I've moved my blogin' to a new url. This page will remin as an arcive, but no new posts here.

Another preview of art from Therefore Repent!

More here

I tend not to get into politics so often here on this blog, but on the 1st day of a tentative cease fire between Israel and Hizbolla, I thought I’d share some discussion on the subject I’ve had lately.

I’ve been following whats going on - as I always do - over there.

I was first made aware of the relationship between Israel and it’s neighbours when I was a kid, and my relatives kept telling me I should go over and get my citizenship. As the child of Jews, regardless of my own religious leanings, or lack there of, I was entitled until very recently to claim citizenship in Israel anytime I wanted I was told. Of course this would also mean I’d have to be willing to serve in the army if I lived there.

I asked if they were fighting anyone…..

Since then I have followed closely what my distant relatives have been doing, and how they act, and react towards their neighbours.

I never did go claim citizenship. I don’t know, maybe I should have, I could then make a direct bid from within to change the way things are done there. But in the end I could never bring myself to actually join, seek membership in a country that I feel is so deeply in the wrong in the way It deals with it’s problems.

With that in mind, as context – I came across this photo and thread at Flickr, a shot of a protest sign by Gail Orenstein. That led me to post a comment, and one thing led to another…

As a result of some of my comments, I was made aware by John Gault of this article on the guardian web site by George Monbiot, posted Aug 8.

So, not so unprovoked it seems, not that it’s a surprise. I suspected as much to be honest, nothing happens in a vacuum, for no reason.

There are always reasons, explanations for why things happen. They may not be apparent to you, but that’s likely because you lack information. Or you’re simply in denial.

New Illo gig for kitchen sink magazine

Nicole Neditch: creative manager

title: I Feel Your Pain

subtitle: Just Tell Me When It's Over

by Sam Hurwitt

"I love movies more than the next guy -- I mean, I'd better, editing this section and all -- but I have to confess I'm a total lightweight. I'm far too squeamish. More and more I find that there are scenes in movies that I just can't watch. --- No, what makes me hide my eyes and grope wildly for the pause button isn't death and dismemberment as assorted maiming -- I'm long since inured to that. What I can't stand is seeing someone embarrass herself."



www.kitchensinkmag.com

I've been.
I came to do so
as a result of deciding a few weeks back
to start spending my spare energies
researching an old heartfelt topic
with an eye towards near future actions.

I've been reading papers on the topic of Global warming, Geoengineering, ties between temperature and human behavior, and brushing up on the Ice caps.

Came across this map of my neck of the woods, as well as the rest of the world by Dave Pape.

Printing the slightly altered one above out for my wall, so I can ponder where I'm likely to move in the next 10 years.

No, it's not supposed to happen that fast, at least not quite, but that's my point.

Imagine the populations for all the people who now live where this map shows water, on the move over a 10 to 20 year period, starting with when the waters of Iceland or Antarctica melt.

If your one of those who recently saw An Inconvenient Truth you might remember Gore's nicely phrased line, where he reminds us of what hundreds of thousands looks like, as war and natural catastrophes have given us plentiful examples of.

And then asks that we imagine 5 or more billion.

I've thought about this before, and I’ve always thought it's probably not a bad idea to plan ahead for this contingency.

Maybe have made the move before it's necessary, just in case....?

Montreal is gone. Toronto looks like it's mostly gone too, and on an inland sea. I Always did like guelph....

Bit different from my usual talk of doodles and comics stuff eh?

No, this possibly new seeming line of subject for me was not brought on by Al Gore's new film, but yes you should see it, and yes you do need to take him completely seriously and watch knowing he's giving you the soft pedaled version of things. And no, it's not to late to do something about it.

But no, no I've been preoccupied for a long time by the subject. And a few weeks ago, talking about how I felt about what Gore was doing with his influence these days, an old friend said I should do something about it.

I agreed in the end.

Or rather I began to contemplate the fact that I had no choice but to do so one way or another in the very near future, and I rather it not only be running for high ground when the sea comes.

I hope we can avoid the worst outcome of Global Warming, I really do.
I'm not a fatalist.

I have been a not so in the closet at all environmentalist ever since my first conscious awareness of what the stakes were, at about 6 or so when I read a copy or more of the Whole Earth Catalog, I'd already gone on marches with my parents, but a summery of the Gaia hypothesis and a number of other articles drove it home in the end.

I thought about being a lot of things as a kid, a Astronaut of course, and a Cop or a PI like I saw on TV.

Later more illuminated, I thought an engineer might be fun, & aeronautics were a major draw for me.

But in school I was lead to believe such things were to be beyond me by supposedly well meaning guidance councilors.

I knew Arts, as my mother was a working artist and my father a hobbyist photographer, ranter and writer.

So Arts became my main focus.

But all along, I kept coming back to the thought that I should do something to help save this planet.

So when I was 18 I got a job at Green Peace thinking this might be the higher calling for me.

Long story cut short, in 88/89' Green Peace, in Toronto at least, was internally a feudsum and ineffectual mess. A story for another post perhaps, but the thing I came away from the yearlong experience with the most was a strong distaste for the so-called activists I had met.

In hindsight I made the youthful mistake of associating my feelings about activism with my reaction to the work environment and turned my back on that for a while. A week bit of a pattern that was to turn out to be.

Saving planets was always on my mind though, and it's quite likely that had something to do with my drawing comics, even if superheroes weren't my bag exactly.

But one can escape from reality, I never was under the impression I could. Maybe just put it off for a few years. But I never let myself forget that this was happening. I rant about it to friends, and strangers at cafe's.

For a long time one of the Facts of global warming I have come to see as possibly already too late to avoid - so long as the last 30 years of ineffectual action on the issue is indicative of the future - is the ice cap melting and sea level rise.

You should know, it's very likely to happen at this point. If we're lucky we'll mange to not melt Greenland. But it's already started, and so have the Antarctic ice sheets.

Those that saw Gore's film take note; he only talks about what would happen if on or the other melts - causing a sea's to raise 20 ft. But if one does, it's almost cretin the other will too, and not just the shelf he shows us, the one equal to Greenland, but the rest of it too.

The world will be a very different place.
What are you going to do about it?

The survivalist in me is looking at this map, and thinking about why the dry land will be.

The Activist is wondering what I'm going to do to stop it.

I intend to spend some time talking about this and all the rest soon, perhaps on a new dedicated blog.

My thinking is that I've been perusing the art thing pretty much exclusively for good long while now, it's high time I dusted off the activist hat in Ernest. Not retiring from art or anything so melodramatic. Art is still what I do best. But there's a lot of room for art in action, thinking and doing something about consequences.

Hey, so this is what I'm doing these days. Been laying out a new Graphic Novel written by my old friend Jim Munroe, called Therefore Repent!.

Above is a little preview of the art, a raw scan of an early page.Therefore Repent! is set in Chicago after The Rapture. It continues a story started in a 24 page comic Jim did last year with Michel Lacombe, and originated with a scene in his last novel, An Opening Act of Unspeakable Evil.

In the traditions of The Book of Revelations, Therefore Repent! is a dark fantasy tale, but Jim also says he's always been a fan of the kookier parts of the bible ;).

Expect healthy doses of magic realism, some demons, taking animals, angels, mummies and ravens made of ash.

A special thing for me, I get to work on a more or less complete script for a book. Thus far in my time making comics, getting a finished script to work with from go has been rare.

When Jim approached me for this project though, he agreed to let me only begin work on the art once I hade a more or less completed script in hand to read.

Several reasons this is cool; one being able to 'see' the whole thing in one reading helps me manage my time working on the book, as I have a much more complete and tangible picture of the work that needs to be done and where I'm really at in my schedule.

Another boon is that I'm able to layout my pages with the complete narrative in mind, allowing me to think ahead, and behind, more completely.

Another nice thing, is I also can actually tell at the start, if I like the story! Rather than finding out as I go.

Honestly doesn't seem to work out as well as I'd like most of the time the other way.

Good for me, as I don't have to worry about that and can put more of my energy into my art. In fact I'm really quite excited about this project so far, and I feel I can say with no hint of BS that I dig this book, I think you will too, and it's going to be some of the best stuff I've done! :D

.

Keep your peeps peeled, ill be posting more here soon.

We're working towards a summer 2007 publishing date, I'm hoping to have it in hand for TCAF.

Also I will be posting some script samples soon, from the other big gig.

Writing on my own Novel, Dream Life, progresses steadily. That i hope to be done by spring 2008.

A recent Illustration for kitchen sink magazine!

Title: Killing Time : Animal Sacrifice in India

by Erin Johansen

WC: 1407

"India is a land of opposites, where the putrid and the sublime mingle like raw sewage and incense. So naturally, a place dominated by a religion espousing nonviolence and strict vegetarianism has a dark and violent flip side. My first day in Calcutta led me to the famous old Kalighat temple, where, in the 118-degree monsoon weather, amidst pilgrims carrying offering baskets full of fruits and flowers, I scratched a friendly little black baby goat behind the ears.

It took me a few moments to realize that the kid was about to be a blood offering to the goddess enshrined there..."

Hey all my French friends, I will be attending a launch and signing in Montreal for Plan Cartesian, an anthology from MG I contributed a story to with A.J.

It’s on Saturday May 20, 2006, in two parts, 1pm to 6pm at Fichtre @ 436 rue de Bienville - http://www.fichtre.qc.ca. There we contributors will be dedicating our books to your grandmothers and pet canaries. Later, starting after 6pm, at a bar near by for a drink. I don’t know which bar so I guess ask at Fichtre for that info.

This is a poem from his book. Goofin’ on a new toy with old words.

This is work from REVOLUTION on the PLANET OF THE APES #5: Weapon of Choice. My last one before grant time kicks in.

I'll be colouring this story too now, thanks to the work I did on my last story...




...I just worked out that I did 121 pages of comic art last year, along with 11 illustration. Not to shabby considering I was a wreck much of the year!

Spring is here, and looking ahead I see what I hope will be a long happy productive year of doing my humble own thing. Going to be almost doubling that 121 for the comic art this year I hope. Already done 20 pages of finished comics art, 30+ more layouts and 7 or more illo/design projects! Also refurbished and re-launched Sequential, launched CH ZERO!
It's really been pretty busy lately! ;)

So far on this site it's just been words and pictures posted.

But I’ve been playing for years with sound and video too. For sound, I did a 7 yr turn as a producer and DJ at CIUT 89.9 fm, on a weekly show I called CH ZERO. Recently, in the last year or so, been wanting to do that kind of thing again, and with the advent of pod casting, it's become possible. I still have to work out how to do the feed thing with the tags, so that Ipodder users can grab this, but here is the first installment of the new…


Also, discovered youtube.com last week, and will be uploading some old video stuff there as I have time to digitize them. I had posted a link to a bit of an experiment done a while back, but upon reflection I don’t like it too much anymore, so err, it went away. But maybe something soon.

Today I got a big grant check in the mail!

That was fun - still, got to do some work first before i can play. Here's what's on the table now - these are layouts for Revolution on the Planet of the Apes #5.

Cool link i found via draw. To the left is one i activated with The Bubble Chamber.

a study done today at the studio.

where you find the future! :P

XML feeds for blog readers should be directed to http://sequential.spiltink.org/sequential.xml , and you can now get Sequential in your inbox by joining the news group here.

Also we would like to welcome some new members to the team!

Pierre-Andre is now our man in Quebec city. A publisher, artist, and blogger, He runs bedeka.or which is more or less the same kind of thing as Sequential in French. His personal site is here - pierreandredery.com

& Dave Howard is our new Toronto source. Founder of the monthly Jam in Toronto, publisher of Don't Touch Me, and quite a good doodler these days too.

Continuing to defend the cause is Bryan Munn, who has been doing the duties there solo for the last year. He’s a comics scholar from lovely Guelph Ontario, founder of The Canadian Comic Art Centre, and a member of the nomination committee for the Doug Wright Awards.

Ok, so that's it, go read the blog, go on, geet!....

Salgood Sam – founder and Publisher


FYI: We’re looking for people in the Midwest and West coast regions, If your interested please submit your application to salgood At gmail Dot com.

Some things going on around here.....

For the next two months I have a few things going on, before things get going in earnest. In the next four weeks I have my last installment of Revolution on the Planet of the Apes to do, #5 of the six issue series. And I’m looking forward to seeing #3 with the art I just finished in it, and Toms work on the main story. Seen jpgs proofs and it looks like the issue rocks. I don’t say that lightly, I’m dinging how this project is coming out.

At the same time, I’ve finalized the first act of my GN project, printed it and have started doing layouts for that [giddy Wallace wave of hands like rabbit] I’m so excited!

Here’s something I did last night…


Ok, also going on is that, pending a phone call, I’m probably doing another project for the first part of the summer or so, working with a writer friend from TO.

Going to be writing my own GN, and laying it out for a about 6 months, before I can really get into rendering it.

So I’m taking this other also relatively personal project - writer friend and I have talked about working together for a long time so when the constellations aligned so nicely this past few weeks it seemed the perfect moment to go for it – it will be a PT 30 or so hours a week type thing letting me keep most of my own grant $ for when I’m ready to draw Dream Life.

If your around here often, or at least somewhat, you might have noticed me mention that I applied for a grant from the Canadian Council for the Arts last October.

So, last Friday, I got some mail. It stared…

Dear Mr. Douglas

We are pleased to inform you…

This is about when I whooped and jumped up and down. As my friend Jim had said a week before, after getting his, they don’t start with “pleased to inform you” when they say no. :)

So I got my GRANT!

Cool beans.

I now have a lot of writing to do, and then a lot of drawing.

I’m happily expecting to spend the next year or more doing nearly nothing other than working on grant funded fun, utterly free to ignore any of the buffoonery that passes for editorial wisdom in the monthly direct market [really market driven fear of going after the good stuff] or having to worry about how I can make my baby pay the rent.

Frankly I’m just full enough of myself to think I run a good chance of coming up with a graphic novel that might just sell well, but I don’t have to convince anyone else I’m right to get it done now. Oh what a feelin’ :D

Stay tuned, this should be interesting.

Ed: this is now a second draft – my first posting was written in the moment, and with a few days of refection I wish to clarify the opinions I expressed. Then i rewrote a few more times just for good measure. last draft completed Saturday march 18, 3:56pm. and ps:Bold text is ment to only highlight thoughts.

Hey all

So, FINALY, I get to read the much murmured about letters!

Well.

Ok, so I first heard about this all I think from Éric Thériault, who asked me to sign the 'manifesto' over a year ago.

That night at the Jam when I was asked to sign a sheet, it seemed I was not going to be able to read it first – this was a non starter for me, really I wonder why I as asked at this stage.

I recall my telling him that as a general rule I don't often 'sign things I don't write or draw' as well, but I'd consider it if in fact I could read it first!

I guess he or others decided to not bother showing me the thing when it was done, which is too bad. I don't think I'd have signed but It's certainly not the horror show some have made it out to be, I'd have found a way to shown solidarity with/in the spirit that the questions put forward are valid.

I was becoming somewhat confounded this past winter, the journo in me dieing of curiosity with all the talk about this reaction to Marc's essay. I'd hear about this thing often from folks I know via the MMCJ, but still none ever seemed able to follow up their kvetching or preening with a copy of the text to read on them, or ever sending me one as I requested so I could find out what all the fuss was!

It was getting to be enough to make a guy paranoid really.

This much I'd gleaned along the way; there was a rather intense rant heavy version early on, penned by Rick Gagnon – well know to be, frankly, a bit of a cranky opinionated guy.

This was shown to a few people, those who had seen it and found it objectionable that I know personally via the MMCJ told me that it was an unfortunately negative rant, that didn't spend to much energy actually doing what it accused Marc of failing at, talking about what IS going on in Montreal.

More colorful language than mine was used often to communicate this.

There is a sentiment amongst many who don't like the tone of Rick's rant that we should not be airing our differences so publicly, and certainly not to the benefit of the TCJ's circulation. I will say that I agree with the second sentiment. By the end of this post it will be clear I hope that my greatest disappointment in all this is with the editorial actions of the TCJ.

Back to Rick's rant and the story of how I didn't get to read it till now: Recently through an unlikely 3rd degree connection to an old hometown friend of Rick Gagnon, I confirmed that an edited and much more constructive draft of his letter had been completed. I'd heard of the intention to do this but was told by some they had seen a 2nd draft and found it still negative or otherwise we're not pleased with it.

And still I couldn't get a copy out of anyone to read.

Now keep in mind that in my experience and dealings with him, Rick is prone to some very uncharitable character assaults in casual conversation, and seems at times to be either a friend or foe to people largely based on interactions other's are unaware of, until he lets you know that is.

In my own experience I've had Rick approach me in a vary formal manner at the jams to tell me if he approves of something I've done or not as though it had been a point of contention between us for some time, or that his opinion of my carrier choices really maters much to me – often in fact, till that moment I was oblivious to it.

He's admitted to me himself to being an opinionated person, and I would say prone to strong judgments and strong expressions of them. He is also very much prone to thinking in terms of cliques and clubs, but in this he's not alone in Montreal at all. This is one of my least liked things about this town. A lot of 'us and them' going on all over.

I draw no judgments of Rick on all this as I really don't know him as a privet person well enough to know what goes on in his head, but as a result of his public persona and actions I worried that his letter may be needlessly harsh and perhaps personal where it would not be warranted.

ED: Also it's been pointed out that the final draft of the letter was in fact a group effort, and not by Rick's pen alone so I'd be aims in putting it all on his shoulders - he can only share the credit and blame for it. I don't know if all those named signed had a hand in, or only a few, but at least a few others in the group had a go at it. I was aware that something like that was going on, but as to what extent i didn't know for sure. But i think that much of the worry i heard expressed about the thing this winter, and indeed what became my own to some extent, was due to framing concerns about it with the thinking that Rick's was the main hand behind it.

In the end I felt it all maters little though, this is after all a tempest in tea pot folks, a debate over the correct history of events now long past, by people who are at best small to mid sized fish like myself, in an otherwise very big pond that will happily not care about our communication issues and old vendettas.

But, in so far as I care about the promotion of my medium on the public stage I had hoped that whatever got printed would be at least somewhat constructive.

Well, in the end, thanks to being the publisher and thus first to be notified of posts on Sequential, I got the links to the letters.

In the end I found it to be a good read on the whole, as a dissenting & questioning voice of contrast.

What I've seen here seems well thought out for the most part. Granted it's laced with sarcasm and raises many questions about the propriety of Marc's actions in the past. I can see how Marc may take some offence to it. But as a journalistic exercise I think the questions are fair to be asked – and it's not exactly the visceral blood letting as it was characterized to me by some in town.

All In all the degree of negativity here is to be expected in a critique.

Id have wanted to do some serious research myself to verify the claims concerning conduct, but if they are true then in abstract principal I'd have at least considered singing this first piece. However, in the end I'd have declined because as a personal letter, or critique and work of journalism, signing would be an editorial stance.

Why would I, a peripheral player to the debate have any reason to sign it?

That's the job of the editor and authors only really.

My name and any others not involved in penning or proofing the work do not belong there.

So while I support the questioning and the right of those asking them to do so, I don't feel my name is needed.

On the other hand I would have gladly and certainly signed this.

As a overview of the creative communities and individuals active in the local scene I think it's very good, and exactly what should have been published in the first place along side Marc's photo essay in the special edition of the journal that claimed to contain "a major survey of the Montreal comics scene, with profiles of all the major participants".

Knowing the authors of both letters I suspect a fair bit of time was spent doing the fact checking - and to the point, even if there are details they missed, the point they are making is that the Journal didn't fact check Marc's piece, and could have using their own archives!

Rick and co' did for them here, and list a number of places where even as 'A Personal History' Marc needs to get his story strait. Being personal dose not free us from the sin of miss representation, the attitude that it does is simply lazy.

Before going on I should make clear where I'm coming from, what my bias is. I am a more recent arrival and member of the local scene. And I was in Marc's Comics Journal profile.

I was shown in a small photo making hand gestures and in passing credited as one of the new wave, an 'Organizer' of the Monthly Jam's, which Marc had attended a few times and represent his only real connection with me.

It amused me and confirmed my suspicion that TCJ editorial was not all that involved or on the ball when I saw my small mention and credit. I can only surmise no room could be made in the pristine white negative space of the special edition's lovely presentation for the words 'Artist', or 'Creator', along side my name. Title's I've earned professionally for 17 years next to the 4 as host & 'Organizer' of the Jams.

This omission despite a long afternoon spent with Marc in my studio as he snapped his photos, and remarked frequently and positively on my work – as an artist that is.

So yes, I can attest, the TCJ feature was disappointingly utterly devoid of fact checking or fullness of information on its subject.

I was not so offended by this as amused - though my partner at the time raised quite a fuss about how I was being overlooked. For my part I shrugged and had harsher thoughts for the editors than anyone else.

I kept in mind something Marc said to me in my studio that summer afternoon. That it had been a while since he was actively involved with local scene [as a new father he had been busy raising a kid] , and was finding it had exploded with a lot of new activity and players since his hay day.

He said it would be impossible for him to cover it all in the space he had allotted, and was going to have to overlook a lot of what had been going on to get it done in time for the deadline.

As a dabbler in journalism myself, I understood his dilemma, and in the end I find more fault with the supposedly professional editors and journalists at the TCJ for not doing their jobs here than I do with a creator and promoter doing what he could with the time and energy and knowledge he had at hand.

Having known this a full year before the publication was completed, I wonder if Marc communicated this limitation to TCJ editorial at any point. And if he did, why did they not accordingly make room for a few more pages, or ask someone else in town with a different point of view to write an accompanying side bar to attempt to at least do what the cover claimed, truly spotlight the whole local scene?

Again I have some small inside info here – a year before Marc was in my studio taking my photo, TCJ editorial posted an inquiry on the TCJ message boards looking for up-to-date info about the Montreal scene, to do the feature [at that time it was to be in the regular issue but I know through my conversations with Marc this is the same project that got moved to the special edition].

This posting on their boards followed a solid year of my own promotion of the local scene to get the word out that things were still hoping here, even if it wasn't the same kind of singular community it had been in the early 90's.

I think that between my efforts, those of D&Q which are far more substantial and wide reaching, and those of a number of others localy who put the time in to get the word out about what goes on in town, TCJ came to realize they had been ignoring things here since their personal darling talents had become less active in the late 90's.

Upon seeing the posting on the message boards I contacted them offering my knowledge, and I suggested to everyone at the jams that they do the same, giving TCJ editorial the widest bounty of sources to pick from – any true journalists dream.

I know that for his part Marc, a now long time associate of Fantagrafics, contacted them and pitched his photo essay at this time as well, in response to the solicitation on the message boards.

After that, to my knowledge no one else here was asked after that to provide additional input or content other than art. No other points of view were solicited or enquired about beyond that time.

I do not know Marc well enough to speculate much on his intentions beyond those he expressed to me in my studio that afternoon. But i think he ment only the best in his efforts

Nor am I an expert on, or even witness to much of the history either he in his photo essay, or this letter talks about. I arrived here in Montreal in '97 after a great deal of it had already come to pass.

I only know about his involvement with ACIBD, the International Salon of Cartoons or the Gogo Guy Collective through old fish tales told at the jams that I take with many grains of salt as rumors and speculation.

But I have seen some of the old PR text's in question in Rick's critique [which extends past the contents of Marc's photo essay to attack Marc's PR and organizational habits going back to the late 80's] – Along with much of what was written about Montreal by locals in the past, it reflects a common tendency to talk in the third person about their own activities, and hype hype hype. I'm no fan of this tactic/style of press, and find it insincere and false.

And I do think it true that some of these writing habits worked their way into "The Montreal Comix Scene, When Solitudes Unite: A Personal History". It does seem evident he was not at his most journalistically rigorous with this effort, instead writing a somewhat glossy over view of his own memories in a strangely third person stance, about many things he was more intertwined with than he indicated.

An oddly dissociative voice for a Personal History really.

In the end I personally have no harsher words for Marc other than I would have only given a B for effort, and an A- for visual style. And if I had been the publisher, I'd have checked the facts, and asked for a re-write where Marc clearly failed to use the first person singular or 'we' when it was called for.

I also feel that the first letter accurately describes a thread of cultural stagnation in one particular wave of the local scene - of which Marc is a part but far from the sole member or responsible for the actions of - which seems to for the most part have given up on really seriously exploring comics as anything more than a hip vehicle for pop art and self promotion.

It's unfortunate that TCJ chose to explore the local scene in their special only through this one contact, to one thread of the local scene, and no others.

Given their love of dedicating reams of pulp to covering every nauseating detail of a subject in their 'scene', they seemed really rather lackadaisical in this exploration of something 'foreign'. Shocking news, an American press is more or less self-involved. Oh well.

This editorial choice provided for limited window on things, further hampered by the very limited effort represented by "The Montreal Comix Scene, When Solitudes Unite: A Personal History".

I think some people in Montreal have had a sacred cow reaction to having this article attacked.

They cower at the idea that we will be seen to be dissenting in front of the neighbors.

I will agree to only one idea along this line that was expressed to me last night.

Isn't interesting how the journal has - perhaps unknowingly i'll grant - manufactured the conflict?

First they solicited for the feature, then ran it with no fact checking or true effort to make a balanced presentation, then they run these letters and I'm told a few others that are less fair or sane in their Blood and Thunder section, with the title "The Quebecois cartooning scene dukes it out in our pages. Yes, all of them."

All of them? REALLY?!! Bull shit.

Precisely because this hubbub is in a US publication in English it's a forgone conclusion that the majority of the Quebecois cartoonists out there are oblivious and likely indifferent to it. At best a portion of Montreal creators are involved here, and only a portion.

Yes, I do think it's very likely that planed or not, TCJ is now running with the conflict their own lame editorial efforts helped to generate, and are now trying to make a bigger stink out of it. Sensationalist and opportunistic manipulations of the first degree I say. The Journal is acting like a RAG. Fortunately it seems that in truth, as observed by Billy Mavreas on the tcj.com messboard, "outside our l'il circle : not much caring" about it all.

But despite that, it's just as well that the feature was critiqued [ed:though yes it could have been done less adversarially, its true]. It represents a phoned in effort that fails to really do the Montreal scene justice.

I have great respect for Marc Tessier's work in many areas of his career as I'm aware of it, but here I think he did need an editorial kick in the can that he clearly didn't get.

But far more than he, I think TCJ editorial deserves to be taken out and given a bitch slapping for negligence [humorous exaggeration of course, such actions might get one taken out to the shooting range i dare say], making false claims, and opportunistically feeding conflict to create a story.

The greater oversight was never that Marc wrote a personal history that was sold as "a major survey of the Montreal comics scene, with profiles of all the major participants".

It was that TCJ editorial took a personal history, and sold it as such.

And now continues to grossly generalize and BS their way though the story with shit like "The Quebecois cartooning scene dukes it out in our pages. Yes, all of them.".

Lamo.

This continues in the comments....

A last note: In describing the events surrounding the letter here, leading up to when I finally got to read the letters, I was not trying to put the events on Rick’s shoulders. I was trying to describe the interpolation of events that was depicted to me second hand by a handful of people who had read the first letter and were the most vocal to me about their worries about it and him.

I could not frame a personal thought on the letter myself then, not having read it – neither the worried or the authors would provide a copy when asked – and with only my own past interactions with Rick to go on I could not discount that the tone of things might reflect his debating style. He’s not any kind of ogre at all, far from. But he is as I said, a man of strong opinions and sometimes the expression of them. It should be kept in mind by anyone looking to take what I’ve written and interpret it as a inditement of him, that he worked with others on the letter that was published, and showed his capacity for moderation and maturity in all of it in the end.

Been posting some photos over on flickr, there are shots from a D&Q/Seth signing back in the fall of 2005, and shots from the back end of Mile-end mtl.

Just completed this, its a short 6pg story [first 2 shown here] for Revolution on the Planet of the Apes #3, & its the first story I'll have published that's both drawn and coloured all by my lonesome. Some of Muties 6 was me on colours, and Bernie let me direct that one so it was all more or less in the image of my intentions, but the sweat was Bernie's.

Did have some help from Ty and Bernie here, flating the art for me to speed things up, but it's nice to have something done just as I saw it in my head. Its meant to feel a bit like a classic Technicolour film, with lots of gel fills on the lighting.

Mr. Comics is humbled, pleased, thrilled, and tickled to announce that our first issue of Revolution on the Planet of the Apes was nominated for a Shuster Award for best written comic issue of 2005....>>>>

Sigh...well, i do have a little, doing the planet of the apes stuff. But things are slow and getting tight folks. Time to rattle the chains some.

I have to get my portfolio sorted to do some local canvasing with AD`s here in MTL, and find some way to get the attentions of more of them out there in the www (wide wholly world) to notice me too. It`s hard to do on a shoe string though. Keep getting calls from services who want to help me fid clients, for, oh, a 1000 bucks a page.....

For anyone who knows where i might be well informed to be looking, please let me know. Here`s my CV - , and the link to my portfolios.

Neeto', been buging my mother to see some of her old work, this one is an eye poper.

Hey gang, can't find Revolution On The Planet Of The Apes #1 at your local comic shop? You can order it online NOW, from our neighbourhood comic shop, Altered States comics, Where Mr Comics lives if you will, or at least visits regularly.

A new Illustration for kitchen sink magazine # 13, first one with their new AD, Nicole Neditch. The illustration goes with a piece by Jessica Hoffmann titled 'Indie Auteurs, Depressed Middle-Aged Murrays, and the Girl' - Not exactly a review as an essay their depictions of relations between depressed middle aged men and 'girls' in the films Rushmore, Lost in Translation, and Broken Flowers. All staring Bill Murray.

Opening words....
Herman Blume, Bob Harris, Don Johnston: Murray-embodied ennui underscored by a hip soundtrack. Surely it says something about this cultural moment that three prominent indie auteurs have chosen to centre a very similar character, and that he is a depressed, middle-aged, wealthy American man in search of meaning and preoccupied by his relationship/s to one or several beautiful women. (And surely it
also says something that they all seemed to feel only one actor was right for the job.) Yet they do him—and his ladies—more differently than a glance at the similarly slump-shouldered Murray in the ads might suggest. While Wes, Sofia and Jim look at depressed upper-class American masculinity, mid-midlife crisis, I want to redirect the focus and take a look at what they—and their Murray-men—are seeing in their respective ladyfriends.

“Revolution on the Planet of the Apes” has hit the comic book shelves..."

got word from Ty that we got a three time pluging on Space The Imagination Station today....

"...TERRIFIC segment, they gave us about ninety seconds, and showed LOTS of art from the first issue, held up the cover for about a five second hold, and were basically very supportive..."

cool beans!

Wana-be-a member-wana-be-a-member Barnacle Bill?

I really like how this came out

Got a call for an emergency brain storm session - did a really fast rough idea sketch for it - Paul ran with that and went into a tight, dramatically lit CU of Black Throat for the bottom.

Not to shabby eh?
Bit bloody, but that’s kind of a thing with this one isn’t it?

Doing layouts for SOR 9 here now, and thinking about writing.

Need to replace the kitchen lights in my apt too….ladder.

But no, writing, that’s what I’m writing about.

…..must solve laptop-in-a-dozen-bits problem.
Bike soon will be of solid salt. Wants a manicure.

So, I’ve been mulling a SOR script idea for a bit, got an idea from some early brushing up on Mary Magdalene/Black Madonna mythology. If you haven’t read it yet, the Sea of Red storyline has taped a lot of biblical mythology in its winding way through tear ups with vam/pirates, sea monsters, megalomaniacs and immortals.

Well early on last year, around this time, as I lay staring up at the now gone Mandela mural painted their, I had a pair of low, deep mythology plundering grand epic story fronts collide in my bedroom. They melded into a tight, deep running riper and left a mark on my imagination.

So how does this sound………naw, I wait till the book’s out. Don’t want to ruin it for you. :P

Hey you DAMN DIRTY HUMANS! You can get your paws on my latest comic work in REVOLUTION ON THE PLANET OF THE APES #1, which hit stand this week!

So far some good words have come in. Tough crowd though, some would have liked POTA artist Neil Foster on the book apparently, but even the most hard core are still saying good things on the whole about #1.

And we’ve begun to get letters, Here’s are chunk from my favourite so far...

'The revolution will be illustrated' from Walter Harris

"My local comic shop had RPOTA issue 1 on display at the register and something about the cover (probably the fact that it is reminiscent of the old covers for the black and white comic magazines) drew me in. I decided to pick it up on a whim, despite the fact that I love the original POTA movies and collectables but have never read any of the comic incarnations.

Turns out this is one of the best presents I got this Christmas! The art is fantastic – I love the mixture of true-to-the-movies renderings of the apes along side true-to-life depictions in the same issue. I'm partial to the true-to-life look myself. It provides the best of both worlds for me – the original characters and storyline coupled with Burton/Baker make-up.

I particularly loved the Caesar's Journal section. As an African American, I always identified strongly with the socio-political underpinnings of the original POTA. I hope you plan to make the Journal entries a regular part of the series, as they provide an excellent platform for you to explore the societal, political, and religious issues that we face today. Personally, I see potential parallels between Caesar's daunting task of building a society/civilization among a savage populace and the Coalition's task of planting democracy in the middle-east (a populace many feel is to "primitive" for modern civilization to take hold). Any plans to leverage the struggles of today into RPOTA's tomorrow? It was cool to see Caesar's nod to Malcolm X in the main story (his character has always struck me as an amalgam of Malcolm and MLK) – will we see other references that show he is a student of the civil rights movements in the US and abroad?...."

I know this one had Ty & Joe grinning from ear to ear, and yes the story does touch on some of these issues.

Also i got a peek at the cover for 3, mmmmm, here's a wee thumb of a taste of that for ye. It's the most dynamic one yet from cover guru Denis Rodier.

Joe O'Brien has a new interview up at comicon.com here, talking about the book....

"The Apes series has clearly had a lasting impact. It’s permeated the culture. I didn’t realize how deeply ingrained it was until I started working on the book, and then I was seeing images of Cornelius and Zira everywhere, hearing people casually quoting the movies, sometimes without even realizing they were doing it. I don’t think there’s anyone who doesn’t know what Planet of the Apes is, even if they haven’t seen the films.

So the icons were already in place. Our job on this book is find a fresh expression of them, one that means something to the modern reader, but without losing sight that first and foremost it’s a kick-ass action story..."

...you'll find some peeks at art from #2 by me in there too. He also takes a good chunk of it up talking about the timelines of the story and how we are NOT doing a Burtton POTA comic...

And finally, if I’ve baited you adequately, you can order yourself a copy from our official mail order supplier, Altered States Comics - www.alteredstatescomics.com - they haven’t updated the catalogue on the site yet it looks like, so you can bug them at alteredstatescomics AT on DOT aibn DOT com to find out how to order your monkey love.