I caught up with the writer behind Least I Could Do and Looking for Group at this year’s Calgary Comic Expo, which was his third consecutive convention in a one month period.  He was sick as a dog, draped shoulder-to-shoulder in a LFG blanket, and running roughly 30% on cold medication and 70% on Red Bull. (At least as far as I was able to gauge.)

Needless to say, Ryan Sohmer is also a very motivated individual.

He was at his booth alongside long-time collaborator (artist on LFG and LICD, pictured at right) Lar deSouza the entirety of the weekend, greeting fans, doing signings, and promoting his latest book, Least I Could Do: Noir et Blanc.

In between expos he has been working on keeping the content steady on his webcomics, trying to work the kinks out of production on the long-awaited Looking for Group Movie, and adjusting to the double-whammy of opening a comic shop and becoming a new Dad in the space of under six months.

Oh yeah, and he has a new book out (Looking for Group Vol. 3) this month, plus another five Convention appearances lined up over the rest of the summer.

As you might expect, the most predominant item on Ryan’s mind these days is fatherhood. It’s clear that just talking about the subject still feels somewhat surreal to him.

“I never wanted kids,” Ryan says, “It’s crazy to think of being a father now, because back then I honestly did not see myself ever wanting to have children.”

His son, Caden, was born just this past February. The phrase Ryan chose to describe the change in life perspective he’s felt since then?

“Holy shit!”

According to the (usually articulate) webcomic writer, one of the best parts of being a Dad is being able to enjoy everything again for the first time.

“Like stupid things even,” he says, “Going outside for the first time, seeing the ocean for the first time… Getting to experience all of those first times again through someone else is ridiculously rewarding.”

Ryan has often said that Rayne Summers, the womanizing protagonist of Least I Could Do, is loosely based on an earlier-in-life version of Sohmer himself. It makes sense to wonder if Rayne might one day follow in Ryan’s example and have a cartoon kid of his own.

“I could see Rayne being a father figure to a few people,” says Sohmer,  “but he will never have a child. It won’t work. I did a storyline a little while ago where Noel and his wife are trying to have a kid, so I’m going to use Noel to put my own experiences in there. There’s so much humor that happens when you have a kid, and I’d love to get that into the strip  – but doing it with Rayne would just be a cop-out.”

I mentioned that Ryan also recently opened his own comic shop. Sohmer is the owner of The 4th Wall, a Montreal-based comic shop that opened for business in October of last year.

“For the first two months,” he says, “I was in there every single day. I chose the inventory, and I did what was needed to get it all going.”

Being the ridiculously busy person that he is, Ryan hired Jeff Moss, a friend of his from Toronto, to come in and help manage the store.  Since Moss took over with most of the day-to-day business around the shop, Sohmer admits his in-store duties have somewhat dwindled.

“These days, I don’t do shit,” Ryan says with a laugh, “I pretty much just go in there on Wednesdays for new comic book day to read all the new titles. Jeff’s done a terrific job.”

When asked what the biggest challenge has been so far with owning his own comic book shop, Ryan has a one-word answer:

“Diamond.”

Referring of course to Diamond Comics Distribution, the primary (read: exclusive) distributor for comic book retailers, Sohmer has this to say:

“Any other business in the world, if you order something, you get it. If something has a ship date of X, you get it at X.  Not with Diamond. By the same token, I understand that it’s not always just Diamond – it’s often one of the publishers connected to Diamond being late with a shipment. But if Marvel or DC is late with a title and a fan comes in for that title, they’re not going to blame the unseen publisher or distributor, they’re going to be frustrated with their experience at the shop.”

Much love, Diamond Comics. Much love.

Despite the two new major additions to his life, Sohmer is still dedicated to keeping updates on Least I Could Do and Looking for Group regular and well-written.

Sohmer has been writing Least I Could Do for over seven years now, with Lar de Souza performing all artistic duties on the strip for the past five. The two have also worked together on Looking for Group, a fantasy-themed webcomic featuring the adventures of (among other things) a sadistic undead warlock and a naive elven hunter, since its inception in November of 2006.

“We’ve been doing this so long together that we each usually know what the other is thinking,” says Ryan of his working relationship with Lar, “When we first started it was: I would write a script, he would do a sketch for it and send it back to me, I would make my notes and sent it to him to make the changes… it would go back and forth like four or five times. Now, I send him a script, he sends me the finished version and it’s done. ”

We featured a profile on Lar here on the Fabler Blog just about a year ago where I asked Mr. deSouza to describe his relationship with Ryan Sohmer. His exact words were that it’s “kind of an internet romance”.

“He pretty much nailed it with that description,” says Ryan, “In any other world I would say that Lar and I wouldn’t be friends. We’re totally different people, with different backgrounds, different experiences and attitudes towards things… but for the last ten years, he’s been one of my closest friends. We’re kind of like the odd couple. I tell my wife all the time, ‘I love you baby, but Lar’s my soulmate.’”"

They certainly do work well together, as any fan of their webcomics could attest. So well, in fact, do the ideas of Sohmer mix with the artistic talents of deSouza that Lar offered to redraw the original 127 strips of Least I Could Do (originally done by Trevor Adams).

“When I was working back then seven years ago with Trevor, ” says Ryan, we didn’t know what the fuck we were doing. So they were all shitty DPI and we couldn’t print or otherwise do anything with them. One day I was talking about this with Lar and he just said, ‘I’m gonna redraw them!’  I was like, ‘Seriously? Alright!’ So we did the whole thing and I was incredibly happy with what came out. ”

What came out was Least I Could Do: Blanc et Noir, the latest book released through Blind Ferret Entertainment.  Ryan is nothing if not humble about seeing the origins for LICD finally in print.

“I’m embarrassed of the first 120-odd strips,” he says, “I think they are written poorly. But it is where my writing came from, and it’s not right to ignore what fans have, for a while now, wanted in book form.”

This brings us just about to the end of my conversation with Ryan Sohmer. There is one more thing, however, that I had to ask about – the status of the now almost mythical ‘forthcoming Looking for Group movie’.

Several years back, Ryan and Lar announced that they were developing an animated feature film based on the characters in LFG. Last year when I asked Lar about it, he said they had just decided on a production studio. So what’s the official word now?

According to Ryan:

“We have a production company. The financing is all in. It’s just legal wrangling now, and the Canadian film market is a pain in the ass. It takes time, and there’s so much red tape… I never thought it would take this long. I wish I had just done it on a small budget four years ago, but I didn’t. My mistake. But, it is coming!”

So, Looking for Group fans take heart. One day there shall indeed be a Fwoosh so grand, that it cannot be contained in a mere web-based comic strip.

As for any future projects from Ryan Sohmer, he did rather cryptically mention that we can expect an announcement in the coming weeks. He wouldn’t go into details, but did say it involves him writing for something that is neither LICD nor LFG.

For more from Ryan, you can follow him on Twitter, or visit the official Least I Could Do and Looking For Group websites.

-Written by Kevin de Vlaming

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.

Being able to love your job is an important thing to Lar deSouza, artist of the popular webcomics Looking for Group and Least I Could Do.

DeSouza, who has been drawing professionally for over twenty years, (minus a break in the nineties when he took time off to raise his kids) found his passion for illustrating early. His goal out of high school was to find a program that would teach him to draw “anything, anytime, at the drop of a hat”. Consequently, he wound up going to Sheridan College in Ontario for illustration, finding that it fit the bill perfectly.

Since then, he built a career out of illustration, culminating in the past four years of steady collaboration with writer Ryan Sohmer on the aforementioned webcomics.

Says deSouza with a laugh; “They’re a lot of fun to work on, and as long as people are reading them we don’t have to get real jobs.”

A self-proclaimed ‘illustrator who specializes in cartoon caricature’, deSouza has earned ample praise for both. Last year, he and Sohmer won the Shuster Award for Best Webcomic Creative Team. In addition, he’s won numerous awards for his caricature work – including several from the National Caricaturist Network.

“My teachers at Sheridan didn’t care for cartoon or caricature work, so that was something I did for myself for fun,” says deSouza of his love affair with caricature, “then it was a long while later that someone said to me, ‘you know, people actually pay for this’.”

Well known caricature artists have gone a long way towards influencing the overall aesthetic  of deSouza’s style.

“I still remember seeing my first Al Hirschfeld (the great 20th century caricturist) in a book in the library. It was a broadway illustration of the Bernstein brothers or something, I can’t remember now exactly who they were. What I remember most was the curl, the line weight … I’m a real line junkie, for that reason. ”

Another influence on deSouza’s work comes, perhaps surprisingly, from  Jim Henson’s original Sesame Street Muppets. DeSouza drew inspiration not so much from the character designs themselves, but in the humour the Muppets were able to convey as they moved and interacted with each other.

“You’re a sponge as a kid – I just absorbed everything. The classic WB’s with Fritz Freling, Chuck Jones, and McKinson, Tex Avery, Beany and Cecil. Beany and Cecil’s the first cartoon I remember ever seeing. They’re all in there, and it’s impossible to say ‘this was my leader, this was my biggest inspiration’.”

These influences all played heavily into his later work in webcomics, where he would apply his artistic abilities towards actualizing the ideas of his friend and creative partner Ryan Sohmer.

DeSouza describes his longstanding friendship with Looking for Group co-creator  Sohmer as “kind of an internet romance”.

“Before we did Least I Could Do, he approached me via internet for another comic idea he had at the time called In Other News. He found me on the International Society of Caricature Art website, and emailed me a very professional contact letter with references to his entire body of work at the time. I got to read two or three years of this strangers work, which not only demonstrated a solid work ethic but also a sense of humor that I could really get behind and share.”

The duo made several attempts at syndication with In Other News, which was single-panel editorial style comic with a by line about some relevant happening the entertainment world, but it just never took off. Eventually the project was put on hiatus, conveniently around the same time that Chad Porter decided to stop illustrating Least I Could Do. Porter, the second artist to illustrate LICD after Trevor Adams, had been working on the daily webcomic with Sohmers for two years.

DeSouza, who was a long-time fan of Least I Could Do, didn’t want to let the opportunity slide to jump into another ongoing project with Sohmers.

“By this time I had been working with Ryan for three years,” says deSouza, “and he wound up becoming one of the best friends I’ve ever had. We’ve meshed so well in terms of comic sensibilities and timing, and it’s such a comfortable fit the way that we can challenge each other.”

Providing new challenges for each other is an important aspect of the pair’s working relationship, according to deSouza.  He explains that they continue to motivate each other by setting the bar higher and higher, each bringing out the best in the other.

Though this technique undoubtedly shows in the quality of their work, it does sometimes have its setbacks.

“We do butt heads from time to time,” admits deSouza, “but it always comes with a sense of, ‘we’re going to communicate through this because what we’re doing together is better than what we can do on our own’. Our friendship and work relationship is just too valuable to risk over a miscommunication in an  email.  Really, it’s a wonderful circumstance, and I’m very proud to be Ryan’s friend.”

Least I Could Do stars Rayne Summers, a self-styled Don Juan type with a superiority complex and a flair for pop culture. The strip chronicles his adventures in sexual promiscuity and the bizarre circumstances he finds himself in on an almost day-to-day basis. Needless to say, LICD is not geared towards children – but those demographics that do get the humour will find Rayne’s simple-minded narcissistic antics utterly hilarious. If you don’t, I feel pretty comfortable suggesting that you probably don’t have any sense of humor at all.

DeSouza and Sohmer continued producing six Least I Could Do comics a week for three years, releasing one for every day of the week excepting Sunday. Then in 2008, they introduced a Sunday strip called “Least I Could Do Beginnings”, which is a Calvin and Hobbes-esque look at Rayne’s childhood, done in a Sunday newspaper funnies format.

“Ryan had been trying to get me to do a Sunday comic for years now,” says deSouza, “I’ve been resistant just because I thought I should have a day off. He kept saying, ‘just hear me out, let me tell you the idea’, and I would tell him, ‘no, I don’t want to hear the idea!’ Then he told me, and it was, ‘damn! I love the idea.’”

A collected edition of the first 30 LICD Beginnings strips was released June 15 in hardcover format, and is currently available in limited supply over at the Least I Could Do store.

Of course, Least I Could Do isn’t the only well-known webcomic that deSouza and Sohmer collaborate on. The two co-created Looking For Group in 2006 as a fantasy-themed twice-a-week strip with characters based on the playable races in World of Warcraft.

The humor strip, which features characters as diverse as a sociopathic undead warlock named Richard, a naively conscientious Elf, and an unbearably cute bunny with an interesting secret, has earned them massive attention through the WoW and Stratics communities . That being said, Looking For Group can appeal to anyone -its unique blend of quirky, fantasy humor and compellingly epic plot arcs makes for a genuinely engaging read.

“The day to day dialogue is all Ryan, and I’m more involved in the broader long-term planning,” says deSouza, “Then I also have a very broad control over the visuals. So things I do with his suggestions in the script will often redefine his original ideas. The bunny, for example, was originally a throw-away. But I liked the bunny, so I kept drawing the bunny – being carried around with someone, or being in the background. Then when we needed a particular development to happen  later, we thought, ‘let’s use the bunny! It’s perfect!”

Looking For Group is published on Mondays and Thursdays, which gives deSouza just enough time to put together the extremely colorful, full page strips in between his work on Least I Could Do. According to deSouza, while LICD takes him 2-3 hours per strip, and LICD Beginnings takes around 4, Looking For Group usually takes from 8-12 hours to do one comic, spread out over a few days.

When asked if he ever played World of Warcraft himself, deSouza enjoys a hearty laugh.

“I sucked at Pong. That’s how old I am. I’ve never been good at videogames, so I never got into WoW. I’m an old school D&Der, that’s where my gaming inspiration comes from.”

For the past few years, fans of LFG have been anxiously waiting for news of the release of another project that deSouza and Sohmer have said is in the works – an animated Looking For Group feature film. The two have been actively working on it for some time now, even going so far as to release samples of the animation on YouTube. One of those, an extended musical number by the ethically-challenged warlock Richard, has hit over four million views.

“What I can tell you is, we didn’t think it would still be in the works at this point. We thought a couple years would be enough to really see it underway, but it was a much bigger dream than either of us anticipated. We had animators working for us, and tried to do the in-house quality control ourselves, but in the end we just couldn’t do it on our own as we had hoped.”

They have since found a Canadian production company to partner with on the effort, though at this point deSouza can’t mention any names. As a result of the project changing hands, deSouza says the new window on the release is another two to three years.

DeSouza and Sohmer will remain the co-art directors over the film, with the former also assuming main storyboarding duties.

At this point they are reluctant to give any hints about what to expect in the movie, though deSouza has said that Slaughter Your World will not be in the final product.

“It will still be a musical, with I think 7 to 9 musical numbers in the movie,” says deSouza, “I can also say it won’t all be parody, and while some of the story elements will be old territory to regular readers, there will definitely be some new stuff as well.”

Going forward, deSouza and Sohmer have been nominated again in this year’s Shuster Awards under the Webcomic category.  This year, they share the honor with such talent as Karl Kerschl (the Abominable Charles Christopher),  Michael Cho (Papercut), Kathryn and Stuart Immonen (Moving Pictures), and Ramon K. Perez (Kukuburi/Butternut Squash).

“I said to Ramon Perez last year, if volume counts for anything we’ve got this covered,” deSouza laughs, “I mean I would love to pull it off again – It’s a terrific honor, and to be honest ,the ego stroke makes me feel giddy like a schoolgirl. But we’re in great company here, and if we don’t get it, it’ll be because we lost to some great talent. We really are competing against the cream of the crop this year.”

For more from deSouza, he keeps a blog, an active twitter stream, and hosts a weekly Ustream feed where he fields questions from viewers and works on illustrations and caricatures live.