Never Safe For Work
One of my favourite things this year is when Chip Zdarsky drew a bunch of muppets for their anniversary. I know, right? There’s a whole interactive thingy at http://www.nationalpost.com/muppets/index.html. This is one of my favourite things from this year.
More Chip Zdarsky goodness at his Flickr photostream.
– Chris
Todays Christmas Comic comes to us from… Geoff Spear and Chip Kidd’s The Golden Age of DC Comics: 365 Days. Released a few years back, it was a meaty slab of beautifully photographed excerpts from Golden Age DCU Cover-art, with each of the images corresponding to a day of the year. This image is from the cover of Action Comics #105 (1947) and corresponded to Christmas Eve. I have to admit that I don’t know who drew the original… perhaps someone in the comments can add to this posting? According to CBDB, the issue features a 14 page Siegel/Shuster story called “The Man Who Hated Christmas”, which was reprinted in the 80s I think, possibly in one of the treasury books. Anyway, it’s not easy to find, that’s for sure (and it doesn’t look like Shuster drew the cover to my eyes…).
I believe this book (the Spear/Kidd) is technically out of print, but it’s certainly not too hard to find at all… Though it’s original price of $40 might have been a bit off-putting, it’s a great discount-bin find just for the fun finds like Superman’s unique way of helping Santa down the chimney.
As for Action Comics #105, the copy pictured would probably set you back a few grand. So maybe settle for the lovely cover-art here. 
– Christopher
So I wrote a post a week back called “The Myth of All-Ages” and people seemed to really respond to it, for which I am always grateful. I’ve read all of the comments at my original post a couple of times, and the responses that have appeared on other blogs, and I’ve really only got a one bit of follow-up. It’s a little scattered, but I figure it’s worth posting so here goes.
Some comics retailers are just out of touch with contemporary kids comics: Look, I’m all for venerating the pioneers of the Direct Market and I do respect their experiences selling comics, but I don’t think most retailers complaining about this issue are really aware of what comics are actually available for young readers these days. This is typified by the main arguments of Buddy Saunders of the Lone Star Comics chain as posted to ICv2. They seem to be entirely about the nature of superhero comics being different than they were 20 years ago, and that’s ‘fine’ I guess, but that’s an irrelevant argument to comics for kids. I think Tom Spurgeon summed it up best: If Mr. Saunders wants to keep moving the goalposts until he scores, by all means, but that doesn’t really solve anything.
Mr. Saunders’ most recent post at ICv2 is castigating the comic book market for not being able to capitalize on the successes of Twilight or Harry Potter like the book market has. This is based on an argument provided by a bookseller of prose books & graphic novels, of all things. At best Mr. Saunders is comparing apples and oranges (graphic novels and novels are both printed matter, but are different media). At worst, he’s brutally out-of-touch with both the graphic novel market and the market for teen/YA fiction. Simply, the market for YA and teen prose fiction is massive, with more books published for those two demographics than there are total graphic novels published in English every year, maybe 6-10 times the amount. ICv2 estimated about about 5000 graphic novels a year are published, and that’s for every age group. This site estimates nearly 30,000 books were published for ‘juveniles’ alone last year, and that may not even include material for teens. Mr. Saunders and his quotee are comparing apples to industrial watermelon farms.
So, yes, it makes sense that when Harry Potter and Twilight do well, there are lots more books to sell those older kids and teenagers, because there are 2500+ books a month being published for kids and YA and teenagers anyway. So yes, book publishers had a breakout success, and started refining and promoting their existing lines and developing new ones to capitalize on it. That’s awesome! But unfortunately graphic novels for teens didn’t have that same breakout success, novels did, and the two don’t (necessarily) directly relate. Further, while there has been a consistent build in the number of comics and graphic novels for kids (and their quality!) published in the last few years, that number still pales in comparison to how many novels for that same audience are being published, and to be honest there are dozens of great comics and graphic novels for kids, teens, and everyone in-between, that completely fly under the radar anyway, not finding the marketing support or sales they deserve in comic stores or ‘regular’ book stores. The market is printing books for young readers as fast as they’re salable, perhaps even more so. Saying otherwise underlines a profound lack of experience in this market.
I’ve had the pleasure of a nice dinner with Chris Powell, Buddy’s right-hand-man at Lone Star Comics, and he’s a smart, passionate retailer who really believes in bringing in comics for every age group walking through the doors of a Lone Star Comics shop. I have no doubt that those are great stores with an amazing selection of kids comics, and with more and more coming in every day. I really look forward to visiting a Lone Star Comics at some point. But I don’t understand why Mr. Saunders is still arguing that these books don’t exist, unless it is still the fact that it’s really just about him getting the exact sort of comics he wants, which are superhero comics from the early-80s or older, which were targeted at older readers but could still be enjoyed by some younger ones, which I took great pains to point out ain’t gonna happen in that last post.
So, anyway.
I didn’t mention anywhere in the original post that in 2009 I published a comic book for kids. Like, I actually did that myself, with the help of some very talented creators. It’s called COMICS FESTIVAL! and we sold about 22,000 of them into the direct market. It’s a great book, if I do say so, with like 30 pages of comics for kids, leading to more than a dozen comics and graphic novels currently in-print for kids. If you can track one down, I recommend it!
I truly believe in comics for children, and middle-grades, and young adults, and teens, and I spend a lot of time with that material. I know it’s not really fair as an arguing tactic to ask people to just accept on faith that I know what I’m talking about and things are ACTUALLY really great right now when it comes to comics for kids, but they are, and I hope they will.
I don’t just write 4,000 word essays about stuff for nuthin’. Peace-out.
– Christopher
Once upon a time I lived with Bryan Lee O’Malley and this other guy, and we used one of the rooms in the house for our office. It housed all of our computers. I was kind of poor, so I had a pair of hand-me-down speakers for my computer and no headphones, wheras Mal and Other Guy both had pretty bitch’n headphones. So it made sense to me that I could just play the music I wanted because they couldn’t hear it anyway. About the time Christmas rolled around and I started listening to Christmas music 24 hours a day, I was informed that my music could in fact be heard, and was in fact intolerable.
That did not deter me. So Mal made me a comic strip.
I still consider it a tribute, rather than a threat.
– Christopher
The fine folks at SLG Publishing (known back-in-the-day as Slave Labor Graphics) are having a pretty solid sale right now—40% off their whole web store at http://slgcomic.com/—to help them through some rough economic times. Things aren’t DOOMy or anything, just a sort of a “hey look over here if you’ve got some money to spend”. I was considering telling you about 5 great books from the SLG catalogue that I own, and that you should buy them, but then I thought “My readers are givers, and what with the holidays right around the corner, I’m certain that they’d much rather have a list of recommendations for what to buy for Other People.” And since I have been enjoying and selling (and enjoying selling) SLG products for the better part of 15 years, I thought “Gift Guide!” and so here we are!
But this is no ordinary gift guide.
You see, SLG publishes a wide range of stuff, much of it difficult and strange and unique, and since everyone has a couple of people on their shopping list that are impossible to buy for, the comics and products manufactured by the fine folks at SLG would work wonderfully as gifts… for the difficult, strange, and unique people on your list. (Note: books are also appropriate for folks that do not match the stated criteria.) And with no further ado we present:
5 GREAT GIFTS FROM SLG PUBLISHING FOR DIFFICULT-TO-BUY-FOR-PEOPLE
For The Guy That Makes Inappropriate Jokes At Inappropriate Times…
FUN WITH MILK & CHEESE VOLUME 1
By Evan Dorkin.
Reg: $11.95. SALE: $7.17
[LINK]
I’ve been running Evan Dorkin’s awesome DORK comic strips here at Comics212 for the past few months and while I can’t speak for you guys, it’s been lovely waking up every morning (or so) to see a new Evan Dorkin strip on the site. So while I’ve been recommending DORK for the past few months, let me instead make a recommendation for MILK AND CHEESE, Dorkin’s most famous creations. Dairy Products Gone Bad, they are sociopathic, anthropomorphic bits of food, that Dorkin uses to both satirize society and to just draw vicious, unapologetic insanity. We’ve all met that person who says the most profoundly tasteless thing at exactly the wrong time, and an angry carton of milk and an angry wedge of cheese forcing an old woman into her coffin and beating a senior citizen with his own cane because they were forced to wait behind old people in a line one time? That is the comic for that person. Misanthropy!
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For Your Friend’s Teenage Daughter Whom No One Understands And Is Possibly A Lesbian…
PARIS
By Andi Watson and Simon Gane.
Reg: $10.95. SALE: 6.57
[LINK]
PARIS is a wonderful book, a sensual, energetic, surprising work that reflects its titular setting. A restless young aristocrat and a talented young painter both find themselves in the city of lights, and after a chance encounter with a portrait painting session, they can’t stop thinking about one another. Did I mention that they’re both young women? A couple of major plot twists and Romeo & Juliet allusions conspire to keep the two young ladies apart, but thankfully (for a change) it’s not about the love that dare not speak its name, but instead about the class divide. Ooh la la! PARIS is beautifully drawn, with cute characters and an expressive line. It’s a bit “Classic British Farce”, a bit “Backpacking Across Europe”, a bit “Hollywood”, but really it’s just a wonderful little book, to make you feel good about falling in love.
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For recent “Cool” young parents, to remind them not to move to the suburbs…
I FEEL SICK #1 & #2 and SPOOKY SQUEAK TOY
By Jhonen Vasquez, w/ Rikki Simmons
Reg: $17.85. SALE: $14.69
[LINK]
Jhonen Vasquez is the creator of cult-fav comics JOHNNY THE HOMICIDAL MANIAC and SQUEE, but he’s probably best-know around the world as the creative mastermind behind the incredibly popular Invader Zim television series for Nickelodeon. My favourite of his comics efforts is this two issue mini-series. It’s about the nature of creativity, and compromising artistic ideals for comfort and commercial success, and the struggle therein. It is surprisingly, hilariously good, and poignant, and could only have been written by someone who had a difficult birthing process with a creative property at a multinational corporation… like say Nickelodeon? Anyway, it’s edgy as all hell (even almost 10 years after its initial release), with great art and lovely colours by Rikki Simmons (the voice of Gir on Zim).
Bonus: Appearing in the comic itself is a little skull-faced squeak toy, called SPOOKY: THE THING WHAT SQUEAKS. It is pretty adorable, and it squeaks, and it’s pretty ‘cool’ as far as baby toys go. SLG’s store seems to be out of stock right now, but the toy has been ‘in print’ for years and many retailers should still have it in stock. We do at The Beguiling, for example…
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For anyone you know that works in I.T., graphic design, or really any computer-related field…
NIL graphic novel
By James Turner
Reg: $12.95. SALE: $7.77
[LINK]
Drawn entirely in vector-based illustration tool Adobe Illustrator, NIL has a stark, complex, ‘designy’ look that is wholly unique in comics. The visuals of the world in this graphic novel are fully-realized, creating an engrossing place to get lost in. And? It’s a really good story too. NIL is a satire, an extension of nihilist chic taken to an absurd and therefore amusing degree. It’s about a man who’s job it is to quell outbreaks of hope or belief in a nihilist society, and anyone who’s ever heard “Can you make the logo bigger?” or uttered the phrase “Have you checked to make sure it’s plugged in?” will sure understand and appreciate the dark, dark humour. And it’s Canadian too, so double-excellent.
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For someone you know likes Superhero comics but you have no other idea what they like or read, like none, and you want to get something that they almost-assuredly haven’t read AND is really good AND reflects your personality as the gift-giver…
STREET ANGEL
By Jim Rugg and Brian Maresca
Reg $14.95. NOW: $8.97!
[LINK]
So here’s the deal: The protagonist of this book is a homeless 12 year old girl who rides a skateboard and kicks ass. In the first chapter she fights like a hundred ninjas. In the second she fights Spanish Conquistadors and Ireland’s first man in space, “Cosmick”. In the third: Satan. It only gets bigger from there. Seriously, this is the work of a dude who’s taken in a LOT of pop culture over the years, and is letting it flow back out of his mind, through his pen, onto the page. It’s visually inventive, more sophisticated than you might imagine, and has all of the stuff in it that nerds like. The new edition even has shiny paper! One of my favourite comics of the past few years, and aside from being incredibly pink, any die-hard superhero fan who gets this one is going to love it.
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Bonus: Free Comics for you to read…
SLG loves getting folks to read its comics, so it has all kinds of freebies that you can throw in whenever you place an order on their website. I personally recommend the beautifully-illustrated BOMBABY graphic novel by Antony Mazzotta, which is FREE, or the totally f’d up sci-fi graphic novel VAISTRON by Andrew Dabb and Boussourir. Grab one of everything from their FREEBIES SECTION, it’s all at least interesting and a bunch of it is really good!
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So that’s 5 recommendations, but really, SLG has a pretty fantastic catalogue of books and products, and narrowing it down to just these five was kinda tough. So here’s 10 more suggestions:
Now this sale might not extend much past the next few hours (check your shopping cart to see the discounts), but these books are great year ’round. I recommend picking them up from the SLG store, or from your local comics retailer (when available), and you’re unlikely to be disappointed.
Best,
– Christopher
(Header photo by Chuck Rozanski/Mile High Comics. Stolen from here.)
Venerable Canadian Graphic Novel Publisher Drawn & Quarterly has just received a glowing company profile from Canadian Business Magazine, and writer Jason McBride. The business beat is pretty far outside my normal reading, but I enjoyed reading this take on the publisher. Essentially, McBride comes to the conclusion that D&Q’s unprecedented creator control, absolute creative freedom, and extravagant book design all add up to a winning formula for publishing in a down economy—and an economy growing increasingly hostile to books.
The whole thing is peppered with quotes from Beguiling boss-man Peter Birkemoe, author and academic Jeet Heer, and even “The Chief”, Publisher Chris Oliveros himself. It also—being a business article—even has some hard sales numbers:
“D&Q’s fastest bestseller, Chester Brown’s Louis Riel, an improbable “comic strip biography” of the controversial 19th-century Métis leader, sold 10,000 copies in its first season, and to date has sold more than 36,000, more than most bestselling books in Canada. Publishers Weekly called it a “major achievement.” ” – Jason McBride, Canadian Business
Congrats on such a glowing profile to the fine folks at Drawn & Quarterly!
– Chris
From Atwood to Polkaroo: Highlights of Word on the Street events
The stars of CanLit mingle with comics geeks, dub poets, the TVO Kids gang and many other fans of the written word
I suppose all press is good press?
Still, it is a nice little nod in The Toronto Star about tomorrow’s Word On The Street fest. Second in line behind only the stars of CanLit…!
Hope we’ll see you out at the event tomorrow!
– Chris
Hey folks! If you’re in Toronto this Sunday, September 27th, might I humbly suggest you mosey on over to Queen’s Park to enjoy THE WORD ON THE STREET literary festival? It’s an annual literary event, held simultaneously across 5 cities in Canada, and it puts books of all kinds—including comics and graphic novels–in giant tents on major city streets, to engage the populace. It’s a great idea, with a solid execution, and myself and The Toronto Comic Arts Festival are proud to be back for a third year sponsoring the Comics and Graphic Novels tent. We’ve got a full day of comics programming ready to go, including signings, panels, readings, and more.
Here’s a brief outline of this year’s programming, and I hope we see you out this weekend (oh and please feel free to repost):
11:00am-11:15am: All about Comics & Graphic Novels: A brief introduction.
Hosted by Christopher Butcher.
11:15am-12:00pm: Creating comics with Owlkids!
Featuring CTON (Clayton Hanmer) and Brian McLachlan.
Bonus: The first 200 kids 12 and under that attend this panel will receive a gift bag filled with great comics!
12:00-13:00: Creating Comics and Raising a Family: Finding Balance.
Featuring Jim Munroe (Sword of My Mouth), Tara Tallan (Galaxion), and Claudia Davilla (Luz: The Girl of Knowing).
13:00-14:00: No Rules, No Budget, All Fun! How and why you should make comics!
Featuring Georgia Webber (gangLion), Ruth Tait, and steflenk (The Haircut)
14:00-15:00: Graphic Memoirs – 3 New Works.
Featuring Tory Woolcott (Mirror Mind), Lesley Fairfield (Tyranny), and Adam Bourret (I’m Crazy)
15:00-16:00: Sequential Presents: Oh, Canada. Surveying The Landscape of Canadian Comics.
Featuring Bryan Munn, Salgood Sam, Brad Mackay, and Kevin Boyd.
16:00-17:00: Sequential Presents: Three New Comics set in Canada
Featuring readings by Willow Dawson (100 Mile House), Jeff Lemire (Essex County), and Evan Munday (Quarter-Life Crisis).
17:00-18:00: WEBCOMICS
Featuring Andy Belanger (Bottle of Awesome), Faith Erin Hicks (War At Ellsmere), Emily Horne (A Softer World), Ryan North (Dinosaur Comics), Kean Soo (Jellaby).
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For full programming descriptions and stuff, check out The Word On The Street website at http://www.thewordonthestreet.ca/wots/toronto/whatson/comics.
Thanks,
– Christopher
So I was counting up all of the events that The Beguiling either hosted or sponsored in 2008, in order to prepare our TCAF wrap-up. Just info I wanted to have at hand. The results were a little surprising; on average we put together a comics event every two weeks in 2008. The total number of participating comics creators we worked with topped 50, and was probably closer to 80 if we figure in The 2008 Doug Wright Awards. I’m fairly proud of this, for an “off year”, or what we thought would be a “quiet year” between TCAF’s, we probably had the busiest year for comics events since the store opened in 1987.
Anyway, if you want to see what went down in 2008, the list is below. Thanks again to all of the great artists, writers, authors, and organizations we were fortunate enough to work with last year… and this year. 2009 is already off to a pretty solid start, if I do say so!
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Author Events at The Beguiling, 2008
Cecil Castellucci (Janes In Love), The Beguiling, January 30th
Scott Hepburn (Star Wars: VECTOR), The Beguiling, January 30th
Kean Soo (Jellaby Volume 1), Keep Toronto Reading, February 5th
Kazu Kibuishi (Amulet Volume 1), Keep Toronto Reading, February 5th
In Association with Toronto Public Library
Kean Soo (Jellaby Volume 1), The Beguiling, February 6th
Kazu Kibuishi (Amulet Volume 1), The Beguiling, February 6th
Michel Rabagilati (Paul Goes Fishing), Lillian H. Smith Library, March 15th
R.G. Taylor (Growing Up With Comics), Industry Night, March 26th
Ron Kasman (Growing Up With Comics), Industry Night, March 26th
Mark Innes (Comic Eye), Industry Night, March 26th
Jillian Tamaki Art Show, The Beguiling, April 14th-May 30th
Free Comic Book Day For Kids! @ Palmerston Library, May 3rd
Featuring: Michael Cho (Max Finder Mysteries), Steven Manale (You Crack Me Up!), Brian McLachlan (Owl Magazine), and Jeremy Tankard (Grumpy Bird).
Presented in association with Toronto Public Library, Scholastic Books, and Owlkids. Image shown below, featuring Jeremy Tankard.
Free Comic Book Day at The Beguiling, May 3rd
Featuring J. Korim (Penciler, Atomic Robo FCBD Edition), Jessie Lam (Colorist, Neozoic), Tyrone McCarthy (Creator, Corduroy High), Alana McCarthy (Illustrator), Tara Talan (Galaxion), Willow Dawson (Violet Miranda), Nick Mandaag (Artist and self-publisher), Chip Zdarsky (Monster Cops).
Stuart Immonen, The Beguiling, May 28th
Luminato Arts Festival, June 8th
Featuring Spain Rodriguez (Che: A Graphic Biography), Dan Goldman (Shooting War), and Bernice Eisenstein (I Was A Child Of Holocaust Survivors).
Presented in association with Luminato.
Blake Bell (Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko), Lillian H. Smith Library, June 18th
Jason (Low Moon, Pocket Full of Rain), The Beguiling, June 10th
Ray Fawkes (Apocalipstix), Revival Bar, August 6th
Cameron Stewart (Apocalipstix), Revival Bar, August 6th
The Doug Wright Awards, August 10th
Official Bookseller
Russel Lissau (The Batman Strikes!), The Beguiling, August 29th
Matthew Forsythe (Ojingogo), The Beguiling, September 27th
Pat Shechuk (Pohadky), The Beguiling, September 27th
Marek Colek (Pohadky), The Beguiling, September 27th
The Word On The Street, Graphic Novel Tent Official Sponsor, September 28th
Featuring: D.J. Steinberg, Steve Manale, Brian McLachlan, Jim Zubkavich, Matt Moylan, Jeremy Tankard, Matt Hammill, Steve Murray, Mariko Tamaki, Ray Fawkes, Cameron Stewart, Jim Munroe, Ramon Perez, Ray Fenwick, Susan Hughes, Willow Dawson, Pat Shewchuck, Marek Colek, Matt Forsythe, Andy Bellanger, Joey Comeau, Emily Horne, Matt Forsythe, Ryan North, Kate Beaton, Ramon Perez.
Street Fighter Tribute Launch, The Beguiling, September 28th
Featuring nearly two-dozen different comics creators including Cameron Stewart, Bobby Chiu, Kei Acedera, Scott Hepburn, Alex Milne, Arthur Dela Cruz, Eric Kim, Alvin Lee, Omar Dogan, Joe Ng, Christine Choi, Eric Vedder, Joe Vriens, Matt Moylan, Jim Zubkavich, Saejin Oh, and many more.
Lynda Barry (What It Is!), IFOA/Writing The Unthinkable, October 23rd-26th
Chip Kidd (Bat-Manga), IFOA, October 25th-26th
Shaun Tan (The Arrival), The Beguiling, October 28th
Chris Onstad (Achewood, The Great Outdoor Fight), The Beguiling, November 4th
Igort (Baobab, Ignatz Line), The Beguiling, November 15th
David B. (Epileptic, Nocturnal Emissions), The Beguiling, November 15th
Maurice Vellekoop (Pin-Ups), Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, November 25th
Dave Lapp (Drop-In), The Beguiling, December 3rd
Kramers Ergot World Tour, The Beguiling, December 11th
Featuring Sammy Harkham, Seth, Shary Boyle, Souther Salazar, Kevin Huizenga, John Pham
Faith Erin Hicks (The War At Ellsmere), The Beguiling, December 17th
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So, yeah. Come to Toronto. We are doing awesome things here, we’d love for you to be a part of it.
– Chris
Peter Birkemoe and I were interviewed by Robin McConnel on the Inkstuds Radio Programme and Podcast. Today! I’m just listening to it now. We spend the first few minutes inadvertantly ripping on SPX. I am very sorry SPX, I hope we can still be friends. Man I talk quickly. And Peter and I sound more alike than I am comfortable with. But, 10 minutes in, I’m actually feeling pretty good about this… I don’t think I embarassed myself too badl…! Whoo!
You can find the interview at http://www.inkstuds.com, or http://inkstuds.com/?p=1812, or subscribe at iTunes. Thanks to Robin for the interview!
RELATED: Peggy Burns from Drawn & Quarterly let me know today that Radio Canada International (The CBC) just gave a glowing review to Seth’s new graphic novel George Sprott, and plugged TCAF and The Beguiling at the same time. Super awesome. Unfortunately the main host has a corny “Comics Aren’t Just For Kids!” thing going on, which is lame, but the reviewer and review are lovely… and will likely sell a LOT of books for us! And send people to TCAF!
You can listen to the clip online at http://www.rcinet.ca/rci/en/emissions/archives/archivesDetails_1952_15042009.shtml. Forward to about the 13:00 mark in the first part of the show.
Whoo!
Good day, productive. Need a nap though.
– Chris