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

2009 was an eventful year of Canadian comic releases, major label crossover events, and comic industry developments that will have huge ramifications for years to come.

It was also the year that The Fabler, founded by Bruno Steppuhn, was birthed into existence. Which, if you were paying any attention, also meant the launch of the Fabler Blog last May.

Since, as the old adage goes, ‘to know where you’re going, you have to know where you’ve been’, I think it’d be an ideal time to look back at the past year in review.

At least I think that’s how I think the adage goes. I’m not very good with adages. It might alternately be, ‘forget the past and the future, live in the now’. But that works less with what I’m going for here.
Let’s start by taking a brief glance at the Canadian comic landscape in 2009.

Jeff Lemire had a fantastic year. Hey, that rhymes! 2009 saw the release of Jeff’s original graphic novel The Nobody, as well as the launch of his own Vertigo series, Sweet Tooth. As if that wasn’t enough, he also released the collected version of his much acclaimed Essex County Trilogy.

Mariko Tamaki pulled in double honours, winning the Doug Wright Award for Best Book with Skim as well as the Shuster Award for Best Writer for her work on Skim and Emiko Superstar.

Jesse Jacobs and Kate Beaton each also ‘double-dipped’ from the Canadian recognition pool, both earning accolades from each of Canada’s two top comic award organizations. Jacobs won the Gene Day Award for Canadian Self-Publishing at the Shuster Awards, and saw his book Small Victories nominated for a Doug Wright Award earlier in the year. Beaton, the more-internet-famous-every-year creator of Hark! A Vagrant, was nominated for a Best Webcomic Shuster Award and won the Doug Wright Award for Best Emerging Talent.

While new series’ featuring Canadian talent emerged regularly throughout the year, there were three in particular that I feel were especially worthy of mention.

The first was North 40, featuring art by Calgary-based Fiona Staples. This limited series launched in July and concluded in December, and featured a midwestern town overrun by supernatural forces. Aaron Williams wrote a clever story of Cowboy-Western meets Lovecraftian Horror, and Fiona did a fantastic job of bringing those elements to action-packed, panel popping life.

Second would be James Turner’s Warlord of Io. Originally slated for print by Slave Labor Graphics, Warlord of Io wound up as a digital exclusive. You can pick up the first two issues of this uniquely conceptualized space adventure via Comixology, among other places.

Third is, naturally, Jeff Lemire’s Sweet Tooth. As one of the most hyped titles of 2009, the Vertigo-published tale of a young human/deer hybrid in a post-apocalyptic landscape certainly hasn’t disappointed. But then, Lemire isn’t an artist prone to disappointing his fans.

Unlike Jeph Loeb. But that’s another, completely unrelated conversation.

But of course, all of this just barely skims the surface of what 2009 held for the Canadian comics industry.

For all of you non-Canuck Fablers, 2009 has seen its fare share of news in the wider comic industry in general.

The year kicked off with a major announcement from Diamond Comics that some would deem controversial; they were raising their minimum purchase threshold, which would force some of the smaller-name titles out of distribution. The aforementioned Warlord of Io was one of the first comics cut as a result of this action.

Another of the year’s biggest headlines (if not the biggest headline) was Disney’s acquisition of Marvel. Certainly it was one of the most blogged about, with industry commentators putting forth banter as to whether the move would seriously impact the Marvel U, or merely improve distribution options while allowing Marvel complete creative control over its properties. Proponents of the second opinion pointed to Disney’s treatment of Pixar after it bought out the award-winning animation studio as an indicator of how Marvel would also likely be left to its own creative devices.

Both Marvel and DC ramped up the competitive status quo this year as well, each conspiring to use more event titles and ‘major title’ launches to enhance its own share of the comic market.

Marvel re-launched its fan favorite Ultimate Universe, in wake of the cataclysmic events of Ultimatum, while its 616 universe titles spent a year slowly (almost casually) dealing with Norman Osborne’s rise to power with the Dark Reign Event.

DC segued from Final Crisis into its inspired (and highly financially successful) Blackest Night crossover, and while a new Batman emerged in the form of Dick Grayson, Marvel brought the original Captain America back from the dead.

Bringing it closer to home, The Fabler launched at the Calgary Comic Convention in April of this last year. Since its launch as a service geared to help independent comic creators get their work seen on the web, it has built a small (but dedicated) community of initial artists, seen its share of major revamps, and started to find its footing as a long-term platform.

The Blog side of things attempted to establish itself as a news source for interviews with Canadian comic talent, while also providing unique perspectives into the industry and spotlighting the members of its own community whenever possible.

In case you missed any Fabler Blog interviews from the past year, collected for your handy reference below is a list of all of the artists/writers/creators/industry insiders we’ve spoken with to date:

Andrew Johnson (Kingdom, Golem: Small Town Massacre)

Eben Burgoon (Eben 007)

Alison Acton (Bear Nuts, The Faerie Path)

Jesse Jacobs (Small Victories, Blue Winter, Shapes in the Snow)

Joey Comeau (A Softer World, Overqualified)

Simon Roy (Jan’s Atomic Heart)

Jake Ekiss (of Indy Comic Book Week)

Ryan North (Dinosaur Comics)

Jordyn Bochon (The Day After V-Day)

Kate Beaton (Hark! A Vagrant)

Jason Turner (True Loves)

Michael Cho (Papercut)

Steve Rolston (Emiko Superstar, Ghost Projekt)

Doug Wheatley (Star Wars: Dark Times)

James Turner (Nil, Warlord of Io)

Lar deSouza (Looking for Group, Least I Could Do)

Jeff Lemire (Sweet Tooth, Essex County Trilogy)

Jay Bardyla (Owner of Happy Harbor Comics in Edmonton)

Fiona Staples (North 40, Secret History of the Authority: Hawksmoor)

Troy Little (Chiaroscuro, Angora Napkin)

Gareth Gaudin (Perogy Cat, Owner of Legends Comics in Victoria)

Richard Grzela (14u Comics)

Chris Johnston (Jet Pack Mike)

Vicious Ambitious (Calgary Indie Comic Company)

Stay tuned to the Fabler Blog for more 2010 comic goodness! (And more jabs at Boise, Idaho!)

-Written by Kevin de Vlaming

“Social Media” is an overhyped, misunderstood, and often loaded term that has become THE generic buzzword of the past five years. The overarching term could be used to describe MySpace, Twitter, Blogging, Facebook, Bebo, and countless other digital technologies built around the idea of online two-or-more-way communication.

It is an abstract concept; a poorly defined, multi-faceted idea that many have yet to fully grasp, and even fewer have been able to master.

All the same, as it turns out, the comic community has been among those industries to embrace social media the most wholeheartedly.

Which is why I’m going to use this post to write about how useful social media can be for writers and artists looking to build a career, or even just a grassroots following, in comics (and in doing so, redundantly add my voice to the hype).

A social-media-focused post was inevitable, really. Not only does the phrase keep popping up in any sort of dialogue regarding the current state of the industry, (see Michael Cho on how comic artists are ‘internet hoes’) but it’s the most logical subject to segue into from my last Random Bits post on Community in Comics.

Since we’re dealing with an abstract concept here, let’s break it down to the basics. Assuming you have some grasp on what social media entails, (or you could get an idea what it’s about here, here and here) the aspects of social media we’re concerned with here are pretty well threefold:

Channels that allow individuals to showcase and obtain feedback on their work.

Tools that enhance your online presence by familiarizing the public with who you are.

-and-

Sites or services which provide an opportunity to network with  peers in the industry

Obviously these three aspects of social media often overlap, but for the purpose of this post, we’ll distinguish them for their separate functions.

Who’s using social media?

Everyone. Okay, maybe not everyone, but an impressively large number of the creative minds in comics today have some form of online manifestation capable of interacting with the general public.

For example, a partial list of some of the bigger industry names who tweet would include:

Neil Gaiman, Joe Quesada, Brian Michael Bendis, Warren Ellis, Mark Waid, Dave McKean, Robert Kirkman, Darick Robertson, Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, Steve Niles, and Marv Wolfman.

To bring it home, there are also plenty of Canadian comic book all-stars dwelling in the twitosphere, such as:

Fiona Staples, Steve Rolston, Karl Kerschl, Bryan Lee O’Malley, Michael Cho, Lar deSouza, Jeff Lemire, Ramon Perez, and Kathryn Immonen.

There are even more Canadian comic book personalities that may not have twitter, but keep an active blog or some other form of web-presence. The Joe Shuster Awards blog keeps a pretty nifty list of links to many such sites right here.

MySpace is something of a dying venue for comic book workers, and Facebook Fan pages – now a staple for many indie musicians – has yet to catch on within the comic book industry. The industry does, however, have some alternate social media channels which at least a few artists have learned to use effectively. But I’ll get to that in the next section -

How are they making the most out of social media?

If you browse through any of the Twitter feeds from the names listed above, you’ll find a pretty similar, fairly simple formula. Take equal parts of industry-related updates, (ie., new art up at xyz.bit.ly!) quirky personal news, (just made the best chawanmushi! Yum!) dialogue with peers, (@joeQuesada had enough Disney/Marvel mashup musical suggestions for the next decade yet?) and response to fan feedback (@kushyloafer thanks for the kind words, next time I promise the ogre’s shoes will be earth-shatteringly huge!).

The point is to build yourself as a real person while networking, build a loyal fanbase who feel like they have an open connection with you, and give people a real-time channel to find out what’s new with whatever you’re working on.  Plus developing a fanbase you can interact with is a two-way street; not only do they get to feel like you’re more than just an unreachable name on a comic they like, but you also get to be privy to some (hopefully) helpful feedback about your work.

Blogs kept by artists and writers work a little differently. Everyone has their own approach to blog content  – Michael Cho keeps a sketchblog showcasing his recent illustration, while Jeff Lemire exclusively publishes news regarding recent releases, and Kate Beaton alternates between providing general life updates and giving between-the-panels insights into her webcomics.

As long as you write about something connected in some way to whatever you’re trying to promote, your blog is accomplishing its goal: connecting the web-browsing masses with your work, and bridging together whatever multiple projects or social media outlets you have through a sort of ‘hub’.

Then you have the multimedia side of social media outlets. Sites like illoz, illustrationmundo.com, and even Flickr have been effectively utilized by comic artists looking to showcase and get feedback on their work.  The Fabler would fall into this category as a site that seeks to assist creators in showcasing their sequentially presented comic art.

Looking for Group artist Lar deSouza notably uses Ustream as a way to communicate with his fans while providing a window  into his creative process.

All of this might seem redundant to you if you’re already among the growing ranks of the web-2.0-savvy online comic community. If so, that’s great, you’ve probably already benefited in one way or another from  keeping a presence on the inter-webs. Alternately, you might be among those who find that even uttering the phrase ’social media’ leaves a bad taste in your mouth, or you could simply be a little intimidated by the directions that self-promotion within the industry is taking.

If the latter is the case, what you need to know is -

Why you should (or shouldn’t) hop on the bandwagon

I think I’ve given a half-decent overview as to most of the benefits social media affords to creators (and aspiring creators) in the comic industry. Those three points I mentioned before tie-in here nicely:

By building an online presence, you make it easier for your work to be ‘discovered’ and you make yourself significantly more ‘reachable’ by anyone interested in talking to you about it.

By showcasing your work online, you allow yourself to grow creatively from the feedback you receive while also having a handy way to display items from your portfolio to anyone even remotely curious about what you do.

By networking through means like commenting on blogs, posting @replies on Twitter, and engaging in dialogues on sites like Ustream, you expand your contacts within the industry and thus increase your likelihood of success within the medium.

All this is straightforward stuff, and comes with a lot of bonus benefits. Following other comic fans/creators in the industry on Twitter can be handy in giving you a good idea what’s going on in the industry, as can hopping around some of the more regularly updated creator blogs out there. Checking out the posted illustrations of other comic artists can often trigger a spark of inspiration for your own material.

I admit that I don’t really have a counter-argument to this. You really should hop on the bandwagon, if you haven’t already. If you’re still a little intimidated, just remember – it doesn’t have to be as big as a revolution in the comic industry, at its essence social media is just another toolkit to help build your name as an artist, a writer, or whatever else you’re aiming for.

I would like to extend a gigantic thank you to everyone who has helped so far in building this blog as a resource for Canadian indie comic artists & writers to learn more about their fellow comic-creatin’ canucks.

Of course, over the three months that the site has been live we’ve only just skimmed the tip of the iceberg.

Bruno could tell you more about the overall vision for The Fabler and how the blog will continue to help to promote the interests of independent comic talent. For my part, I wanted to take the opportunity to ramble a little about some observations I’ve made with the interviews I’ve done to date, explain a little about my motivations for the format I went with, and introduce some changes I’ll be making in the future with my own column here on the Fabler Blog.

Ramble ramble ramble, blah blah blah. That sounds a lot more boring to type that it sounds in my head.

For those of you paying attention, there are a few consistencies you’ll notice across the posts I’ve done with my column here so far. The obvious fact is that they all feature interviews with Canadian comic talent; most indie, a few with some very major credentials behind them. You’ll also find that I approach the interviews with a ‘big picture’ sort of take on whoever I’m talking to, whether that’s Jay Bardyla on his experiences running Happy Harbor Comics, or Lar deSouza on the reasons he first got into caricature drawing.

This avoidance of too much emphasis on purely ‘newsy’ content is very much on purpose, and there is, in fact, a reasoning to it. Fundamentally, we don’t want to be a redundant news outlet. For news on events and releases in Canadian indie comics, you can go to any number of sources. I personally would recommend the Sequential newsblog, and not just because they put in a good word about us recently – Sequential has been one of my favourite sites for news about the industry long before I started my column at the Fabler.

It’s been my goal to write about how people came to be successful (at least relatively so) doing what they love, in hopes that when people read these articles and interviews, they’ll be inspired to do the same themselves. This doesn’t mean I overlook their recent work entirely – quite the opposite, actually, since connecting the dots between where an artist is now and where they began is crucial in attempting to convey a sense of how they’ve managed to fit themselves into the industry.

So far it’s been a blast talking to some of the most gifted comic book talent Canada has to offer. From the Vicious Ambitious boys here in Calgary to Gareth Gaudin and Perogy Cat out in Victoria, and further out east to Doug Wheatley in Winnipeg and Troy Little in Halifax, everyone seems to have something unique and interesting to offer on the subject of comic books. It’s humbling, really, since most of these creators have more talent in their left foot than your average, part-time pseudo-comic-journalist (see artist’s interpretation of a part-time pseudo-comic-journalist below, courtesy of Conor Geoghegan).

In fact, many of these individuals have had so much to say on the matter that I’ve had to reluctantly edit much out from the final posts. That’s really saying something, since some of the interviews to date have surpassed the 1500 word mark – a cardinal sin itself in online journalism.

I’ve had some pretty fantastic unpublished discussions about the state of indie comics, the future of webcomics, alternate ideas for breaking into the industry, and a whole whack of more stuff. That’s right, a whole whack even, with stress on the ‘H’ sound.
It seems that there are a few subjects (like the ones mentioned above) which are on everybody’s minds right now. Going forward, my column will begin to feature my own blurbs on those topics, as well as whatever else comes to mind that’s remotely relevant to the indie comics industry. Don’t furrow your brow in keenly poignant disappointment yet though, the interviews will still be there!

The other change we’re going to be introducing, both in my posts and elsewhere on the Fabler Blog, will be North American content not limited exclusively to the Canadian comic book scene. I still plan on making the larger emphasis in my own posts and interviews on artists and writers North of the border, but there will definitely also be some branching out.
I know Bruno has some more news ahead for the Fabler itself, but I’ll leave that to him to talk about in the (hopefully) near future.

In conclusion, rock. And thanks for reading so far.

Fiona Staples is a  fast-rising name in comic books these days. An artist based out of Calgary, Alberta, Fiona is currently most well-known for her pencils/colors on The Secret History of the Authority: Hawksmoor. Since breaking onto the scene in 2006 with Done to Death, a limited series she worked on alongside Edmonton-based writer Andrew Foley, Fiona has built an impressive work resume of comics published both independently and by such major players as Image and Wildstorm

In addition to TSHOTA: Hawksmoor, this list includes colouring several issues of Proof, doing covers for Sheena: Queen of the Jungle (as well as a recent Wolverine cover for War Machine # 5), and penciling an issue of Amazing Tales featuring Spider-Woman.

Her latest work is on North 40, another Wildstorm title due out this July. Written by Aaron Williams, (the Chronicles of Nodwick, PS238) Fiona is responsible for all of the pencils and colours on its six-issue run.

I caught up with Fiona over coffee here in Calgary, where the incredibly talented Ms. Staples shared her insights about success, working with Aaron Williams, and why her favourite North 40 character is the surly old Sherriff.

KD: To say that you have a lot going on these days would be a bit of an understatement. In April alone, you had the Hawksmoor trade paperback release, your variant cover for War Machine hit the shelves, and the Vicious Ambitious anthology featuring your comic strip Teens in Love in Space dropped. Then of course you have North 40 coming up, and you’ve been generating a tonne of buzz both in local press and major comic media sources like Newsarama.

What’s it like for you, being at the center of this recent whirlwind of activity?

FS: It’s a little bit daunting, but at the same time I’d rather be too busy than not busy enough. I’m pretty lucky that I’ve had pretty steady work since I started freelancing full time. I don’t feel like I could really complain about my situation too much. Like, it’s exciting, I get to do a lot of different things, which keeps it interesting. My main project right now, and for the last several months, has been North 40. That’s taken up 90% of my time. But there are certain other things I just can’t say ‘no’ to, like doing a Wolverine cover. Or doing something for a Vicious Ambitious book.

KD:  From how I understand it, you first really got involved in the comic industry three years ago with a comic called ‘Done to Death’. Three years isn’t a super long time in the grand scheme of things, but a significant amount has happened for you in that time. How do you feel your life has changed from then to now, in terms of where you’re at and what you’re doing with yourself?

FS: Well, when Done to Death came out in 2006, the first issue came out right as I was graduating from Art College. So I was still holding down part-time jobs at the time, and freelancing full time. I worked at a local comic shop called Comic-Kazi for a few years. I was a cook for a while… I don’t cook very much anymore. (laughs) That’s one way my lifestyle has changed. More take-out.

KD:  Is there a surreal element to it all?

FS: Yeah, while there’s definitely moments where sometimes I just get caught up in what I’m doing and lose perspective, there are definitely times where I just have to pause and think, “Wow, I can’t believe I’m getting paid to draw a cowboy fighting a bunch of zombies at a high school dance. I can’t believe there’s money in this.”

KD:  When you put it like that, it certainly sounds like you’re living the dream.

To date, what’s been your most humbling moment in the comic book industry?

FS: Probably any time that I look at my work from over six months ago, I feel kind of humbled. I guess I’m fairly self-critical, like most artists are. I feel like this glow of pride whenever I finish something and send it off. But then when it comes out like a few months later, when I look at some of my old stuff that’s been printed, I think like – oh god, that’s not nearly as good as I thought it was at first. But that’s a sign of growth, I suppose.

KD:  I’m going to shift gears a little bit, so we can talk about your upcoming project with Aaron Williams, North 40. The impression that I have of this comic is that it’s going to be sort of a Lovecraftian, sci-fi, Americana Western.

Is that somewhat accurate, or what else would you add to that?

FS: In some ways it’s also sort of a straight up superhero action story. The action is almost played up a bit more than the horror stuff, but there’s still definitely also some freaky monsters, and some scary stuff happening. It’s a combination of so many weird elements. You’ve got a little bit of teen drama going on, then like you said, there’s the western element. There’s the Cthulu-like monster – and then there’s some parts that read almost like a slasher movie. There’s just so many different genres that go into it.

KD: What’s it been like working with Aaron Williams on this?

FS: Aaron has been really great. His scripts are fun to read just on their own. When I read through them, I couldn’t put them down until I was finished. I hope that my artwork can add something to it. His story and his dialogue are really well crafted, and his characters are really fleshed out – even though it’s kind of an ensemble piece, with four or five main protagonists. They all have specific and realistic motivations, and I think that’s important to keep this sort of off-the-wall, wacky story kind of grounded, so it doesn’t just dissolve into absurdity. There’s definitely real heart and real character driving the plot.

KD:  Speaking of those characters, I noticed you mentioned on your blog that your favorite character from North 40 is someone named Sherriff Morgan. Can you speak a little bit more about that character, and what the appeal is to you?

FS: Oh, sure! Morgan is just this tough little guy, he’s been Sherriff of Conover County for as long as anyone can remember. He doesn’t get rattled too easily, and he usually relies on his skills of negotiation to solve conflict – though he’s a pretty good shot as well, when he has to be. I guess I just like how he’s a cool old Clint Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones kind of character – although I’m trying not to make him look too much like either of those guys.

KD:  How long in the making has North 40 been?

FS: A long time, actually. Aaaron and I first pitched it back in December 2007. We pitched it before I even started working on Hawksmoor, and then when they both got approved at the same time, they wanted to put me on Hawksmoor first.  I started drawing North 40 last September, and it’s taking me longer than any other comic ever has. Partly because I’ve been working on a lot of other things at the same time, and partly because I’m taking a lot of care with it, and I’m trying to get a lot more detail into the artwork.

KD:  Building on that, how is your approach to illustrating North 40 different from your work with Hawksmoor, or your recent work on Astonishing Tales?

FS: The approach and the technique is more or less the same, I just have more time to do it. With Hawksmoor I had about four weeks to do each issue, and with this one I have roughly twice that amount of time. So, I’m not skimping so much on backgrounds and details. I guess in some ways the artwork is also more realistic, and maybe a little less stylized.

KD:  With North 40 currently scheduled for its six issue run, how far through the penciling are you now?

FS: I just finished penciling issue four.

KD:  Are you doing all of the coloring on this as well?

FS: I am, yep. My editor even let me write some of the sound effects! It’s my first professional writing gig. (laughs)

KD:  I understand that you’re pretty plugged in to the comic community out here in Alberta. Would that be an inaccurate statement to make?

FS: Well, I hope to be.

KD:  Can you tell me a little about your thoughts on the community of comic creators and artists in Alberta?

FS: We have a pretty unique comic scene out here. I’m sure it exists in some capacity in other cities and provinces, but there’s a very cohesive community here. It’s thanks to things like the weekly drink and draws, all the local anthologies that are put out, message boards like Canadian Geek and Maple Ink… and it all happened very organically.

Sometimes people try to give it a boost, or they come up with an elaborate plan to start a company, or start an official studio, but for the most part it just managed to come together on its own. I think it’s a sign of how enthused and optimistic everybody feels about it.

KD:  Awesome! Finally, what can you tell me about any future projects that you currently have in the works?

FS: As far as professional work goes, I just have a lot of stuff in the pitch stage right now. So nothing for sure. I don’t know exactly what I’m going to be doing after North 40, to be honest. I’d also like to do Teens in Love in Space (from the recent Vicious Ambitious-published anthology, ‘Rocket Juice’) as a webcomic. That’s something I’ve been working on in my spare time, so when I’m done drawing comics for the day, I just sit down and draw more comics.

North 40 # 1 releases on July 8th, 2009. For more from Fiona Staples, you can check out her blog over at http://www.fionastaples.com/ .

Building on the success of their horror-themed comic anthology Pumpkin Juice, Calgary based indie publishing company Vicious Ambitious just released their latest collection – a series of sci-fi themed stories compiled under the title Rocket Juice.

You could say that Vicious Ambitious are veterans of the Calgary comic scene. They’ve been churning out independently financed, self-published comic books since 2003, when label founders Johnny Luu and Nick Johnson decided that the local comic industry could use a little ‘creative stimulus’.

“The idea was just to broaden the community in the Calgary industry,” says Luu, (pictured)

“It was an outlet for us to produce books, to do the stuff that we love, and to show that here in Calgary there are people just as passionate about comic books and art in general as there are in larger Canadian cities like Vancouver and Toronto.”

From there, Luu and Johnson rounded together a posse of like-minded local talent that included Drew Geremia, Vince Smith and Steve Gervais.

“When we first started the company,” says Johnson,  “part of the reason that we got five guys all together was so that if we all pitched in for an anthology, it wouldn’t be so individually expensive to take it to the printers.”

Enter obvious puns about the ‘ambition’ this group of Calgary artists and comic enthusiasts must have had going into a project like this. Whatever you want you call it, the company has managed to stick to their proverbial guns since day one – five anthologies, several individual works, and a few line up changes later, Vicious Ambitious are still around making waves on the Calgary comic book map.

The current V.A. line up includes Nick Johnson, Vince Smith, Chris Peterson, Steve Gervais, Conor Geoghegan, and Gord Cummings.

“Every year the process to put together the anthology gets a lot tighter,” says Smith, who writes the V.A. published series Nobodies, “and at the same time we’re still trying new things with the expo and the company itself. I like the fact that it’s our own thing, and we’re our own editors, managers, and bosses. ”

Rocket Juice features contributions from V.A. members Johnson, Geoghegan, Gervais, and Smith, with additional contributions from C. Eric Peters, Chris Desiatnyk, Ryan Brown, and Ian Pond. The collection begins, however, with a guest story from local pseudo-celebrity, (largely thanks to her work on Secret History of the Authority: Hawksmoor and brand new Wildstorm title North 40) Fiona Staples.

The black-and-white anthology explores a love story that disrupts the time-space continuum, the adventures of a genetically engineered ninja-monkey-space-courier with a package that’s more trouble than it’s worth, and several other tales more or significantly less along those lines.

The V.A. fellows stand behind the anthology as their best work to date.

“We’ve been doing these anthologies so regularly for five years in a row,” says Johnson, “now we’ve all had the practice, and we’re much better story tellers than we used to be.”

With their teeth cut on their experiences with the V.A. anthologies, Johnson and Co. are now aiming to individually work towards some longer stories.

Vince Smith’s series Nobodies, which just released its first issue, is projected to be a 100 to 300 page epic when all’s said and done.

“I’m like the Katsuhiro Otomo of the group,” Smith says jokingly, “I do very long stories, plus I’m an animator.”

Co-founder Johnny Luu, who left Vicious Ambitious to pursue a career in 3d animation and visual effects in Vancouver, remains optimistic about what the group has accomplished and what he believes they can accomplish in the future.

“The first year when Vicious Ambitious came out, it was tough,” says Luu, “Nobody knew who we were, and it was hard to get our name out there. But then we just worked at it, and through the anthologies and shows like the Calgary Comic Expo, I think we really showed people that a small group of people living in Calgary could independently succeed in putting out comics. I think it helped the local comic industry because people saw that and decided to be just as ‘ambitious’. Ha – that’s kind of corny.”

So what can we expect by way of an anthology next?

Johnson and the guys have a few ideas  already – including an erotic anthology titled Love Juice, a collection of westerns named Cactus Juice, or even potentially an anthology with the header ‘Maple Juice’. They have yet to decide whether that last one will be focused on “Canadian history, told awesome” or whether it’ll wind up as a breakfast-based anthology.

I’m hoping for a retelling of Canadian history featuring breakfast cereal mascots. “Captain Crunch leads the expansion of the Hudson’s Bay Company into the Western provinces”, or “the Red River Colony is founded by Sonny the Cuckoo Bird”. In a perfect world…

Though I haven’t seen any official announcements yet, the expo definitely felt bigger this year! As I stood at our booth introducing many of you to our new site, throughout the day I felt that I just couldn’t talk fast enough. The vibe was open, and buzzing with activity as there was just so much to see in so little time.

I was invited by Gerald Garcia of Maple Ink Comics, to the drink & draw at the Unicorn Pub. Though we had a few challenges getting enough tables for everyone, it was the perfect place to relax, vent, & most importantly be creative! I’ve heard about these events, but when I sat around the table with Andrew Foley, Fiona Staples, Dan Andrews, Richard Barkman, Kris Chisholm, and many others, I was taken back and reminded as to why comics can be the purest form of expression.

For those of you that missed the CCEE this year, I would encourage you to go. So here are some of our highlights!

Set up across from us was Happy Harbor Comics. There is Owner Jay Bardyla with a better Silver Surfer impression than even I can do!

I had the pleasure of meeting Jim Zubkavich from Udon Entertainment. If you are looking to break into the industry professionally. I highly recommend talking to him the next time you get a chance!

Local friends, Blacksheep Studios were launching their new magazine, Vehicle. Vehicle is a great quarterly comics magazine with all artwork provided by the Blacksheep Studios crew!

Red 5 Comics, another local publisher of some great comics like, Neozoic, Atomic Robot, Abyss and more!

Riley Rossmo and Michael Hoskin, were featured this year at the Another Dimension booth! Riley and Alexander have published 18 issues and 2 graphic novels of their comic Proof through Image.

Dale Berry, a self published, self produced comic artist on the novel series Moonlight Cutter, was a guest at the show this year.

Kristpher Chisholm, freelance artist drawing another fantastic creation, sitting next to him, his wife Amy, and George Georgeadis, Designer/Producer at Games Cafe.

Aaron Norell & Jason Brunner of DPI Studios showing off their stuff this year. Also to note their artwork is being featured at Theme Parks in Dubai!

It was a great expo this year thanks to Kandrix Foong and the gang! Though I didn’t have enough time to visit everyone and see everything I wanted to see, I will remember Edward James Olmos (The Admiral himself) as he smiled at me while walking past our booth Sunday morning during our setup. I look forward to next years expo!

~Bruno @ The Fabler