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?

From the somber reimagining of an H.G. Wells classic to post-apocalyptic landscapes roamed by human/animal hybrids, nobody could fault Ontario artist Jeff Lemire for a lack of creativity.

The wildly talented Lemire has built a name for himself in Canadian comic books as both a compelling storyteller and a uniquely expressive cartoonist. His Essex County Trilogy, a collection of volumes exploring the layered depths of humanity in small town Ontario, earned him vast critical praise for its subtle, heartfelt writing and powerful imagery.

In addition to being nominated for one Harvey and two Eisner Awards, it won Jeff a Shuster Award for Outstanding Canadian Comic Book Cartoonist and a Doug Wright Award for Canadian Cartooning’s Best Emerging Talent.

Jeff now has his sights set on reaching new audiences through DC’s Vertigo Comics, with an original graphic novel due out in July and his own monthly ongoing title beginning in September.

The Nobody, Jeff’s OGN, is a modern reinterpretation of H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man. Set in a small rural town largely influenced by a Northern Ontario locale Jeff visited as a child, The Nobody explores themes of isolation, loneliness, and the darker side of small town life.

Lemire’s monthly series, which debuts its first issue in September with a promotional price tag of $1 US, is titled ‘Sweet Tooth’. The official Vertigo description of the title is below:

After being raised in total isolation, Gus – a boy born with deer-like antlers – is left to survive in an American landscape devastated a decade earlier by an inexplicable pandemic. Even more remarkable is that Gus is part of a rare new breed of human/animal hybrid children who have emerged in its wake, all apparently immune to the infection.

Jeff managed to make some time in his hectic schedule to answer a few questions for the Fabler. He talks about The Nobody, Sweet Tooth, and the influence of Canadian landscapes and David Lynch on his work to date. The transcript is below.

KD: This is quite a busy summer for you. Between the release of your graphic novel The Nobody in July, the release of the Collected Essex County Trilogy in August, and your debut monthly title Sweet Tooth in September, that first sentence might actually be an understatement. Do you find yourself with any free time at all these days?

JL: You can add a new baby to that list as well, so no, I don’t have much free time, and very little sleep. But, at the same time, I’m doing exactly what I want to do with my life and I’m really happy, so there are no complaints.

KD: I’m going to start with a few questions about The Nobody, since it’s the first release you have coming up on the horizon.  I read an article in Newsarama where you said that you’ve been a Vertigo fan for a very long time. How did you wind up publishing your own original graphic novel through them?

JL: Well, I always loved Vertigo comics; they are probably what kept me reading comics through my late teens and early twenties when the superhero stuff at the time was just terrible. I pitched a couple of ideas to then Vertigo editor Bob Schreck, who I heard through a mutual friend, was a fan of my Essex County books. He loved The Nobody and the rest is history.

KD: From what I’ve read, The Nobody is described as a contemporary take on the Invisible Man, taking place in a small town in the Canadian North. The Essex County trilogy very notably had an emphasis on Canadian landscape and identity. Is there a specific reason you wanted to write another graphic novel highlighting a uniquely Canadian locale?

JL: Well, The Nobody is not specifically set in Canada, although a small northern Ontario town I use to visit as a child influenced it. I think that I am more interested in exploring small towns and rural life than specifically Canadian small towns. I just happen to draw from my own life and the places I know, and as a result, I guess that they end up saying something about the Canadian experience. And, I do feel a sense of pride in my country, and feel it has a rich and vast well of stories to draw from.

KD: In the past, you’ve listed David Lynch as a huge influence on your work. When you talk about how The Nobody explores the darker side of small town life, right away Twin Peaks came to mind. Was that particular work by Lynch an influence with The Nobody, or did your appreciation for Lynch’s artistic perspective have any other impact on it?

JL: Yes, in a big, big way. I even pay homage to the iconic shot of the stoplight swaying in the wind from Peaks and use it in The Nobody. I am a massive Twin Peaks fan, it is probably my favorite single piece of fiction created in any medium, and the setting and themes for The Nobody is no doubt my love letter to Twin Peaks and Lynch, whose entire body of work is very important to me as an artist and storyteller.

KD: What was it like for you to adjust to the change in tone from writing vol. 3 of Essex County to writing The Nobody? Was there anything else you did in between?

JL: I think The Nobody was a direct reaction to working on Essex County for three years. Those books also explored small town life, but in many ways were the flip side of The Nobody, they illustrate how family and rural communities can be drawn together despite guilt, tragedy and time. The Nobody was my reaction to that, I wanted to flip it on its head and do something darker and a little more genre based. Show the close-mindedness that can sometimes pull isolated communities apart.

KD: Moving on to Sweet Tooth… You’ve already given a pretty thorough summary of the concept before, so I won’t trouble you to give me a Coles Notes version of what it’s about. I would like to know, however; how did you first come up with the idea for the comic?

JL: I think it came from a number of different influences, as well as a few ideas that kept popping up in my sketchbooks in various forms over the years. I was really into Jack Kirby’s KAMANDI when I was developing the idea. I was thinking about the kind of version of that I would do if I were to pitch a revamp to Vertigo. That didn’t come to pass, but the ideas of the last boy on earth, animal hybrids etc obviously stuck with me. I am also a huge fan of post-apocalyptic fiction, from Mad Max and Tim Truman’s Scout to The Road, Walking Dead and Corben and Ellison’s Boy and His Dog.  Also when working on The Nobody I reread a bunch of H.G. Welles’ other work including The Island of Dr. Moreau. All of this boiled down into it, and I brought a bunch of myself into it too and somehow Sweet Tooth popped up.

KD: What are some of the themes you plan on exploring with the title?

JL: It’s about fathers and sons, it’s about redemption, it’s about family, and it’s about the friendships that can form in even the darkest of places, and it’s about holding onto hope in a hopeless world.

KD: How are you approaching the art differently for Sweet Tooth than with previous projects?

JL: I think my art has jumped a big notch in Sweet Tooth. It’s  become tighter, cleaner and more detailed, hopefully without losing any of the spontaneity and expressiveness of my previous work. And obviously, it will be color, so I have to think about that when I’m drawing as well, I can leave some things “open” whereas I would add more texture and linework in my black and white work.

The biggest adjustment was writing for 22-page installments, which meant I needed to develop much more economical ways of laying out pages and communicating my ideas. As you know, if you’ve read my previous work, I tend to pace my stories very slowly and really let the panels and scenes breath. When you’re doing a graphic novel, you can do this, but I needed to find other ways of telling stories, hopefully without losing whatever that quality is that makes my stories “mine”, if that makes sense. I think I’ve succeeded and am learning with each issue I work on. I am also trying to fit more and more into each issue, compress the ideas a bit more.

KD: Now that you’re committing to write and illustrate a monthly ongoing title, is that going to be the sole focus of your efforts for the next little while or do you have any plans for anything else in the works?

JL: Oh, yeah. I’m also working on a new, as yet to be announced graphic novel for Top Shelf. I also have a few short pieces due out in various anthologies including Dark Horse’s NOIR and Image’s OUTLAW TERRITORY 2.   There are also a couple of other DC and Vertigo projects which will probably be announced later this summer. Luckily I draw pretty fast!