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.  <cough>

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.

Don’t fret too much if you missed this fantastic foray into the de-romanticized modern mythology of vampires. It may have taken five years, but Done to Death has been resurrected as a collected trade paperback available now from IDW Publishing.

Judging from the widespread indoctrination of vampire misinformation rooted in such ’sexy’, ‘emotionally gripping’ franchises as True Blood and Twilight, the collected edition of Done to Death comes not a moment too soon.

Done to Death is original, witty, and wickedly entertaining.

So don’t fret too much if you didn’t already know Andrew Foley

You will.

A good place to start would be the following interview I did with Mr. Foley when I caught up with him in Calgary after his signing at Another Dimension Comics.

Without further…whatever. Check it:

KD: Hey, you just finished a mini-tour during which you promoted Done to Death in comic shops in Saskatoon, Edmonton  and Calgary. How did that go?

AF: It was pretty fantastic. I was surprised because I sort of assume nobody’s interested in my work, so getting out and seeing people and hearing that people like it is always a real thrill. Even if I’m not always entirely certain that I believe them.

KD: Done to Death has an interesting publishing history. How did you get from doing those original issues with Fiona in 2006 to seeing it published through IDW just this year?

AF: Well basically, we did the original five issue series through a small press publisher called Markosia and we wound up having different views as to how the property should proceed. Eventually we came to an agreement where the rights came back to Fiona and I and we then basically… waited for a while, for the right opportunity to come up.

I was building up the resources to self-publish it if it came down to that, but then in 2008 at a conference in my hometown of Edmonton, I met (then-assistant-editor-now-associate-editor) Rachel Edidin from Dark Horse Comics.

We talked a bit and got along quite well, and I passed her a few comics to read. Then we kept in touch and sometime later she sent me an email asking if I’d ever thought about doing a Done to Death collection. I said ‘why yes, yes I have!’

She passed Done to Death up the chain at Dark Horse, but ultimately it got spiked for reasons I’m not entirely clear on. So Rachel then passed the book along to IDW editor (now also writer) Mariah Huehner, and shortly thereafter a publishing deal followed.

KD: Once Done to Death found a home with IDW, what was your experience with that company?

AF: It was surprisingly easy. Suffice to say, I expected them to want more than they actually did want in terms of media rights and it’s just really been a very easygoing relationship. There’s been nothing we wanted to do with the book that they haven’t allowed us to do, and Fiona and I still own and control our property.

KD: You originally wrote this book in 2006, which is before True Blood and Twilight and the whole modern vampire explosion. What was going through your head when you came up with the concept behind the vampire satire that is Done to Death?

AF: It basically stemmed from two ideas that I had been carrying around for a while. One of them was that whole notion of an editor getting so many bad vampire submissions that she starts killing the people responsible. My first paying job in the comic industry was as a submissions editor for a company, so that’s exactly where that idea came from.

The other idea, the ‘loser vampire’ came from my own concept of what vampires should be and where that deviates from stuff like Interview with the Vampire or The Hunger or now Twilight. Pretty much everybody represents them as these tragic, romantic figures, which felt off to me. I always thought of vampires as falling in the horror genre instead of the romance genre. I think part of the problem is also that I was friends with a lot of people in the goth community, and they would keep handing me these books by Anne Rice or whoever and telling me ‘this is the best book ever, you have to read it!’ Then I just kept feeling underwhelmed in the face of those high expectations.

If I’d gone in thinking, ‘this is gonna suck’, I probably would have come out the better for it. When I saw the Twighlight movie and didn’t want to actively pry my eyes out with a fork, that was a win for that movie because really, I was expecting to want to do that. I mean it’s terrible,  I don’t like what the books or the movie have to say, and I don’t like the acting – but – it wasn’t as grotesquely offensive as it could have been, had I had higher expectations.

KD: So was the character of Andy really a realization of what you’ve thought all along that vampires should be like?

AF: When I sat down and thought about making a vampire story, I wanted to focus on what is still scary about vampires despite the romanticized image that’s out there. They don’t look at humans with lust, they look at them with hunger. They eat people. When you look at how vampires are commonly portrayed as leaving these sanitary puncture marks in the neck, it loses that impact.

So when I was doing Andy, I wanted him to really be a creature that was devoid of empathy and just saw people as either a means to an end or, mostly, just as food.

KD: What can you tell me about your relationship with horror fiction and your interest in writing it?

AF: I do have some horror ideas that I’m working on, and I do have an affinity for the genre. The flip side to that is that I don’t personally really like being scared. I actively avoided horror movies until I was eighteen, then the first horror movie I watched and paid attention to without actively wanting to run away from it was Clive Barker’s Hellraiser. This sort of laid the groundwork for what I want out of a horror, which isn’t really to be scared so much as to satisfy a morbid fascination.

It’s just the idea of using disturbing, interesting imagery not to get a ‘boo’ sort of reaction but to examine ideas that could be unsettling without being the lowest common denominator of shock value.

KD: I know you’ve been pretty vocal in the past about how much you dig Fiona’s art on Done to Death. What is it about her style that you think complements your own approach as a writer?

AF: There’s an expressionistic quality to her work that isn’t photorealistic but is consistent in her work, so the world she draws remains consistent.  She’s basically just the ideal collaborator, and my only issue regarding Fiona is really with the rest of the world and how long they took to notice her. This might actually mark the first time in history that I was ahead of the curve.

KD: What else can you talk about outside of Done to Death that you’re currently working on?

AF: Well I’m working on a collaboration with another Calgary artist named Daniel Schneider. It’s an all-ages family adventure about a jester who goes off on a quest to fix this curse for a princess that causes her to cry uncontrollably.

While he’s on this journey, the jester comes across basically all the traditional fantasy archetypical characters turned on their heads. So the warrior who is a great hero to the local villagers because he killed a bear, but everybody fails to mention that the bear was really old and basically just fell down dead. Or the troll who has the soul of an artist and spends all of his time building sculptures of bridges.

That book will be called Fools and Madmen, and that’s the next comic thing I think I’m going to get done.

Many thanks to Andrew for the interview! For more from Andrew Foley, you can visit his official website.

-Interview by Kevin

I wanted to bring a couple of blogs to your attention. Because pals share that sort of thing.

Does anyone care about this whole debate about women working in comics? If you’ve been out to a convention in the past few years and caught a Q & A with editor-types from any of the larger publishers, chances are you’ve heard it addressed.

The assertion is that, despite a swelling demographic of female comic book readers, the major label comic book industry remains by and large a ‘boys club’. Granted, you do have your Gail Simones and Pia Guerras blazing trails through the pages of comicbookdom, but is that indicative of any larger shift in the industry’s mindset?

I don’t even know if you’d really call it a debate. More a possible issue that is brought up often, though is rarely addressed as opposed to being merely redirected.

Anyway, so Tim Hanley of Bleeding Cool has been tracking weekly statistics of all of the women with credits on DC or Marvel and posting them up on his blog. Condensed monthly versions of these stats, which he has been compiling since the start of 2011, can be found on Bleeding Cool under the blog heading ‘Gendercrunching‘.

He just posted the first of two special iterations of Gendercrunching, in which data is analyzed concerning women working in comics over the last fifteen years.  Part one entails a good, hard look at DC from 1996-2011. His conclusions?

” Now, over the past 15 years, I think it’s fair to say that the number of women who read comics has increased. Books like Y: The Last Man, Fables, and Alias have been good gateway books for guys to get their friends/girlfriends/wives/sisters/what have you into comics. People everywhere are noticing more women at comic book conventions and in comic book shops. But at DC Comics, the overall percentage of female creators has pretty much stayed the same…

… They’re not getting worse… they’re not actively excluding women and becoming more of a boy’s club. But they’re not getting better, and that’s disheartening. You stay the same by just not trying.”

As it turns out, people do care. Check out the full post here.

If you’ll refer back to my second paragraph in this post, you will notice that I mentioned two blogs I wanted to pal-share.

The second came to my attention via Sequential, and features an ongoing history of Canadian comic books.

Comic Syrup is written by Rachel Richey, and it provides a thorough post-by-post breakdown of significant Canadian comic publishers, titles, and artists – from Active Comics on.

Speaking of Canadian comic creators, I also wanted to mention a new trade paperback out this week from none other than artist Fiona Staples (North 40, Mystery Society) and scribe Andrew Foley (Cowboys and Aliens, The Holiday Men in The Massacre Memorial Day Sale).

Done to Death tells the story of an editor sick ‘TO DEATH’ of derivative vampire stories – so sick that she takes it upon herself to personally murder the worst of the would-be writers out there. Meanwhile, a real vampire who doesn’t quite fit the romanticized vampire mould seen in big budget Hollywood flicks embarks on a personal vendetta of his own.

Robot 6 has a massive preview of the book, which you can check out here.

Rad? Rad.

Stay tuned for some neat-o interviews and possibly…just possibly… some big-time announcements coming down the pipes from The Fabler.

But only possibly.

-Posted by Kevin

There are some genuinely interesting items making headlines on the sequential front this month, and I would be remiss if I didn’t touch on a few of them here. From professional perspectives on a call to boycott one of the two major publishers (hint: not DC) to the wildly successful endeavours of a group of female artists and writers to kickstart their own new anthology, and finally to the birth of a new Canadian Comic Festival.

First, about this boycott business – Steve Bisette is a name you may or may not already be familiar with, probably depending on if you’ve read Alan Moore’s much-lauded run on Swamp Thing (on which Bisette was artist). A name you might be more familiar with is Jack Kirby, who famously co-created such Marvel characters as Captain America, the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four.

Kirby, who sadly passed away in 1994, has since become the subject of some controversy regarding those same characters. At least where Marvel is concerned. The long and short of it is, the heir’s to the Kirby estate brought  a lawsuit to Marvel’s front door seeking partial rights and royalties to all those great properties Jack Kirby had a hand in creating. Marvel adamantly denied any entitlement that the Kirby estate may have had to the copyright claims on those characters, claiming that Kirby’s creations were “work for hire”.

In July, much to the chagrin of Kirby fans everywhere, the courts ruled in favour of Marvel.

This is where Steve Bisette comes in. In response to this ruling, near the end of July he called for a boycott of Marvel products until they re-evaluate their treatment of Kirby and his legacy.

Some very interesting individuals in the comic industry have since weighed in on the matter, including Tom Spurgeon of The Comics Reporter:

“What remains most troubling about what Marvel has done and continues to do to many of its contributors and their families is how deeply unnecessary all of it seems. Marvel has resources out the wazoo. They have plenty of publishing money to provide royalties to a creator or an estate on work republished…

… For these companies that traffic in heroism and trumpet going the extra mile to do good to cling to a strict legalism that keeps the money flowing in certain directions should trouble even the most accepting, enthusiastic fan.”

Also, Seth:

“The corporate lie about Kirby’s role in the creation of all those characters is abhorrent. It’s a bold faced lie. Everyone knows it’s a lie. No one is fooled. Everyone lying for the company should be ashamed. Stan Lee should be ashamed. What the Marvel corporation is doing might be legal but it certainly isn’t right…

… I would encourage anyone reading this to refrain from supporting the corporation until some form of justice is brought forth for Mr. Kirby. Might I suggest that money usually spent on Marvel products be redirected into the back issue market –buy some of those charming early 60s comics. That’s the real stuff anyway. Not the decades of vulgar elaboration that followed.”

Even Scott McCloud had a brief weigh-in on the subject (via Google+):

“I’m sure this particular case has plenty of gray areas…

But hardly any artist in that end of the business was treated fairly in those days (much like in the music industry) and Kirby in particular deserved far more compensation — and RESPECT — than he received over the years from a royal procession of lawyers, asshole execs, and two-faced colleagues.

Anyone contesting that Marvel was largely built on Kirby’s ideas just doesn’t know their comics history.”

The good news is that the Kirby estate’s lawyer, Marc Toberoff, isn’t about to give up so easily.  Just a couple of days ago, he announced that his intentions to appeal the ruling were going forward.  Time will tell where this one ends up…

On a brighter note, here are two items of news worth getting excited for:

First, Womanthology. If you haven’t followed this story, a group of female comic artists and writers came together with the hopes of  creating a ‘large scale anthology comic showcasing the works of women in comics’. With such names as Gail Simone, Camille de’Errico, Fiona Staples, and a host of other talented professionals attached to the project, the folks behind Womanthology decided to use Kickstarter to raise funds for a goal of $25,000.00.

They put out the rallying cry to any and all friends or supporters that might be willing to help provide incentives for contributors, and came up with such nifty rewards as: receiving a hand-drawn postcard in the mail from Neil Gaiman; having Kevin Smith call you on his podcast for a quick chat; having one of several professional writers critique your script and, as an ‘UBER SPECIAL OPPORTUNITY’, one lucky contributor of $1,500 is going to have his 22 page script drawn by Bryan Denham (Marvel Artist for Iron Man, Avengers, Nova and more)!

Naturally, they blew away their $25,000 target. By the time they reached their August 7th deadline, they hit the absolutely astonishing landmark of just over $100,000.00 raised!

A wonderful success story, and one that reaffirms much of my faith in the same industry that produced the Marvel-Kirby lawsuit.

Oh hey, and here’s something else that’s pretty cool:

Major Canadian Comic Art Festivals look out! There’s a new kid on the block.

So VanCAF, the Vancouver Comics Arts Festival, has been announced as a new show modeled after TCAF which will be debuting in May in 2012.

Their website’s description lists the event as “a week-long celebration of comics…(featuring) galleries, readings, panels, and workshops before culminating in a two-day convention for cartoonists from across the country and down the coast to connect with their readers and peddle their wares”.

The West rises!

Not that anybody cares about that whole West vs East culture conflict in Canada anymore…just sayin’.

Anyway, how cool is that? If you’d like a more thorough look at what VanCAF is all about, BK Munn over on Sequential Spiltink has posted an interview with Shannon Campbell, the event’s organizer.

Shine on, you crazy diamonds.

- Kevin

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.

The JSA’s recognize outstanding achievement in the field of Canadian Comic Books, with a distinct emphasis on the creators rather than the works. For instance, categories include “Outstanding Cartoonist” or “Outstanding Artist” rather than focusing on the individual works those artists and cartoonists released over the past year.

Kevin Boyd, current Director and one of the original co-founders of the Awards, says that the JSA’s are important because they show Canadian comic creators that the community they live and work in is aware of what they do.

“Jason Bradshaw, who is one of the nominees for this year’s Gene Day Award,” says Kevin, “he didn’t even realize he was nominated. Someone just picked up his book and said this is really good, I’m putting it in for evaluation. Emily Carroll, who won the award for webcomics, had no idea how she got nominated for an award. And I think this recognition really matters to those people. We can easily get lost in the larger shuffle of the North American scene, so I think it’s nice for these Canadian creators to know we appreciate all of the work they do.”

Boyd says that the Canadian Comic Book Creator Awards Association originally came together back when he was working on the Paradise Toronto Comic Con, an event helped found with Peter Dixon of Paradise Comics.

“While I was doing that,” he says, “James Waley, the former publisher of Orb Magazine, came forward and said, ‘I have an idea, why don’t we do an awards event for Canadian comic creators?’ So we sat down and thought about how this would work, and we decided to look at the people working in the industry rather than the comics themselves.  So that’s the original genesis of the awards, then Tyrone Biljan, who does our A/V, came in, and Mark Askwith from Space gave us some great advice. Then it just evolved over the years from there.”

This year’s awards marked the first year the ceremonies were held outside of Toronto. Ajay Fry and Teddy Wilson, hosts of the television show innerSpace, served as the presenters and this year’s winners included the likes of Fiona Staples, Koyama Press, Francis Manapul, and Tin Can Forest – among others.

Also at this year’s awards, famed Comic Creators Chester Brown and Calgary’s own Todd McFarlane were inducted into the Comic Book Creator Hall of Fame.

Though neither could be there for the ceremonies, fans in attendance were treated to an enthusiastic speech on behalf of Todd McFarlane by his Dad, Bob.

“That was amazing,” says Kevin Boyd. “I was at home last weekend just watching a movie and I got this phone call, ‘Kevin it’s Bob McFarlane, I’m coming out to Expo! The kid’s too busy – buying baseballs or something. I want to come out and I really want to see how it is these days. I remember coming out to the Expos in the old days when Todd used to be a fan.’ Then he came back after and said, ‘This is amazing. It’s so much better, and it’s so great to see an event like this just flourishing’.”

When asked about how he felt this year’s awards went overall, Kevin’s feeling were mixed:

” It’s funny, organizing and all of the work that you put into it, it’s almost disappointing when the thing happens and you’re like, ‘Oh I wish it happened like that, or we had done things that way.’ But the feedback I’ve been receiving is great, so we must have done something right. I have little things that I want to fix for next year but I think overall we have a structure that works well for the ceremonies.”

Among the little things Kevin would have changed?

“I would have had the presenters pause a little bit between the names of the nominees. It felt like we were really rushed through that. I would have also looked at getting someone else to do the Chester Brown presentation – I was really quite nervous. ”

He also says that this year’s awards being held outside of Toronto won’t be a one-time thing.

“I like the idea of them rotating,” says Boyd. “I don’t want us to be known as the Toronto Awards. We’re Canadian, we’re a national awards organization. The thing about Canada is how incredibly huge this country is.  We’re a hugely diverse country, and we’re all coming at comics from different perspectives. And I would like to bring the JSA’s to each of those regions and be exposed to each individual community and perspective. I’d love to see if there’s an event in Vancouver that would work well with the Shuster’s.  I think we’re looking at Montreal next year, at the Montreal Comic Con. I’d like to do one at Fan Expo, which is another show I work on, but in that case I would be hesitant because I have so much work to do with Fan Expo that I’d feel I wasn’t giving the Shuster’s due diligence.  Maybe Halifax too, if we could find a setting there.”

Just because the next Joe Shuster Awards are a full year away, don’t imagine that Kevin won’t have his hands full planning for next year’s already.

Says Boyd: ” I’m out there constantly looking for information on who’s doing what, when it’s coming out, what’s going on in the scene at this point, who’s books are being optioned for movies or television, what new publishers are launching…all sorts of things along those lines. Then on top of that you’re fact-checking credits, making sure you have everything right – oftentimes Marvel and DC will switch something after the fact, and they don’t list colorists so it can be pretty intensive trying to find who colored what. Basically Robert Haines and I work on it almost every day. He works on retailers and the Gene Day self-publishers while I work on the overall releases. Between that and spreading the word about the JSA’s, getting people on board, finding people for the nominating committees… it never seems to stop.

The roller coaster ended on Saturday for this year, and we’re already talking about how the ride’s gonna work for next year.”

I count myself among those already looking forward to the 2012 Joe Shuster Awards.

For more information on the JSA’s, as well as a complete list of this year’s nominees and winners, you can visit their official website at joeshusterawards.com.

Thanks to Kevin Boyd, Robert Haines and the rest of the JSA team for recognizing outstanding work in Canadian comics, year after year!

-Written by Kevin de Vlaming

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.

They additionally opened up the Expo to include the Stampede Corral itself, which is a significantly sized arena-style venue,  and to increase the overall size of the event grounds to something much larger than seen in previous years.

Somewhere in these new changes, a swarm of planning issues and miscellaneous ‘bumps’ have seemed to start popping up with routine frequency. For instance, I could have taken it as a sign of things to come when the very first panel I dropped by on Friday – a Q & A with Hellboy creator and ‘guest of honour’ Mike Mignola – seemed to fall flat several minutes in due to audio issues.

The issues? Paper-thin walls between panel rooms letting roaring applause and music flood in from the neighbouring panel, a conspicuous absence of microphones to aid Mike and the moderators in being heard, and repeat announcements on the loud speaker nearly every five minutes that there were still Photo Ops available for Shatner.

To Mignola’s credit, he powered through the panel as best he could and with an admirably resilient positive disposition.

Other issues have included: organizers routing attendees back and forth due to miscommunications about what panels should lineup where; frequent bottlenecking due to there only being one corridor linking the main hall to adjoining events’ rooms; late-starting panel guests and scheduled events; horrifically organized photo ops; etc, etc.

But then, these could all 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.

I mean, for the first year ever, DC Comics has had its very own booth at the Calgary Expo. There was even a DC Nation panel featuring top writers and artists from the DC Universe talk about their plans for their respective post-reboot properties.

The DC Nation panel, for the record, didn’t reveal anything new. In fact, it seemed the panel guests (which included Jimmy Palmiotti, Gail Simone,  Francis Manapul, and Jeff Lemire) were constantly walking on eggshells for fear of ’spilling too much’. What I did take away from it is that Jeff Lemire’s new Frankenstein series is going to kick serious ass, Palmiotti’s vision of Jonah Hex in a crime-riddled turn of the century Gotham City is positively inspired, and Gail Simone’s Batgirl (Barbara Gordon once again!) has a funky new costume that in some way features new technologies more ‘relevant’ to current times.

Another sign of the Calgary Comic Expo growing in repute was the presence of The Joe Shuster Awards for Canadian Comic Book Creators, which were presented this evening for the very first time outside of Toronto.

The Joe Shuster Awards deserve some special mention in this post, and I’m going to give it to them.

I was a little disappointed in the turnout for this year’s awards, which I suspect was at least partially due to their being scheduled at the same time as the Costume Contest. The latter event has long been one of the biggest crowd-drawing events at the Expo. Comic fans missed an engaging, interesting event that not only celebrated the achievements of some of Canada’s top contemporary talents (more on that in a bit) but also inducted both Chester Brown and Todd McFarlane into their Canadian Comic Book Creator Hall of Fame.

In the case of Spawn creator Todd McFarlane, who is himself originally from Calgary, his father Bob was present to deliver an inspired acceptance speech of behalf of the legendary comic artist.

Regarding this year’s Shuster Award winners, I have to say there were a few (not unpleasant) surprises. While Fiona Staples picking up the award for Outstanding Cover Artist came as little shock (she has certainly earned it), it was interesting to see Tin Can Forest beat out such influential contenders as Darwyn Cooke, Bryan Lee O’Malley and Jeff Lemire to take home the award for Outstanding Cartoonist.

Tin Can Forest, which is Mark Colek and Pat Schewchuk, won for their graphic novel Baba Yaga and The Wolf. Baba Yaga and The Wolf marked their second book, and it was published by Koyama Press. I was glad to see them win the award for their truly outstanding effort – perhaps equally as glad as I was to see Koyama Press win the award for Outstanding Publisher.

Other award-winners this year included Julie Rocheleau for Outstanding Colourist; Scott Chantler’s Three Thieves Book 1: Tower of Treasure in the Comics for Kids category; Émilie Villeneuve for Outstanding Writer, and Francis Manapul for Outstanding Artist.

I was super-stoked to see Emily Carroll awarded for Outstanding Webcomics Creator – though she was up against some stiff competition in the category, (Kate Beaton, Karl Kerschl, Salgood Sam, etc) what she’s currently doing with her webcomics have impressed me like few others have.

Though Shuster Award Show hosts Ajay Fry & Teddy Wilson (of Inner Space fame) did an admirable job of keeping the ceremonies lively and engaging, it was also neat to see a variety of additional presenters participate. Former winner of the Harry Kremer Award for Outstanding Retailer Jay Bardyla (Happy Harbour Comic) was on hand to present this year’s award to Planete BD from Montreal, Quebec.

Shuster Awards Associate Director Robert Haines awarded the Gene Day Award for Self-Publisher’s to John Martz for Heaven All Day, while Kevin Boyd, the Executive Director for the Awards, gave a compelling insight to the life of Chester Brown.

It was also a treat for (comic legend in his own right) Ken Steacy to give an introspective into the life and times of Todd McFarlane.

Going into the third day of Calgary’s Comic Expo, I have high hopes for more quality events and panels with – hopefully – a lot less of the ‘hectic mess’ element prevalent over the first two days.

I’ll also be making my interview rounds – so, Fabler followers, you can look forward to some interesting individuals being profiled here in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, stay frosty. Or something.

-Written by Kevin de Vlaming

Historically the award ceremony has been held each year in Toronto, but 2011 marks an exception to this six-year trend. I have pointedly neglected to hide my enthusiasm that this year’s awards ceremony is to be held right here in The Fabler’s hometown of Calgary, Alberta at the 2011 Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo.

I was graciously asked to participate in the nomination process for this year’s awards, which I thought was super nifty, but it came with a price: no, not my firstborn child. I’m still holding onto that as a bargaining chip in case anyone ever comes knocking with the perfect recipe for Madras Chickpea Curry.

The actual price of participation is silence. Secrecy. I have been unable to share my thoughts on those creative comic types up for awards this year, lest the integrity of the whole process be compromised. Well, no longer! As of yesterday, the official nominees for the 2011 Shuster Awards have been published online at the Joe Shuster Awards home page.

Take a gander for yourself if you’d like, but I’ll break it down for you anyway.

The standard categories are: Outstanding Comic Book Artist, Outstanding Comic Book Writer, Outstanding Comic Colourist, Outstanding Webcomic Creator, Outstanding Comic Cover Artist, and Outstanding Comic Book Cartoonist.

I’ve seen a few people ask about the last category there, so to clarify, the Joe Shuster Awards consider a Cartoonist to be ’someone who wrote and illustrated their own work. If someone else wrote the work they are eligible as Artist, if someone else drew the work they are only eligible as Writer.’

At a first glance, one thing that becomes apparent (which the National Post’s Afterword noticed too) is that Ontario’s Jeff Lemire is up for a whopping three awards (Cartoonist, Comic Book Cover Artist, and Comic Book Writer). His nominations for the Cartoonist and Cover Artist categories are, of course, for his work on the incredibly (and justifiably) hyped Vertigo title Sweet Tooth. His Writer nomination was a little more obscure, garnered largely for his “The Atom” stories that ran for a while in Adventure Comics and a few Superboy stories he also did for DC.

Also up for multiple awards would be Calgary’s own wonder-lass, Fiona Staples. (insert oohs and ahhs)

She’s up for Outstanding Comic Artist for her work on the miniseries Mystery Society (which was written by Steve Niles), as well as Northlanders #29 and Fringe: Tales from the Fringe #4. Her second nomination is for Outstanding Comic Book Cover Artist, and it is well deserved. In italics, even.  See below for proof.

To say that the competition is stiff would be to point out the glaringly obvious. Some of last year’s Shuster Award winners are once again in the running this year, such as Stuart Immonen, who won last year’s Outstanding Artist category, and Karl Kerschl, who took home the Webcomics Win for The Abominable Charles Christopher. But beyond that, Canadian talent really produced some top notch comic book content this past year.

Scott Chantler released his nonfiction war memoir graphic novel Two Generals to high critical fanfare in October, a fact that puts him in the running as a leading contender for Outstanding Comic Book Cartoonist. But then, not only is he up against the indomitable Jeff Lemire, but also long-time Canadian Comic favorite Darwyn Cooke for his recent Richard Stark’s Parker books, Hollywood -hyped Bryan Lee O’Malley for Scott Pilgrim Vol. 6, and Pascal Girard for his lovably quirky graphic novel, Bigfoot.

There are also a few new names to the Shuster Awards that are worth getting excited about. Most specifically, I’m referring to Anthony Del Col & Conor McCreery, co-writers of the IDW comic Kill Shakespeare. They’re up against some big names in the Outstanding Comic Book Writer category, such as Lemire, J. Torres, and Kathryn Immonen, but I think they can hold their own. For those that haven’t read Kill Shakespeare, the basic premise is one of Shakespeare’s greatest heroes, Hamlet, finds himself pitted against the Bard’s greatest villains in order to fulfill a prophecy that pits protagonist against creator. It’s clever, well-written, and ultimately filled with nuanced originality that sets it apart from a lot of what’s out there at the moment.

Also worthy of mention in the Outstanding Writer category is Jim Zubkavich for his comic series Skullkickers. I’m glad to see Zubkavich seeing some recognition for a truly fun, entertaining adventure series like SK – as with Kill Shakespeare, this series is one that definitely stands out on the shelves.

Some miscellaneous comments on other comic types up for nomination:

- It’s encouraging to see Mike Del Mundo’s name on the list for Outstanding Comic Book Cover Artist. Another first time Shuster nominee, his cover art this past year has been insane. Check it.

- Kudos to Salgood Sam’s Outstanding Web Comics Creator nomination for Dream Life. He’s approaching this project with a high concept that is presented in an accessible way, and the art really is top-notch, take notice sort of stuff.

- Every year, the Gene Day Award for Self-Publishers is presented at the Joe Shuster Awards ceremony to an indie cartoonist who has gone above and beyond in his or her comic creating efforts. This year Jason Bradshaw (whom we just featured recently on The Fabler Blog) made the nominees list, and I’m super stoked for him. Check out his website to see what goes on in the mind of Jason Bradshaw, and what makes his comic Boredom Pays # 2 a solid candidate for this year’s Gene Day Award.

In addition to the awards I’ve already mentioned, on June 18th the Joe Shuster Awards will also be honoring the work of comic creators in a Comics for Kids category, handing out the Harry Kremer Award for Outstanding Comic Book Retailer, and doling out yet another award for Outstanding Comic Book Publisher.

Stuff pertaining to nominees aside, two major celebrities of Canadian comics are also going to be recognized at this year’s Shuster Award ceremony. You may have heard of them. At the June 18th ceremony, Chester Brown and Todd McFarlane are to be inducted into the Canadian Comic Book Creator Hall of Fame.

This is especially cool for McFarlane, as he originally hails from Calgary himself. I can even name the High School he attended, William Aberhart High. How do I know this? Because Aberhart graduates who also happen to be comic fans like to bring it up in conversation. Repeatedly.

If you happen to be in Calgary from June 17th -19th this year, you can check out the Joe Shuster Awards Ceremony for yourself on Saturday at the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo.

Otherwise, you can be sure The Fabler will be there to document the proceedings and talk smack about it here on the Blog.

-post written by Kevin de Vlaming

The season of holiday cheer and festive gifting has descended upon us like a feathered flurry of ravenous harpies.  Their joyful talons outstretched, poised to tear seasonal revellers into decorative ribbons of mirth and merriment.

If you love the holiday season as much as I do, you’re probably spending most of your time these days agonizing over what gifts to buy whom this year. Particularly those comic book fans that are always oh-so-hard to shop for – you know the ones, that sister with an obsessive webcomic fixation, or that husband that can’t be torn away from his DC and/or Marvel monthlies.

Well stress no longer, gentle reader. For The Fabler Blog has once again provided a list of gift ideas for comic book fans.

Actually, a lot of these gift ideas would  apply just as well to anyone on your holiday buying list, whether they consider themselves to be existing comic fans or otherwise.  These are gifts for anyone (that just happen to tie into comics in one way or another).

Most items on the list fall into a price range of around $15 – $40, with only a couple of notable exceptions.

Let’s get started, shall we?

Holiday Cards at Topatoco

The first item on the list isn’t technically a gift item, but I’m including it anyway.  Reason being, because Topatoco is awesome and holiday cards are the best presents for friends that don’t quite make your “willing to spend more than 5 dollars on” list but you still want to know you don’t quite hate them.

This year’s holiday card selection includes designs from Hijinks Ensue, Sam & Fuzzy, Exploding Dog, Bad Decision Dinosaur, and the always fabulous Brandon Bird. One set will set you back $15.

Machine of Death

What if all of your favorite webcomic writers and illustrators came together to produce a ‘Creative-Commons-licensed fiction anthology’ of short stories about a machine that could tell people how they are going to die? This hypothetical self-published collection of sci-fi tales would (naturally) be edited by Ryan North of Dinosaur Comics, and within its pages would be something so sinister… so dripping with insidiously evil energy, that even Glenn Beck would be forced to take note.

Blow your friends’ minds with the revelation that this book exists. Blowing may be initiated at Amazon or Topatoco for the meagre sum of around $18.

Questionable Content Vol 1

I can’t get enough Questionable Content. Seriously. Jeph Jacques lays down clever wit and believable character-driven stories of everyday life like Flava Flav drops borderline intelligible hype chants about being awesome. That is to say, he does it well. Scarily well.

Despite QC’s status as a long-running webcomic (of roughly seven years), Jacques only just recently released his first print collection of the strips with Questionable Content Vol 1. The book contains the first 300 comics, minus guest strips, and includes artist commentary.

A perfect gift for anyone interested in closely scrutinizing the personal lives of a circle of directionless, indie-music-loving friends as they crack jokes, get drunk, and consume lattes. $18  plus shipping.

Speaking of shipping, all of the items mentioned so far are available from Topatoco and are subject to their Holiday shipping deadlines. Check their site to find out how much longer you can put off your online Holiday shopping.

The Abominable Charles Christopher -  Book One

If spying into the love lives of infallibly clever indie rock kids falls outside of your giftee’s realm of interest, maybe they’ll be interested in following these exceptionally well-drawn adventures of a loveable, yeti-like beast.

Karl Kerschl’s ongoing masterpiece The Abominable Charles Christopher (his contribution to the Transmission X stable of webcomics) is one of the most highly-lauded internet comic strips out there.  And for good reason. It’s hard to put the innate charm of ACC into words, so instead I’ll recommend you pop on over to the site and read through a few strips yourself.

The Abominable Charles Christopher – Book  One is a prestige hardcover book collecting all of the comics from the first two years of the series. You can pick the regular edition up over at the TX Shop for $40.

Tangles

As if I haven’t gone on about Tangles enough, I will endeavour one more time to relate the sheer emotional power contained in this book about a daughter and her Mom’s struggle with Alzheimer’s Disease.

The author, Sarah Leavitt, wrote and illustrated this graphic memoir as a personal look into the ways in which her relationship with her Mother changed after the latter was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.  Alternatingly heart-wrenching and quirkily charming, I think that Tangles has perhaps the broadest appeal of any item on this list.

Available from Freehand Books for $23.95 US/CDN.

Two Generals

Have an estranged Uncle interested in Canadian WW2 history? A second cousin who likes adventure comic books that double as immaculately-researched period pieces? Or maybe you just know someone that appreciates good art, a good story, and a solid helping of Canadiana.

If any of the above are true, you may be interested in purchasing a copy of Scott Chantler’s graphic novel Two Generals for someone on your gift list. Ostensibly about Scott’s real-life grandfather Law Chantler as per the entries found in his WW2 war diary, Two Generals is really a story about friendship in the face of the uncompromising realities of war.

Two Generals can be purchased for $17.55 CDN on Amazon.ca.

Bigfoot

The latest graphic novel from Quebec-based illustrator Pascal Girard, Bigfoot is, according to publisher Drawn And Quarterly,  “a reflection on youth and budding romantic feelings”.  Drawn with wonderfully expressive simplicity, Bigfoot is the story of an average small-town teenager who finds unwanted internet fame when a youTube video of him dancing in his living room goes viral.

My recommendation of this book, which just released on December 7th, is based largely on Girard’s previous graphic novel, Nicolas. Nicolas is about Girard’s younger brother, who passed away when they were both very small. It really highlighted Pascal’s ability to capture readers through nostalgically relatable dialogue and simple-but-lively linework.

If Bigfoot can tell a story that’s even half as poignant as Nicolas, this D+Q graphic novel is one worth having. Consider it for the indie comic collector on your list, available for $20.95 CDN from Amazon.

Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Box Set

Here’s where we segue into gifts that might gel better with more ‘mainstream’ comic fans. Beginning with – naturally – the box set of Scott Pilgrim Books by Ontario-based writer and artist Bryan Lee O’Malley.

I would wager ten solid hypothetical dollars that you know someone who loved the Michael Cera film, Scott Pilgrim vs The World, but has yet to read any of the comics on which the script was based. This is your opportunity to educate that person on what they’re missing out on.

Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Box Set, collecting all six volumes of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s epic tale of a slacker versus the seven evil ex-boyfriends of the girl of his dreams, can be found on Amazon.ca for $56.70 CDN.

Sweet Tooth Vol 2: In Captivity

Though you’ll have to postpone your gift-buying until December 14th to pick up this title, it will most definitely be worth the wait.

The second collected Trade Paperback of Jeff Lemire’s Sweet Tooth saga, Sweet Tooth Vol 2: In Captivity, collects issues 6 to 11 of the post-apocalyptic tale about animal/human hybrids and an unlikely source of hope in a bleak world.

Sweet Tooth nabbed Lemire an Eisner nomination for Best New Series, a distinction well-earned for his uniquely expressive, distinct style of drawing and tense, gripping storyline.

Vol 2 of the Sweet Tooth saga may be procured at your local comic shop for around $14.99.

North 40 Trade Paperback

Another relatively new must-have trade paperback is the fantastically illustrated Cthuluean adventure, North 40. Written by Aaron Williams and illustrated by fellow Calgarian Fiona Staples, the collected run spanned six issues of Lovecraftian mayhem centering around a rural Midwestern  town.

The collected edition dropped on Nov 10, and I can attest that it makes a swell addition to any horror comic enthusiast’s collection. Williams writes a mean Midwestern narrative of tentacles, witchcraft, and surly small-town Sheriffs, but Staples really cements the viability of North 40 as a holiday gift bursting with awesome.

Her ability to render a wide selection of horrific monstrosities in varying situations involving mutilation, blood-sucking, and general ultraviolence goes uncontested.

The North 40 Trade Paperback can more than likely be obtained at a local comic retailer for somewhere in the neighbourhood of $17.99.

The Walking Dead Vol 13

You may have heard about this show that’s getting a little bit of attention on obscure blogs and irrelevant news sites. It’s about zombies, see, but it’s really big budget and it’s actually based on this really exceptional comic series… wait, you already know about this?

Maybe I’m not making any revolutionary statements by suggesting that you check out Robert Kirkman’s zombie epic The Walking Dead, now a critically acclaimed television series on AMC. But hey, if you have a horror comic fan on your list that keeps halfway abreast of current titles, chances are they have already read at least some of The Walking Dead comic series.

Volume 13: Too Far Gone, which collects issues 73-78, released on November 26th. This close to the Holidays, there’s a good chance that any current Kirkman readers may have put off purchasing the book in case someone close to them with a strong intuition towards comic gifts were to consider picking it up.

You could be that person of strong intuition. Seize the power today, live up to your potential as an ideal gift-giver, and buy Volume 13 of The Walking Dead for approximately $14.99 at your local comic shop.

The Green Lantern Omnibus Vol. 1

It wouldn’t really be a gift guide for comic fans if I didn’t include at least one obligatory product for each of the respective  DC/Marvel  fans on your list.

Green Lantern may be at the centre of the current DC hype machine on account of the pending feature film starring People Magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive, but the character’s appeal to long-time comic fans goes waaay back. So far back, in fact, that DC decided an Omnibus collecting the original Lantern Hal Jordan’s first adventures would be useful/neat/relevant to fans of the character.

This first Green Lantern Omnibus collected Green Lantern issues 1-21, as well as Showcase # 22-24. The epic-sized hardcover tome covers Jordan’s origin story, his induction to the Lantern corps, and the introduction of a host of characters and villains seminal to the Lantern mythos.

This book is available for $55.18 CDN from Amazon.ca.

Obsessed With Marvel

You know, there are countless DC and Marvel collected trades out there that would make perfect gifts for many of the comic book fans out there. Necessary trades, like collections from Ed Brubaker’s run on Captain America, or Grant Morrison’s superb take on the Batman & Robin title. Both the Green Lantern Omnibus and this last gift entry, Obsessed With Marvel, are less ‘necessary’ books and more companion novelty items that compliment any comic fan’s collection.

The good news there being that, unless you’re shopping for a completionist collector, they may be less likely to own either of these products.

Obsessed With Marvel is a Hardcover trivia book with an interactive digital component that keeps track of your quiz results.  Boasting 2,500 questions spanning every corner of the Marvel Universe, I can’t see this getting old anytime soon. Check it out over on Amazon.com, where it currently sports a modest $19.77 USD price tag.

- Written by Kevin de Vlaming

The three main venues this year was Another Dimension, Phoenix Comics, and Comic Kazi. Though we’d love to include all cities and venues, we’re just not as cool and capable as our freely featured superheroes. Maybe next year we will be lucky enough to have mastered our cloning skills. Calgary this year will have to do.

In Calgary, the hustle and bustle took place on Macleod Trail, where the local creator community, and fans, hosted by Comic Kazi banded together to create the vibrant atmosphere that brings the kids out in all of us. Thanks to Calgary’s own Gerald Garcia, who’s been running and coordinating the event at Comic Kazi since the early days. Gerald, was doing sketches to help raise proceeds for the Eugene Ouchi Memorial Scholarship at ACAD. Our hearts go out to Eugene’s family friends.

Kris Chisholm was there as well this year, sketching and enjoying the atmosphere. As he continues to draw, we can only see that this superstar to be, will soon be drawing our next favorite reads!

Fiona Staples, giving sketches away for free this year. Since the cancellation of Wildstorm’s, North 40, by Aaron Williams, after issue #6, she’s now hopped up on a new project, published by IDW called, Mystery Society, by Steve Niles. Sitting next to her was local artist Neil, who was happy that the community in Calgary has been growing quite successfully!

A few local indies there this year included Michael McAdam, and Mike Rieger, of Two Gargoyles Graphics. Since starting Diaperman in 1998, the twosome have successfully maintained their ability to self publish great stories, through community exposure.

A new feature to the stage this year was Ashley Delehay, the lead starlet in Zombie Attack! From Outer Space. She was there creating awareness and to promote, how to build a movie for under $60k! Following in Robert Rodriguez’s footsteps, the crew are well on their way with another Sasquatch movie in the works as well.

DC’s Marcus To, a Torontonian was there shaking hands and kissing babies, as he was a guest to the event this year providing the crowds with free sketches.

The Wildgunmen crew was also there promoting their new print editions of, The Wildgunmen, the geek culture magazine.

Last but not least, the coolest cat this year was Diamian Wilcox, of Dorkboy Comics! This local self published veteran has been producing web comics for the past 13 years. He was kind enough to hand out free sketches and, give our onsite comic fan, Cory Nelson, a comic of his very own!

The Sundry Seven also made a brief appearance. If you had a chance to snag one of the last remaining copies, we hope you enjoy the upcoming tale of our misfit superheroes in all their glory.

Remember, we really do love comics!

Appearing in the video: Ryan North of Dinosaur Comics, Fiona Staples of North 40, Vicious Ambitious, The Anthology Project, Jay Korim, artist of The Sundry Seven, and – of course – the team behind the Fabler. Also featuring cameos from Ryan Sohmer, Richard the Warlock, and Scarecrow.

Dig it:

Whether you were here to witness the legions of Vulcan-ear adorned trekkies swarm for autographs from Leonard “I am not Spock” Nimoy, or whether the combined starpower of Alex from A Clockwork Orange, that surly guy from Dollhouse, and the always creepy “Candyman” Tony Todd wasn’t quite enough to entice you out…

For better or for worse, the Roundup Centre has bid farewell to the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo for another year.

Let me tell you, it was a helluva time.

I don’t have access to the numbers, but this year’s expo was definitely on par with last year for traffic. Which is to say, at peak periods in the afternoon (particularly on Saturday) the expo was shoulder to shoulder in the main lanes and throughout Artist Alley.

An ample distribution of cosplaying con keensters further contributed to the crowd problem. Ready for more alliteration? The costumed con-goers caused significant clots in crowd traffic, as camera-wielding expo fans lined up to snap away.

Regarding the popular costumes this year – unsurprisingly, several Deadpools were present. I also counted four Zatanna’s over the weekend, perhaps curiously.

And, as I mentioned before, the Trekkies were out in full force. If the combined presence of Leonard Nimoy and Brent Spiner (pallid-faced android Data) weren’t enough on their own, the hype surrounding Nimoy’s pre-con visit to the small Alberta town of Vulcan contributed the final sparks necessary to reignite Star Trek craziness here in Calgary.

The worst part of this was the children. Dorked-out Dads riding the waves of sci-fi nostalgia from their glory days threw pointy ears on their (usually bespectacled) spawn, fitted them with oversized Halloween Star Trek shirts, and marched them around like beacons of hope for a next Next Generation.

But I’m detracting now from the coolness of some of the more inspired costumes from over the weekend. Here’s a brief sampling of some of the cosplay from this year’s expo:

Panel-wise, Saturday was really the big day for prominent comic creators/authors/artists present. Chris Claremont proved himself as articulate a speaker as he is a writer of comics, sharing some genuinely insightful kernels of wisdom at the Writing for Comics panel as well as the X-Men Q & A. Fans hoping to attend either the Leonard Nimoy or Billy Dee Williams panels were greeted with massive lineups, with the former boasting a lineup that stretched around the exterior of the con, back into the main hall and halfway through the room.

Much of Sunday I was personally occupied with taking video footage and doing the whole interview thing, but I heard the Boom! Studios and Top Cow panels were pretty thoroughly lively. The one panel I actually made it to was an Iron Man spotlight featuring several Marvel Artists as well as a concept artist on the Iron Man movies, John Giang. After ten minutes of anxiously awaiting the presentation in our seats, we were informed that Giang has mysteriously vanished from the Con altogether.

Whether he was abducted by a jet black minivan in the harsh afternoon (pre-rain) sunlight, or whether he simply ate too much of the Coco Brooks’ pepperoni pizza (who could blame him, really), this meant my Sunday was effectively panel-less.

But! No big loss, as I had the pleasure to chat with a few past Fabler interviewees in person, including (but not limited to):

The super-friendly and fantastically talented Eric Vedder, of Udon Comics and now also Transmission X.

New Reliable Press‘ Simon Roy (pictured at left), author of the Shuster Award-Nominated graphic novel Jan’s Atomic Heart.

…And Lar deSouza, webcomic artist on both Looking for Group and Least I Could Do. He’s pictured here with a convincingly costumed Richard, the sadistic warlock and fan favorite character from Looking for Group.

On the topic of Lar, I had the opportunity to interview his creative counterpart writer Ryan Sohmer at the Con. Stay tuned to the Fabler Blog in the coming weeks to see how it turned out. Ryan appeared to be verging on deathly ill when I chatted with him, but, as he confided in me, the sheer power of Red Bull sustained his wits throughout the Expo.

As for the Fabler, we had our own corner booth which we shared with parent company Zensoft Studios.

The artist you see at front is Jay Korim, penciller on the soon-to-be-launched Fabler exclusive webcomic, the Sundry 7. The Fabler team was on hand distributing freshly printed copies of issue # 0 of the Sundry 7 free of charge to anyone who stopped by the booth.

We met a lot of friendly faces curious as to what the Fabler’s all about, and had the pleasure of chatting with some interesting creative talent that had their own thoughts to share about what we’re aiming to accomplish with the site.

We also gave away some nifty prize packs, including several PS3’s and a bunch of copies of Batman: Arkham Asylum.

As you can tell from the above photo, the air was positively thick with excitement as the winners were drawn. Thick, I tell you.

I mentioned before that Sunday included, in part, some serious video-taking. We shot a bunch of footage with a trusty handy cam that hopefully we’ll get to show you here on the Fabler Blog soon. Among those featured in our video segment are Eisner-nominated artist Fiona Staples, Dinosaur Comics’ author Ryan North, and a few other talents you’ll just have to wait and see. Provided our trusty (read: budget) handycam came through for us.

On a final note, I leave you with this inspiring image of Vince Smith of the Calgary comic collective Vicious Ambitious (formerly of Team Zissou).

If that doesn’t get your short shorts bunched up in enthusiasm, I don’t know what will.

For more photos from the con, browse over to our Flickr page.

Did I purposely avoid mention of Twilight at the Con altogether? Yes I did.

-Written by Kevin de Vlaming