Drawn and Quarterly

Jerusalem wins Angoulême prize!

2012-01-30T10:44:00.003-05:00

Congratulations are in order for Guy Delisle, who takes home the Best Graphic Album prize from the prestigious Angoulême International Comics Festival in France for his book, Chroniques de Jérusalem. The English language edition will debut in late April (it's being printed now) and it joins another past winner of the Angoulême prize on our Spring list, Shigeru Mizuki's NonNonba.

Congratulations also to Yoshihiro Tatsumi, who received the World Outlook Award for the French edition of A Drifting Life.

(Top photo swiped from Lewis Trondheim's Twitter.)

Ed the Happy Clown

2012-01-27T14:28:00.000-05:00

Internet, I've got the just-sent-a-book-off-to-print sweats. I'm not sure that I can even put it into words; it's a hodgepodge of delight, relief, and fear, generally in that order…though not always. But today delight is ranking high above the rest. I feel like the luckiest gal for even getting to talk to Chester Brown from time to time, but when I get to work on one of his books, it really is something to phone home about (…unless it's Paying for It. That was hard to explain to Grams).

Incase you all don't keep your old serialized Eds out on the coffee table like I do, here's a selection of the D+Q covers to put you in the mood, my mood (man, they're awesome!):

Ed the Happy Clown will debut in May at TCAF. See ya all there.

More Pippi

2012-01-27T13:30:00.002-05:00

I almost forgot. Here's an article on Ingrid Vang Nyman (google translate version, sorry) that sheds some light on the mysterious illustrator/cartoonist.

And did you know that My Neighbor Totoro creator Miyazaki worked on a Pippi feature but it was shut down? That's too bad but there is a ton of great concept art here. {Special thanks to a couple of peeps who tweeted this link to us. Awesome!}

I wish I was in Sweden right at this very moment!!

2012-01-27T12:53:00.002-05:00

I wish I was there because there is an exhibition of my new favorite cartoonist Ingrid Vang Nyman at Millesgarden. Oh, you know, the original Pippi Longstocking illustrator, who later drew the comics. You know, the comics we are publishing this Fall. Yeah, you know. Also, a nice blogpost by our new pal Joakim showcasing a piece of original art! Wow!

Dan Zettwoch and the Art of Logo Design

2012-01-27T10:44:00.004-05:00

You Dan Zettwoch followers out there will already know that the man has got an eye for commercial design, and this week his Leon Beyond takes a tour through the arched logos of St. Louis past.

This, however, is neither his first nor last foray into the fine art of logos; his upcoming book, Birdesye Bristoe, even features a logo guessing game that I've included for you below!

DAYBREAK is a great graphic novel for teens! YALSA APPROVED!

2012-01-24T15:00:00.001-05:00

ALA midwinter is happening right now people! And YALSA released their "Great Graphic Novels For Teens" list, and lo and behold, Brian Ralph's DAYBREAK justly made the list. I caught up with Jason, director of our Librairie, and he told me that whenever someone came in and said "I need a book for a 13 year old boy who likes video games", he knew he could hand sell a copy of DAYBREAK. Congrats Brian!

D+Q to Publish Original Astrid Lindgren & Ingrid Vang Nyman PIPPI LONGSTOCKING comics & MOOMIN in color.

2012-01-24T12:35:00.005-05:00

Scheduled for Fall 2012, Drawn & Quarterly will be publishing the mid-century comic book reprint PIPPI MOVES IN under its children's imprint, ENFANT, it was announced today by D+Q Creative Director & Acquiring Editor Tom Devlin. Pippi Longstocking is Sweden's best-known children's export and has enthralled generations of children the world over with her fabulous exploits at Villa Villekulla, where she lives with her horse and monkey. Countless editions have been sold of the chapter books in over 60 languages. For the first time in English, Drawn & Quarterly will publish the first of a three-volume set of original Pippi Longstocking comics written by award-winning and world famous children's author Astrid Lindgren, drawn by original Pippi artist Ingrid Vang Nyman and translated by esteemed translator Tiina Nunnally. World English rights were negotiated with the Rabén & Sjögren Agency.

"When I was at the Helsinki Comics Festival this last September, I stumbled across a Finnish translation of the comic, and I was immediately awestruck and fascinated by two things," said Devlin. "The first was that there were unpublished in English Pippi Longstocking comics by the iconic Astrid Lindgren and the second being the incredible talent of the original artist Ingrid Vang Nyman."

Originally published in the Swedish magazine Humpty Dumpty in 1957-1959, a decade after the original books, the comics re-imagine the classic chapter book stories and spotlight both Lindgren's brilliant writing and Vang Nyman's bold bright colors that seem presciently and eerily contemporary. The original illustrator for the chapter books, Vang Nyman was a very talented children's book illustrator and an avant-garde champion of the importance of children's literature who insisted that art in children's books needed to meet the same aesthetic standards as art in any other medium. Sadly Vang Nyman never achieved international success, and tragically committed suicide in 1959 due to mental health issues, while Lindgren went on to become one of the world's best loved writers with over 145 million books sold worldwide.

To join this unearthing of a midcentury classic comic strip, D+Q's ENFANT will be relaunching for Fall 2012 the MOOMIN THE COMPLETE COMIC STRIP by Tove Jansson in full color and in kid friendly flexicovers and will spotlight single stories. There are currently over 100,000 units of the MOOMIN hardcovers in print in English. World English rights for the relaunch were negotiated with Bulls Press.

Both series will be distributed by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in the US; by Raincoast Books in Canada and PGUK in the United Kingdom.

Pippi Moves In | Astrid Lindgren & Ingrid Vang Nyman | hardcover | 7-5/8" x 9-1/2" | full color | 56 pages | 978-1-77046-099-7

Moominvalley Turns Jungle | Tove Jansson | Paperback | 8 " x 6.5 " | 48 pp | full color | 978-1-77046-097-3

Moomin's Winter Follies Tove Jansson | Paperback | 8 " x 6.5 " | 48 pp | full color | 978-1-77046-098-0

Say Hello To Amber Albrecht

2012-01-24T10:52:00.001-05:00

Do you know Amber Albrecht? We're in the process of finishing production on Idyll, her upcoming Petit Livre, and I couldn't be more excited! Amber is based in Montreal and was a student at Concordia a few years before I was, and all of my professors raved about her while I was there. Idyll collects a series of her ethereal and kind of goth-y drawings and silkscreens that she has shown throughout Canada and internationally, and it will be in stores in April.

Playboy's The Smoking Jacket Talks to Chester Brown

2012-01-20T11:04:00.003-05:00

OK, am I the only one who didn't know that Hugh Hefner wrote to Chester after the publication of The Playboy to express concern about his guilt? This interview is full of little gems like that! Love it.

TSJ: Did you ever get any feedback from the people at Playboy about your comic?

CB: After we released The Playboy I got a letter with Playboy [header] on it and it turned it out to be from Hugh Hefner. He wrote me a very nice letter about how much he enjoyed the book but that he was kind of concerned about all the guilt and suffering I had gone through as a teenager, buying the magazine, and how this had kind of surprised him because he had thought the sexual revolution in the 60s had changed things and that teenage boys buying Playboy in the 70s wouldn’t be feeling guilt about it anymore.

Adrian's DONGER & ME up for auction!!!!!! (No More Yankee My Wankee)

2012-01-19T11:07:00.004-05:00

Original, signed artwork from one of the best one-page comics from the last decade is up for auction at Heritage Auctions, Adrian's THE DONGER & ME, which he drew for Giant Robot and reprinted in Scrapbook. His friend Claudine Ko guest stars in the strip. Who can forget this strip where Adrian confronts his teenaged resentment towards Long Duk Dong? So iconic is this role that NPR explored it a few years back, in this article titled Long Duk Dong: Last of the Hollywood Stereotypes? The article says things are getting better for Asian male actors, so obviously they need to revisit this topic. Bidding begins for the artwork on February 3rd and ends on February 22nd/23rd.

Melvin located.

2012-01-18T15:19:00.003-05:00

By now it is no secret that Frank Young is the authority on John Stanley. He's sleuthed out some of the great Stanley oddities (like Krazy Kat?!?!) and written with insight and humor about Stanley's process/approach/archetypes. If you have not read his blog then you are missing out because it's one of the single best cartoonist resources on the internet. So all that said, it's a delight to see Frank spend so much time on our favorite monster and his environment. And extra delightful, to see him highly recommend our three volume series of the Melvin Monster comics. Thanks, Frank! You're the best.

What has that Seth been up this week (Also, interns? Totes awes.)

2012-01-18T09:00:00.001-05:00

Here's MJ. She's interning for us for a couple weeks from the esteemed Oberlin College (school colors are Cardinal Red and Mikado Yellow, people.) She's swell. She knows here stuff--quick in the ole Photoshop and doesn't mind shoveling a 2004 Subaru Forester out of a snow bank if need be. But what's that in her hands? Why it's just Seth's most recent project to see print. A cover design and 55-page article on "Creating a Personal Vernacular Canadian Design Style" in the Devil's Artisan: A Journal of the Printing Arts.

Oh my friends, you ask, "Does this man never sleep?" No, he does not. This article is a fascinating look into Seth's thought processes in designing and lettering and creating in general.

Featured photos on old books from Seth's collection. See some familiar elements?

Snow, trees, lumberjacks, Iniut tribespeople, more snow, more trees. Seth explains it all!

If you were at the Doug Wright Awards a couple of years ago, you might remember Seth's amazing lecture on his design of the giant hardcover introductory Nipper book called The Collected Doug Wright Volume One. This lecture is one of the most amazing comics lectures I've personally ever seen. Seth goes into great detail explaining his design inspiration and method for this book and I think it's fair to say it might just blow your mind. Seek this out--send the publisher some money--it's a pretty amazing bit of writing from one of the top cartoonists working today.

NonNonBa!

2012-01-17T12:12:00.003-05:00

Ladies and Gents, I introduce to you Shigeru Mizuki's engrossing NonNonBa!

I was introduced to the yokai a few years back in an article published in the Believer…and I was instantly hooked. When I later found out we'd be publishing Mizuki—the man responsible for keeping the yokai tradition alive in Japan—I couldn't have been happier. Japanese folklore monsters that love to play a good trick? I can't think of a better recipe for a gold-star comic. Juxtapose that with childhood play and innocence, powerful relationships, an original, striking cartooning style and you've got NonNonBa, a story that's sure to steal your heart (ah, jeez).

The story follows young Shige, a budding cartoonist whose grandmother (the kind of grandmother we wish we all had) has passed along a knowledge of—and aptitude for communing with—the yokai. Magic and terror ensue. Take a look (and don't forget to read right to left!):

What happens next? I'll leave you in suspense, but I will tell you that it's incredibly beautiful cartooning; no one creates a surreal, magical universe quite like Mizuki.

NonNonBa will be in stores in early April! Until then, head on over to Monster Brains. They've got a post up about Mizuki's Illustrated Guide to Yokai Monsters that's sure to wet your appetite.

2011: The Year It Was Slash Interns Are Awesome

2012-01-13T13:09:00.005-05:00

Normally our interns stay for a few months, but this past Fall, I received a sweet earnest request from a UC Berkeley student asking if we would consider giving her a 2.5 week internship from Dec 27th to January 12th. She loves comics, speaks french and wants to come to Montreal. How can you say to no someone who wants to come work for you in the middle of a Quebec winter? So ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Anjelica Colliard, who has been assisting me on all things publicity since shortly before the New Year.

I must have sounded pretty obnoxious when on the first day, I said,"Anjelica, I really need you to go through our press archive and pull out all of our year end accolades. I've lost track." Oh, woe is me! I know, I know, the burdens I bear as D+Q publicist. But as you can see from the following list that Anjelica so kindly researched and put together, and took over a good week to compile, it was one heck of an assignment. Thank you Anjelica. We will miss you, but surely the past 2.5 weeks in the snowy Quebec are enough not to have you miss us.

For simplicity's sake, we kept this year end 2011 compilation to only hits from press and regular reviewers.

BIG QUESTIONS by Anders Nilsen
NY Times 100 Notable Books of 2011 – Fiction and Poetry
Chicago Magazine's Best Chicago Fiction of 2011
#5 National Post Best Graphic Novels of 2011
NPR's Best Comics of 2011 by Glen Weldon
#4 Time Out New York’s Best Books of 2011
Georgia Straight’s Best Graphic Novels of 2011
Publishers Weekly Best Comics of 2011
USA Today's POP Candy Top 100 People of the Year
#24 Comic Book Resources Top 100 Comics of 2011
#2 AV Club’s Top 5 Collected Graphic Novels
The Snipe’s Comic of 2011
#4 Paste Magazine’s The 10 Best New Comics of 2011
#5 The Oklahoman’s Best Graphic Novels of 2011
#2 Robot 6 Our Favorite Comics of 2011 by Sean T. Collins
#12 Robot 6 Our Favorite Comics of 2011 by Chris Mautner
Inkstud’s Best of 2011
Graphic Eye Best of 2011
#1 Everyday is like Wednesday by J. Caleb Mozzocco
Publishers Weekly Critics Poll
Montreal Gazette Personal Rundown by Ian McGillis
#8 Austin American Statesman's A Look at the Years Best Comics
Montreal Gazette State of the Art

BLABBER BLABBER BLABBER by Lynda Barry
#4 CBR’s Six Most Criminally Ignored Books of 2011
Montreal Gazette State of the Art

DAYBREAK by Brian Ralph
#3 AV Club’s Top 5 Collected Graphic Novels
Graphic Novel Reporter Best of 2011
#17 Robot 6 Our Favorite Comics of 2011 by Sean T. Collins
io9 Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Comics 2011
Montreal Gazette State of the Art

THE DEATH-RAY by Daniel Clowes
#10 TIME’s Top 10 Fiction Books of 2011
NPR’s Best Comics of 2011 Honorable Mention by Dan Kois
#5 USA Today’s Best Graphic Novels of 2011
#1 AV Club’s Top 3 Reprints
#4 Paste Magazine’s The Ten Best Collections / Reissues Of 2011
Publishers Weekly Critics Poll
#10 Play by Play: STL Top Ten Graphic Novels
Montreal Gazette State of the Art

DENYS WORTMAN’S NEW YORK by Denys Wortman
#5 Av Club’s Top 5 Archival Collections

G.N.B. DOUBLE C. by Seth
#1 AV Club’s Top 10 Original Graphic Novels
#9 The Oklahoman’s Best Graphic Novels of 2011
Graphic Novel Reporter Best of 2011 Honorable Mention
Toronto Star’s Top 10 Graphic Novels of 2011
Chicago Tribune’s Best Books of 2011
Georgia Straight’s Best Graphic Novels of 2011
#15 Four Colors and the Truth Best Comic Books of 2011
#4 Everyday is like Wednesday by J. Caleb Mozzocco
Montreal Gazette State of the Art

HARK! A VAGRANT by Kate Beaton
#1 Publishers Weekly Critics Poll
#4 National Post Best Graphic Novels of 2011
#3 Comic Book Resources Top 100 Comics of 2011
The Snipe’s Best Collected Edition or Reprint
The Snipe’s Creator of the Year
#8 E! Online’s Top 10 Books of 2011
#2 Paste Magazine’s The 10 Best New Comics of 2011
#3 The Oklahoman’s Best Graphic Novels of 2011
#6 Comics Alliance’s Complete 11 Best Comics of 2011
Graphic Novel Reporter Best of 2011
#7 TIME’s Top 10 Fiction Books of 2011
Quill & Quire’s Books of the Year 2011: non-fiction
NPR's Best Comics of 2011 by Glen Weldon
Publishers Weekly Best Comics of 2011
#2 USA Today’s Best Graphic Novels of 2011
#8 Flavorwire’s 10 Most Buzzed-About Comics of 2011
#1 Robot 6 Our Favorite Comics of 2011 by Tom Bondurant
#7 Robot 6 Our Favorite Comics of 2011 by Tim O’Shea
#4 Comics Worth Reading’s Best Graphic Novels of 2011
Robot 6 Five of My Faovrites by Graeme McMillan
#7 Read/Rant Best of 2011
iFanboy's 2011 Must Have Gift Guide
Austin Chronicle The Year In Books
#3 Austin American Statesman's A Look at the Years Best Comics
L Magazine's Breakout Brooklyn Book People of 2011
Montreal Gazette State of the Art
The Beat's Person of the Year 2011"

MID-LIFE by Joe Ollmann

#7 AV Club’s Top 10 Original Graphic Novels
Publishers Weekly Critics Poll
Everyday is like Wednesday by J. Caleb Mozzocco "Under consideration"

ONWARDS TOWARDS OUR NOBLE DEATHS by Shigeru Mizuki
#51 Comic Book Resources Top 100 Comics of 2011
#3 AV Club’s Top 3 Reprints
About.com’s Best New One-Shot Manga
#1 About.com’s Critic’s Choice: Best Manga of 2011
#4 TokyoPop by Geek Chic Daily’s Top 5 Anime/Manga of 2011
#3 Paste Magazine’s The Ten Best Collections / Reissues Of 2011
MTV Geek’s Best Manga Series of 2011
NPR’s Best Books of 2011 by Dan Kois
NPR's Best Comics of 2011 by Glen Weldon
Library Journal Best Books of 2011: Graphic Novels
#7 Flavorwire’s 10 Most Buzzed-About Comics of 2011
Everyday is like Wednesday by J. Caleb Mozzocco "Under Consideration"
Publishers Weekly Critics Poll
#2 Robot 6 Our Favorite Comics of 2011 by Brigid Alverson
#10 Read/Rant Best of 2011
Montreal Gazette State of the Art

OPTIC NERVE #12 by Adrian Tomine
#44 Comic Book Resources Top 100 Comics of 2011
#3 AV Club’s Top 3 New Issues
#9 Robot 6 Our Favorite Comics of 2011 by Chris Mautner
#8 The Comics Bulletin Top 10 Single Issues of 2011
Everyday is like Wednesday by J. Caleb Mozzocco "Under consideration"

PAYING FOR IT by Chester Brown
Globe & Mail:100 nonfiction
#1 National Post Best Graphic Novels of 2011
#100 Comic Book Resources Top 100 Comics of 2011
#3 AV Club’s Top 10 Original Graphic Novels
The Snipe’s Comics Creator of 2011
#4 Comics Bulletin Top 10 Best Graphic Novels of 2011
#3 Time Out New York’s Best Books of 2011
Graphic Novel Reporter Best of 2011
Toronto Star’s Top 10 Graphic Novels of 2011
Georgia Straight’s Best Graphic Novels of 2011
Popdose Honorable Mention
Inkstud’s Best of 2011
The Comics Journal Frank Santoro’s Favorites of 2011
#2 Four Colors and the Truth Best Comic Books of 2011
Publishers Weekly Critics Poll
#2 Read/Rant Best of 2011
Montreal Gazette Personal Rundown by Ian McGillis
iFanboy's 2011 Must Have Gift Guide
Austin Chronicle The Year In Books
Vice's Top Ten List by Nick "I don't believe in lists but I made a list" Gazin.

PURE PAJAMAS by Marc Bell
#2 CBR’s Six Most Criminally Ignored Books of 2011
Montreal Gazette State of the Art

SCENES FROM AN IMPENDING MARRIAGE by Adrian Tomine
iFanboy's 2011 Must Have Gift Guide

Congratulations to all of our authors from 2011 for such an outstanding year. 2011 marks the first time that D+Q titles have graced so many best of lists including The New York Times, Time Magazine, Globe & Mail, NPR, USA Today, National Post, Publishers Weekly, Quill & Quire, Library Journal and many more. We are truly blessed and honored to work with so many talented cartoonists from around the world. You all make my job as a publicist very enjoyable but most of all very easy. THANK YOU. You are the best and deserve every accolade that ever came your way.

Happy Zettwoch Year, Internet!

2012-01-13T12:27:00.005-05:00

That's right, folks, I have some news about our beloved Dan Zettwoch! First off, he's returned from a Mexican vacation recently taken with his wife, and has some hilarious comics up from down South over at Zettwoch's suitcase.

MORE exciting, even, is Dan's upcoming book, Birdseye Bristoe, one that I have the pleasure of getting to work on. In short, the story begins in tiny town after its contentious cell phone tower's destruction, and then goes into the past to tell said tower's story through a slough of local characters. It is, of course, replete with Zettwoch's signature diagrams and Popular Mechanics-style charts, and is populated by a rich and diverse cast whose humour is signature Zettwoch.

Here's a brief excerpt:

Birdseye Bristoe will be available late this Spring.

alert! Adrian Tomine illo on the NEW YORKER!

2012-01-13T10:12:00.003-05:00

An Adrian Tomine illustration in the January 16th ish of New Yorker for an article by Patricia Marx! If you act quickly, you could even snag the original art. An Adrian illo always brightens my day.

From field guide to art book

2012-01-12T17:09:00.003-05:00

In 2009 Leanne Shapton walked into a Toronto used bookstore and came across a 1956 edition of The Native Trees of Canada. The book is a comprehensive field guide featuring black and white photos of every kind of tree and leaf imaginable, and it inspired Leanne to paint these bold interpretations, which were published last year in the book of the same name.

Here's samples of Leanne's versions, side by side with the corresponding photos.

Looks like in its day the original Native Trees was a Canadian publishing sensation. Who knew?

Attention, France: présentation de Guy Delisle!

2012-01-11T13:47:00.004-05:00

Guy is going to be doing a presentation on Friday, January 13th in Montpellier! Details below, (via his blog):

Vendredi 13 janvier – 18h30 – Montpellier

Auditorium du Musée Fabre

39 bd Bonne Nouvelle (arrêt tram Comédie ou Corum)

CONFÉRENCE – DÉBAT de Guy DELISLE

Des studios d’animation à la BD dont

« Chroniques de Jérusalem »

Wonder what might be included in said presentation? There's a sneak peek below.

JERUSALEM: CHRONICLES FROM THE HOLY CITY comes out this Spring

GOLIATH in person

2012-01-10T09:30:00.002-05:00

There is absolutely nothing better than when I make a banana cream pie and bring it in to share. Or maybe if there's some Baileys left over after a Christmas party and we're all still feeling in the holiday mood and we make some afternoon coffee and pour a shot and then we start doing google image searches on a hunky young Barnett Newman. Oh, wait, that's not the best thing(s). The best thing is when we get a new book. And, wowsers, look at this new book from Mr. Tom Gauld (he might be Sir Tom Gauld but I'm too lazy to look up the knighthood registry on EnglandTitles.uk) Goliath!!

Tom Gauld is on a roll lately with his brief hilarious strips for The Guardian and now this perfect sublime retelling of the story of David and Goliath from the giant's point-of-view.

I would like to describe these interiors but the discussions of what kind of brown I should describe the second color pantone as broke down ("Camel brown?" "No, that's light." "Beaver Brown?" "Ew, big greasy flat-tailed rats!!" "Hot Cocoa Brown?" "Who wants some Baileys?") So, look at that. Gorgeous. Is this book of the year? Possibly! It is certainly a must read. Look for it in March at your local Christian Science Reading Room.

Chester Rules! Chester Brown is Awesome! Chester Brown is Smarter Than Everyone!

2012-01-09T15:41:00.003-05:00

Oh that Chester Brown. I adore him. And I love when I read a good interview with him because he is always honest and unrehearsed. And I love how much he loves the comics medium. Yesterday, the almighty Spurgeon ended his annual interview series on the Comics Reporter with what I like to call a "Chet chat." And it delivers! You can also tell that Spurge is having a lot of fun in this interview. Good and good.

And I have more Chester Brown news! Everyone save the good people of Canada and the Globe & Mail book club from having to discuss the Steve Jobs biography or the new Stephen King book in their first ever online bookclub, and discuss a book that everyone has an opinion on. All the titles that are nominated for the first round are up for vote online, so all of you haters and lovers can get your groove on. Vote here.

And what else? OH JUST THE COMPLETE ED THE HAPPY CLOWN this Spring! If you said "Holy SH*T" so did we. And here dear blog readers, I leave you with an oh so fantastic quote from the once eloquent Frank Miller about the book:

“I love the beautiful way Chester Brown cartoons… the twisted corridors he takes you down, and the utter abandon with which he lets you see all his demons. It’s a completely personal statement, without any attempt to be either a polemic or a crowd pleaser.”–Frank Miller

Humilation-Free Exercising? Vanessa Davis Says "Maybe"

2012-01-05T16:35:00.003-05:00

Man, I always love Vanessa Davis' Tablet strips, but the most recent one about her lifelong quest to find a dance-fitness program that isn't humiliating is a cut above! (An upper-cut above? Anyone? Hello?)

Also, dig Vanessa's childhood style! Tuxedo dance costume! "Body Glove" T shirt! Ankh necklace! She's got it all.

This is the perfect New Year's resolution comic. Be sure to think of it while you're at the gym, worrying that blinking sweat out of your eyes makes you appear to to be winking indiscriminately into the sea of muscle men surrounding you.

Jinchalo in da house office!

2012-01-04T16:30:00.000-05:00

You know what's better than getting a delivery of new books on your first day back from holidays? NOTHING. Jinchalo arrived today, and I can't think of a better way to begin the new year.

I've already talked about Jinchalo here, so I'll resist the urge to go on and on about what a fan I am of Matt's work. Instead, I'll use this space to let the book speak for itself:

Here's awesome intern Robin happily holding her brand-new copy of Jinchalo, along with its companion book, Ojingogo.

And what's this?! A cameo appearance by the artist himself?

Look at that colour!

Internet! This book is gorgeous, and I'm going home tonight to read it for the tenth time. What a beaut! And since you're all not lucky enough to bring a copy home tonight, there's another preview here to tide you over.

Jinchalo will be in stores mid-February, so hold onto that $20 Christmas cheque you received from Nana that she told you to "invest." (I know she means well, but c'mon!)

Jason Lutes' artwork is in the building

2012-01-02T17:10:00.003-05:00

Original artwork for a book? We almost never see it around here anymore, now that everything is digital. Oh, it still happens from time to time: Seth, of course, prefers the old school method. And then there was the time, about a year ago, when Lynda Barry came to town with a couple of suitcases full of her art.

So, it was a particular delight to see Jason Lutes' artwork show up here in the office, at some point between Christmas and New Year. 24 pages of sturdy bristol board for the new issue of Berlin (the photo above shows Jason's artwork at left, next to an earlier issue of Berlin at right).

Jason is the consummate professional. Did you know that there is not a single use of "white out" on any of these 24 pages? Pen to paper for close to a couple of hundred panels, all done with flawless efficiency.

Here's a few single-panel close-ups to give you a better idea...

Berlin #18 is at the printer now (yes, our first book of 2012 is a pamphlet) and will be in comics stores on Wednesday, February 8th.

Crimestoppers unite!

2011-12-27T09:47:00.000-05:00

Tonight at the Luca Lounge in the East Village, comedy and comics! Another installment of the Crimestoppers Club, hosted by the hilarious duo of Kate Beaton and Michael Kupperman!

So head on down to the Luca Lounge at 13th St and Ave B for 7 pm tonight, give 'em five small dollars, and enjoy an evening of laughter.

Thank You Everybody! You are the Best!

2011-12-23T16:54:00.003-05:00

Happy Holidays! And THANK YOU to everyone who has supported us in 2011 and made it possible for a company that only published 24 titles in 2011, to have 6 of those titles land on the New York Times Hardcover Graphic Novel Bestseller list. It's humbling, and we appreciate each and everyone of of you. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Asphalt Watches

2011-12-23T15:30:00.002-05:00

I think we all want to live in a world where the movie, Asphalt Watches gets made. You might remember the handsome Seth Scriver from his curious and enchanting Stooge Pile Petit Livre that we put out a while ago. Well, along with his friend Shayne Ehman, Seth is making an animated feature about a cross country trip. You can help by going to Indiegogo and donating. I'd like to recommend the "Zen" option. or maybe the "Custom Airbrushed Carhood" option.

May I Direct You Over To Our Store Blog, Please.

2011-12-22T11:36:00.013-05:00

Oh sure, here in the office, this week is easy street: cracking jokes, waiting for chocolate from printers, and drinking all the leftover booze from our office party (above).

Meanwhile, over at the Librairie D+Q, they're in the midst of the busiest week of the year. And I mean, BUSY. By last week, sales for 2011 had already increased by 15% from last year so who know where we will end up by actual years end. A year that was a banner year for them in every shape and form including hosting events with Art Spiegelman, Ben Katchor, Craig Thompson, Miranda July (below), Sheila Heti, Madeline Thien and not to mention D+Q events with Dan, Seth, Kate, Anders, and more.

In the middle of this, they're blogging away their new books and favorite books of the year. And while they're obviously not so team-D+Q in their Best of 2011 lists (note to self to talk to them about this for 2012), I can't help but beam with happiness whenever I read their blog and especially their year end lists, and look at the passion, enthusiasm and professionalism in which they sell and promote literature and art. Thanks Jason, Julia, Fiona, Chantale, Julien and Jade.

When we opened the store 4 years ago, many people thought we were completely nuts for so many reasons, but when you've been a publisher for as long as D+Q, and you visited many amazing bookstores, you can't help to daydream what you would do. Our vision was simple: a store that sold our books (natch), but sold our peers of all stripes including McSweeneys, Fantagraphics, L'Association, New Directions, Cornelius, Coach House, Picture Box, La Pasteque, Vertical, Conundrum, Koyama, Nobrow, Little Otsu, NY Review of Books and more. Kids, young adult and adult books. Prose, poetry, comics, art, how to, and more. A store to host events and workshops. A store where the new Clowes sits right next to the new Eugenides. A store where a staffer picks Joan Didion and Lynda Barry as the best of the year.

Et voila, four years later, we're still here. Merci beaucoup, Montréal! We have the best customers and the best staff in the world! Happy holidays to everyone!

Congrats, CCS!

2011-12-22T09:25:00.003-05:00

Congrats to James Sturm, Michelle Ollie and the Center for Cartoon Studies on the amazing news that the school will be expanding into the "old post office building" in White River Junction, and will be new home to The Schulz Library that was forced to vacate the old firehouse after Hurricane Irene. I caught up with James this week, as MARKET DAY is featured in the 2011 Best American Nonrequired Reading and as usual, the man is up to a million exciting things. Love it.

Kim, Kim and re-Kim

2011-12-21T13:24:00.006-05:00

Guy Delisle has a blog post up about the recent death of Kim Jong-Il over at his blog. It's in French, so I did a quick/rough translation and included the images below.

"Kim Jong-Il has kicked the bucket.

Bad year for dictators, I haven't made a count but if we continue at this pace, 2011 will be a symbolic year for oppressed people of the world.

While the new Kim (around 28 years old) prepares himself for his new functions as dictator, I stumble across this little book, bought quite a long time ago in Pyongyang, that was lying around in my studio.

Inside, we find this photo. We see Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il discussing in the middle of an avenue. Great propaganda art. And this, long before the photoshop era.

Turn to the retouched shadow, the surrealist perspective or the father's gigantic tumor that disappeared as though by magic.

More surprising, even, is the son's height.

We know it, Kim Jong-il was not very tall. He sported heels and bouffant hairdos do give himself a little more volume. Despite all this, here he is at the same height as his father.

In reality, it should have looked like this:

Like we witness in the following photo.

Now it's Kim Jong-Un's turn to enter in to the family photo. (I find it hard to imagine the number of official portraits he has to put up next to the two others on all the country's walls.)

Ultimately, even if Kim-Jong-Un is a dwarf (with or without his high heels), North Korean propaganda will figure out how to raise him to the height of the situation."

All Hail Peter Birkemoe!

2011-12-21T11:33:00.003-05:00

The Beguiling's Peter Birkemoe gets his due with a major interview today with Tom Spurgeon at The Comics Reporter. Peter has been a major figure in comics for the past decade and a half. If running one of the best comics stores in the world wasn't enough, Peter is also responsible (along with Christopher Butcher) for making TCAF one of the premier independent comics festivals on the continent. Peter is an esteemed colleague, a good friend, and a model for anyone working in comics.

Metuchen your Christmas Spirit

2011-12-21T11:04:00.002-05:00

It would seem that Brian Ralph is doing a signing in his hometown of Metuchen, New Jersey at The Raconteur bookstore tonight at 7:30pm. You should go because you'll get to meet his high school art teacher (focuses too much on Escher and not enough on the Ashcan school), his wrestling coach (focuses too much on Freestyle and not enough on Greco-Roman), his mother (focuses too much on Brian's posture and not enough on his hair), and the school librarian who lent Brian his first comic (hates comics). Good thing I'm Facebook friends with Josh Bayer or I never would have known about this.

On social history, ragtime, and Chris Ware

2011-12-20T16:06:00.000-05:00

I, like many, know little about Scott Joplin. I didn't know, for instance, that he had composed operas, and certainly was not aware of Treemonisha, a work that draws on Joplin's own life experiences growing up in Arkansas part of a community of former slaves. It seems to be an opera meant more for working- and middle-class black audiences than rich European audiences, and its style (with heavy ragtime and spiritual influences) reflects that intent.

The breadth of this ambition is awe-inspiring. "It is the only opera in existence about the Reconstruction Era African-American experience written by a black man who actually lived through it. This fact alone makes it a work of tremendous significance. Further, Joplin's score is profoundly expressive and as stylistically unique as anything ever created in America." The Wall Street Journal writes about the importance of this work a century after its composition, because after extensive research by conductor and arranger Rick Benjamin (a leading interpreter of ragtime music), the orchestration has been reconstructed to reflect how it would have been performed in a 1910s theater orchestra. All this means that the new arrangement of Treemonisha, just released on CD by New World Records, is a much more historically accurate interpretation of Joplin's opera.

Oh hey, I guess it slipped my mind. Also, the CD, and its 112 pg booklet (with extensive analysis and history by the conductor/arranger Rick Benjamin) are both designed by Chris Ware. It's probably unnecessary to tell you this, but that means the Treemonisha CD is both a fascinating social history of an oft-elided part of the African-American experience, *annnd* a beautiful object. Buy it here!

D+Q Announces Our "Digital Strategy"

2011-12-20T12:30:00.004-05:00

As announced in today's PW Daily by Calvin Reid, this holiday season, the Drawn & Quarterly classic graphic novels LOUIS RIEL A COMIC-STRIP BIOGRAPHY and PAYING FOR IT A COMIC-STRIP BIOGRAPHY ABOUT BEING A JOHN by the award-winning and iconoclastic cartoonist Chester Brown, will each be available as ebooks via KOBO's Vox Reader, it was announced today by Peggy Burns, Associate Publisher of Marketing & Sales. Known for its astute editorial standards and high print production values, this venture marks the Montreal-based company's first foray into the digital sphere.

“Many people assumed we would never do ebooks, whereas the opposite was true. We were open to the idea, but wanted to approach it cautiously,” said Burns. “This past Fall, we had a fortuitous series of events that brought the project to the foreground. Chester voiced his desire for ebooks, CBC Canada Reads shortlisted LOUIS RIEL in its top-ten for its annual contest, and most importantly, the fellow Canadian company Kobo inquired if we would consider ebooks. Kobo’s pitch was very friendly and nonexclusive and they promote CBC Canada Reads. They understood who we are, our hesitancy and what is important to us. It all happened very organically which is how we prefer to do business.”

D+Q production manager Tracy Hurren oversaw the project and worked with Kobo to ensure that the same care and attention D+Q gives towards its print editions was in place for the ebooks. The arrangement is nonexclusive and D+Q expects to add more titles by different authors and devices throughout 2012.

Lastly, D+Q is proud to announce that the company will be splitting the net proceeds of its ebook sales equally with its authors, and is in agreement with the Writer’s Union of Canada.

“D+Q has always been an author-centric company, it is this ethos that has shaped us into who we are today,” said Chris Oliveros, D&Q’s Publisher and Editor-In-Chief. “It only seemed natural to offer the fairest proposition to our authors.”

###

Oh Kim Jong-Il. You @#$%^(.

2011-12-19T11:46:00.005-05:00

Perhaps you are reading the news today, and you never really knew many details about the leader of the hermit nation. And you think, huh, who is this man who penned On the Art of Cinema and On the Art of Opera? And he loved horror films? Was Friday the 13th really his favorite film? Did he really kidnap South korean filmmaker Shin Sank-ok and force the two to make a Godzilla rip-off among others? It's easy to chuckle at the outlandish antics that fed his cult of personality, but he was a dictator of epic proportions and a violator of human rights. Every single aspect of human life in this country was controlled by his repressive regime.

Of course, I'm not an expert, I've only read Guy Delisle's Pyongyang: A Journey In North Korea, an account of his time spent in the country while working as an animator for a French company.

Kate Beaton live

2011-12-18T11:42:00.000-05:00

Kate will be doing a reading from her comics at the 92nd St Y this Monday night! "The Moon's Multi-Denominational Year-End Celebration" promises to be a blast, with performances by Michael Showalter (!), Julie Klausner, Andrea Rosen, and The Moon team.

Monday, December 19th at 8 pm at the 92nd St Y, Tribeca Mainstage, 200 Hudson St.

Buy advance tickets here.

Showoff.

2011-12-16T14:32:00.003-05:00

It is always an event when Tablet runs a new Vanessa Davis strip--an event on par with a Royal Wedding!!

Free Comic Book Day 2012 - our second awesome title

2011-12-16T12:56:00.003-05:00

So, we've got two Free Comic Book Day comics coming out next year. one is as previously announced an excerpt from Gilbert Hernandez's semi-autobiographical Marble Season and the other is a split of Moomin and french import Anna & Froga. You all know Moomin by now and this is more of that great strip. But Anna & Froga is new in English speaking North America.

I discovered this comic in the French comics section of my local library one Sunday while getting the kids out of the house so Peg could vacuum. While I couldn't read much of it, I could tell it had the right sensibility. I tested it on some neighborhood kids and headed off to Angouleme to meet the author Anouk Ricard. While talking to Thomas Gabison, an editor at Actes Sud, I mentioned that I quite liked her work and he said, "oh, yes, she is one of the best in recent years." A couple minutes later, Marc Bell walked up to me with one of her books and asked if I had seen it. PEOPLE, IT WAS FATE!! So, here's a little preview and watch for the publication of the full book in hardcover come Spring 2012.

Happy Birthday to you, Tom Spurgeon!

2011-12-16T12:49:00.000-05:00

Help this guy out!

2011-12-15T20:25:00.002-05:00

People, All I'm saying is that this is your chance to create something as great as the famous English peas recipe or the three wolves t-shirt. Get on it. I mean, "Joe Jacobs?!?!" Please don't correct the misnaming. It's too good. THIS IS GOLD!

Psst... Get yer HARK signed!

2011-12-15T15:14:00.000-05:00

Boy do I have exciting news for you New Yorkers! Kate Beaton will be signing Christmas present copies of Hark! A Vagrant tomorrow night at the Community Bookstore in Brooklyn.

Find her at 143 Seventh Ave between 7 and 9 pm on Friday, December 16th. And remember, this is for Christmas presents for your loved ones!

Frank King, film producer

2011-12-15T14:11:00.003-05:00

As noted in this earlier blog post, the new Walt & Skeezix comes with a special added bonus: a DVD insert featuring numerous clips from Frank King's home movies.

Kudos to John ("The Guru") Kuramoto for putting this together and also for retrofitting Archer Prewitt's D+Q logo for the full 1920s experience.

This clip dates from about 1923 and shows King on the rooftop of the Chicago Tribune building with fellow cartoonists Gaar Williams, Carey Orr, Frank Willard, Sals Bostwick and possibly Walter Berndt. What exactly are these men doing?!

And yet another bonus: the music on this clip was recorded recently by classical pianist Reiko Uchida. The song is called "Skeezix" and was originally written in 1923 by the ragtime composer Egbert Van Alstyne, with collaboration with Haven Gillespie and Louise Field.

Pascal adapts

2011-12-13T15:57:00.000-05:00

At Length magazine asked a handful of cartoonists what book they'd pick if Classics Illustrated invited them to adapt any book... Check out the results, including Pascal Girard, Melissa Mendes, Kevin Cannon, Andrea Tsurumi, and Noah van Sciver. I just love Pascal's watercolour work!

Kevin explains it all

2011-12-13T14:37:00.003-05:00

Kevin Huizenga has a great process post that is required reading for all cartoonists, working or hopeful. Check it.

More Jerusalem!

2011-12-12T16:45:00.001-05:00

Things are getting pretty Christmassy around here as we prepare for our staff party tonight: Peg's printing out karaoke lists, Tom Devlin's devilin' eggs, Julia's wearing her elf costume. Since I'm in a festive mood, I thought I'd leave you with the Christmas pages from Guy Delisle's forthcoming Jerusalem…and then I remembered that Guy was in Jerusalem in 2008 during the Gaza War, which began a couple days after Christmas--incredibly interesting and important reading, but not quite the tone I was going for here. So, instead, I'll leave you with this:

You know, it's just Guy hanging out with his friend Michael, the Lutheran pastor at the Mount of Olives where Guy was lucky enough to land a studio. Say what?! Yeah, Guy's studio in Jerusalem was in a church on the Mount of Olives. AMAZING.

Jerusalem was released in France about a month ago, and it's already sold out of its first printing of 35,000 copies! Congrats, Guy! We'll be sending our edition off to print any day now and we couldn't be more excited about it. Watch for the book in April.

Free Comic Book Day 2012

2011-12-10T07:09:00.003-05:00

Oh, so a FCBD Gilbert Hernandez comic!! Well, well, well. Featuring a preview of Marble Season, some background sketches, and an interview by, ahem, me. Next year is going to be GREAT! But, wait, that's not all. We have a second FCBD comic coming out as well featuring a children's classic and a hilarious new kids comic that I actually discovered in the kids section of my local library. More on that one later.

D+Q to Publish Gilbert Hernandez's MARBLE SEASON

2011-12-08T09:28:00.002-05:00

Drawn & Quarterly has acquired world rights to Gilbert Hernandez's semi-autobiographical graphic novel, MARBLE SEASON, it was announced today by Tom Devlin, Creative Director and Acquiring Editor of Drawn & Quarterly.

"Working with Gilbert is a dream come true. He's been on my very short list of favorite all-time cartoonists ever since I found a copy of LOVE & ROCKETS #8 at the Million Year Picnic and read the story 'The Laughing Sun.' He has never left that list, " said Devlin. "MARBLE SEASON is the autobiographical side of this great cartoonist (albeit semi-fictionalized)--where we get to see how his young comics mind developed."

To be released in Fall 2012, MARBLE SEASON follows a group of children and teenagers growing up in suburban southern California of the early 1960s, and tells the untold stories from the youth of an American comics legend. Pop culture references—TV shows, comic books, and music—saturate this evocative story, giving MARBLE SEASON the distinctive narrative depth and attention to detail fans have come to expect from the acclaimed cartoonist's work.

Hernandez, along with his brothers Jaime and Mario, is the co-creator and cartoonist behind the iconic comic book series LOVE & ROCKETS, which celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2012. Hernandez’s seminal contribution to the series and the medium is the generation-spanning, cross-cultural, literary soap-opera masterpiece about a tight-knit Central American town, Palomar. Hernandez has won numerous awards for his stories, including the Kirby, Inkpot, Harvey, and the United States Artists Literature Fellowship. Hernandez was born in Oxnard, California and lives in Las Vegas with his wife and daughter.

MARBLE SEASON is Hernandez’s first book with D+Q, and will be supported by a full-scale promotional campaign including a national author tour. MARBLE SEASON will be distributed in the U.S. by Farrar, Straus & Giroux and in Canada by Raincoast Books. International rights are represented by Samantha Haywood of the Transatlantic Literary Agency.

Praise for Gilbert Hernandez:
“Gilbert Hernandez is one of the great craftsmen of modern comics...” –Douglas Wolk, The New York Times

"One of the greatest American storytellers.” –Junot Diaz, author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

“[Gilbert Hernandez is]...an extraordinary, eccentric and very literary cartoonist.” –Publishers Weekly

Adrian Tomine cover art (psst, some is for sale!)

2011-12-08T07:26:00.000-05:00

Adrian Tomine's awesome cover for volume 4 of the Japanese lit mag In the City. Buy here.

Note the Adrian (maybe?) look-a-like in the background. Plus: all the back issue covers. Did you know there are a limited number of prints of the cover of Volume 3 at the Desert Island web store? Bee-you-tea-full!

Time Features THE DEATH-RAY and HARK! A VAGRANT in its top ten fiction list!

2011-12-07T10:40:00.005-05:00

We just had a D+Q dance party in the office! OK, I admit I was the only one dancing to the BIebs while my coworkers nervously giggled. But how could I not! Two books on the Time Magazine Top Ten Fiction list? I have died and gone to publisher heaven. Time spotlights THE-DEATH at #10, and HARK! A VAGRANT at #7, both well deserved nods to two of the most talented cartoonists of our time.

Congrats Dan and Kate! (oo Tom just turned on Mylie's Party in the USA for me! back to the dance party!)

Now THIS is a guy I can get behind...

2011-12-07T09:34:00.000-05:00

Kate Beaton! Update! New WonderWoman awesomeness.

True story time: I left Hark! on my living room table for about a week after I first got it, and I'd come home from work every day to find my friend who was visiting from out of town sitting on the couch giggling to herself and repeating punchlines. And then after she left, my roommate was the next victim.

Anyway, point is, you still have a few more days to order Hark! before Christmas mailings end. Click here for more information.

And with that, goodbye 2011! Brooklyn Comics & Graphics Closes the Year!

2011-12-06T15:25:00.013-05:00

I arrived to NYC early as The Comics Reporter himself was already there. We made early Friday morning plans for breakfast and then spent the day in bookstores. Here we are visiting Jeff Ayers of Forbidden Planet.

Who else is at Forbidden Planet? Just good ol' Tony Shenton.

From there we move over to the fourth floor of the flagship Barnes & Noble Union Square store. Check out that endcap, except for the, ahem, one wing nut book on it, whatta shelf! Who could be responsible?

Oh just the man behind the scenes Connor who you can find Friday nights at the UCB Theater. Like all good comedians, Connor has impeccable taste in comics.

Early morning in front of the church, waiting for it to open.

Yes, my neighbors are Secret Acres. Above is my former DC Comics and Drawn & Quarterly intern and fine cartoonist Sean Ford and my former coworker Leon Avelino.

You know how we are here, we always like to get a good booth shot in.

Gary Groth and Sam Arthur came by early in the day to say hi.

Brian Ralph kicked off the day signing his NY Times Bestselling Graphic Novel Daybreak. We could have sold 100 copies of that book to SCAD grads alone!

Lynda's Blabber Blabber Blabber was a fast seller at the show. Check out this fangirl's rocking tattoo!

This happened a few times during the day. A young boy perhaps 10 or 11 years old is drawn to The Death-Ray. I mean, I know kids in NYC mature faster, but as a Mother, I think I'll pull out the Clowes a bit later on.

Yup, these cuties Lizz Hickey and Keith Jones are as adorable as ever!

This is Juliacks, who I met while in Finland in September. She's the sweetest!

Drew Friedman and Mark Newgarden!

Austin English, grand overlord at Domino Books.

Adrian's line starts to form even before he gets there, wrapping around the corner.

The man of the hour, the weekend! Jack Davis! Total celebrity sighting! His new book from Fantagraphics looks great!

Adrian Tomine and Mr. Collardey, err, I mean Tunde Adebimpe.

My dazzling booth help Caitlin Hunter.

And the good old end of night dinner. You know when you are with Adrian, you are going to eat a good meal. Thanks everyone for a great show! (I blame the lack of jokes in this entry on the fact that the show lasts until 9 PM. I'm old I can't remember)

I'M JUST REMINDING YOU!!!

2011-12-06T15:25:00.009-05:00

Sometimes I like to imagine tweeting is like a crazy old man in his garden talking to each dandelion as he pulls it out of the ground. Anyways, I posted this list a month ago but I thought it needed to come up to the top of the page.

So here's a photo blog of the D+Q year in comics, the only 2011 Drawn & Quarterly title not included here is the forthcoming Berlin #18 which is being finished as I type these words. Should be here before the end of the year along with our other December releases below. I am pretty proud of this year. I think the last several years have been amazing for comics--just tons of great books made by all involved in this industry. Below, I count 10 graphic novels proper, along with five classic strip reprints, two gekiga titles, FIVE New York Times bestsellers and ten Canadian titles (it matters to us!) and even one comic book (two by years end! Yay! we saved the comic book!) So, awesome.

A Single Match Oji Suzuki - January 4

Scenes from an Impending Marriage Adrian Tomine - February 1

Mid-Life Joe Ollmann - March 1

Melvin Monster, Volume 3: The John Stanley Library John Stanley - March 29

Reunion Pascal Girard - April 12

Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths Shigeru Mizuki - April 26

The Klondike Zach Worton - May 10

Moomin Book Six: The Complete Lars Jansson Comic Strip Lars Jansson - May 10

Paying for It Chester Brown - May 10

Constructive Abandonment Michael Dumontier and Neil Farber - May 24

Big Questions SC Anders Nilsen - August 16

Big Questions HC Anders Nilsen - August 16

Nogoodniks Adrian Norvid - August 30

Optic Nerve #12 Adrian Tomine - September 14

Daybreak Brian Ralph - September 27

Hark! A Vagrant Kate Beaton - September 27

Nancy: The John Stanley Library, Volume 3 John Stanley and Dan Gormley - September 27

Nipper: 1965-1966 Doug Wright - September 27

Pure Pajamas Marc Bell - September 27

The Death-Ray Daniel Clowes - October 11

The Great Northern Brotherhood of Canadian Cartoonists Seth - October 11

Blabber Blabber Blabber: Volume 1 of Everything Lynda Barry - October 31

The Adventures of Hergé Jose-Louis Bocquet, Jean-Luc Fromental, and Stanislas Barthélémy - December 6

Walt and Skeezix: Book Five: 1929-1930 Frank King - December 6

Support The Paris Review, buy Leanne Shapton artwork!

2011-12-06T12:17:00.000-05:00

Over the course of their Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter 2011 issues, The Paris Review serialized Roberto Bolano's The Third Reich, his first novel and a lost masterpiece. Better still, they asked Leanne Shapton to illustrate the four sections of the story. Now, five pieces of original hand-drawn artwork are available in an auction to raise money for The Paris Review. I don't think I need to tell you how lovely this would be as a gift for someone else or yourself.

Cover of the spring 2011 Paris Review

Also, man am I ever jealous of the lucky duck who gets this.

Chris Ware in Paris!

2011-12-05T17:24:00.000-05:00

It seems like just Friday that we were talking about musical adaptations of comics.

Did you know there is a musical interpretation of Acme Novelty Library 20: LINT? Well, not only is this the case, but on Friday, December 9th at the Centre Pompidou, you can hear a preview of it!

Author and director Benoit Peeters will be hosting a discussion between Chris Ware, Jacques Samson (specialist on Chris Ware and co-author of the amazing Chris Ware: la bande dessinee reinventee), and Walter Hus, who is composing the afore-mentioned chamber piece.

Before the discussion, they will also be screening a short documentary Benoit Peeters directed in 2004, entitled Chris Ware, un art de la memoire.

The craziest part? This is all free! Friday December 9th at the Centre Pompidou. There's a signing at 5:30. The screening is at 6:30, and the discussion at 7.

Sounds like...

2011-12-02T11:50:00.002-05:00

So I'm writing back and forth with Marc Bell about his interview at TCJ yesterday and he mentions that someone had written a modern music composition based on his doodle classic The Stacks and I'm thinking that must be wrong, Marc must still be dazed from talking about Odd Future so much and then lo and behold he sends me a link and well, here you go. Composer Øyvind Torvund says this about the piece:

"In this piece,I am making 12 short fragments that should be played together with projections of paintings by the Canadian artist Marc Bell. It is part of a larger project I have, deriving music from pictures, like translations. Other inspirations are the music of Harry Partch, and early electronic music. The first version of the piece was performed at the Norwegian Academy of Music (NMH) in January 2007. This was a sketch for quartertone marimba. The second version will be adapted for guitar, sound objects and electronics, since the performance will take place in London, and it would be too expensive to transport the marimba. The small fragments or phrases are supposed to be taught "by ear"to a group of invited musicians. This way of learning music is a technique that I am interested in exploring as a method for creating constant microvariations of existing material. I am especially interested in focusing on detailed and ornamented versions of a simple tonal material. That makes the Quarter tone marimba a perfect instrument to work with. The lastversion will be a further development, for augmented Quarter-tone marimba solo."

Check it out here, videos and everything!

Until next year, Expozine.

2011-12-02T09:50:00.000-05:00

Montreal has many-a-good church-basement shopping opportunities, but my favourite of all has to be Expozine. This past weekend's festivities did not disappoint. In addition to the pleasure of scoping out home-grown talent, it's always nice to see so many familiar faces, especially local D+Q cartoonists who are always milling about.

Take a look:

Joe Ollmann! Suave as ever, striking a pose behind the Conundrum booth.

Matt Forsythe! Looking coy, selling his new Koyama Press mini-comic Comics Class across the way, while talking up his new D+Q book, Jinchalo!

Pascal Girard also made an appearance, which is always a treat, but I missed the photo op. Instead, go look at his blog. He's be posting some gorgeous water-colour sample from his next book.

And lastly, here's a woman (who's name I never wrote down. I'm sorry...), but not just any old gal. No. She's the daughter of Peter Blegvad, the letterer of the Moomin picture books.

If you haven't taken a look at The Book About Moomin, Mymble and Little My or Who Will Comfort Toffle, you must, immediately. The lettering is AMAZING, and, to boot, the stories are some of the best children's stories I've ever read.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by the booth this weekend, and, of course, thanks to everyone who helped to organize and run the show. It was a blast!

"This is going to last for a long time, so you should be aware of that.”

2011-12-01T14:28:00.002-05:00

Of course, you've already seen this great Neil Rough photo of Marc Bell and Ron Regé, Jr. from 1999. And maybe you've read the TCJ interview with Dan Nadel it accompanied. Okay, fine, I have nothing new to show you. Wait, you didn't read the interview yet? Then you are in for a treat. Marc drops some science about how he makes his comics and his art. Lots of background on the recent masterpiece Pure Pajamas for instance. Also, lots of great personal anecdotes including a hilarious story about accidentally spotting an anti-Marc Bell cartoon in the teacher's lounge of his high school.

Christmas Gift Mailing Cut-Off Dates

2011-12-01T13:15:00.000-05:00

It's starting to look a little wintry up here, what with all the naked trees, early sunsets, and dachshund-less sidewalks. That means CHRISTMAS is coming!

If, like me, you are burdened with a ridiculous family that insists on staying in contact with all their ex-wives, ex-husbands, and ex-friends (all right, it's very sweet), perhaps you have a crazy long list of people for whom it is necessary to purchase Christmas gifts. Perhaps they are scattered all over North America, or, more challenging still, all over the world.

With that in mind, below you'll find the chronological list of cut-off dates for different mail services. Get your orders in early to make sure the copy of Paying for It for your 92 yr old grandpa arrives punctually. After all, what's worse than a tardy book?

USPS International - Friday December 2nd
USPS Media Mail - Thursday December 8th
FedEx Ground - Tuesday December 13th
FedEx International Economy - Tuesday December 13th
FedEx 2 Day - Monday December 19th
FedEx Next Day Air - Tuesday December 20th

And for all my fellow Canadians (this is just shipping within Canada, y'all):

Canada Post Regular Parcel - Thursday December 10th

But we all know that Canada Post sucks (one time they delivered me HALF of a postcard, covered in SOOT), so be careful, or maybe order through Amazon if you want to make sure it arrives. They have a complicated chart that explains in detail. Order by Sunday December 11th if you're using standard shipping within Canada.

Adrian Tomine and Lynda Barry Tote Bags? It Can't Be True...

2011-12-01T10:45:00.004-05:00

Oh, but it is!!!! Available for sale now are tote bags designed by Lynda Barry and Adrian Tomine, made exclusively for our bookstore. Click the links below to pick them up, just $10 each!

ADRIAN TOMINE TOTE BAG

LYNDA BARRY TOTE BAG

D+Q at the Brooklyn Comics & Graphics Festival.

2011-11-30T12:38:00.006-05:00

Is there a nicer way to end the year than by going to NYC, doing a *one-day* show where you make practically as much money as a two-day show and seeing all of your friends? NO! THERE IS NOT! Ladies and gents, I present to you....

Come visit Drawn & Quarterly this weekend in Williamsburg Brooklyn at the Our Lady of Mt Carmel Church with Adrian Tomine, Brian Ralph, Jillian Tamaki, R. Sikoryak, John Porcellino, Matt Forsythe and Gabrielle Bell in attendance!

Signing Schedule at D+Q Tables 20-22:

Brian Ralph 1:00-3:00

R. Sikoryak 2:00- 3:00

Jillian Tamaki 3:00 - 4:00

Adrian Tomine 3:00 -5:00

Brian Ralph 5:00-7:00

John Porcellino, Matt Forsythe & Gabrielle Bell are signing at other tables, too!

6:00 THE LANGUAGE IN COMICS

The recent embrace of graphic novels by the publishing industry has led to misguided attempts to evaluate comics according to the standards and conventions of literary fiction. The writing in comics occupies a more peculiar place, with its own constraints and opportunities. John Porcellino, Gabrielle Bell, and David Sandlin will discuss the particular demands of writing within a visually-driven form in this conversation moderated by novelist Myla Goldberg.

7:00 C.F. and BRIAN RALPH IN CONVERSATION

C.F. and Brian Ralph both emerged from the revolutionary art and comics scene that flourished in New England throughout the 1990s, radiating outward from the Fort Thunder artists’ space in Providence, RI and incorporating a network of friendships, influences, and collaborations. Both artists are now producing the strongest work of their careers, engaging fantasy and adventure as modes for personal expression. The two will discuss their work with moderator Tom Spurgeon.

St. Petersburg (Bak-style)

2011-11-30T11:26:00.006-05:00

T. Edward Bak recently went to Russia and I casually said to him "hey, take some pictures and write something and I'll blog it." Well, Tom Spurgeon was right on top of Bak and did a great interview so I figured that was that. Until TEBs (that's what those in the know call him) wrote me and said, "hey, I wrote a thing for you. It's terrible." Of course, it isn't terrible at all. So I present to you, Bak's ramblings about Russia and hiss ongoing Georg Steller project.

I'd been warned not to smile at people in Russia. I was warned about rampant crime and gangs of orphaned pre-adolescent thugs roaming the streets at night. I was told that the Russians don't appreciate fart jokes or crass humor, but they applaud wit and clever innuendo. Flying through Europe, it occurred to me that even the clouds over France and Germany looked old. How was I en route to St. Petersburg? How did this happen? Who in the hell do I think I am? What I learned while I was in Russia is that the Russians eat tomatoes and cucumbers for breakfast. They eat a lot of pastries and smoke a lot of cigarettes. I had lunch with the American consulate at a vegetarian restaurant in St. Petersburg one afternoon, we ate vegan borscht. Someone had told me that there were bagels somewhere in the city. I don't know, I never found any. I ate vitamin salad, pierogies and gnocchi and lots of potatoes and mushrooms and, once, tried the Russian version of Mexican food. There are no burritos in St Petersburg. Mostly I managed to get by on americanos and cakes and pizza. I drank vodka, and drank beer. I found an Elvis Presley café around the corner from my hotel with a gigantic Confederate flag hanging in a corner of the room, I felt right at home. When I ordered salmon, the Russians brought me trout. When was the last time I'd eaten trout? Did it matter? As long as I knew I could order a decent Czech beer or get vodka that had been made from potatoes, everything was Perestroika.

I gathered that there must be an ordinance in St. Petersburg requiring women under the age of 30 to wear only high heels. Probably there is another that exempts taxicab drivers from obeying traffic laws and speed limits. My exchanges with cabbies in St. Petersburg actually became fairly routine:
"Pushkin, da. Mark Twain, da. Bill Clinton, da. Monica Lewinsky, da!"
Be proud, America. One afternoon, I was walking down Nevsky Prospekt and a police van pulled up to the sidewalk. A group of uniformed men and women leapt out, seized a swarthy (will I get in trouble for 'swarthy'? The Russians I met were endlessly amused by English epithets which would make most North Americans squirm) businessman carrying a briefcase, threw him in the back of the van, and drove away. Nobody on the sidewalk around me flinched and I wondered if anyone had even noticed what had just transpired. Police and military units constantly patrol the city, it seems, and wherever I went, officials were checking someone's papers on the street corner, in front of monuments, at roadblocks, etc.

It was September and I was visiting St. Petersburg for 2 weeks as a guest of the International Comics Festival, Boomfest! My first time outside of North America, my first transatlantic flight, my first exposure to any kind of comics community outside of the usual angry nerd love-ins I'm accustomed to attending in the US. The coordinator of Boomfest, publisher Dmitry Yakovlev, warmly welcomed me and had arranged a swell room on the third floor of a hotel in a beautiful neighborhood downtown; when I tried to drunkenly heave the television through the window out on to the street below late one evening after my usual drug-ingestion and debauchery, the hypodermic needles I'd stolen from…oh, fuck it, never mind; I was in my room and ready for bed by 10 PM practically every night. Of course, the time difference meant that I wouldn't be asleep until dawn, but during the day walking about in St Petersburg was for me like inhabiting a dream, anyhow. So surreal and unfamiliar.

There were dozens of wonderfully talented people at Boomfest, all fantastically original artists: Julie Doucet, Dominik Heilig, Victoria Lomasko, Varvara Pomidor, Edik Katykhin, Polina Petrouchina, Joanna Hellgren, Juhyun Choi, Misteur Morvandiau, Stefano Ricci, Nele Bronner, Jeroen Funke, Boris Peeters, Sam Peeters, Jo Rdx, Xavier Lowenthal, Anastasia Voitenko (and, unexpectedly, Pacific NW cartoonist Eroyn Franklin, who happened to be traveling through Russia and visiting family in St. Petersburg during the event); Julie Doucet showed her new film, there was a Hugo Pratt exhibition, a Tove Janssen panel, there was something happening practically everyday, for an entire month. Insane.

I delivered a presentation that gave me the opportunity to discuss my work and my friendship with Dylan Williams and his company Sparkplug Comic Books, whom I also represented at the festival’s book fair. I had a dream about my recently departed dear friend while I was in Russia; he was seated at a drawing table, busily sketching away. As usual, I felt like I was interrupting or disturbing him. But Dylan always made time for me and this was no exception. We talked briefly and he advised me to respect and to pay attention to the Russian artist. I had a vague impression that Dylan had recently gone away, or that something had happened to him. But, no, here he was, attending to his work, same as always. And I had bothered him long enough, so I let him be.

Meanwhile, I was genuinely challenged by the questions from the audience at my presentation and impressed with their patience at my rambling. "Who are these attentive young Russians?" I thought. "Will they want to buy me drinks? Will they share their drugs with me? If I am kidnapped and turned out on the street as a male prostitute, will I earn enough rubles to afford decent krokodil?"
If you’ve ever seen me in front of an audience and managed to stay awake, you may be familiar with my nuanced style of incoherent blathering; somehow, these gracious Europeans and Russians made sense of what I was saying. Well, at least they were polite enough to smile and nod as I sputtered on. When the European artists I'd met at Boomfest departed for home, I wanted to travel with each of them to their countries. To understand what they were doing, to see what they were seeing. There is still so much to do, I thought. When the festival was finished I spent time during the day wandering through historic St. Petersburg; photographing the architecture along the Neva, and materials from the Russian State Cultural Museum, the Russian State Ethnographic Museum and the Kunstkamera.

After a couple of weeks of this foolishness I flew home via Frankfurt. The plane flew over Iceland, then southern Greenland just before sunset. Watching undisturbed and pristine towers of of ice and rock pass beneath the plane in that glow was like witnessing the beginning of time, the beginning of the world. And here I was, returning to the USA, back to where everything ends. Bak to the future.

And here are a bunch more photos, check it.

Vote for Kate! Vote for Kate!

2011-11-29T15:26:00.001-05:00

2011 Goodreads Choice Awards: Best Graphic Novels & Comics

Vote now for your favorite books!

Vote for Kate! Vote for Hark! Vote for Kate! Vote for Hark!

Nemesis Redux + Kate Beaton Tees

2011-11-29T14:57:00.000-05:00

KateKateKate! A sequel to her sequence of pirate bromances.

Also, now that it's past American Thanksgiving, did you know Kate Beaton has new T-shirts up for sale on her site? Finally, a T-shirt that expresses exactly how I feel all the time (except sometimes I want more cat videos, or more capybara photos, or more ... y'know). All I'm sayin' is these might be a perfect Christmas gift:

Daniel Clowes Covers the NEW YORKER!

2011-11-28T15:26:00.002-05:00

Just after I read this article in Salon about buying actual books from actual bookstores, I come across Dan's fantastic cover to this week's NEW YORKER.

A bunch of scores ago...

2011-11-28T10:22:00.002-05:00

Mimi Pond gets out there and does the serious research on the Greatest of Wars at the LA Times. Seriously, how great was the Civil War. It really had everything.

Montreal! Get yer butts out of bed this weekend and head over to Expozine

2011-11-25T15:30:00.001-05:00

Oh, that's right, mes freres, it's that time of year again. No, not "Black Friday," (which I take is some kind of American blood-pudding festival) but Montreal's favourite holiday, EXPOZINE. This is one of your rare chances to see "Mayor of Mile-End" Billy Mavreas south of Fairmount, so, please, don't let it go to waste! Seriously, though, this is a chance to see local (and non-local) zinesters and pierogies whose work you can't find elsewhere, so make sure to come check it out. I recommend heading down early since it gets CROWDED in that church basement. Here are the deets:

November 26-27, 12-6 p.m.

5035 St. Dominique, Montreal

free admission

(The mayor himself, Billy Mavreas!)

Oh, but that's not all! Tonight, Librairie D+Q is hosting an Expozine 10th Anniversary and FOUR MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT launch! It starts at 7 pm, and you can read all about it on good ol' facebook.

Adrian Tomine bags? Yes, it's true.

2011-11-25T15:10:00.001-05:00

Check out what just rolled into the office. A brand new tote, designed by the handsome Adrian Tomine.

Here's Jess, working it:

We'll have bags available at Expozine this weekend, so make sure you come check it out. These beauties are gonna go fast.

Jinchalo, you've stolen my heart.

2011-11-24T15:15:00.003-05:00

Well, I haven't kept quiet about how eager (and impatient) I've been to read Matt Forsythe's new book, Jinchalo, and finally, my appetite has been sated. Earlier this week Matt sent in the book, and I've had the pleasure over the past few days of piecing it together. The above image is the final cover, minus a few colour tweaks. Beautiful, right?

A companion book to Ojingogo, Jinchalo follows the same young heroine through a Jack and the Bean Stalk inspired fairy tale that's woven with Korean folklore, taking the reader in and out of fantastical dream sequences, and leaving them feeling like they themselves have embarked on a strange and magical adventure through an incredible imaginary land. How does Matt accomplish so much in his stories without using any words? Beats me, but the world—or at least my bookshelf—is better for it. Take a look for yourself:

And lastly, here's Matt shoveling a VPP (non-Montrealers: veggie pulled pork) into his face when he stopped by the office yesterday for a celebratory lunch.

(Note new intern Robin on the bottom left. She's a gem!)

Congrats, Matt, on finishing the book, and doing an amazing job. It will be out early in the new year. And in the meantime, go visit Matt (and me + awesome intern/store staffer Jade) at Expozine this weekend.

A diversion on this Thanksgiving (Moomin edition)

2011-11-24T11:41:00.003-05:00

For a little background on this video, here's excerpt from the forthcoming Tove and Lars Jansson Moomin comic strip biography, Moomin Every Day:

"In preparation of Moomin's two-year anniversary in 1956, Associated Newspapers contacted composer and conductor Robert Farnon. Farnon was one of the most famous light-music (a British term for mid-20th Century classical music compositions written with a broader appeal in mind) composers in England at the time. He was asked to compose a commemorative Moomin song. 'I was an enthusiastic Moomin fan by then, so I was delighted to agree, and for copyright reasons I distributed the piece under the pseudonym 'Ole Jensen,'' Farnon recalls. Robert Farnon's orchestra performed the piece for the first time on July 8, 1956, on BBC television. That evening, Farnon introduced the composition thus: 'Many of you know the Moomin comic strip, and Moomin, whose adventures range from silly to heroic. Moomin speaks strongly to my imagination and so I have composed this little musical frivolity to describe the happy, sad, jolly, and humorous character named Moomin.'"

Moomin Every Day is written by Moomin scholar and Finnish comics historian Juhani Tolvanen and translated by Jill G. Timbers and due out next Spring.

BIG QUESTIONS is a NY Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year

2011-11-22T10:26:00.003-05:00

Congratulations to Anders Nilsen, who, after landing on the Amazon and Publishers Weekly best of 2011 lists, BIG QUESTIONS is the only graphic novel to have merited the distinction of being one of the 100 New York Times Notable Books of 2011 for adults. The grey lady's original review of BIG QUESTIONS by Douglas Wolk is here. 2011 was perhaps the most competitive year for high quality graphic novels since the graphic novel golden age started, and it is nothing short of rewarding to see a book as rich, layered and yes, complex, as BIG QUESTIONS get the attention is so rightly deserves. I think it's a definite sign of the maturation of the not just the medium, but of the critical attention the medium receives. It's a fascinating time to be in comics. Lastly, congrats Anders, BIG QUESTIONS is a true work of art on so many levels, thanks for letting D+Q publish it. It's amazing, and you're amazing!

Los Angeles report

2011-11-21T15:28:00.005-05:00

I was in Los Angeles recently to accept on Daniel Clowes' behalf the Pen USA Award for Outstanding Body of Work in Graphic Literature, shown above. It sure is heartening to see guys like Dan and Seth (who recently was awarded with the Harbourfront prize) getting the recognition they deserve.

A few hours before the ceremony I paid a visit to Skylight Books, where I met Dan Kusunoki, their assistant manager who works primarily in their art & design (and comics) storefront next door. I don't know what it is about L.A., but along with Skylight, this city is teeming with some of the best independent book and comics stores around: Book Soup, Secret Headquarters, Golden Apple, Family, and Meltdown, to name a few.

While in town I was lucky enough to stay at the house of artists Mimi Pond and Wayne White. Here's Mimi in her studio, where she's been spending much of her available time writing and drawing a memoir (which will be published by D+Q) covering her early art school days while she was a waitress working in an Oakland diner.

Mimi has already drawn well over 100 pages. I was trying to figure out what her drawing process is; here's a few roughs drawn initially on vellum paper; she then takes this initial version and redraws it on white paper.

More Mimi. I've always been a fan of these cartoonist-sitting-at-drawing-table posed photos. Someone should publish a book just on this subject (OK, maybe a dedicated blog or Tumblr page or, for god's sake, whatever people are using these days).

A few steps over from Mimi's drawing table is Wayne's workspace, where the remnants of George Jones' eyeballs (part of a massive sculpture from a couple of years ago) are stored.

Somehow the walls of Mimi's and Wayne's otherwise idyllic studio setup can't contain their combined creativity, so while I was there Wayne was hard at work on an elaborate mural in their house upstairs; it will eventually wrap around their entire dining room.

Wayne is an artist with a long list of versatile accomplishments, from set and puppet design on Pee Wee's Playhouse (he even did some of the voices) to his current painting career. Go ahead and order Maybe Now I'll Get the Respect I So Richly Deserve, it's one of the best artist monographs published in recent years.

Here's the view just outside the door of their studio. Can it get any better than this?

The Rhythm Gets Seth, Dan & Adrian in Miami.

2011-11-21T08:48:00.004-05:00

This past weekend, Dan, Adrian and Seth travelled to Miami for the Miami Book Fair. Words did not get in the way.

I asked Florida native Vanessa Davis for restaurant suggestions, and she said "Get a photo of Seth doing the conga on South Beach!" (I'm paraphrasing, perhaps)

1-2-3-4, this will have to do Vanessa!

Well, you know, it's D+Q, we don't exactly have a wild reputation. This is about as bad as our bad boys get, which for Seth, Dan and Adrian is pretty bad. (is that a onesie next to a thong?! yuck! there's no Gloria song for that!) Thanks to Adrian for sending along this important documentation of cartoonists out and about and getting some sunshine.

They Grow Up So Fast Dept: When the intern who became an employee then becomes an art star.

2011-11-19T14:10:00.005-05:00

Five years ago, we received a sweet and earnest letter from a Concordia student who had recently moved to Montreal from Victoria. (from the 'island') Due to her bookstore experience, we hired her as an intern, and then a paid intern, and then a PT employee, and now you know this person as our design manager Jessica Campbell, she with the quick wit. What you may not know about Jessica, is that she is a very talented painter. Last year she graduated from Concordia with a BFA, many accolades and awards and even admittance to the School of the Art Institute's MFA program! Luckily for us, she decided to stay in Montreal, and luckily for Montrealers she is working away in her studio when not in the office. Tonight at 427 at the Belgo building her new show, MAKING ROOM, opens, and it has already received press in the Gazette and the Mirror! Congrats, Jessica! Maybe one day, I'll be blogging about you appearing on your favorite television show.

Miami Book Fair Madness!

2011-11-16T14:44:00.001-05:00

Oh yes, you lucky ducks in Miami. Not only do you get goodweather all year ‘round, Art Basel Miami Beach, and the Miami Book Fair, butthis year, you also get the ultimate D+Q team-up: Dan Clowes, Seth, and AdrianTomine in conversation about their respective new books. We’re bringin' 'emover from all across the continent becausewe all know that the only thing that trumps a Dan and Seth tour is a Dan andSeth tour stop with a cameo appearance by OpticNerve creator and New Yorker coverartist Adrian Tomine.

Okay okay, I’m sure you’re beating down the door (splashpage?) of the Miami Book Fair site by now, so let me give you the deets:

Drawn & Quarterly presents a conversation: Seth on The Great Northern Brotherhood of CanadianCartoonists; Adrian Tomine on Scenesfrom an Impending Marriage and Dan Clowes on The Death-Ray

Saturday November 19^th at 12:30 PM

Promoteo Theatre (Building 1, 1^st floor, Room 1101)

300 NE Second Ave., Miami

Psst, one last thing: this is a free event! So come on out! It promises to be a great time! All three authors will be signing after the talk.

Kate's back in New York

2011-11-16T13:06:00.000-05:00

The Hark! A Vagrant tour is over.

Let the updates commence! New Gorey covers, my friends!

Plus: Nancy is a bad influence.

Congrats, Dan Clowes! UPDATED

2011-11-15T14:32:00.004-05:00

Last week, the Chief travelled to Los Angeles to accept the Pen USA Award for Outstanding Body of Work in Graphic Literature on behalf of Dan Clowes. He attended the ceremony with Mimi Pond who climbed on top of Dave Eggers and then sat in his lap to get this photo. Chris will turn in his blog report later this week on the full trip. (when hopefully we'll see photos of Katherine Keener who was also at the ceremony!!!) But for now, we have Dan's acceptance speech in full. Many bets in the office were made that Chief would not read the last line when on stage. I tried to get Mimi to make sure he would, but even she could not.

I’m very happy and honored to accept this award, and especially so to have a category all to myself. I’ve always felt like a fraud when referred to as a “writer” – I only use that description when talking to the other parents at my son’s school – but cannot deny my pride at being recognized by this esteemed institution, both as an individual and as a proud representative of my beloved medium. Comics are their own separate language, quite unique from prose and drama, and the form has long - and perhaps rightfully - been regarded with disdain by the guardians of artistic virtue and I can only be humbled, or perhaps horrified by our general cultural decline, to have slipped through the gates.

I’d like to thank The PEN center, of course, and Mr. Oliveros for speaking to you in my absence. In gratitude, I will mercifully refrain from making him talk in the third person about what a great guy he is. Thank you.

1) Chris, you are a great guy even if you won't say it yourself and 2) Dan, you are not a fraud in any medium. You deserve every accolade ever bestowed upon you. Those other parents are crying in their cubicles. Congrats.

Ok, so no disrepect to Mimi, but the Pen Awards sent along the official photo:

Tom Gauld, NYT Mag Magician

2011-11-14T12:09:00.000-05:00

As if I needed something to make me love the NYT Magazine more. I mean, leaving aside the awesome cover stories, the great writing, &c.&c., you are left with what? Why yes, dear reader, the illustrations.

Tom Gauld has been doing a weekly illustration for the Riff section of the Magazine since March of this year. This week, Hugo Lindgren rewards us with an unabridged collection of the strips, which accompany articles that sound fascinating.

Click through for more Gauldian amazingness, or to read an article or something, if you're into that.

Walt & Skeezix 1929-1930

2011-11-11T16:28:00.003-05:00

Out in stores by early December, our last book of 2011 will be the fifth volume of Frank King's understated masterpiece, Walt & Skeezix.

Did you know that if you place all five volumes side by side, you'll "see" Skeezix growing older? From the baby in a basket in the first book, to the nine year old shown here. One of the subtle design nuances we've come to expect from Chris Ware.

And speaking of Chris, I've always admired his design approach to the inside dustjacket, where he runs original art from a corresponding strip across the width of the entire jacket area.

And what's this at the back of the book? As a special bonus, we've included a DVD featuring over two hours of Frank King's silent home movies dating from the 1920s and 30s. Aside from their primary role as fascinating documents on the King family, these films also provide a rare glimpse of early 20th century Wisconsin, Illinois, Florida, British Columbia, California, and parts of Europe (the King family traveled widely at a time when journeys of this scope were rare).

We'll preview a couple of these films a little closer to the book's release date...

Herge: A comic strip biography

2011-11-11T10:55:00.002-05:00

Arriving in stores this week and next!

The Death-Ray Discussion Forum

2011-11-10T15:53:00.005-05:00

Before The Death-Ray came out, everyone here in the office re-read it and we had a kind of round-table discussion about the themes and nuances of the book. This is something that we haven't really done formally for other books (though there is, of course, a lot of informal discussion that happens), and that we felt we needed to for this one is a testament to its complexity and depth. I think we all came out of that discussion thinking that The Death-Ray is one of Clowes' richest works to date (the richest?!), and it's certainly one of my favourites.

This is all to say that we aren't the only ones interested in dissecting this work, and that Ken Parille has started a discussion forum over at TCJ, where he offers some very astute and interesting insights as discussion prompts. Check it out, and get talking!

Guy Delisle Chronicles

2011-11-10T10:46:00.010-05:00

Evidently, there is a documentary about the brilliant and hilarious Guy Delisle coming out, one that is going to focus primarily on his time in Jerusalem. (In other news, Guy now has a beard.)

Anyway, on the subject of Jerusalem, Guy's incredible travelogue about his time there (his longest work yet!) is going to coming out in April, and I've included an early excerpt for you below. Enjoy!

Kate Beaton on CTV!!!

2011-11-10T10:29:00.003-05:00

In case you missed it, you can watch our favourite Canadian "web com artist" on TV here. This is such a huge deal to all of us Canadian non-cable-havers! Lisa Laflamme!

Kate Beaton ON THE TELEVISION TONIGHT

2011-11-09T16:33:00.004-05:00

That's right, everyone, Kate Beaton is going to be on CTV tonight for a program called "Canadian Originals," airing at 11 pm. You can also read their write-up about her on their site.

It's starting to feel a little best-of over here...

2011-11-09T12:16:00.000-05:00

November hits and all of a sudden your whole year flashes in front of your eyes, and man oh man, let me tell you guys, this has been a good one. Don't just listen to me blabber on though, check out some proof:

Exhibit A: Publishers Weekly's Best Comics of 2011

The PW ten best graphic novels of 2011 list features two of our books - Kate Beaton's Hark! A Vagrant and Anders Nilsen's Big Questions!

Of Kate's book they say:
"Jane Austen, The Great Gatsby, and Napoleon are all satirized with a knowing line in this very funny collection from the acclaimed Web comic."

On Big Questions:
"A massive meditation on the meaning of life unfolds as a flock of cartoon birds deal with the questions raised when an exploded bomb lands among them."

Exhibit B: Amazon's Best Books of 2011: Comics and Graphic Novels

Well looky here, it seems Anders, Dan and Kate all made it into Amazon's top ten for comics and graphic novels -- the top 4 even! Not only that, but Hark! A Vagrant is one of the top 100 Amazon Books of the Year. Yikes! No small accomplishment, that!

Congratulations everyone!

Catalogue Extravaganza!

2011-11-08T14:45:00.012-05:00

Y'all, we just got our spring 2012 catalogues in and boy am I excited! I know those images are pretty tiny and you're wondering "What? Is that a new collection of Ed the Happy Clown they're announcing? Is that a brand new graphic novel by Guy Delisle? WHAT IS COMING OUT?" But fear not! We have made a handy pdf of our spring 2012 catalogue that I have uploaded for your perusing pleasure! Also, you might be interested in checking out our winter catalogue that features Moomin Every Day as well as new titles by Seth, Matt Forsythe, Kevin Huizenga, Tom Gauld, Dan Zettwoch (SWOON!) and more! Ay yi yi! Links below:

WINTER 2012 CATALOGUE

SPRING 2012 CATALOGUE

And here's a cheat sheet of our winter/spring 2012 titles:

WINTER 2012:
Juhani Tolvanen, Moomin Every Day
Seth, Palookaville 21
Dan Zettwoch, Birdseye Bristoe
Matt Forsythe, Jinchalo
Tom Gauld, Goliath
Kevin Huizenga, Gloriana
Amber Albrecht, Idyll

SPRING 2012:
Guy Delisle, Jerusalem
Shigeru Mizuki, NonNonBa
Yoshihiro Tatsumi, Fallen Words
Chester Brown, Ed the Happy Clown
Brecht Evens, The Making Of
Michael Cho, Back Alleys and Urban Landscapes
Marguerite Abouet and Clement Oubrerie, Aya: Life in Yop City
Anouk Ricard, Anna & Froga
Lars Jansson, Moomin Book 7
Yoshihiro Tatsumi, The Pushman, Abandon the Old in Tokyo and Good-Bye paperbacks
Guy Delisle Shenzhen paperback

Adrian Discusses His Letters Page On Southern California Public Radio

2011-11-04T11:02:00.003-04:00

Adrian talks at length to Southern California Public Radio on the Madeline Brand show about his letters page, his critics, how his life has changed over the course of OPTIC NERVE, the reaction to SHORTCOMINGS, how everyone hates Ben Tanaka and how no one accuses the Amber Sweet story of being autobiographical. Meanwhile, Adrian checked in with alma mater last month at UC Berkeley. Comic Book Resources devoted a Comics College to him. And reviews for OPTIC NERVE 12 have come in from a variety of places:

"Simple, elegiac and frequently funny, it’s everything that makes Tomine worth reading...anything from Tomine is well worth a read."–National Post

"I’ll take Tomine any way I can get him, but I for one am delighted to see something as refreshing as “Optic Nerve” still coming out as a single issue... it’s exactly the kind of book the comics medium needs."–Comic Book Resources

"I loved Optic Nerve 12, the new issue of Adrian Tomine's ongoing comic. This may be one of the only publications where the "Letters" section is just as great as the rest of the book."–USA Today Pop Candy

Anders Nilsen Rules The World. (and is in Minneapolis this weekend)

2011-11-04T10:39:00.006-04:00

First things first: Anders Nilsen is interviewed in the AV Club in anticipation of his appearance this weekend at the Minneapolis Indy Expo.

Where, perhaps, he'll have these gorgeous minis he made for Desert Island that are for sale here.

If you visit Anders' blog, it details how he spent the last month in France at the Pierre Feuille Ciseaux residency, and in England promoting BIG QUESTIONS. In other Anders France news, we're happy to say that L'Association will be publishing the book in french.

Lynda Barry Writes For Salon! Sympathy for the Mummy!

2011-11-04T09:42:00.003-04:00

As if Sunday's NY Times Magazine profile on Lynda wasn't enough to whet your appetite for Blabber Blabber Blabber, Slate.com's Browbeat blog runs an excerpt. And if that wasn't enough, I mean, I do have some sort of inkling how demanding you comic book fans are, then read what Lynda wrote for Salon.com about Halloween. Apparently, or so I've been told, Salon listed it as fiction but it is based on a true story. Say what? Also maybe we have some Badger students who read our blog who want to take part in Lynda's residency at Madison next Spring. Say no more.

Top Graphic Novels of 2011

2011-11-04T06:00:00.001-04:00

Yesterday, we sent a newsletter detailing our 2011 list to our subscribers. Today a photo blog of the year, the only 2011 Drawn & Quarterly title not included here is the forthcoming Berlin #18 which is being finished as I type these words. Should be here before the end of the year along with our other December releases below. I am pretty proud of this year. I think the last several years have been amazing for comics--just tons of great books made by all involved in this industry. Below, I count 10 graphic novels proper, along with five classic strip reprints, two gekiga titles, FIVE New York Times bestsellers and ten Canadian titles (it matters to us!) and even one comic book (two by years end! Yay! we saved the comic book!) So, awesome.

A Single Match Oji Suzuki - January 4

Scenes from an Impending Marriage Adrian Tomine - February 1

Mid-Life Joe Ollmann - March 1

Melvin Monster, Volume 3: The John Stanley Library John Stanley - March 29

Reunion Pascal Girard - April 12

Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths Shigeru Mizuki - April 26

The Klondike Zach Worton - May 10

Moomin Book Six: The Complete Lars Jansson Comic Strip Lars Jansson - May 10

Paying for It Chester Brown - May 10

Constructive Abandonment Michael Dumontier and Neil Farber - May 24

Big Questions SC Anders Nilsen - August 16

Big Questions HC Anders Nilsen - August 16

Nogoodniks Adrian Norvid - August 30

Optic Nerve #12 Adrian Tomine - September 14

Daybreak Brian Ralph - September 27

Hark! A Vagrant Kate Beaton - September 27

Nancy: The John Stanley Library, Volume 3 John Stanley and Dan Gormley - September 27

Nipper: 1965-1966 Doug Wright - September 27

Pure Pajamas Marc Bell - September 27

The Death-Ray Daniel Clowes - October 11

The Great Northern Brotherhood of Canadian Cartoonists Seth - October 11

Blabber Blabber Blabber: Volume 1 of Everything Lynda Barry - October 31

The Adventures of Hergé Jose-Louis Bocquet, Jean-Luc Fromental, and Stanislas Barthélémy - December 6

Walt and Skeezix: Book Five: 1929-1930 Frank King - December 6

Hark! A Vagrant Afterglow

2011-11-03T15:26:00.009-04:00

So this past week, Kate travelled to Toronto, Montreal and Halifax on the final leg of her tour for Hark! A Vagrant! I swiped the above photo from the Quill & Quire slide show from the IFOA. Click through the show and you see a photo of Dan and Seth smiling even more than they were last time! And Mariko Tamaki introducing Dan and Seth.

Over on our 211 Bernard blog, we have a photo report of Kate at her event at our SRO Montreal launch.

Sadly, we couldn't accommodate the "Occupy Kate Beaton" event that was happening outside our store as we had to turn away 50 people. But some intrepid fans stayed until Kate left the building, and asked for just the right kind of signing, fat pony on @annakarenine's chest. Something I haven't seen since my Neil Gaiman days, people. (Photo from @annakarenine's twitter feed)

The next day Kate flew to Halifax to do an event at one of Canada's great comic shops, Strange Adventures (and marks a year where we were able to do events with the Beguiling, Strange Adventures and Lucky's) You must check out this video that shows how long her signing line was.

And finally you must check out the 8 twitter strips Kate did of her parents meeting her in Halifax for her Strange Adventures signing. The above one I swiped won't mean much to the people who don't tune into the CBC, but it is good. Jian vs George, it's on!

"A tramp would be great in here." Adrian Norvid talks to VICE

2011-11-03T11:00:00.001-04:00

Oh, Adrian...

"In the 70's I was just a little tiny bit too old to be really into Star Wars. But oh god it was crazy when it came out, the hype. That's probably why I refused to see it for a while, because I'm a snob like that. But then when I did see it I was like, yeah, that was amazing. I was stoned out of my mind and I just thought "Wow, I seeeee! This is the future! Robots and stuff! Soon we’ll have chips in our brains!” Or maybe that was just because I was ripped." (Read more here)

And, attention Newfoundlanders, this might also be a good time to mention that Adrian's alter ego, Wilhelm Wurstfinger Krank, will be performing The Cantankerous Krank at The Rooms in St. Johns, NL from November 5th-10th. What exactly does this entail? I'm not completely certain, but the facebook event provides this insight:

"Herr Krank will be pacing moodily about a paper set resembling an organ loft, a basement recording studio or an illustrated page from Diderot’s 18th Century Encyclopedia. When the muse strikes him he will fashion an improvised musical texture with the help of a number of diminutive keyboards and the odd biscuit tin. When the muse strikes him not, he will be making demonstrative notes, appeals and admonitions, writing letters to himself (and answering them), grousing, fumbling and otherwise behaving in a dilatory, unfocused and curmudgeonly fashion..."

I hear rumours that there is also some kind of complicated and incredibly uncomfortable costume involved. ENJOY.

I know you've all been waiting on tenterhooks...

2011-11-03T10:30:00.000-04:00

For Jason Lutes news! And I have some.

Tomorrow, Friday, November 4th, from 5 to 7 pm, Jason Lutes will be giving a gallery talk at CCS's opening for "Berlin: City of Drafts, Comics, and Ancillary Material." Vermontians (Vermontites?), head on down to the Center for Cartoon Studies at 94 South Main St in White River Junction, VT.

From the site: "This exhibit showcases a single 24-page chapter [a.k.a Berlin 17] from the book Berlin: City of Lights by cartoonist and CCS faculty member Jason Lutes. Along with the finished original art, the exhibit features source material, initial thumbnail drafts of the story, and preliminary sketches."

Don't miss this opportunity to get a little behind-the-scenes understanding of how Jason produces the beautiful work he does, and hey, while we're on the topic, guess what? Berlin 18 comes out in December! Yes yes!

Toronto Draws Tintin! How Awesome is that!

2011-11-02T16:45:00.003-04:00

Those Beguiling & TCAF peeps are busy, busy, busy people. What do I mean? Oh just getting the whole city of Toronto on board for a month-long exhibit of Toronto Draws Tintin. The opening is tonight at the Steamwhistle Gallery.
So as the name implies, Chris, Peter & Miles asked Toronto cartoonists to draw their favorite Tintin scene or character. Above is Chester's, from THE BLACK ISLAND.
And get a load of Joe's Captain Haddock!

And if that wasn't enough there is a closing party on November 27th with an auction to support the CBLDF! And saving the best for last, they will be hosting the official english launch for our bookTHE ADVENTURES OF HERGE with creator (and cofounder of L'Association) Stanislas! All the way from Paris to Toronto! MARK YOUR CALENDARS!!!!!

Illustrations by Matt Forsythe and R. Sikoryak!

2011-11-02T16:44:00.000-04:00

R. Sikoryak, Krazy Kat, and the New Yorker. The perfect combination, no? Peep this R. Sikoryak illustration:

So good! I love their expressions. Plus, it's inspired by what frankly sounds like a fascinating dance-theatre work. "Love Letters in Ancient Brick" is a collaborative work which was itself inspired by the 'kooky triumvirate -cat, mouse, and cop- that lies at the heart of the comic book "Krazy Kat".

You can find it in the November 7th New Yorker or online.

And now, onto Montrealer (a.k.a local awesome dude) Matt Forsythe, who does a beautiful Arcade-Fire-in-Montreal for this month's issue of The Walrus. On newsstands now!

Matt keeps killing it. First the kids' book, now this, and so soon, February's companion/follow-up to Ojingogo, Jinchalo. Way to go, fellas!

Calling Kate Beaton's Army!

2011-11-02T15:05:00.002-04:00

HARK! A VAGRANT has been nominated for a Good Reads Best Graphic Novel of the year. VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE!

Boston Book Festival (much delayed recap)

2011-11-02T14:18:00.003-04:00

Okay, look, it's weeks after the Boston Book Festival. It's a one day affair and I drive down through Vermont and then head back home the next day. There's lots of great guests (this year we brought in Daniel Clowes, Seth, and Kate Beaton) and there were panels with the likes of Mo Willems, Chuck Klosterman, Michael Ondaatje, Karen Russell, Alison Bechdel, oh, and the cast of The Wire?

It's a nice show because Boston really is a book city (unlike those other cities that are always burning books and banning dancing) and the show is outdoors in Copley Square (cahp-lee, people, not coh-plee) and there are tons of people walking about who just check out the show.

The other thing about Boston is that the wind is crazy and it rains alot and then the sun comes out and it rains again. So those things all happened a few times. In fact, this is our old pal Alison chasing down The Death-Ray banner as it whips around our little wind tunnel of a booth.

Hey, and here's that Mo Willems fella stopping by to steal Seth's hat! What?!! No, he came by to say hi to the Seth and Dan and drop off copies of his new Piggy and Elephant book, Happy Pig Day! {Okay, so I have kids and they love Mo--LOVE HIM--and right now they are crazy for his Don't Let the Pigeon Run This App! which is as fun an iPad kids thing as I've seen. I approve. Unpaid advertisement over. Oh, jeez, go buy his actual books too!}

Reports were that Dan's reading of The Death-Ray was suitably hilarious, Seth charmed the audience, and Kate stole the show away from those other people who ONLY write in their books.

I'll admit it was pretty hectic and photo taking was not on the agenda evidently. I swear I had more photos but they've been lost to the ether. Here's Kate greeting a fan. Lines were hectic for everyone. Kate actually ended the day in the dark signing the last few books for fans at the Brookline Booksmith (love those people) because, well, it was an outdoor festival and the sun was the lighting and it had long ago set. Seriously, Dan, Seth, and Kate had real lines only rivaled by the grilled cheese truck (sadly true, evidently all we've ever wanted to do as a species is eat out of something that will drive away in an hour or two) and that was pretty gratifying.

Strange Adventures with Kate Beaton

2011-11-02T12:37:00.000-04:00

Tonight Kate does Halifax! Find her at Strange Adventures Comix and Curiosities, where she'll be giving a presentation on her work, answering your questions, and signing your books!

I hear they're calling it Kate Beaton Day! 7 pm at 5262 Sackville St. in downtown Halifax.

D+Q Employees of Yesteryear part 3

2011-11-02T11:42:00.001-04:00

Shouldn't be long until former D+Q staffers completely take over the art world. That's possible, right?

Jamie Quail, former Office Coordinator, will have some pieces up at the Michael Gibson Gallery in London, Ontario in an exhibition titled Not Bad for London. The opening reception is November 4th from 8-10 pm. And really, Internet Home Bois, this ain't bad for London at all; Jamie will be in fine company. D+Q artists Marc Bell, Amy Lockhart, and Peter Thompson will also have pieces in the show. So, if you live in or around London (I'm looking at you, Toronto), this line-up definitely warrants a trip to the rainy city. (It's probably not called the rainy city…I know nothing about London.)

Boo! A Comics Halloween!!!!

2011-11-01T16:17:00.010-04:00

****UPDATED****
What good is knowing a lot of people with cute kids if I can't blog about them? What good is knowing creative people if I can't exploit every aspect of their creativity? Happy Halloween, D+Q readers!

We'll start here in Montreal, please meet Kermit the Frog (Woody Devlin) and Miss Piggy (Georgina Devlin).

Down in Brooklyn, the Tomine family made use of the snowstorm with this set of spot on pumpkin self portraits.

And the cutest little girl in all Park Slope, Nora Tomine, dressed up as a lady bug.

Back up here in Montreal, Sam Ollmann-Chan mugs for the camera in his race car suit, as the rest of the Mile End clan is glued to the set watching It's A Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

On the West Coast, Charlie Clowes is a Wii controller. Dan, just buy your son a Wii already, not a Wii costume!

And in Silver Lake, Lulu White is dead-on Margot Tenenbaum.

Down in Georgia, Miles Ralph is a ghost, though it's a bit hard to see him with that goofy guy as a Transformer of the Apes on top of him.

In Vermont, evil things were brewing with Charlotte Sturm dressed as the Werewolf girl.

And her sister Eva Sturm dressed as Little Red Riding Hood Gone Bad.

And classics were the rage in Oak Park, with Clara Ware requesting the tried and true Ghost, which is pretty much the best Ghost costume ever.

Marnie Ware created the unintentional gourd figure child abduction scenario.

Which all together provides for a serenely spooky Halloween at the Ware House!

BOO!

And up in Regina, SK, little Bella Heer strikes her best demon pose.

Kate Beaton launch at the Librairie D+Q tonight!

2011-11-01T10:07:00.001-04:00

Kate Beaton! In Montreal! At 211 Bernard O.! At 7 pm! Tonight!

She'll be giving a presentation and signing books and being the all-around charmer that she is. Don't miss it, folks!

Seth Accepts His Harbourfront Prize

2011-11-01T09:22:00.007-04:00

Sadly this past weekend, Harbourfront did not present Seth with a big Publishers Clearinghouse style cheque for taking home their festival's prestigious prize, and being the cartoonist to do so. Instead, they had a very respectable affair and Seth gave a wonderful speech, along with the $10,000. Here is the IFOA's director Geoffrey Taylor giving Seth the award.

How dapper does Seth look! Here is Seth accepting his much-deserved award. His dedication to both the comics medium and Canadian culture is unparalleled, I think their awarding this prize to Seth is spot on. Congratulations Seth! We are proud and honoured to be publishing you.

Here is Seth's poignant speech in its entirety:

Whenever something really exceptional happens to me, like winning this award, I am always afraid I'm going to wake up and find that it is still 1979 and that I am 17 years old and miserable and still in that high school in Tilbury Ontario. And though this moment feels real enough-- to be honest, I'm not entirely convinced that this won't still happen one of these days.

Certainly, looking back to those times it seems impossible the changes that have happened for the comic book over the last thirty years. When I started as a cartoonist back in the early 80's I would never have foreseen a literary award like this coming to anyone who worked in the comics medium—let alone myself. It would have been ridiculous to even entertain the hope.

It's not like I didn't have literary pretensions. I certainly did. I've always believed the comics medium was capable of genuine subtly and grace and complexity... and of telling stories that would appeal to an adult mind. Stories that reflect real human experience. That said, it didn't look too likely that the literary world or the art world...or even the mainstream pop culture was likely to cut the comic book much slack. Comics were considered entertainment for the gum-chewers of the world. Kid junk at worst – nerd culture at best.

Even taking into account the number of remarkable graphic novels that have been written over the last few decades I must say I am still surprised to look around and see the strides that our medium has made.

I accept this award as another such stride. The list of previous winners is very flattering to me. Just finding myself in such company is enormously gratifying. Still, I have to wonder what others might think of adding me to that list. I am sure there must be more than a few disgruntled prose writers out there today who might be saying “this guy isn't even a writer—why is he the winner?”

As far as I am concerned cartooning is just another form of writing—like prose or poetry. Unfortunately they are usually seen as primarily a visual medium but comics are a book art-- a storytelling form. They are certainly closer to writing than they are to film or painting. I see this award as another step toward normalizing that viewpoint.

In closing I'd like to wholeheartedly thank the Harbourfront jury, The festival itself and its director Geoffrey Taylor for honouring me with this award and for its continued support of myself and the graphic novel.

Thank you everyone.

Photo Credit: Readings.org