cbookconf
Across the nation with inspiration.

Item! Cartoonist Emily Carroll is interviewed about her contribution to Fairy Tale Comics: “I think they do share a lot of similarities between picture books, but with comics you can arguably control the flow of narration to an even greater extent. It’s fun to dig into scenes and explore them in depth through panels, ferreting out what about them struck you so much as a child.”
Item! The Canadian superhero anthology True Patriot is launching a second fundraiser on Kickstarter for its second issue (the first one used Indiegogo but now Canadians can use Kickstarter). This seems to be a slightly different strategy than the one hinted at by contributor Jay Stephens when I talked to him at the book launch. The new round of fundraising starts in November.
Item! A small group of talented Canucks won big at the Ignatz Awards a few weeks back during the SPX festival in Maryland. Dominating the awards were Michael DeForge, Jillian Tamaki, and Ethan Rilly. Congrats to the winners and the nominees. The Shuster Awards blog has details.
Item! Speaking of the Shuster Awards, that organization’s newish director Tyrone Biljan has launched an appeal for donations, noting that putting on the awards every year is a costly strain on the organizers and volunteers. They need guidance maybe getting grants or government funding and in the meantime are asking for paypal donations and interac e-transfers. According to Biljan, comic book creators are currently their only source of cash: “The Joe Shuster Awards recognizing Canadian Comic Book Creators is going into its 10th Anniversary. It may well be its last. Year to year the awards struggle to get by. This is generally by relying on the kind donations from creators in the industry. We auction the pieces for key funding.”
Item! Reviews! Articles! The Random House-published journal Hazlitt has become a major player in comics criticism publishing with recent pieces by Chris Randle and newcomer Jeet Heer, and even actual comics by the likes of Lisa Hanawalt and Michael DeForge. Most recently, Heer wrote about the 25th anniversary of Ron Mann’s Comic Book Confidential documentary and Randle followed up with an interview with the film’s director re: the making of. Randle also has a feature on Martin Vaughn-James’ seminal The Cage graphic novel, on the occasion of its recent re-issue by Coach House Books, and an interview with Georgia Webber about her comic series Dumb. Good stuff!