World Comics

There's no question but that in American culture the predominant view is one that is rich, white, male, straight and Christian. And while "The male gaze" is pretty well known, we're getting to learn about the "white gaze" as well. Have you ever wondered what it looks like? Now we know. Except it’s from peace loving New Zealand AND America.

Finnish cartoonist JP Ahonen made a splash last year with his energetic graphic novel Sing No Evil (co-written by KP Alare), about a rock band that has to struggle not only with rival musicians but a supernatural invasion of their home town. Originally published in Finland, Abrams brought out the English edition. Here he talks about making the book, sequel plans and what comics are like in his native land.

TCAF, the Toronto Comic Arts Festival will be held May 9-10th this year, with a whole week of events, art exhibits, screenings. Special programming events include the CSSC-SCEBD Academic Conference, Library & Educator Day, Word Balloon Academy, and Comics Vs. Games 4. IN other words, it jam packed with stuff to see and do. As for programming the first spotlight has been announced: Drawn & Quarterly's 25th anniversary, which is certain to bring out some top notch sessions.

Well, this is a bit of a wounder. I alluded in an earlier post on the Angoulême comics festival that the attendance was being disputed, and in a must read wrap-up of the 2015 festival Matthias Wivel covers everything and has a much more knowledgable breakdown of the dispute. In the past it has been a tenet of faith that 200,000 people attend the festival, which fills an entire medieval style town on a hill. This number has been cited as a reminder of how the French love their comics, how robust the European comics scene is, and in general how Angoulême is heaven on earth for comics lovers. While all of that remains true, it now seems that festival organizers may have been inflating the attendance a tad and it's more like...15,000-20,000.

Titan has socialed up the above image and some information:

The annual graphic novel issues of Words without Borders, an online international literary magazine, is out, and it has a great line-up, which you can see by clicking through. I've post a few preview images at the bottom of the post.

The winners are in. and Riad Sattouf won the top prize for Album of the Year, for his L'Arabe du Futur (The Arab of the Future) which will be published in the US this fall by Holt. As might be expected from the title, the book deals directly with the matter of the day, and I expect it will get a lot of attention. Sattouf is well known in France for his cutting social humor, and is also a prize winning film director. Here's the rest of the winners with my rough translations of the prize names from the official site—the only American prize was Chris Ware's Building Stories for the Jury Prize.

A round-up of news from the FIBD in Angoulême, with a sale from Comixology, live reports on bomb sniffing dogs, a prize for LES ROYAUMES DU NORD, continued controversy over Sodastream, and questions over just how many people actually attend the festival.

In what is not a shock but is a break with tradition, Katsuhiro Otomo, creator of Akira and Domu, has been awarded the Grand Prix at the 42nd annual Festival d'Angoulême which is taking place as we speak. Otomo beat out beloved Belgian cartoonist Hermann (the safe choice) and Alan Moore, who probably would have just chucked it into his garden and forgotten about.

By Nicky Wheeler-Nicholson If I had my druthers I would mostly live in a Jane Austen world. I say mostly because of course it would be necessary to be wealthy and male, from a proper upper class family with good social standing and white goes without saying. I prefer gentility, good manners and pleasant behavior. I don’t like crass, vulgar, adolescent immature anything. So what am I doing in the world of comics?

It will be a very difficult Angouleme comics festival they year, as the French comics world—and the entire world—deals with the senseless death of five...

Sacred and Sequential, a group of scholars who study the intersection of religion and comics has released a statement on Wednesday's still reverberating attack...