Well that was a nice 4-day break. Busy busy busy. This C-List is being composed on the road, sort of, out of town on non-comics-related business (traveler’s hint: if for some perverse reason, you inexplicably pick up a six-pack of non-twist-cap beer, say some trendy stuff like Mill St Coffee Porter, and you don’t have a bottle opener or any tool besides a key or some easily-damaged pasteboard furniture and you are too weak or afraid for your teeth to try anything too physical, the stainless steel tissue paper dispenser in a Holiday Inn bathroom makes a handy bottle opener substitute).
comix newz from far and wide:
Item: While the Scott Pilgrim books continue to dominate bestseller lists, it may surprise some that there are currently an amazing one-million of the books in print, according to publisher ONI Press. (One source estimates that this means at least 200 thousand for volume 1.) This is a landmark not just for a tiny independent U.S. alt comics publisher like ONI, but for almost any cartoonist out there. And this is not counting foreign editions. I wrote awhile ago that the Scott Pilgrim movie may be the most expensive advertising campaign for a Canadian comic book (the same source as above breaks down the movie budget cost here) but we also have to credit the books themselves and the fantastic word of mouth and generational boosterism that has got behind the whole phenom.
Item: Robin McConnell’s Inkstuds book has gone to print. Can’t wait for this great collection of interviews to be on my bookshelf.
Item: There was a mini-kerfuffle last week about an alleged anti-semitic cartoon drawn by Guy Badeaux (aka Bado). B’nai Brith did the accusing, while Jonathan Kay at the National Post and The Canadian Jewish Congress did the defending.
Item: Once-and-future Sequential contributor Dave Howard has a comics news round-up gig going at torontoist. Click here to read it and find Dave’s link to an awesome new Dave Lapp cartoon about the G20 protests.
Item: Dave Sim is interviewed by Halifax’s Chronicle-Herald. Not sure if reporter Stephen Cooke had to sign a loyalty agreement.
Item: Vancouver’s Bluewater publisher plans comic book bio of Facebook founder Zuckerberg.
Item: RIM unveiled its new tablet yesterday. No word yet on how it will help businesspeople read the latest issue of Skullkickers.
Item: Dan Nadel on BC undergrounder Rand Holmes.
Item: Malaysian cartoonist Zunar arrested by his government for “sedition.”

Item: La Pasteque to translate Chestter Brown’s Louis Riel. Thought this was already in French
(from Casterman)?
Items: Lots of good stuff over at the joeshusterawards.com blog this week, including news about Fall comics from Kids Can Press, a profile of Calgary’s Phoenix Comics, the press release for the newest volume of the kids comic series Rabbit and Bear Paws, etc.
Item: Willow Dawson & Mariko Tamaki are teaching a comics course at U of T. Tuesdays from 7-9pm, starting tomorrow. Join up, now!
Item: After announcing the winner of their last contest, announcing the next one, and profiling the winner, it seems the fabler has had it’s first experience with plagiarism!