It stands out as a fresh new example of the stylistic horizons that only a comic book could explore while, narratively, it presents a unique approach to exploring questions of meaning and existence

These are just a couple of the reasons why I was extremely excited to talk to Ray Fawkes about his new graphic novel, One Soul.

Fawkes is well-known for his ages comics’ Apocalipstix, which he wrote and Cameron Stewart illustrated, as well as Possessions Book One & Two. In addition to being a two-time Joe Shuster Award nominee in the “Outstanding Canadian Writer” category, Possessions Book One: Unclean Getaway earned him a nomination for a YALSA award from the American Library Association.

He also wrote the comparatively much darker comics Mnemovore, Spookshow and Black Strings. In the case of the latter two and Possessions, Fawkes assumed the artist mantle as well.

One Soul, which he wrote and illustrated, tells the story of eighteen different lives that all share the same soul. Each of the eighteen stories is told simultaneously, by way of eighteen dedicated panels;  nine on each page of a two-page spread, each following a different character.

If one of the eighteen lives ends before the others, for the rest of the book that panel goes black.

You’ll have to wait until July to get your hands on a copy of this innovative new comic, but for now, you can read what Fawkes has to say about it below:

KD: How would you describe the premise behind One Soul, in eighteen words or less?

RF: ONE SOUL: Eighteen’s people’s lives, from birth to death, across time and around the world – together telling a single story.

KD: You started this book by writing, drawing, and lettering the first fifty pages (in what could only be described as an act of faith) before submitting it to Oni.

What is it about this story that made it so important to you that you were willing to make that first step entirely without publisher backing?

RF: Well, first off, I come from a DIY background – I’ve put out a few self-published pieces – so it wasn’t hard for me to start out under the assumption that I was going to be producing and publishing this book myself. In fact, I often write scripts without a publisher’s commitment, and occasionally start drawing the books as well.

One Soul in particular, though, is a book that struck me as impossible to pitch in writing – there was no way to demonstrate how the book was going to work until someone could hold a portion of it in their hands and experience it the way it’s meant to be read. It was my good fortune that I had the chance to present it to the editors at Oni Press once I had put together enough of it to demonstrate how the whole book was going to work – and that they reacted so positively to it.

As far as the story goes – it’s the story I feel I need to tell. I can’t say it plainer than that. I’m one of those writers who feels the stories curling in the gut and feels the imperative to get them out.

The moment I conceived of this one, I knew I had to create this book, and I knew that I would undertake whatever effort or expense was necessary to complete it and put it out.

KD: What can you tell me about some of the characters whose lives you explore in One Soul?

RF: I’m not going to answer this one in too much detail, because watching the characters grow from infancy and develop into their adult selves – with the surprises, both pleasant and disappointing – is part of the experience of the book.

Here’s some of what readers will see: warriors – both bloodthirsty and reluctant, healers – both competent and helpless, teachers – both wise and cruel. Altruists, egotists, criminals and victims. Human beings.

KD: What sort of research was involved with putting together a book like this?

RF: There was a fair amount of research involved in the early stages of this book: setting research, to make sure I had the time and place pinned down for each character, costume research (of course), and some reading to ensure that the roles the characters played fit well into their settings. It all boils down to a lot of reference reading and image sourcing – work that I hope allowed me to construct a framework that supports the story invisibly, without creating any jarring mis-steps.

That said, I’m sure there are people out there who will make an effort to point out my mistakes.

KD: Artistically, what did you have in mind when you came up with the style for One Soul?

RF: I needed the art to be cartoonish enough to generalize the characters, but detailed enough to create a feeling of connection and sympathy for them. A black and white, fairly detailed “clean line” approach seemed most appropriate.

KD: How do you feel your approach differed in this from your previous illustrative work?

RF: I tend to try to vary the style of my illustrations to match the feel of my books and best convey the atmosphere of the script. ‘Possessions’, an all-ages comedy series I create, is illustrated in a much more spare, saturday-morning cartoon style. If I were to do a horror story, I might work with a looser, darker, spattered style.

KD: Is it strange for you to switch gears between working on a project like One Soul and doing something kid-friendly like Possessions?

RF: Not in the least. I find it relaxing to switch gears! Especially when I can switch from something as serious as ‘One Soul’ to a light, silly romp like ‘Possessions’, or vice-versa.

KD: Speaking of your ongoing projects, can you say anything about what stage of development ‘Junction True‘ is in?

RF: I can’t say much about it right now. Vince Locke is creating the artwork for the book – each page is fully painted – and it’s in progress. I’m hoping he’ll be done this year, and the book can make its debut as soon as possible after that.

KD: Is there anything else you have on the go or in the works that you can speak of?

RF: I’m working on the next volume of ‘Possessions’, of course, and heading back to the shelves to see which of my other pieces to do next! After finishing ‘One Soul’, I took a couple of months off just to rest and think…and now it’s time for me to lay the groundwork for the book that will follow…

ONE SOUL debuts in July from Oni Press. For more from Ray Fawkes, you can check out his official website or follow him on Twitter.

-Interview by Kevin de Vlaming

Sure, back near the beginning of the month you had your fancy pants Academy awards ceremonies – but that’s not what I’m  referring to here.  Although I was pretty darn enthused about Jeff Bridges winning his first Oscar, and OMG did you see what Jennifer Lopez was wearing? Oh no she didn’t…

Ahem.

March has been a big month specifically for awards recognizing Canadian comic creators. Back on March 12th,  the Doug Wright Awards posted their finalists for the three categories of Best Book, Best Emerging Talent, and the Pigskin Peters Award (which recognizes “unconventional, ‘nominally-narrative’ comics”).

The contenders for these titles, touted as representing the “finest, most thought-provoking work produced by Canada’s vibrant comics community,” (a statement I would not disagree with) are as follows:

Best Book:

* Back + Forth by Marta Chudolinska (The Porcupine’s Quill)
* George Sprott: (1894-1975) by Seth (Drawn and Quarterly)
* Hot Potatoe by Marc Bell (Drawn and Quarterly)
* Kaspar by Diane Obomsawin (Drawn and Quarterly)
* Red: A Haida Manga by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas (Douglas and McIntyre)

Best Emerging Talent:

* Adam Bourret I’m Crazy
* Michael DeForge Lose #1 (Koyama Press), Cold Heat Special #7 (Picturebox)
* Pascal Girard Nicolas (Drawn and Quarterly)
* John Martz It’s Snowing Outside. We Should Go For a Walk.
* Sully The Hipless Boy (Conundrum Press)

Pigskin Peters Award:

* Bébête Simon Bossé (L’Oie de Cravan)
* Dirty Dishes by Amy Lockhart (Drawn and Quarterly)
* Hot Potatoes by Marc Bell (Drawn and Quarterly)
* Never Learn Anything From History by Kate Beaton
* The Collected Doug Wright Volume One by Doug Wright (Drawn and Quarterly)

As diverse a selection of Canadian talent as ever there were – though a few of the finalists definitely came as no surprise (*cough* Seth, Marc Bell, Kate Beaton *cough*).

Then last Wednesday came the 2010 Shuster Award Nominees.

For those of you unfamiliar with the awards, they’re sort of like the American Eisner Awards, only with more bacon. (insert sound clip of a tumbleweed rolling down a deserted street)

Actually, that’s nothing like what they are. Named after Canadian-born Superman co-creator Joe Shuster, the Shuster Awards were founded in 2005 by the Canadian Comic Book Creator Awards Association.  The idea was to create a national awards program that would celebrate outstanding achievements by comic book creators, publishers, and retailers.

This year marks the 6th annual Joe Shuster Awards.

The 2010 nominees are as follows (with bonus Fabler commentary!):

SHUSTER AWARD NOMINEES for Work Published in 2009

Artist

* Chris Bachalo
* Darwyn Cooke
* Marc Delafontaine
* Djief  Bergeron
* Dale Eaglesham
* Stuart Immonen
* Francis Manapul
* Cameron Stewart

Thoughts: I’m going to come right out and say it: I’m a huge fan of Stuart Immonen’s collaborative efforts with Brian Michael Bendis. Immonen’s work on Ultimate-Spider-Man and New Avengers really has been top notch, and I consider it some of the best art Marvel can boast on any of its recent titles. Not to mention, Immonen has been recognized for this before – he just hasn’t quite made the leap from nominee to award recipient just yet.

He’s certainly up against some Shuster award veterans here: both Dale Eaglesham and Darwyn Cooke have won in this category before, and Cameron Stewart is a long-entrenched name in comic book art.

Alternately, Marc Delafontaine (Delaf) could be a real contender for this distinction. He’s certainly one of the most creatively idiosyncratic artists on the list of nominees.

Cartoonist

* Darwyn Cooke
* Jeff Lemire
* Bryan Lee O’Malley
* Philippe Girard
* Michel Rabagliati
* Simon Roy
* Seth
* Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas

Thoughts: Holy heavy-hitters, Batman! The Cartoonist category is typically where most of the current “It” names in Canadian comics reside. Case in point: Bryan Lee O’Malley, Jeff Lemire, Darwyn Cooke, and Seth.

I think it’s pretty nifty that they included relative newcomer to the industry Simon Roy here, since while Jan’s Atomic Heart marked his freshman expedition into published comics, it really was an astoundingly well told tale.

Honestly, I’m thinking that Seth is the top contender here with his book George Sprott 1894-1975. George Sprott – which was originally serialized in the New York Times – has received wild amounts of critical acclaim, entrenching Seth’s status as a modern icon in comics.

Mind you, the Shuster Awards aren’t decided by public vote any more, which means it isn’t a popularity contest. Each creator stands an equal chance here, regardless of critical fanfare.

Colourist

* Brad Anderson
* Chris Chuckry
* Maryse Dubuc
* Nathan Fairbairn
* Lovern Kindzierski
* Francois Lapierre
* Dave McCaig
* Ronda Pattison

Thoughts: I’m a little biased in this department in that I’m a big fan of Dave McCaig’s work. His work on Northlanders, Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk, and New Avengers really sealed the deal for me, but I also especially dug the two issues he coloured on Star Wars: Dark Times.

That being said, Chris Chuckry has done some pretty swell stuff on Air and The Unwritten, and Ronda Pattison’s simple-but-playful range has worked very well on both We Kill Monsters as well as Atomic Robo and the Shadow from Beyond Time.

Writer

* Kelley Armstrong
* Ian Boothby
* Hervé Bouchard
* Maryse Dubuc
* Kathryn Immonen
* Dean Motter
* Ty Templeton
* J. Torres

Thoughts: I can’t speak fully on all of the nominees in this category, since I haven’t read all of the works they’ve each been nominated for (such as Kelley Armstrong’s run on Angel issues 18-22, or Maryse Dubuc’s Les nombrils, tome 04: Duels de belles).

I can, however attest to the skill that Kathryn Immonen crafts her stories with. Especially where Runaways is concerned – which is a tricky title to helm, since it has been the stomping grounds of such celebrated talent as Joss Whedon, Brian K Vaughan, and Terry Moore.

Ty Templeton has also been receiving solid praise for his work on Star Trek: Mission’s End. An important entry in the Star Trek mythos, it follows the original crew of the Enterprise on their final mission.

An interesting fact to note regarding the Writer category: Ian Boothby, Ty Templeton, and J. Torres have been nominees every year that this Award has been in existence, save 2009 – in which only Ty Templeton’s name was absent. Of those three, Ian Boothby (known for his work on Futurama and the Simpsons) is the only one to have yet to win. Perhaps this is Boothby’s year?

Cover

* Kaare Andrews – The Immortal Iron Fist 27
* Paul Bordeleau – Faüne, tome 2: La maison du Faüne
* Darwyn Cooke – Jonah Hex 50 (DC Comics)
* Darwyn Cooke – Richard Stark’s Parker: The Hunter
* Marc Delafontaine – Les nombrils, tome 04: Duels de belles
* Dale Eaglesham – Miss America Comics 70th Anniversary Special 1
* Dale Keown – The Astounding Wolf-Man 16 Variant
* Igor Kordey – Unknown Soldier 5

Thoughts: If there were an award for sheer cover badassery, it would doubtlessly go to Dale Keown for his Astounding Wolf-Man issue 16 Variant cover. It doesn’t get more badass than that. Or more pointy, for that matter. Pointy claws, pointy teeth, pointy brambles, even pointy fur!

As it is, the award (almost regrettably) isn’t for sheer badassery, and so Keown is faced with some stiff competition. If I were the entire panel of jury responsible for making award decisions, I imagine I’d be hard-pressed between Kaare Andrews’ zen-esque depiction of Iron Fist, and Dale Eaglesham’s tastefully nostalgic depiction of Miss America.

Webcomics

* Attila Adorjany – Metaphysical Neuroma
* Kate Beaton – Hark! A Vagrant
* Andy Belanger – Bottle of Awesome and Raising Hell
* Rene Engström – Anders Loves Maria
* Karl Kerschl – The Abominable Charles Christopher
* Gisèle Lagacé and David Lumsdon – Eerie Cuties and Ménage à 3
* Tara Tallan – Galaxion
* Steve Wolfhard – Cat Rackham

Thoughts: A few nominees from the 2009 Shuster Webcomics Award resurfaced this year – namely, Kate Beaton, Karl Kerschl, and Gisèle Lagacé and David Lumsdon.

Last year’s read like a who’s who of Transmission X artists – aside from Kerschl, the nominees also included Michael Cho, Ramon K. Perez, and Cameron Stewart (who won the award for his work on Sin Titulo).  While I’m the last to knock TX artists, as I am of the opinion that they produce some of the finest Canadian webcomics out there, it is good to see a little more variety.

Attila Adorjany, Andy Belanger, Tara Tallan and Steve Wolfhard are all new names to the category. Curiously, this also marks Rene Engström’s first nomination. I say curious because her comic, Anders Loves Maria, has been making pretty huge waves for a few years now. While the competition is pretty stiff in this category, it feels like now – with Anders and Maria finally finished – just might be the right time for Engström to take home the award.

It should also be noted that the above is actually not a complete list of nominees – in April we’ll see the nominees for the categories of Publisher,  Comics for Kids, and the Harry Kremer Award for Outstanding Canadian Comic Book Retailer.

Subsequently, submissions are to be accepted up until May 10th for the Gene Day Award for Self-Publishing. Jesse Jacobs won the first-ever Gene Day Award last year for his book Blue Winter, Shapes in the Snow.

The winners of the 2010 Joe Shuster Awards will be announced at a presentation ceremony coinciding with the 6th annual Toronto ComicCON  Fan Appreciation Event on June 5th and 6th.

You won’t have to wait nearly that long to find out who will take home top honors at this year’s Doug Wright Awards – the winners for that awards program will be announced at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival on May 8th.

Hot butter.

Kevin@thefabler, signing out.

-Written by Kevin de Vlaming

The exact amount of published art that I have distributed is zero, and I have yet to write a comic of my own.

With these qualifications in mind, I am now going to presume to tell you how to be successful in comic books.

Well, I’m not actually going to tell you that. No one can tell you that. If there was a magical club secret to finding success in sequential art and storytelling, it would have been leaked on a messageboard somewhere long ago. Then flamed. Then defended, flamed again, and, if it this hypothetical leak occurred anytime in the last year or so, tweeted.

Then it would have gone from tweeting to trending, and been retweeted and subsequently reposted across the blogosphere. The indie comic scene would have exploded overnight in a glorious flash of social-media-fuelled industry enlightenment.

…But, seeing as how that did not in fact occur, we’ll assume that if there ever was such a secret, it died sometime before the age of digital technology.

Instead, I would like to take this opportunity to spout some thoughts at you, the reader, regarding observations I’ve made about the industry. With the disclaimer intact that I am neither a successful writer of comics nor an artist myself, I daresay that some of these observations might still be helpful to those aspiring to be the above.

(Don’t worry, the creator interviews are still an ongoing feature – posts like this aren’t the new exclusive standard for The Fabler Blog. In fact, in the coming weeks we’ll have some lovely interviews posted with such talent as Michael Cho and Jordyn Bochon.)

In my opinion, one of the single most impressive things about the Canadian comic book industry is its ability to generate self-sustaining communities. Be they online forums like Canadiangeek.com or Maple Ink Comics, collectives such Transmission X, or simply groups of artists getting together for their local Comic Jams – community is at the heart of Canadian indie comics.

Rightly so. It makes sense for individuals with any form of shared interest to find ways to grow through interaction with each other. Writers’ circles meet to bounce ideas off of each other when hammering out new prose, structural engineers rub shoulders at conventions to network, and anarchists hold book fairs to exchange perspectives. Well, anarchists of the Western post-modern variety, at least.

With indie comics, community is less of a supplementary tool, and more of a basic necessity. Independent comic books still lack the large, varied market that, say, indie music or even small press novels attracts. Without that market, and without an adequate distribution system beyond Diamond, (which is balanced very much against new indie creators) it’s no easy task to get your work out there and seen. This is especially difficult for those looking to produce traditional, physical copies of their work rather than operate solely in a digital medium.

The best route an aspiring indie comic artist can take, (providing that artist is set on paper copy publication) is to find other artists and collaborate on an anthology. A comic anthology is easy to flip through, relatively cheap to mass produce when you have a group of people pooling funds, and it introduces you to other local writers/artists, opening the door for future collaborations. Regular collaborations with the same individuals might lead to the founding of a local publishing company, like Calgary’s Vicious Ambitious.

Forums such as the ones I listed above are making it far easier to track down local creators than ever before; as are individual blogs, Facebook groups, and collectively maintained news blogs such as Sequential. As more and more artists realize the importance of maintaining an online presence, it’s near impossible to find comic creators that are totally unreachable via the web

As comic artists increasingly turn towards webcomics as a more financially viable mode of publishing effectively, you might think that the importance of community lessens. It doesn’t cost a ton of money to get a website up and running, complete with a unique domain name and a decent amount of server space. And once it’s up there, it’s there to be searched the world over, transcending the geographical limitations of small press print runs.

This is, of course, incomplete logic. Why would people search for it in the first place? How would you pull in enough initial traffic to generate buzz about your webcomic and get that initial word of mouth going?

The talented artists over at Transmission X have found a collective approach to solving this problem. In 2007, a pool of top-notch Canadian illustrators and cartoonists founded the organization to jointly promote each other’s work on the internet. Many of them, such as Karl Kerschl and Cameron Stewart, had already achieved a significant level of popularity in the industry – but by joining up with other creators to form the Transmission X webcomics portal, they combined their individual fan bases into a larger audience.

In this case, the fans themselves benefit just as much as the comic creators. Where once they would have had to rely on word of mouth to discover new artists and their work, by visiting any one of the TX artists’ sites they now gain access to a full range of varied, quality webcomics served up on a virtual platter.

You may have noticed that I’m pretty optimistic about the sense of community in Canadian comics these days. Examples like the Transmission X collective, social media bridging ties between artists, the increasing popularity of regional cons and expos, and the ongoing dedication of blogs like the Shuster Awards and Sequential make a pretty good case for a positive perspective of the industry. But don’t get me wrong, it isn’t all daffodils and shiny pennies. (Is that even an expression?)

In fact, if you wanted to hear another point of view about the industry, I could direct you over to The Comic Book Bin to a post Hervé St-Louis wrote last October titled, “The State of the Canadian Comic Book Industry“. In it, St-Louis laments a lack of unity between the individual, geographically divided communities across the country. There is definitely some truth to this, as well as to his assertion that there is still a sense of division between Anglophone and Francophone comic networks.

I guess my optimism comes from the unabashed enthusiasm I often hear from Canadian artists when the subject of community comes up. After all, that’s where my views in this column are largely coming from – the impressions I’ve been getting from the talented Canadian illustrators and cartoonists that I’ve talked to who are trying to make some niche for themselves in the comic book industry.

Whether you’re in Gatineau, Guelph, Victoria, or Edmonton, and whether you’re printing small run minicomics or e-marketing your webcomic, community is an important ingredient to your success. In Canada, it seems to me that we’re lucky to already have a number of successful comic-related communities, and a growing number of tools and resources to help build more.