By Will Wellington
Item! As reported by Metro, Ottawa’s Ronn Sutton is illustrating a new graphic novel with text by Phil Cross, the California-based author of Phil Cross: Gypsy Joker to a Hells Angel. The book, due in January 2015, is called Lucifers Swords MC: Life and Death in an Outlaw Motorcycle Club. Chronicling the adventures of the fictional titular crew, Lucifers Swords MC will feature characters and events drawn from Cross’s forty-plus years in the Hells Angels. Check out a few panels of preview art in the Metro article and catch Sutton later this month at The Comic Book Shoppe in Ottawa for Mirror Comics’ Your Friendly Neighbourhood Comic Book Creators with other local talents like Geof Isherwood and True Patriot contributor Jack Briglio. The event runs July 26.

Item! Canadian-comics icon and Guelph resident Seth received some local love this week. The Downtown Guelph Business Association celebrated him and eleven other locals artists with posters strung from streetlights along Quebec Street. Check out an image of the banner here. As Drawn & Quarterly points out, the Guelph announcement dovetailed nicely with Michael Cavna’s warm “re-appreciation” of the latest instalment in Seth’s ongoing Palookaville series. Cavna’s piece, the first of the Washington Post’s new “SHELFIES” feature, consists mainly of an interview with Seth touching on such subjects as the structure of Palookaville 21, superheroes, and how aging affects motivation.
Item! In what is surely the saddest news of the week, DC Entertainment denied Todd Boyce’s request to feature the Superman logo on a memorial statue of Jeffrey Baldwin, a five-year-old Toronto boy who, in an absolutely horrific tale of child abuse, was tortured and starved to death by his grandparents in 2002. Boyce, an Ottawa-area man, never met Jeffrey, but connected with media coverage of the coroner’s inquest into his death and felt compelled to contribute to his memory. To this end, Boyce launched an Indiegogo campaign to build a monument featuring Jeffrey dressed as Superman, which will be erected in Toronto’s Greenwood Park alongside another memorial to Jeffrey. Jeffrey’s exceptionally tragic fate only makes DC’s totally run-of-the-mill refusal seem more callous, but before getting up in arms over DC’s cold-hearted corporatism, listen to this interview on CBC’s Metro Morning, in which Boyce describes how replacing Superman’s “S” with a “J” for “Jeffrey” will only make the monument more meaningful. [Update: As The Canadian Press reports, Warners/DC has given the go-ahead for the memorial after much media attention and public backlash. (Ed.)]
Item! Brian Evinou and Phil McClorey kicked off their new Kickstarter campaign with a good, strong punt. At the time of this writing, their project, Monstrosity II, had received close to half of its $4000.00 goal. Following the success of the first Monstrosity volume, Monstrosity II will feature more than twenty stand-alone tales of the monster-packed-and-horrifying variety—now with a new sci-fi flavour!—from dozens of Canadian indie talents. Check out the campaign here, along with loads of preview art including the cover by Orc Stain-creator James Stokoe. Also, if you’ve still got some pent-up fury from that last item, note that for a pledge of fifty dollars, you’ll receive a Noel Tuazon drawing of “your favourite superhero punching out Toronto Mayor, Rob Ford.” That might help.
Item! Janelle Asselin interviewed Meags Fitzgerald for Comics Alliance. Fitzgerald recently released Photobooth: A Biography, a gorgeous graphic memoir and personal history of the chemical photobooth, with Montreal’s Conundrum Press.
Item! And, finally, Toronto comic book artist Robb Mirsky chatted punk rock and the Toronto comics scene with Savant-Essential. And that’s the list for this week!
When he’s not busy being Sequential’s Summer Intern, Will Wellington scoops ice cream, writes plays, and skulks around Guelph.