Item: Quill and Quire has the lowdown on a promotional comic book from Harper Collins:

“the company sent retailers across the country about 4,000 copies of a promotional comic book it created, called The Literates. The comic features the exploits of bookselling superheroes Spine and Paige, who endeavour – in the first issue, at any rate – to convince a reader to purchase American author Christopher Moore’s Fool. […] The eight-page pamphlet has the look and feel of a real comic, and it comes in a protective plastic sleeve with cardboard backing, just like at a real comic book store.”

Item: David Collier, look out: You have a challenger in the Hamilton sketching department! McMaster art student Tings Chak is planning a monumental graphic novel about the people and architecture of Lunchbucket City.

Item: The most cosmically significant comic book from DC this week features a story by Guelph homeboy Jay Stephens. Cartoon Network Action Pack #36 has a cover and interior art from Jay and is devoted to his tv show, The Secret Saturdays.

Item: The Globe’s James Adams reports that a new alternative to the canceled Book Expo will be held this summer. The new shindig, which publisher’s are boycotting, is

“prosaically called Canadian Booksellers Association Summer Conference 2009, will be held June 20-21 in a hotel on Toronto’s downtown waterfront. Billed as “stronger, smarter, shorter and sweeter” than BookExpo, it promises a potpourri of events and opportunities – professional development sessions, an awards ceremony, panel discussions with publishing executives, author presentations, previews of marketing, promotion and advertising plans.”

Item: The first review I’ve seen of Seth’s new graphic novel, George Sprott.

Item: You can see more of the awesome Pascal Blanchet photo above in this article. Blanchet is also interviewed on CBC radio’s Q (along with Billy Bob Thronton). Listen to the podcast.