Item: Cartoonist Robin Konstabaris (Scrambled Brains) was among the victims of a fire in downtown Vancouver that claimed a huge swath of real estate, including an artists studio. Nobody was hurt but it sounds like lots of artwork is gone.
Item: Shahid Mahmood, the Canadian editorial cartoonist who is banned by Air Canada, is going to have his case investigated by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal.
Item: Happy Cho-lidays! (Or is it Happy Anti-Life?) Michael Cho Xmas card.
Item: Inkstuds’ Robin NcConnell conducts his semi-annual “Best Of Year” roundtable with guests Tim Hodler, Sean T. Collins, and Chris Mautner.
Item: Kevin Boyd answers all your questions about 1940s-50s Canadian comics publisher and repackager, Superior Comics.
Item: Jobnik’s Miriam Libicki is now teaching comics at Emily Carr: “this course offers practical and wide-ranging techniques for translating your life experiences into sequential art. Classroom writing and drawing exercises, as well as take-home assignments help you develop a creative process from brainstorm to script to layouts and inking. These projects, as well as group and individual critiques, will guide you towards effective storytelling in creating an original graphic memoir.
Based on Libicki’s own techniques, as well as strategies from Lynda Barry, Eddie Campbell, Scott McCloud, Jessica Abel and Matt Madden, this intensive yet laid-back course is open to students of all skill and knowledge levels.
Item: Kate Beaton celebrates Xmas: One, Two.
Item: Marian Churchland’s Beast graphic novel is profiled on Newsarama.
Item: Jeer Heer discusses homophobia in Floyd Gottfredson’s classic Micket Mouse comics strips, as well as in the work of several other canonical cartoonists. Bonus: Heer on blackface in the comics, and early Irish stereotypes.