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?

Vancouver-based artist Jason Turner has been working in webcomics for longer than many even knew the industry existed.

Turner, whose online work gained first gained attention thanks to early endorsement by Scott McCloud, (of Zot! and Understanding Comics fame) is perhaps best known for the graphic novel True Loves. The two volumes of True Loves, which were originally published as weekly webcomics, tell the story of a modern romance between two Vancouverites. Both volumes were co-authored with his wife, Manien Bothma, and published by New Reliable Press.

The second volume can currently be seen in its entirety on Turner’s website, the jason turner project – alongside an impressive array of additional comics that he has published exclusively online.

When Turner began posting his first comics online back in 2000, titled Down at the Black Box, webcomics were far from the mainstream-celebrated that phenomenon they are today. The concept had been around since the early nineties, though for the better part of the decade the audience was largely peer-based, and the online communities growing around them were still relatively small.

At the time, Turner had been independently producing comics for already almost a decade. His body of work consisted of fifty or so zine comics, many of which he often exchanged with others in the zine community via mail. His leap from offline to online comic publishing came roughly at the same time as Scott McCloud’s Reinventing Comics, which led to Turner’s involvement in the online community surrounding McCloud’s experiments in webcomics. Sharing links to his work with that community are what originally brought him McCloud’s attention, and subsequent ongoing encouragement.

Since then, as webcomics have grown into the pop culture mainstay that they presently are, Turner has had ample opportunity to build on his own ideas about webcomics and carve a niche for himself in the world of digital sequential art.

Turner was kind enough to indulge The Fabler with an interview about (among other things) the release of the second True Loves graphic novel, how he manages to keep the digital content he churns out fresh, and what we can expect next from the prolific creator.

The interview is below:

KD: To start somewhere recent, you just finished your collection of online two-panel comic strips titled ‘Another One Hundred Page Project‘. Can you tell me a little bit about the One Hundred Page projects, and the idea behind them?

JT: In general I enjoy doing these projects, doing “x” each day. It is a way to get myself to do something, and gives a structure for me to work within. So for instance at one point I did these tarot-ish cards, and would draw one each day on my break at work, about the general themes of my day, and I kept going until I had a deck’s worth of them.

The One Hundred Page Project came out of seeing a nice little sketchbook at an art store, noticing it was 100 pages, and thinking it would be perfect for a “project”, as 100 pages is a good amount. Substantial, but not impossible. I didn’t really have a clear plan of what I would draw, just whatever came into my head when I sat down to draw. Like many of my projects, I draw straight into ink, which is a little like drawing without a net. Often I would just draw things that happened to be around me. Or like with my card project, try to draw something to represent the essence of important events from the day. Later on I got on a roll of drawing ideas from a comic story I was building in my head.

KD: The Another One Hundred Page Project and its predecessor are obviously just two parts of a bigger body of online work you’ve been building with ‘the jason turner project’.

Say someone who isn’t familiar with your work expresses an interest in what you do, and asks you what webcomic you would recommend they start with. What do you tell them?

JT: Well, some of the older autobiographical things I did are pretty accessible, like Cooler, the Cottage or My Stupid Week. I suspect quite a few people end up starting with the two Blue comics – Bright Morning Blue and Blue Double Double, due to Scott McCloud’s endorsing them. I am pretty happy with how those two came out (although I always pictured them as being just the first two parts of a larger epic). Or something like the 24hr comic Ditched, which has a self-contained complete narrative. And people tend to enjoy True Loves, though only the second volume is currently online.

KD: Looking back at the sizeable collection of webcomics you’ve created over the past few years, the first word that comes to mind about your approach to online publishing is ‘relentless’. (This is followed closely by ‘inspired’).

Where do you turn to for inspiration? How do you keep churning out fresh ideas for comic content?

JT: I certainly don’t feel relentless! I am always feeling like I haven’t been drawing nearly enough! Also, I have quite a few things from my old site that I haven’t transferred over…

For inspiration I look at the things around me. I roll things around in my head when I walk especially, so my walking to work is a fertile time for me (especially if I have already had some coffee). The story I mentioned drawing scenes from in Another One Hundred Page Project was inspired by my fascination with alleyways. I walk down the one behind my house each day on my way to work, and so that is more or less where this fantastical story would take place. I enjoy twisting and transmuting things in my life into a more fantastic form.

KD: Earlier this summer you and your wife celebrated the release of a collected edition of True Loves Vol. 2 through New Reliable Press.

I’ve heard True Loves called “one of the most Vancouvereque comics you could ever come across”, and you and Manien yourselves have acknowledged the importance of the locale in the narrative. What is it about Vancouver that makes it such a perfect place to tell the story of (central protagonists) True and Zander?

JT: Actually Vancouver came to True Loves before True and Zander! I had been trying to think of very Vancouver-specific comic to pitch as a weekly strip for a local paper. One day I asked Manien if she wanted to help me come up with characters for this Vancouver romance story I was thinking of, and there our writing collaboration started.

Many people have asked me if the story is autobiographical, and it is not. It is however very much set in the parts of Vancouver we have lived in, the places we enjoy going to, “our Vancouver.” So it is a perfect place for the story because it is a place we know and love.

KD: As I understand it, you’ve already begun writing the third volume of True Loves. With the first volume about True and Zander getting together, and the second about their later-relationship trials living together, can you shed a little light on where yourself and Manien aim to take the next chapter?

JT: We are still pretty early in the scripting right now, and I never like to say too much about what is going to happen. Some life changes occur which will make True and Zander do some stock-taking and soul searching.

I will say that as we continue writing together our stories are getting better, and each time in we get to know the characters better. We are also trying to have a clearer idea of the overall shape of the book this time.

KD: Based on your own experience working with webcomics, what are some ways that you would say the transition from physical minicomic to online webcomic has affected the average Canadian indie comic creator?

JT: It just allows more people access to your work, and makes it easier to connect with like-minded people. In the zine days the connections were through magazines, or reviews in other people’s zines, or zine fairs. It was all much slower! And so with the internet it is easier to find comics to read, though a little overwhelming, since there are so many out there. Also you can do colour for no extra charge online.

KD: Do you foresee yourself anytime in the future ceasing to produce print versions of your comics altogether?

JT: To a large extent I have. Since I started putting my comics on the internet I have only produced a few zines. Though print versions do allow you reach different people. A lot of folks I know don’t read comics online, and so if I don’t do print editions of things, they lose touch with what I am doing. So it is good to have something in print for local conventions, and for bigger shows like APE, SPX and TCAF. And having the True Loves book out there reaches different people too. People get it from the library, which is exciting to me.

KD: To bring the interview to a close on a note more directly related to your own material, what new directions would you like your work to explore in the future?

JT: Working on True Loves has taken up most of my drawing time for quite a few years now, and so I do have quite a backlog of ideas that I have not been getting to. I have various things from a low key story about comic fans, to a fantasy story, to a science fiction thing, to a Twin Peaks-y story. Many different things! Also Manien and I are always threatening to do a “sexy thriller” after True Loves is done.

To find out more about Jason Turner, check out his webpage at the jason turner project.