Comics Alliance has a smashing look at a sketchbook featuring Tintin by Dozens of Comics Artists and as fearsomely sweet as Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Tintin is, we think you will agree — Kate Beaton was born to draw Captain Haddock. Please click the link to check them all out!

We don’t mean to belittle this sobering story with a funny headline, but…well we did it anyway. However, it seems that Angoulême, France, cradle of the greatest , biggest comics convention of them all, a town-spanning festival where well over 200,000 people gather just to watch Seth tie his shoes, is having the same kind of townie drama some other shows have. Tom Spurgeon has the story with this quote from Angoulêmeologist Bart Beaty:

I am so not privy to the high stakes negotiations that would take place between the town and the Festival, that I am almost tempted to just keep my mouth shut and listen to the signals. The essential problem for the moment seems to be the idea that Angouleme does not want to take on the cost (400,000 Euros) of erecting the tents and the security barriers that allow the Festival to function. Like every other government in the world, they’re faced with declining tax revenues and a financial crisis. This has led them to question whether or not the city really derives that much economic benefit from the Festival, and the suggestion that the costs of erecting tents so that publishers can sell comics should be borne by the publishers. There is also concern moving forward about future funding for the Festival for 2011-2013.

It is sad to see commerce rear its head in one of the few places that celebrated comics as an art form first, but, you know, baby needs new escargot.

The title of the UK’s premier comics show was somewhat in flux after the Bristol show dwindled. but it seems like this weekend’s BICS in Birmingham at the Thinktank Millennium Point has developed into a full service show. You can see all the hoohah in the link, which includes a very snappy-looking website. Guests include Bryan Talbot, premiering GRANDVILLE, Howard Chaykin, Andy Diggle, David Lloyd, Mark Buckingham, Alan Davis, DC’s Michael Wright, and enough other gaffers to drink an entire bar down to the dry, cracked mud. Entire guest list is here. Programming is here:
Saturday and Sunday. Other events include an IMAX screening of WATCHMEN (Jealous!!!!) and a launch party TONIGHT. (Flyer above — no date given but it is tonight, Friday.)

Of course, the main event, if we know our Brits, will be enjoying a pint or two. Or twenty. FMB, aka Ben McCool, is at the show and has promised some sort of report when his head clears, and we’re keeping him to his word.

In other news, show co-organizer James Hodgkins is debuting a new, fancy look. No wonder everyone thinks comics are the road to riches.

People who blogged their doings:
Paul Cornell
TOXIC
Time Bomb Comics
Insomnia
Sonia Leong
Adam Cadwell
The Judge MInty crew
Underfire Comics
Al Davison
David Lloyd
Dare Comics
..and probably lots more. If you want to plug something, please do so in the comments. And hoist a pint of room temperature, cask ale at the Duke of Wellington for us!

The 2009 Joe Shuster Awards, honoring the finest in Canadian comics, were presented last night at the University of Toronto’s Innis Town Hall. The winners are:

Artist
David Finch – Ultimatum #1-2 (Marvel Comics)

Cartoonist
Dave Sim – Glamourpuss #1-4, Judenhaas (Aardvark-Vanaheim)

Colourist
François Lapierre - “Gédéon et la bête du lac” Contes et légendes du Québec (Glénat Québec), Magasin général 4 (Casterman)

Writer
Mariko Tamaki - Emiko Superstar (DC/Minx), Skim (Groundwood Books)

Cover
Niko Henrichon – Hostile Tome 1 (Dupuis)

Webcomics
Cameron Stewart – Sin Titulo

Publisher
Les 400 Coups/Mécanique Générale

Comics for Kids
Kean Soo, Jellaby Book 1 (Hyperion)

Gene Day Award for Canadian Self-Publishers
Jesse Jacobs for Blue Winter, Shapes in the Snow.

The Harry Kremer Award for Outstanding Canadian Comic Book Retailer
Legends Comics and Books (Victoria, British Columbia)

Canadian Comic Book Creator Hall of Fame
* George Menendez Rae (1906-1992)
* Réal Godbout (1951-)
* Ken Steacy (1955-)
* Diana Schutz (1955-)

Congrats to all!

We received an email from Denis Vural of Adidas Global Sports Marketing in Amsterdam alerting us to three new promotional comics featuring some of soccer/football’s greatest stars portrayed by three ace cartoonists. Here’s the links:

Adebayor by Jae Lee
Stevie Gerrard by JG Jones
Kaka by Ryan Benjamin

We’ve attached some screenshots below, and these are definitely a step up from Rick Barry and Dr. J and Joe Namath’s Dingo Boots. The heroic/mythological angle really works for “the beautiful game.” What’s next Ronaldo by Alex Ross?

Technorati Tags: Sports

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Tooners take note! Chris Butcher has posted a letter about TCAF at Comics212 which states that they are accepting applications for the 2010 show. Previous TCAF’s were invitation only; however, the steering committee is still going to “choose the cartoonists we think would be the best fit for the Festival. TCAF is still (and will likely remain) a show with a juried exhibition space, but we did want to give everyone a level playing-field on which to have a chance at participating.”

The fantasy economy was strong at last weekend’s Fan Expo Canada, which, according to this press release, saw attendance up 23 percent to 59,000 people over three days.

Tireless Jamie Coville has more coverage, with his big report up at http://www.CollectorTimes.com. More from Jamie:

The convention got a huge surge in attendance. It was up 23% to 59,000 people according to the official press release. Most comic dealers I talked to said it was an up year and did say there was more people than last year. Artists Alley was a little more diverse in terms of sales but most of the ones I talked to said it was better. The downside to the increased attendance was the amount of people on the one floor waiting to get tickets. The con has 3 floors, 1st floor to get tickets, a 2nd with panel rooms and a 3rd where the convention itself. On Friday and Saturday Fire Marshals delayed people from going down to the ticket floor until the crowd moved down into the other 2 floors.

Friday and Saturday was hot but by 1:30pm Saturday afternoon you could feel the air conditioner working. DC and Marvel officially had booths at the show (as did Boom!) DC’s booth was manned by Fan Expo volunteers/staff and they it was a U shaped table set up with a ton of free stuff, After Watchmen 1st issue books, This years FCBD book, plenty of buttons and posters. By the end of the convention they only had a small stack of CMX Preview books. Marvel’s booth had very little in terms of free swag and was pretty much a stripped down version of the San Diego booth. They did have a table set up where some of their artists would do scheduled autograph sessions. They also had a speaker system and fun rock/pop music playing.

Coville’s picture’s are here. (Kathryn and Stuart Immonen, above.) He also recorded five panels:

Spotlight on J. Michael Straczynski (73:39, 67.4mb)
JMS answers questions from the crowd about his work and tells some very funny stories about his path to becoming an established writer. Highlights include his encounters with his hero Rod Sterling and his faking his graduation from school to please his parents.

Stanley Cup of Joe (59:42, 54.6mb)
Joe Quesada along with Arune Singh (Manager of Sales Communications), CB Cebulski and Mike Pasciullo answer fan questions about everything Marvel.

Spotlight on Darwyn Cooke (56:21, 51.6mb)
Cartoonist Darwyn Cooke speaks about his Parker: The Hunter Graphic Novel adaptation. He also talks about behind the scenes stories about how a Spirit animated movie almost came to pass, the New Frontier animated movie, and future work. Darwyn is very open and candid in this spotlight. The Panel was moderated by Robert Haines. I should note I was a few minutes late for the beginning of the panel.

Writing Comics with Len Wein (51:08, 46.8mb)
Industry Veteran Len Wein does a panel about writing comics and writing in general. He starts off with a small talk about the subject then asks the audience for questions. Much of the audience was interested in becoming writers and asked pretty on topic questions.

Mondo Marvel (52:30, 48mb)
Joe Quesada, Arune Singh, Kathryn Immonen (writer), Tom Brennan (Spider-man Assistant Editor) and CB Cebulski. Off to the side was Mike Pasciullo. They start off promoting some of upcoming books then go into taking questions from the audience. A couple of audience members vent their frustration over One More Day storyline and the recent Marvel Diva’s book. The rest of them asked questions about everything Marvel. There was also some good natured ribbing regarding DC doing Wednesday Comics vs their online comics.

This last panel may be the one where Joe Quesada has to leave due to pressing matters.

One of the most excellent comics announcements to come out of you-know-what was the news that Dark Horse will be reprinting all three volumes of BLACKSAD by Juan Díaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido in a deluxe oversized volume. The first two BLACKSAD books were published here by iBooks a while back, but with iBooks having gone into bankruptcy, these became highly sought after. Getting the full series reprinted was in limbo, but now Dark Horse has ridden in to fix that right up.

BLACKSAD is best described as hardboiled detective tales with an anthropomorphic cast, but with a darker side and social criticism mixed in. The real star is Guarnido’s art, which is some of the best stuff out there (the series has won over a dozen European awards). He worked extensively on several Disney films, and his art has the best qualities of that brand: indelible character designs, flawless storytelling and the attention to mood and place that is the hallmark of the great European comics. The series is hugely popular in France and Spain, and we can’t wait to read the whole thing in English.

Bonus: Jamie S. Rich at Robot 6 talks to editor Katie Moody:

And as you also point out, it has a different flavor than the usual “funny animal” titles. I devoured the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics while growing up, am an ardent fan of Usagi Yojimbo [fist-bump of UY solidarity], and look forward to digging into Carl Barks’ Uncle Scrooge at some point, which is widely recognized as genius work. So in no way do I think that the visual trope is without fundamental merit. But each of these prominent books follows more of a cartooning tradition, and Guarnido’s realism is ultimately rooted in caricature. What he does in Blacksad transcends anthropomorphism–a boxer is literally a gorilla, a cold-hearted villain is an actual reptile–to the extent that the term “anthropomorphism” itself feels backwards; he’s not giving animals human-like qualities so much as he’s giving his human cast animal-like qualities. (Which would be what, bestepomorphism?) However you want to describe it, the result is creative alchemy, as the title’s “holy grail” popularity can attest.

In honor of the occasion, IDW is releasing a CAPTAIN CANUCK collection.

Also…

Following last week’s ownership change of the Toronto Comicon, a lot of people were confused about what shows were what in Toronto. Although we’re not locals, as far as we can make out there are three major shows in Toronto:

TCAF: an indie centric, curated show which is generally considered one of the best comics event in North America. Usually held every two years, it’s making a return appearance in 2010, a year ahead of schedule following 2009’s boffo event. The show is run by Chris Butcher and Peter Birkemoe of The Beguiling.

Fan Expo Canada: Run by Hobby Star, this is a big mixed media type event with top comics and nerdlebrity stars. This year’s show will be held August 28-30. It draws upwards of 50,000 people, and is sometimes called the third biggest show in North America. Hobby Star holds several smaller expos throughout the year. Although we’re sure the ownership is more complicated, Aman Gupta is generally considered the show runner.

Toronto Comicon: Also known as the Paradise Toronto Comicon, this is the show acquired by Gareb Shamus. Formerly run by Paradise Comics’ Peter Dixon, it is more of a comics-centric show, spotlighting both the Toronto’s fertile local cartoonist scene and comics creators. Unfortunately the show has run into some cash flow problems and this year’s event was canceled.

While all of this sounds pretty simple, as this post on Jason Truong’s blog, with comments by Kevin Boyd, who formerly worked for Paradise Comicon and now works for Hobby Star, talks a little about Toronto’s history of “Con wars” between Paradise and Hobby Star. Everyone involved hopes the con wars won’t be revived.

One more thing before we go: TCAF has nothing to do with ANY con wars and it’s most likely the one foreign show we’ll be going to next year!

[Last link via Sequential.]

Confirming a rumor that was going around this morning, a press release has confirmed that Wizard CEO Gareb Shamus has purchased the Toronto Comicon. Also known as the Paradise Comicon, the show is run by Peter Dixon of Paradise Comics, who will stay on, and while it has maintained an excellent reputation among guests (we were a guest there in ‘06 and it was tremendous fun), the show had run into some financial difficulties in recent times, with this year’s show canceled and no date for 2010 announced.

Toronto is also–uncharacteristically–the scene of one of the most heated con rivalries on the continent, with Aman Gupta’s Fan Expo Canada a much larger and, frankly, more Wizard-like show. Accusations of dirty tricks on both sides have flown for years, so any escalation would be pretty ugly.

As with other recent Wizard-related activities, the Toronto con has been purchased by Shamus and not Wizard itself. However, with this, the October Big Apple Con and the just announced FunFare magazine, Wizard is showing it’s not as moribund as a lot of folks had predicted. PR follows:

Gareb Shamus, CEO of New York based Wizard Entertainment, announces today that he has purchased the Toronto Comicon, a show that has been consistently awarded The Best International Comic Book Convention (non-USA) by ComicBookConventions.com, for the last 5 years.

“We’ve always had a strong following in Canada, so buying the Toronto Comicon is something that allows me to give back to our fans. These attendees are known to be serious collectors and comic industry followers,” said Shamus.  “I am thrilled to offer the guests, celebrities, artists, dealers and exhibitors to our Canadian audience for the very first time.”

Peter Dixon, owner of Paradise Conventions and former owner of the Toronto Comicon, will still be intimately involved in the show production, his friendly manner ensuring the continuation of the trademarked relaxed atmosphere of the show.

“Wizard brings greater industry recognition and star power to the show. I’m excited about having the fans get this bigger experience,” said Dixon.

The next show dates have not been set yet, but the newly managed Toronto Comicon is expected to debut in 2010.

Chris Butcher announces that TCAF will be back in 2010, a break from its biennial pace:

That’s right, the next Toronto Comic Arts Festival will be held Saturday May 8th and Sunday May 9th, 2010, at Toronto Reference Library. YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST. And yes, we know that’s Mother’s Day… All of the cool moms read comics.

What, so soon, you ask? Following up on feedback from our partners, our guests, our staff, and attendees, we’ve decided to build on the incredible momentum of having a new home and incredibly supportive presenting sponsor in Toronto Public Library, and produce our first annual show. This is something of an experiment for us, and I can’t say for sure that we’re “going annual” with the event, but we feel that a 2010 event is the best course of action to ensure that TCAF stays a fun, vital, and prominent festival both within the city of Toronto and in the larger comics community. That’s around the corner so we’ll be running a tight ship, and further details about TCAF 2010 (including exhibitor application & information) will be released later this summer.

With 10,500 attendees (twice 2007’s turnout) it’s easy to see that the momentum of TCAF and comics in general is so great that to wait another year would be a waste of all that excitement. And in 2010, we’ll be there, no matter what!

Nikki Finke reports on what might be called a no-brainer…the upcoming TINTIN movie will have a big, wide release in Europe for two weeks before it hits the US:

One of the film’s producers, Kathleen Kennedy revealed her role in the decison at today’s “Produced By” Conference. Noting this is a first for a film directed by Steven Spielberg, she said she had to do some arm-twisting to convince distributors Paramount and Sony to allow the 3-D pic to premiere in Europe 8 weeks in advance of its North America launch on December 23rd, 2011. But it makes sense since The Adventures Of Tintin is based on the Belgian children’s tale. “That property is known so well in Europe and virtually not at all here,” Kennedy said. Paramount is handling Tintin’s distribution in the U.S., UK, Australia and Asia, while Sony has Belgium, France, the rest of Europe, and the rest of the world. The film is a joint production of both Spielberg’s Amblin/DreamWorks and Peter Jackson’s WingNut Films.

Speaking of TINTIN, director/producer Peter Jackson will be making his first ever appearance at Comic-Con to promote Neill Blomkamp’s DISTRICT 9. (We liked the trailer we saw.) Will Jackson talk HOBBIT? Will he talk TINTIN? He promises a “wild ride,” but that could just mean he’s taking a pedicab to his hotel.

Speaking of comic-cons, apparently someone in the UK is going around claiming they have one with Stan Lee, Kevin Smith, and Alan Moore as guests. The claims don’t hold up to much scrutiny, as the Forbidden Planet blog reports:

Strangely for an event with such a guest list I’m struggling to find a website for it it (as were most on the forum discussion), which seems odd as according to the article it starts on June 18th and runs through to the end of July. And I haven’t heard mention elsewhere about the 5 by 5 event, much less confirmation of venues or the impressive sounding guest list (and a whole range of comics pros on Dez’s forums, from publishers to artists to store owners knew nothing about it either), which is a bit odd this close to the start of it - if Stan Lee is coming surely he’s be all over the comics blogosphere about it? I mean Stan isn’t backwards about coming forwards about projects and events he’s involved with (I mean that in a nice way, its not a dig, we wouldn’t change him). And Alan Moore is not given to doing conventions and festivals like this normally so it would be out of character. Do any of our readers know of this festival or are even taking part in it? If so drop us a line, we’d love to hear more about it and if there is an actual site with details on it that people can check out with solid information about the events, guests, venues and dates.

Considering that at least one website already ran news of this bogus show as a San Diego spin-off, it would seem that communication, at the very least, has been quite messed up about this.

The 27th annual Salón Internacional del Cómic de Barcelona is underway, if locals can rouse themselves from their post-Champions League triumphal celebrations. While the above site is in Spanish, you may find this photo from Carla Michelle’s Twitter stream of guests Mark Waid, Jim Lee, Marta Martinez, Diego Olmos, Jordi Marti, David Hernando, and a special guest following a press conference amusing.

Acclaimed French cartoonist Emmanuel Guibert, had a bit of a press triumph this weekend as the subject matter of his two award-winning books from First Second — THE PHOTOGRAPHER, the story of a dangerous medical mercy mission in 1983 Afghanistan, and ALAN’S WAR, the remembrances of an American GI in WW II — resonated with the Memorial Day holiday.

He was on NPR:

Guibert says that Cope wasn’t a hero — he arrived in Europe too late to see battle — but his stories are still powerful. He first set foot on European soil in the bombed out city of Le Havre, northern France. One day, while trudging along amidst the ruined city with their heavy packs, Cope suddenly remembered that it was his birthday.

“He’s in the middle of this world in ruins and he’s 20 years old, and he forgot his own birthday,” says Guibert. “It was very moving to me to listen to his story because it made me realize something that we all know, which is that war is always made by kids.”

THE PHOTOGRAPHER was reviewed in the NY Times:

The book has the feel of a film, attesting to the skill of Guibert and Frédéric Lemercier, the graphic designer. But there is nothing romantic about Afghanistan or the Afghans, who can be at once courageous and generous as well as heartless and menacing. Lefèvre, on the way back, is abandoned by his feckless guides; his horse collapses and eventually dies; and the photographer nearly succumbs in the snowy mountain passes. “I take out one of my cameras. I choose a 20-millimeter lens, a very wide angle, and shoot from the ground,” he says — “to let people know where I died.” The next page shows his exhausted pack horse amid snowy boulders, followed by a bleak spread of the gloomy mountain pass. Lefèvre is saved by a band of brigands, who shake him down for much of his money but get him out. The physical toll of his trip left him suffering from chronic boils. He lost 14 teeth. But before he died he returned to Afghanistan seven more times in an attempt to tell the stories of those he first met in 1986, whom he could not abandon or forget.

And on Friday, he appeared on The Rachel Maddow Show:

We were so impressed by the above segment that we made a little screen cap:

Let’s take a moment to enjoy this image: a well known TV pundit (who reads graphic novels) is interviewing a world class cartoonist, with respect, about world events — not some superhero dying or getting married or getting zapped by Dr. Light — and she has the book sitting right in front of her on her TV news desk. (Dr. Juliette Fournot, who led the mission, is the other guest.)

And the result for THE PHOTOGRAPHER? We all know Amazon is a bit wonky as a sales indicator, but there has clearly been a surge:

Congrats to the First Second team for putting together this assault on Media Beach. And congrats to Guibert for producing work of such power and clarity that it is deserving of such attention.

Just a few quickies:

§ What a 10-hour car ride with Frank Santoro, Dash Shaw and Dan Nadel would be like…jealous.

§ Comics Doomsday Scenario — what if rising prices sink comics sales and a ton of comics shops go under — is being explored more and more. Here’s Valerie D’Orazio’s take and Sean Kleefeld’s, the latter with some talk of Diamond and Haven and the distribution piece of the puzzle.



§ Filipino comics BONANZA from the Philippine Inquirer:

• An interview with Leinil Francis Yu.

• A review of the latest Filipino comic books.

• A list of Filipinos currently doing projects for American comic book companies.

BONUS: Alanguilan reports on the big Komicon Summer Fiesta.

Wow, from all the rapturous Tweets and blog posts, it sounds like this weekend’s Toronto Comic Arts Festival was the bomb, the bee’s knees and the cat’s pajamas all rolled into one. Sequential has a great link roundup. Jamie Coville (among many others) has a photo gallery, and it looks like there were about a kabillion people there — and that’s SUNDAY. We recommend just starting with Sequential and working your way through some of the stories, like this report on the Doug Wright Awards, but from all accounts, it was an astounding weekend showcasing the greatness and vibrancy of comics and we’ll be hearing a lot more about it in the days to come.

This year’s Bristol Comics Expo was a bit of a stripped down affair, and we couldn’t find much online just yet (or else no one had recovered from their pub time) but Cheryl Morgan has a live blog and some video, and her Twitter stream recaps the weekend. Also, Lee “Budgie” Barnett put up a few photos at his Live Journal, including this one, which seems, to us, anyway, to fall firmly into the category of Steampunk. Reports welcome!

Frankly, we haven’t been in the loop on British comics gossip, so we have no idea why this year’s Bristol Comic Expo has been radically scaled down, and won’t include previous popular attractions like the Eagle Awards and the Hypotheticals panel, but the show is going on this weekend and we’re sure that the beer level in town will sink to dangerous lows by the time the comics crowd has departed.

In the mean time, here’s a press release from Eagle Awards organizer Cassandra Conroy talking about what is going on with them:

There has been a lot of Internet buzz about the 2009 Eagle Awards, following new Eagle Awards organiser Cassandra Conroy announcing that there wouldn’t be an award ceremony at the 2009 Bristol Comic Expo in May 2009. Many were of the opinion that the Eagles were either on hiatus or even gone forever, and Internet rumours were strife.

But today, it is announced that there will indeed be an Eagle Awards for 2009 - just not in the style that people are used to.

‘When I took over the Eagles last year from my father, Mike Conroy - people said that I had an uphill battle to keep the Eagles at the top of the UK awards scene.’ Cassandra explained. ‘And when circumstances meant that the main hall of the Bristol Comic Con, our traditional place of ceremony over the years would not be able to be used in the evening, we realised that there was no way that the Eagles could be run as they usually are, for 2009 at least. But I didn’t want my first year as organiser to be a no-show, and so after a lot of discussions and opinions, we’re still going to be running the awards.’

Since inheriting the Eagle Awards Cassandra has taken advice from some of the biggest names in comics, and she feels that the Eagles really do have a place in UK comics’ history.

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