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Tag: Comics

Julie Morstad at Lucky’s This Weekend!

by Dan
Events + Graphica + Vancouver / October 30, 2012

Join award-winning, Vancouver-based illustrator Julie Morstad launch The Wayside, her new book from Drawn + Quarterly, on Saturday evening at Vancouver comics store Lucky's starting at 7pm! 

Julie Morstad
Saturday November 3rd, 7pm
Lucky's Comics
3972 Main Street, Vancouver
T: 604-875-9858

PS: If you don't live in Vancouver, Julie will also have events in Toronto at TYPE, and at the Librairie D+Q in Montreal next month! (Yay!)

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Hark! A Vagrant wins Doug Wright Award

by Dan
Graphica / May 07, 2012

It was the Toronto Comics Art Festival at the weekend, and the brilliant Hark! A Vagrant by Kate Beaton won the award for Best Book at the 8th Doug Wright Awards, hosted by Geoff Pevere, which took place on Saturday night at the Art Gallery of Ontario. 

Founded in 2004, the annual Doug Wright Awards recognize the best and brightest in English-language comics and graphic novels published in the previous year in Canada. 

This years winners were decided by a jury comprised of visual artist Shary Boyle, cartoonist John Martz and book artist and professor George Walker.

Speaking on behalf of the jury, Shary Boyle praised Kate’s book. “The world of comics can be a sequestered and dusty place,” she said. “As the comic community bemoans its shrinking readership and dying forms, Beaton rises up and throws open the doors to a whole new audience—welcoming one and all with her generous vision and sense of sophisticated, inclusive playfulness.” 

Amen to that! 

Other winners included Ethan Rilly for Pope Hats #2 (Doug Wright Spotlight Award aka "The Nipper") Michael Comeau for Hellberta (Pigskin Peters Award for experimental or avant-garde comics).

Congratulations all. 

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Guy Delisle Chronicles

by Dan
Graphica / November 14, 2011

We have our Spring 2012 sales conference later this month and details of all our new books are flooding in.

There are lots of great titles, but as a comics guy, I was particularly excited to see a new book from Guy Delisle, author of Shenzhen, Pyongyang and The Burma Chronicles. Due to be published in April next year, the new book – also a travelogue and apparently his longest work yet – is about his time in Jerusalem. 

Drawn and Quarterly have just posted a preview of the book and it looks fascinating:

There are more pages on the D+Q blog.

D+Q also revealed that there is a short documentary film about Guy coming out soon. I love watching artists at work, so I can't wait to see it in full.   

Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City will be available in April 2012, and is available for pre-order from Chapters-Indigo, Amazon, and your local independent bookstore. 

  

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Frenching with Joe Ollmann

by Dan
Graphica / November 07, 2011

Award-winning Canadian cartoonist Joe Ollmann – who was recently on CBC radio show Tapestry discussing his mid-life crisis – is now exposing his fish-out-of-water anxieties as an Anglophone in Montreal's Mile End neighbourhood in this funny video for BravoFACT!:

 

You can read a preview of Joe Ollmann's new book Mid-Life here (PDF).

(via Drawn!)

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Kate Beaton Bonanza

by Dan
Graphica / November 01, 2011

Well, after much excitement IFOA 2011 came to close this weekend in Toronto. As a parent to a pair of little monkeys I didn't make it to a lot of events this year sadly, but I was fortunate enough to meet the brilliant Seth and Dan Clowes and then tag along with superstar cartoonist and all-around charmer Kate Beaton who was speaking at the festival this past weekend. 

Having already established a dedicated audience for her comics online and with the beautiful new hardcover book Hark! A Vagrant sitting pretty on the New York Times bestseller list for Graphic Books, Kate was very much in demand. 

Not only did The National Post and NOW magazine review the book, Kate also stopped by the CBC to chat with Jian Ghomeshi and the folks from The Hour. As you can see from the photos, we had a lot of fun — even if Kate was a little disappointed not to meet Canada's Official Boyfriend in person!   

It was all a bit of a whirlwind (especially as Kate was feeling a little under the weather on Saturday), but before she jetted off, Kate managed to fit in candid interview with the Toronto Star:

“I think that anybody who inadvertently starts a blog or a comic online will give a piece of themselves because they can’t believe someone’s reading it. There’s no institution, you are just yourself. You can’t help but be a personality. I had to learn over time how much of myself I wanted to give over and how much I wanted to hold onto. Like when I changed the name of the site from my name too Hark A Vagrant. It used to be katebeaton.com but I got rid of that because I didn’t want to be the focus of the comic. I wanted the comic to be.”

And Kate is still on the road for a few more days. Tonight, she is in Montreal at Librairie D+Q (the event starts at 7pm), and tomorrow, Kate will be at Strange Adventures in Halifax (also starting from 7pm). Catch her while you can! 

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Goliath Preview

by Dan
Graphica / October 24, 2011

Based in London, England, cartoonist Tom Gauld draws comics, illustrates book covers, and draws a very funny weekly literary cartoon for The Guardian newspaper.

I LOVE Tom's work (so much so, I've even interviewed him!), so needless to say, I'm over the moon that Drawn & Quarterly are publishing a new comic book by Tom called Goliath this winter.

Drawn in Tom's trademark geometric style, the book reveals the giant's side of the David and Goliath story and, as you can see from this preview on the D+Q blog, it turns out that the ferocious Goliath is really not much of a fighter. 

Goliath is published in December and is available to pre-order from Chapters-Indigo, Amazon, and your local independent bookstore.

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Rebecca Dart at Lucky’s on Friday

by Dan
Events + Graphica + Kids / October 19, 2011

Local cartoonist Rebecca Dart will be signing copies of the wonderful Nursery Rhyme Comics anthology at Lucky's Comics in Vancouver on Friday evening! 

Nursery Rhyme Comics features 50 classic nursery rhymes illustrated and interpreted in comics form by 50 of today’s leading cartoonists and illustrators. Chock full of beautiful full-colour art and favourite characters (Jack and Jill! Old Mother Hubbard! The Owl and the Pussycat!), it's a great anthology for kids AND grown-ups!

Rebecca Dart 
Nursery Rhyme Comics Launch
October 21st, 7pm - 9pm
Lucky's Comics
3972 Main Street, Vancouver, BC

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Dan Clowes and Seth on WNYC

by Dan
Graphica / October 19, 2011

Cartoonists Daniel Clowes and Seth talked to Leonard Lopate about comics and their new books, The Death-Ray and The Great Northern Brotherhood of Canadian Cartoonists, on WNYC yesterday:

If you are in Toronto this week, Seth and Dan are in conversation at the Harbourfront Centre on Friday as part of the International Festival of Authors:

Daniel Clowes in conversation with Seth
Friday, October 21, 8:00pm, 2011
Brigantine Room, The Harbourfront Centre

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Anders Nilsen Big Questions

by Dan
Graphica / August 16, 2011

Big Questions is cartoonist Anders Nilsen's newest book. But it is also his oldest, collecting together the mini-comic he first started in 1999 into a single volume.

The mini-comics took 10 years to complete, but as Ander's recently told Comic Book Resources, that was just the beginning a long process to bring them together for the book:

I finished the last issue somewhere around September-October and then after that, there was a good six months that was just editing. I think out of all of those pages, probably ninety percent or more have some changes, even if it was just moving a word balloon over or adding a word there. It turned into this giant editing process. I didn't redraw much. I added a few pages. I added one scene in the body of the book and then extended the material from the last two issues. I think I added ten or so pages to the end of the book. There were some deadlines which I did not quite make. I think the book was originally supposed to come out in May for TCAF, which did not happen. That process was just crazy labor intensive and it wasn't the fun part of coming up with the story and doing the drawings. When I was finally done with that, I was definitely exhausted and just slept for a couple days.

After all that, Big Questions, finally done, is over 600 pages long and a stunningly beautiful book. It is also now available from bookstores and Anders is touring to promote it. You can read a PDF preview at Drawn & Quarterly's website, but here are a couple of the pages from book to whet your appetite: 

 

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Hark! A Vagrant

by Dan
Graphica / August 08, 2011

One of the books I'm most excited about this fall is Hark! A Vagrant by Canadian cartoonist Kate Beaton. The book collects comics from Kate's Hark! A Vagrant website, adds new commentary and some new strips. I honestly, CANNOT WAIT! 

Hark! A Vagrant takes a irreverent, absurdist romp through literature, history and comics making fun of such luminaries as Nikola Tesla, the Bronte sisters, Napoleon, Nancy Drew, and Batman. It is therefore, awesome. 

If you haven't read Hark! A Vagrant, stop whatever you're doing and go read it right now. Go directly! Do not pass Go!

Fans already familiar with Kate's work, however, might want to check out her recent interview with comics website Newsarama:

 

I like to explore a topic, and it’s random every time – it’s waking up and going “I want to make a comic out of this.” It’s what I’ve been reading, it’s what I’m interested in, I’m always making little notes and doodling things. A strip might be based on one panel, one image that comes to mind, and building a strip around it.

Right now, I’m reading Jane Eyre, so maybe I’ll make some strips on that for the book, and maybe the website too. 

And, for readers with creative leanings themselves, Kate also talked about the business of being a cartoonist on Rena Tom's blog recently. Her advice for newbies? Get an accountant:

I waited WAY too long. Way. Too. Long. Also, if you are in the position where you are working freelance, don’t be afraid to find other freelance buddies to talk to about hourly rates, billing and other potentially frustrating aspects of running a business. Sharing is caring.

Hark! A Vagrant is published in September and Kate will promoting the book in both Toronto and Vancouver this fall. Details to come, I promise! 

You can pre-order the book from your local indie, Chapters-Indigo, or Amazon, now. 

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