It’s a hot one here in Montreal, the bugs are singing, I’m trying to make dents in my many plans. I’ve got a class I’m teaching at Syn Studio to prepare for some more. Going to be working there with my neighbourish friend Kelly Tindall, who teaches the intro to comics class there. Booking models and getting a rushed materials list off to the admins after a visit to the art store tomorrow. Exciting new things to think about! Will be my first formal teaching gig.
Just read through a draft of the last bit of Dracula Mark and I have to get done. Pretty happy with how that’s going. Thanks to the support of our Kickstarter backers I’m spending about half my weeks now on that exclusively, and have some semblance of stability for the next 6 or more months! Yay! Speaking of which, have you head that soon Kickstarter will be available to Canadians directly? I’ll post some details below. But first a little bit more about me! Yes, Dream Life is getting closer and closer to being done!! Late but done! Supporters from last year for that will finally get their books from me! Sorry for the hold up, it’ll all be worth it hopefully. I’m not going to rush out a public print copy right away but there will be a digital edition available shortly after that.
Ok, I feel like I’ve met my obligations, on to the more interesting stuff!! Been posting a lot of little this and that’s on the FB page along with Bryan Kelly and others [not always sure, even as the admin I can only tell it’s not me all the time!]. Not all of it is fit for blogging but here’s some notable bits!
Item: Ok, first things first, yep if you are a Canadian right now you can start setting up a Kickstarter campaign today, that will go live September 9th when they officially go live with Canadian crowd funders. You will no longer need an US surrogate or US account. Comics Alliance post I saw it first on here. There are pros and cons to Indiegogo and Kickstarter both, but the brand recognition social network integration and general user trust level is much higher for Kickstarter, a big part of why drives on it often outstrip what can be raised on Indiegogo when they achieve their goals. If nothing else, it’ll be good to have options north of the border without having to have a surrogate in the states run creators’ funding efforts for them.
Item: Speaking of Indiegogo, a few Canadian crowd funding updates: True Patriot just had its first launch party at The Dragon in Guelph and got some love from the Guelph Mercury here where they talked with Jay Stephens and J. Torres about their experience with the project. I got my PDF copy already and I liked what I saw! Will be looking for the book in the mail.
Item: Attempting to follow their fortune, Toronto based upstart Crystal Fractal Comics is having a crowdfunder too, to print books and make a short film? And get the final portion of some other books done? I wonder if that’s not trying to do a bit too much but you can judge for yourself here. The books that are done have samples of art up here on the publishers site. Best of luck guys.
Item: Kelly Tindall has started the 3rd act of his kids friendly Pirate comic, Strangebeard! Check it out! Also he’s been keeping up the personal journal cartoon about him and his daughter, The Adventurers! It’s often absurdly cute and touching.
Item: You might have caught mention of young cartoonist Georgia Webber in that last one, who has been rolling out issues of her comic Dumb and touring them around alternative shows this summer thanks to her own successful campaign on Indiegogo. I failed to manage to sync schedules with her in person meetups to get my copies but happily they came in the mail the other day. I look forward to reading #3! You can get them all digitally online here. Sorry we didn’t get to hang out more before her move back to Toronto.
Item: Another fellow cartoonist I wish I got to do that more with is Andy Belanger, one of my friends from the old RAID studio crew. But you can enjoy his affable charm in this nice chat with the guys on pop culture hound, they sat with him for breakfast and talked shop before he attended a signing at SDCC. The gent even paid their tab it sounds like!
Item: And in the same podcasting vein, though I’ve not had a chance to listen myself, Chip Zdarsky teaming up with Matt Fraction on the Nerdist chatting up their new book at Image, Sex Criminals. That should be interesting!
Item: I really enjoyed this one on Inkstuds with Julie Delporte, go listen, add it to your drawing playlist.
Item: Over on Comic Book Junkie they summarised the recent string of interviews the CBC had with Peggy Burn at D+Q, Kate Beaton, Nina Bunjevac, and David Gutnick’s CBC radio documentary about D+Q. AND they list even more here in the first part of the series of posts documenting the copious comics coverage our creators have been getting from the old CBC.
Item: Reminds me, Nina Bunjevac posted an update about her upcoming book, Fatherland, here. Good read!
Item: Dakota McFadzean posted a very astute and poignant cartoon advice strip for cartoonists that he had run in this summer’s Broken Pencil. It’s a good one, advisable reading for aspiring freelancers working at home.
Item: The Jason Turner Project’s most recent posts document events at a certain high-profile wedding in Montreal/Vancouver comics scenes I wish I could have attended! Congratulations Jesse and Jen!
Item: Upcoming events and registrations: In Toronto check out the Mercer Union Small Press Book Fair, Curio, and Vintage Sale. Canzine Registration is open for the 2013 shows. And the Application Process for The 2014 Toronto Comic Arts Festival has begun!
Item: new copyshop zine from Marc Bell & Matthew Thurber called “Kelp Stingray”.
Item: Peter Howard Interviews Annie Koyama, Publisher of Koyama Press on the excellent Sequential Highway.
Item: New issue of the trippy Prophet, with Simon Roy & Brandon Graham and co. They have an art show coming up too.
Ok I’m done! have things to do and I’m sweating to damn much! There’s more to check out on facebook if you want, go here!
next time kids!
PS: hey, you wanna blog about Canadian Comic books? Let us know, we need you!
Your moment of zen: Ramon Perez inking Farscape comics for Archaia.