Toronto Comic Arts Festival: National Post Creator Q&A Links, Pt. 3

More Paul work by Michel Rabagliati

Man, whoever said just putting up a bunch of links instead of writing a post is a good way to save time and stay current was soooo wrong.

Here at last are the final links to the National Post writer Mark Medley's cartoonist questionnaire sent out to participants of the Toronto Comic Arts Festival two weeks ago. Sorry for the delay.

As well, lots of post TCAF reports and comments have been popping up lately. Comic Book Resources Robot 6 pointed me to this Publisher's Weekly report, Now Magazine, a National Post roundup, the Post's coverage of the author roundtable at Harbourfront with Yoshiro Tatsumi, Adrian Tomine and Seth at Harbnourfront. The Toronto Star had a preview, a who to look for article and an interview with Tatsumi.

Robot 6 also pointed out artists who have blogging their experiences there, including Scott McLoud, who was kind enough to include more artist links. Deb Akoi and the Torontoist have photo blogs up. As well, the Same Hat manga blog has been posting about their trip to TCAF.

The absolutely essential Canadian website Sequential (which debuted it's first ever print edition at TCAF) has a typically thorough round-up of more Fest coverage here. There was so much they had to break post the links in four parts (so far). Check out Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.

Sequential also links to the fantastic Jamie Colville's MP3's of the panel discussions here and pointed readers to an Inkstuds recording of the post-Kirby panel. One stop shopping!

Back to regular blogging next time.

Michel Rabagliati. The Harvey Award winning artist behind the semi-autobiographical Paul graphic novels (Paul In The Country, Paul Has A Summer Job, Paul Moves Out,and his latest, Paul Goes Fishing) is one of the few Quebec artists to earn significant recognition in France, partially due to his European comic style, apparently inspired by Asterix, Tintin,and the comics of Spirou et Fantasio.

Paul Rivoche is a freelance designer, illustrator and co-creator of Mr. X. His latest comic work appeared in a recent issue of DC Comics' The Spirit. He and Ty Templeton have also teamed up to create the Toronto Cartoonists Workshop, to provide instruction in the comic arts. Details are still up in the air since they only announced the initiative at TCAF but the first classes should be running by Fall.

The Crusaders commission by Paul Rivoche.

Last month at the last Toronto Fan Appreciation Con, Paul also did a terrific commission for me of The Crusaders, a sci-fi comic series from Anglo American Comics way back in the forties. The Canadian Whites never looked so good. I promised to scan it for Paul and send him a copy but my scanner is too small for it. However, he did a lovely job of colouring the digital pic he took at the Con. I found it posted on his website, rocketfiction.com. Check it out. It's a thing of beauty!

Steve Rolston. The writer and artist of One Bad Day has also collaborated with some of the hippest comic writers around. He's produced MEK with Warren Ellis, Escapists with Brian K. Vaughn, Degrassi: Extra Credit with J. Torres and Emiko Superstar with Mariko Tamaki. His next project will be Ghost Projekt from Oni Press.

Florrent Ruppert, the French co-author of Panier de Singe, Safari Monseigneur, La Poubelle de la Place Vendôme and GoGo Club with his partner Jérôme Mulot.

Dash Shaw got double coverage from Post. The Richmond, Va, artist of the Eisner Award nominated Mother's Mouth and the serialized online Bodyworld, answered Medley's questionnaire and the Books section published a review of his massive, 720-page graphic opus, The Bottomless Belly-Button.

Sparkplug Comic Books has been carving a niche publishing up and coming cartoonists since 2002. In addition to the Marketing and Publicity Coordinator Shannon O'Leary's answers to the questionnaire, you can find more info at the Sparkplug website.

Valerie Sury. This French illustrator, painter and sculptor's virtual gallery can be found at her website. Her sister, comic artist Caroline Sury of Stripburger and Bebe 2000, runs the underground publishing house "Le Dernier Cri" together with her partner Pakito Bolino in Marseille.

Jillian and Mariko Tamaki were featured in the print edition of the Post, discussing their work Skim (a comic, then a play, then the graphic novel. Mariko also responded to Medley's questions.
More about her at MarikoTamaki.com.

Diana Tamblyn is another comic artist hailing from my hometown of London, Ontario.the Ignatz-nominated cartoonist has made a name for herself drawing lovely mini-comics like The Rosie Stories and There You Were. I'm looking forward to when she finishes her full-length graphic novel From Earth To Babylon: The Story of Gerald Bull and the Supergun. Now that's a title! Tamblyn is also quite active in fandom and has helped shepherd the Joe Shuster Awards through their many growing pains.

Jason Thompson. This journalist and manga critic recently authored Manga: The Complete Guide and the forthcoming graphic novel, King of RPGs with Victor Hao.

J. Torres is the King of all-ages and youth-oriented comics scribes and the Prince of creator-owned work, having co-created Alison Dare and Jason and the Argobots as well as writing for Teen Titan's Go! and the Degrassi: Extra Credit graphic novels. Other creator-owned work like the Copybook Tales, Days Like This, Scandalous, Love As A Foreign Language and the upcoming Dead Goombas and Lola: A Ghost Story from Oni Press. You can follow him on his blog.

From Adrian Tomine's Shortcomings.

Adrian Tomine is the much-beloved indie creator of Optic Nerve and graphic novels like Summer Blonde, Shortcomings, Scrapbook and Sleepwalk and Other Stories.

James Turner created the long running Rex Libris about a space-faring, immortal librarian (a description which doesn't even come close to doing its humour justice) and Nil: A Land Beyond Belief from Slave Labor Graphics.

Jason Turner's True Loves graphic novel is currently getting the sequel treatment. The collection is out soon but you can also see it online at True Loves 2. You can also check his blog for more deets.

Jose Villarrubia is a Maryland art professor whose secret identities include a photographer, illustrator and a colorist with extensive mainstream comic credits. He has collaborated with Alan Moore on three graphic novels/books: Voice of the Fire, The Mirror Of Love and the as yet unreleased The Book of Copulations, "an introduction to magic in everyday life". I found an old interview with him at the Comicbook Bin that shed some light on his career so far.

Eric Wight, the writer and illustrator of Frankie Pickle, from Simon and Schuster.

Chip Zdarsky (Steve Murray). The utterly unhinged brain behind Prison Funnies and Monster Cops made a splash with his first two issues then was snapped up by the National Post as an illustrator in residence (along with Kagan Mcleod). Some of his work includes Extremely Bad Advice and the still unfinished ComicsTrip. That put Chip and Kagan's comics waaaaaay off-schedule (Kagan's is the amazing Infinite Kung Fu).

The Post rewarded him with so much work he recently recently blew out his drawing arm. But I still noticed him wincing out out sketches for the ladies at TCAF. Get well soon Chipper. And if you're offended, do not check out his website's hilarious Marvel Comics Idea Journal in which he imagines the entire Marvelverse shtupping.

Zen Rankin. This Toronto illustrator's comic work includes Action Satisfaction Supreme and Ed and Red's Comic Strip. He's also a member of Sketchkrieg!

Jim Zubkavich. This Seneca College Professor of animation put his pen where his mouth is with Makeshift Miracle.

Beavers Up!

Toronto Comic Arts Festival: National Post Creator Q&A Links, Pt. 2

Wow.

There was so much Toronto Comic Arts Festival coverage posted at The Afterword, the National Post's book blog, that I just didn't have time to post all the artist links before the dang event was over! So instead of this being pre-event homework, let's consider this a chance to find out more about the artists you met or missed this weekend.

Many of these quickie "interviews" are replies to Post writer Mark Medley's pre-show questionnaire sent to many of the participating artists. It's fun to see where the answers are similar and where they diverge. I think it's also safe to say that artists for whom English is a second language or those unfamiliar with North American pop culture are at a disadvantage. But every artist who replied shows they've got game.

Now where were we? I think we hit the "L"s.

Dave Lapp is the man at the drawing board for Drop-In, a new graphic novel from Toronto's Conundrum Press about Lapp's experiences as an art teacher at a Toronto, inner-city drop-in centre in Regent Park. Drop-In, is getting a lot of good press like this review over at the WalrusMagazine.com. And I'll bet a true cartoonist like Lapp loved being reviewed right along with Albert Chartier's une piquante petite brunette.

Chartier is a grandmaster of the form and Lapp has been plying his trade since at least high school. A fact which I can attest to since he and I went to the same high school. He's also collected his Georgia Strait comic strip, Children of the Atom, online.

Jeff Lemire. Another Londoner making graphic waves after his Essex Country trilogy of graphic novels achieved fame. His new Vertigo graphic novel, The Nobody , hits shelves in a few months. Then his new, ongoing series, Sweet Tooth, debuts in September.

Troy Little, the creator of Chiaroscuro and Angora Napkin.

Jason Loo. Sketchkrieg and the AWOL'd graphic novels.

Steve MacIsaac. This transplanted Canadian cartoonist lifts his mighty brush and pens to produce Shirtlifter.

John Malloy, of the memorable graphic novel, Amnesia.

Brian McLachlan. Author of The Princess Planet.

Carla Speed McNeil. Self-Publisher of the long-running sci-fi comic series, Finder.

Tara McPherson was one of the more famous artists in attendance (in terms "art world" acceptance. Her personal website is at taramcpherson.com.

Erika Moen is the female force behind DAR: A Super Girly Top Secret Comic Diary. You can also check out her online portfolio.

Evan Munday. Stripmalling and Quarterlife Crisis.

Tom Neely, the L.A. based creator of The Blot and the forthcoming The Wolf.

Ryan North is the deranged brain behind Dinosaur Comics, which has been making funny out of the same strip of dinosaur pictures for years! Truly, the zen of hilarity.

Bryan Lee O’Malley. Who isn't talking about the creator of Scott Pilgrim, Monica Battle and Lost At Sea?

Jim Ottaviani and his G.T. Labs publishing site have making terrific graphic novels about scientists and history for years. After books like Two Fisted Science, Dignifying Science and Levitation, his latest, T-Minus, just hit the shoelves.

Ramon Perez. This Toronto-born artist draws Butternut Squash, Kukuburi, the She's My Kind of Girl pin-up site and has worked for DC Comics most recently on a Wildcat three-parter.

Rina Piccolo, the hilarious cartoonist behind Tina's Groove, a long-running newspaper strip.

Dang... Still more to come.

Thank you National Post!!!

Beavers Up!

The coverage this year's Toronto Comic Arts Festival event has been getting would be almost obscene if it weren't so dang cool. Even event founder/organiizer Chris Butcher is torn between apologizing and screaming in excitement at his comics212.net blog!

Check just about any comics-related blog and you'll see discussions about it. Inkstuds is a comic book radio show and podcast out of Vancouver. Their TCAF preview was particularly inspiring, especially according to British webcomic creator Mark Ellersby, who got so jazzed by it he booked a last minute flight to Canada to attend!

But special attention must be paid to the overwhelming coverage provided by the National Post. The Post has made itself TCAF central with coverage every day this week in both its print and online editions.

First of all, there was a lovely, short piece May 2 on Christopher Butcher and the history of TCAF itself. It's nice to see Chris and Beguiling owner Peter Birkemoe get some public due for thier tremendous efforts.

A background piece piece on Scott Pilgrim's journey from Bryan Lee O'Malley's head onto our movie screens (relating to my astounding behind the scenes experience on the Scott Pilgrim set related on rebelalert.com) can be found here.

I'd like to individually to every artist article the Post has put out lately, but there literally is a mountain of them! In addition to larger pieces on the big names, the newspaper also sent out a questionnaire to almost every participant. As a result, a large portion of TCAF's line-up gets a advance promotion.

For simplicity, I did a "browse by tags" search under TCAF and got pages of hits. Here's that search result for you.

And while you're surfing, you can get a peek at Toronto comic artist Steve Manale's apartment in this week's Eye Magazine "My Place" feature.

And finally, don't forget it's Ontario Graphic Novel Month! According to the Open Book Toronto website and thier partners, the Organization of Book Publishers of Ontario. It's all about the synergy!

WHAZAMO! Ontario Graphic Novel Month is an online comics celebration curated by Vepo Studios for Open Book: Toronto, created to showcase the talented graphic novelists and illustrators published by the Ontario publishers, as well as draw attention to the new stars of the Canadian graphic novel and comic book scene.

Best... Comic... Month... EVER!!!!!!!

Beavers Up!

Toronto Comic Arts Festival - It is sooo on!

Man, this whole computer changeover has thrown my blogging out of whack. As you may have guessed, I tend toward longer posts that muse on a subject for a while. They tend to take time to build so I had a bunch of them on my now-dead laptop in various stages of readiness.

Then, poof! All gone.

However, there's nothing like a fresh start, right? I have a new laptop and am slowly getting back up to speed. So I'll do my best to have some fresh posting for you, starting right now.

Here's the first of three posts regarding this weekend's Toronto Comic Arts Festival. And please remember, I'm writing this pretty late so for once I have an actual excuse for my rampant typos.

The big news is that we are officially into the Toronto Comic Arts Festival as I type this. And even after losing my files, I managed to reconstruct a short piece in time to be included in the first ever, print version of the essential Canadian comic book news blog, Sequential. Check out Salgood Sam's preview here and pick up a copy if you're in Toronto this weekend.

Damn! That cover is so sweet I want to take it out for dinner, feed it too much wine and spend the whole night tracing its sumptuous lines.

TCAF kicked off last Saturday with the world wide phenomenon, Free Comic Book Day (another event that has taken off in a short period of time) and really kicked into gear mid-week. A full rundown on this weekend's main event multitude of panels and events can be found at torontocomics.com and it's TCAF page. The Comics Journal's journalista news site calls the guest line-up "an astonishing collection of cartoonists" and they're right. Festival Director Chris Butcher's incredibly diverse collection of cartoonists, panels and interactive events has been lovingly put together with an eye to spreading a love of the form itself.

Let's face it, at least as far as English Canada and North America goes, we're pretty used to events geared around superhero characters, the superstar creators who work on them, and big promotional events like tie-in models, movies and comic book event giveaways. It's a ton of fun but very much oriented toward commerce. That's the reason I spend most of my time at these events at Artist Alley, where its more about connecting with a creator and sharing a love of comics. A sketch or comic bought there makes a real difference to people.

The growth of TCAF is nothing short of colossal. Since its humble beginnings in Trinity-St. Paul’s Church in the Annex here in Toronto back in 2003, there have only been three Festivals, each one larger than the last. From a tent covering Honest Ed's rear parking lot and a full block of Markham Street filled with comic-y goodness, Butcher and Peter Birkemoe of the Beguiling have found a way to really connect with Toronto communities and various organizations to create a palpable sense of synergy around the event.

This year the main Festival takes place in the Toronto Reference Library (which has recently launched a re:vitalize campaign to raise 35 million to revitalize the space over the next five years and link to the neighbourhood and the community even more, including an event space for large-scale community events and conferences, a coffee shop and reading lounge).

Even with the renovations somewhere in the future, it's terrific space for the event. It has a large, airy atrium and each floor is open the light shining in through the bank of skylight reaching skyward from the front entrance to the ceiling. And you can't knock any building with a digital waterfall, unless maybe you have no heart. My wife recently had occasion to visit the library and thought it looked magnificent. And she's spent a great deal of time in the Smithsonian Libraries along Washington DC's Capitol Hill mall. There are several levels for the various sections and small conference rooms available for the panels.

And, I suspect, a lot of annoyed people cramming for exams or checking out their family genealogy "Shhing" the comic fans with annoyed, pinched faces.

There are also a number of satellite events, book launches, gallery showings, and of course, this year's Doug Wright Awards, hosted by Don McKellar and including special presenter Stuart McLean of CBC Radio's Vinyl Cafe. the event also coincides with the long-awaited release of The Collected Doug Wright, along-time pet project of cartoonist and comics historian, Seth.

There's a lovely, and appropriately enticing, preview of the Doug Wright book at publisher Chris Oliveros' Drawn & Quarterly blog. And remember to congratulate Chris and his staff on DQ's twenty year anniversary this year.

And don't forget, there's something for everybody on both days, but Sunday is exceptionally good for families since it's sponsored by Owl Magazine and includes a lot of kid-friendly activities.

Maybe we'll see each other there!

Beavers Up!

System Crash - Regular Blogging wil resume soon...

Captain's Log. Stardate: Waaaaauuuugh!

A hard drive has rendered data inaccessible and posting unlikely for the next week or two. the crew has rallied and jury-rigged life (and career) support systems are in place. No fatalities and no deadlines missed thus far.

Air.. running low. Blogging chances are about to, gasp, black out. Recommend citations for all bridge... club, I mean, crew.

New computer on horizon. But will it arrive in time?

Gasp! Gurk!

Thanks for your patience.

Beavers Up!

DRAMACONgratulations!: With a new manga "Nightschool" and animated series My Life Me, Svetlania Chmakova's star is burning hot!

Russian-raised, Canadian artist, Svetlania Chmakova has been making quite a splash in the manga and comics world for the past several years. She's been nominated for an Eisner and a Harvey award. Publisher's Weekly named Dramacon one of the best comics of 2005. The following year she won a MangaCast Yomi for Best Global Manga of 2006. And in 2007b Dramacon was placed on YALSA's list of the Best Graphic Novels for teens.

According to this interview at HomemadeMech.com, Chmakova faced communication challenges after immigrating to Canada at 16 years old.

...I managed okay--the schools in Russia are paced a little differently so I was further ahead on some subjects than my Canadian classmates of the same age. I was literally falling asleep in math class, because the stuff that was being taught I'd already known for at least a year. But when it came to English, Creative writing, History, etc., things were much more, um... challenging. LOL

In the cultural sense, I adjusted very easily--Canada is a very accepting country with a strong multicultural community and people tend to be very friendly overall. I blended right in.

It seems only natural to me that Chmakova would gravitate toward graphic work to communicate ideas. Comics are truly an international language. the interview goes on to reveal that after graduating from Sheridan College's esteemed classical animation program, she found the animation had "dried up". After attempting to get an illustration career off the ground, Chmakova began to explore comics and fell hopelessly in love with the medium.

This Popimage interview conducted around the release of the second volume of Dramacon explains further:

I still love animation very much and would like to do some, time-permitting. But I've come to realize that I'm a storyteller just as much as I am an artist, so I am not content just drawing. I need to tell stories! The comics medium is perfect for me.

I bought the first Dramacon to try it out and immediately had to have the remaining two. At first, I was taken aback by the soapish quality of the story (I am not the target audience after all!). But soon, I was devouring the book. The storytelling was clear, compelling and drove me forward through the story, speeding me up and slowing me down as needed. The dang thing was so addictive I was itching to buy the next two right away. I contemplated purchasing the hardcover Dramacon collection this Christmas for my niece but one or two scenes forced me to wait until she's a wee bit older.



Chmakova is one busy creator with print and webcomics all over the place like "Chasing Rainbows" at www.girlamatic.com, "Svetlana Wheneverly" at www.wirepop.com, and "The Adventures of CG" at www.cosmogirl.com. A list of what's available can be found here at her website, www.svetlania.com.

Svetlania looks happy on her livejournal blog in the
"snazziest shirt" she "ever owned." Check out:
http://svetlania.livejournal.com

Chmakova is one the best known North American manga creators. Initially in 2005, she found herself caught up in a backlash against work by OEL (Original english Language), or non-Japanese, creators. Purists have softened their stance since, especially regarding Chmakova, as talent has shone through over preconceptions.

In this terrific Publisher's Weekly interview with Chmakova and JuYoun Lee, the editor of her new Yen Press series Nightschool, which premieres in Yen's monthly anthology Yen Plus this month, explains part of the initial problem.

One reason for the initial fan rejection of OEL manga was the weakness of some of the early properties, according Yen Press publishing director Kurt Hassler. “People who loved manga but had very little instruction were being given contracts early on, putting out full books without the kind of guidance you need on a professional level.” By contrast, he said, Japanese and Korean editors spend a lot of time working with their creators.

“The biggest reason for doing a monthly magazine in Asia is to let the artist grow,” said JuYoun Lee, the editor of Nightschool and of Yen Plus. “You get more feedback from readers, and you see how the characters get their own power—they go in a different way sometimes from the initial setup of the artist.”

With critical and that elusive commercial success for Dramacon and Nightschool secured, Chmakova has launched several side ventures, including speaking engagements and classes, how-to-draw manga manuals, toy designs and a return to her animation roots as designer and co-creator of the forthcoming Teletoon animated series, My Life Me.



Produced by Canada's Carpe Diem Film & TV and the international media company, TV-Loonland, My Life Me started out small as a glint in producer, director and co-creator J.C. Little's eye.

Little 's boutique animation company, naturally called Little Animation, has quietly built a strong reputation creating animation-filled, creative websites that get across important messages in fun, interactive ways. They've built sites for Dr. Jane Goodall, the English Literacy Foundation, Capoeira For Kids, culminating in the website, Little Animation For Kids (which features great games and teaches kids about the environment) and the Little Earth Charter, a website explaining the UN's Earth Charter.

If you ever felt animation and websites for young kid's were vapid, Little has done her all to prove you wrong. In this interview with Green Living Online, Little explains she was an ad producer who grew tired of selling sugar to kids. A natural next step for Little was developing her own series. After coming up with the original idea, Little brought on board my friend, Cindy Filipenko, freelance writer, story editor and all around classy dame.

I met Cindy years ago when she was the Director of Creative Development at Vancouver's Bardel animation. She was one of the most approachable execs out there. She was about to start story editing Silverwing, the animated series based on Kenneth Oppel's series of fantasy novels. She's also the co-writer (along with Geoff Berner) of the animated holiday special, The Christmas Orange.

Cindy Filipenko and Geoff Berner's
The Christmas Orange.

I caught up with Cindy last week and begged for some of the details of the show's production. With Chmakova rounding out the creative team, the team began development in earnest throughout last year. Cindy was impressed with Chmakova from the start.

"My Life Me was J.C.'s idea. And she brought me in. J.C. also brought Svetlania on board. Svet's design is incredible. She's a real artist. She's so committed. When she's working on the show in Montreal, she works at the director's (Little's) triplex. And if J.C. weren't making casseroles and pulling her away from her desk she'd be there from morning to midnight."

The manga style influenced more than the character designs. The heightened portrayal of character's emotions and actual, black and white comic book panels reveal their hidden thoughts. It looks like the production team's dedication is paying off. According to Cindy...

"My Life Me got lots of attention at Cannes. It was sort of the belle of the ball because it looked so different and hip."

You can check out My Life Me's manga-meets-Archie-Comics look for yourself. TVLoonland.com has a five-minute trailer. It's bouncy and fun has a lot of info packed into it. This clip was designed to help sell the show to network's so it's also interesting to see how they spend time sharing details of the series' web component.



Want more links?

There's also plenty of info and artistic goodies at Svetlana's website, here.

Svetlana herself has expressed a liking for www.mangablog.net.

And finally, clicking here will take you to an early reaction to the greenlighting of My Life Me.

Beavers Up!

TGIF TCAF!: The Comics are dead, long live the comics! And, hooray for the Toronto Comics Arts Festival!

It's a time of upheaval in the publishing industry and in the comic industry as well. The end of 2008 and early 2009 saw layoffs and schedule readjustments at Digital Manga, Tokyopop (including several books and series cut from their publishing slate), and at Viz Media so a recent restructuring of Devil's Due is no surprise. And

Some have blamed the economy for the slowing of the manga sales juggernaut, others say supply has simply caught up with demand as the market has seen freakish growth over the last decade. Even small announcements like new Ontario tax credits for publishers (examined here at the Quill & Quire website) fail to excite anyone with the possibilities.

With all this and all the crazy hubub over Diamond's new wholesale minimum cut-off policy, it's kind of refreshing to read the business-as-usual attitude from Drawn & Quarterly's Associate Publisher Peggy Burns in Chris Mautner's Robot 6 interview over at www.comicbookresources.com. After hearing so much frustration about the death knell of the old stylefloppy comic book, she sums it up from a purely business perspective.

Look, when our artists decide to create their work in the pamphlet format, they are making a decision that this will just be sold in comic stores. When the main distributor for comics stores decides to institute minimums that may affect their work in pamphlet form, we — as both their publisher and not just their biggest fan — have to have an honest conversation with the artist if this is the best way to publish their work and if we, as a company, can continue to publish it as a pamphlet to a declining audience that is beyond our control, no matter how good the comic. The alternative of publishing books to an increasing audience is a win-win situation for everyone involved — author, publisher, retailer, distributor. This may sound like a sacrilege — such an obvious mixing of art with business. I would imagine our artists and fans know that we place art before commerce about 99% of the time, more often than not, to our disadvantage.

So many established publishers are hesitant to make a decision about what to publish and how to adapt at a time like this, it creates a bit of a vacuum and opportunity exists for those who will take it. As Steven Grant notes in his latest Permanent Damage column on what it really means to "break into" the comics business, there are more avenues for doing comics available to all than there have ever been before.

The "comics business" is far bigger and more fractured than it was in 1978, when I broke in, and Marvel and/or DC are no longer "the comics business," no matter how much fanzines and newssites and their own propaganda push that notion. "The comics business" is all over the place: newspaper strips, online comics, manga, animation, mini-comics, indie comics, alt-comics, original graphic novels... It doesn't matter whether any of these have the critical mass to challenge Marvel/DC "hegemony," it only matters that your contribution pulls in enough eyes to make it worthwhile for you. Which doesn't necessarily mean you'll be making money in a hurry, or at all. The question isn't really income but audience. Build a large enough, faithful enough audience and you will end up making money. There are all kinds of ways to make money.

Audience is the true grail now, not assignments.

The year before he was inducted himself, I managed to convince Quebec bande dessinnée legend Pierre Fournier to serve as a judge on the Hall of Fame Committee for the Joe Shuster Canadian ComicBook Awards. I remember how confused he was over the distinction we made between comics and comic books.

"In Quebec," Pierre assured me (and, as near as I can tell from my limited perspective, in Europe and most of the non-North American world), "there is no such distinction. The comics are the comics whether they appear in the newspapers, in a graphic novel, on the internet or in a comic book." In short, comics are bigger than the form in which they appear. That may define how they are presented in each case, but it doesn't define the medium itself.

The Comics aren't dead, people. Neither is music. They way we interact with and receive them is ever-changing, though. Want proof? Events like the upcoming Toronto Comics Arts Festival celebrate comics in all their varied glory. More information on this year's event can be found here.

When I see the massive public attendance and enthusiasm for the bi-annual event it always reaffirms to me that the comics aren't dead, nor is a general love and passion for them. The form is merely adapting to new forms of distribution.

Embrace change and you discover that all the things you love about comics are still around, somewhere.

Beavers Up!