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Tag: Doug Wright

Favourite Books 2010: Brad Mackay

by Dan
Graphica + News / December 16, 2010

Acme Novelty Library #20  (AKA “Lint”)
Chris Ware
Drawn & Quarterly ISBN 9781770460201
$24.95

The past year has seen a superb bumper crop of new books come forth from Montreal’s Drawn and Quarterly, and Ware’s is among the best-of-the-best. Chris is such a reliably excellent cartoonist that he is almost taken for granted in the comics community. This is a shame, since the latest instalment of his long-running showcase comic is a revelation. Telling the cradle-to-almost-grave story of Jordan Lint, Ware delivers a warm and searing portrayal of human weakness while still flexing his considerable formalist chops.  

Palookaville #20
Seth
Drawn & Quarterly ISBN 9781770460188
$20.95

Ware’s colleague in comics, Seth, also hit a landmark in 2010 with the 20^th issue of his long-running series Palookaville. As expected, Seth comes out swinging here with the latest instalment of his epic Clyde Fans serialized story. But that’s not all! Here he also offers a folio of his travelling “Dominion City” exhibition, an autobiographical strip that harkens back to the early issues of his comic and a touching eulogy of sorts to the humble comic book format, which is being eclipsed by the current graphic novel boom. An exquisite package from a Canadian treasure.       

Wilson
Dan Clowes
Drawn & Quarterly ISBN 9781770460072
$23.95

As if the above wasn’t enough, 2010 also gave us Dan Clowes’ first-ever all-original graphic novel. Wilson received a mixed critical reception (some disparaged the main character for being “unlikable”) but lucky for me, I don’t expect made-up characters to always make the right choices or say the right things. As I have already said elsewhere, “Clowes shines in depicting self-loathing, cynical characters who eventually succumb to their human frailties.” Go buy this book now.

Brad Mackay is a writer and co-editor of The Collected Doug Wright: Canada's Master Cartoonist, to which he contributed a biographical essay. He is also the director and co-founder of the Doug Wright Awards for Canadian cartooning. 

George Sprott and Hot Potatoe Win Doug Wright Awards!

by Dan
Graphica / May 10, 2010

The winners of the 6th annual Doug Wright Awards were announced at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF) this weekend. 

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

This year’s top honours included:

BEST BOOK: George Sprott: (1894-1975) by Seth (Drawn + Quarterly)

THE PIGSKIN PETERS AWARD: Hot Potatoe by Marc Bell (Drawn & Quarterly)

BEST EMERGING TALENT: Michael DeForge Lose #1 (Koyama Press)

The winners were decided by a jury comprised of Matt Forsythe (editor of Drawn.ca, winner of the 2009 Pigskin Peters Award for Ojingogo), Geoff Pevere (Toronto Star book critic; author of Mondo Canuck) Fiona Smyth (artist; cartoonist) and Carl Wilson (editor/writer Globe and Mail, author of Let's Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste).

Speaking on behalf of the jury, Pevere praised the Best Book winner George Sprott as "a portrait of a character, of a country…a country that is no longer with us," adding that: 

It is a work about memory, a work about culture, a work about the past and a work about the future. 

Speaking for Wright Awards nominating committee, which chooses the annual Pigskin Peters Award, Matt Forsythe described Hot Potatoe as "a collection of seven years of work that is insulting and hilarious and sarcastic and sincere," and continued that it has "influenced a whole wave of comics and artists – myself included."

Congratulations to all the winners! 

Doug Wright 2010 Finalists

by Dan
Graphica / March 15, 2010

The 15 finalists for this year’s Doug Wright Awards were announced on Friday in Toronto.

Founded in 2004 to celebrate the finest in English-language comics and graphic novels in Canada, The Doug Wright Awards are now some of the most important awards for comics in North America.

Selecting work released in 2009, this year’s nominees were chosen by a panel that included comics historian and author Jeet Heer, filmmaker Jerry Ciccoritti, cartoonist Chester Brown, Walrus comics blogger Sean Rogers, and writer and Sequential.ca publisher Bryan Munn.

The 2010 finalists represent "the finest, most thought-provoking work produced by Canada’s vibrant comics community." 

The Doug Wright Awards finalists for Best Book are:

• Back + Forth by Marta Chudolinska (The Porcupine's Quill)
• George Sprott: (1894-1975) by Seth (Drawn and Quarterly)
• Hot Potatoe by Marc Bell (Drawn and Quarterly)
• Kaspar by Diane Obomsawin (Drawn and Quarterly)
• Red: A Haida Manga by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas (Douglas and McIntyre)

The finalists for Best Emerging Talent are:

• Adam Bourret, I’m Crazy
• Michael DeForge, Lose #1 (Koyama Press), Cold Heat Special #7 (Picturebox)
• Pascal Girard, Nicolas (Drawn and Quarterly)
• John Martz It's Snowing Outside. We Should Go For a Walk.
• Sully, The Hipless Boy (Conundrum Press)

The finalists for the 2010 Pigskin Peters Award (for unconventional, “nominally-narrative” comics) are:

• Bébête Simon Bossé (L’Oie de Cravan)
• Dirty Dishes by Amy Lockhart (Drawn and Quarterly)
• Hot Potatoe by Marc Bell (Drawn and Quarterly)
• Never Learn Anything From History by Kate Beaton
• The Collected Doug Wright Volume One by Doug Wright (Drawn and Quarterly)

The winners will be chosen by a jury that has in the past included cartoonists, writers, actors, directors, musicians and politicians. The 2010 Doug Wright Awards ceremony will take place on Sat. May 8, at 7 pm at the Toronto Reference Library as part of the Toronto Comics Arts Festival.

(And while I am obviously cheering for all things D+Q, YAY! KATE BEATON!)