Coming atcha. Coming at-cha. Yeaahhh.

There are a few cool things worthy of note in this week’s comics round-ups found around the web, but before I get to those, I wanted to mention how unbelievably rad it is that Adriana Blake (of the webcomic Fall On Me) took the time to translate my entire interview with her into Spanish!

Blake writes an English version of Fall On Me as well as a Spanish version, called Cuenta Conmigo.  She did the translation so her Spanish-speaking fans wouldn’t feel left out.

As one of my favourite web games to play involves using an online translator to translate paragraphs of text back and forth into nonsensical oblivion, I immediately felt the need to run Adriana’s Spanish version of the interview through Google Translator and back into English.

Highlights included the following excerpt:

“KD: Did you miss your husband was fit to be in a webcomic? How do you feel about it now?

AB: Surprisingly, it soon and I think even flinch. “

As well as these questions that I most definitely asked during the original interview:

“What motivates you to take that approach ’soft’ so full?”

“How do you know you have fans seemed interested in your interaction with your spouse every day?”

Apologies: I am considering joining a self-help group for people disproportionately amused by really simple things, I promise.

Right, and the news:

The 2011 Hugo Award nominees have been announced, which include the nominees for “Best Graphic Story”.

This is the third year that the Hugos have included this category, and this year the nominees include ‘Fables Vol. 13: Witches‘ (written by Bill Willingham and illustrated by Mark Buckingham), ‘Girl Genius Vol. 10: Agatha Heterodyne and the Guardian Muse‘ (written by Phil and Kaja Foglio, illustrated by Phil Foglio), ‘Grandville Mon Amour‘ (by Bryan Talbot), ‘Schlock Mercenary: Massively Parallel‘  (by Howard Taylor), and ‘The Unwritten Vol. 2: Inside Man‘ (written by Mike Carey and illustrated by Peter Gross).

Both Fables and Girl Genius are titles that also popped up on the 2009 and 2010 nomination lists, with the latter taking home the Award each time.  Could this year foretell a Hugo upset? Will reigning champions the Foglio’s be dethroned?

We’ll have to wait until the winners are announced on Saturday, August 20th to find out. Nuts, right?

On the (Canadian) homefront, the Joe Shuster Award just announced their five finalists for the Harry Kremer Award for Outstanding Canadian Retailers.

The nominees are Amazing Stories in Saskatoon (Saskatchewan), Another Dimension Comics in Calgary (Alberta), The Comic Hunter in Moncton (New Brunswick), Comic Readers in Regina (Saskatchewan), and Planéte BD in Montreal (Quebec).  According to the Shuster Awards blog post on the subject, winners are selected based on such factors as “(1) Support of a wide variety of innovative material, (2) Overall appeal of the store and usage of space, (3) Knowledge, (4) Community activity, and (5) Adherence to standard ethical business practices.

The Harry Kremer Award winner will be announced alongside the rest of the Shuster Award winners at this year’s Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo on June 18th. (Speaking of the Calgary Expo, they now have an impressive list of Canadian comic creator guests up on their website – the list includes Fabler Blog interviewees Scott Chantler, Ray Fawkes, Jim Zubkavich and Jeff Lemire, alongside a bunch of other very cool individuals).

I was sad to read that comic publisher New Reliable Press announced this week they would be shutting down after one final showing at TCAF. Ed Brisson, who owns and operates the company, put out the word Monday, citing his desire to focus more on his own work in comics as a primary motivator in the decision.

New Reliable Press has put out a lot of solid titles over the years, notably Jason Turner and Manien Bothma’s True Loves, Simon Roy’s Jan’s Atomic Heart, and the Crime Comics anthology Acts of Violence, alongside the series of anthologies You Ain’t No Dancer.

Ed has said that Jason Turner is making copies of his work available for order online through his website, while other New Reliable titles may be obtained through San Diego-based publishers Poseur Ink.

Bummer, but best of wishes to Ed Brisson and the other creative talent associate with New Reliable Press.

It wouldn’t be civil to end a Fabler Blog post on a sad note, so instead, here’s a little piece of nifty that you might be interested in.

The 900th issue of Action Comics hits the stands today, and if you’ve ever been a fan of the big blue man of steel with a heart of gold, I suggest you head down to your local comic shop at a spritely trot and pick it up.

Action Comics #900 is one hundred pages of epic, featuring a story that DC is billing as the ‘ultimate Superman vs. Lex Luthor showdown’ and a collection of stories from a wicked-cool lineup of guest authors. The author lineup includes David Goyer, screenwriter of The Dark Knight; Damon Lindelof, writer and co-creator of Lost; Geoff Johns, current Chief Creative Officer of DC Comics; Paul Dini, prolific writer for Batman: The Animated Series and a host of other animated series’; as well as Richard Donner.

Yes, legendary director Richard “Superman I and II” Donner. This wouldn’t be his first time writing for Action Comics either – you may recall, back in 2006 he and Geoff Johns teamed up for a run on the title.

I guess all of the kerfuffle is because this issue means Action Comics is the first and only comic series to have published 900 issues. So buying it is like participating in history… but then, technically, so is existing at all…

In conclusion, The Goonies is a wonderful film.

-written by Kevin de Vlaming

If you guessed an entree of more savory Formspring goodness, pat yourself on the back, grab some utensils, and pull up a chair.

…

Oh, but I kid. Please, contain your raucous laughter so we can move on to topics of substance. (Incidentally, who even knows what raucous means? It’s one of those sneaky words that lurk on the peripheral of common knowledge. You’ve heard it used, you’ve probably used it yourself, and when coupled with the word ‘laughter’, you likely assume it means there is a whole slop wagon of hilarity being had. But do you know what it really means? Have you ever actually taken the time to look it up in  a dictionary?)

(Harsh and loud. It means harsh and loud.)

So this week I thought we’d take a look at some of the content our fabulous users have updated to The Fabler. If the term fabulous is too effeminate or grandiose for some, you could substitute ‘creatively talented but rough around the edges’. Sort of like Jeff Bridges.

Also, as you’re all hopefully aware, the current Fabler Wacom contest is on as we speak, and we are accepting submissions right up until the last day of the contest, which is May 15, 2011.

Some of the comics mentioned below are brand new, while others have been up on the site for a while now.  Don’t fret if I don’t mention your comic, it doesn’t mean you fail at drawing or life. These are just some of the submissions that jumped out at me for one reason or another.

First off, shout outs to Simon Roy, Matthew Dunn, and Jason Bradshaw for their Fabler Comic submissions. Each of these unwitting comic creators were at one point or another shamelessly exploited by The Fabler Blog in an interview. Er, ‘endearingly explored’? No, that sounds like something that could get me arrested… Let’s just say I talked to them.

Simon Roy is the Joe Shuster Award nominated artist of Jan’s Atomic Heart, and his current offerings on The Fabler are twofold. Man in the 51st Millenium is a short (currently 5 pages) vignette about a band of humans living so far in the future that they have culturally de-evolved into a sort of nomadic neo-caveperson tribe. Dead Lands is a longer (currently 29 pages) story about a cursed shaman who wanders the landscape of Upper Palaeolithic Northern Europe- complete with anthropomorphic bird-people!

Matthew Dunn is an Australian fellow who is, fortunately for us all, artistically more than able enough to translate his twisted imagination into dark, memorable, and pop art-savvy images of monkey-people wielding chainsaws and gas-mask-clad zombie hunters with neurotic personalities. His submission to the Fabler, The Secret History of Skullboy: The Complete Story is a webcomic still in its depraved infancy, but you can bet it will be worth watching.

Jason Bradshaw is up for a Gene Day Award this year for issue # 2 of the very same comic he currently has up on The Fabler. Boredom Pays issue # 1 is a humorous, insightful, and unabashedly honest comic about the real things people feel on a day-to-day basis. Its well drawn with a very original artistic style, and often quite inspired – but really the best thing I can say about it is that it genuinely feels real.

Next up, if you haven’t already, I would suggest checking out Oldwizard Book 2 by Lazarus and Forest Rhodes.  The first Oldwizard book was a finalist in the last Fabler Wacom tablet, and this latest submission puts their ongoing tales of a wizard-in-training cast out into the world to find his destiny back into the running. The reason the Oldwizard comics stand out to me has a lot to do with the surprising richness and depth to the world the creators are building. Without a doubt, this will appeal to fantasy fans first and foremost (alliteration quota for the day: met) but I think there’s also some value to be found by anyone just in the skill with which they mingle the light-hearted with  the epic.  It’s funny, but not entirely ridiculous. It holds a story that has a sense of epic adventure, but it’s not ROTFLOTR.

Which is to say, epic cheese.

Speaking of fantastical Fabler submissions, another I would recommend giving a solid read-through to would be the much darker in nature Eternal Day, Book Two: In Bondage of Mind. Eternal Day mixes elementals of surrealist fantasy with strong themes of mental illness, courting schizophrenia and the concept self-inflicted harm while building a narrative about a mysterious stranger with mystical powers who haunts the life of the protagonist, New Yorker Alec Magnone. Also, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention how visually compelling this comic is.

Say the comics I’ve mentioned here so far aren’t so much your bag. Perhaps you consider yourself more of a Manga enthusiast – nay! A Manga all-star. A Manga grand master. (?)

As it turns out, we have Manga in ample supply.  From the poignant Fabler Contest finalist comic Stay By My Side: One Shot to the high visual quality secondary school romance Love Go Round, I would be hard pressed to deny that we have a strong Manga creative contingent on the site.

Special Manga mention: in addition to the above titles, which are certified scope-worthy, I was also quite impressed with the artwork on the Fruitful Confusion comics by falconer. Parts One and Two are currently up on The Fabler (with the second still in progress), and they tell the uniquely interesting story of a boy from a town that isn’t supposed to exist who isn’t aware that he himself is supposed to be something else entirely. Sort of like Total Recall, only not at all.

If you haven’t already seen it, also check out Blind Love: Volume 1, by juri0juli. Artistically and structurally, it has to be the most Manga-esque Manga currently on The Fabler. There presently isn’t much to it beyond eleven pages of a-day-in-the-life-of-a-high-school-girl narrative, but it’s fun in a bubbly sort of way.

Who doesn’t like their fun bubbly?

On this note, adieu. Check back on The Fabler soon for new comics and updates!

-post 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

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

Ahem.

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

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

Best Book:

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

Best Emerging Talent:

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

Pigskin Peters Award:

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

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

Then last Wednesday came the 2010 Shuster Award Nominees.

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

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

This year marks the 6th annual Joe Shuster Awards.

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

SHUSTER AWARD NOMINEES for Work Published in 2009

Artist

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

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

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

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

Cartoonist

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

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

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

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

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

Colourist

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

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

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

Writer

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

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

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

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

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

Cover

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

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

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

Webcomics

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hot butter.

Kevin@thefabler, signing out.

-Written by Kevin de Vlaming

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

The gladiator arena of a shopping event known as Black Friday has also come to pass, marking another herald of the soon-to-be-frantic X-mas buying season.

If you’re like me and you don’t start buying your holiday gifts in June, there’s a good chance you’re still scratching your head over what to buy your rolling crew. That’s a crew that you roll with. Like friends, only with more rep. Nevermind.

Anyway, point is, if you have some presents left to buy for individuals even mildly interested in comics – don’t sweat it! The Fabler is here to help.

Presented for your X-mas shopping convenience, we’ve compiled a shortlist of some easily recommendable titles and miscellany, complete with links to their respective websites for online ordering.

I’ve arbitrarily chosen five categories to organize the following suggestions within, and – for bonus convenience – alliterated each of the category titles.

Canadian Comic Holiday Shopping Ideas

Humour

Hark! A Vagrant: Never Learn Anything from History

It is regularly unanimously agreed upon that Kate Beaton is hilarious. Her webcomic Hark! A Vagrant, which irreverently pokes fun at great moments (and people) in history, is validly difficult to read without chuckling. Try it, I dare you. Buying this collection of some of Kate’s best strips for someone as an introduction to her work has to be among the best things you could do for a person (providing they have any sense of humor at all).

Bear Nuts: Volume 1

Alison Acton writes a funny webcomic about a group of cute cartoon bears that live together in the zoo. Only the bears have personality disorders. Some have addictions, some dabble in sadomasochism, and still others regularly self-medicate. Oh, and there are actually bears named Gay Bear, Crack Bear, and Tanked Bear. I guarantee you know someone who will find Acton’s perverse imaginings a riot.

Least I Could Do: I Am Not a Credible Source

Ryan Sohmer and Lar de Souza are known for not one, but two famous webcomics. WoW fans might know them best for Looking for Group,  but Least I Could Do has to be their most consistently funny collaborative work. Whether you have a self-aware narcissist on your x-mas list that you’d like to spitefully mock, or if you just know someone who likes sex  jokes often embedded with pop cultural commentary, this collection of LICD’s sixth year of strips is a no-brainer.

Horror/Sci-Fi

Jan’s Atomic Heart

Robots, revolutionaries, and conspiracy plots abound in this future thriller set in Germany. Artist/writer Simon Roy might be new to comics, but his debut effort is a radtastic romp through an impressively fleshed-out alternate universe.  You don’t have to think robot terrorists plot are sweet to be able to appreciate receiving this book as a gift, but it probably helps.

The Nobody

Jeff Lemire appears twice on this list, and for good reason. The Nobody, a modern retelling of Orson Welles’ the Invisible Man, is a contemporary work of genius. Both poignant and faithful in tone to the original, the Nobody successfully transplants the mythos created by Welles to modern small town North America. With art perfectly matched to the book’s somber tone of isolation, the Nobody would make a swell gift for anyone with a love for classic thrillers, small town mysteries, or David Lynch films.

Heartfelt

The Complete Essex County

The second Lemire title that I mentioned, this trilogy collects all of Jeff’s individual Essex County tales (Tales from the Farm, Ghost Stories, and The Country Nurse) into one indispensable volume. Jeff has a talent for using his imagery an artfully sparse dialogue to tap into some of the most powerful emotions of the human experience; loss, loneliness, and ultimately, the sense of unspoken kinship that universally keeps families together.  I highly recommend this book for pretty well anyone, though hockey fans or individuals who grew up in rural surroundings might get a little something extra out of it.

True Loves (Vol. 2)

Jason Turner, together with his wife Manien Bothma, conspired to create the first volume of True Loves in 2006.  What resulted was an intriguing, genuine look at the beginnings of a relationship between two young residents of Vancouver, BC. Funny at times, while other times introspective and thoughtful, True Loves highlighted the ups and downs of an honest romance out on Canada’s West Coast. They released the second volume this past year, exploring the trials of the pair from the first volume as they endure the very real trials of a long-term relationship once the ‘puppy love’ phase has long since passed. Just a few panels of this comic are all it takes to be hooked. Also check out Turner’s website for samples of the fantastic art.

Hip titles for younger readers

Emiko Superstar

Written by Mariko Tamaki (of the provocatively well-worded graphic novel Skim) and illustrated by Steve Rolston, Emiko Superstar takes on teenage identity transition and self-discovery with a fresh sense of realism rarely present in young adult fiction. I don’t mean this book is filled with sex, drugs, and violence, for those reading into my previous statement – just that it doesn’t reek of the same dishonesty you might see in, say, a coming-of-age film starring some former mouseketeer (or something along those lines). More importantly though, Emiko Superstar really is a fun read.

Jellaby: Monster in the City

The second Jellaby book by Kean Soo is probably best bought together alongside the first, as Soo originally intended them to be a single, 300 page story. This Shuster Award-winning-story spins the tale of Portia, a ten year old girl who just recently moved to a new school, and her friendship with the titular character – a six foot tall purple monster named Jellaby. The story is undeniably charming, the artwork distinctive and eye-catching; really, what Jellaby represents is an instant children’s classic.

Hey, it’s a miscellaneous category!

Overqualified

The least directly comic-related item on my gift suggestion list, Overqualified qualifies as a great gift idea for fans of the webcomic A Softer World. Joey Comeau, who writes ASW, penned this collection of cringe-inducing cover letters as a project that originally started with several fake cover letters he actually made and mailed out. Through a series of these cover letters, Overqualified tells a story of a protagonist rife with human flaws as he candidly spills his guts out to strangers in desperate bids for employment.  Fans of A Softer World will immediately recognize Joey’s trademark dark witticism present in the letters.

Topatoco’s Collection of Holiday Greeting Cards

While Topatoco is an international purveyor of webcomic-related goodies and not a dedicated source of Canadian content, I would be remiss not to point out the excellent selection of Holiday Greeting Cards they have available for order. Be sure to check out card designs by Ryan North of Dinosaur Comics and Kate Beaton of Hark! A Vagrant.

Abominable Charles Christopher Signed Prints

Karl Kerschl’s epic weekly webcomic has earned him a healthy helping of accolades for its skilful narration and beautiful art. While technically this isn’t something exclusively released in 2009, you can place orders for recent strips to be printed, signed, and delivered for a very reasonable price.  Who wouldn’t love an artfully illustrated print of the large, furry, loveable (and easily confused) Charles Christopher?

This week we don’t have a grand amount of news kicking around the site, and we’re between interviews with a few choice comic creators and artists that we’ll be featuring in the coming weeks.

So in this lull, I wanted to take the opportunity to thank those of you who’ve been following us to date, and give you a little update on where we’re at, both as a site and a blog.

If you’re experiencing a nagging sensation of deja vu, it’s probably because I posted something similar roughly 100 days into the Fabler Blog. Since it’s been another hundred and some-odd days since that, this is somewhat appropriate.

Though we’ve been around since last April, in a lot of ways the Fabler is still just getting its bearings. Like a newborn in its first year of life, we’re still all puky and uncomfortably soft on the back of our head. That is to say, we’re working on building a solid direction.

The main portion of the Fabler is still in Beta development, though it has undergone some radical aesthetic changes and as we speak is being improved with yet more fine tuning. We’ve had a handful of talented artists share some of their creative material, and we anticipate seeing more and more stream onto the site as we go into ‘010.

As always, Bruno Steppuhn is the go-to person for news about developments with the Fabler itself. I know he has some interesting ideas that we’ll see rolled out in the near future, so keep your eyelids peeled for that.

We’ve had some super fantastic artists and writers agree to let me barrage them with questions over the last few months, including the pleasantly quirky Jesse Jacobs, A Softer World writer Joey Comeau, and soon to be high profile up-and-comer Simon Roy.

We also threw our hat in to the pool of organizations and individuals supporting Indy Comic Book Week. Which, by the way, is coming up fast! Aspiring creators and indy mainstays alike, you should probably check out the ICBW website, if you haven’t already. Increased exposure + helping local comic shops increase revenue on a Diamond Comics no-ship week = an eruption of awesome.

Interview-wise, I’ve tried to retain a focus on Canadians operating in the field, but we’re very open to featuring the creative talents of anyone anywhere on the globe.

Except for Boise, Idaho. We don’t showcase artists from Boise.*

We’re looking in the coming months to profile some of the contributors we’ve had on the Fabler. So if you’re a contributor and you’re looking to have your brain publicly poked, drop me a holler at kevin (at) thefabler.com. Or if you’re not yet a contributor, signing up is as easy as clicking here right now.

You could also use that address if you’d like to let us know what you’ve thought of the Fabler Blog so far. In the interviews I’ve featured here, I’ve tried to strike a balance between summarizing featured talent to those potentially unfamiliar with the interviewees, and keeping it interesting for those who’ve heard artists X’s backstory fifty-odd times already.

The focus is generally the same: who this person is, why you should (or shouldn’t) care about them, why they do what they do, and what they consider ‘good’ to mean in terms of comics or comic industry developments. The results I’ve gotten from this interview starting point have been consistently positive.

No one ‘falls in’ to comics; everyone I’ve talked to that’s operating in the medium in one way or another is extremely passionate about what they do, and everyone has a different take on what a comic can be or what it can mean to different people.

In this sense I’m pretty fortunate to have such a diverse base of creative individuals to pull opinions and perspectives from.

In any case, to avoid rambling further, I should probably wrap up by saying thanks again for reading the posts and checking out the art on the main site.

Rock.

-Kevin de Vlaming

*The Fabler, The Fabler Blog, and myself actually have no problem showcasing artists from Boise. This line was facetious and intended in no way as a slight against Idaho’s proudest gem.

Communist robots, Lunar terrorists and a modern Cenozoic age. These are just a handful of the thoughts swirling around in West Coast comic creator Simon Roy’s brain.

Still fairly new to the business of comic-making, Roy emerged on the national scene this past summer with the release of Jan’s Atomic Heart. The title, which Roy wrote and illustrated, was distributed by Vancouver’s New Reliable Press (for more from New Reliable, check out the Fabler’s Jason Turner interview!).

While the title might sound like the name of an eighties synth post-punk band, Jan’s Atomic Heart is actually a sci-fi thriller set in Germany in the distant future.

“It’s about a guy who gets caught up in a terrorist plot in the future,” says Roy, “I’ve had a variety of ways to sum it up, but that’s the most concise, I think.”

The individual Simon is referring to is the titular Jan, who is temporarily inhabiting a robot frame while his real body heals from a particularly nasty automobile accident.

The book follows Jan as he attempts to discover the mysterious significance his robot body has to a serious of terrorist attacks perpetuated on the UN by Lunar separatists.

So all of the elements of an insanely action-packed science fiction adventure are there, right? Cue explosions and exaggerated robot laser battles?

Roy could easily have taken this route with the title, but where Jan’s Atomic Heart shines is actually in its understated, realistic dialogue and soft-lined, poignantly simple artwork. The sincere, straightforward language exchanged by the characters of Jan’s Atomic Heart give it a depth not always present in sci-fi genre work.

Clearly something about the title has resonated with more than a few other comic fans – Jan’s Atomic Heart has been featured favourably on Comic Book Resources, Are You a Serious Comic Book Reader?, and a miscellany of other comic book blogs (such as this one, this one, and this one).

Not bad for a newcomer to comics. Roy credits the positive attitude of peers in the industry as being hugely encouraging in getting the comic out there.

“Everybody’s nice, everybody’s helpful, and everybody’s got something good to say,” says Roy, “It’s been really cool. I’m really impressed just by how friendly everybody is.

Roy, who is originally from Victoria, BC., had little to no experience with Canadian comic communities to speak of prior to his involvement with New Reliable Press. This is a fact he attributes in part to a lack of cohesive comic scene in Victoria (something Gareth Gaudin of Legends Comics has mentioned before on the Fabler Blog)

“I’ve always bought comics and read comics,” he says, “but you know I was never really motivated to even go as far as Vancouver (before doing Jan’s Atomic Heart). It’s been neat meeting all the different cartoonists across the country, and I’m starting to feel a little bit more like part of the community, which is nice.”

For Roy, making the leap from illustrating his ideas into fifty-six pages of comic goodness to actually publishing and distributing his work was a relatively painless process.

“I basically just sent it to Ed (Brisson, owner/operator of New Reliable Press), and he was impressed enough with it to take a risk and publish it. So that part of the publishing process  wasn’t too hard but from there on in it got a little more interesting – just designing all of the covers and the inside covers and, you know, going through different cover designs and trying to fit it more toward what would be appealing to have in the Diamond preview catalogue.”

If you thought the premise for Jan’s Atomic Heart was singularly unique, wait till you hear what Roy’s up to next.

Presently he’s working alongside Turkish artist Nemo Ramjet on a serious of collaborative illustrations based around the  idea of an alternate modern age.

“I’m doing watercolour illustrations,” says Roy, “and an artist that I met over the internet who lives in Istanbul (Ramjet) is doing cave painting versions of those. The art that we’re doing is kind of like, cave painting scenes from an alternate modern age where the dinosaurs didn’t die out and in fact grew to be intelligent.”

Roy explains that in 1982, a palaeontologist named Dale Russell made his own depiction of a ‘dinosauroid’, which is a hypothetical, uber-evolved form of dinosaur. Russel  used the Troodon, an actual dinosaur that lived 75 million years ago in Canada, as a base for the model due to its above average brain size.

“He made this hypothetical intelligent dinosaur look kinda like a scaly green dude,” says Roy, “and basically I met this Turkish artist because he had done a redesign of that. Instead of shaping it like a humanoid, he shaped it more like a dinosaur. I was very inspired by that, and started doodling in my spare time. As the doodling picked up steam, I sent some illustrations to him, and then we started collaborating.”

Roy says that the collaborative illustrations have been coming along at a steady pace, though as of yet they’re undecided on what they’d like to do with the finished products.

“Maybe a book, or something like that,” he speculates.

Somehow, Roy is managing to balance the above project with finishing his second year of the Design Program at Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary, and he’s still actually finding the time to work on something else – a seven page story that he intends to submit to Heavy Metal upon its completion. He has a preview of the latter project on his Flickr account here.

When asked if he has any ‘dream franchises’ he’d like to work on in the future, he gives an unexpected response:

“This is going to sound strange, since I don’t really like drawing superhero style content, but the thing I’d like to draw the most would have to be a Dr. Doom story.  I think there’s a lot of cool places that could be gone with Dr. Doom that haven’t even been touched yet. Lots of fun post-soviet stuff with communist robots. It could really be a lot of fun.”

Click here for an in-depth, 22 page preview of Jan’s Atomic Heart. For more from Simon Roy, you can check out his blog and deviantArt.