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First Review for Wilson

by Dan
Graphica / March 09, 2010

The Comics Reporter, Tom Spurgeon, has posted the first review of Daniel Clowes new book Wilson:

Wilson is a sharp strike right to the sweet spot of the brain where great comics are enjoyed; it's a late, great start to a 2010 that felt slightly quiet after the rush to publication by book like Footnotes In Gaza in the waning days of 2009. Like all the great steps forward in Clowes' long career, it mixes a fairly straight-forward reading experience with a skein of smartly-applied formal techniques that tease at what we're seeing, growing in clarity and force until they ultimately transform the book into a powerful meditation on a subject at which the reader of the first few pages could only guess.

Wilson is released in May and Daniel Clowes will be at the Toronto Comics Art Festival May 8th and 9th to launch the book.

Other D+Q artists at TCAF include Sonja Ahlers (The Selves), Marc Bell (Hot Potatoe), Chester Brown (Louis Riel), Keith Jones (Catland Empire),  Amy Lockhart (Dirty Dishes), Seth (George Sprott), and James Sturm (Market Day).

The creative team behind Pop Sandbox's Kenk: A Graphic Portrait will also be in attendance.

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Chronicle Books receives two finalist awards for the IACP 2010 Cookbook Awards!

by Danielle
Food & Drink / March 04, 2010

Raincoast Books is extending their congratulations to Chronicle Books' finalist nominations for the IACP 2010 Cookbook Awards!!

Chronicle Books has received two finalist nominations for the International Association of Cookbook Professionals’ 2010 Cookbook Awards.  The IACP is like the Golden Globe Awards in the food publishing world (with the James Beard Foundation Awards being akin to the Academy Awards).  Out of hundreds of books that are submitted, it’s a huge acknowledgement from the food professionals on the nominating board to select just three cookbook titles per category as finalists. 

The two fabulous book up for this prestigious award are:

BAKING: SAVORY OR SWEET category:
ALL CAKES CONSIDERED

INTERNATIONAL category:
MASTERING THE ART OF CHINESE COOKING

Here's a great video on the book

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Wilson Preview

by Dan
Graphica / March 03, 2010

As mentioned yesterday Daniel Clowes, author of the comic book series Eightball, the screenwriter of Ghost World and Art School Confidential, and illustrator for the New Yorker (!!!), is going to be at the Toronto Comics Arts Festival (TCAF) in May.

His new book, Wilson, (available in May from Drawn + Quarterly) is the darkly comic story of an opinionated middle-aged loner who loves his dog and quite possibly no one else. In an ongoing quest to find human connection, he badgers friend and stranger alike into a series of one-sided conversations, punctuating his own discursions with a brutal, self-negating sense of humour.

You can read a 5-page (PDF) preview of Wilson here.

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The Controversial Kenk

by Dan
Graphica / March 03, 2010

It turns out that Pop Sandbox's first book, Kenk: A Graphic Portrait, is proving to be somewhat controversial. Perhaps this is unsurprising; Igor Kenk is, after all, a convicted criminal. But, as author Richard Poplak recently explained on his blog, the book is not about giving Kenk a forum:

I’m not in the business of providing my subjects with a soapbox. This is an in depth, very serious journalistic profile — much like the sort you see in expensive magazines — except with lots and lots and lots of pictures. I do not pay subjects for interviews — ever, under any circumstances...

Very simply, we are defined by characters on the extreme edges of our society. As much as I’d like to write about the upstanding citizens of the world — and the older the get, I happily realize these are in the vast majority — they can play a little dull. Kenk: A Graphic Portrait is as much about what it means to live on the fringes of a tightly regulated society as it is about bike theft.

As Richard says, Kenk: A Graphic Portrait is a journalistic portrait of an outsized figure and a changing neighbourhood and a city he operated in. It's constructed from 30 hours of documentary film footage (taken over the year leading up to Kenk's arrest), contemporary photographs and archival shots, and is a new take on the kind of feature length journalism that you used to see in newspapers and magazines. Kenk the man maybe a crook, but Kenk the book provides the all-important context.

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Anne Taintor, gotta love her quirky quotes

by Danielle
Craft + Gift & Stationery / March 02, 2010

If you were able to catch the article in the Globe and Mail on Anne Taintor's accessory line, please take a read. It's a pretty cool story on how it all came about.

After seeing a career counselor she came up with the plan of collaging, since she needed an income to help with the bills. While flipping through some old magazines at a garage sale she came up with the idea to cut and paste old magazine with captions of the the women were 'really saying', then glueing them onto wooden buttons. Then the Anne Taintor legacy begins. Anne has been producing such wonderful gift products for over 25 years; it's really inspiring to see her come up with such fun ideas!

Medicated and motivated.

Who says children need to eat every day?

Someone was going to have to set a bad example.

Now be a dear and fetch mommy her flask.

 

The phrases might ring a bell for any woman who has ever trolled her favourite gift shop for some private shopping therapy. They float atop Anne Taintor’s kitschy collaged accessories, the ones with beautiful women beaming dementedly from vintage
advertisements...Christened “the patron saint of female frustration,” Taintor has been churning out accessories for 25 years. The massive line of products – everything from postcards, luggage tags and pill boxes to mouse pads, air fresheners and flasks – now sells in 25 countries and earns Anne Taintor Inc. annual revenues into the seven figures.

 

This is my fave!! So totally true for me. I love it!

 

She has so many other quirky products which can be found at gift and book stores.

 

 

 

 

 

Here's a couple more items you will find:

2010 Wall Calendar: Anne Taintor

 

 

 

 

 

 

2011 Engagement Calendar: Anne Taintor (June)

 

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Daily Cross Hatch Interview with James Sturm

by Dan
Graphica / March 02, 2010

The brilliant comics blog The Daily Cross Hatch has just posted part four of its amazing interview with James Sturm, founder of The Center for Cartoon Studies and author of James Sturm's America: God, Gold, and Golems and the forthcoming Market Day:

The graphic novel, it’s a long, arduous task... Market Day is clearly a book that wouldn’t exist if I didn’t do it. It’s much more of a personal statement for me. It feels more personal and I feel like I have much more ownership over it. I feel a little more vulnerable putting it out there, because this is you, this is your work, this is as good as you can draw, as good as you can write.

James will be appearing at TCAF in May with Daniel Clowes the author of Wilson, Chester Brown the author of Louis Riel, Seth the author of George Sprott, the team behind Kenk: A Graphic Portrait and a host of others.

Read Daily Cross Hatch's interview with James:

Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four

 

 

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Yay Vancouver!

by Dan
Travel + Vancouver / March 01, 2010

Woo-hoo! 14 Gold medals and a sweet win against the US in OT! Congratulations to all our athletes: You did us proud!

Yay Canada! Yay Vancouver!

Thanks again to everyone to contributed to our 5 Things Vancouver posts during the Winter Olympics. They were all fantastic and it was great to get tips from people who really know and love the city. 

Just in case you missed any of the entries here's a complete list of the 30+ contributors:

• Anne Lee, Indigo Online
• Annemarie Tempelman-Kluit + Madeleine, YoYo Mama
• Bob Kronbauer, Vancouver is Awesome
• Bronwyn Logan, Blush Magazine
• Chris Wood, author
• Crystal Allen, Raincoast
• Craig Riggs, Turner-Riggs Workspace
• Danielle Johnson, Raincoast
• Darren Barefoot, Capulet Communications
• Erick Villagomez, Re:Place Magazine
• James Sherrett, AdHack
• Jamie Broadhurst, Raincoast
• Janice Beley, Arsenal Pulp Press
• Jesse Finkelstein, Douglas & McIntyre
• Jill Amery, Urban Mommies
• John Lekich, author
• Kate Trgovac, LintBucket Media
• kc dyer, author
• Kelly McInnon, Vancouver KidsBooks
• Kim Werker, crafter, writer, photographer, blogger
• Maria + Stefani, Dandelion KIDS
• Monica Lippingwell, reader, and uber-twitterer
• Monique Trottier, Boxcar Marketing
• Nick Bouton, Protagonize
• Peter Darbyshire, author
• Robin McConnell, Inkstuds
• Sean Cranbury, Books on the Radio
• Selina Rajani, Vancouver Opera
• Siobhan Long, Raincoast
• Spilt Milk Moms
  
• Thomas Wong, The Sunday Best

Thanks all, and if anyone still needs some advice on where to go in Vancouver, please check out Lonely Planet's Vancouver Encounter and City Guide, and Chronicle Books City Walks: Vancouver.

And don't forget to write down all your new discoveries in a Moleskine Vancouver City Notebook!

Photograph courtesy of 5 Things Vancouver contributor KP Werker

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5 Things Vancouver: Kelly McKinnon

by Dan
Kids + Travel + Vancouver / February 26, 2010

Kelly McKinnon is the co-owner of Kidsbooks. 

Kelly enjoys travelling (especially on the seat of a bicycle), building Lego with her nephews, sports and eating (although in the email accompanying her answers, she suggests that the last two are linked!).

"I love my job running Kidsbooks, along with my business partner Phyllis Simon, because it is so much fun getting everyone excited books and reading," she says.  Amen to that!

What’s your favourite book about Vancouver?
City of Glass... Doug Coupland…he nailed it.

Where’s your favourite spot to eat on a budget?
Go Fish but the line-ups are terrible on a sunny day.

What is the best thing to do with kids in Vancouver?
The Aquarium...hands down!

What’s your favourite bar?
Rodney’s….the crabcakes are westcoast comfort food.

What’s your favourite free thing to do in Vancouver?
Waterfront…Walk, run, bike...
 

Thanks Kelly!

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5 Things Vancouver: Maria + Stefanie, dandelion KIDS

by Dan
Travel + Vancouver / February 25, 2010

Maria Livingstone and Stefanie Missler are the co-owners Dandelion KIDS, a modern kids shop that stocks hip baby clothes and stylish duds for boys and girls. The store was born over 5 years ago over a casual coffee when they discovered a shared childhood dream of wanting to have a shop. The doors have been open since Winter 2004 on Commercial Drive in Vancouver and, in April 2009, Maria and Stefanie opened their second shop Port Moody.

What is the single best thing about living in Vancouver?
Maria: The moist air, your skin never gets dry
Stefanie: All the great parks and beaches

What’s the one place everyone should visit?
Stefanie: Museum of Anthropology
Maria: dandelion KIDS! [SHAMELESS! ~Dan ;-) ]

What is the best thing to do with kids in Vancouver?
Super Sundays at the Vancouver Art Gallery

What’s your favourite bar?
The Narrow Lounge

Why should people live in Vancouver and not just visit?
Maria: It would be nice to have that city buzz, and that only happens when there’s lots of people.
Stefanie: To bring even more flair, sophistication and diversity to this great place.

Bonus:

What’s the most common misconception visitors have about Vancouver?
That it rains too much (it’s spring in February-let it rain!!) and “we’re a no-fun city”

Thanks Maria + Stefanie!

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Vancouver Is Awesome!

by Crystal
Contests + Travel + Vancouver / February 25, 2010

Almost every day is a great day to be a Vancouverite. We have such an amazing community of diverse, passionate, driven, friendly, artistic, funny, talented, hardworking and incredible people. There are some days when I feel like I've had one too many days in a row of rain but 9 times out of 10 just when I'm feeling that way the next day the sun bursts out from behind the clouds, the snow sparkles on the North Shore Mountains, everything has been washed clean and The City of Glass shines!

I'm not the only one who thinks that Vancouver is a great place to live. So does Bob Kronbauer, in fact he things Vancouver is so awesome that he has a blog called Vancouver Is Awesome.

See the fabulous Vancouver prize pack below? Bob is giving it away on Vancouver is Awesome! It includes- The Winter Olympics: An Insider's Guide to the Legends, Lore and Events of the Games, Vancouver Edition, Vancouver Encounter and City Walks- Vancouver: 50 Adventures on Foot. Everything a true Vancouverite needs on their book shelf... because you know that now that the world has seen how beautiful Vancouver is that everyone is going to want to come and crash on your couch!

Go enter now!

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