Category Archives: Canadian Comics

Artist Interview: Noel Tuazon of The Broadcast

September 8, 2010 – 6:30 am

Noel Tuazon has been involved in comics in one form or another for over twenty years. His latest illustrative effort, titled The Broadcast, was written by Eric Hobbs and published through NBM.
The Broadcast, which released in August and began shipping early September, is a noir thriller set against the backdrop of Orson Welles’ famous War of the Worlds broadcast.
I talked to Tuazon, who is himself a long-time resident to Toronto, about his contribution to the book, his early comic book influences, and even the particularities of his day job (as a storyboard cleanup artist).

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Canadian Comics

August 25, 2010 – 6:30 am

The Fabler is, among other things, a growing international community of comic book artists, writers, and fans.

The word ‘international’, however, might seem a little inconsistent with the content we’ve predominantly featured here on The Fabler Blog.

I’ll be the first to admit that in The Fabler Blog’s first year of life, I’ve maintained a strong emphasis on Canadian talent in the profiles and interviews I’ve posted. This, I believe, is rightly so – with the exception of very few news blogs, such as Sequential and the Joe Shuster Awards Blog, Canadian comickers don’t often receive a load of media coverage.

My contributions to The Fabler Blog have largely been an attempt to increase that load, while also providing content relevant to the interests of a growing online community of comic artists.

The Fabler Blog’s contribution to the figurative Canadian load, however, may distract some from the true international nature of the site. (Whew, what a mouthful!)

So here’s my pitch: I’m moving all existing profiles, interviews, and news updates about Canadian comickers into a whole new category – a column which I will continue to contribute to regularly.

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Profiling Eric Kim and The Complete Plays of William Shakespeare

August 18, 2010 – 6:30 am

Have you ever felt that Coles Notes versions of classical literature weren’t quite ‘Coles Notes’ enough?

I mean, sure they managed (using black magic and wizardry) to congest Crime and Punishment down to a palatable 85 pages of overview, and yes, Jane Austen is a lot more sensible when you don’t have to muddle through hours of haughty Victorian prose.

Still, do you ever find yourself thinking that they really could have gotten where they were going a lot faster?

Enter Ontario-based comic artist Eric Kim, who answered a resounding ‘yes’ to the above question. To prove that any classical narrative could effectively be reduced to two-to-four panels of dialogue, Kim set about putting to shame one of literature’s greatest icons; the bard himself.

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Interview: Jim Zubkavich talks Skullkickers and UDON’s 10th Anniversary

August 4, 2010 – 6:30 am

Jim Zubkavich, project manager and co-founder of UDON Entertainment, has a new series coming out through Image Comics that looks like it will kick some major bone tissue. The title? Skullkickers. The premise? Two un-named mercenaries stir up some major trouble in a ’sassy’ fantasy setting. The Fabler caught up with Jim to chat about Skullkickers as well as a decade of UDON.

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Profiling Cloudscape Comics

July 28, 2010 – 6:30 am

The past couple of weeks, the Fabler Blog featured interviews with Vancouver-based webcomickers Jonathon Dalton (www.jonathondalton.com) and Angela Melick (www.wastedtalent.ca).

In addition to their close proximity to Canada’s Western Coastline, they share something else in common; founding membership in a comic book collective by the name of Cloudscape Comics.

I was fortunate enough to recently connect with a few individuals involved with the group. My goal was to learn a little about what they do, what they stand for, and how local comic creators can benefit from collaborating through a collective like their own.

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Interview: Angela Melick of Wasted Talent

July 21, 2010 – 6:30 am

In 2005, an engineering school student named Angela Melick decided to put a collection of funny little comics she had sketched on looseleaf up onto the internet.

Melick had been drawing comics in one form or another for almost as long as she could remember, and she felt that pursuing an education in engineering shouldn’t be a reason to suppress her interest in that form of art.

It was lucky for us that Angela made the decision to find an outlet on the internet – that simple website collecting her quirky, autobiographical sketches on looseleaf became Wasted Talent, a hugely popular and extremely funny weekly webcomic that’s still updating, 5 years later.

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Artist Interview: Jonathon Dalton of A Mad Tea-Party and Lords of Death and Life

July 14, 2010 – 6:30 am

A substitute teacher by day, Jonathon fills much of the rest of his time churning out wildly imaginative webcomics for his website, jonathondalton.com. The subject matter of these comics varies greatly – you’re just as likely to stumble upon a story rooted in ancient Aztec lore as you are a humorous vignette exploring the secret origins of Chop Suey.

The former comic, which Dalton describes as a “Mesoamerican fantasy story”, recently earned him a grant from the Xeric Foundation – an organization dedicated to provided yearly financial assistance to committed comic book self-publishers.

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Profiling Robin Thompson, Vancouver Comic Art teacher and artist on Champions of Hell

July 7, 2010 – 6:30 am

Robin Thompson loves comics. I talked to him about what got him started teaching sequential art, how he came to work on the dark/supernatural comic Champions of Hell, and what an aspiring comic artist should know about the self-publishing industry.

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Profiling Jason Loo and Arthur Dela Cruz of The 3 Second Rule

June 30, 2010 – 6:30 am

The premise of the action-adventure ‘buddy comedy’ is a simple one: take two wildly different personalities that would otherwise not get along, and put them in a situation where the plot forces them to. Hijinks, hilarity, and explosions ensue.

The 3 Second Rule, a webcomic by Jason Loo and Arthur Dela Cruz, is not your typical buddy comedy.

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Artist Interview: Damian Willcox of dorkboy Comics

June 16, 2010 – 6:30 am

When sometime-superheroes get somewhat autobiographical…

When the combined comics of one creative Calgarian threaten to overwhelm the humble corner of the interweb that they occupy…

One name resounds clearly amidst the din. (the din?)

Damian Willcox is… dorkboy.

(cue theatrical John Williams knockoff score)

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