Drawn & Quarterly

As the PR points out, Chester Brown isn't a recluse but he doesn't leave his home city of Toronto too much, so catching him on the road this year in support of PAYING FOR IT is a must. More dates to be announced, but the current schedule calls for Toronto, Chicago, NYC, Montreal, Vancouver and Seattle.

Oji Suzuki is the latest in D&Q's gekiga projects, and Tom Devlin explains why:

Chester Brown's PAYING FOR IT is sure to be one of the most-discussed GNs of the year, and D&Q has just released the final cover. In case you missed the log line, it's an account of Brown's decade-long practice of hiring prostitutes and his arguments for the dignity and necessity of the profession -- in Canada certain forms of prostitution are legal, but that situation is changing for the worse, and Brown makes a pretty impassioned plea in the book to expand on the legalization of what really should be a business transaction between adults. We've read the whole thing, and while we're not quite on board with some of of it, he does make a good case for keeping things safe and legal. The book will have an intro by R. Crumb and blurbs from many famous folks, including Neil Gaiman, who writes:

February has only 28 days, but is jam-packed with lots of great graphic novels and related titles! Warning... looking at what appears so far on BarnesAndNoble.com, the rest of 2011 is going to be just as amazing! Click this link to discover more! (Sweet Kirby Crackle! Corto Maltese, in English, from Rizzoli?!) Better start shopping for bookshelves now.

 If you missed the earlier stops, you can still see the one and only phenomenal Lynda Barry talking and inspiring: DO NOT MISS Lynda Barry...

So, this month is a bit light. There are always some significant titles every month, so here's the list for January.

The big news of the day: D&Q has picked up Kate Beaton and will publish her next collection, HARK! A VAGRANT. Beaton's current print outlet is the Topatoco edition of Never Learn Anything from History, which, every time we've seen Beaton at a show -- is sold out. Grrrrrr. It isn't clear from the PR if this is a new edition of that material or all new but the word "next" suggests the latter.

Coming from D&Q next year. Michael Dumontier and Neil Farber are Canadian art idols, and it's easy to see why.

Just to wrap things up, Drawn and Quarterly has a blog post on their BCGF activities. Sadly Peggy BUrns will not be able to...

One of Dan Clowes' most admired works -- EIGHTBALL #23, aka "The Death Ray" has been out of print for a while, but rumors of a new edition have been confirmed with the announcement that a hardcover edition is forthcoming from Drawn & Quarterly in fall 2011. The story of a misfit with a dangerous weapon, it represents, perhaps, Clowes' most complete statement on the tradition of fantasy comics from which his earliest works emerged. Unsurprisingly, it's under development by Jack Black's production company, with video director Chris Milk attached to direct.

Over the holiday week, the biggest news was the official announcement thatD&Q will re-release the complete works of Lynda Barry. Next fall will actually see...

Daniel Clowes is no stranger to the movies, with his GNs GHOST WORLD and ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL having been produced, and several screenplays under his belt. Now, it looks like his recent hit WILSON may be headed to the screen. Alexander Payne is set to direct with Josh Donen producing for Sam Raimi's Stars Road shingle.