“The Janus Project”
“We look at the present through a rear view mirror. We march backwards into the future.”
― Marshall McLuhan
Sequential presents The Janus Project. During the next few weeks of this shiny new year cartoonists and critics and retailers will sound off on their favourite comics and comics-related moments of 2013 while also looking forward to things to come in 2014. (Thanks to Mark Connery for the great Janus comics graphic! Mark has a new book that will debut at TCAF this May: Rudy will be published by the Minneapolis-based 2d Cloud.)
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Passages
Lest we forget: Every year at Sequential we look back at the lives of those cartoonists and comics people who have died during the past year. Without further ado, here is the roll of those who have left us.
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Kim Thompson, 1956-2013
The co-founder and co-publisher of Fantagraphics Books died June 19. Along with business partner Gary Groth, Thompson was largely responsible for Fantagraphics’ rise as THE publisher of alternative comics in the 1980s and 90s and for the introduction of a canon of European cartoonists to a North American audience. He was also an intellectually rigorous critic and writer about comics. His death was widely mourned within the industry.
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Roy Peterson, 1936-2013
Died September 30. The widely-syndicated Vancouver Sun political cartoonist became known to many Canadians through his collaborations with writer Alan Fotheringham in the pages of Maclean’s Magazine. Peterson was an award-winning talent who served as president of the U.S. Association of Editorial Cartoonists and helped found the Canadian branch of that organization.
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Nicolas Plamondon, 1990-2013
The young Montreal cartoonist took his own life on November 22. A talented contributor to many local scenes and zines, Plamondon had a fluid, inky line and an idiosyncratic sense of humour whether he was fighting in the streets protesting the G20 or tuition fees, or paying tribute to Chris Ware or his predeceased sister in his comics.
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Frédéric Back, 1924-2013
The cartoonist and animator best known for the Academy Award-winning short film “The Man Who Planted Trees” died December 24. Escaping war-torn France for Canada in 1949, Back carved out a career as a cartoonist and teacher before making his mark as a pioneering animator and graphic designer with the French-language wing of the CBC in Quebec, Radio-Canada. An early champion of environmental causes, in the 70s and 80s he won two Oscars for his short films.
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