Item: The cartoonist J.J. McCullough has announced he is retiring his long-running weekly political comic strip Filibuster. The strip has been in existence in various forms online for 8 years. McCullough was also published by the Western Standard. In a letter to his readers, he writes that “I don’t feel I have very much to show for it all. If Google Analytics is to be believed, I average an extraordinarily pathetic 2,000 visitors a day, a rate that has remained depressingly constant over the last few years, in spite of producing a number of very popular comics that have been cross-linked from some big-name blogs. In such situations I may get an enormous deluge of new visitors for a day or two, but it always trickles back into a wimpy stream soon enough. I likewise get very few emails from readers, and this site’s forum, though home to much intelligent and engaging dialogue, remains sparsely inhabited. It’s all very unsatisfying.”
Item: Ottawa cartoonist Von Allan is featured in an interview with Rogers tv on the subject of his graphic novel.
Item: The CBC has a preview of the new Collected Doug Wright from D+Q, in slideshow format.
Item: The Festival de la Bande Dessinee Francophone de Quebec is now on (April 15-19) in Quebec City. One of the largest comics events in Canada, the 22nd FBDFQ features a huge number of French-speaking cartoonists, including the great Jacques Tardi. Also upcoming, the Bedeis Causa awards and several booklaunches.