2005
--Wright Award-nominated cartoonist
(also: SAMMY HARKHAM AND MATT BROERSMA)
GUY DELISLE,
PYONGYANG
OCT 2005
JULIE DOUCET
MY MOST SECRET DESIRE
--NEW RELEASE WITH ADDITIONAL MATERIAL
FALL 2005
&
DOUCET DIARY
FALL 2005
LUC GIARD
VILLAGE UNDER MY PILLOW
MAY 2005
MICHEL RABAGLIATI
PAUL MOVES OUT
MAY 2005
SETH
WIMBLEDON GREENOCTOBER 2005
--a book about obsessive collectors done in Seth's "sketchbook style"

Drawn and Quarterly

New Award Recognizes Canadian Graphic Novels

2005-05-09T01:33:00.000-04:00

Caroline Skelton at Quill & Quire covers the Wright Awards:

"May 6, 2005

Until this year, Canadian comic-book creators in search of award recognition had to rely on foreign prizes, like the Will Eisner Awards in the U.S. This spring, though, not one but two new Canadian comic-book award programs have sprung up, independently of each other. The inaugural Joe Shuster Canadian Comic Book Creator Awards were presented April 30, and the first Doug Wright Awards will be presented May 28.

The Wright Awards will feature two categories: Best Book (any comic book,
graphic novel, or collected work), and Best Emerging Talent (a category that
honours new or improving cartoonists from these three mediums). Winners will
be decided by a panel of judges, including Globe and Mail books reporter
Rebecca Caldwell and cartoonist and Louis Riel author Chester Brown.

The ceremony, says organizer Brad Mackay, should be a "low-key" affair, taking
place during the Toronto Comics Art Festival. (There is a trophy, but no cash prize.)
The shortlist for the Best Book category includes Seth's Clyde Fans Book One
(Drawn & Quarterly/Raincoast), Marc Bell's Worn Tuff Elbow #1
(Fantagraphics/Raincoast), Genevieve Castree's Pamplemoussi (L'oie de
Cravan), David Collier's The Frank Ritza Papers (D&Q/Raincoast), and Darwyn
Cooke's The New Frontier Vol. 1 (DC Comics/H.B. Fenn).

Though both the Wrights and the Shusters have been in the works for some
time, there was no co-ordination of the two. "It was a complete coincidence," Mackay says. Where the Wrights focus on new talent and completed books, the Shusters also recognize various areas of behind-the-scenes work, including publishers and retailers as well as writers and artists. "The Doug Wright Awards pick up where the Shusters leave off," writes Shusters organizer Kevin Boyd in an e-mail.

Joe Shuster, the artist and co-creator of the Superman character, moved from
Canada to Cleveland, Ohio, at age 10, and achieved success through the
support of mainstream audiences. Doug Wright, however, succeeded within a
Canadian market by depicting scenes of day-to-day Canadian life. He is known for the syndicated comic strip Nipper (later dubbed Doug Wright's Family), which ran for three decades. Mackay says Wright is "an example of a Canadian artist who managed to succeed while staying in Canada, which is the point of the awards as well.""

Quill And Quire

Marc Bell in NYC

2005-05-05T02:43:00.000-04:00

BLOO CHIP
Adam Baumgold Gallery, New York
May 6-July 1, 2005

"Adam Baumgold Gallery presents an exhibition of works by Marc Bell, "Bloo Chip," from May 6 through July 1, 2005. In his second solo exhibition, Marc Bell seamlessly combines his decade plus comics activities with his lifelong devotion to, as he calls it, "Fine Ahtwerks." The result is over eighty drawings, watercolors, paintings and mixed media constructions of a fully formed visual world of tubular creatures, inexplicable landscapes, and nonsense words that imply narrative as quickly as they distract from it. One of the works in the exhibition is the long, scroll-like ink drawing on EKG paper "Supernatural Hot Rug and Not Used II," 2004 - a composition teeming with Bell's manically animated people and quasi animals amidst text rife with free-associations. In the mixed media construction "(Hide Behind Bloo Chip) Kid," 2005, a complex melange of people, creatures, forms and buildings constructed from cardboard, we see his work has roots in masterful renderings, typography, and old-fashioned gags, but then grows into assemblages that bring his images into real space, and funny, seat-of-the pants comic narratives that give his characters an inner life. Marc Bell, 33, lives in Vancouver, B.C. He has self published his own books and comics for over a decade, yielding dozens of titles including Mojo Action Companion Unit, Gooma, Knoze Clippah! He has also serialized his comic strips weekly in The Montreal Mirror and The Halifax Coast, and monthly in Vice Magazine. His first comic strip collection, Shrimpy and Paul and Friends was released in 2003 from Highwater Books. In 2004, Bell's book The Stacks was released by Drawn and Quarterly and Fantographics published Marc Bell's Worn Tuff Elbow. Bell's work has been included in several anthology books such as Ganzfeld 3 & 4, Kramer's Ergot 4,5 & 6 and Made magazine. He will be included in the exhibition Paper, Scissors, Rock at the Contemporary Art Gallery Museum in Vancouver. All of these activities have charted Bell's ever-growing imagination. His artistic universe is at once foreign and familiar, and a riotous, enlightening, and constantly surprising experience.
The gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday 11-5:30 P.M. For additional information, please contact Adam Baumgold at (212)861-7338."
Adam Baumgold Gallery preview

2 x SETH

2005-05-05T01:57:00.000-04:00

Guelph cartoonist featured in two exhibits
1. AGO -Art Gallery of Ontario
Swing Space: Present Tense 31
Seth
June 29 to October 16, 2005
Contemporary art in unexpected places
"This exhibition looks at the work of renowned Canadian comic artist Seth, and the 20th century urban vernacular that energizes his work. Featured will be three extended narrative sequences from Clyde Fans, the artist’s ongoing story, and miniature buildings from a fictional northern Ontario town that appears in the work."
On Thursday, June 30, 2005, 7 pm AGO curator Ben Portis will interview Seth about his work.Free with gallery admission.

AGO

2. Confederation Centre Art Gallery
Charlottetown, PEI
May 20-Sept 18, 2005
Seth: Bannock, Beans and Black Tea
"the exhibition presents the working drawings, proofs, letters and original art works from innovative graphic novelist and comic artist Seth’s most recent publication Bannock, Beans and Black Tea. Ten years in the making, the book is a retelling of his father John Gallant’s memories of childhood on Prince Edward Island during the Great Depression. It features Seth’s signature graphic style and continues the artist’s deep fascination with depression-era Canada and the lives of marginal figures. Seth and his father, John Gallant, received a PEI Museum Heritage Award in 2005 for the book.
Seth is considered one of the great cartoonists of the past decade, having published extensively with Drawn & Quarterly. He is best known for his series Palookaville, which has been published in graphic novel format as It’s a Good Life, If You Don’t Weaken and Clyde Fans: Book One. He also has collaborated with the CBC’s Stuart McLean, designing the book, stage show and CD for Vinyl Café Diaries. Seth lives in Guelph, Ontario, and John Gallant lives on Prince Edward Island."
Confederation Centre
PEI Buzz