Nice Art
This month’s nice art is by Priya Huq, a cartoonist and illustrator based in Chicago. She’s the creator of the web comics Mana, which I found to be quite engaging since it’s launch last year. She’s been making beautiful, moving art. Her water colours are always stunning too. She was kind enough to provide me with three of her most recent piece for this feature, the last of which was done digitally. You can support her through her Patreon page, or buy her comics on Gumroad. I’m happy to see this Link piece too. The Legend of Zelda has a special place in my life and I can’t wait to play Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Knowing that it inspires to make wonderful fan art like this makes me all the more excited to explore Hyrule once more.
Plugs
§ It will be a little while before we see the impact of Drip, Kickstarter’s new “patreon-like” model. At the moment only C. Spike Trotman of Iron Circus Comics is on that platform. Our very own Todd Allen talked with her about it earlier this week. We can expect more comics creator to use Drip in the future, but in the meantime, more and more phenomenal artists are launching patreon pages. You can now support Carta Monir’s Patreon page (I just read her 2d Cloud short comic Secure Connect and it was yet another exceptional work). You can also support Laura Lannes on Patreon as well. Additionally, Malachi Ward’s new comic is being serialized on Patreon.
§ Emily Carroll has a spooky sketchbook for you. It looks boooooootiful!
§ Call for submissions comics creator should be aware of: The biggest one right now is the Creators for Creators grant, which is a $30,000 grant to a creator to create an original comic work. Go look at the requirements and apply by March 31, 2018.
§ Call for Proposals: The Journal of Multimodal Rhetorics, an academic publication, will have a special issue in the Spring of 2019 on comics as multimodal rhetoric. Some potential topics include: Comics and the creation of discursive space, Comics and the rhetorical creation of knowledge or Comics and the rhetorical construction of identity. Go look at the requirements and apply with a full-length submission by August 1, 2018.
§ Call for Papers: The Canadian Society for the Study of Comics (CSSC) has launched it’s call for papers for the 2018 annual conference which takes place right before TCAF. Go look at the requirements and apply with a full-length submission by January 6, 2018.
§ Hadeel al-Massari launched a new crowdfunding campaign for Habibi, A Muslim Love Story Anthology. I know very few of the creators involved, but I’ll gladly take new work by Priya Huq wherever I can find it. It also achieved it’s goal in about two days, which indicates that there’s an appetite for this type of work. I’m looking forward to seeing the book.
Ottawa Comics News
§ Ottawa’s own Nicole Marie Burton is in the final days of a crowdfunding campaign for her new graphic novel The Beast and could use some help to get across the finishing line. It’s a comic about is two Nova Scotians moving to Alberta to work in the oil industry and climate change advertising.
§ Writer Cindy Milstein was in Ottawa as part of her book tour for her latest book Rebellious Mourning: The Collective Work of Grief. While it is not a graphic novel, she did have some copies on hand of her collaboration with Erik Ruin called Paths toward Utopia: Graphic Exploration of Everyday Anarchism, a work of illustrated poetry and focuses on how we can build a better future. I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, (the event was on the 29th), but I’m looking forward to diving into this work.
§ I spoke of Patreon earlier and An Nguyen (Saicoink) now has a page you can support.
§ I should probably put this in the “odd news” category, but since it’s only a few blocks from my apartment, I’m adding it here. The Royal Canadian Mint has a new line of Justice League collectible coins? It’s not the first time they had a team up with DC Comics. They recently had a line of special commemorative Superman coins, but the connection was a bit more obvious since Joe Shuster is Canadian. Each coins cost $112.95 CAD and has a value of $20 CAD. Much like the producers of the Justice League movie itself, you’ll lose money on this thing.
§ Are you in Ottawa on Monday, December 6th? Come and join the Ottawa Comic Book Book Club at the Ottawa Public Library at the Sunnyside branch at 7:00 pm. The book this month is Seth’s It’s a Good Life, if you don’t Weaken.
News
§ Montreal’s Drawn & Quarterly opened a children’s book store to capitalize on the success of their main book store. It’s a great idea as they already carried tons of fantastic children’s books in French and English. It reminds me that The Beguiling in Toronto had something similar with Little Island before gentrification destroyed the entire city block. Drawn & Quarterly is safe for the moment.
§ The Week has a feature by Alexander Huls on how small publishers are boosting women’s presence in comics.
§ There’s a few things on the CBC that you should be aware of, we’ll start with the French updates
§ Kate Beaton’s children’s book The Princess & the Pony has been available in French for quite some time as La princesse et le poney and it’s now available in French as an audiobook.
§ Kate Beaton’s sister could also use some help in her battle against cervical cancer.
§ Radio-Canada has a bunch of stories on Michel Rabagliati for the release of Paul à Montréal .
§ Fanny Britt was a guest of honor at the Montreal Book Festival and she talked with Radio-Canada about her second book, Louis et les spectres (aka Louis Undercover)
§ Laura Kenins on Calgary’s art and comics scene
§ CBC’s Unreserved explore Indigenous Comic Con and the power of pop culture iconography
§ Cathy G. Johnson’s podcast Drawing a Dialog had an episode on violence in comics
§ Conundrum Press announced their 2018 line-up and I’m grateful to see new work by Allison McCreesh
§ Pow Pow Press just released a new Julie Delporte graphic novel Moi aussi je voulais l’emporter. Those of you who speak French can get it early, it should be published in English at a later date
§ The “best of the year” lists are starting to roll out and here’s an interesting one from Gosh London
§ Lale Westvind recently released the latest issue of Hot Dog Beach comic (thanks to Tim Gagné for the tip!)
§ Sophie Goldstein talked about House of Women with Hillary Brown over at Paste Magazine. Our very own John Seven talked this series last year
§ Sarah Horrocks was on Study Group’s podcast Process Party earlier this month
§ Jillian Tamaki has a new children’s picture book called They Say Blue coming out in the Spring
§ Jessica Kuczynski has a new website
Odd News
§ In the wake of the Eddie Berganza story, it turns out that there were blatant references in a Poison Ivy mini series from 2015 about Berganza. While comics history often contains these kinds of reference, the specificity of the context (i.e. telling the most openly shared secret about DC Comics IN a DC Comic) made this story interesting. Rose Rosen over at Women Write About Comics has a comprehensive rundown and it includes a follow-up with Amy Chu as well
Congratulation
§ Congratulation to Pow Pow Press as two of their books, Titan and VII are long listed for the prix des libraires 2017
§ Congratulation to Zainab Akhtar who is now an editor for Peow Studios!
§ For the second month in a row, congratulation to Isabelle Arsenault & Fanny Britt, they just won the ACBD Quebec award
Comics
§ The first part of Marnie Galloway’s Burrow is available to read at Mutha Magazine’s website
§ There’s a powerful comic by Natichuleta and Sarah Mirk about how to get an abortion in Chile
§ Hazlitt posted Part III of Sam Alden’s Sledgehammer
§ Over at The Nib, Allyson Shwed made a comic about living child free and the expectations and conversations she’s had because of it
§ Nate Powell made a comic on Climate Change for Weather.com
§ Jessica Campbell on the bad behaviour of men in comics
Reviews
§ Jenny Robbins reviews Boum’s Small Revolution over at Broken Frontier
§ Gretchen Felker-Martin reviews the first volume of Regression over at Women Write about Comics
§ Rosie Knight on one of the best X-Men comic ever
§ Matthew James-Wilson interviewed Jesse Jacobs over at Hazlitt
§ Claire Napier reviews Antoine Cossé’s Showtime over at Women Write About Comics
§ Jessica Macaulay reviewed The Outside Circle over at Ad Astra Comix
§ Chase Magnett on the ethical problems of a Doomsday Clock over at Comics Bulletin. I’m not particularly interested in this storyline. The original comics stand on their own and I don’t think they need expanding on, especially not in the DC Universe proper. It’s a creative dead-end that will lead to tired storylines really fast and that’s without bringing in the thorny issue of creator’s right into it. All I can picture is what happens 5 yeayrs from now, when usual DC comics character teaming up with Watchmen characters. Silk Spectre becomes Harley & Catwoman’s new friend… Nightwing team up with Ozymandias to thwart the Riddler’s plans… Hollis Mason and Alfred Pennyworth’s early adventures… Moloch plans to release gas over Coast City and The Flash & Blue Devil must stop him… The comedic adventures of Booster Gold, Nite Owl and Dollar Bill… The Comedian rapes Sue Dibny… What a depressing prospect…
§ If you see something I should know about, tell me in the comments or tweet at me @Leblanc_Phil
