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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lecherously evil brit-punk spirits, ghoulish graveyard parties, stadium pop rock stage antics, and the zombie apocalypse.

All this and more adds up to just one day’s adventures for the girls of ‘Angora Napkin’, protagonists of Troy Little’s graphic novel of the same name and stars of their own upcoming pilot on Teletoon.

Troy is a P.E.I.-based artist who, in addition to working a day job as an animator for the CBC, writes and illustrates comic books under the creative alias Meanwhile Studios. He came up with the concept of Angora Napkin together with co-creator Nick Cross over a decade ago as a premise for an animated series.

“We were really into these weird, indie pop bands like Cub and Shonen Knife,” says Troy, “trio girl bands that play really idiotic pop music. We thought that’d be a funny premise, just this trio of pop girls that would find themselves in these horrible situations but they’d be too upbeat to take themselves seriously.”

Angora Napkin is Beatrice, Molly, and Mallory – three irrepressible pop stars with a knack for landing themselves in heaps of trouble. Molly and Beatrice account for most of the dialogue within the trio, and Mallory acts as a sort of foil to their flaky ‘bubblegum pop’ sensibilities. The latter of the three, in addition to being a quieter, less chipper sort, also has a propensity towards alcoholism and a fetish for the undead.

When Angora Napkin didn’t initially generate the interest that Nick and Troy had hoped for, the A.N. project was shelved for several years. In 2005, Troy returned to the idea and began work on what would become the first Angora Napkin graphic novel – to be published by major comic book company IDW Publishing in January of 2009.

Roughly a year ago, Troy heard about a Canada-wide call for new, edgy, animated programming to air on Teletoon Detour as part of something called ‘The Pilot Project‘.  Teletoon was looking for ten original concepts to air as pilots as part of its late night programming, and Angora Napkin wound up greenlit for one of the spots.

“The show’s done, and looks really good. Working with Teletoon on this project, they were by and large hands off, and this is a very unusual experience in my years working in animation. We had a whole lot of creative freedom that was almost unprecedented.”

According to Troy, one of the few concerns that Teletoon expressed about Angora Napkin was that it might’ve seemed too young for Teletoon Detour content. Teletoon’s proposed suggestion? Up the sex and violence.

“I’ve never, ever in my lifetime had somebody say I could actually up the sex and violence,” says Troy, “It was nerve-racking to do that in a few spots, where it was like, ‘can I actually get away with this?’ and normally I can’t, but they were asking me to. I’m sure if we can get a series we’ll even push it a little bit further, ’cause I think we were still just a little reserved with how far we took it.”

The airdate of the pilot is a bit ambiguous at the moment, with the original date of March 2009 pushed back to a nonspecific Spring/Summer 2009 airing. It features an entirely separate plot from the graphic novel, and was written, directed and story-boarded entirely by Troy and Nick.

“We had our fingers in pretty much everything to do with the project,” says Troy, “It’s really got a distinctive stamp; one half of the cartoon looks like my stuff, where I was directing and boarding it, and one half looks like Nick’s, with his visual take on things and animation style. I think animators in particular might take notice in the difference in tone and appreciate it, more so than having that homogenized kind of on-model quality of most cartoons.”

In addition to his positive impression of how the art and story turned out for the Angora Napkin pilot, Troy is equally pleased with the cartoon’s soundtrack.

“Cub, one of the bands that we derived a lot of inspiration from for Angora Napkin, broke up in 1997,” says Troy, “But we managed to get into contact with the lead singer/songwriter, and got permission to use Cub songs in the cartoon. She actually wrote a new song for the opening credits for us as well, so that was kind of cool to have that come full circle ten years later.”

Armed with a finished pilot, Nick and Troy are hopeful that, even if Teletoon doesn’t pick it up as a series, they will be able to drum up interest some place in the quirky, darkly humorous characters of Angora Napkin.

Outside of Angora Napkin, Troy has also been working diligently on his follow-up to the 2007 graphic novel, Chiaroscuro Vol.1.

Chiaroscuro was the title which originally attracted Troy the attention of IDW Publishing, specifically after Cerebus creator Dave Sim posted a positive review of the comic on his blog. Originally self-published as serialized issues under the Meanwhile Studios imprint, after IDW released it as a collected edition, Chiaroscuro turned quite a few heads in the industry.

“When I was self-publishing, I managed seven issues,” says Troy, “The graphic novel actually contains three issues that were never published. The way that the nature of the industry is going, the next volume will come out as a collected volume. There probably won’t be any more individual issues.”

Chiaroscuro tells the story of Steven Patch, an uninspired, out-of-work artist with a sarcastic streak and serious apathy issues. The first volume, which has a decidedly noir feel to the purposeful, gradually unfolding pacing, ends with far more questions than resolutions.

“When I got the idea for Chiaroscuro, it all came to me in a big flash,” says Troy, “I knew what was going to happen, where it was gonna go, and how it was going to end. So definitely the starting and end points have been etched in my mind since then. The big in-between points are there, and as I’m working on it, I come up with little ideas to fill in the blanks just to keep it fresh for me.”

Troy says that the grand scheme of Chiaroscuro is a three volume story, which each volume functioning like an act in a play or a movie.

“I guess the next one will be the Empire Strikes Back,” Troy says, laughing, “There isn’t too much I’m saying about the next volume, because I kind of like to keep the mystery there. It’s not going to resolve a lot of questions in one sense, and it’s definitely going to add a few more, but I’m going to take it out of that introduction mode and a lot more into the meat of the story. That’ll mean a lot more action, and a lot more things happening than there were in first book.”

The first volume of Chiaroscuro was the product of a five-year effort, and Troy says that while volume two is coming along faster, the finished work shouldn’t be expected for another couple of years.

While Troy is tight-lipped about any details surrounding the future of Steven Patch, he is amiable to dropping a few hints about what to expect in the next Angora Napkin graphic novel (which he is also currently working on).

“What the basic premise is, is that there’s a collector out there who wants to collect the girls in Angora Napkin for his own purposes. He’s kind of this devious character that narrates the story, for the first while anyway. It’s called ‘Harvest of Revenge’. ”

With a title like that, how can you go wrong?

You can also view an interview Troy did with CBC below.

For more on Troy Little and his ongoing projects, you can check his website out over at Meanwhile Studios.