Item! The latest issues of Robin Bougie’s annual comics porn anthology Sleazy Slice and his long-running Z-movie magazine Cinema Sewer are now available. Sleazy Slice #6 features a cover by David Paleo & Rebecca Dart, a long story “about roving gangs of lesbian gangs that hunt the post apocalyptic wasteland for sniveling victims” by Maxine Frank and Bougie, and contributions from SCAR, David Paleo, Rebecca Dart, Wes Crum, Aaron Lange, and J.B. Cinema Sewer #26 has a cover by James Stokoe and the usual articles about old movies and pornos. The books will be launching February 9th in Vancouver. Details here.
Item! The Angouleme comics festival is underway in France right now and there is a healthy contingent of Canadians attending. Professor Bart Beaty is blogging about the festival for The Comics Reporter, as usual. Publisher La Pasteque is there and notes that its Red Ketchup series was singled out for a double-page profile in the special issue of the Liberation newspaper devoted to the festival. Also, Chester Brown is in attendance for the first time, pimping the Cornelius translation of his Paying For It memoir. Other Canadians? Delcourt has Guy Delisle and Zviane under its tent; L’Apocalypse has Genevieve Castree; La Pasteque has Real Godbout and Pierre Fournier; and there are more I’m sure.
Item! Writing for the University of Western Ontario’s official paper, David Scott relates the history of cartoonist and London resident Gord Johnston, whose “It Happened in Canada” strip was a big hit in the late 60s and early 70s. (I thought I posted a Jeet Heer article about the strip on Sequential years ago but I can’t seem to find it.): “In the early 1970s, Canadian cartoonist and former Western employee Gordon Johnston of London created the comic It Happened At Western, a campus history spinoff of his national comic success It Happened in Canada, launched in 1967 to mark the country’s centennial and published in more than 60 newspapers at its peak. The Western comic panels appeared regularly in the Alumni Gazette from 1971-79.”
Item! I don’t remember posting about this before, but the Strange Adventures store in Halifax is moving locations according to owner Calum Johnston: The move relates to redevelopment plans by the owner of the building where Johnston leases space for his shop. (Additional details on the redevelopment of the site were not available when this story was written.) “A renovation of the building means a loss of the relatively low rent we’ve enjoyed here,” said Johnston. So the search is on for a compatible 1,600-square-foot location with reasonable rent. Johnston said he believes it is more important for a comic book shop to have extra staff available to help customers rather than spending more money on rent.
Item! Guy Delisle’s Pyongyang graphic travelogue has been optioned as a film and I think some sort of production has already got under way? Hollywood has already tacked on an espionage/mistaken identity plot to heighten the Kafka-esque farce level: Steve Conrad, who scripted The Pursuit Of Happyness and most recently the Ben Stiller-directed remake The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty, is writing the screenplay. The film is about outsourcing run amok when a young animator sent to North Korea is accused of espionage.”
Item! The Joe Shuster Awards crew would like to remind you that they are still accepting submissions for the Gene Day self-publishing award. The $500 prize could go to anyone who put out their own comics in 2012: “Copies can be sent to the Comic Book Lounge in Toronto where they will be gathered for review by the Gene Day Award Coordinator and the Jury for this award. The comic had to have been released (but not distributed through Diamond or any official channels) between 1/1/2012 and 12/31/2012. Deadline to submit is May 16, 2013.”
Item! Finally, the video from last Fall’s 12hrZineMachine event that was part of Nuit Blanche. It includes quite the roster of Toronto cartoonists, including Fiona Smyth, Chester Brown, and people associated with Koyama Press and the Toronto Comics Jam: