Item: The big news last week was the closing of the Words and Pictures comic shop located in the University of Calgary’s MacEwan Student Centre. The store’s owner cites the fact that university students don’t buy comics as the reason for closing. The best comment on the closure comes from Tom Spurgeon, of course. I remember there used to be a record store in the University of Guelph’s student centre but it would have been even cooler to have a comic shop. An era ends.
Item: The Inkstuds East Coast tour juggernaut is a rollin’.
Item: Alex Weisler at McGill Daily profiles the creation of the 48 Heures comics zine, curated by Julie Delporte, Vincent Girard and Lise Rebout, created last weekend and on sale this past weekend at Expozine.
Item: Richard Van Camp’s In the Path of the Warrior, a comic about gang violence in First Nations communities, goes back to print from Healthy Aboriginal Network. Van Camp will be appearing at The Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts and the Sunshine Coast Arts Council on Monday, Nov. 15, at 7:30 p.m. at the Sunshine Coast Arts Centre in Sechelt.
The author is a member of the Dogrib (Tlicho) Nation from Fort Smith, NWT. An award-winning author and storyteller, his most recent works are The Moon of Letting Go, a collection of short fiction for adults. Admission is by donation. Contact the Festival at 604-885-9631 or info@writersfestival.ca.
Item: Scott Chantler’s Two Generals graphic history has good notices from The Toronto Star and National Post, according to Chantler’s hometown paper, the St. Thomas Times-Journal.
Item: Our own Salgood Sam blogs Expozine.
Item: William Brian Maclean, a participant in the recent Toronto Speakeasy show, blogs about the show and his fellow participants.
Item: Now on the C-List radar, The Feathertale Review, a newish literary journal with a humour and comics focus. The current issue has full-colour comics from Dalton Sharp and Kagan McLeod, as well as illos by some pretty sharp caricaturists, etc. The upcoming issue #7 is to be an all-comics ish. A nice looking package for a zine with no ads. (My fave was the non-fiction article about William Shatner’s appearance in Stratford, Ont.).