World Comics

An update on what you can and can't bring into and out of Canada, and how to avoid getting your comics seized by the Canadian government. Also, Gahan Wilson and why hotels in San Diego will soon cost even more.

Toyko prefecture's law restricting sales of material deemed "harmful" to minors under the age of 18 has selected its first list of titles to be considered for the ban, Anime News Network reports. The law, which has been revised a few times and goes into effect July 1, has been met with an outcry from publishers and creators.

In spite of the dramatic international intrigue Sparkplug Comic Books and its affiliates faced at the Canadian border on the way to TCAF last weekend, we managed to simultaneously invade a whole other continent at Stockholm Sweden’s 11^th Annual SPX Festival. Sparkplug was honored to be invited to the festival for the 3^rd year in a row along with many other hella distinguished international guests.

Just a reminder: The NBM blog is running regular web comics by Lewis Trondheim, one of the finest cartoon diarists of all time. The comics are excerpted from his acclaimed Little Nothings series, published in the US by NBM. Bookmark!

Canadians seem like a peaceful, tolerant folk, but they have a record of seizing a lot of material at the border, including, this week, several copies of the comics anthology BLACK EYE. Editor Ryan Standfest has a complete account in the link. Basically cartoonist Tom Neely was carrying five copies of the book across the border, when the books were seized. Neely writes:

Prolific Argentinean comics writer Carlos Trillo has passed away at age 68. According to reports, he was traveling in London with his wife when he began to feel unwell and was taken to the hospital where he died.

The Toronto Comic Arts Festival kicks off tonight and runs tomorrow and Sunday at the Toronto Reference Library. Admission is free. For that priceless amount you get access to perhaps the greatest pound for pound assemblage of cartoonists in the history of the world. Mattotti! Brown! Seth! Ware! Ono! Brecht Evens! You can see the guest list here, and everyone exhibiting here. Truly stupendous.

Vancouver-based Colin Upton is something of a Canadian comics legend. He's been producing rough-hewn, Rabelaisian mini comics since the 80s that deal in equal parts with autobiography and history. A few years ago he was diagnosed with diabates, which prompted a massive lifestyle change, resulting is so much weight loss that when I saw a picture of the new Colin I didn't even recognize him.

Vancouver-based Colin Upton is something of a Canadian comics legend. He's been producing rough-hewn, Rabelaisian mini comics since the 80s that deal in equal parts with autobiography and history. A few years ago he was diagnosed with diabates, which prompted a massive lifestyle change, resulting is so much weight loss that when I saw a picture of the new Colin I didn't even recognize him.

It's pretty obvious that next week's Toronto Comic Arts Festival is going to be he most awesome show of the year. And just to back that up. here's an awesome preview video featuring Chester Brown, Michael Comeau, Steve Charles Manale, Vicki Nerino, Michael Cho, Michael DeForge, Seth, Fiona Smyth + Britt Wilson.

Cartoonist Sarah Glidden (HOW TO UNDERSTAND ISRAEL IN 60 DAYS OR LESS) recently got back from a second trip to the Middle East, traveling with Common Language Project. While she plans an entire book on the experience, for now she's done "The Waiting Room" a 21-page comic for Cartoon Movement, Mat Bors' political comics site, with this episode about Syrian refugees. Glidden is definitely following in the footsteps of the incomparable Joe Sacco is becoming a graphic reporter on the trouble spots of the world. While there's only one Sacco, Glidden is finding her own place in the field with her work.

Chester Brown's PAYING FOR IT is destined to be one of the most talked about graphic novels of the year -- we'd suspect it may be THE most talked about. It's a great work of comics that is nonetheless problematic for the views it espouses about human relationships and commerce. Just in case you aren't sitting on the edge of your seat waiting for the book to come out, PAYING FOR IT is a memoir by Chester Brown about his experiences employing prostitutes. Brown's previous works include such masterworks as I NEVER LIKED YOU, ED THE HAPPY CLOWN and the historical narrative LOUIS RIEL, which is considered an important political work in Brown's native Canada. As one of the pioneers of the most successful schools of autobiographical comics, Brown is a major figure of the art comix era.