News

This blog has been getting around lately -- links on Boing Boing, Reddit, Digg, Kottke, and so on -- with a corresponding increase in commenting. Without wanting to play Dean Wormer here, I am scrutinizing the comments a bit more closely, and personal attacks, trolling and general asshatery will not be tolerated. I will PARTICULARLY not tolerate jerkishness in obituary threads because they are often read by family members and believe me, you'll thank me later. ... And to all you lurkers out there, feel free to bust out if you are so moved.

In regard to embodying his own dynamic artistic sensibilities, perhaps the only pop culture artist who could give Frank Frazetta a run for his money was Jack Kirby. These two poets of force and motion so intuitively understood the fantasies they were drawing that each established the style that would forever define their respective genres: the superhero in action for Kirby, the barbarian in action for Frazetta.

As the featured event of the 2010 Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF), which is being held at the Toronto Reference Library, the evening also featured a moving tribute to pioneering Canadian cartoonist Martin Vaughn-James, who was posthumously inducted into The Giants of the North, The Canadian Cartoonist Hall of Fame, in a talk delivered by cartoonist Kate Beaton. The winners were decided by a jury comprised of Matt Forsythe (editor of Drawn.ca, winner of the 2009 Pigskin Peters Award for Ojingogo), Geoff Pevere (Toronto Star book critic; author of Mondo Canuck,) Fiona Smyth (artist; cartoonist) and Carl Wilson (editor/writer Globe and Mail, author of Let's Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste). Speaking on behalf of the jury, Pevere praised the Best Book winner George Sprott as "a portrait of a character, of a country…a country that is no longer with us," adding that: ...Speaking for Wright Awards nominating committee, which chooses the annual Pigskin Peters Award, Matt Forsythe described Hot Potatoe as "a collection of seven years of work that is insulting and hilarious and sarcastic and sincere," and continued that it has "influenced a whole wave of comics and artists – myself included."

§ Johanna Draper Carlson rounds up reactions to the end of the Zuda competition model, and some speculation as to how the system may...

Via Colleen Doran comes word that htmlcomics.com has been shut down by the FBI. The site was a very popular online library of unauthorized comics scans, with hundreds of thousands of issues available at the click of a mouse:

Lots and lots of personnel announcements over the last few days.¶ Image has hired Todd Martinez as their new Sales & Licensing Coordinator. For...

I was saddened to learn this morning that frequent Beat poster Lewis "Alan" Coil died of a heart attack on Friday. He was 55.

I never met Alan in real life, and certainly he had his disagreements with many people on the internet, but he was a constant presence here and at many other sites, and obviously passionate about comics and participating in the discussion. Alan was a ubiquitous internet presence in the tradition of the great letterhacks.

On Peter David's site, Alan's friend Paul Shiple wrote:

Daniel Best interviews Gene Colan as the legendary artist recuperates from a broken shoulder. ... I should be thinking more of retirement, I suppose, but I don’t even think about retiring. I need to draw, I love it, so why should I give it up. The link includes information about other ongoing efforts to supplement Colan's income via auctions and so on.

Things have been a little erratic around Stately Beat Manor this week, and although there's no way to write about this without sounding like a whiny ingrate, the Beat is just burnt out from some annoying ongoing problems. But now they look like they are getting partially solved so maybe happy faces are coming soon. But before I delve into tech-moaning, I wanted to grouse about something else. I have just been going through my emails and putting together some FCBD listings -- not comprehensive but if people bothered to promote their events, they should get some promotion. And I learned some things.

Following hours of Twitter-recorded labor, Matt Fraction and Kelly Sue DeConnick welcomed Tallulah Louise to the world this week, an event so momentous it...

Additional nominees in the 2010 Joe Shuster Awards have been announced in the Outstanding Canadian Publisher category,as well as the Finalists for the Harry...

Comic book fans, have you always wanted to represent our clan in the best possible light? Well here is your chance. A Major National...