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.

Michael Cho is a pretty awesome guy.

After pondering how to write an introductory statement about the Toronto-based illustrator and cartoonist for several minutes, this is what I’ve come up with. And it probably fits better than anything else I could have started with.

Speaking to him for just thirty or so minutes, his energy and optimistic outlook become readily apparent and, in fact, contagious. A new Dad and a fantastically gifted illustrator, between these two things and his successful foray into online comics, it’s not difficult to see why Cho is smiling in most of his gouache-and-ink self portraits.

Michael Cho has made name for himself in webcomics with the beautifully drawn Papercut, which presents a series of short comic stories each uniquely separate from the other. A Papercut story could come in any form, from historic non-fiction to a poetically-told lament on giving up smoking.

He is also a member of the Transmission X collective of webcomic creators, and has a frequently-updated sketchbook blog which showcases his comic art as well as some of the work he does in his day job as a professional illustrator.

Cho, who has been working as a full time illustrator for over ten years, didn’t always imagine he would find himself in this line of work.

In fact, after graduating from the Ontario College of Art, he tried his hand at a variety of different professions – each of which he describes as being ‘blazing failures’. Some of these ventures into the wonderful world of post-art-school careers included a storyboarding stint, post-production work for special effects companies, and painting ten foot by ten foot wall paintings that didn’t seem to be selling as well as Cho would’ve liked.

He was able, however, to make some money mural painting – a profession which required climbing scaffoldings at night to paint giant pictures on the sides of walls.

“I basically hated all of those careers,” says Cho, laughing, “Then one day a friend of mine asked me to apply at a theatre company that was looking for an illustrator. They wanted someone to do designs for the backdrops that were going to be projected onto the stage. So I went in and did some drawings, and I had a pretty good time doing the job. Then they gave me tickets to the show, and I remember being just floored because they had taken some of the drawings I had done in gouache and they had painted them onto the set. I used to be the guy who had to do that. I used to be the guy on scaffolding painting according to the plans given to me by the designer, and instead now I was on the other side doing the little drawings on paper.”

Cho says that was the point where he realized professional illustration was something he wanted to do for the rest of his life.

Fans of Cho’s work will note that his illustrative style is very uniquely identifiable. He works primarily with gouache and ink, using the two to create fundamental, two-tone images which possess a high impact, almost retro sort of feel.

“I’ve been doing two-tone gouache and ink drawings more or less since the beginning,” he says, ” One of the very, very first illustration assignments I did was for an autobiographical book that a friend of mine had written to be published through a small press in Toronto. Because he was a friend of mine, he gave me carte blanche to do whatever I wanted, and so I ended up doing fifty drawings in gouache and ink over the course of a month, and those were done in two-tone with those basic elements. Also when I came out of school, gouache was one of the few things I had going for me. These days when you go to art school they don’t teach you fundamentals, they teach you concepts. ”

Though Cho has been using gouache and ink throughout his career as an illustrator, Cho acknowledges that his style has definitely matured with time. He points out that back when he first started, he focused heavily on line art and used gouache primarily as tone, whereas nowadays the line art emphasis is gone and it’s more of a painterly process.

When asked about his top artistic influences, Cho is hesitant to narrow them down. Reluctantly, he manages to whittle the wide range of artists who have inspired his work down to just three: Noel Sickles, Roy Crane, and Jaime Hernandez.

“Noel Sickles is definitely number one. He’s the guy who invented the comic book style. Way before Kirby, way before Will Eisner or anybody else, the comic book artists all learned their crafts from looking at the comic strip artists – and the comic strip artists learned their craft from Noel Sickles. He pioneered this high contrast, chiaroscuro style of putting down black brilliantly on a page to make his drawings pop. For me, Sickles was really important because when I was trying to figure out how to do lighting and how to spot black properly, he was the guy I learned the majority of my stuff from.”

Samples of Cho’s work can be found in abundance on his sketchbook blog, which he has been updating regularly for three and a half years. Cho credits his online sketchbook (also known as a sketchblog) as being hugely helpful in bringing in exposure for his work.

“I originally set up a website for myself as an illustrator in like 1995, and I coded it myself,” says Cho, “But back then if you wanted to update it, it would take forever – you’d have to write the code, and you had to wait for the images to upload, and all this junk. So I left that website static for like six years, with a message saying one day I would update it – because I just didn’t want to do it, man. Then one day I was checking out the blog of buddy J. Bone, who’s also a very talented artist, and I wanted to leave a comment on one of his posts. Blogger at the time wouldn’t let you make a post on someone else’s blog unless you had one of your own, so I created one and it took five minutes – it was the perfect solution to the problem I’d had where I wanted to update regularly, without it taking forever to do.”

In addition to maintaining a regular sketchblog, Cho also utilizes Twitter to stay connected with fans and peers in the comic book and illustration industry. He acknowledges that social media is something that many contemporary comic artists have jumped on as a useful tool in building a name for themselves in the industry.

“We’re, like, total internet hoes,” he jokes, “I think social media has become a big thing especially for Canadian artists, because we’re so spread out. It’s a little different with Toronto, which I bet if you mapped out would have more comic creators per capita than almost any other city out there.”

You could say that Michael Cho has more than a passing familiarity with the Canadian comic community, between his sketchblog, webcomic, and membership in the widely successful webcomic collective Transmission X. Transmission X is in itself a unique example of Canadians finding new ways to come together in an era when digital media is fast becoming the standard for modern artists to promote their work within.

Cho agrees that the progressive attitude of Canadian artists in this regard is one factor that has led to the current popularity of many Canuck webcomics across North America. He is quick, however, to add that there are many other significant reasons behind this trend.

“In terms of comics, Canadians are confident in their own voice,” says Cho, “They’re not afraid to do their own thing and put it out there. Canadians are also very diverse in the comics that they read, and that shows up in their approach to webcomics as well. For example, everybody at Transmission X works on different kinds of stories – my stories are very different from, say, Ramon’s stuff, which is very different from McLachlan’s stuff. But when we were starting up, when we were initially showing each other the mock-ups and the layouts for our work everybody was able to critique and contribute ideas in a very balanced way.

You get the stereotype sometimes where the guy who likes superheroes looks at indie stuff and goes, ‘I don’t get it man, why do you want to write this crap’, and the indie guy goes ‘well screw you superhero guy, life isn’t all about punching lizard men!’ I’m always gratified that the guys at Transmission X all read a wide variety of comics, and they can appreciate good quality work regardless of what genre it’s in.”

Cho originally became involved with Transmission X as a means to create an outlet for his own creative illustration which would be purely whatever he wanted it to be, with no real thought towards making money from it.

“When I made Papercut for Transmission X, it was for me to create the stories I wanted to create and put them out there to see if other people would like them,” says Cho, “It was never about turning it into merchandise, or hoping to one day option it as a film. Webcomics for me was not really an alternate publishing route to owning my material and gaining a bigger slice of the profit pie. Webcomics for me was just a natural extension of me doing zines as a kid – instead of going to Kinko’s and photocopying a comic and going around distributing it, I could put it online and get feedback on it right away.”

If you’ve been to check out Papercut recently, you probably noticed that Cho is currently on hiatus from the webcomic. The reason for this was an important development in his personal life – last year, Michael Cho became a Dad.

“Being a Dad has been an adventure, man,” says Cho, “I had to go on hiatus because I just couldn’t devote the time needed to a webcomic with a new baby daughter. It’s kind of like being in the best army of all time, in that you get more done by 7am than most people get done in their entire day. It’s been a wonderful, awe-inspiring, and at times, a little bit frightening of an experience. The best quote I’ve heard about being a Dad is that having a baby girl will give you a reason to smile every day, and it’s absolutely true. It just gives you a hell of a lot of perspective.”

Cho is planning on ending the hiatus sometime early next year. He’s currently working on building several stories in whatever free time he can scrounge in between spending time with his daughter, and doing the illustrative work he does for profit.

For more from Michael Cho, you can visit his sketchblog, Twitter feed, Illoz portfolio, and the Papercut webcomic.