Toronto – Page 6 – Comics212.net

December 27, 2007December 27, 2007

SVETLANA CHMAKOVA vs. FAITH ERIN HICKS: THE PICTURES!

So due to the Christmas rush, I never really got to report back from The Beguiling’s signing with Svetlana Chmakova, creator of Dramacon, and Faith Erin Hicks, creator of Zombies Calling. It was held on Wednesday December 19th from 4pm-6pm, and it went great! The event marked a Toronto home-coming for Faith, and so friends from across her school and professional career came out to say hi (and apologise for pulling her pigtails in school), but a number of eager fans came by to get their complete runs of Dramacon signed as well. In this battle, I’d have to say that it was a double-K.O.! Both cartoonists are wonderful and incredibly talented, and it was a busy (and fun) day at the store.

And there are pictures!

The Sunday before the signing, Toronto was buried under a pretty impressive snowfall. In the window that’s an original painting from Jeff Lemire’s Tales From Essex County: Ghost Stories. I was a bit worried about the roads and the parking for our out-of-town guests, but everyone ended up arriving safe and sound.

The signing was really well attended, with maybe 40 people filing through over the course of 2 hours or so. Here Faith inscribes a copy of her book for a fan, and Svetlana checks out the newest volume of her work.

Svetlana signs and sketches for a young dude who loves The Dramacon.

So much talent sits at this table…

After the signing, we invited Svetlana and Faith out for a bite to eat and a meet-and-greet with some local Toronto creators and friends. Svetlana got Shanghaied on the way in and ended up doing a 30 minute interview for a documentary on comics airing on The Independent Film Channel next year, so we had to start drinking without her. Here we see one of Faith’s very tired friends, Faith Erin Hicks, Eric Kim (Love As A Foreign Language), and Beguiling employee Derek.

Svetlana finally made her entrance, still bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

Several martinis later the gang gets together for a group shot before heading home. In addition to our previous photos are Ray Fawkes (Apocalipstix, Mnemovore), Jim Zubkavich (Makeshift Miracle), Kayla from The Beguiling, and Svet’s friend K.

Thanks again to the totally-awesome Svetlana Chmakova and Faith Erin Hicks for doing a signing at the store! We had a great time, sold a ton of books, and made it very difficult for folks to do their Christmas shopping for a few hours, which is kind of hilarious. You can check out another report on the signing at Jason Truong’s Blog.

You can buy Dramacon Vol 1-3 and Zombies Calling from The Beguiling’s website, as well as better book and comic stores everywhere, and check out Faith’s Homepage and Svetlana’s Homepage, as well as the Slave Labor Graphics and Tokyopop websites.

– Christopher

December 11, 2007

Local #11

Local #11: Toronto
By Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly
Oni Press
2008

– Chris

December 3, 2007December 3, 2007

ZOMBIES CALLING / DRAMACON 3 SIGNING

Please Include In Your Listings

DRAMACON 3 / ZOMBIES CALLING SIGNING
Featuring Svetlana Chmakova and Faith Erin Hicks
Wednesday, December 19th, 4pm-6pm
The Beguiling, 601 Markham Street, @ Bathurst Subway
FREE

The Beguiling is proud to celebrate the release of two new graphic novels by Canadian authors Svetlana Chmakova and Faith Erin Hicks! These writer/artists have crafted two fantastic new works, and they’ll be signing books from 4pm-6pm at The Beguiling, Canada’s foremost authority on comics and graphic novels.

Svetlana Chmakova is the author of the series DRAMACON, a world-manga titled published by Los Angeles-based TOKYOPOP. December will see the release of the third and final volume in this series about young comics creators trying to break into the manga publishing industry, and DRAMACON VOLUME 3 promises to be an explosive send-off!

Faith Erin Hicks is a long-time creator of webcomics and self-published mini-comics. ZOMBIES CALLING is her first graphic novel, a book-length tale of hardcore zombie movie fanatics who become trapped in a real zombie attack. You’ve never seen a ‘spork’ do so much damage! ZOMBIES CALLING is published by San Jose-based publisher SLG, a veteran publisher of independent voices for over 20 years.

The Beguiling is Canada’s premier purveyor of comics, comix, and high-art funnybooks. 2007 marks the 20th Anniversary of The Beguiling and their commitment to excellent comics from Canad and abroad. Our 20th Anniversary has been marked by dozens of comics signings and events, including events featuring Scott McCloud, Bryan Talbot, Adrian Tomine, Rutu Modan, James Sturm, Bryan Lee O’Malley, Noel Tuazon, Jeff Lemire, Liam O’Donnel & Michael Cho, Chris Ware, Seth, Chester Brown, and Joe Matt, and The Beguiling was also the lead sponsor of the 2007 Toronto Comic Arts Festival.

For more information, visit http://www.beguiling.com.

– Christopher

November 20, 2007November 20, 2007

Takehiko Inoue in New York

Hey everybody! I just got back from the reason for my little sojourn to New York, a rare in-store appearance of manga-ka Takehiko Inoue, author of Vagabond, Slam Dunk, and Real. The event was part of the opening ceremonies for Kniokuniya Books’ new store location on 6th Avenue across from Bryant Park, and it featured an original mural from Inoue-sensei, and a swank little cocktail party followed. I… I actually got to interview Inoue-sensei and I found him to be a charming, thoughtful creator and it really was a once-in-a-lifetime interaction. The results of my interview will be making their way online in the next little while, but I did take a ton of photos of the event that I’m gonna share with you here… enjoy!

Kinokuniya’s new location is lovely, and packed to the gills with manga and anime. The location was decked out in Viz schwag and featured a rather nice Inoue boutique selection.

The centerpiece of the event was this giant mural that greets customers at the top of the escalator. According to reps, each wall took about 3 hours to get to the stage you see them at, and the lower-right side of the standing figure (and the characters eyes) would be finished during the event, in front of an audience.

Fewer attendees picked up on this much smaller painting in the stairwell… but it’s pretty darned great.

Before the event got underway, Inoue-sensei gave a number of interviews which should be making their way onto the internet momentarily. From l to r, Takehiko Inoue and Viz Editor and translator Andy Nakatani.

The show got underway, with Inoue-sensei mixing up his paint and getting ready to finish his mural.

I can think of fewer things more terrifying than trying to paint a mural to be seen by thousands, and doing it while 30 people are constantly photographing you.

Following the completion of the mural, representatives from Viz addressed the audience, announcing that in addition to the launch of Inoue’s Slam Dunk in the Shonen Jump line, Viz will be releasing Inoue’s wheelchair-basketball saga REAL this summer, and will be reformatting Vagabond this fall into an omnibus edition that will collect 3 standard-sized volumes in each new volume, as well as releasing both of Inoue-sensei’s artbooks in English language editions. Inoue then addressed the audience directly thanking them for coming, and enjoying his work. Then we toasted! Bubbly for everyone.

Audience members included indie cartoonist and SVA Professor Tom Hart, and Sva Prof and soon-to-be-Dad Matt Madden.

Towards the end of the evening super-fabulous designer Chip Kidd arrived and the two artistic gurus conversed and bonded over the galley Kidd brought with him of his new book for Pantheon, a collection of Adam West-inspired 1960s Batman manga! (It looks absolutely AWESOME, by the way.)

Then, like all good things, it came to an end and it was time to go. I snapped a few photos of the finished murals on the way out.

Congratulations to Kinokuniya on a fabulous new store, and to Viz throwing a wonderful bash celebrating the work and career of Inoue-sensei, a wonderful creator. I’m looking forward to even more-stuffed bookshelves in the coming months.

Viz’s full press release for the event and the Takehiko Inoue announcements is after the cut:

Continue reading “Takehiko Inoue in New York”

November 5, 2007

Comics Event: The Word On The Street, September 30th

Thanks to my friend, comics creator Eric Kim, I’ve just been provided with some photos of this fall’s The Word On The Street, the outdoor literary festival in downtown Toronto that attracts hundreds of thousands of attendees. This year was particularly notable for having a full day’s compliment of comics and graphic novel programming. I’d like to thank Eric Kim for providing us with some photographic evidence of the event, and I encourage you to all check out his website at http://www.inkskratch.com/!

I was the co-host of the graphic novel programming for the day.

Scott Chantler (Northwest Passage), Zach Worton, and Jeff Lemire (Essex County) on the Great Canadian Graphic Novels panel.

The audience sits with rapt attention.

Following the panel, Scott Chantler signs copies of Northwest Passage for fans.

The lovely ladies of the graphic novel sales table.

Cartoonists getting the most out of the green room. It’s (from l to r) Jim Zubkavich (Makeshift Miracle), Derek Haliday (who really oughtta have been working, I think!), Tyrone McCarthy (Courduroy High), Ryan North (Dinosaur Comics), and Kean Soo (Jellaby).

Look who the boys ran into in the green room! It’s Canadian Environmental Legend David Suzuki, and a flustered Eric Kim!

Meanwhile, back at the street festival the Scholastic booth was busy the whole day long…

On stage for the “promoting yourself using the internet” panel it’s Ryan North, Nadine Lessio (designer of comics212.net amongst other spots), John Martz (Drawn.ca), and Jim Zubkavich. Everyone looks a little incredulous at something Ryan North is saying.

Chip Zdarsky and Jim Zubkavich have a chat after a very long day.

The audience was pretty impressive the whole-day through, and the feedback was generally very positive. Here’s hoping to many more successful WOTS events!

– Christopher
(All photos Copyright Eric Kim, except for the one with him in it, I’m not sure who took that one.)

October 29, 2007October 30, 2007

Comics Industry Night This Wednesday: Jeff Lemire’s GHOST STORIES

This Wednesday marks the return of Comics Industry Night at The Victory Cafe, just down the street from The Beguiling at 585 Markham Street here in Toronto. It’s a chance for the city’s burgeoning comics creative community to get together and socialise, maybe even network a little. It’s usually a fun time.
We also like to spotlight the work of a local creator during these events, and for All Hallows’ Eve we couldn’t think of a more appropriately titled book than Jeff Lemire’s GHOST STORIES, the second in his Essex County trilogy, which has been very well-received. Jeff is going to be doing a short reading from the third book in the series, giving all involved just enough time to duck in for a drink, a great comic, and a little schmoozing before hitting the town for the other spooky goings’ on.

Hope we’ll see you there!

– Christopher
(P.S.: It’s on the second floor.)

Edit to fix the formatting problem…

September 28, 2007September 28, 2007

Chester Brown’s New Zombie Comic

So what are you doing on Sunday? If you’re in Toronto and you just said anything other than “I’m going to Word on the Street to see Chester Brown read from his new comic!” shame on you.

Yes, that’s right, Chester Brown, author of Ed The Happy Clown, The Playboy, and Louis Riel: A Comic Strip Biography will be previewing brand new comics work, and the subject is? ZOMBIES! Commissioned as part of the City of Toronto’s LIVE WITH CULTURE campaign, Chester has completed 6 of a proposed 12 short comics about a zombie invasion in the city of Toronto… and how it affects our arts scene! Of course, being Chester Brown, expect a pretty substantial tweak on the typical zombie book (Romance! Interpretive dance! Final Fantasy!) and Chester’s reading will make it more interesting still.

In a panel entitled Chester Brown in Conversation, Chester will be reading from his new comic strips on Sunday, September 30th at 2pm in the Comics and Graphic Novels tent.

This is just one of the 10+ pieces of comics programming going on this weekend at Word On The Street, a completely free literary festival in Toronto (as well as Calgary, Kitchener, and Vancouver). For more information, visit http://www.thewordonthestreet.ca/toronto/home.asp for more information on everything going down this weekend.

EDIT: I just remembered that I gave a great big interview on this weekend’s comics and graphic novels programming to Chris Randle at Eye Weekly, and lo and behold it’s online. If you head over to http://www.eyeweekly.com/ you can see me putting on my “I Love Comics” hat and talking about all of the good stuff going down this weekend. Hurray for good press.
– Christopher
(Art by Chester Brown, Copyright Chester Brown 2007, probably.)

September 21, 2007September 21, 2007

Comics & Graphic Novels @ The Word On The Street

The Word On The Street is a FREE literary festival held on September 30th from 11am-6pm in five cities across Canada*. I’m really happy to announce that Toronto’s Word On The Street event (held on Queen’s Park Circle) will feature an extensive comics and graphic novels presence in The Comics and Graphic Novels Tent, presented in partnership with The Toronto Comic Arts Festival. Featuring a full day of author readings, book presentations, and panels on comics creation and publishing, this is going to be a pretty outstanding part of an already massive event. I’m also very proud to say that I’ll be co-hosting in the tent alongside my good friend Mark Askwith, the producer of SPACE television and an excellent comics writer in his own right.

The line-up of panels and participating creators has been announced, and you can find an overview of the programming at the website. Participating creators include Chester Brown, Scott Chantler, Willow Dawson, Ray Fawkes, Stuart Immonen, Karl Kerschl, Jeff Lemire, Nadine Lessio, Brad Mackay, John Martz, Kagan McLeod, Jim Munroe, Ryan North, Ty Templeton, Noel Tuazon, Zack Worton, Chip Zdarsky, Jim Zubkavich, and many more in a host of panels. The Beguiling will also be selling books from all of the attending authors at the venue.

Also! The IdeaSpace Young Adult Marquee will feature graphic novel programming as well! Make sure to check out Eric Kim, and Svetlana Chmakova on the panel MANGA! MANGA! MANGA! THE HOWS AND WHYS OF THESE HOT NEW COMICS! at 12:30pm, and COMICS: DOIN’ IT YOUR WAY with Tyrone McCarthy and Arthur Dela Cruz at 4:30pm.

The Word On The Street is a huge literary event in Toronto which draws more people in than the San Diego Comic Con. It was a huge, huge thrill to be a part of putting together the comics and graphic novel programming for this year’s event, as I think it will continue the trend of putting comics and graphic novels out into the public eye in a way that can’t be ignored. Getting our own major venue to do so–alongside the integration of comics and graphic novels into other venues–is spectacular, and the fulfillment of a personal dream of mine. I remember going to WOTS for the first time nearly a decade ago, and coming home energized about the potential for comics in that sort of environment. I even wrote a column about it at the time that might be around online somewhere… I’m glad to see that potential becoming a reality, seeing that all of the crazy ideas I had as a 20 year old weren’t so crazy, and in fact, would be hotly in demand as I turned 30.

I sincerely hope that any of you reading this will come out for this (completely free!) event, and bring friends… The better it does, the better the next event will be, and so on.

Oh, and if you wanna spread the word, that’d be great too 😉

– Christopher

August 17, 2007

More TCAF Press Coverage

Hey there guys, I’m ridiculously busy at the moment but I wanted to take a second and recognize all the great media that TCAF got this year. Thanks espescially go to Nathalie for setting a lot of it up. 🙂

There’s a massive, awesome preview of the entire Festival over at Torontoist, http://torontoist.com/2007/08/get_tcaffeinate.php. It features profiles of all kinds of great stuff about the festival, and is remarkably in depth (and long!). More coverage promise to appear over the weekend.

Meanwhile, BlogTo.com printed a really nice little article on TCAF as well. You can click here to read it. (I’ll try and include full-links when I can, but sometimes they’re too long and break the tables.)

Toronto scene-mag MONDO also did a huge overview of the festival, which includes interviews with Joey Comeau, Danielle Corsetto, Jeff Lemire, Jim Zubkavich, and many more. You can find their profile at http://mondomagazine.net/comics-arc-tcaf.html.

They also did a comics-format interview with Bryan Lee O’Malley, which is to say the interview is, itself, a comic. You can see that at http://mondomagazine.net/comics-c-i-mal.html.

Queer freebie magazine XTRA also did a huge feature article on TCAF, and me, and cartoonists Jose Villarrubia and Steve MacIsaac. I say lots of inflamitory things in it, which might even be good for web-fodder. You can check it out at http://www.xtra.ca/public/viewstory.aspx?AFF_TYPE=3&STORY_ID=3451&PUB_TEMPLATE_ID=3.

Speaking of me, Tom Spurgeon interviewed me over at The Comics Reporter this week. I think it turned out pretty well? Although I’ve received litterally no e-mail on it. Maybe I edited out all the good parts after all? Anyway, if you like, you can read it here. (Sorry, it’s a really long link).

Elsewhere in Toronto, Toronto Life magazine included TCAF in it’s city guide for events this weekend at http://www.torontolife.com/guide/arts-and-entertainment/diversions/toronto-comic-arts-festival/, and The Globe and Mail mentioned it in their Toronto “7” feature today, and you can click here to read it. (Another long link.)

In addition there’s been website links, blurbs, and advertisements across countless news websites and personal creator sites. Thanks to everyone there who said nice things or sent people our way.

So…! Coverage in three of the four dailies, all of the free weeklies, across the net and lots of targeted stuff. I think we’ve done everything we can to get people out to the event this weekend short of physically dragging them. I’m not ruling out physically dragging people to the event.

Hope we can see you there!

– Christopher

August 16, 2007

TCAF: Paul Pope is good lookin’

What’s going on today? Paul Pope (vis a vis his appearance at this weekend’s Toronto Comic Arts Festival) is on the cover of Toronto’s Eye Weekly this week, generating some lovely coverage for the event. In a the feature interview by Chris Randle, Pope starts off with “A brush is like a guitar,” so you know what you’re getting.

This week’s Eye also features an interview with Jim Munroe, author of the hot-off-the-presses new graphic novel THEREFORE, REPENT!, a lovely little story about what happens to the rest of us, after “The Rapture.” Jim dropped by the store last night to give me one of the very first copies, and when I finally got home at around 2 I read it cover to cover, really enjoying his and artist Salgood Sam’s venture into the post-apocaylpse. The Book Launch for THEREFORE, REPENT is tonight, sharing the spotlight with Toronto illustrator Claudia Davila’s launch for her new comic spOILed. Despite everything I’m probably gonna be there, and you should too.

Oh, and finally, if you head over to http://www.eyeweekly.com/contests/comicarts/index.phpÂ you can still enter to win a TCAF prize pack that includes signed posters by Darwyn Cooke, Marc Bell, and James Jean, and the 10 different comics and graphic novels nominated for Doug Wright Awards for Canadian Cartooning this year. In fact, you can enter until Monday at 9am, even after TCAF is over…!

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Meanwhile, over at The Competition (or Now Magazine as it is known around town), Dinosaur Comics creator Ryan North is interviewed about his personal style and the T-Shirts he produces based on his comic. A little mention for TCAF but no link to the website, sadly.

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Finally, I’m interviewed over at The Toronto Star in a nice littleÂ write-up on TCAF and author Darwyn Cooke. Darwyn Cooke is Darwyn Cooke 24 hours a day, never forget that.

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I’m going to talk about some of the great online coverage we’ve been getting in my next post…

– Christopher