L.A Mood, TCAF Wrap-Up & The Paris Guns

I think May 2009 will go down as one of my busiest months ever. I'm going to start from the top with what's still coming up, then work my way backwards through the month...

L.A. Mood Comic Signing with Willow Dawson
This Saturday, May 30th I will be signing with the wonderfully talented cartoonist Willow Dawson at L.A. Mood Comics & Games. I will be brining copies of all my comics for sale, some original artwork to view, as well as my new t-shirts I did up for TCAF (kazoo shirt, and Silver Surfer Kirby-style shirt) for purchase.

Willow will have her comic work on hand, as well as limited edition prints and buttons. We will be a captive audience from 12:00 - 4:00 PM at the store, so please come on by, say hello and feel free to ask us any comic questions you may have. The event is free and totally family friendly!

TCAF Wrap Up
So another TCAF has been and gone and as ususal lived up to they hype. Big kudos to Chris Butcher and the Beguiling for putting on such a great event. I have been a guest at every TCAF, and I have to say that this year was bigger and better in almost every way.

Especially impressive was the amount of media coverage the fest received this year. It totally paid off as the crowds were massive (as you can see from the photo above - I'm in the pink t-shirt). I think this video on (that even got Boing Boing'ed) really captures the feel of the weekend:


Highlights of the weekend for many, but here are just some:

• Sharing a table with good friend and huge talent Frank Cammuso. My husband and I first met Frank and his wife Ngoc at SPX way back in 2003 I think, and we soon became fast friends. Since then we've hung out at many a con, and it's always a pleasure to chat with him, get his opinions on the industry and just generally to catch up.
  
  
• Attending the Doug Wright Awards and seeing the surprise and joy on the faces of the recipients Jillian and Mariko Tamaki for Skim, Kate Beaton for Hark a Vagrant!, and Matt Forsythe for Ojingogo - all WELL deserved. Since I was a juror this year, I knew who the winners would be, but I was still totally nervous for all of them as well as the other great nominees.
  


• I have to hand it to the Doug Wright Committee for totally doing the evening up right at the Jackman Hall in the AGO with emcee Don McKellar. The Billy Crystal type opening video for the best book award was hilarious, and the Q&A with Seth and Brad McKay about the Collected Doug Wright book was really illuminating. I can honestly say that Seth's comments on how he designed the book have made me think differently about book design.
  


• Party at The Pilot put on by Chip Zdarsky. This was a great time and it seemed like just about all the guests and their friends showed up!
  


• Finally catching up with fellow cartoonists, friends and comic fans is really what it is all about. There are too many of you to mention here, so please take my thanks to everyone who came by and said hi.

The Paris Guns
Finished in time for the London Studio Art Tour, Chapter One of my longer Gerald Bull story is out! Called The Paris Guns, this chapter works as a complete story in and of itself and takes place in France during WWI. Below is the cover.

London Studio Tour Wrap-Up

The London Studio Tour just finished up yesterday, and I am still in recovery mode.

This is a free self-guided tour where local artists open up their studios to the public for a weekend. It takes every year in London and is a great opportunity to meet local artists. I have attended before in the past, but this is the first year I participated, so I wasn't sure just what to expect.

Crowds were quite steady each day (Friday night, all day Saturday, all day Sunday), and we were fortunate to have a great weekend weather-wise. I'd say there were hundreds of people who came through my studio stop. For a set-up I had 20 art pieces for sale that varied from comic panels, to full B&W illustrations, to landscapes both in colour and black and white (all framed and hung gallery-style by me and Dave). The landscapes were definitely the most popular. The one in particular that was in the brochure I think I could have sold a few times over.

It was a great experience, but also a lot of work in terms of producing new artwork, framing art, and tidying up and organizing studio. I heard from some other artists that traffic overall was a bit down this year - perhaps due to the recession? But all told I sold 4 pieces and 81 comics which I think is very decent!

Thanks to friends and family who helped out in shifts for crowd control, good company and support! Thanks also to those who came out!

See website for details on all participating artists. There was a great mix this year of different styles represented.

London Studio Tour

I am happy to say that this year I've been accepted into the juried London (ont) Studio Tour. The tour has been operating for (I believe) over 20 years now in London and provides Londoners with the opportunity to visit the working environments of local artists, learn about their creative process, meet the artists, and purchase some original art!

The tour is self-guided and the artists work in a variety of mediums such as drawing, painting, printmaking, stained glass, ceramics, sculpture and woodworking. I have attended a number of years and have always really enjoyed it. It's pretty casual, very well-attended and free. The artists always seem to be happy to have so many people looking at their stuff.

I will have some of my comic work on display, including pages from my Gerald Bull project, as well as some landscapes in pen and ink and oil pastels for sale. Below is a Muskoka drawing I recently finished for the show.


This is the first time a comic artist has participated in the tour and I am anxious to see what people think. I plan on doing up hand-outs of my comic process as I find people are generally curious as to how a page goes from script, to original art, to its final printed form.

• Here the link for the official London Studio Tour website, which has a pdf of the brochure that shows the location of each artist's studio, as well as a bio for each artist.
• The tour takes place from Friday, May 1st - Sunday, May 3rd.

Watchmen - By the Pool

How big is the Watchmen phenomenon? How about this - a few weeks ago we went on a family vacation to a small Mexican island off of Cancun called "Isla Mujeres". The island is reached by ferry and is just 4.5 miles long. It's still a working fishing village, and there are no American restaurants chains there (yet).

Sitting around by the pool, what did I see but this startling sight:

A woman reading the graphic novel casually by the pool! In all of my vacationing days I have never seen a guy (who wasn't my husband or brother-in-law), reading a graphic novel by the pool or on the beach, much less a gal. I had to have Dave and Rosie pose in the pool nearby so I could get a photo of it. She then proceeded to have this conversation with her guy friend:

Girl: Have you ever read a graphic novel?
Guy: No.
Girl: They're good you know. They are a bit confusing to read at first, but once you get the hang of it, it's fine.
Guy: I don't know if I would like any of them. I've heard of that one you're reading though.
Girl: Well, Gary has been reallly raving about this book forever. He bought it when it came out like in the 80s or something. Anyway, I was curious about it and he got it for me for Christmas. It's good, and the movie is coming out on March 6th.

Me eavesdropping in background while wearing my Black Freighter baseball hat I got off of eBay (no joke) - "It is, I didn't even have that date memorized! That's coming up soon!

Girl: Anyway, this is good. I've read a couple of other graphic novels too. I've read V for Vendetta, and the Dark Knight. There's just one more I'm interested in reading though - it's called Preacher.
Guy: Hmmm. Never heard of it. Want to get some lunch?
Girl: Sounds good. Is it too early for a margarita?

If I hadn't have witnessed this scene, myself, I would have never have believed it. It's some kind of sign of the Apocalypse or something....

Don't tell me that movies don't have an impact on graphic novel sales. This is proof positive!

February Update

Lots of news to report since it's been awhile since my last update. I vow to better for 2009!

Doug Wright Awards
First up, I am happy to report that I am a juror for this year's Doug Wright Awards, which celebrate excellence in Canadian cartooning. The awards will be handed out the weekend of the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, at the AGO's Jackman Hall on Saturday May 9th.

The other members of the jury are Bob Rae, Andrew Coyne, Martin Levin and fellow cartoonist Joe Ollman. Holy cow, what a list! I am a bit intimidated by the company but I am confident in my knowledge of the subject matter covered (comics)!

The evening will also feature a Q&A with Seth and writer Brad Mackay who will be talking about the new Doug Wright collection, published by Drawn & Quarterly and launching that evening.

TCAF
This brings up this spring's Toronto Comic Arts Festival - my favourite comic festival evah! This year looks to be bigger and better than ever and takes place at the Toronto Reference Library, May 9-10. I will be a guest again this year and will be sharing a table with the wonderfully talented Frank Cammuso.

I am going all out for TCAF this year. I will have a new mini, which will be the first chapter to my Gerald Bull GN. I will also have at least one new t-shirt design and hopefully a few other goodies.

The Surfer
This guy just may be the new t-shirt design. Based on the Kirby version of course.

Finally, last month I did up a list for Alan David Doane at Comic Book Galaxy of my most anticipated GN's for 2009. Here's my list:

- Scott Pilgrim Vs. the Universe, Bryan Lee O'Malley, Oni Press (out now) . O'Malley has turned the Scott Pilgrim book releases into an event. I think a lot of people anticipate these like you do a major movie release. I'm sure this will be THE book at the Feb NYC Comicon (which it was - natch).

-George Sprott by Seth, published by Drawn & Quarterly (due May)
Okay, I admit I actually didn't read this when it came out in serial form in the New York Times. This is an expanded and re-mastered version though, so will be even better than that version I'm sure. Plus you can't beat having it in book form. I'm really looking forward to it. I loved, loved, loved Wimbledon Green and this story seems to be in the same vein.

- Cecil and Jordan in New York, by Gabrielle Bell, published by Drawn & Quarterly (due March)
I think this was originally solicited for November of last year and I was bummed when it didn't come out. I love Gabrielle Bell and I think she's just getting better and better. This collection of stories features full-colour work by her that looks really lovely. The one short story has been adapted by director Michel Gondry.

- Nancy Volume One, by John Stanley, published by Drawn & Quarterly (due June)
Continuing in the new tradition of all the reprints coming out (Popeye, Little Orphan Annie, Peanuts), this book reprints some of the classic Nancy strips with an eye-catching cover design by Seth.

- Ten Against the World, by Scott Morse, published by Red Window (due Summer 09?)
Morse just wrote about this project on his blog. It's to be a 160 pg Kirby/Toth inspired monster comic set in the 1950's. He is doing the whole thing with his cintiq in two-colour. Not sure when it will be out. Maybe for SDCC? He also might release instalments online. It will be printed by his own Red Window press (which often gets distributed by AdHouse Books). Stop right there, you had me at Kirby/Toth.

- Parker, by Darwyn Cooke, published by IDW (due Summer '09)
It's to be four full-length graphic novels that adapt the Parker crime books.I am a big enough nerd that I even bought the promo art cards done for SDCC off of eBay. They're gorgeous!
This is a project made for Cooke and I can't wait to get it.

It would be well worth your time to see all the suggestions that ADD lists at his blog from lots of other contributors.

Big December news update

Hi everyone,

Have lots of news to report in on. First off, I haven't posted any artwork for awhile. Here is one I just completed. I'm still doing a lot of WWI research for the first chapter of the Bull book. This is a study of soldier's face from WWI. I thought the photograph was really haunting and tried to capture this feeling in the drawing.
The Londoner
The local community paper The Londoner, did a feature story on me this week. Here's a link to the article (I'm linking to the print-friendly version, because my mom thinks the photo in the regular version is the worst picture ever taken of me). Anyway, the day the article came out, I found out that the reporter who did the story - Ben Benedict got laid off as part of The Sun Media cuts. The Londoner is one of the few community papers in the country that has an excellent circulation and actually makes money. Why does it make money you ask? Because it contains a lot of relevant local community content. Who writes these articles? Ben Benedict.

Really, this just makes me mad. Its so short-sighted. I am sure they will start running associated press articles, or Toronto Sun Media articles instead, people will slowly stop picking the paper up, then 12 months from now the Sun will think it's a mystery as to why the paper isn't as profitable as it used to be. sigh. So that's my rant for the day. Ben also really went out of his way to cover local arts news that didn't get covered anywhere else. Good luck to you Ben!

Holiday Comics and Graphic Novel Recommendations
Sequential is listing people's recommendations for graphic novels and comics to give as gifts for Christmas. I submitted my picks as well. You can find the whole list here. Take a look if you're looking for X-Mas ideas. I will also take the opportunity to add one other suggestion to - What 2008 comic would you recommend for an adult woman 18-100?

• I'm adding "Jamilti and Other Stories" by Rutu Modan (published by Drawn and Quarterly). I really like Modan's drawing style, and bought this collection of her shorter stories recently. This book didn't get as much attention as "Exit Wounds" which came out last year to much acclaim, and if anything I think this book is much stronger. I've had it my bedside table for at least a month now, and keep picking it up and looking at it. The stories have really stuck in my head as well. Great stuff!
  

MIT
Finally, MIT recently posted the podcast version of my talk on "Comics and Social Conflict", with Jeet Heer and Ho Che Anderson. Jeet also did a write-up of it on his blog here.

Flickr Picto-Browser Set

I started a Flickr account and I am addicted. This actually seems to be a useful web 2.0 thing. I'm already a convert to Ray Fenwick, and Marc Johns. Check out my my own browser set below.

The Best Birthday Present This Year?

Tomorrow (nov 5th) is my birthday and I have been praying that I won't open up my paper to read that McCain has won the election. The best birthday present I will get this year would be to read about an Obama victory.

Right now it's 9:00 PM, and I'm watching the projection on CNN as the polls start closing, and I'm starting to relax a bit that Obama will indeed win the day. Kay Hagan just beat Elizabeth Dole - yay! Democracy in action as people reject Dole's "godless" ad, which was completely reprehensible.

To say that I've been glued to all information on the American election for the past couple of months is a bit of an understatement. I feel quite desperate about things, and have been wondering why I've felt so strongly - especially since I'm Canadian.

Our Canadian election came and went in just 6 short weeks this fall. My candidate won in my area, but the Conservatives remained in power overall (though they did get hammered in Quebec over their "culture is only for the elite" line which was a sweet victory). Though I was disappointed, I wasn't crushed, and if Obama loses tomorrow, I will be crushed.

I think this is basically because I believe my life will be affected more by who becomes the next President of the United States, then by what Canadian party is in power. This is a strange kind of irony, but I believe it's true. Whether we like it or not, the US. has a huge effect on us here. To paraphrase Trudeau:

"Living next to to the US is like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, one is affected by every twitch and grunt. "

Then when I was watching the 30 minute piece Obama put on the national networks this week, I realized that I have a lot in common with him, and maybe this is also why he really touches a cord for me.

• I also have a mixed race background,


• Was raised by a single mom,


• Was incredibly close to my grandparents who were huge influences on me,


• I know what it's like for people to look at you and assume you're from somewhere else,


• I've also only met my father once, and feel that I've been shaped more by his absence than by his presence.

Finally, there is just so much that Obama stands for that I believe in, and a loss for him would in some way represent a loss of those ideals for me. Share the wealth - yes, I believe in that. Healthcare is a privilege, not a responsibility. Education for all. Equality for all. The list goes on and on...

I'm thinking that tomorrow will be a brighter day...

November 5th Update -my wish came true and the good guys won! What a great way to start the day!

*Obama image courtesy of Jennifer DeGuzman.