Diana Tamblyn's Comics and Illustration Blog

The Best Comics of 2011 Project

2012-01-07T11:11:00.004-05:00

Comics critic Alan David Doane found himself agreeing with a recent blog post by writer Tony Isabella on "Best of" anthologies and comic collections - specifically the "Best American Comics" anthologies edited by Jessica Abel and Matt Madden.

Of the recent "The Best American Comics 2011", Isabella writes:

"The book’s “Notable Comics” listings re-enforced my view that this yearly collection is hopelessly biased against traditional comics storytelling and values. Apparently, not one super-hero story or one
story from Dark Horse, Image, IDW, Marvel, Boom!, or any other publisher of comics entertainment was good enough to appear..."

Now to be fair, it's been stated in the past that DC and Marvel has refused to participate in the collection. I specifically remember, they wanted to include Paul Pope's Batman Year 100.

The Real Best of 2011 Collection?
This got Alan to thinking - wouldn't it be great to have a comprehensive "Best of" collection that really did comprise the best of all comics published in 2011? " It would include Marvel, DC and other big publisher's works (if they were deserving of course), but also international work, and small press work (which I know Abel and Madden cover, but they only review work that is sent to them).

He proposed putting together such a list on twitter - and I thought it was a great idea. So, like the fool I am - I tossed my hat into the ring to participate.

** So - watch this space this month for the link for the full list of what Alan and I would put together should we be the co-editors of a "Best Comics of 2011" collection. It will also have links to the artist websites, links to buy, and links to sample pages and stories (where available). We'd really like it if through this we could expose people to new work, and then have this turn into actual sales for the artists!

Holiday Gift Guide Part 4: Comics

2012-01-04T18:22:00.002-05:00

My last post of my Holiday Gift Guide list - the best comics of the year! Just as a reminder, I'm looking specifically at items that would make great gifts and are made by Canadians (or produced by Canadian companies).

Why this focus? Because I'm a Canuck and frankly some of the best comics being produced in the world right now are by Canadians, so why not shine a light on them?

Here are the links to my previous posts:

Comics, the backbone of the industry, and for indies in particular, the format that used to be the most dynamic and interesting. It it wasn't for the triumvirate of Love and Rockets, Neat Stuff and Eightball in the 1980's, I can honestly say that I would have stopped reading comics. Together they opened up a fantastic new world of possibilities for the medium I had fallen in love with (but whose interest in was waning).

Today, the comic (or "pamphlet" - a condescending term I hate) is a dying format, with graphic novels becoming the main format that independent publishers and cartoonists are using instead. Although I understand a lot of the reasons for this (mainly financial), it's a sad state of affairs. Even Palookaville has gone to the fancy HC book format now.

Not only does this means that readers have to wait a hell of a lot longer to read something by their favourite creators, but I think it's a detriment to the cartoonists as well, as they don't get any feedback on their work until it is complete and this can take years. It's very hard to work on a project for years at a time in a vacuum - it's hard to keep your motivation up.

All this to say, there are a handful of honest to goodness indie comics being produced, and the following three are real standouts.

Lose #3
Written and Drawn by Michael DeForge
Published by Koyama Press
32 pages, B&W, $5.00

You've seen this book about on a lot of top 10 lists, and there's a reason why - everything they say about this comic is true. It's completely mind-blowing. Artistically and stylistically it will blow your mind (which I have to say - I'm getting used to with DeForge - he's just so good, and he's getting better all he time), but it's also terrific writing.

It's this strong storytelling that took me aback in particular. The main story is called "Dog 2070", and like many of DeForge's stories, it takes place in what looks like a dystopian future - oh and and the main characters are dogs who can fly.

The main character Stephen, has separated from his wife, has a boring office job, doesn't have a lot of friends, and has problems relating to his kids. DeForge has a real knack for dialogue, and the scenes are very insightful and smart. It's been said in a lot of articles - but yes, DeForge is only 24, and I kept thinking - how does he know what it's like to be middle-aged and unhappy with your lot in life, family-wise, work-wise? I certainly could not have written this at his age.

This book actually made me think a lot about the juxtaposition of text and artwork in comics. So many of the text panels are just really smart and well-written and could come from a traditional indie comic, movie or play - yet he contrasts the text with graphics that are seemingly at first, far removed from the content. It's actually made me think my own work to try to come up with images that are a little bit more original than what you'd expect, as the contrast is a really effective way to get at a third layer of messaging and theme.

Pope Hats #2
Written and Drawn by Ethan Rilly
Published by AdHouse Books
40 pages, B&W, $6.95

I really enjoyed Pope Hats #1, and Ethan Rilly for me seemed to come out of nowhere with it. I know since then, he took some time to work on a full-length graphic novel, but apparently it didn't work out the way he wanted it to - so he went back to Pope Hats.

I think all of that time spent cartooning was not for naught, as Pope Hats #2 seems head and shoulders stronger than the debut. It's a lovely multiple short-story anthology format in the vein of Neat Stuff of Eightball, with one artist trying out different stories, techniques and characters.

The main story "White Noise Machine" follows Frances (the same character introduced in Pope Hats #1), but also includes a few other shorter stories. I particularly liked "Laughter with Young Frances". It's just a one-pager, but kid strips are really hard to do well.

The only thing missing from this comic? A letters page! Buy this book! Rilly is a huge young talent.

Optic Nerve #12
Written and Drawn by Adrian Tomine
Published by Drawn & Quarterly
40 pages, Full Colour, $5.95

I've been a big fan of Tomine and Optic Nerve ever since the days when he put the comic out himself as a mini-comic. And although Tomine is not Canadian, Drawn & Quarterly is - so I'm counting this in my list OK?

Still, this issue really knocked me out. I think it's the first time that I've seen Tomine write a story that is not from the point of view of a young person. His characters seem to reflect the age group that he is currently a part of. Now there's nothing wrong with that, he's excellent at it and you should write what you know, but the main story in this book is a nice change of pace from the norm. Also, Tomine's artwork tends to be really tight - and these stories are much looser than his regular style. To me it shows a new confidence, and the outcome is really fresh.

"A Brief History of the Art Form Known as Hortisculpture" shows a middle-aged white guy who specializes in lawn maintenance going through a mid-life crisis by ignoring his family (a lovely, patient wife and has a loving cute kid), and focusing instead for years on weird plant art.

One of the things I liked about the story is that you can't really tell is the art is any good or not (since the art is 3D sculptures featuring live plants growing out of it and this is hard to capture in 2D comic form). When I first looked at the drawings of them I thought - that's brilliant. Then I thought - oh, but it could be really bad too. His wife thinks his work is brilliant, but no one else appreciates it. Again, it could be great or terrible - who knows? He could be a Van Gogh, or he could be a hack. No matter what, he probably should appreciate what he has though.

Also - a letters page! Yay! For me, reading comics growing up, I ALWAYS read the letters pages. They are mostly gone from comics now with a few exceptions (like Criminal and Powers), but I love it when an artist shows correspondence they've received and answer their mail in the letters pages (why not hand-letter it though Tomine? - that would make it perfect).

Thank you for not waiting to collect these in a hardcover Mr.Tomine!

Holiday Gift Guide Part 3: Children's Books

2011-12-24T09:34:00.001-05:00

Our whole family was hit with a bad cold, so this gift guide has taken a bit longer to put together, but it looks like we're all on the mend just in time for Christmas! Let's jump right in now though shall we to Part 3 of my Holiday Gift Guide, focusing on the best in Canadian Children's Books.

As many of you parents know, reading to your child can be one of life's great pleasures. If your little one happens to have selected a poorly written and drawn book for a bedtime story however, the night becomes a long and arduous one. I'm looking at you Dora books! I'll admit, there are even a few books in Rosie's collection that I've had to hide or give away, because they're just too painful to read.

Here are a few that we've read this year that have been a joy for both parent and child to read. Again I'm focusing on books by Canadians because well - I'm Canadian and we're blessed with lots of good talent here.

I Want my Hat Back
Written and Drawn by Jon Klassen
Candlewick Press,
$18.00

Jon Klassen is an award-winning animator, and this is the first children's book that he's written and drawn. The story: the bear has lost his hat, and wants its back. He goes through the forest looking for it. Here's a little YouTube video for it:

What I like about this book, beyond the wonderful illustrations is the clarity and simplicity of the storytelling. This is something that looks easy when done well, but is very hard to pull off. The bear is a character and the forest animals have a lot of personality. The dialogue is also very funny.
Everyone in the family will love this book!

I Know Here
Written by Laurel Croza, Pictures by Matt James
Groundwood Books
HC, $18.95

This is the first book by Laurel Croza. It's based on her own experiences as a little girl moving from place to place as her father worked on various dam projects in Saskatchewan. The story follows a little girl's move from Saskatchewan to Toronto. She talks about all the things she loves in her small town, and the fear and excitement that moving to an unknown big city.

What I love about this book is that it doesn't undermine a child's thoughts and feelings, everything the little girl describes is meaningful and true. Here's a sample:

"This is where I live. I don't know Toronto. I know here."

Every word seems careful chosen and honestly the book is quite powerful. The drawings are lovely as well. This is a real treat. Happily, I'm not the only one to have discovered it. The book has garnered a lot of attention, getting shortlisted for a Governor General's Award for Children's Illustration, and is the winner of the 2010 Boston Globe Book Award, the 2011 Ezra Jack Keats Award, and the New York Public Library New Writer Award.

When You Were Small
Written by Sara O'Leary, Drawn by Julie Morstad
Simply Read Books
HC, $19.95

I first became award of Julie Morstad from Drawn and Quarterly's "Milk Teeth" book of her work, still my favourite of their "Petits Livres" series of books. When I found out she had drawn some children's books, I was anxious to check them out.

It turns out that she has actually done a series of books with writer Sara O'Leary and each is lovely, gentle, sweet, charming and GORGEOUSLY illustrated. They are all great, and you should get them all, but I think the first one is the best (although honestly it's hard to pick): "When You Were Small". Every night Henry sits with his dad and asks to hear about when he was small, and his father tells him stories...

Here are the other two books in the series which are equally deserving of attention.

Where You Came From

When I Was Small

London Free Press Holiday Gift Guide

2011-12-17T09:01:00.000-05:00

I'm very happy to have been included in James Reaney's yearly Holiday Gift Guide (under "O" for "Original"):

Original, hand-screened T-shirts with logos including a Nihilist Spasm Band-inspired kazoo image are available from London artist Diana Tamblyn. She also has comics, $2-$24.

If you're in the London area, I'd be happy to do arrange a drop-off or pick up. I have plenty of tees in just about every size and various colours. Email me for your preference and to make arrangements.

Holiday Gift Guide Part 2: Graphic Novels & HCs

2011-12-07T22:35:00.001-05:00

Parker - Martini Edition HC

By Darwyn Cooke, IDW Publishing, 308 pages, $75.00

What would be one of the best books to get a comic book lover this Christmas (or crime lover, or film noir lover)? This book! If it's not under the Christmas tree for me this year, I will be sorely disappointed.

This oversized hardcover book collects the first two Parker graphic novels: "The Hunter" and "The Outfit", along with an additional 65-pages of content AND a brand new 8-page story by Cooke. Other extras include an art gallery section and bonus material by the likes of Ed Brubaker and Abbey Westlake (Donald Westlake's wife). It looks gorgeous too, packaged in a slipcase edition!

If you haven't read them, the Cooke Parker books are very faithful adaptations of Richard Stark's (aka Richard Westlake) books, but they also work perfectly in and of themselves. You don't need to have read a Stark book or know anything about the Parker character (played by Lee Marvin in Point Blank and also Mel Gibson in Payback), before picking this up.

Cooke one of the modern masters working in comics right now. I'd put him right up there with Mike Mignola and Jaime Hernandez, and I think this is his best work. It's that good.
Check his work from the Hunter here.

Now don't delay, go out and buy this book for your favourite comic lover today!

Snaps

By Rebecca Kraatz, Conundrum Press, 138 pages, $15.00

I picked up this book at TCAF (Toronto Comic Arts Festival) in the Spring. It was the release I was most looking forward to at the whole show - and that's really saying something, since the whole space at TCAF buzzes with energy, creativity and talent. Apprently I wasn't the only one, as Andy Brown from Conundrum Press said it the book his best seller at the show.

Her previous graphic novel - House of Sugar was so good that Hope Larson had to start a publishing company just to print it. It remains the only title that Tulip Tree Press ever put out. It won Kraatz the Doug Wright Award for Best Emerging Talent in 2007. The book remains one of my favourites - and Snaps is even better I'd say.

This book is a series of short stories - some connected some not. All the stories were inspired by 1940s photos that Kraatz has collected (mostly from flea markets). The photos gave her ideas for the stories and images.

Kraatz is also a visual artist in addition to being a cartoonist, and does a lot of her work as woodburns. This technique translates to pen and ink really well, giving a woodcut kind of look.

Snaps had stayed on my night table since the Spring, which is where my favourite books end up staying as I tend to look at them over and over again. It has a wonderful, ethereal quality to it, and it stays with you for quite some time.

The stories pack quite an emotional punch. I've lent this book to a couple of friends and the response tends to be "I never knew a book could be like that".
My only complaint of the book is that the cover isn't nearly as strong as the contents. I wouldn't want people to overlook it on the shelves because it is really subtle and doesn't jump out at you.

Don't judge the book by its cover though, pick it up today!

Hark A Vagrant

By Kate Beaton, Drawn & Quarterly, 160 pages, $19.95

What can I say about 2009 Doug Wright Best Emerging Talent winner Kate Beaton and her "Hark a Vagrant" comics that hasn't already been said?

Her comics (about mostly Canadian history) are witty, charming and hilarious! This NYT best-seller is a compilation of some of her best webcomics. This is a great gift for almost everyone you know - they don't need to like comics to enjoy it either.

I want to add something that most people don't comment on - her cartooning skills. Don't let her style fool you - though the comics may look like they've been dashed off, Beaton has been getting more and more polished. It's very hard to do what she's doing and depict characters and situations with just a few lines. I'd say she's approaching Quentin Blake style, and she's only going to get better!

Over the past few years, Beaton has built up an ardent and loyal fan base who have quickly turned this online sensation into a best-selling book. See what all the fuss is about and pick it up today.
You can also check out the webcomic here.

Two Generals

By Scott Chantler, McLelland & Stewart, 152 pages, $19.95

Full disclosure: I'm a good friend of Scott Chantler's and I've watched him work on this book for years now. You know what though? It's been worth the wait as it's the best thing he's done to date.

Two Generals tells a story near and dear to Scott's heart about his grandfather - Law Chantler's experiences in the Highland Light Infantry of Canada, along with his best friend, Jack, a fellow officer, during WWII.

As mentioned, this book was a real labour of love for Scott and involved his going back through family history, his grandfather's diary and photos and a huge amount of research. In fact he's devoted a whole website to outlining his research process for the book here.

Scott's toured the county speaking about this book at different book festivals and has picked up a boatload of awards nominations to boot: White Pine Award, Eisner Award, Joe Shuster Award.

This book would make a great gift for history lovers and graphic novel lovers. If you can, try to pick up the hardcover version that looks like a leather bound diary. It's gorgeous!

Holiday Gift Guide Part 1: Minis

2011-12-01T16:15:00.001-05:00

I thought I'd make a stab at posting some recommendations of quality comics you can give (and receive) this Christmas. First up we'll start with a category that is near and dear to my heart: mini-comics!

I'll also be focusing on Canadian cartoonists & artists and/or books with Canadian content (just 'cause that's how I roll).

Old-Timey Hockey Tales
Rob Ullman & Jeffrey Brown
32 pages, colour cover, B&W interior. $6.00

This is a great mini-comic full of stories of hockey legends like Rocket Richard, Gordie Howe and Terry Sawchuk. Stories alternate by Rob Ullman and Jeffrey Brown, a pair of terrific cartoonists.

A MUST for all the hockey fans on your list. I ordered a copy awhile back for myself (not because I'm a hockey fan so much, but because I think Ullman in particular is a fabulous and underrated cartoonist). I kicked myself once it arrived as it's perfect for many people I know and I ended up making another order.

Don't be like me. Save yourself $$ on your purchase and buy multiples the first time out!

The Doug Wright Awards 2011
Dustin Harbin
24 pages, Fancy, schmancy shiny colour cover, B&W interior, $4.00

This 5-part series was original published on The Comics Journal website. It covers off Harbin's experience in attending the Doug Wright Awards for Canadian Cartooning this past year at TCAF.

As a Canadian, I'm a sucker about reading what Americans think of us. Luckily Dustin thinks we're all charming, cultured and polite (which of course we are).

Harbin is really coming into his own as a cartoonist, check this out and see what all the fuss is about.

I Love You Gabrielle Bell
Jason Kieffer
20 pages, 2-colour cover, B&W interior, $1.50

I had to pick up this cute little mini-comic, because I too love Gabrielle Bell. Who doesn't really? In this comic, we find Kieffer falling for Bell at TCAF where he was selling his comics close to her booth. It's an unrequited love story, but quite funny and charming.

I admit it's a little unfair to include in this holiday gift guide as Jason doesn't sell this mini-comic from his site, so I'm not sure where you can get it. I picked it up at The Dragon in Guelph this past summer, so I imagine stores like the Beguiling, Luckys and Quimbys would have it.

Kieffer does have a free preview for an upcoming work in progress though about "Zanta", the guy who wears a Santa hat and no shirt and is found doing pushups in the Toronto subway. I totally remember this guy and he does have a good back story. I hope Kieffer finished this book!

It's Beginning to Look at Lot Like Christmas

2011-11-28T14:43:00.001-05:00

Well it's not really. Here in London, Ontario it's unseasonably warm but you won't hear me complaining!

I've gotten myself more organized this year and have already done up my Christmas card designs. Just waiting to get them back from the printer, and then I can send them out! Rosie put me to shame by doing a completely original design in plasticine (look out Barbara Reid!), while I cheated by re-purposing some older drawings. Hey - it works!

Surfer Christmas

Wolvie X-Mas

Spidey Christmas

Christmas Scene - by Rosie

This is two people skating on a frozen lake with a Christmas tree nearby and Christmas lights shining in the background.

Literary Diaspora - Bad Day

2011-11-17T14:15:00.001-05:00

Cecil Castelluci, a talented author and friend always has a lot on the go - be it writing an opera, young adult fiction, graphic novels and more.

One of her current projects is Literary Diaspora - "an experiment in sending words and images out into the wild through post. It is a playful game of narratives."

Basically it works like this, Cecil did up a bunch of postcards with different pieces of text on them. Then she sent the postcards out to fellow artists and writers in the mail. Based on the words she sent us, we are to do an image or text/poem/etc to accompany it. Neat huh?

My text was "Bad Day". I have to say I did go the literal route and thought about what a bad day looked like - gray and rainy right? I did experiment with washes a little with it too though, and I'm pretty happy with the result below.

Check out the site with other entries by such people as Melissa Auf der Maur, Mo Willems, Cory Doctorow and more! http://literarydiaspora.wordpress.com

Steam Whistle Show

2011-11-16T21:40:00.001-05:00

Currently there is a terrific exhibit going on right now at the Steam Whistle Gallery called "Toronto Draws Tintin". Produced by The Beguiling, the show features takes on Herge's class Tintin character by dozens of comics artists and illustrators from Toronto (as well as former Torontonians like myself).

The show started on November 2nd and runs until November 27th. On the closing night (Nov 27), all art on display will be auctioned off in support of The Canadian Comic Legends Legal Defense Fund and a graphic novel biography of Tintin’s creator Herge will be launched with the French author, Stanislas in attendance.

I'm a big fan of Tintin and did up the following for the show.

For me, the red rocket is a very iconic image, so I knew I had to include it in the piece. When I think of Tintin - I think of that red rocket. That is why it has the I chose to highlight it by having it be the only part of the image with colour. I'm pretty happy with how it came out...

I plan on attending for this final night, and I know a lot of other participating artists will be in attendance as well.

The Canadian Comic Legends Legal Defense Fund provides financial relief for Canadian comics retailers, publishers, professionals, or readers whose right to free speech has been infringed by civil authorities.

Forest City Prints

2011-11-01T20:36:00.001-04:00

The Idea

When I began my "Tree" series for the Arts Project (running November 1 - November 12), I decided I wanted to try something different for the show that I hadn't done before which is to do some high-end prints of my work.

I'm really fascinating by printmaking in general and think my line style suits it. I really like the look of Letterpress printing, so I did some research of who in the area could do this for me.

Letterpress printing was for years the normal form of printing text from the mid-15th to the 19th century. It's relief printing using a "type-high bed", in which a reversed, raised surface is inked then pressed onto a sheet of paper to obtain a positive right-reading image. It provides a really beautiful, hand-made quality to things.

I found just who I was looking for with Vincent Perez at Everlovin' Press in Kingston, Ontario. Letterpress printing is a laborious process that requires someone well-schooled in the technique, and Vincent is a print expert who oversaw the Dawson Printshop at NSCAD University (which has one of the largest collections of moveable type in Canada).

The image I selected to get prints made from is this one below, of a Hackberry tree on Colborne St., which was voted the "People's Favourite Tree" in the 2010 Amazing Tree Quest contest.

And, since the trees of London provided the inspiration for the series, I thought I could also give back to them a bit by donating some proceeds from the print sales towards ReForest London, a great non-profit organization that's doing its best to look after the trees of our community.

The Process

The Original Scanned Image. For the print I thought I would like to make it look a little like a tourism poster to promote London (also known as the Forest City), so hand-lettered some text as a separate file to be dropped in.

I sent a high-rez digital file (1200 DPI) to Vincent, which he then made a plate from.

He then applies ink to the plate, and runs the paper through the press. For the colours, Vincent works from Pantone colours which I supplied. I used Lagoon Blue ( Pantone 16-5418) and Grass Green (Pantone 15-6437).

For the 2-colour prints (black and one-colour), the paper must pass through the press twice - one for the colour background, one for the black foreground. Paper is 130 lb Coronado (beautiful heavy stuff).

The paper is then cut to size (12 x 16 in this case).

Look at that perfect registration! The prints then just to need to dry, and they're all set.

The Result

I did a few different variations of the print including one of the tree with no text. Here's what the finished ones look like. I have them all packaged up individually in acid-free sleeves and mat boards. They are $35.00 each with $5.00 going towards ReForest London.

The Tamblyn Show

2011-10-08T10:36:00.001-04:00

I've been working like crazy preparing for my upcoming joint show at The Arts Project with my uncle - John Tamblyn. For almost a year now I've been drawing native trees of London (The Forest City), in my pen and ink style. At the show I'll also have some of my comic book art.

Here's a new piece I just finished of a White Oak in Mount Pleasant cemetery. A lot of the trees on the cemetery grounds are really outstanding. This one in particular really took my breath away.

John's series is on trains, specifically focusing on the graphitti art he's found on them. The combination of the rusting trains with the bright spraypaint colours provides some amazing images.

For the full info on the show, see the site I did up for it here:
http://www.thetamblynshow.com

Accidentally Pineapple Article

I also wanted to highlight an article about me for a new site called "Accidentally Pineapple" (great name I know). I was flattered to be asked to do an interview to help launch the site.
>> Read the article.

Behold Orion!

2011-09-13T13:50:00.002-04:00

I've been re-reading Jack Kirby's Fourth World saga recently and it's really been blowing my mind! The visuals are just so dynamic and lush. This is one that particulary struck me from a New Gods issue (I admit I changed the text around from the original).

I find I do learn a lot doing pieces like this. Kirby is so big and bold with his imagery. Long live the King!

Some Recent Drawnings

2011-09-08T21:28:00.000-04:00

Tree SeriesI've been working on new pieces in my "Tree Series" for my upcoming show with my uncle John at The Arts Project for November 1-12th. Here's three pieces I've recently completed.

Mount Pleasant Oak Tree

Colborne Hackberry

950 Colborne

Lockjaw!

Commission done for Dan Brown. I've always wanted to draw Lockjaw. All of the designs for the Inhumans are pretty amazing really. Black Bolt is another fave who I will draw one day soon.

The Krypton Crawl

2011-07-22T11:39:00.002-04:00

This year I'll be exhibiting at FanExpo for the first time ever at the Koyama Press booth (many thanks to the wonderful Annie Koyama for the space at the table).

I've worked the show a number of times for the Silver Snail who always have a super gigantic booth (which was a lot of fun - never have I gotten to sell so many big items like Lord of the Rings swords, Green Lantern power batteries, Cap shields and more). Let me tell you - people save all year and they spend a ton of dough at this show! Plus hanging with the Snail crew, talking comics and having a large space behind the table where you could move around was great too - unlike the aisles which are jam-packed! One year we even had Rosie at the booth in a playpen with Ciaran's son! A family affair for sure.

I've never had a table at the show though because I've felt that the stuff I do wouldn't go over very well at such a mainstream show - figured I'd be sitting at a corner and hearing crickets you know? I know that Kevin Boyd has been trying very hard over the past few years to showcase the diversity of comics work and talent though, and I know from friends that things have changed and indie stuff gets some decent attention now.

Special Print for FanExpo

Those of you who know me well, know that I'm a hard-core nerd. My true love are 1960s DC comics, the stranger the better - stuff like Angel and the Ape, Rainbow Batman, Legion of Super-Pets and of course Jimmy Olsen comics!

I wanted to do a special print for the show (my first ever print in fact), inspired by this love. Since I'm also a fan of Robert Goodin's Covered site (where indie artist draw their version of an old comic cover), I decided to do a crazy Jimmy Olsen cover. Believe me, there's no shortage of material to work from here. But here's the cover I picked...

This cover has it all, Jimmy playing the guitar, Supes swinging and singing. Superman too busy doing the Krypton Crawl to get to the emergency he's having so much fun! References to Elvis and the Beatles! Drawn by Curt Swan! It doesn't get much better.

Here's my version.

Note I did make some differences:

I added in the DC "go-go checks". This is the checked top line, it ran across DC books for a couple of years in the 60's. I just really like it aesthetically.
I took out the drummer (the cover is pretty busy already)
Removed the weird banner-type thing running across the top. It looks slapped on and out of place to me.
I don't know what kind of instrument Jimmy is strumming on the Swan cover (in the interior he plays a regular guitar), but I wanted him to have a "real" guitar.
Finally, I wanted to make the Elvis connection stronger, so posed Jimmy after this Elvis pic I found online that is just too cool.

This Elvis poster is just so neat, I'm going to have to do something just on it someday.

Please let me know your feedback, especially the colour! I was thinking of doing a blue-tone version of it as well as the red. Cost will be $20.00 or $25.00. Size is roughly14 x 18 inches.

Update: Not sure how I liked the red colour, so I tried it as well in Blue. Let me know which one you like better. I think I will do up prints in both colours! Will be limited. Probably just a run of 12 of each colour.

Visual Fringe

2011-06-12T16:18:00.001-04:00

I'll be in the Visual Fringe show again this year, which is the visual arts component of the London Fringe Festival which runs June 16th - 26th this year. I'll have some new artwork on display, my comics and a new theatre-related original t-shirt design below! They'll be for sale at my table at the Arts Project during the run of the Fringe. T-shirts are all $20.00 each.

Can you get better than a Shakespeare reference? I don't know - I think not. The above is a line from A Winter's Tale and is apparently the most famous stage direction of all time.

They are all hand-silkscreened by the fabulous guys at Fresh Ink, and are white design on a black tee, AL Style brand. I got them in all different sizes (Women's cut, Men's style and some Youth 14/15 size). I hope the Fringe crowd will like them! I also got another run done up of my Kazoo shirt because that was a really hot seller at last year's Fringe.

Fringe Plays I'm Looking Forward to

This will be only our 3rd summer in London, and I haven't been to any Fringe plays before! This is a problem that will be rectified this year. I've studied the whole program, and have pegged these to as my must-sees:

The Sparrow and the Mouse
Edith Piaf is an icon, France’s greatest popular singer. However, few people know Marguerite Monnot, who devoted her life to composing songs for Piaf. The enduring friendship of these two women is an incredible story, spanning over 25 years. Featuring Monnot’s most popular songs, including: Milord and Hymne à l’Amour.

I'm a HUGE Edith Piaf fan, so I have to see this. I thought this note in the program was also hilarious: Warning: Music in both French and English (Hope you paid attention in French class!).

Only in London, Ontario would you have to put a warning that an Edith Piaf play will have French music. Well I should hope so or I would feel very ripped off!

Link: http://festival.londonfringe.ca/home/showdetails/119

The Donnelly SideshowJohnny O’Connor was the boy who hid under the bed during the Donnelly murders of 1880. Now he’s back, all grown up, packing a guitar and ready to set the record straight on the Donnellys. A new solo show, with songs, directed by Jayson McDonald. Details at http://www.jeffculbert.ca/.

The story of the Donnelly family is one I can't get enough of, and I'm looking forward to seeing this musical rendition from the part of the young survivor.

Link: http://festival.londonfringe.ca/home/showdetails/99

The Real London

2011-05-15T11:26:00.034-04:00

Is London, Ontario a creative city? A recent London Free Press poll of readers said overwhelming No - we're not. Certainly that is the stereotype about us - we're all white, conservative and middle class here right? Wrong. And many others would refute this view (myself included).

David Redding is a local photographer who's been taking photos of local London artists with the purpose of showing the community just how rich the creative talent is here in the Forest City. His photo of me is above. Check out the website here: http://thereallondon.tumblr.com

Cartoonists in London
Remember in the sixties, when London was a hotbed of talent? We had Curnoe, Chambers, the Nihilst Spasm Band, Ewen, Reaney and more. Well I think something is happening here again - you can feel it in the air. A groundswell if you will, and you don't have to look very hard to find it.

For cartoonists alone, London is becoming a bit of a hotbed. Here are the ones I can name off of the top of my head who live here

So - still think London's not creative?

Recent Interviews
On a completely different note, here's some recent interviews/reviews with me.
Be sure to check out Squidface and the Medler in particular if only because it's one of the best looking sites around!

Epigenetics Eh!

2011-04-29T13:32:00.006-04:00

(click on the image for larger version)
RELEASE TO AIR & LAND: IDENTIFIED SUBSTANCES (DIPTYCH)
DIANA TAMBLYN, 196 X 17
GICLEE (PRODUCED FROM PEN & INK ON BRISTOL)

Some background Info
London Ontario will host the Canadian Conference on Epigenetics (called Epigenetics, Eh!) next week May 4-7. In collaboration, the organizers of the Conference and the London Arts Council offered 10 artists the opportunity to attend a presentation about Epigenetics from some local scientists who are specialists in this area. The artists were then commissioned to create a piece based on the presentation and understanding of the practice.

My Piece
I was one of the lucky artists asked to participate. Epigenetics is a rapidly growing field of science defined as: "Any function change in the genome that does not involve an alteration of the DNA sequence."

In layman's terms one can view this as nature vs. nurture, where nature is a person's DNA, and nurture represents all sorts of external factors that can alter a person's physiology without changing their DNA.

What captured my imagination from the presentation on Epigenetics to the artists was the subject of Epigenetics and the environment. Specifically that chemicals in our environment can change the “readout” of our genes, and that multiple levels of these compounds (even if found at low “safe” levels) have an additive quality that combined can have a detrimental impact on a person’s health and well-being (not surprising at all, but nice to know it's confirmed at this epigenetics level).

For my piece, I wanted to focus at man-made chemicals found in the environment. I also didn’t think one piece would have the impact I was looking for, so I created a diptych (two pieces that work together as one) that depicts chemicals released into air, and chemicals released to the soil.

I wanted to show the beauty of our natural landscape, and through the use of text make the “invisible” chemical elements (not seen to the naked eye) visible. The listing of chemicals was taken from a report on environmental toxicology.

EpigenArt the Exhibition

The EpigenART Exhibition will display the work of all the artists involved for the duration of the conference at the London Convention Centre. We've all been invited to the banquet dinner (which I unfortunately can't attend as I'll be at TCAF), and also have been invited to some cocktail mixers where we'll get to talk about our works with the attending scientists.

Post-conference,the works will be exhibited by the London Arts Council Office and City of London Mayor's Office.

I want to thank the committee of the Epigenetics Conference as well as the London Arts Council for putting this all together. Rarely have I been treated so respectfully as an artist - we were really treated as peers in this conference and as participants who could help shed led on this emerging science. It's always been a great learning experience and collaboration!

For more info, see:
http://www.epigeneticscanada.com

London Studio Tour - April 15 - 17

2011-04-04T16:30:00.002-04:00

The London Studio Tour is coming up and I've been hard at work preparing for it. The tour is a unique London event - during the weekend of April 15- 17, twenty-four local artists will open up their studios to the public. I've attended the event a number of times and it's a lot of fun. In 2009 I exhibited for the first time and had over 500 people through the studio!

The best part - it's free and everyone is welcome! For my part, I will have original artwork for sale and on display including some comic pages. I'll also have all my comics and original t-shirts for sale as well.

For the kids, I will have some free comics to give away! Here's the information:

London Studio Tour
Friday, April 15th : 7:00 PM - 9:30 PM
Saturday, April 16th: 10:000 AM - 5:00 PM
Sunday, April 17th: 12:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Website: http://www.londonstudiotour.com

Tree Series
Below is a couple of new pieces I've done for the show. They are the first in a new series I'm working on focusing on trees in London. Since we are the Forest City and London averages 12 trees/per person, I wanted to do a full exploration of what many take for granted in the city. The story is not all good. Many of our trees are not in good health and are dead or dying. Many trees that are healthy are non-native to the area and not particularly great for the environment.

ReForest London kindly supplied me with a lot of information and stats, and these will be making their way into the artwork. I'll be working on this series from now until October, and will post them as they are finished.

Bur Oak at 200 Collip Circle

As a place to begin with the series, I thought what better place to start than the "People's Choice" winner in last year's Amazing Tree Quest contest held by Reforest London, where Londoners identify their favourite trees. So I went out to 200 Collip Circle, near Windemere Manor to take some photos of the Giant Bur Oak there.

As I was wandering around, I wondered if I would recognize the tree from the photos. No danger there. Once you find the right spot to view it - it's stunning. Unfortunately it seems to have gotten damaged slightly with these recent heavy snows, but I know it will survive. The tree has a real mythical quality to it. It seems like it could spring to life and start moving like the trees in the Lord of the Rings.

Another View of Bur Oak Tree

Comic Book Literacy Day at the London Public Library

2011-03-02T18:33:00.005-05:00

Comic Book Literacy Day is a really neat event coming up at the London Public Library that I'll be speaking at along with some other talented cartoonists (and friends): Scott Chantler, J.Bone, Kathryn and Stuart Immonen, and the Kill Shakespeare crew.

Kudos to Brahm - owner of Heroes, the United Way, the London Public Library, and The Child and Youth Network for putting this together. See below for full information. Come on out and bring your kids as it's happening over March Break week!

Heroes presents: What’s your story? Comic Book Literacy Day

Wednesday, March 16, 2011
1:00pm –8:00pm
Central London Public Library

Join us at the London Public Central Library from 1 8 pm for a day-long celebration of comic books and graphic novels. There will be something for comic-lovers of every age.

AGENDA

1:00pm-1:45pm Comic Art Workshop featuring Freeze DNA

(Ages 6-14 -Stevenson Hunt)

• Learn how to draw basic illustrations, animals, and facial expressions and participate in a questions and answer period at the end of the workshop

1:00pm-8:00pm Comic Artists Gallery

(All ages - The Passageway)

• An open invitation to local comic artists to display their work, draw, network and meet fans

1:30pm-8:00pm Comic Jam featuring J. Bone and friends

(All ages - Teen Annex)

• J. Bone is a Canadian comic book artist and writer who has worked on such titles as DC Comics' Batman: The Brave and the Bold and Super Friends - Ask him to draw your favourite comic book character!

• It’s a comic jam! Draw a panel and pass it on. Join in and create a comic together with artists of all levels. Let's try and create as many collaborative comics as possible and put them on display!

2:00pm-4:00pm Creating Web Comics featuring Jeffrey Preston

All ages - The Passageway/Teen Annex

• Jeffrey Preston, creator of Cripz: A Webcomic. An introduction to web comics and creating your own wecomic.

2:00pm-2:30pm Comics for Kids: Three Thieves featuring Scott Chantler

(Ages 9-12 - Stevenson Hunt B)

• A reading and discussion of his acclaimed kids’ comic series, Three Thieves published by Kids Can Press

2:30pm-3:30pm Be a Comic Book Artist by Alison Williams

(Ages 9-12 - Stevenson Hunt A)

• 2 half hour comic art workshop sessions with 20 participants each

5:00pm-6:00pm The Creative Process of Popular Comics

(Teens and adults - Stevenson Hunt)
Featuring Stuart and Kathryn Immonen

• Stuart Immonen - Marvel Comics artist for Fear Itself, and in the past, Avengers, Captain America, Incredible Hulk, New Avengers, Thor, Fantastic Four, Ultimate X-Men, Ultimate Spider-Man, DC Comics’ Superman, Never as Bad as You Think*, and Moving Pictures*

• Kathryn Immonen – Marvel Comics author for Wolverine and Jubilee, and in the past Heralds, X-Men, Runaways, and Hellcat

*Immonen collaboration

6:00pm-7:00pm Canadian Non-fiction Graphic Novels

(Teens and adults - Stevenson Hunt)
Featuring Scott Chantler and Diana Tamblyn

• Scott Chantler is an acclaimed graphic novelist whose books have been nominated for many awards and recommended by the American Library Association and the Junior Library Guild, he has created the non-fiction graphic novels Northwest Passage and Two Generals

• Diana Tamblyn is an Ignatz-nominated cartoonist who has been actively writing and drawing comics for over 12 years. Her latest comic project is "From Earth to Babylon: The Story of Gerald Bull and the Supergun". This is a historical based work on the life of Canadian Gerald Bull - considered to be one of the most brilliant artillery scientists of the 20th century. Her past work includes a comic biography of another Canadian scientist - Frederick Banting

7:00pm-8:00pm Comic Book Literacy with Kill Shakespeare, Scott Robins, Mathew Hoy

(Teens and adults - Stevenson Hunt)

• A presentation and panel discussion featuring Kill Shakespeare’s creators Conor McCreery, Anthony Del Col and artist, Andy B; Scott Robins, librarian and blogger from Comic Book Resources and local parent-comic book fan, Mathew Hoy

Other events and activities happening throughout the day:

Dress up day - wear a comic book costume to celebrate the day
Fun-time photo booth - costumes and props will complete your digital picture
Free comic book for kids all day courtesy of Heroes

Comic creator signings, and meet and greets all day at Heroes:

3:00-4:30 p.m. Meet and greet local comic artists
4:00-5:30 p.m. J. Bone, Diana Tamblyn and Scott Chantler
5:00-6:30 p.m. Kill Shakespeare
6:30-8:00 p.m. Stuart and Kathryn Immonen

Portrait of Annie Koyama

2011-01-15T08:57:00.001-05:00

Portrait of Annie Koyama - Patron of Comics This is my version of of Koyama Press' "Kick Ass Annie" icon logo. A number of different cartoonists have done up versions of Koyama's log (as seen on the book Annie is holding above), and the results are fabulous. You can see the whole set on Flickr here.

I wanted to do a completely different take on the logo that represented my view of Annie. Annie Koyama is a true patron, and a patron of comics at that! Not someone you stumble across much anymore, and I wanted to honour that side of her...

So being an art history grad, I thought I would model my piece after the Italian Renaissance artists who would paint portraits of their patrons.The above is modeled after Piero della Francesca's portrait of Federico da Montefeltro which is a favourite portrait of mine.

Main difference with my version of course is since Annie is a publisher I just had to have her holding a book! I then placed the original Kick Ass Annie logo on the book.

Here's what the original looks like...

Greetings & Resolutions for 2011

2011-01-03T15:55:00.006-05:00

Best Wishes for a Safe and Happy 2011!

The new puppy and kitten kept us pretty busy this holiday season, which meant that everything got done but our Christmas cards. So - thought I would send out New Year's greetings for 2011 instead!

2011 is going to be a big year for me - we are finally all settled here in London, Ont, Rosie is happy in Grade 1 (believe it or not), and I will be turning the big 4-0.

I've been feeling a sense of impending doom as I approach this number. I feel like the meter has jumped forward and I really need to put the pedal to the metal this year. By the end of 2011, my aim is to feel like I've made some big steps forward in achieving my artistic goals. Mainly to get a major comic work PUBLISHED, and to produce more art in general.

Goals for 2011
To keep myself honest, for the first time ever I thought I'd write down the goals I'd like to achieve. So here goes. I plan to scratch them off, as the year progresses...

~~Do my version of "~~~~Kick Ass Annie~~~~" for Annie Koyama~~ DONE
Annie has been a real inspiration for me this year. To see the pure love, energy she puts into Koyama Press and her stable of artists is a thing to behold. On top of that she is one of the nicest people in the comics biz I've ever met. My Kick Ass Annie is way overdue, and I will get this to her this month!

~~April 15,16,17 -~~ ~~London Studio Tour~~ DONE

I will be participating in the Studio Tour for my 2nd time this year. This is a fabulous tour that happens in London, Ontario in the Spring, whereby 20 or so local artists open up their homes and their art studios to the public for a weekend. This is a juried show that features a wide variety of work by great local artists. It's always a treat to see them in their environment and it's free to attend! The first time I did it I had over 500 people through my studio that weekend.

I plan on doing lots of new original art and have special prints for this show.

~~May 7, 8, Toronto Comic Arts Festival~~ DONE
This is the first year I won't be exhibiting at TCAF. I thought I'd better focus on producing more comics before I actively sell more of them. I will of course be in attendance all weekend though. Hanging out with friends and enjoying the best work that comics have to offer.

~~June 16 - 20, Visual Fringe~~ DONE
Last year was the first time I participated in the Visual Fringe, an offshoot of the Fringe Festival here in London, Ontario. Featuring a great variety of local artists, I was impressed with how well-organized the Visual Fringe was. Held at the Arts Project, they got tons of people through the doors and looking at artwork over a 10-day period. I sold lots of comics and t-shirts. For this Fringe, I plan to do a original theatre-inspired tee.

September 25th, Word on the Street
This is the best show for me, and even though I'm taking the year off from comic shows, I don't want to miss this one. The beauty of Word on the Street is that it's affordable (if you are very small press and book your table super-early as they sell out by spring), you're surrounding by virtually all of the Canadian publishing industry for one day, and the crowds that come out are unbelievable since it's a terrific, FREE, outdoor event. Best of all, I find the people I see there are not the same people I see at all the comic shows. They're people who just love books and are very open to all different kinds of books.

October, 2011 - The Tamblyn Show
Details TBA, but I'm just solidifying plans right now for a joint-show between my and my uncle - John Tamblyn, a very talented photographer (and yes I am completely biased), to do a joint art show. It will fall over my birthday, so I'm planning for the opening party to be a big one!

Complete artwork for at least 3 more Chapters of Bull Comic
I know, I know this doesn't sound like much. But it'll be a lot for me. With 3 more chapters done, I'll have over half of my Graphic novel done and in the can with approx. 75 pages completed. I'm slow okay! Really though, I'm very happy with what I've done so far and think it's my best work to-date. The hardest part is to keep up the momentum...

Draw every day, even if it's for a half-hourI have a full-time gig, and between it, my little girl, my husband, 2 pets and other adult responsibilities, there's not a lot of time left in the day. I'm a happier person the more I draw though, so I need to make time to do this every day even if it's for a small chunk of time. I'm pretty good with this but need to get better.
Feel free to check back often this year to see how I'm doing. Also feel free to send words of wisdom and encouragement!

Progress on Gerald Bull GN

2010-11-04T13:49:00.001-04:00

"What the heck is going on with that Gerald Bull Graphic Novel you've been working on?" is a question that my friends are smart enough not to ask me, but one that my family brings up every now and then.

Well, I'll tell you - after some big stumbling blocks (namely structuring the story properly so that it got across all the info necessary but still flowed as a narrative without being too ex positional), I'm happy to say that it's going well!

Outline and Chapter breakdown have been finished for awhile now and I'm full on drawing. Prologue, Chapter 1 and Chapter 3 are fully drawn and finished. Just starting Chapter 2 now. I'm going at a good, even pace and I'm happy with everything thus far.

Here's a panel from Chapter 3 below that I like. When not doing comics, I've been doing landscape pieces, and this is creeping into my comics in a natural, organic kind of way.

My agent is now actively shopping the book around, and I hope I will have good news on this front soon. Cross your fingers for me!

The Kitten Kid!

2010-09-21T10:25:00.002-04:00

It's hard to believe, but my little girl will be turning 6 this Saturday. One of the things she really wants for her birthday is a super-hero costume (yes, she's our girl, that's for sure). To clarify, this isn't for Halloween, it's just for wearing around the house.

Her super-hero name is Kitten Kid. I'm not sure what her powers are, they change depending on what day you ask her... She likes super-heroes and cats though so this is a good mix for her.

The Costume

My mom has been tasked to get the costume made for her under Rosie's direction (they've gone to fabric store to pick out colours and kind of fabric for example). I've been tasked with doing the design for the front of shirt.

Rosie has very set ideas and since this is her special gift, I wanted to make sure I got this right for her. So - Rosie did up some drawings of a cat for me, and told me to "make it a bit better mom". Thought it would be fun to share this process below...

Kitten Kid Drawing
Here is Rosie's cat drawing that I used as a model and for inspiration. I love the big head. Rosie is already a good client providing clear direction of what she expects!

Other requests from Rosie - add a mask and a cape! Last night we coloured it together on the computer. Her favourite colour is hot pink - hence the hot pink cat, and wanted to add a rainbow, hence the multi-colour letters. Finally she wanted it to stand out a lot, so black background. All I have to do now is print it out on a special iron-on type paper and hand it to Mom. I'll post a pic of Rosie in the completed outfit when it's done!

Granny Goodness!

2010-09-05T09:44:00.000-04:00

Had to take a break from doing sequential stuff, and since I've been re-reading the Kirby Mister Miracle stuff lately and really digging it, I thought I would do up a sketch of Granny Goodness. I'm super happy with it.

Granny Goodness is such a great character. One thing I always thought was weird though was how Ed Asner did her voice in the Justice League cartoons. Ed Asner? For some reason it wasn't terrible, but she should have a super scary voice. Don't know who would be best suited. Maybe Angelica Houston?

LOLA Fest T-Shirt Design

2010-08-25T16:01:00.004-04:00

LOLA fest (short for London Ontario Live Arts) is happening this September 16th - 19th, and I'm pretty jazzed about it.

It's a very cool thing to be happening in little old London. All different kinds of free activities will be taking place mainly in downtown London from Caribou playing in concert to artwork from James Kirkpatrick (of Dusty Peas). The theme for this year's fest is conflict vs. resolution and the good people at LOLA asked me to do the "official" design that the 100+ volunteers will be wearing.

Thoughts Behind Design
In coming up with a design for the theme, I wanted to stay away from obvious symbols for war (guns, bombs, etc), and was looking for something more subtle that would make people look twice when they looked at the tee. In doing a lot of studies on shells and guns for my Gerald Bull graphic novel, I found some of the mathematical equations quite beautiful to look at and when you don't know what you're looking at, the designs turn quite abstract.

So -- I zeroed in on these missile patterns to represent conflict. The fact that the particular missile design I selected also looks like an atom symbol, I think just adds to this.

For peace, since Yoko Ono is the featured artist of the festival, I felt I really I should openly make homage to her Imagine Peace campaign, hence some use of the peace symbol.

The Tee
So here we have it below. The red colour is the colour of the LOLA logo (and fits with conflict side of the theme). The pattern is the equation of a slowly rolling fin-stabilized missile.

Overlaid is the peace symbol (and it's no mistake that this is overlaid on top of conflict). The peace logo will take the same colour as the tee-shirt colour so my hope is it will come across as a bit more subtle than generic peace tees.

Anyway, that's my thinking process behind the design. I'm quite pleased with the result. Let me know what you think!

Sound Effects & Comics

2010-08-03T15:04:00.001-04:00

At the most recent TCAF, friend and fellow cartoonist Frank Cammuso and I got to talking about sound effects in comics and how they're just not used very much in the new "modern" style seen today in a lot of comics (Marvel ones in particular).

This style, which is all cinematic and photo-realistic, just doesn't lend itself to old school sound effects. I think some artists find them too cartoony - and don't fit in with the gritty, grim and dark look they're going for. To me though, this slavish devotion to realism in comics just results in sucking the life out of the drawings. It takes me completely out of the comic and the art looks dead on the page.

Frank Santoro did a recent post on this in Comics, Comics, and I found myself nodding my head in agreement with it all the way through.

Sound Effects and Joy
For me, sound effects are a great joy in comics. A great example of this of course is the spectacularly successfull Scott Pilgrim comics by Bryan Lee O'Malley. I can just picture O'Malley acting out some of the scenes and trying to figure out the funniest and best sound effect to put into a panel.

The current comic I'm working on about Canadian scientist Gerald Bull, is a historical non-fiction story, but I've found I'm using a lot of sound effects in it, and getting a big kick out of it. Do I think they take away from the story? Not at all, just the opposite in fact...

Here's a sampling from just the first few chapters...

Mister Miracle & Visual Fringe

2010-06-29T14:31:00.001-04:00

I recently finished a piece for fellow cartoonist extraordinaire Jeff Lemire, and I'm pretty happy with how it came out.

Jeff requested a drawing of Mister Miracle, a character who has a particularly tough costume to draw. So I had to pull out our Kirby Mister Miracle collection for reference, then proceeded to read it from cover to cover. I hadn't read these stories for a while (some I hadn't read at all), and they really blew me away! There's so much raw kinetic energy in Kirby's drawings that they litterally explode off of the page.

There's also so many ideas and concepts that's he's tackling. Kirby created these comics in his early 50s, and they still come across as being fresh and inspirational to me. In truth, I've fallen down a deep well of renewed Kirby love and I owe it all to you Jeff Lemire! Thanks my friend.

In Other News - Visual Fringe
Visual Fringe, the visual arts component of the London Fringe Festival wrapped up this past Sunday. I was given 6 feet of wall space in the Arts Project to play with, and I filled it up with some of my colour landscape drawings, as well as 5 comic pages. In addition, I had my comics and t-shirts available for sale. These went like hotcakes and I had to come in 3x to re-stock! Photo below of me taken by the talented photographer Jennifer Squires, who was also part of Visual Fringe.

The show was extremely well organized and I think the whole Festival is a boon to the London arts scene with theatre productions taking place all over town and troupes from all over the world coming to perform. I was really happy to participate and look forward to Fringe 2011.

Enter the Black Canary

2010-04-14T20:24:00.002-04:00

This was a piece done for the Doug Wright Awards. They asked a few comic artists to do a DC themed image that they will auction off as a fundraiser on eBay. Other artists included are Seth, Chester Brown and Joe Ollman so I'm in good company!

UPDATE: I hear from Brad McKay from the Wright Awards, that the artwork will be the following:
Seth: Dr. Fate
Chester Brown: Batman!
Joe Ollman: The Spectre
Other entries from All-Star Canadian team include ones by Jeff Lemire, Jillian Tamaki, Lynn Johnston, Kate Beaton and Bryan Lee O-Malley!

More surprises to come!

The art will be on display at TCAF 2010 at the Doug Wright booth.

Originally, I thought I would do Plastic Man, but this is inspired by Alex Toth's Black Canary shorts in Adventure Comics (which I was flipping through). Too many lines for Toth though - sigh. He's the master of minimalism.

Can't wait to see what others come up with!

Sweet Tooth & More!

2010-03-19T21:28:00.001-04:00

The piece below is for the upcoming Sweet Tooth launch party to celebrate the release of the Vertigo tpb collection. The Book Launch will take place at the Lillian H. Smith Library in Toronto, on Wednesday, May 5th (just a couple of days before TCAF).

The piece will be part of an exhibit of over 50 pieces of original artwork from Sweet Tooth, including interpretations of Sweet Tooth’s world and characters by other fellow cartoonists including Jeffrey Brown, Matt Kindt, Ray Fawkes, and Noel Tuazon! Can't wait to see what others came up with!

I'm happy with this piece and am honoured to be a part of this. Sweet Tooth is a great book and Jeff is such a talent (plus a really great guy too). I'll be making the trip to TO for this.

Odds and Ends

Seth Dominion ShowI did up a piece recently for the Trouble With Comics blog on the Seth art show at Museum London. You can read it here.
Wolvie Drawing
The Joe Shuster Awards featured my pic of Wolverine and did a little piece on me here.
Minature Show
Am really happy to saw that I sold both my pieces that were in the Miniature show at the Art Exchange here in London, Ontario.

The Mighty Thor & Hazel Boswell

2010-02-11T16:05:00.001-05:00

Couple of new updates...

Hazel Boswell - French Canada

My Grandmother had many lovely folk-art type illustrations framed in her home which depicted scenes from Quebec City where she grew up.

I grew up seeing them in her house and had a real fondness for them. When she passed away, I inherited these pictures which now hang in our house.

I realized I knew nothing about the artist, and so many years later, I still found them enchanting. Thanks to some sleuthing and trusty Google, I found they were illustrations from a book written and illustrated by Hazel Boswell called "French Canada: Pictures and Stories", and was printed in 1938.

It was very popular in its day. I tracked a copy down on Abebooks and thought I would share the wealth with scans of all the illustrations. I posted them all up at Flickr here.

Drawn even featured it as a post - yay!

The Mighty Thor!
I'm doing a lot of writing on my Gerald Bull graphic novel right now and I find it frustrating to not being doing any artwork, so I do some sketches to keep myself interesting and my skills up. Here's the Mighty Thor!

Miniature Show at the Art Exchange

2010-02-02T08:40:00.000-05:00

The 5th Annual juried Miniature show at the Art Exchange here in London, Ont is running all this month and I have 2 pieces in it.

Muskoka Fall, $90.00 framed & matted.

Isla Mujeres Flowers, $90.00 framed & matted.

Each piece submitted needed to be just 4 x 3 inchees (hence miniature), then the pieces are matted and framed by the Art Exchange and displayed at the gallery. When I spoke to the owner he said he hoped he would have 100 pieces in total and would have room to hang up each piece.

This year there is a really nice variety of pieces including sculptures and 3D pieces. The Art Exchange has posted photos of each piece in the show on their website here.

Reception is this Friday, February 5th at 7:30 PM. Rosie and I will be there so come by and say hello!

Kazoo T-Shirt

2009-12-10T17:08:00.019-05:00

A perennial best-seller. Based on the Magritte "Ceci n'est pas un pipe" painting and done originally for the Toronto band Toca Loca. This design is available in Women's and Men's sizes.They are hand-screenprinted by Fresh Ink on 100% cotton pre-shrunk shirts and are only $20.00 each.

Women's Medium Size
Note, these are snug fitting and fit more like a small.

Men's Medium

Men's Large

Men's X-Large

Silver Surfer T-Shirts!

2009-12-08T20:54:00.031-05:00

Based on my take of a classic Kirby pose, this design is available in Women's and Men's sizes.
They are hand-screenprinted by Fresh Ink on 100% cotton pre-shrunk shirts. Below we see my lovely Rosie modeling it. Cost is only $20.00 each.

Win a Free Shirt Contest
For a chance for a free shirt of your colour and size, just post a comment on this blog or RT my Twitter message by tomorrow, December 10th at 1:00 PM. You'll also get a copy of each of my mini-comics still in print. Contest is now over. Winner is Sookie Mei! Thanks to everyone for participating.
Sizes are Women's Medium, Men's Medium and Men's Large. Lots of colours available, but note that quantities are very limited, so get your order in soon so you're not disappointed!

Women's Medium Surfer Colours
Medium size only available. Note that these are a tailored snug fit. I usually take a medium, and this fits, but is more like a small size. If unsure, I would suggest the Men's medium.

At left are colours available.

Men's Medium Surfer Colours

Men's Large Colours

Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man

2009-12-08T10:11:00.009-05:00

Though I love super hero comics, I don't really draw much of them. The first time I did in a loooong time was for the Joe Shuster Awards last year when they asked artists to do their rendition of Superman (my fave).

I liked the experience and people seemed to like my take, so I've done a few more illos here and there, especially if I find myself stuck drawing one of my own stories and need to loosen up a little. Anyway, here's my take on everyone's favourite webslinger - Spider-Man.

Update - friend and comic blogger extraordinaire Alan David Doane did up this awesome colour version for me. What a treat to get it in my email. He got the feel of those Romita Sr. Spidey comics just right in the colour tone to me. That run has always been my favourite of the book. Thanks Alan!
Gerald Bull Project
So what's happening with that big graphic novel project you're working on you ask? Well, slowly but surely progress is happening. I did a big chapter breakdown recently where I mapped out exactly what would happen in each chapter of the book. When my lovely agent/editor Sam Haywood gently mentioned that if I did that story it would take me 10 yrs and would be 400 pages long, I had to agree it was too much.

I had done a traditional chronological take on the character and had put in way too many details as a result of the amount of research I'd done. It was hard for me to see the forest for the trees in terms of what was really important and integral to the story, and what could be cut.

Anyway, I finally figured out a better structure and did up a new chapter breakdown that got the thumbs up from Sam. The story is much more streamlined now and stronger. I had put the drawing on hold while I worked all of this out and am glad I did, or I would have had to toss all that work out.

So - back to the drawing board literally for me. I am re-energized and ready to go!

Griffin!
My daughter's best friend is named Griffin and I did this sketch to explain to Rosie just what a Griffin is. I'm going to run off some copies for Griffin and Rosie to colour together!

Trouble With Comics

2009-11-04T14:04:00.008-05:00

Darwyn Cooke Storytelling Workshop
I recently got to attend a storytelling workshop with comic master (and friend) Darwyn Cooke, it was a great experience that I wrote a full piece on at the Trouble With Comics blog here.

Below is a shot of Darwyn reviewing work from my new GN from the portfolio review session of the workshop. Darwyn did a one on one with all participants, and we all got to see and listen in on all the reviews - this was just as educational as the formal workshop itself.

This is actually the 2nd Storytelling workshop with Darwyn I've been to. The first was a much shorter one he did back in 2007. The write up from that session is here. I specifically remember that writer Nalo Hopkinson was in the audience then, which I thought was very cool!

Joe Shuster Awards & Speakeasy Show
Tomorrow night (November 5th) is the Speakeasy comic show in Toronto. I've exhibited at this a couple of times and it's always fun. The Joe Shuster Awards will have a bunch of pieces on display at the show. They have asked Canadian comic artists to do up their version of that old Canucklehead Wolverine, then the pieces will be auctioned later on eBay to raise funds for the awards.

Here's my contribution...

Word on the Street

2009-09-11T14:34:00.009-04:00

Wow, it's been a long time since the last blog update, and there's much to write about. Let's get to the first order of business...

Word on the Street, September 27th, Toronto, Ontario
I will have a booth at the Word on the Street on Sunday, September 27th in Toronto. This is a fabulous street festival celebrating literacy and the written word. This is the 20th anniversary of the Festival and it looks bigger and better than ever.

Heavyweights like Margaret Atwood, Nicco Ricci and Kenneth Oppel will be on hand, but of special interest is the Comics and Graphic Novels Tent, presented in partnership with TCAF. The tent will have discussion panels and presentations by some great local talent and friends like Claudia Davila, Willow Dawson, Brad McKay (of the Doug Wright Awards) and Kevin Boyd (of the Joe Shuster Awards).

I will be in the "Fringe Beat" section at booth# FB14 (see map above). Lezley Davidson will be sharing the table with me and she will have very first book of her webcomic "Peeling Onions" on hand. I will have my minis for sale as well as t-shirts including the my popular "Silver Surfer - Kirby Style" silk-screened shirt. Best of all, WOTS is FREE for all to attend.

Draw Parker Contest
To celebrate the launch of Darwyn Cooke's new "Parker" graphic novel, Darwyn had a contest on his site encouraging people to draw their version of the character and send it in. Darwyn himself would hand-pick the winners. There was a really good response with a lot of artists participating. You can see the gallery here. Below is my entry.

I read "The Hunter" by Richard Stark recently in anticipation of the graphic novel and really enjoyed it. To me the character didn't come across as young and handsome though. He seemed like an older, rugged kind of guy, yet with a very magnetic personality.

In my drawing, I also wanted to get across his style of dress being rumpled, and a little worn. This is from a scene in the book where he is staking out a character...

I ended being disqualified from the contest being a "friend of Darwyn's". We get nothing but his love, apparently. I'll take it I say!

Other News

Here are photos from my signing with Willow Dawson at L.A. Mood. Carol and Gord were great hosts and it was a terrific signing. Thanks to everyone who came out. A bonus was spending time with pal Willow.

Here's a link to my interview with the National Post for TCAF. I was really happy how this came out.

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

2009-05-27T21:14:00.007-04:00

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

2009-05-04T09:07:00.005-04:00

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

2009-03-12T15:54:00.004-04:00

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

2009-03-03T15:38:00.005-05:00

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

2009-02-24T10:42:00.008-05:00

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

2008-12-05T14:49:00.000-05:00

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

2008-11-04T21:48:00.011-05:00

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?

2008-11-04T21:10:00.007-05:00

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.

Speaking at MIT this Thursday

2008-10-21T09:28:00.005-04:00

Very exciting news - I will be speaking at MIT in Boston this Thursday, October 23rd with fellow panelists Jeet Heer and Ho Che Anderson.

Needless to say I'm really excited, nervous and really honored. Here's the full info:

Comics and Social Conflict
Ho Che Anderson, Jeet Heer, & Diana Tamblyn
Thursday, October 23, 5:00 -7:00 PM, MIT

Comics have emerged as a key means of interpreting and disseminating controversial and contested histories: Chester Brown's Louis Riel, Keiji Nakazawa's Barefoot Gen, Joe Sacco's Palestine, and Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis are just some of the works that take definitive social and political conflict as their topic.

Why has historical material become so important for comics art? What unique opportunities does comics allow for critiquing and revising dominant historical narratives? These are the questions our speakers will discuss, in relation to their own work and to the comics world in general. Diana Tamblyn is writing a biography of Canadian arms trader and weapons engineer Gerald Bull; Ho Che Anderson authored King, a 3-volume biography of Martin Luther King; and Jeet Heer is a historian and a leading comics scholar.

Admission: Free. Open to the Public.

Here's what the building looks like where we will be speaking - just a little bit daunting!

Full info can be found here at the MIT website.

Then Friday afternoon, Ho Che and I will be reviewing work by any students who want feedback on their portfolios.

I'm really interested that they selected three Canadians to talk about this subject. Should be really interesting and certainly very topical! I've also never been to Boston before so I'm looking forward to doing a bit of exploring.

Muskoka in the Fall

2008-09-30T10:44:00.009-04:00

Word on the Street
I exhibited for the first time at Word on the Street this past Sunday and had a great day! The weather was gorgeous, tons of people came out and best of all - I sold a lot of stuff! Thanks to everyone who dropped by to say hello.

Muskoka Landscapes
Other than working on my comics, I'm trying to do more artwork in general. Last fall I took a bunch of photos of the colours changing up north in Muskoka and have been doing some studies of them. Below is what I've done so far. I'm pretty happy with the results!

Muskoka Hillside - done in pen and ink.

View overlooking 3 Mile Lake. Done in pen and ink.

Muskoka Landscape - done in oil pastels. I used to use oil pastels a lot and like working with them. I'm a bit out of practice with them.

Gerald Bull Graphic Novel
I'm still working hard on the graphic novel. Last week I started drawing it in earnest. I'm now on page 2 drawing wise, and on Chapter 3 writing-wise! Making good steady progress...

Kaiser Wilhelm II

2008-09-05T10:05:00.002-04:00

Work on the graphic novel continues. I have finished my reading and research and have started writing. I am just finishing up Chapter 2 now. I'm also still doing preparatory drawings (Kaiser Wilhelm II above, appears as a character in my Prologue), but will start drawing the actual book this month.

Last week Newsarama posted a review of my older minis and they said some nice things. You can check it out here.

I've also set up a Flick page with my drawings and illustrations, which you can find here.

The General Behaviour of a Spinning Shell

2008-08-21T09:25:00.006-04:00

Here are some preparatory drawings for my Bull Project. When I asked friend Frank Cammuso for advice on how to prepare for a full-length graphic novel (and he should know having just finished one major book for Scholastic - Knights of the Lunch Table and Otto's Orange Day for Toon Books this year), he recommending totally immersing myself in the subject, literally surrounding myself with it. This is what he did for Knights where he did tons of research on the Knights of the Round Table.

So - I've been doing just that. Tons of background reading and preparatory sketches on all sorts of things I would never normally draw. Since Bull was an artillery expert, I've been reading a lot about that, and some of the things are strangely beautiful like these below. I adapted them from mathematical equations that looked at the paths spinning shells take in flight.

Slowly Rolling Fin Stabilized Missile
Spin Stabilized Shell
Fast Rolling Fin Stabilized Missile

I think I might end up doing a mini of all of my drawings (and maybe the prologue of the book which is a story in and of itself) for the project and release it for next year's TCAF. Would you guys be interested in something like this? I think it would end up being approx. 40 -50 pages or so.

The Paris Guns

2008-08-13T16:14:00.004-04:00

Work on my graphic novel has begun. A few weeks ago I spent a few days with Gerald Bull's family in Quebec. They could not have been more gracious hosts and I came away with a lot of valuable information and anecdotes.

I also have just finished writing the prologue and am doing preparatory drawings. Above is what I envision as the image for the prologue page chapter cover which depicts the history of the first long range guns - the Paris Guns developed by the Germans in WWI.

Summer Reading List
Sequential recently posted my summer reading list. Not surprisingly, the majority of it covers my research for the Bull project.

Mocca 2008

2008-06-10T09:51:00.007-04:00

This past weekend, Dave and I went to NYC for Mocca 2008. Rosie stayed home with Grandma for the 2 nights we were away (the longest we've both been away from her).
On Friday, we drove to Toronto and flew in to LaGuardia. There was apparently a lot of congestion at the New York aiport, so our flight was 2 hrs late which was too bad as that really cut into our bumming around the city time.

We stayed right near the Puck Building at a neat "boutique" hotel in Soho. The best part about it was that it had a rooftop patio which was a nice oasis in the middle of the city. That night for dinner we got takeout at the nearby Whole Foods and ate it overlooking the city.

Saturday we walked over to the show with friend and tablemate Frank Cammuso and his wife Ngoc. We had registered the night before so got to bypass the big line to get in. We were on the first floor luckily as it was nicely air-conditioned all weekend long. The folks on the 7th floor roasted under the skylights in the heat wave and I was glad to not be up there.

Things were slow to get started with the hall not really being full until 1:00 PM. This was my first ever Mocca and after hearing so many great things about it, I have to say I was a little discouraged with my sales. Usually I have pretty steady traffic and I was hoping since I was new to NYC I might do pretty well. This might have actually played against me though as I'm kind of unknown in the city. There was just so much good stuff on display to compete with people's attention.

There didn't seem to be a "book of the show", I kept looking at what was underneath people's arms and it really varied (or it was free stuff). Also it did really seem that people weren't spending as much as usual with a lot of people just picking up a few things or simply browsing. There was a lot of speculation of how this would bode for San Diego.

On Sunday, things did pick up. I think a lot of people had done their browsing and started buying. I think a lot of people bought their "big" books on Saturday as well like the Michel Gondry comic, the Lynda Barry book, the new Jason book, Chiggers, etc., so they were picking up smaller stuff that caught their eye on the Sunday. At 3:30, we had to leave the show a bit early to catch our flight back to Toronto and the timing worked out well for us as at about 3:15, show organizers started evacuating the building because of a fire alarm. It meant that I literally threw the contents of my table into my suitcase and we walked quickly out of the building. Gentleman that he is, Frank helped us with our bags and hailed a cab for us. We hopped in and left hundreds of people on the sidewalk in the burning sun as fire engines wailed all around us. It was a very surreal ending to the show.

All in all, I did about 20% of the sales I did at TCAF - still my best and favourite show. SPX is a solid #2. I don't know if I would go back to Mocca, I might like to try Indie Island first. Mocca does take place in NYC though which is awesome but also expensive. As usual, the best part of the show for me was chatting with friends and meeting new ones.

Here are Highlights of the Weekend:

Hanging out with Frank and Ngoc.
Meeting Lark Pien and Thien Pham and enjoying a great Thai dinner with them and the group.
Seeing and chatting to US-based pals Cecil Castellucci & Jillian Tamaki.
Catching up with the with fabulously talented Toronto crowd (a big contingent of which came out for Mocca): Jeff Lemire, Willow Dawson, Stef Lenk, Tyrone and Alana McCarthy, Mariko Tamaki, Blake Bell, Jeet Heer, and the inimitable Steve Manale.
Talking to R.Sikoryak and his wife at Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly's rooftop patio party.
Drinking belgian beer with Dave on our hotel rooftop overlooking the NY city skyline.

Comics Purchased
Usually I buy comics throughout a show from the money I make from my sales. Since sales were lower this year, I bought less stuff sadly...

Freddie & Me - Mike Dawson. This is THE book I wanted to pick up at the show. I really like Mike's stuff.
Knights of the Lunch Table - Frank Cammuso. Of course I had to pick this up! I read it on the plane on the way home and it's really meaty with great artwork and storytelling.
Laika, Missouri Boy and Notes for a War Story all from First Second.
Mini-comics by Jeff Lemire.
Full Night Moon - Lark Pien.
Vertigo had free advance copies of every new book in their Minx line and I picked up Emiko Superstar and Janes in Love (Also read on the plan ride back. A great GN, I liked the first one and this one is even better!).

If I had more money and room in my luggage I would have picked up something by Will Dinski & Super Spy by Matt Kindt. Ah well, it's hard to get everything you want...

Visions of an Icon

2008-05-27T11:42:00.006-04:00

These are my contributions to the upcoming "Visions of an Icon" art exhibition, which is a celebration my very favourite super-hero - Superman, put on by the Joe Shuster Awards.

I did two drawings, the first is of the most iconic part of Supes - the crest:The image is of the suit itself, all battered up after a lot of long, hard use. After doing this piece I realized I did it in the entirely wrong dimensions (sorry guys!), so I thought I'd better do another one for the show. Also I was anxious to draw the big guy.

Inspired by Gary's Frank's recent run on Action Comics, where his rendition of Supes is heavily inspired by Chris Reeve, I did this full-on drawing.
I'm quite pleased with it. He kind of looks like Chris Reeve and also of Superboy from the old 1960's comics which I love.

2008-04-30T09:39:00.002-04:00

Gerald Bull Project
Some exciting news for me is that last month I received a Canada Council grant for my next new project - a full fledged historical graphic novel in the vein of my Banting mini-comic about Canadian scientist Gerald Bull.

Gerald Bull was considered by many to be one of the most brilliant scientists of the twentieth century. His research led him across the globe, from Canada, to the Pentagon in the U.S., to Barbados, South Africa and Iraq – where he developed the “Supergun” for Saddam Hussein, and ultimately to Brussels, where he was assassinated in 1990.

Canadians often think that our history is boring, but this story is one of drama, intrigue and politics that reads like it came right out of a John LeCarre novel. It also has a lot of themes that are relevant to the politics of today - namely how far should individual passion and obsession take you?

I first became aware of Gerald Bull through my grand aunt Louise Murphy. A Sergeant and code-breaker in WWII, she served as Bull’s personal secretary during his time at Valcartier, Quebec in the 1950s and would house sit for him while he was on overseas trips.

She knew him as a genius, a caring family man and boss. She also felt that he wasn’t given the respect or support he deserved from the Canadian and US governments (his work for South Africa actually got him imprisoned in the US for 6 months), and that this is what led to his downfall.

So - this is what will be taking up my time for the next couple of years. Right now I am in research mode, but am also doing some sketches. This summer I will be writing the first draft.

Above is my drawing of Bull in Barbados, where he worked on the HARP gun (High Altitude Research Project).

2008-04-02T13:16:00.005-04:00

Well, we've been in our new house for about a month and a half now and things are finally settling down. We had lots of problems with basic necessities like electrical, hot water, phone (TONS of problems with Bell and then Rogers), & Internet.

I'm slowly getting into the swing of this working from home thing. It's got its pros and cons obviously. Overall the whole family is happy to be in London.

I'm also back at the drawing board! A friend, fellow cartoonist Zach Worton asked for a sketch from me about a year ago! I finally got around to it this month, and since it is so late I did a fully finished one for him. He's a fan of the Canadian painter Norval Morriseau and I found a really awesome old photograph of him looking very James Dean like that I did the drawing from.

2008-01-09T18:30:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year 2008!
Sorry for the lag in between posts but December has been a very busy month for me! Dave got a great job offer in London, Ontario, and we have both quit our jobs in Toronto and sold out house already.

Rosie has gotten into our #1 pick for daycare (after much time and persistence on our part), and now we are house hunting in London. A goal in moving to London is to be closer to my family (my mom especially who's crazy about Rosie and vice-versa), to get away from the bustle of Toronto which we're kind of sick of, and to provide a more relaxed environment for Rosie to grow up in.

Another goal was for me to be able to devote more time to my artwork and comics in particular! It's been very hard with a 50-hour/week job, plus a toddler and a husband (who I like to see) to get much time to work on my artwork, but hopefully you will notice an increase of updates here of more art-related postings. Other than that, we'll see where the wind takes me.

Way Off Broadway
Here is some artwork of a recent commission I did for the "Way Off Broadway"singers. This is a singing duo from London who do local gigs and wanted an illustration to use on their CDs, business cards and marketing material. They wanted caricatures of their likenesses along with an image that showed that they're fun guys who don't take themselves too seriously.

Initially I did a drawing of both charaters running away from a Broadway sign (from their name - Way Off Broadway), and I tried to put equal emphasis on both. The client Abe, correctly pointed out that really both should be running in the same direction away from the sign.

Initial drawing

This meant that one character would be in the foreground though, and the other in the back. To try to keep an equal weighting on both I made Jeff substantially taller (which from the photos it looks like he is in real life), plus with cartoons you always have the license to exagerate features somewhat. Below is the final piece which I was quite happy with and the client too!

Final piece as approved by client

Rosie Stories Review
Lastly, Shawn Hoke recently gave my Rosie Stories mini a new review at his site.

2007-10-24T08:00:00.000-04:00

Trampoline Hall

Monday night I was one of the cartoonists participating in Trampoline Hall, studiously documenting the speakers and the surroundings. Because of construction happening around Fort York as well as a film shoot, most of the streets were blocked off and I had a heck of a time trying to find the place.

I left myself time to get lost (since this is a regular occurrence for me), but was still in a panic after driving around aimlessly for 20 minutes and getting near empty in the gas tank. Finally I ended up picking up 2 other lost souls whose cab dropped them off on foot, because he gave up finding it, and together we got followed another car who was driving around looking for the event.

Teamwork saved the day and it made it just on time! It took me awhile to settle down, but once I did I really enjoyed myself. Here's the sketches I did during the evening. Click on the images for larger versions.

Fellow cartoonist Brian McLachlan and Zach Worton.

Host Misha Glouberman

Fellow cartoonist, (Reverend Aitor I think)? I was frankly more fascinated with the audience and the other cartoonists than the speakers. This gentlemen in particular had such a neat look that I ended up drawing him multiple times. Steve Manale suggested I do a montage of him.

The final speaker was a bit trying, he was getting so outrageous that people were starting to laugh out loud at some of his comments like the one here.

What I've done is more realistic in style, but lots of other people like Steve Manale and Johnny Martz were doing full-blown comics of the event. The Immonens were doing one-panel gags that looked so awesome that I was green with envy.

Becky Jonson who curated the evening is gathering all work done that evening into a zine which will be available this Sunday at Canzine as well as The Beguiling.

Below is a photo of me at the event (stolen from Kathryn Immonen's Flicker stream). Note my Spider-Man pencil case on the floor under my chair.

2007-10-17T18:16:00.000-04:00

Upcoming Comics Events

I'm in a couple of comic related events in the next couple of weeks that are pretty neat that you should all check out if you have the chance.

Monday, October 22nd, Trampoline Hall
Created by author Sheila Heti, Trampoline Hall is a literary salon where each month, non-experts talk about subjects they are obsessed with.
This month, Trampoline Hall is temporarily uprooting itself and moving to Fort York's barracks, and will feature a bevy of Toronto area cartoonists. A bunch of us will be live sketching and documenting the evening and the event's speakers: Leaf Buckareff (on Hyberbolic Crochet), Waylen Miki (on Robotism), & Jakob Zimmer (on Diverse Curiosity). This should be a pretty fun evening. Tickets are $5.00, and it all starts at 8PM.

Confirmed cartoonists include: Zach Worton, Arthur de la Cruz, Ben Shannon, Steve Manale, Emily Holton, Shannon Gerard, Kagan McLeod, Roxanne Bielskis, Diana Tamblyn, Reverend Aitor, Stuart Immonen, Katherine Immonen, Blair Kitchen, and Jeff Lemire.

Sunday, October 28st - Canzine
I’ll have a table at Canzine this October 28th, at the Gladstone Hotel.

$5 at the door gets you the new Horror Issue of Broken Pencil Magazine (organizers of the event) and access to hundreds of zines, mini-comics, all-day horror screenings, DIY workshops, readings, and all sorts of other stuff. So drop by and say hello!

Finally, Diverging Comics recently did a pretty long interview with me and you can read it here.

2007-09-13T08:00:00.000-04:00

The Rosie Stories Now Available for Order!

Hey everyone, I updated the comics section of my site and The Rosie Stories is now available for order through Paypal (you can also order from me directly, just check out the contact section of my site).

If you live in Toronto, you can pick it up at The Beguiling, or Comics and More.

There is already a review of it up on Diverging Comics here.

Dave's Nerd Heroes Moment
In other news, Dave was lucky enough recently to get a wristband for a copy of the Heroes DVD from Best Buy which allowed him to be one of 100 people to get their DVD signed by cast members who came to Toronto for the "Heroes World Tour". In the Toronto stop, the following were there: Noah Gray-Cabbey (Micah), James Kyson Lee (Ando), Zachary Quinto (Sylar), Dania Ramirez (Maya) and Jeph Loeb (co-executive producer/writer).

We were of course the most excited about Jeph Loeb, and though they said they would only sign the DVD - Dave took down an original Tim Sale Long Halloween page off of our wall that morning and took it with him to try to see if Jeph would sign it (we already had it signed by Sale).

Jeph was really gracious and apparently was really pleased that Dave was interested in meeting him (as most people were fawning over the cast). He had Dave stand behind the table and had a runner go get a pencil to sign the page with because he didn't want to use his gold sharpie. He even pointed out the page to the cast at the table. Dave was pretty thrilled.

A few days later, reading an article in the Toronto Star I noticed that the photo accompanying the article featured Dave getting his DVD signed by Ando! This even went out on the wire on Reuters! In the background, you can see our page in front of Jeph Loeb (highlighted in red by me in Photoshop). A true nerd moment. You can read all about on Dave's blog here.

2007-08-20T09:31:00.000-04:00

TCAF Wrap-Up

Well, TCAF is all over. It feels like a week happened over Saturday and Sunday. TCAF is always my best show so my expectations were high - as usual though, the show did not disappoint.

I put a lot into this show, doing up a new comic for the event as well as doing up a bunch of t-shirts at Hardboiled. Also, as mentioned, I was nervous going into this show as my new comic "The Rosie Stories" is so personal - I don't think I've ever put myself out there as much as I have with this comic.

Saturday
I had a great table mate for the weekend, Claudia Davila who was selling her first-ever comic - Spoiled. Claudia was doing awesome business with her mini, and getting a lot of well-deserved attention. Check out her webcomic Luz, to see her latest stuff.

The morning was slow getting started, and I was very foggy-headed for at least the first hour as a result of going to the Doug Wright after-party the night before with my sister Jennifer who came down from Ottawa just to help me man my booth. Apologies to anyone who showed up at this time if I seemed weird and cranky.

At the party I happened to mention to Andy Brown of Cunundrum Press that I loved Rupert Bottenberg's work, and he said well this is Rupert right here! They were both down from Montreal to plug the new anthology Monster Island Three. The book contains comics and essays about monsters and comics and is edited by Billy Mavreas. I know Rupert's stuff from when I lived in Montreal and he did a bunch of illustration work for the local alt-weekly as well as a lot of band posters. It was great to meet him.

Things started picked up around 1 PM and got really crazy all afternoon. The venue, Old Victoria College is a big one and there were a lot of people there! Kudos to Chris Butcher and the Beguiling for really getting the word out for this show. I'd love to know the official attendance numbers...

Saturday night, Dave and I went to Sneaky Dee's for the after-party and specifically to see our friend Willow Dawson play the saw in her band Little Brown Bat. I was dead tired, so didn't last very long but the band was really good. Ray, the frontman has a great voice and the saw is surprisingly elegant and melodic as an instrument (I think I was expecting something more along the lines of a washboard!).

Sunday
Saturday is always the busiest day of the show so I didn't really know what to expect for this day. After selling a lot of books and a few t-shirts the day before, I was pretty calm and relaxed though. My sister set up the t-shirts a different way this day and was modelling one of the designs. Her efforts really paid off, as the tees were flying off my table that day! I will updated my website soon with the images, colours and sizes. They'll be available through Paypal.

The morning again was slow so I tried to look around a little bit as I hadn't even been to each room of the show yet. I also brought a bunch of stuff to get signed and was successful in this regard. I got to meet Jillian Tamaki and had Gilded Lilies signed, Rebecca Kraatz signed my House of Sugar, and Eleanor Davis and Drew Weing signed my Blar and Bugbear. Good stuff.

Scott Chantler had the annotated Northwest Passage (which of course I picked up - it's gorgeous!) available and he was doing booming business. He said it was his best show ever and I started calling him "The man of TCAF".

Though it wasn't my best sales show ever (I think this was last TCAF for me which is when the Globe and Mail did an interview with me), it certainly is still my best and favourite show. In total I sold 90 comics and 20 t-shirts so I'm super happy about that!

Special thanks to my sis who not only helped at my booth, but got my lunch both days and babysat for Rosie so we could go out on Saturday night!

2007-08-14T18:31:00.000-04:00

New Rosie Stories Mini-Comic out for TCAF!

Hey everybody, exciting news! As previously announced, I will have a new mini-comic out for TCAF, called "The Rosie Stories".

After bumping into Chip Zdarsky in the lobby of my building today where we talked about how excited we are for TCAF, I dropped off the mock-up for the printer. It will literally be hot off the press for Saturday. Here's the cover:

The comic is 13 pages long and features 2 autobiographical stories about all the experiences and feelings (both good and bad) that go with being a new parent, along with a couple of "L'il Rosie" cartoons of Rosie done up in a Peanuts style (big headed kid one page gags). These Peanuts-style cartoons were much tougher to do than I anticipated, but I do want to try some more in the future.

The Rosie in question, is of course my daughter Rosie. This comic is a real outpouring of my heart, and I'm feeling a bit vulnerable about putting this out there - but they are real markers of what's important in my life right now and the stories I'm interested in telling. The lady at the copy shop said it was "really cute" . When I said "Really? You thought it was cute?" - she said "Well yeah, and really well done." I'm good with this.

It will have a 2-colour offset cover, with B&W interior and will be available for the low, low price of $3.00. I will also have a couple of t-shirts for TCAF. One is a re-run of my Toca Loca kazoo shirt which was sold out in all small sizes. The other is a new design of an astronaut girl looking up at a Melies moon. I will post images once I have them. They will be $20.00 and $25.00 respectively and will be available in different sizes and colours.

What Else to Look for at TCAF
Where to start, where to start?

There is going to be so much good stuff available but I thought I would highlight the stuff I'm especially looking forward to...

Claudia Davila - Spoiled Mini-Comic
Claudia and her husband Michael Cho will be my tablemates at TCAF and I couldn't be happier about that! On top of being good friends and all-around great people, Claudia will be debuting her first ever comic at the show: Spoiled, an allegory about humankind's connection with nature in relation to petroleum.

She is a great cartoonist and one to watch for sure, and she's launching the comic with a party on the the Thursday night. Check out her Luz: Girl of the Knowing webcomic here.

Ray Fawkes/Cameron Stewart - Apolcalipstix
Having made their first appearance in the RAID anthology "Rumble Royale", the Apolcalipstix get their own OGN from Oni and it makes its debut at TCAF! This modern Tank Girl like story is written by Ray Fawkes with gorgeous artwork (as usual) by Cameron Stewart.

Matthew Forsythe - Ojingogo
Matthew Forsythe from Montreal does a great mini-comic called Ojingogo. It also exists in a webcomic format that's been nominated for all kinds of awards. See why by checking out some of his stuff at TCAF.

Stuart and Kathryn Immonen - Never as Bad as You Think, Moving Pictures
Stuart and Kathryn Immonen have a couple of new releases for TCAF: a new 24-pg version of "Moving Pictures" in mini-comic format, and the first printing of their webcomic "Never as Bad as You Think" in trade paperback format. I will be looking for both at the show.

Jillian Tamaki - Gilded Lilies
I picked this one up awhile back, it's a great sketchbook from Conumdrum Press. Tom Spurgeon listed it as one of his picks of 2006. Jillian is an ex-pat who now lives in New York City. I really love her stuff. Be sure to check out the Kiss Machine comic that she illustrated as well. If you like James Jean, you will like Jillian Tamaki.

Eleanor Davis & Drew Weing
The only non-Canucks on my list. TCAF is their first Canadian appearance. I first became aware of their stuff at SPX, and I've been ordering their minis from Little House Comics for awhile now - all of them are just terrific! From what's in stock on their website I would recommend "Blar" from Drew and "Mati and Dodi" from Eleanor.

Technorati Tags: Toronto Comic Arts Festival, TCAF, Diana Tamblyn

2007-06-29T18:30:00.000-04:00

Notes from a Darwyn Cooke Storytelling Workshop & Some New Reviews

I'm currently trying to finish off my new mini-comic for TCAF and am having some problems ending the story. In going through some of my old notebooks I came across some notes I had made from a Darwyn Cooke Storytelling workshop at few years ago at a Toronto Comicon. Not surprisingly, there were some great words of wisdom in there that I thought I would share here. Also, if you ever have a chance to sit in on one of these from Darwyn - grab it!

Darwyn On Story

Describe someone's character through their appearance and mannerisms (don't have to spell everything out in narrative).
Learn how to get your characters to display human emotions through the physicality of body language.
It's possible to draw every emotion known to man with just a few lines.
Make characters relevant and make the resolution to your story satisfying for readers.
Everything in the story should serve or reinforce the theme.
Pacing is art + design + math which all comes together to break out a script.

On Staging

When breaking down a script, don't change the writer's dialogue to reinforce the theme, change the location if you can to something that is thematically consistent to what is being said.

General Tips

Move the eye through the page diagonally from top left-hand corner to bottom right-hand corner (an easy way of doing this is by using triangles - see example below which is artwork from a New Frontier page).
Never draw a floor if you don't have to! It's too much perspective work and you should pay more attention to the story. It will also cut 40% of your drawing time and the work will be compositionally stronger (if you are Geoff Darrow or Brian Bolland, please ignore).
If you're stuck in how to end a story, try to end it so that it's either happy or sad.

Some Recent Reviews
There have been a few reviews of my stuff recently that I thought I'd link to because they're so swell.

First off Rob Clough from Sequart did a short write up of both the Toca Loca Project and There You Were, where he says:

"Tamblyn has been creating quiet, thoughtful stories for a few years now."
Check it out here.

Then Sean Clement recently reviewed Writer's Block at DivergingComics.org. Some of the nice things he had to say:

"Diana Tamblyn continues to shine as someone able to make real life situations into comics worth reading about, as well. Her gift for storytelling, both as a writer and artist, is wonderful."

Thanks Sean! You can read the review here.

2007-06-11T07:53:00.000-04:00

Women in Comics II/Toronto Comicon

Well, I've been terrible again with blog updates. I'm going to try to step it up this summer as we move towards TCAF where I will have a new mini available!

My excuse has been that I've been working like crazy helping with the planning, organization and promotion of the Women of Comics II programming at this past weekend's Toronto Comicon. We had an awesome line-up of guests this year that included: Shelly Bond, Cecil Castellucci, Svetlana Chmakova, Danielle Corsetto, Willow Dawson, Tania Del Rio, Janet Hetherington, Faith Erin Hicks, Joan Hilty, Liana K., Michèle Laframboise, Tara McPherson, Robyn Moore, Vesna Mostovac, Patricia Mulvihill, Christine Norrie, Emily Pohl-Weary, Nicola Scott, Gail Simone, Tara Tallan, Mariko Tamaki, Raina Telgemeier, Renee Witterstaetter and me!

This year we had a special focus on 2 imprints: DC's Minx line, and local Toronto comic imprint Kiss Machine Presents. Kiss Machine has a great line-up of comics, but they are distributed through the bookstore and library system in Canada for the most part (and not carried at all through Diamond), so it was important to me to try to expose the comic-going crowd to this great line that is here in our own backyard.

Besides having my own table at the show, I moderated two panels on Saturday:

12:00 PM: The Visual Language of Comics
Take part in an examination of the cutting edge language of comic book storytelling through the eyes of some of today's most innovative storytellers: Svetlana Chmakova, Janet Hetherington, Raina Telgemeier, Faith Erin Hicks, Tara McPherson, and Christine Norrie.

I'm always surprised at these things about how similar many of our background are. Many of us have a real shared experience and it's a treat to get together and talk comics. We stuck loosely to the theme, but mainly it was a great excuse to get an all-star panel together to talk about making comics. We got a great turn out and lots of questions from the audience. We could have easily kept on going... Matt Brown at BlogTO did a great write up about it here (pic courtesy of Heidi MacDonald and Patricia Mulvihill - from left to right is me, Raina, Christine, Tara, Svetlana, Janet and Faith).

Update: I just read this on a blog about the show and I had to add it here. There was a Marvel Comics presentation happening at the same time as this panel in a different room at the show and apparently there were way more people in our WOC group than in the Marvel room! Woo hoo! Power to the people.

4:30 PM: Spotlight on Kiss Machine
Kiss Machine is a Canadian imprint dedicated to publishing "graphic novellas" by top Canadian talent. Learn more about this dynamic line with guests Emily Pohl-Weary, Willow Dawson, Vesna Mostovac and Mariko Tamaki.

The Kiss Machine panel went very well, and we learned that author Mariko Tamaki is not only having a full graphic novel of Skim published later this year by Groundwood Press (with artwork again supplied by her cousin Jillian Tamaki), but also that she is working on something upcoming with Shelly Bond and Minx.

Highlights of the Weekend

Hall of Fame presentation at the Joe Shuster Awards.
This part of the show was really well done. I really learned a lot about the inductees: Albert Chartier, Gerry Lazare (who was in the audience and accepted the award), Jacques Hurtubise (who came from Montreal to accept his award), and Gene Day. Dave Sim spoke about Gene and it was straight from the heart.
Touching moments at the JSAs.
In fact there were a lot of touching moments at the awards with a number of people breaking up. A great moment was Jay and Shawna Bardyla from Happy Harbor Comics who happened to come to the show all the way from Edmonton were truly surprised at winning the Harry Kremer Best Retailer award. Jay mentioned that he didn't cry this much at his wedding!
Meeting Mariko Tamaki and Vesna Mostavic from Kiss Machine.
Vesna has a new comic coming out this summer. "Summer Ink" features illustrations of letters between herself and Golda Fried (Governor General's Award Finalist for Nellcott is my Darling). Vesna is also working on a series of 22 animated episodes of her indie comic creation "Foolish Girl" for TV.
Meeting the high-energy Cecil Castellucci, author of the Plain Janes.
The book was going over very well in Toronto and Cecil even did a signing on Friday night at the Indigo at Yorkdale. It's a great book and a great start to the Minx line. Below see me, Mariko and Cecil at my booth. I'm not that tall and it looks like I'm towering over them which is hilarious! (photo courtesy of Jamie Colville)
Meeting the wonderfully talented Faith Erin Hicks.
Faith came out from Halifax for the show (her first ever) and she wowed people with her talent and great sense of humour in panels and at her booth. She was also nominated for a Joe Shuster Award for Best webcomic and her family was out in full force to support her. It was really nice to see. I read the preview of Zombies calling and it is terrific and hilarious. I think it will be a big hit. Look for it in the Fall from Slave Labor.
Re-connecting with friends and acquaintances.
As with all shows, the best part is connecting and re-connecting with friends old and new. It was great talking to Svetlana, Raina, Christine Norrie, Noel Tuazon, Scott Chantler, J. Bone, Darwyn Cooke, Willow Dawson and of course my good buds Mike Cho, Claudia Davila and Ngoc and Frank Cammuso.

2007-04-01T14:14:00.000-04:00

SpeakEasy Comic Book Show!

Just wanted to let you know that I will be in a group art show next week, Thursday, April 5th. The theme is of course comic books, and the line-up of artists is really terrific. Last year I was also lucky enough to participate and it was a really good time - lots of T.O. comic artists nerding it up.

This year I will have artwork of some of my latest strips, plus a few other pieces - full info below.

Toronto is home to some of the best known comics artists in North America. We have an active and vibrant community putting out some of the highest quality comics to be found anywhere. The SpeakEasy ComicsShow features an eclectic mix of Toronto's talented comic book artists- from those who do newspaper strips and political cartoons, to underground comix and mainstream superhero comic books!

The event promises to display an exciting cross-section of the comics communityhere in Toronto, as well as a glimpse into how good comics are made. As the old cliché goes, there really will be something for everyone.

Time & Space: Thursday April 5th, 8pm-Midnight, The Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen WestSecond Floor Lobby
Cover: Pay What You Can ($4.00 Donation Suggested)

This Month's Featured Artists:

Attila Adorjany
Kalman Andrasofszky
John Bride
Willow Dawson
Arthur Dela Cruz
Tom Fowler
Jesse Gayle
John Lang
Jeff Lemire
stef lenk
Francisco Ribas
SketchKrieg!
Diana Tamblyn

For more information see: http://www.speakeasyto.com/

Technorati Tags: Diana Tamblyn, Toronto Comic Artists

2007-01-31T10:43:00.000-05:00

Who is Canada's top web comic creator?

Hi everyone, Happy 2007! I haven't posted for awhile, and am much overdo! Hope to be posting a lot more in 2007 with news and artwork.

First news is that The Canadian Comic Book Creator Awards Association (of which I am a member), the non-profit group that organizes the annual Joe Shuster Awards, is pleased to announce the creation of a new honour for our third year.

The inaugural Outstanding Canadian Web Comic Creator Award will be handed out during ceremonies on Saturday, June 9, 2007 in conjunction with the Paradise Toronto Comicon. Now we need your help!

The nominating committee for this award is already hard at work looking at dozens of candidates whose work was posted in 2006, but are also seeking submissions and suggestions for possible contenders.

For the purpose of the 2006 Canadian Comic Book Creator Awards web comics are defined as follows: Web comics, also known as online comics and webcomics, are comics that are available on the Internet. They do not have to be exclusively published online, they may be published in print but must maintain a web archive for either commercial or artistic reasons and they need to have been published on the web first, before any other medium. Web comics encompass the stratum of traditional print comic book formats, tiered comic strip pages and longer form graphic novels. Also included are formats such as horizontal web comic pages, vertical layout formats, irregularly formatted pages with horizontal and/or vertical scrolling and infinite canvas' but does not include multi-media presentations, motion graphics or flash animations. Mediums used can be traditionally drawn art, photographs, 3D Art, digital images, pixel art, clip art, found art and other conceptual web comics.

Questions, concerns, comments and submissions in the form of a URL can be sent to: joeshusterawards@yahoo.ca

The full list of Canadian contenders can be seen at the website at:
http://joeshusterawards.com/story.asp?storyID=78

We have a good base list we've compiled, but are looking for additional submissions to make sure we have as comprehensive list as possible of Canadian web comic creators. Thanks to good pick-up of this info on the web a lot of submissions are coming through and I've been generally impressed with the quality!

There's a lot of great stuff being done out there that I wasn't award of, and I think this is a terrific addition to the Joe Shuster Awards.

2006-11-13T11:32:00.000-05:00

He Lives! He Walks! He Conquers!

It's been awhile since my last posting, and it's time to for an update! Here's a drawing I did for Mike Cho who's an Iron Man fanatic. See his Iron Man tribute website. (now I just have to get it to you Mike!)

I wanted to do the old Iron Man, because frankly - he's cooler. It's been a loooong time since I last did a super hero drawing, the last one I remember was a Sword of the Atom one I did in high school (I loved that mini-series). Anyway, here it is. It also marks the first time I used Pitt pens, so it was a bit of a learning experience.

In other news, Dan Brown from the London Free Press plugged my stuff on his blog.

Technorati Tags: Iron Man, Mike Cho, London Free Press

2006-10-06T15:46:00.000-04:00

I Keee You! A Collection of Overheards & SPX

Available next week at SPX, "I Keee You!" is an anthology put out by the Atomic Book Company that I have a one-pager in. The theme is that each artist chose one overheard snippet of conversation to illustrate that editor Benn Ray compiled.

What have we overheard in the bathroom? On the street? In bars? In our own homes? In stores? At restaurants? As people talk into their cell phones, to their friends and, in some cases to no one at all.

Other contributors include: Allison Cole, Brian Ralph, Cole Johnson, Joshua W. Cotter, Mark Burrier Martin Cendreda, Nick Bertozzi, Peter S. Conrad, plus plenty more. Spiffy cover is by Brian Ralph. If you're not going to be at SPX, you can also order it online through the Atomic Books website for the low, low price of $7.95.

Along those lines, though I was originally booked for SPX, I had to unfortunately cancel my table a couple of weeks ago. My day job is keeping me very busy these days, and when you add a teething toddler on top of that, it's meant that work on my new mini-comic "The Rosie Stories" has been going much slower than anticipated. My new goal is to have it done for Christmas. Wish me luck!

2006-09-10T15:31:00.000-04:00

TIFF 2006

This year Dave and I are taking the week off to see movies at the Toronto Film Festival. Now before you ask (as some have), we are mostly seeing movies during the day, while Rosie is in daycare so she will not be an orphan for the week!

Because we never get to go out anymore (or rarely at least), we're seeing movies we want to see whether they're a big Hollywood production or not.

Here the schedule:

Monday September 11, 2006
All The King's Men, Steven Zaillian, 2006, RYERSON - 9:30 AM
Quick Review - This was a good movie but not great. It had some pacing problems and should have been a half an hour shorter. Also, about 3/4 of the way through the movie I found myself asking "What is this movie about anyway? What are the themes?". It seemed like it didn't know what it was trying to say... That being said, the performances are outstanding and make the movie worth seeing. Sean Penn is excellent as usual, and Patricia Clarkson is amazing - giving her character much more weight and interest than what was in the script. Apparently the Director spent that last 8 months re-editing the movie after initial poor reactions from management. I think he overthought things way too much, as the symbolism is VERY heavy-handed. At the end there's a scene that is supposed to be tragic, but the way it shot were making people laugh in the theatre...

Stranger than Fiction, Marc Forster, 2006, RYERSON - 12:30 PM
I really liked this movie. It is smart with excellent performances from Emma Thompson, Dustin Hoffman and Maggie Gyllenhall. I was really worried that Will Ferrell would be really annoying in this movie, but he actually pulls off being a straight man very well. Queen Latifah is the only one who is miscast. Having said this, the movie could have been great and just missed the mark. It's very fun and thoroughly enjoyable though. Two thumbs up from me and Dave.

Sharkwater, Rob Stewart, 2006, RYERSON - 3:30 PM
Can't comment on this as it's the one film I didn't see. Dave really liked it, but found it was pretty depressing in terms of how we're destroying the planet (it's a documentary on sharks and apparently we've destroyed 90% of the shark population already - sigh).

Tuesday September 12, 2006
Away From Her, Sarah Polley, 2006, RYERSON - 9:30 AM
This has been my favourite movie so far at the festival. The performances by Julie Christie and Gordon Pinsent were outstanding and the story was incredibly layered and nuanced (no surprise since the source material is Alice Munro, but Polley herself wrote the script). I can't say enough about this film - it really moved me and is an incredibly impressive feature directorial debut by our Sarah Polley. Good news is that is just got picked up for distribution in the US by Lion's Gate in the spring, and that they are already planning an Oscar push for Julie Christie. Go see it!

Macbeth, Geoffrey Wright, 2006, PARAMOUNT 2 - 1:30 PM
I have to say that this movie ranked at the bottom of the 12 that I saw for the week. Although not out and out bad, I didn't feel that this update of the classic Shakespeare tale added anything new to the story. The Director - Geoffrey Wright (of Romper Stomper fame), set the story in modern times with Macbeth as a rock and roll/drug dealer character, with all the swagger and bravado that comes with this. Basically I found this interpretation completely unsympathetic.

As well, the 3 witches of the story are depicted in this version as sexy Catholic schoolgirls who entice, seduce (and have sex with) Macbeth. Needless to say - I HATED this! Since the movie opens up with the three of them defiling tombstones in a cemetery, let's say things started off poorly for me. I ended up drifting off twice, then things picked up a bit mid-way through. Some redeeming qualities for me were a good interpretation of Lady Macbeth (portrayed as sympathetic) and McDuff.

The Fountain, Darren Aronofsky, 2006, VISA SCREENING ROOM (ELGIN) - 6:00 PM
I'd like to say that I loved this movie, but I didn't. It was OK, and that's about it - certainly not bad enough to have been booed in Venice though...

The actors are all good, but I found the performances (with the exception of Ellen Burstyn) kind of static and stilted. Part of the problem for me is that Away From Her which I saw the same morning deals with much of the same themes (a deep love between two people, what is life, what is death, how to deal with loss), but deals with them in a much more subtle and vastly superior way, that the Fountain gets blown away in comparison.

My main issues is that I didn't believe the love between Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz. Basically we're supposed to believe that they are each other's great love, but we really aren't given any scenes that show this. Mostly I felt that Hugh Jackman's character was selfish and it took him a long time to figure out what was right and how he should have treated his wife. This made him fairly unsympathetic in my eyes.

I think the Fountain suffers from Aronofsky having worked on it for so long - 6 years in fact, that perhaps he lost focus and the ability to get across his themes clearly. I can glean the ideas behind it, but they seem hidden or muffled behind a lot of symbolic imagery. I much would have preferred the same ideas to come from the performances or the script, even though the film is visually stunning. I don't think this will do very well and will be surprised if Warner's even makes their money back on the project...

Wednesday September 13, 2006
Dixie Chicks - Shut Up and Sing, Barbara Kopple, Cecilia Peck, 2006, RYERSON - 9:30 AM
This is one of the movies I was most looking forward to, as I'm a big Dixie Chicks fan (yes it's true), and the movie is co-directed by Barbara Kopple - 2 time Academy Award Winner. The movie was very good, although I thought it lost a little momentum by going back and forth in time so much. I would have preferred a more linear presentation.

Anyway, it had many memorable moments in it, including:

Nestea (who sponsored their last tour) trying to tell the Dixie Chicks that Bush's popularity would only get stronger as the war was going to be wrapped up in the next few weeks.
Their PR person saying that they were "giving the American people too much credit" in being able to understand the ideas behind their infamous Entertainment Weekly cover shoot.
And finally the new controversial Natalie Maines quote that is already being picked up in the US media from the 2 public screenings it's had in Toronto where she calls Bush a "dumb fuck". It's important to note the context behind this, which is that Bush made a statement that he was sorry that the Dixie Chicks "got their feelings hurt" from people criticizing them and not buying their CDs, while at the time they were getting more than just criticism but death threats.

The movie was very good and the Toronto crowds loved it. It even was even a runner-up for the People's Choice award at the festival.

Mon Meilleur Ami, Patrice Leconte, 2006, VISA SCREENING ROOM (ELGIN) - 12:00 PM
This was a fun, light French film featuring Daniel Auteuil as an owner of an antiques business who accepts a bet from his business partner to produce a best friend. Francois has a great apartment and a business he loves, but he lives by himself and has an awkward relationship with his daughter. He realizes in the film, that he doesn't have any relationships or friendships that have much meaning.
To win the bet though, he must produce a best friend, so he sets out on a desperate search and ends up befriending a taxi cab driver - Bruno. Bruno is the opposite of Francois, he is chatty, approachable, gregarious and outgoing. This is a take on the classic buddy film, and it's quite charming, funny and sweet, It tied with Dixie Chicks for the honourable mention for the People's Choice Award at the festival.

The Last Winter, Larry Fessenden, 2006, PARAMOUNT 3 - 2:15 PM
This is a horror/suspense movie that's almost a more modern take on John Carpenter's "The Thing". Set in Northern Alaska, Ron Perlman plays a rough and tumble, no-nonsense oil company foreman doing exploratory drilling work for oil. He has a small team with him, as well as 2 reprentatives of an environmental company who are trying to make sure that the oil company is not causing damage to the natural surroundings. You can see where this is going...

Strange things start happening to people within the team, and they can't tell if it's due to cabin fever, or because permafrost is melting and no one knows what's really in the permafrost and what's being released into the atmosphere. Or, is nature getting back at humans for their dependence on natural source of energy?

I really liked this movie a lot. It was a very smart genre picture, made even better by Ron Perlman himself doing the Q&A after the screening! To date, this movie hasn't been picked up by US distribution, but I recommend seeking it out.

Thursday September 14, 2006
Quelques jours en Septembre, Santiago Amigorena, 2006, PARAMOUNT 1 - 9:00 AM

Alatriste, Agustin Diaz Yanes, 2006, PARAMOUNT 1 - 12:00 PM

Friday September 15, 2006
Bobby, Emilio Estevez, 2006, RYERSON - 9:30 AM

10 Items or Less, Brad Silberling, 2006, VARSITY 8 - 2:45 PM
Dave and I were completely exhausted by the end of the week and somewhat "filmed out", and this was a perfect cap to the festival for us. A nice light comedy starring Paz Vega (of Spanglish), and Morgan Freeman. Yes, that's right - Morgan Freeman in a comedy, and he's wonderful in it. Since he also executive produced the film, I'm guessing this was the only way he could show people he can play something other than the serious detective/criminal/politician role.

The script is light, Morgan Freeman is an actor who's been out of work for awhile and is researching a possible role in a small, independent film. The role would be that of a supermarket store manager, so he's driven out to the boonies in LA to observe one in action. This is where we meet Paz Vega, who is a cashier at the supermarket. She's much too smart for the job and is remarkably efficient.

When the driver never shows up to take Morgan Freeman back home, Paz Vega takes pity on him and brings him along with her on some of her errands before she drops him off. Here's where we see the unlikely pair bonding, and there are some very funny scenes. The best part of the movie is that Morgan Freeman seems to be having a really great time. He is totally letting loose and seems to be thoroughly enjoying himself, and his enthusiasm is quite infectious. I think this film will do well commercially, and I'd recommend for a nice light evening.

2006-08-27T21:49:00.000-04:00

In Your Face

A few weeks back on our vacation, Dave, Rosie and I all went to the AGO to see if the portraits I submitted to the "In Your Face" exhibit were on display. They were and it was pretty neat to see. The "In Your Face" exhibit has a huge display that takes up one room of the Gallery. All three of my portraits of Rosie are displayed in a row at a good eye level, so I think they got good placement.

Many of the entries included are by children as well as adults, and it's fun to see the variety of the works (by style, by subject, different skill levels, etc) displayed side by side. The individual portraits are displayed from floor to ceiling, and all together the exhibit does make quite an impression.

Above is a photo of Dave in front of one of the walls. You can see my Rosie portraits in black and white just to the left.

Rosie recognized herself right away and pointed out her pictures by saying "Ro Ro"! (which is how she refers to herself).

At left, a photo of me and the subject.

2006-08-21T21:35:00.000-04:00

L'il Rosie!

Here's the first L'il Rosie strip. I'm pretty happy how it turned out.

Click on the image to read the one-page strip, then let me know what you think!

2006-08-05T13:33:00.000-04:00

Rob Clough recently did a nice write-up of Peter Conrad's little known anthology - "On the Other Hand", and posted his review at Sequart here. It's an anthology that Peter put together in 2005 that I have a 4-page story in, along with Renee French, Josh Neufeld and others.

For the book he asked contributors to do a piece with their "non-dominant" hand - meaning if you're right-handed do the piece with your left-hand and vice versa. It was a neat exercise and we all tried to come up with a story that would suit this rougher, looser style. I think one of the reasons why it's hard to find is because Peter hand-bound the book individually, and it's a hardcover - crazy guy! Anyway, it meant that there was never a very big print run, and he only does up batches of about 20 at a time or so.

Anyway, Rob says some nice things about the book and picks my story as one of the highlights: "Tamblyn wrote about a cat whose "bad" paw caused it to get into all sorts of mischief. It seemed a sly way of talking about how difficult it was to work with her "bad" hand." Just to clarify, the story was co-written by my husband Dave, so I can't reap all the kudos!

The book can be ordered directly from Peter from his website.

2006-07-06T21:53:00.000-04:00

So no new artwork to post yet (my life has been overtaken by Battlestar Galactica - luckily I've now watched the mini-series, season one and season 2.0 now, so I think I can now resume my normal activities. What a good show though!) Anyway, I digress...

One of the things I get asked fairly often is what are you reading lately that you've really enjoyed? Here's some recent stuff I've read and really liked:

Marvel Monsters HC

Initially I just picked this up because I love the oversized hardcover format, and I wanted to have something nice for Eric Powell to sign at the Toronto Comicon (and I'm not a big Goon fan). Though he cancelled his appearance at the con at the last minute, I'm really glad I bought the book. It's one of the most enjoyable graphic novels I've read in awhile!

Collecting four 48 pg one-shots that Marvel put out last year, the book's stories feature a combination of new work and and reprints of classic old Marvel monster stories by Jack Kirby. All of the new stories were surprisingly good, with the best Keith Giffen story I've read in awhile (made me think back to his Ambush Bug days). The best new story by far was Roger Landridge's "Fin Fang Four"detailing the rehabilitated lives of Googam, Gorgilla, Elektro-1 and Fing Fang Four all employed at the Baxter Building under the watchful eye of Reed Richards. Hilarious stuff!

None of the new stories can compare of course to the joy and raw energy that comes off the page from the 4 old Kirby reprints though (that include the origin of Fin Fang Foom which I'd never read).

Scott Pilgrim 3 - Scott Pilgrim & the Infinite Sadness

I know everyone on the Internet has already written about this already, but I might as well chime in.

The third volume of the series is a little choppy and not as tight as the first two but it's still probably one of the of the freshest, most original things I've read in awhile. Each book has protagonist Scott Pilgrim fighting one of his girlfriend Ramona's ex-boyfriends. This time around it's Todd Ingram, a vegan (and yes this is important to the story) who is in a band with (and is dating) Scott's ex - Envy Adams.

Bryan Lee O'Malley is clearly having a ball with this series, and this comes across in the art which is energetic and fun. I also love how the story is unabashedly Toronto-centric (this one has a huge, hilarious action scene that takes place in Honest Ed's).

Next up on the reading pile are Alison Bechdel's "Fun Home" and Miriam Katin's "We are On Our Own".

2006-06-15T21:20:00.000-04:00

L'il Rosie Designs

As mentioned before, my number one inspiration these days is of course my 20-month old daughter Rosie. I've been thinking about doing some strips of her in a "Peanuts" style for a little while now, and finally got down to working on some different character designs. The following is what I came up.

It was a pretty neat process and much tougher than anticipated. The best part was doing research by reading through the Fantagraphics Peanuts books, but also looking at how other artists draw kids particularly Jordan Crane (one of my favourite cartoonists), and Don Rosa (specifically looking at how he gets across feelings when the facial designs are so simple).

L'il Rosie #1
This is my very first try and isclosest to Schulz's designs. The main difference is that Rosie has really long eyelashes, and I have to incorporate these somehow into the design.

L'il Rosie #2
Again pretty close to Schulz. Added the bow to the hair, head is more "football shaped", eyes after Little Orphan Annie.

L'il Rosie #3
This is me trying to add more details into the face, and I think the result is less successful.

Li'l Rosie #4
Less sylized eyes and nose - not bad. Initially I drew this with a bow in her hair as well, but I photoshopped it out. Rosie's a bit of a tomboy anyway!

So -- this weekend I think I'll start work on a one to two page L'il Rosie strip.

My aim is to have a new mini-comic out for SPX called "The Rosie Stories" which will feature my story in "Drawing the Line Again", some L'il Rosie stories, and a new longer format story done in my regular style.

2006-06-08T11:01:00.000-04:00

Drawing the Line Again

I have a 5-page story in Suley Fattah's "Drawing the Line Again". This is an anthology with the theme of health and wellness, the proceeds of which go cancer research. There are some awesome people participating like Darwyn Cooke, Ramon Perez, Cameron Stewart, Moebius and many more! I'm really happy with the story, it's the most personal one I've done to date (it's about my daughter Rosie)...

It recently got a 5 out of 5 review in Metro News - Read review here.

Purchase the book directly from the Drawing the Line website. The Silver Snail is also backing it big time, and you can pick it up, along with Vol. 1 at their Queen Street location.

2006-06-06T20:45:00.000-04:00

Welcome everyone to my new blog! This will replace the former "news" section of my website at www.speedlines.com. I've been thinking about doing this for a while, but have been inspired by my friend Mike Cho (check out his awesome blog ), who recently started one up and posts artwork to it quite regularly.

So - I've got lots of news and artwork to post, so I''ll let's dive right in!

I recently did up a new mini-comic called "The Toca Loca Project". It made its debut at the Paradise Toronto Comicon this past April. At the show I also had some t-shirts for sale using the back cover image of the mini. The image is of a kazoo, and underneath it says "Ceci n'est pas un kazoo" (French for "This is not a kazoo"). This was inspired of course by the famous Magritte painting "Ceci ne'st pas un pipe", as well as the band - The Nihilist Spasm Band. All will become clear after reading the mini, but the t-shirt is cool on its own as well.

These are the first t-shirts I've ever done and I'm really pleased with how they came out. They are 2 colour screenprinted on Fruit of the Loom tees. I did up a bunch in a variety of different colours and sizes. I was surprised that the bestselling size for me was the small size as mostly it was women picking them up. Here's what the shirt looks like (modeled by my husband Dave). Both the mini and the t-shirts are available for order here.

A couple of weeks ago, I submitted 3 drawings of my daughter Rosie to the AGO's upcoming "In Your Face" show. Opening in July, this is to be the biggest portrait show in history, and the organizers have encouraged people to submit portraits for inclusion in the show.

I'm crossing my fingers that at least one of my drawings makes it in. If selected, the artwork will be part of the AGO's permanent collection. Family and friends like the one of Rosie in her hat best. Which one is your favourite?

Rosie in hat.

Rosie in highchair.

Rosie at dining room table at Grandma's.

** Update: Originally the final date to submit portraits to the AGO for this exhibit was July 1st, 2006. I've since found out that the exhibit will run for a whole year! As such, they will change things up every now and then and as such are still accepting submissions through to December of this year.

I encourage all of my cartoonists friends to submit so we have a strong showing in the exhibit! There are just about no restrictions, other than the size needs to be 4 x 6, and you need to them them the original art. It does look like you need to be Canadian to submit.

Here's a link to the blog for the show: http://www.artmatters.ca/blog/index.php?/categories/15-In-Your-Face