Comic – Angry Bryan Adams vs Smilin’ Michael Bublé

Click on top and bottom sections to see full size!

This strip is a little bit of a departure from the straight Canadian music bio comics I’ve been doing of late. It’s inspired by an anecdote from a former co-worker who had the inside scoop from someone else who… anyway I heard about it at least third hand and obviously I took some liberties.

Please leave a comment if you want to see more Angry Bryan Adams and Smilin’ Michael Bublé!

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Panel from Building Stories by Chris Ware.

Interview—Chris Ware on ‘Building Stories’

- by Shawn Conner

I recently had the opportunity to email Chris Ware some questions for the Vancouver Sun. You can read that interview here.

Ware is the rare cartoonist whose art is matched not just by formalist experimentation but also by his storytelling abilities (and, relatedly, his empathy for his fellow human beings). He’s demonstrating all these talents to varying degrees in his comics series Acme Novelty Library, in related toys (like the Rusty Brown lunchbox—more on which later) and in his 2000 blockbuster graphic novel Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth.

But Building Stories is the best yet distillation of his talents. It’s a story told in pieces (14, in different sizes and formats) that come in a box. It’s beautiful to look at, fun to browse through, hard to fit into a bookshelf. It’s the conversation piece of the year, and it might break your heart.

Here are the questions and answers the Sun didn’t have the space for. Most of these are questions asked as a comics fan, so watch out for falling fanboy-isms. I should also thank Chris Ware for his carefully considered answers to my sometimes out-there questions.

Chris Ware’s Building Stories—the year’s best Christmas gift AND conversation piece.

Shawn Conner: You’re receiving these tremendous (and deserved) accolades for Building Stories. But who are the contemporary cartoonists everyone (not just comics fans) should be paying attention to?

Chris Ware: Anyone who respects the reader with a seriousness of purpose and subject without veering into sentiment or falseness. As a cartoonist I think I can sense this laziness/fallaciousness in some young cartoonist’s drawings (as well as its opposite — an urge to see and feel something honestly without worrying about style or renown) though I don’t know if regular civilians can, or if even my opinion is correct in this regard. (Probably not.) But I don’t like playing favorites with living cartoonists, though I’ve edited a couple of anthologies which give a fairly accurate sense of my personal taste —  and again, which shouldn’t necessarily reflect or influence anyone else’s.

I do think we’ve gotten to the point that the fiction we more (“literary”? I dunno) cartoonists are writing should begin to be judged against that of our prose contemporaries. I’m not saying this because I think we’re better, but because I think it would maybe benefit us to be treated a little more fine-toothedly, and because I think we have similar aims, however awkwardly we’re trying to handle them. I really think that single-author cartooning, being a solitary, self-analyzing sort of activity, could ideally be as soul-plumbing an endeavor as novel-writing or filmmaking, though maybe I’m just starting to lose my mind.

SC: If I’m not mistaken, parts of Building Stories were in the Krazy! exhibit at the Vancouver Art Gallery five or so years ago. During the exhibit, there were pennants or flags for the show on light standards on main thoroughfares in the city, and Krazy Kat was on the pennants. I remember thinking, “I never thought I’d see the day….” Have you had similar experiences, where comics culture has appeared in places you never thought it would? (obviously not Avengers/Dark Knight-type comics culture).

CW: Sure, starting with bookstores. (I’m old, so it still sort of surprises me to see them there.) And museums, though when the MCA Chicago invited me to have a show in 2006, the curator Lynne Warren told me that they were actually the first museum to exhibit underground comics as art in the early 1970s. For better or for worse, comics exist as a perpetually approachable, unpretentious and eminently affordable medium, all of which I consider to be to its distinct esthetic advantage, and something which I hope won’t change.

SC: Building Stories is likely to introduce your work to a whole new, perhaps non-comics-reading audience, possibly moreso even than Jimmy Corrigan. Are you ambivalent/conflicted about mainstream attention?

CW: Not at all. I have absolutely no control over these things at all and I’m extremely grateful if even one person cares.

SC: How will comics and non-comics fans relate differently to Building Stories? Have you noticed a difference in the approach to the book from comics and non-comics media? If so what are the differences?

CW: A fellow named Bill McGuire came up to me in Minneapolis and said that his 82-year-old father, John McGuire, had picked up Bill’s copy of Building Stories and surreptitiously read it over the course of a couple of days. Fearing the worst, Bill asked what his dad thought of it, and his father said he’d had no problem understanding it at all, saying it was “really sort of like the way you get to know a girlfriend, finding out a little bit about her at a time,” so that story was rewarding to hear. Though beyond anecdotal evidence, I have no idea how anyone reacts to anything I do, nor maybe is it healthy for me to know.

SC: Is there something – a part of a novel, a short story, a non-fiction piece – of Wallace’s that you could see yourself illustrating, if so what? [Note: earlier in the interview I'd asked about David Foster Wallace re: Ware's statement that Wallace's posthumous The Pale King was "the first great novel of the 21st century."]

CW: Since I don’t consider comics illustration but an attempt to write with pictures, I’d say no, especially since David Foster Wallace’s animus is so intimately woven into the tissue of his words. Plus it I’d imagine it would take me two weeks to only get through the density of one of his paragraphs. I’m jealous of writers, because they can write their way past mundane things that we cartoonists have to Google Image search for. Not that such a thing is a crutch, however — it’s a distinct advantage of prose of which I’m deeply envious.

SC: I just noticed that a Rusty Brown lunchbox went for $89US on eBay. Now I wish I’d bought (at least) two. Will you be issuing Building Stories lunchboxes?

CW: The lunchbox just happened to be a convenient object through which to distill the feeling of the Rusty Brown story, which revolves around a universally-loathed lonely nine year old boy lost in his own commercially-brainwashed world of heroes and fantasy who eats school lunch alone. Building Stories acts as sort of its own distilled object, I guess.

The classic Rusty Brown lunchbox, by Chris Ware.

SC: I was at a book store the other day when a guy came in and asked for a copy of Building Stories. However, the store was sold out and the store owner said he could order one for the guy and have it in for the end of the week (at a 10 per cent discount). But I’d just come from a comic store a couple doors down where they had a copy of Building Stories. I wanted to say something to the customer (who may never have set foot in a comic book store before) but I didn’t. Did I do the right thing?

CW: I have no idea. You might have set in motion a series of events that would’ve cured cancer or shifted us from an oil-dependent economy, so in that case, I’d have to say no. But that’s probably unlikely.

To order a copy of the book, visit the Random House Building Stories page.

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Drinky Crow, you shall be missed.

RIP Maakies

Cartoonist Tony Millionaire posted the last installment of his comic strip Maakies Thursday, Sept 6.

You can see the strip at maakies.com.

The comic strip about Drinky Crow, a crow with a bottomless appetite for booze, and Uncle Gabby, was notable for featuring a frequently inebriated bird and lovingly drawn sailing ships from bygone years.

Yes, already it’s better than Peanuts.

It’s also better than Dick Tracy, which featured a detective who spent many panels looking at his watch when he could have been drinking from bottles labeled “xxx”; better than Calvin and Hobbes, which was about a boy who played with an imaginary tiger when he could have been guzzling booze and calling heavily made up women “wenches” on pirate ships; and waaaaay better than Doonesbury, just because how couldn’t it be.

So long, Maakies, best comic strip ever. We’ll miss you.

Video – Maakies (animated, 3D):

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Cosplayers at GeekGirlCon 2012, Seattle, Aug 11 2012. Robyn Hanson photo

Cosplay, panels and more at Seattle’s GeekGirlCon 2012

This past weekend, the second annual GeekGirlCon celebrated the contributions of women creators and fans to science fiction, comics, fantasy and more.

The two-day event took place at the Seattle Conference Centre in downtown Seattle. PR director Susie Rantz was estimating that the first day, Aug 11, brought 3,000 people to the Con.

On the main floor, a gaming area was set up. The second floor hosted panel discussions in conference rooms. There were also panel discussions in rooms on the third floor, including Gail Simone and “the Batgirl of San Diego” (so-called because she spoke up about the lack of female creators at DC Comics at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con, while wearing a Batgirl costume; she is one of the cosplayers pictured above) discussing the role of women artists and writers in mainstream comics.

On Saturday, the only day we were able to attend, other panels included discussions of science and technology, women and games and female characters in Star Wars.

The third floor hall was also where exhibitors set up their tables. Seattle publisher Fantagraphics was there, and Ellen Forney and Megan Kelso were signing books when we stopped by. Portland-based writer Greg Rucka (Batwoman, Stumptown) was one of, if not the only, male author. Gail Simone, writer on Batgirl and Birds of Prey, met her fans at a signing after the discussion.

One makeup company had the bright idea of hiring someone in a Wookie costume. The hairy Star Wars character proved to be one of the most popular attractions. After posing for a photo, he handed his new friends flyers for the makeup products.

The con had a family-friendly feel to it; there seemed to be quite a few families.

Evening entertainment was to be provided at the Conference Centre by the nerd-rock band the Double-Clicks. A masquerade ball was also planned for the evening, as well as a Buffy singalong (people singing along to the musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer).

However we were at a meet-and-greet at a local craft-beer establishment, where we met a neuroscientist, a producer of a documentary about female supeheroes, Comics Bulletin‘s Jason Sacks and a few Vancouverites who had made it down for the con, including journalists Chelsea Novak, Jordan Abel, and gamers Sarah and Corinne Giraud.

All in all it was a fun experience, and one I’ll definitely be looking forward to next year.

More GeekGirlCon 2012 photos:

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Lynda Barry signing at the Beguiling in Toronto Nov 2010. Nathalie Atkinson photo

Cartoonist Lynda Barry holds writing workshop in Vancouver

Cartoonist, humourist, comedienne and all-around good person Lynda Barry is coming back to Vancouver. The artist behind “Ernie Pook’s Comeek” comic strip and numerous collections and books will give her workshop Writing the Unthinkable at Studio 1398, 1398 Cartwright Street on Granville Island. The workshop is 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. Sunday Sept 30. It’s presentation of the Vancouver International Writers Festival. Lynda Barry was last in Vancouver with writers festival in 2010. At the time, she gave a modified version of her workshop. In it, she took the attendees through various exercises. At one point she asked us to remember and write about our first cars. Barry would ask various people to read whatever they’d written, and encouraged every single reader with a sincere “Good, good, that’s great.” It’s an experience I would expect few of us in that room will forget. Barry is perhaps best known for the aforementioned comic strip, which ran in various alternative weeklies, including the Georgia Straight, throughout the ’90s and into the ’00s. She’s also written two novels, Cruddy and The Good Times Are Killing Me. More recently, she has produced two books that are both guides and workbooks on creativity, What It Is and Picture This. Barry’s Internet presence is low-key, for the most part. But you can follow Lynda Barry on Tumblr. Tickets for “Writing the Unthinkable” are $40 per person, plus service charges. You can purchase them online at VancouverTix.com or by phone at 604-629-8849. For more Lynda Barry, you can read Nathalie Atkinson’s recounting of her tour of Toronto with Barry here. You can also read our interview with Barry, in which she talks about the origins of the name Old Skull Popper among other things, here.

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Vancouver’s Cloudscape Comics release new anthology

- by Ryan Ingram

Fantasy meets cityscapes in Giants of Main Street, the newest anthology from Vancouver’s Cloudscape Comics.

Since 2007, the local comics collective has been producing an anthology annually, upping the scope and themes as they go. This year’s edition asked contributors to bring fantasy and magic to urban realms, and it’s paid off with imaginative results.

John Christmas weaves a trippy tale of a fortune-teller in Spain. Colin Upton tells a dark story of a homeless orc on a quest for a special drug fix. Toren Atkinson – lead singer of the H.P. Lovecraft-inspired band The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets – illustrates a brutal cage-match fight in a monster den. There’re also minotaurs, goblins and a wizard that steals Skytrain fares featured in the pages of the comics anthology.

From “Fallen Star” by Bevan Thomas and Ksenia Kozhevnikova.

Featuring a Steve LeCouilliard cover, the 150-page tome collects 16 short stories, pinups, a Vancouver-turned-fantasy map, and an illustrated appendix titled “On Urban Fauna”, documenting some of the beats dwelling in our fair city, like Yoga Goblins, Vegetaurens and Hipster Sippers – elusive Rebecca Dart- designed beasts who prey on caffeinated brains in “vegetarian burrito districts of the world.”

Depending on whom you believe, the secret origins of the Cloudscape Comics collective can be traced to an idea spawned during a 2007 Vancouver Comics Jam to bring together local talent. Or  - if you believe “The Exalted Comics Society of Cloudscape” section in the back of Giants of Main Street – the collective’s secret history goes back to the sequential artists of ancient Egypt and Babylon.

If you want to meet the creators of the Cloudscape Comics book and pick up a copy of the book, check out the release party tonight (Aug 1) from 6-8pm at The Cultch (1895 Venables Street).

From “Brotherhood” by Shannon Campbell and Reetta Linjama.

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Another Comic-Con, survived. Ryan Ingram photo

Margaret Atwood, zombies, Thomas Jane – scenes from San Diego Comic-Con 2012

- by Ryan Ingram

After the bizarre one-two punch of sweating through a zombie-filled obstacle course, followed by briefly meeting Margaret Atwood on the walk back to my hotel – and failing to explain to her what Adventure Time is – I thought I achieved the apex of San Diego Comic-Con 2012 weirdness.

That both of those things happened back-to-back pretty much perfectly encapsulates Comic-Con’s ability to throw the entirety of culture at you in the most nonsensical and surreal ways.

I didn’t think anything could top the awesome combination of zombies and Margaret Atwood. But two nights later, I had a completely straight-faced conversation with actor Thomas Jane about his The Punisher fan film, and I didn’t ask him a single question about the robotic cat ears he was wearing at the time, that twitched, moving up-and-down his head, as we spoke.

There’s a different logic set required for Comic-Con. Things that don’t make sense in the real-world make perfect sense for only those four-and-a-half days in San Diego. Like zombies in a baseball stadium. Like explaining Adventure Time to Margaret Atwood. Like robotic cat ears. Not to say that the entirety of Comic-Con is a Hall H-sized David Lynch outtake, but there’s surreal stuff creeping around the edges everywhere, and you can get sucked in at any moment.

After spending time in the eye of the Comic-Con storm, here are a few other things that I’ve managed to wrap my brain around:

People will line up for anything at Comic-Con – whether it’s for free crap they’ll instantly throw away, or to take a blurry cell phone photo of barely-celebrities. It’s all good, but I finally started to get a little worried when the convention floor had barely been open for 20 minutes on Wednesday’s Preview Night and a steady line had already formed for the concession for over-priced and undercooked hot dogs.

The geography of the convention center has stayed pretty consistent over the years. Most of the booths stay put in the same spot from year to year, but there’s always a few new booths that sneak in. This was the first year I noticed a booth that sold nothing but books written by L.Ron Hubbard. I’m not sure if it was an undercover Scientology booth, or possibly viral marketing for Paul Thomas Anderson‘s The Master:

While the convention floor hasn’t changed too much, every year the nerd landscape surrounding the convention center expands. This year, a fleet of Batmobiles lurked across the street from the convention center, and every parking lot in walking distance from the convention center seemed to be transformed into tiny promotional theme parks.

One of the most impressive sights outside the convention center was how they transformed the baseball stadium where the Padres play  into an apocalyptic zombie obstacle course, promoting The Walking Dead.

The two most interesting off-site events are Tr!ckster and something called Nerd HQ – both of which made their second appearances during Comic-Con. Tr!ckster is sort of a counter-reaction to Comic-Con, where comic book creators can hang out, be appreciated, and aren’t bullied by security. It’s also the perfect haven from the Comic-Con craziness. Despite moving to a spot further away from last year’s location, it still seemed pretty busy every time I stopped by, and it’s a great place to support some creator-owned books while relaxing with a drink.

Nerd HQ was started by the guy who played Chuck from the show Chuck. One night we stopped by and it seemed like a typical, horrible nightclub with expensive drinks and terrible music. Despite that, it somehow didn’t completely suck. Probably because of the pretty strong Comic-Con crowd, lots of awkward dancing, and a guy in Thor cosplay. (And it didn’t hurt that my friend won an Xbox in a raffle there.)

During the day, Nerd HQ would host conversations with Comic-Con-type celebrities, like Joss Whedon and the Doctor Who cast. Each event cost $20 and was limited to under 200 people. All the money from the events went to  charity, too.

I managed to get a ticket for a conversation with Damon Lindelof, titled “The Art of Being Despised.” I think it was meant to be a tongue-and-cheek thing, but it was a surprisingly candid discussion about how Lindelof deals with nonstop nerd-rage and there was some solid insight into his process.

It was a shame the audience questions didn’t really get past fan-ish nonsense, like asking why characters spoke in subtitles on Lost, and if Lindelof wants to do a sequel to the show. But the place is called Nerd HQ, so maybe I shouldn’t have aimed too high with my expectations there.

There’s always at least one thing that’s scheduled for Comic-Con that doesn’t necessarily makes sense, but you’re glad it’s there nonetheless. This year, that thing was Breaking Bad. It’s obviously a great show, but aside from Vince Gilligan‘s X-Files cred, it seems like a weird fit for the Comic-Con crowd. Or at least it did until I saw a kid who had made his own Walter White action figure and got it signed by Bryan Cranston. Anything with that rabid of a fanbase should get some sort of Comic-Con representation. Which means I’m really looking forward to next year’s Mad Men Comic-Con panel.

I also managed to check out some great and completely different Comic-Con panels, including a tribute to Ray Bradbury and another for Superman and Batman creators Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster and Bill Finger.

But my favorite panel might have been “Canada and Comics”. The biggest surprise was that the audience wasn’t entirely made up of Canadians. It was a really diverse panel with comics folk not just from all over the country, but all doing different things in the industry, and all with some pretty different ideas about their own Canadian-ess.  However, the one thing everybody could agree on was the worst thing about being Canadian was being told the “you’re America’s hat” joke by people who think you’ve never heard it before.

I didn’t buy too much down this year, but it was weird noticing afterwards the Canadian content in my purchases, from a Kate Beaton calendar, to the new coloured Scott Pilgrim book and Jeff Lemire‘s just-released Underwater Welder. At the panel, someone mentioned how a lot of Canadian comics creators are sort of “undercover” and it’s something that definitely rings true.

I also liked a point made by moderator Chris Butcher, who noted that if you’re Canadian, you can probably tell almost all of Lemire’s books take place in Canada, whether it’s implied or not. And if you’re not, it’s just an Anytown, USA where people might have a bit of a weird accent.

Of course, the worst part about Comic-Con is the endless promoting and buzz marketing. Just to the con everyday brings you into contact with a staggering amount of people trying to give you flyers, stickers and free junk, and promoting their stuff however they can.

This year, there was a really big push by people apparently making something called Holy Bible. They were everywhere with signs and megaphones, shouting stuff about their product. From what I gleaned, the plot seems to be about how all these characters are supposed to accept some dude into their life, or things would be really terrible. It mostly sounded apocalyptic and clichéd.

The Holy Bible Team from the Bible Distribution Club in Cerritos, Calif., encouraging everyone to have a good time outside this year’s San Diego Comic-Con. Ryan Ingram photo

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The 2012 reissue of the groundbreaking Canadian graphic novel

- by Shawn Conner

Thoughts on rereading Ed the Happy Clown 25 years later:

• Chester Brown’s first extended work (originally serialized in his comic Yummy Fur) is as weird, if not weirder, than I remember it.

• It’s illuminating to read Brown’s notes, which explain why he made the creative decisions he did. I always wondered why the book’s Ronald Reagan doesn’t look like Ronald Reagan; it’s because Brown originally drew him to look like Ed Broadbent, leader of the NDP at the time. (“I had initially intended to place a left-wing politician on Ed’s penis, specifically Ed Broadbent…,” Brown writes. “I decided that, even in Canada, Ed Broadbent was too obscure a figure.”) Note: Brian Mulroney (then-Prime Minister) looks like Robertson Davies, or maybe Peter Ustinov in Logan’s Run.

The infamous Ronald Regan/Ed Broadbent penis from Ed the Happy Clown, Chester Brown illustration.

• Ed the Happy Clown is filled with sly humour, such as the parodic vampire killers Quincy and Quincy. “It’s been twenty-five years since we opened this business,” says one Quincy. “Not this again,” his twin brother (?) responds. Replies the first Quincy, “Just because in twenty five years we’ve never had a case you want to give up and froget the vow we made over our parents’ graves!”

• The story operates under its own strange moral code, if not theology; Brown explains the latter in the notes. But it all makes sense. Kind of.

• Brown (b. 1960) (self)-published the first Ed the Happy Clown mini-comic in 1983 and was still going strong when The Broom of the System, the first novel by David Foster Wallace (b. 1962), appeared. I’m not sure if there’s a connection between the two works thematically but both are very much of their time and similarly groundbreaking; both introduce artists who gleefully deconstruct familiar tropes and reassemble them into something wonderfully strange.

• Brown more or less sums up Ed the Happy Clown when he has one of the characters wonder “How to present a story which has mountains of feces, people crawling through anuses and a talking penis to a television audience.”

-

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Alan Moore’s final chapter in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

- by Shawn Conner

For this reviewer, Century: 2009 comes at an interesting time. The final chapter in Alan Moore‘s ongoing League of Extraordinary Gentleman, the 72-page volume (published by Top Shelf) packs in a wealth of ideas while the comics industry itself seems to have run out of them entirely.

I’m not talking about the independents or smaller publishers, however. But after seeing The Amazing Spider-Man, the latest Marvel movie which regurgitates yet again the origin story that everyone knows yet no one gives a shit about, and DC’s latest attempt to cash in on Moore’s legacy with a series of Before Watchmen comics, it’s tempting to say that cynicism has infected the comics industry like never before.

None of which is fair, to a point. Sony Pictures, not Marvel, is responsible for the heap of trash and dull storytelling that is The Amazing Spider-Man, while DC hired several respected creators for the BW line (anything that gives Darwyn Cooke work can’t be all bad). But measured against both of those efforts, Century: 2009 is a fun, ass-kicking reminder of what comics, in uncynical hands, can be.

If you haven’t been following along, however, you might be a little lost. The basic premise of the League is that Moore has put together a team of fictional characters, like Captain Nemo, the Invisible Man, Mr. Hyde and more to fight threats to our planet. Or at least, a version of our planet; one of Moore’s talents is to create a fun-house mirror of our world, and this he does in League’s alternative universe, even going so far in the latest installment to create his own version of the Internet.

Suffice it to say, 2009 picks up 30 years after the last chapter, 1969 (which was published last year). The Antichrist is loose and it’s up to the three remaining leaguers, including Mina Murray and gender-shifting Orlando, to stop it.

There’s more to the story, of course, but I don’t want to spoil any of the fun. However, it’s good to see Mina back – 1969 left me dazed and confused as to her fate – and Moore’s Antichrist is definitely something to behold.

As usual for the series, there are plenty of pop-culture references for readers, and especially fans of British secret agents, to delight in. I’m not a fan of Kevin O’Neill‘s blocky, ungainly art, but he does know how to interpret Moore’s vision and to tell the story.

This is apparently the last chapter, which is sad, but it’s enough to know Moore will be back with something probably just as thought-provoking and idea-filled. And 2009 accomplished a pretty incredible feat; it wiped away the bad taste left by The Amazing Spider-Man.

The post Graphic novel review – The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: 2009 appeared first on The Snipe News.

Graphic novel review – Jerusalem: Chronicles From the Holy City

- by Shawn Conner

File this one under “only in France”. Not only did the original French version of Guy Delisle‘s Jerusalem: Chronicles From the Holy City (out now on Drawn and Quarterly, hardcover, 336 pps, $24.95) win last year’s Prize for Best Album at the Angoulême International Comics Festival, but the book went on to become a bestseller.

Over here in the real world, however, Delisle’s travelogue cartooning isn’t likely to get much notice outside those salons where the caviar is served with a side of foreign policy. Oh well, that’s what you get for writing and drawing over 300 pages about walking your kids through inhospitable neighbourhoods in Jerusalem instead of Black Widow taking on Thor.

Not to belittle Delisle’s accomplishment. The French-Canadian artist practices a kind of cartoon journalism that is uniquely his own  Joe Sacco also does political/travel cartooning, but his work is much more investigative) and, in books like Pyongyang and Shenzhen, has illuminated worlds many of us will never get to see.

In those two volumes, Delisle was more or less on his own recognizance; as an animator, he was a working visitor. In more recent work like Burma Chronicles and now Jerusalem (just published in North America), Delisle is situated in foreign countries courtesy of his wife, an administrator with Medicins Sans Frontieres. This distinction isn’t really pertinent, except that Delisle has a little more free time (when he and his wife can find a nanny) to roam the streets of his new milieu.

Jerusalem is basically over 300 pages of these peregrinations, including slice-of-life vignettes (Delisle finds himself in the wrong area of town – the ultra-orthodox area – at the wrong time, the Sabbath), observations (a soldier with both a rifle and guitar strapped to his body), absurdities (the University of Jerusalem is no longer connected to Jerusalem) and tragedies (the Israeli government notifies the Delisles’ Palestinian nanny that her family home could be demolished at any time).

Delisle’s triangular and blocky art, in two tones of various earth colours, serves his tales well. (There are also flashes of colour: for instance, a red dialogue box denotes a scream coming from a TV set as the cartoonist watches the French horror film Martyrs.) His characters’ (and his own) dialogue and thoughts, their facial expressions, and the deliberate pacing evoke the stranger-in-a-strange land feeling that Delisle has perfected.

However, Jerusalem is not a wholly satisfying read. For this reader, at least, Delisle’s style is starting to wear a little thin. The book feels incomplete – in more than one instance Delisle (or rather, his character) seems more interested in sketching the sights than keeping up with this work. Maybe that’s why the art seems fully-formed while the story seems to be meandering and shapeless. Jerusalem is clever and funny and interesting, but it also points to the limits of the form Delisle has made his own.

But what do I know? He won a frickin’ award. In France, no less.

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Welcome to the 2012 Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo. Cayla Richardson photo

One man’s repressed inner geek surfaces at the Calgary Expo

- story by Brendan Richardson/photos by Cayla Richardson

The first tipoff after entering the BMO Centre that you have in fact made it to the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo is that you need both a dictionary and a Miss Manners Guide just to understand what the ticket guy is saying.

“One trusts that it shan’t be folly…” says the kindly beard in the ill-fitting “Volunteer” t-shirt, “… to presume you’ll enter unallayed.”

He’s referring, of course, to the pandemonium encircling me. It’s noon, Saturday, and the crowd is crushing me and my wife, who’s here with me to take pictures. There are 50,000 people expected to attend by the end of the weekend and the fire marshal has already started sending disappointed ticket-holders away. It’s a sad scene: displaced superheroes and disillusioned trekkies shuffle about confusedly – abandoned on this cold, uncaring planet. No trusty crew, no serviceable transporter anywhere to be seen.

Which only makes me feel worse about getting in quite easily. My media pass confers VIP status, giving me access to people who, other than the obvious names like Stan Lee and Patrick Stewart, don’t really mean all that much to me.

You see, as far as geeks go, I’m a bit of a tourist. I was one, back in elementary school, a bona fide social outcast, though more of the “spaz” variety. I’ve been holding out for a Spaz Expo for a long time, but if there was ever going to be one, I’m pretty sure Harper cut it in his last budget.

By the time I got to junior high I learned it was prudent to keep all my Spider-Man fantasies to myself. I shed my geek image, and aspired instead to the masculine ideals of the time, the David Lee Roths, the Mark Messiers. It seemed like the right move 28 years ago. Today, surrounded by these wickedly sexy Cosplay girls, I realize I was born at the wrong time. In my day, anyone foolish to wear a tight Green Lantern costume out of the house was summarily gay-bashed. Talking or acting like Sheldon Lee Cooper was guaranteed suicide.

So as a former-geek and long-time geek sympathizer, it was heartening to see just how happy and confident today’s version seem to be, just how much the identity has evolved.

The first panel I attend is “Geek Speed Dating”. I go there expecting to see a ragtag group of mousy, maladapted lonely-hearts taking turns not talking to each other, awkwardly pitching woo while failing to conceal their twitching.

Not so. The geeks chatter confidently to each other, locked in witty repartee confirming their intelligence. It’s not sympathy that I’m feeling; it’s envy.

Calgary Comic Expo 2012 geek speed dating. Cayla Richardson photo

Next, I wander over to an area that’s been cordoned off for people to play board games. The affair is hosted by Club N3rd (www.clubn3rd.com) a Mount Royal University club that was formed with a mandate of “socializing the socially awkward.”

Passerby Jacqui Fraser of Edmonton has been cornered by Calgary’s Shana Froom to join in on a game of Pandemic.

Why Fraser, I ask?

“She was looking at the area and she looked like she knew something about gaming,” says Froom. She goes on to explain that games like Pandemic and King of Tokyo are collaborative in nature, whereas old-school games like Monopoly are divisive.

“Working together helps us strengthen the geek community,” she says.

Calgary Expo-goer showing off Pandemic. Cayla Richardson photo

Strengthening the community and helping one another succeed is the principal theme here. I drop into the Canadian Comic Creators panel where Shuster, Harvey and Eisner award-winning artist Pia Guerra is fielding questions from eager aspirants about how to break in.

Down-to-earth and friendly, Guerra is best known for her work as co-creator and lead penciller on the Vertigo title Y: The Last Man series. She seems not to be holding anything back. In an industry that offers no guarantees or security for even the most established artists, she seems happy to help newcomers along.

I ask her if Canadian artists hoping to break into the industry are at any disadvantage when compared to their American counterparts.

“As long as you can make it to an airport, you can be anywhere,” she says. The key, she explains, “is to go to the conventions… San Diego, Emerald City, Wondercon.” She says that artists are incredibly supportive of each other and that she herself had no training beyond high school.

Pia Guerra at Calgary Expo 2012. Cayla Richardson photo

Talent recruiters travel to the festivals and the key is to “find a book that matches what you want to do and contact the editor with samples.” It’s also important, she stresses “not to lose your head” with editors. It’s a small industry and word gets around about who’s easy to work with and who’s not, she cautions.

Though born in the U.S., Guerra lives in Vancouver and says Canadian artists are lucky. Because the work is all contractual, there are no employee benefits. “Here, at least, we have healthcare covered,” she says, while adding that for many of her American colleagues working without benefits is a struggle.

Another thing to consider is that Canadian artists are paid in American dollars, which can be a good or a bad thing, “depending on the exchange rate” she says.

As the day draws to an end, my distinct lack of geekiness has me feeling uncomfortably geeky. I mention this to my wife, who at least has Princess Leia hair, while my fashion is typically nondescript.

Lucky for me, Captain America overhears my confession, and in true heroic fashion, comes to my aid.

“Don’t feel bad,” he says, posing for a picture.

“The straight man is a vital part of the process,” he says.

“Think about it. If all this was, was just a bunch of guys dressed as the Incredible Hulk, taking pictures of other guys dressed as the Incredible Hulk, it would all kind of lose its effect.”

More photos from Calgary Expo 2012:

The post Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo 2012—recap appeared first on The Snipe News.

Batman and Batgirl prepare for Vancouver’s Fan Expo.

Recap – Fan Expo Vancouver day one, April 21 2012

- by Ryan Ingram

I admit it: during this week’s inuagural Fan Expo there was a moment when I doubted that Vancouver could handle its first big pop-culture convention.

It came shortly after entering the convention center Saturday morning, as I dodged through a giant crowd to line up for my pass. Immediately, I noticed that there wasn’t a single cosplayer in the line. And, even more staggeringly, there wasn’t a single backpack in sight.

As someone who has survived 15 tours of San Diego’s massive Comic-Con, the cardinal sin on any nerd festival is being caught without something to carry your loot in. Backpacks are a necessary staple for any comic book or fan convention, and this wasn’t a good sign that Vancouver could make it out of its first year of Fan Expo alive. It was all over before it even began.

“Fan Expo is over there,” said the lady politely, when I asked for my press pass, at the exact moment that I noticed I had been standing in line for some sort of health and wellness trade show that was also going on at the convention center – which also sort of explained the abundance of khakis.

Turning the corner, I picked up my (correct) pass, and made my way down to the expo floor, where it felt like I was back with my people; cosplayers posing for photos, a Batmobile sighting, and that skyscraper made out of nerd-referencing T-shirts that dots the landscape of every comic convention. And, of course, there were lots of backpacks.

Vancouver’s first Fan Expo looked to have all the proper ingredients.

There was also a booth that sold bathrobes emblazoned with Star Trek and Star Wars crests, as well as an impressive turnout of proton-pack wearing Ghostbusters enthusiasts. If there’s something wrong in your neighborhood, apparently the 604 area code is rife with people to call.

After taking a brief survey of the floor, I headed to one of the first panels of the day, for Continuum – a time-travel show set in Vancouver, that debuts later next month.

A lot of the cast was on hand for the mini-preview, including Rachel Nichols (Alias), and Tony Amendola (Stargate SG-1), as well as a couple of the show’s writers, and the show’s creator, Simon Barry.

Continuum’s Rachel Nichols, Victor Webster and Jennifer Spence.

A trailer-type clip set up the premise: Nichols’ character is a time-travelling cop that gets stuck in 2012, chasing down a crew of dangerous criminals from the year 2077. Slow-motion ass-kicking was also prominently featured in the trailer.

Amendola looks to be playing the spiritual leader of the time-terrorist cell, known as Liber8. And it was teased throughout the panel that although Nichols’ character is trying to capture the criminals, there may be some moral ambiguity around the criminals’ motivations.

There was also a mini-demonstration prior to the panel, with some planted audience members shouting, pretending to be from Liber8. And it was also revealed that they’ve wasted no time launching an alternate-reality game for the show, found here: liber8.com.

Barry said Continuum’s format will be a mix of sci-fi and procedural, and it’ll be interesting to see how the show executes some of the ideas discussed at the panel.

Continuum’s Tony Amendola and Erik Knudsen.

Continuum’s 2077 future is a world where corporations have taken over failing governments, and the West Coast has become a dominant player in the global scheme of things, with ocean levels rising in the East Coast. (It was also revealed that Vancouver’s coast is protected by a giant dam has been built across English Bay. However, in the future, there’s still no cure for the traffic on the Lions Gate Bridge.)

Barry also talked about how, although Vancouver will play itself, he’s not looking to create a “tourism board piece”, and that aside from Plaza of Nations playing the police precinct, he hopes the portrayal of 2012 Vancouver will be honest.

Filing out of the panel, I could see people still funneling into the convention down the escalator, and the walkways were getting increasingly congested for what would be a sell-out first day.

I ended my Fan Expo experience on a high note, walking around Artists Alley, talking to some of Vancouver’s comics creators and picking up some incredible stuff, including some Emily Carroll mini-comics, a couple of sweet prints by James Stokoe and Brandon Graham, and the newest collection of Robin Bougie’s Cinema Sewer. I also talked to David Boswell, creator of Reid Fleming, World’s Toughest Milkman about his early days, and Ed Brisson about his new book from Image Comics, as well Inkstuds’ Robin McConnel – and a bunch more awesome Vancouver comics people, which there is clearly no shortage of.

James Stokoe’s “drawing claw” that has been said to have driven even Chester Brown mad(der).

Day One of Fan Expo showed that you don’t need necessarily need to go to San Diego for a pop-culture convention that mixes comics, video games, television and cosplay. But you still need to bring a backpack.

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Original '60s Batmobile at Fan Expo Vancouver April 22 2012.

Crowds come out for inaugural event

- by Shawn Conner

It looks like Fan Expo Vancouver is a resounding success.

According to Ashley Morris of Mediatonic PR, organizers estimate between 15 – 20,000 people turned out for the first Fan Expo Vancouver, held at the Vancouver Convention Centre April 21-22. Saturday’s event sold-out, with hundreds turned away.

Hundreds of people turned up in costumes. Movies and TV and web series were represented at booths. Adam West, the original television Batman from the ’60s, signed autographs for $60; photo ops with stars of various series were going for up to $100. The original Batmobile took up a spot in the middle of the floor, not far from the Artists Alley which hosted both local and international comics artists and writers, including Portland scribe Greg Rucka (who confirmed a second miniseries run of his Portland-set comic Stumptown) veteran Marvel Comics writer Len Wein. And last night, the Canadian Video Game Awards were held at the Vancouver Convention Centre in conjunction with the Expo.

Daenerys Targaryen cosplayer Fan Expo Vancouver 2012

Morris confirmed that Fan Expo Vancouver will be back next year.

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Friday High-Five: Lou Ferrigno, Len Wein, Greg Ruca and more

- by Ryan Ingram

Lou Ferrigno, the Batmobile and Star Trek actors will mixing it up with cosplayers, gamers and anime aficionados for this weekend’s Fan Expo – Vancouver first pop-culture convention.

And of course, comics will be representing in a big way, with creators like Wolverine and Swamp Thing-creator Len Wein, writer Greg Rucka (Queen and Country) and Stuart Immonen (Marvel’s Fear Itself) on hand, along with an impressive crop of local creators.

To help navigate Artists Alley and beyond, here are five comics highlights for the weekend:

1. Rock Star Comic Creator Super Panel – Unless panel guests Rucka, Wein, Yannick Paquette (Swamp Thing), Stuart and Kathryn Immonen are announcing the formation of comics’ version of The Traveling Willburys, this is kind of a weird name for a panel. Regardless, the panel should still be well worth your time, as moderator Robin McConnell (host of the Inkstuds radio show on CiTR) always gets the goods when talking comics with pros. (Saturday, 6 p.m.)

James Stokoe’s “Poison Thrower” is one of the many sweet prints for sale.

2. Orcs and Catmasters – McConnell will also be selling some slick new prints by James Stokoe (Orc Stain), Brandon Graham (King City) and Steve Rolston (Ghost Projekt). (The three artists will be there, too.) Consider it fair warning to bring lots and lots of cash, and maybe some poster tubes.

3 .Babearians – Featured in her sketchbook Battle Kittens, Rebecca Dart will have hand-drawn, original portraits of her kitten-riding, brawling babe-barbarians – bleeding eye-sockets and all.

4. Springfield North! – Springfield may now officially lay in Oregon now, but there’s a solid Canadian contingent of comics creators writing and illustrating Matt Groening’s icons, like James Lloyd, John Delaney, Nina Matsumoto and moderator Ian Boothby – who will all be on this panel. If you’re lucky, there may even be some real-life sightings of Comic Book Guy. (Sunday, 11 a.m.)

5.  Emily Carroll – While currently hard at work on her forthcoming book, the amazingly talented Carroll will have two comics for sale (one new romance comic, and one tragedy), as well as prints, buttons, and watercolour sketches of lizard characters

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Interview – Vancouver comics writer Ed Brisson

- by Ryan Ingram

In police-speak, a “murder book” is referred to as the case-file that holds all the clues in a homicide investigation, from crime-scene photographs to autopsy reports. But in the comic book series Murder Book, the pages are filled with the tense, brutal moments leading up to a killing.

In three issues, writer Ed Brisson has told six short tales that are big on twists, and generally end with the same grim punch line – murder. But it’s everything leading up to the bleak final panels that make Murder Book something worth being an accomplice to.

The most recent issue features an escalating drug-money collection, and a very unlucky walk-in-the-park, with art by fellow Vancouverites Jason Copland (“Kill All Monsters!”) and Johnnie Christmas (“Spectre of Sound”).

Brisson has been a comics letterer since 2006, but Murder Book is the first series he’s written. (He wrote a short story that was included in crime anthology Acts of Violence). But the Vancouverite always had a foot in comics, from publishing his first comic at 18, starting up a web-comic in 2004, and dabbling in humour and auto-bio comics along the way.

He took to the time to answer some emails about Murder Book,using Vancouver as a setting and even Captain Canuck.

A page from volume 1 of “Murder Book.” Art by Simon Roy.

Ryan Ingram: Why did you gravitate towards writing about the murky world of crime and murder?

Ed Brisson: It’s a confluence of a few things. First, what is probably the strongest influence on my writing – my father was a cop and my mom worked for years in victim services, dealing with sexual assault victims, generally right after the assault. Both talked about work a lot at home and I would soak it all in. As a kid, this stuff was fascinating and terrifying to me.

Later, in college, I discovered Elmore Leonard and went nuts. In the first month that I started reading him, I read more than 20 of his books. From there, I discovered other crime writers: Richard Stark, Jim Thompson, Charles Willeford, Carl Hiaasen, and on and on. Right around that time, I started watching a lot of crime films – especially gritty ’70s American and Italian films.

When I first started to pitch comics to publishers, probably about six or seven years ago, I was writing all these superhero comics that were thinly veiled crime comics. At the time, there were no other crime comics being published (this was about a year before [Ed] Brubaker launched Criminal) and I just assumed that no publisher would be interested in something that didn’t involve superheroes.

While I was pitching these, a friend called me on my shit. Told me to give up superheroes and just write crime. He was right, I knew it. I was writing what I thought people would want and not what I wanted which, in retrospect, was embarrassing.

About that time I started to put together plans with a group of creators to launch Acts Of Violence – a collection of crime stories and, essentially, a proto-Murder Book for me.

RI: Have you had the chance to do any crazy crime research? Any police ride-alongs?

EB: When I was younger, I hung out with some shady kids. This is young, young. Like 13-14. I used to get in all sorts of trouble, but luckily never got caught for any of it. Around the time that I was 15 or 16, I smartened up and stopped fighting, stealing and the other shit. So, there is some childhood deviancy to pull from.

I do A LOT of reading – I have three books on the go at all times. I also watch a lot of documentaries and movies. I’ll sometimes pull nuggets from these. Germs of ideas will get planted to expand on later.

Also: having an ex-cop for a dad is good for research too. I can just call him up or shoot him an email and ask him about how the police might handle a situation or if he’d ever dealt with a case involving something in particular. Although, I’m not always convinced that he always believes I’m doing research.

A page from the second story in “Murder Book” volume 1. Art by Simon Roy.

RI: Was the decision to set the stories in Vancouver based on more than that it’s home for you?

EB: Basically, yeah. I knew that it would be a bit of an uphill battle. Anecdotally, I know that if you set a story in a city that is NOT a U.S. city, then you automatically lose the interest of a lot of American readers. The easier route would have been to set it in Seattle or Portland (or some sort of American Vancouver proxy), but I didn’t want to do that. I wanted to set something here. I love this city and think that it makes a great backdrop for the stories.

Murder Book is me doing what I want to do. Telling the stories I want, so I’m going to set the stories where I think they’ll fit best. If someone’s not going to read them because they’re set in Canada, then it’s their loss.

RI: You’ve had five different artists tell six of the short stories so far — how do you choose which artist will work on which story? Has the collaboration between each artist been different?

EB: Typically, I’ll write the stories after I’ve found an artist. That way, I’m writing with them in mind and think about things that they like to draw or try to play to their strengths (or, in some cases, write something that they normally wouldn’t draw). I generally talk the stories out with the artists before writing the scripts, I like having the artist in on the process.

I started out illustrating my own comics, so feel like I have an advantage over other writers in that I have experience being on the other side of the script. I feel like I have a decent understanding of WHAT I’m asking from artists and how to ask for it. Also, I’m not super stringent that they always stick exactly to my script. I trust that if an artist has a better idea on how to get the story across, that it probably is. I don’t know of any occasion that an artist has made a change where I asked them to change it back.

Panel from Jason Copland’s story in “Murder Book” volume 3.

While writing “Fathers & Sons” (Murder Book Vol. 3), Jason [Copland] and I were talking a lot. He’s someone who I’ve been bugging to do a story for years. I was working on the story, but definitely dragging my ass on it and Jason only had a certain window that he could do the story. One day, he dropped me an IM that read: “Tick tock, Ed. Tick Tock.” Which I then stole and put into the script.

Johnnie Christmas, who drew “Midnight Walk” in Murder Book Vol. 3, and I did an actual walk through of Trout Lake (where the story takes place) while I was working on the script. By doing this I made some minor changes and added details that I wouldn’t have otherwise done, had I not done that walk through with the artist.

As a collaborator, Johnnie made my already-dark story so much darker. The story made me cringe after reading (in a good way). Before sending it to press, I was about to change the last line of the story, which is really like a final kick in the nuts to the protagonist, but John talked me off the ledge. I was worried that it would come across as too much, thankfully he was there to talk me out of what would have been a terrible mistake.

I think that each collaboration has been great, but I tend to gravitate towards artists who are going to get invested in the story. It’s not an accident that I’m working on other projects with more than half of my Murder Book collaborators.

Excerpt from the newest “Murder Book.” Art by Johnnie Christmas.

RI: Some of the stories are subtly connected. Is this something that’s going to continue to reveal itself? Will there be more reccurring characters interacting in new stories?

EB: My plan is to have about half the stories have a loose connection. The connection will play out in the background and won’t be something people need to know in order to enjoy the stories, it’s more of an Easter egg, or another layer for those who are reading all the stories. Not knowing the back story won’t take away from the shorter stories, but knowing it WILL add more to the stories.

RI: You’ve mentioned that more Murder Book stories will be back-up stories in some new comics from Image. Can you tell us more about when and where they’ll be appearing?

EB: Jason and I are going to be running new Murder Book stories in the back pages of Near Death starting with #8 which is due out sometime in May from Image.

Johnnie Christmas and I did a story that will be appearing in the back of Grim Leaper #4 (due August 2012 from Image/Shadowline). There are a couple others in the works too, but until there’s something more official to say, I won’t get into it – I’d hate to say that they’re going to appear in book X, only to have things change in the coming months.

I’ve also signed a publishing deal in the past month, but am not allowed to talk about it too much until it’s officially announced by the publisher. All I can say right now is that Michael Walsh [artist on story "Settling Up" in issue 2] and I will have a five issue mini-series that debuts in November of this year. Readers of Murder Book should enjoy it – although it’s got a bit of a sci-fi angle to it.

RI: Also, you recently showed off a bunch of sketches you’ve got from artists drawing Captain Canuck. What does the character mean to you?

EB: I love Captain Canuck.

Captain Canuck was one of the first comics I started reading as a kid. I used to buy them in three-packs for 99 cents from BiWay (a discount store chain in Ontario). I just liked the idea that Canada had its own superhero. The comic is pretty silly, but I still love it.

Writing a Captain Canuck mini-series is on my bucket list, and that comes from a dude who doesn’t have a whole lot of love for superhero comics.

“Captain Canuck” by Simon Roy

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