Toronto – Page 5 – Comics212.net

March 10, 2008March 11, 2008

All About Michel Rabagliati – In Toronto This Weekend

Paul Goes Fishing Cover The Toronto event with Michel Rabagliati is coming up this weekend (Saturday March 15th at 5pm at the Lillian H. Smith Library). Rabagliati is the author of the ‘Paul’ series of graphic novels, the newest of which is Paul Goes Fishing published by Drawn + Quarterly (and it’s much more interesting than it sounds). In a lovely bit of confluence (which is to say the hard work of D+Q’s publicity director Jamie Quail) there are a couple of good articles on Rabagliati that have shown up in the past couple of days.

First up, Newsarama has an interview with Rabagliati, mostly just introducing the readership to the work of Rabagliati, although the discussion does bring to mind the recent publishing industry scandal about fake memoir in an interesting way:

NRAMA: When you started creating comics, what made you create a fictional alter-ego, Paul, through which to tell your stories rather than using real names?

MR: I did it to keep a certain distance. And Paul isnâ€™t 100% autobiographical. The books are works of â€œauto-fictionâ€ to various degrees. Thereâ€™s plenty of fiction in them, but itâ€™s fiction that draws on everyday life and isnâ€™t necessarily visible to the reader. And so the reader thinks everything is true, when in fact what it is, is plausible.

Next up, The Toronto Star’s Raju Mudhar offers up an interview and profile of Rabagliati which touches on the artist’s move from illustration and graphic design to being a full-time graphic novelist.

“I kind of forgot about comics for about 25 years … I starting doing comics around when I turned 40 and stopped doing graphic design and illustration work. I’m that kind of guy and I do these kinds of moves in my life and they’re pretty hazardous sometimes. Now it’s paying off a little,” he says. “I’m 47 years old, I’m not supposed to do that. I’m supposed to have RRSPs at the bank, because I have a family and a house, it’s pretty perilous. It’s a career change you don’t usually do at that age.” – Michel Rabagliati

Edit: Thanks to Torontoist.com for their little primer on Michel and their plug for the event this weekend! Â

Closer to home, we sent out the official press release for the event and I’ve included behind the cut below.

See you at the event this weekend!

– Chris
Continue reading “All About Michel Rabagliati – In Toronto This Weekend”

March 7, 2008March 7, 2008

Quick Links: Canadiana

+ Michael Cho just got out of the hospital after a fairly serious bout of illness. Cho is known around town for some great comics, but is probably more familiar to my international readers for his inks on this week’s New Frontier Special. Speedy recovery sir! There are comics to draw.

+ Doug Wright has been in the comics news as of late. First up, Drawn + Quarterly have been publishing previews (one, two) of their forthcoming biography of this Canadian cartoonist little known outside of Canada. Then, just this week a fellow named John Adcock found a number of his comics on microfilm, and decided to post them to his blog.

+ Sequential is a Canadian comics news and linkblog that, for whatever reason, I hadn’t yet added to my blogroll. I’ve rectified that now, go visit today.

Toronto Comics Events Coming Up:

March 15th: Michel Rabagliati in Toronto, http://www.beguiling.com/2008/03/reminder-michel-rabagliati-in-toronto.html

March 26th: Skim Book Launch, with Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki, http://pagesbooks.ca/events.php?type=event&id=165

April 3rd: Art Spiegelman in Toronto, http://www.uofttix.ca/view.php?id=326

Finally, here’s a little bit ‘a Stompin’ Tom Connors, courtesy of Kate Beaton’s Awesome Canadian History Comics.

Stompin' Tom Connors, by Kate Beaton

– Christopher

February 18, 2008February 22, 2008

ANNOUNCE: “The Political Graphic Novel” in Toronto

TORONTO, (Feb. 12, 2008) – Luminato, Toronto’s Festival of Arts & Creativity, today unveiled its dynamic literary program for the 2008 Festival. Luminato’s Curator of Literary Programming, Devyani Saltzman, announced the program this afternoon at the Gladstone Hotel in downtown Toronto.

Chris Lorway, Luminato’s Director of Programming, is enthusiastic about the festival’s literary component. “For Luminato 2008, we decided to make stronger connections between our literary program and the overall festival. I am so pleased that we were able to find someone like Devyani Saltzman to curate this program for us. She’s a great addition to our team.”

Devyani Saltzman is pleased to see her curatorial vision becoming a reality. “It’s a pleasure to bring both Canadian and international authors together around literary and political themes in addition to showcasing new works. I find the richest discussions occur because of unexpected collaborations.”

The 2008 line-up includes perspectives on South Asia, a focus on war and politics through illustration, a celebration of a renowned literary master, the launch of the third instalment of a city-centric anthology, as well as a festival of short stories.

The Political Graphic Novel
Sunday, June 8, 7:00 p.m.
The Al Green Theatre (at the Miles Nadal JCC)
750 Spadina Avenue (Spadina at Bloor)

From the war in Iraq to the life of revolutionary icon ChÃ© Guevera, the medium of graphic novels becomes political in this stimulating evening of literature, illustration and discussion.

With award-winning Canadian author and illustrator Bernice Eisenstein (I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors), Spain Rodriguez (Che: A Graphic Biography) and the Canadian premiere of Anthony LappÃ© and Dan Goldmanâ€™s Shooting War, which explores the war in Iraq and the influence of alternative news media. The Village Voice describes Shooting War as a â€œlight-handed but searing political satire Shooting Warâ€¦taking the Sunday comic strip places it could never have gone before.â€

The evening will be moderated by Peter Birkemoe, owner of Torontoâ€™s top graphic novel and comics bookstore, The Beguiling.

For more information on the various Luminato Events, please visit http://www.luminato.com/index.php.

Note: Unfortunately Miriam Katin will not be attending this event. My apologies for any confusion, it looks like I was using an earlier version of the press release.

– Christopher

February 14, 2008February 14, 2008

It’s always Ladies Night at the Comic Book Store

Being a gay dude who is at least nominally interested in the bears (not the sports team) I’m pretty-much spoiled for choice when it comes to eye-candy in the comic book store: chubby, hairy, muscley guys are the majority demographic. Granted: I am married now and so I don’t have those thoughts anymore. But what about the poor, single, (ostensibly straight) nerds at the comic shop, where are they supposed to find love? Why, at Comic Book Singles Night!

This past Friday, February 8th, Brave New World Comics in Newhall, California held their first ever Singles Night, encouraging ladies and gents to head to the shop and maybe meet the nerd of their dreams. As you might expect, just dumping a bunch of folks that would describe themselves as ‘socially awkward’ into a room is not, necessarily, the best idea for a good time. It’s to the credit of Brave New World owners Atom! and Portlyn Freeman that things went so smoothly, as they shored up the event with live bands, food, and booze. To be honest, I think the idea of getting a bunch of nerds drunk is kind of amazing, but probably for different reasons than the organizers intended… still, by all accounts the evening was a huge success.

I got a chance to talk to Atom! Freeman (his real name) about the event.

“My goal with most in-store events is to break-even, get an opportunity to say the storeâ€™s name in public and see new faces,” said Atom! “[For Comic Book Singles Night] we doubled our break-even number … our event got mentioned by 5 local radio stations including an interview on a highly rated morning program and we got a half-page write-up on the front page of the local newspaper!

“Business-wise it exceeded all of my expectations.”

And how about romantically? Anyone hook up at the event? “I hope so,” said Atom! “Because the point of this was to find our friends someone they could enjoy being with. Turns out, more then just our friends responded. I know a lot of numbers were exchanged.”

According to Atom! more than 100 singles showed up to the event, with a 60/40 gender split weighed towards the guys… a hell of a lot better than I, for one, was expecting. Personally I’d worry about setting up too many of my existing customers with each other… what if they decided that they only needed one copy of a given comic that they could share? I know it’s blasphemy, but apparently when two comics nerds get married they actually start mixing their respective comics collections! Heresy! Apparently the key to events like this is involving the larger community and bringing new faces into the comic book store to pair off with your shoppers. Of course, I think the fact that Atom! referred to his customers as his friends says a lot about the very genuine community-driven motivation behind the event, but he also figured out the key to getting a whole bunch of potential customers to see all that Brave New World had to offer: Local Bands.

“[My biggest surprise was] what a draw local live bands are,” said Atom! “At one point in the evening, just looking over the crowd I guesstimated that it was 50% fans of the band who just came for the music. While we didnâ€™t do huge sales numbers that night, the weekend was huge because for the next couple days, people came back to buy things they had seen that night.

“Iâ€™m now looking into what it will take to have a live music night every 6 weeks.”

What struck me most about this event, and what made me want to write about Comic Book Singles Night in the first place, is that the language used to describe the event in the press was very open-ended regarding gender and sexuality. Brave New World made it pretty clear that whether you were a guy or a girl looking for a guy or a girl, you’d be welcome to come and try your luck at the comic book store.

“This was one of the first factors that we felt needed resolution before we went ahead with the event,” said Atom! “Our intention was never to exclude anybody. The only way that we even made it gender specific was the raffle and even that was â€œput your ticket in this box if you want to be paired with a boy, in this box if you want to be paired with a girl.”

“I see a major part of my job as a retailer is creating a community. To create a place where people with similar interests can gather and interact. I donâ€™t see gender or orientation as major components in that job. Our store is located in a Victorian-styled strip mall with a bridal shop, hair salon, yoga studio, and antiques boutique. If we wanted to focus on the single white straight male comics fan, we could be much more profitable in the industrial center with a roll-up door that only went up 4 times a week. Our goal is to reach as many people as possible and expose them to art, culture, and entertainment that they wouldnâ€™t normally run across.”

In the past I know that Eisner Award-winning comic shop Zeus Comics in Dallas, Texas has done social ‘mixers’ for their clientele, including a specifically queer-themed mixer in late 2005. My experience with the comics industry is that it’s no more or less homophobic than the general public (and those that disagree should hang out on X-Box Live some time to see what fandom-oriented homophobes really sound like…), but that doesn’t change the fact that the comic store is generally a very heteronormative environment. Superhero comics in particular (the bread and butter of most comics shops) are notorious for this. Check out my Afraid Of Cock post for more. Many queer customers still don’t feel safe being ‘out’, so any actions that are taken to really include and engage gay comics fans I feel are worth noting. Would BNW ever sponsor a Gay Singles Night? “I would need more convincing that there would be a need for a more queer specific event,” says Atom! “But, a lot of our single queer customers and friends were here and some met each other for the first time, so who knows?”

That leads into the most pressing question of all, will there be more Singles Nights for the friends of Brave New World? “Without question… Weâ€™ll probably try it again in 6 months to see if it still draws and then quarterly and so on. [It was] easily one of the best events we’ve ever had.”

– Christopher Butcher
Images stolen from: http://www.keef.net/, http://www.comics.org/, http://thatsmyskull.blogspot.com/, and http://www.scottsaavedra.com.

February 12, 2008

Photo Report: Kazu Kibuishi and Kean Soo in Toronto Feb 5-6 2008

Hey! It’s Kazu Kibuishi and Kean Soo! Last week’s events as part of Keep Toronto Reading and at The Beguiling went quite well, with a solid turnout for the library event and some hardcore fans braving a blizzard to drop by the store the next day. I’d like to thank Kazu and Kean for participating, and Scholastic and The Toronto Public Library for all of their help.

The fellas were in town to celebrate the launches of their new all ages graphic novel. Kazu Kibuishi’s Amulet Volume 1, published by Scholastic, and Kean Soo’s Jellaby Volume 1, published by Hyperion Books, sold exceptionally well at the event and made lots of kids (and adults) very happy.

On Tuesday March 6th, Kazu and Kean participated in Graphically Speaking, the graphic novel program that’s part of Toronto’s month-long literacy initiative. Both creators gave short presentations of their work (despite some technical errors that had our digital projections looking considerably pinker than normal… However both pros rose to the challenge. Following the presentation I did a bit of a moderated Q&A with the guys on stage as they talked about their work.

Kazu lays it all out for the audience. Everything from working methods to schedules to inspiration! It’s hard to judge how well something is going when you’re on stage, but I was told by several audience members that it was a great, in-depth discussion. Hurrah!

Following the interview, Kazu and Kean signed and sketched for the assembled masses.

Look! They’re shy! Thanks to Naseem Hrab for all of the great photos from this event. 😀

The next day the city got about 12 inches of constantly falling and blowing snow, so while attendance was a little lighter than I would have personally liked, it was great seeing the youngsters of all ages drop by the store to get books signed. In this picture, we can see The Beguiling’s Peter Birkemoe, Naseem Hrab, Kean Soo, and Kazu Kibuishi.

A young fan came just for the Jellaby.

Kean draws the Jellaby!

Kazu sketches for a fan. Daisy Kutter!

We actually still had FLIGHT 2 posters in stock from Kazu’s last trip to Toronto in 2005, so why not break them out too? 😀

Thanks again to Kazu and Kean for a fantastic time!

– Christopher

February 12, 2008

Michel Rabagliati in Toronto, March 15th

In Conversation with Michel Rabagliati
Saturday, March 15th at 5pm
Lillian H. Smith Library, 239 College St., Toronto
(College just east of Spadina)
FREE

The Beguiling is happy to announce that Michel Rabagliati, author of the Paul series of graphic novels including the newly-released Paul Goes Fishing will be participating in a moderated Q&A and book signing session on Saturday, March 5th at 5pm, at The Lillian H. Smith Library in Toronto.

Rabagliati will be interviewed on stage by The Beguiling’s Peter Birkemoe, on his life and art as well as his new graphic novel. Admission to the event is completely free. Sponsored by The Beguiling, Canada’s premier retailer of comics and graphic novels, and Drawn & Quarterly Books.

– Chris

February 5, 2008February 5, 2008

Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Shojo Beat Cover

In a confluence of fortuitous circumstances, Mal is doing the cover to the March issue of Shojo Beat, which is dropping in (I think) a few weeks. Lovely little cover. Head over to Bryan Lee O’Malley’s livejournal to find out just what other surprises await you in The Art Issue.

In other my-friends-are-cool news, our event with Kean and Kazu got picked up at BlogTO and even made it onto the front cover of The Toronto Star, in an article on young readers graphic novels!

Good day.

– Chris

February 4, 2008

In Toronto Wednesday? Come meet Kean and Kazu

Kazu Kibuishi & Kean Soo Signing
Wednesday, February 6th, 5pm-7pm
The Beguiling, 601 Markham Street
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
416-533-9168 – http://www.beguiling.com
FREE

Just in case you can’t make it out to the wilds of North York and would like a chance to get your graphic novels signed by these fantastic creators, The Beguiling will be holding a signing with Kazu & Kean the day after the TPL event, from 5pm to 7pm at the store. Now, we sincerely suggest that if you want to see some great a/v presentationing and see the creators interviewed, then you really ought to go to the event at the North York Public Library. But we are happy to welcome both creators to the store as well, and hope it will be as warm (and well-attended) a welcome as our last in-store signing.

For more on the event at North York Library as part of Keep Toronto Reading, check out:

The Beguiling post on the event:
http://www.beguiling.com/2008/01/reminder-kazu-kibuishi-kean-soo-in.html
Join the Keep Toronto Reading group on Facebook!
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=19746872808
RSVP to the event on the Kazu & Kean Facebook Page!
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=8322672055

—

Regular posting soon! Promise!

– Chris

January 11, 2008March 5, 2008

Japan 2007: Kyoto International Manga Museum

One of the most interesting stops on my trip was on the relatively recently opened Kyoto International Manga Museum, located in Kyoto. I almost missed visiting the museum on my trip, but I’m very glad I attended; it’s an essential stop for any manga afficionado or comics commentator visiting Japan. It is at once, a thriving commercial attraction, valuable historical record, and prime exhibition space. Consisting of thousands of manga (free to read with a paid admission), numerous permanent and rotating gallery exhibits, and all housed in a gorgeous converted elementary school in downtown Kyoto, the museum is an absolute wonder and tremendously inspirational.

In preparing this particular entry, I realised that I hadn’t taken as many interior pictures of the museum due to copyright law and out of respect for the proprietors of the museum, and so I’ve had to fill in some of the gaps with pictures from the Museum website at http://www.kyotomm.com/international/english/. Copyright information for all photos that aren’t mine is listed underneath each photo.

Continue reading “Japan 2007: Kyoto International Manga Museum”

January 8, 2008January 8, 2008

ANNOUNCE: Kazu Kibuishi & Kean Soo in Toronto

(Please include in your listings.)

GRAPHICALLY SPEAKING 2008, with Kazu Kibuishi & Kean Soo
Tuesday February 5th @ 6:30pm
North York Central Library, Concourse Level
@ North York Subway Station
FREE

Presented in association with THE BEGUILING and Scholastic Canada

The two co-editors of the fantastic FLIGHT Anthologies, Kazu Kibuishi and Kean Soo will be in town to debut their brand new graphic novels AMULET and JELLABY. This event is part of the Toronto Public Library’s massive Keep Toronto Reading campaign, which is a big deal in the city of Toronto (February is usually declared “Keep Toronto Reading” Month by the mayor). Both Kean and Kazu will be interviewed on stage by … me? “The Beguiling’s Christopher Butcher,” in the vein of last year’s event with Bryan Lee O’Malley. One assumes that signing and sketching will follow the event…

AMULET VOLUME 1: In the tradition of action adventure series like BONE and The Chronicles of Narnia comes AMULET, by Kazu Kibuishi and published by Scholastic Books. I’ve read this one and really enjoyed it, I particularly think it’s target audience is going to love it. It feels like another application of “Video game storytelling” which is either a pejorative, compliment, or accurate descriptor depending on who’s using the term. I also wonder if older readers are going to ‘get it’, because despite its traditional fantasy quest narrative roots, it’s doing a number of very different things with the form. At any rate, I’ve got a whole whack of questions for Kazu already…

JELLABY VOLUME 1: When Portia hears strange noises in the woods behind her house, the last thing she expects to find is a giant purple dragon named Jellaby! Published by Hyperion books, Jellaby is by my buddy Kean and Tuesday the 5th is the OFFICIAL RELEASE DATE FOR THE BOOK! You know what that means: Party! At any rate, I’ve read the advance of this first volume and enjoyed it, and it’s received some pretty outstanding reviews so far. I think the kids are really gonna dig it.

This is going to be a very fun event which will actually be of interest to all-ages, from younger readers captivated by these new graphic novels right through to adults who loved the FLIGHT anthologies. We’re also really proud to be teaming up with The Toronto Public Library again this year, bringing graphic novels to the masses and the masses into our public library system. If you’re in Toronto, we hope you won’t miss this event. We may even be able to secure punch and pie for you.

– Christopher