October 19, 2011 – 6:30 am
Back in May 2010 when I posted an interview with Ethan Rilly about his 2008 minicomic Pope Hats, I described it as simultaneously surreal and very familiar. The comic, which saw wider distribution via publisher AdHouse Books in 2009, introduced us to roommates Frances and Vickie. Vickie is an alcoholic party girl, and Frances is ostensibly your average, down-to-earth type just looking to eke out a living in the world. Except of course for her numerous idiosyncratic behaviors – like, for instance, maintaining an ongoing dialogue with a fictional ghost named Sarsgaard.
At the time of my interview with Ethan, he was working on a graphic novel follow up to his well-received debut effort.
Now, nearly a year and a half later, Pope Hats #2 is available for purchase. It may not be voluminous in nature or feature talking ghosts, but what we are given is presented with purposeful sincerity and a unique sort of human empathy. Art-wise, solid, confident linework and memorable cityscape imagery establish a visually backdrop against which Ethan’s characters casually live out their lives.
Ethan was kind enough to field a few more interview questions for The Fabler, ranging in topic from his decisions involving Pope Hats and thoughts on having Chester Brown moderate the book launch, to his own current comic book picks and preferences.
October 5, 2011 – 6:30 am
Do you know Andrew Foley?
You may have heard of him as ‘that guy who co-wrote the Cowboys and Aliens graphic novel, and then subsequently had his name unattached from anything remotely relating to the property and, later, film’.
Which I wouldn’t be miffed about at all if it happened to me.
Alternately, you might have been fortunate enough to read one of his less widely distributed original comics, like Parting Ways (drawn by Scott Mooney and Nick Craine) or The Holiday Men in The Massacre Memorial Day Sale Massacre (art by Nick Johnson).
If you were really, REALLY lucky you may have even read one of the five issues from a 2006 vampire satire miniseries he did alongside (then-budding) comic star Fiona Staples. The miniseries, titled ‘Done to Death’, told the two distinct yet inexorably linked stories of a serial-killing editor out to rid the world of bad writers and a vampire so antithetical to Anne Rice, it would make Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise choke on their sweet goblets of blood.
Camilla D’Errico (Sky Pirates of Neo Terra), Colin Upton (Buddha on the Road), Angela Melick (Wasted Talent), and Steve Rolston (Ghost Projekt).
What do these comic book artists have in common? (Other than that they are all based in Vancouver, BC)
They represent just a handful of the fantastically diverse talents who have contributed to Cloudscape Comics over the years.
Cloudscape is a Vancouver-based comic collective that has published four comic anthologies since their inception in 2008. For more about who they are and what they do, I would direct your attention to this post I wrote profiling the group.
This past year, the folks behind Cloudscape Comics decided to try their luck in the wonderful world of internet crowdsourcing.
All the world’s a page (of sequential art) to Andy Belanger, Conor McCreery, and Anthony Del Col, creators of the runaway hit comic series Kill Shakespeare.
Kill Shakespeare is a twelve-issue comic book series published by IDW which follows the conceit that Shakespeare’s characters all exist in the same universe, and further to that, they are aware of the Bard and his ability to alter their stories.
Several weeks back, I was fortunate enough to catch up with Anthony, Conor, and Andy at the 2011 Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo.
For this week’s interview, I chatted with Calgary artist G. Gerald Garcia in an attempt to pin down the elusive nature of the Artist Block Party.
Is it a book? Is it a collective? Is it a movement?
I had questions, and Gerald had answers.
This interview is especially significant for two reasons, the first being that The Fabler has collaborated with Mr. Garcia to release a print-on-demand book for the Artist Block Party. The book is titled ‘Illustrated Classics’, and it marks The Fabler’s first official foray into the wonderful world of print-on-demand.
It’s an interesting age we live in for creative types working in the North American comic book industry.
As Calgary Comic Expo spokesperson and co-organizer Steven Hodges points out, “The comic industry these days has made it so that you can pretty much live and work wherever you want to.”
He further goes on to say that, “It’s important to recognize those Canadian comic creators that choose to stay to work and live in Canada. From Fiona Staples, to Cary Nord, to Riley Rossmo, we have some fantastic talent that are making names for themselves in the industry and I’m very happy that they are still in our own backyard. When we found out that the Shuster’s were coming to the Calgary Expo we were very excited, because of that strong contingent of Canadian creator talent here in Western Canada.”
To bring you up to speed, The Joe Shuster Awards for Canadian Comic Book Creators just held their 7th annual awards ceremony here in Calgary at the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo.
We’re two days in to the 2011 Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo, and I feel at this point I can safely report that it has been a hectic mess (of awesome).
The Calgary Comic Expo, which has steadily been growing in both size and attendance since its birth in 2006, was this year extended from a two day Saturday/Sunday event to a full three days. Friday being an ‘advance sneak preview’ day, before some of the larger media guests (read: William Shatner) arrived at the Con. The hectic nature of the con can be seen as growing pains as Calgary adjusts to its largest pop culture expo taking on a life of its own. As it has grown in size, so too has its recognition spread as one of the larger North American Comic and Entertainment conventions.
By Kevin
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Tagged Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo, Chester Brown, DC Comics, DC Nation, Emily Carroll, Fiona Staples, Frankenstein, Gail Simone, Hellboy, Jeff Lemire, Jimmy Palmiotti, Joe Shuster Awards, Jonah Hex, Koyama Press, Mike Mignola, Scott Chantler, Tin Can Forest, Todd McFarlane
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It’s been a big year for The Anthology Project.
Volume One of their comic book collection came out just over a year ago, and it was met with some of the highest praise I’ve seen for an anthology in a long while. In fact, it even earned them an Eisner nomination. Riding on this praise for Volume 1, Nick Thornborrow and co-editors Joy Ang and Sam Bradley set their sights on making a second Volume. While their first release was, at its core, a collaboration between a group of acquaintances and friends, Volume 2 would expand their circle of collaborators to include artists they follow and admire.
Last week I mentioned a groovy new webseries featuring artwork by Francis Manapul (The Flash, Superman Batman, Witchblade) that would be launching on June 7th. Which is yesterday, for the calendar deprived.
The webseries, titled Murdoch Mysteries: Curse of the Lost Pharaohs, struck me as an innovative blend of live action and a sort of animation that is very motion-comic-esque. I talked to Francis Manapul (The Flash, Superman Batman) about his experience making the Murdoch Mysteries webseries, how he ended up working as a ‘comic artist for TV shows’, and how he manages to juggle his time between this sort of thing and his work for DC Comics.
Despite being relatively new to the wonderful world of webcomics, Emily Carroll is a name that pops up with a frequency that seems to be steadily increasing with every month.
The Vancouver, BC local has only been doing comics “in earnest” (her words) since last May, but already she has been featured on The Comics Reporter, Robot 6, Scott McCloud’s Blog, Comics Alliance… I could legitimately keep going for some time, but instead I’ll finish by mentioning that Emily is also up for a Joe Shuster Award this year and she is currently collaborating with Eisner-nominated group The Anthology Project on their second volume.