Burma Chronicles, by Guy Delisle (Drawn & Quarterly)
Drop-in, by Dave Lapp (Conundrum Press)
Paul Goes Fishing, by Michel Rabagliati (Drawn & Quarterly)
Skim, by Jillian & Mariko Tamaki (Groundwood Books)
The 2009 finalists for Best Emerging Talent are:
Kate Beaton (History Comics)
Caitlin Black (Maids in the Mist)
Jesse Jacobs (Blue Winter, Shapes in the Snow)
Jason Kieffer (Kieffer #2)
Nick Maandag (Jack & Mandy)
The finalists for non-traditional works (Pigskin Peters’ Award) are:
Hall of Best Knowledge Ray Fenwick (Fantagraphics)
Ojingogo Matthew Forsythe (Drawn & Quarterly)
All We Ever Do is Talk About Wood Tom Horacek (Drawn & Quarterly)
Small Victories Jesse Jacobs (self-published)
Further, this year the DWAs will induct cartoonist Jimmie Frise (d. 1948), creator of the popular strip ‘Birdseye Center’, into The Giants of the North, the Hall of Fame for Canadian cartooning.
The 2009 Doug Wright Awards will be handed out on Saturday, May 9th at 7pm, in a ceremony hosted by Canadian filmmaker Don McKellar and held at the recently renovated (and gorgeous) Art Gallery of Ontario. Just after the first day of TCAF, I might add, so another reason to come.
The DWAs are decided by a rotating jury, and this year the jury includes; Bob Rae (the Member of Parliament for Toronto Centre and 21st premier of Ontario), Andrew Coyne (national editor for Maclean’s and political panelist on CBC Television’s The National), Martin Levin (books editor for The Globe and Mail and contributor to What I Meant to Say), cartoonist Joe Ollmann (author of the 2007 DWA Best Book This Will All End in Tears) and cartoonist Diana Tamblyn, the Ignatz-nominated author of several mini-comics including The Rosie Stories and There You Were.
…I still think it’s strange that the nominating committee, who wasn’t named (and Christ do I hate that) didn’t opt to put Scott Pilgrim 4 on there, but it’s not like all four of those best books aren’t amazing, amazing work.
“Yes, this may be an inconvenience for some retailers out there. But no, don’t hate on Diamond for this. They have a lot of other books from Icarus in stock, including Blue Eyes volume 1 and 3. But if you want to know why those two books are available, while Blue Eyes 2 will not be, well, here’s my best Viz impression:
“You’ll have to talk to Diamond about it.” – Simon Jones, Icarus Comics
Hey Simon, don’t worry. I’m sure that Diamond will delist volume 1 and 3 sooner or later.
– Chris
P.S.: Jesus, sorry man. Keep your chin up.
A Drifting Life
By Yoshihiro Tatsumi
856 Pages, Softcover, $29.99/$39.99
Published by Drawn & Quarterly
I have no doubt that much will be written about this book when it is officially released this spring. There’s a deceptive density to A Drifting Life, Tatsumi Yoshihiro’s arms’ length autobiography. It’s a story told very directly, switching between the first and third person to describe a young man’s passion and struggle, set against a larger picture of a nation looking to rebuild after World War II. The 800+ pages of the book read quickly, but the ideas expressed are potent and the history chronicled Important (and largely unkown); the effect of completing the book is disorienting. At one point I flipped to the back looking for footnotes to try and match my own understanding of the origins of Japanese comics to the incredible amount of information Tatsumi dolls out in a few key chapters (though the entire birth of the manga industry, and Tatsumi’s own Gekiga can be found in these pages) (about the footnotes: there are none). At its heart A Drifting Life is a memoir, filled with a density of details to give it a setting and place that will be immediately familiar to Japanese readers of the last generation but that will largely evade North American ones. This is not a bad thing, if anything the unfamiliarity of the time and place of this story will add to the experience of the lead drifting through his life, tied only to the comic that I hope you’ll be holding in your hands.
– Christopher Yoshihiro Tatsumi will be a Guest of Honour at the 2009 Toronto Comic Arts Festival, of which I am the Festival Director.
This Fall, my friend Zach Worton’s first professionally-published graphic novel will be making it’s way to better comic and book stores everywhere, courtesy of the fine folks at Drawn & Quarterly. It’s a 300+ page monster called The Klondike.
To the right, you can see a rejected cover illustration for the book, which I rather liked thanks to its use of negative space. Apparently the final cover will be even nicer, so good on Zach (and designer Tom Devlin).
If you want to follow more of Zach’s art, check out his blog at Confessions Of A Cross-Hatch Junky. If you like what’s there, I’m sure he could use a kind word or two as he tries to power through and finish the book this month.
Also of note: I pulled this from a post he made on February 10th, which is how far behind I am in my feed-reading. It’s strange watching the book industry collapse, the fading glow of the Obama inauguration, and the build-up, hype, and scramble-to-catch-up-afterwards of the New York Comic-Con, as they all unfold in real-time a month ago.
ITEM: My good friend Steven Murray did a history of Watchmen‘s journey to the silver screen, in comics format. It’s quite good (excerpt above). Check it out at The National Post.
ITEM: I am interviewed about Watchmen for an article which appeared in The National Post a few days ago. They left out the part where I said that I kind of hoped the Watchmen film killed superhero movies, just like the Watchmen graphic novel really ought to have been the last word from superhero comics. Maybe next time!
ITEM: I am also interviewed as part of Now Magazine’s cover story on The Watchmen. I’m in the sidebar (along with my boss) talking about adaptations of comics to films.
ITEM: I just wanted to say I got an advance copy of Emmanuel Guibert’s The Photographer in today, and it’s awesome. And huge! Like 9×12″! I had no idea it was going be so big! Way to go First Second! Yay! Comics!
Hey, kudos to the folks at DC Comics for doing right by the Final Crisis HC. Originally scheduled to contain just FC #1-7 for 25 bucks, it’s now also going to include the absolutely-essential Superman Beyond #1 & #2, as well as Final Crisis: Submit, all by Final Crisis author Grant Morrison, an extra 100+ pages for 30 bucks total. From Newsarama’s coverage of this weekend’s DC Nation panel at Megacon in Florida:
Dan Didio: “…One thing DC realized is that when we collect Final Crisis in hardcover, it will have to include all 7 issues, 2 issues of Superman Beyond, and one issue of Submit. Once the material is all together, and when you read it as a whole, it’s simple. Originally, I wasn’t fully supportive, but for the full and better reading experience, it’s a home run.”
I’m really glad that reason won out, and someone convinced Dan Didio to make a good decision.
From a retail perspective: I just quadruled the number of copies we’ll be ordering of this book. So, you know, good call DC Comics.
Still mostly on radio-silence here because The Beguiling and The Toronto Comic Arts Festival are taking up almost every single bit of my time at the moment, but I did want to let folks in Toronto know about all of the great stuff happening this week (and next) in the T-dot. I admit I’m bragging a little but here too, but only a little. Toronto is awesome. 🙂
‘Stripmalling’ Book Launch Tonight
Launch party for ‘Stripmalling’ Presented by ECW Press and This Is Not A Reading Series Monday, March 2nd, 7:30pm The Gladstone Hotel Ballroom, 1214 Queen St. West $5 Cover (Free with book purchase) http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=44003449363
Toronto author Jon Paul Fiorentino brought our good friend Evan Mundy on board to do extensive illustrations and comics sequences for his new novel, ‘Stripmalling!’ Then they made a short movie about how the book was made, “The Way of the Smock: The Making of Stripmalling”. Catch the trailer here:
This Monday, they’re launching the book, showing the film, doing a reading, an interview, and more. ‘Stripmalling’ looks great and Evan is a wonderful guy. See you at the Gladstone tonight!
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2. Seminar: Anime and Contemporary Japanese Society
Anime and Contemporary Japanese Society
Wednesday, March 4, 2009, 6pm-8:30pm (doors at 5:45)Ryerson University, 245 Church Street George Vari Engineering & Computing Centre, ENG 103
Admission FREE – Reservation recommended for guaranteed seatingRSVP at www.jftor.org/whatson/rsvp OR anime@jftor.org OR 416.966.1600 x600
Digital Value Lap Ryerson University, The Japan Foundation, and Consulate General of Japan in Toronto present two important lectures that will be of interest to Beguiling customers and friends, on Anime and Contemporary Japanese Society.
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POSTCRITICAL ANIME: OBSERVATIONS ON ITS ‘IDENTITY’ WITHIN CONTEMPORARY JAPAN
While anime is being watched on a global scale, there are significant differences in its contemporary reception. The gap between regular consumers and critical spectators, sometimes appearing in the form of Japanese audiences vs. foreign Japanologists, deserves special attention since it raises a number of questions, such as what sort of animated film is identified as ‘anime’; who relates anime to politics, history and society; what kind of meaning is at play in anime’s performative images, and to what extent one can read ‘Japanese society’, or even ‘culture’, out of anime. Comparing Kurosawa’s “Seven Samurai” (1954) and Gonzo’s “Samurai 7” (2004) as well as touching upon anime’s history, this lecture focuses on aesthetic and cultural identities ascribed to anime in modern Japan and their contemporary relevance.
Jaqueline Berndt is Associate Professor of Art and Media Studies, Yokohama National University. She specializes in aesthetics/art theory, anime, visual cultural and Japanese studies, aesthetics of comics, art in modern Japan and animation.
OTAKU CULTURE: PERSONALITY, SPACE & CITY OF ANIME FANS IN JAPAN
Optimism about an ever-progressing technological future ran out in the 1970’s. It was in the mid-1980’s that the term otaku was coined to signify a new personality that had emerged as a reaction to the loss of ’future’.The term evokes a stereotyped image of a geeky computer nerd, long past adolescence but still obsessed with games and anime. The presentation shall explore how this otaku personality became a geographical phenomenon in a district called Akihabara, together with its role in the development of Japanese anime.
Kaichiro Morikawa is Associate Professor of Contemporary Culture in the School of Global Japanese Studies at Meiji University. His research interests include design and architectural theory. Prof. Morikawa served as commissioner of the Japanese pavilion at the Venice Biennale 9th International Architecture Exhibition in 2004.
This sounds pretty amazing, and although this will be a VERY busy week, this will be one lecture series worth attending…!
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3. MARCH 6-12: FEAR(S) OF THE DARK – Film featuring Charles Burns
FEAR(S) OF THE DARK March 6th-12th at the Royal Cinema, 608 College Street Directors Blutch, Charles Burns, Marie Caillou, Pierre Di Sciullo, Lorenzo Mattotti, Richard McGuire; France, 2008
If you’ve been following The Comics Journal or Comic Art Magazine, you’re probably familiar with this striking new animated French film which features some of the most talented comics talents in the world. We’re really fortunate to get an extended screening of this in Toronto, and I hope everyone reading this gets a chance to check it out. Here’s the description:
“A wildly inventive and visually dazzling collection of fearful tales by six of the world’s most renowned comic and graphic artists – Blutch, Charles Burns, Marie Caillou, Pierre Di Sciullo, Lorenzo Mattotti, and Richard McGuire. From a besotted student whose girlfriend is weirdly ardent in her affections, to a Japanese schoolgirl menaced by a long-dead samurai, and a pack of hounds on a bloodthirsty rampage, FEAR(S) has a story strand to trouble every sleep – not to mention a stunning range of animation styles. Shot in shimmering black and white, the six intertwined tales create an unprecedented epic where phobias and nightmares come to life and reveal Fear at its most naked and intense.”
4. The (Edgar) Wright Stuff at the Bloor Cinema! Starts February 28th!
The lovely and talented Edgar Wright (SHAUN OF THE DEAD, HOT FUZZ) is in town to direct the big-screen adaptation of SCOTT PILGRIM, and we couldn’t be happier. Espescially because he’s going to be programming a full slate of his favourite films at The Bloor Cinema for the month of March! The first two screenings were this weekend, and they were great fun. The next few will no doubt be awesome as well… Check this out:
SUNDAY, MARCH 8
7:00 The Wanderers (Philip Kaufman, 1979)
9:30 The Warriors (Walter Hill, 1979)
SATURDAY, MARCH 14
9:45 Head (Bob Rafelson, 1968)
SUNDAY, MARCH 15
7:00 Dames (Ray Enright & Busby Berkeley, 1934)
9:00 Phantom of the Paradise (Brian De Palma, 1974)
SUNDAY, MARCH 22
5:00 Spaced Marathon (Edgar Wright, 1999-2001)
SUNDAY, APRIL 5
7:00 Kung Fu film TBA
9:30: Drunken Master 2 (Chia-Liang Liu, 1994)
SUNDAY, APRIL 12
7:00 The Brood (David Cronenberg, 1979)
9:00 Last Night (Don McKellar, 1998)
Single movie tickets are $8 for Bloor Cinema members and $11 for non-members. Double bills are $14 for members and $17 for non-members. (Non-member prices include a six-month Bloor membership.) A pass for all screenings is $90, or $75 if not including Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. Complete Bloor Cinema info and schedule at its website: http://www.bloorcinema.com/
