Whazamo: Ontario Graphic Novel Month

whazamo

WHAZAMO! Ontario Graphic Novel Month is an online comics celebration curated by Vepo Studios for Open Book: Toronto, created to showcase the talented graphic novelists and illustrators published by the Ontario publishers, as well as draw attention to the new stars of the Canadian graphic novel and comic book scene.

Whazamo! will feature weekly video content covering graphic novels, comics for younger-readers and web-comics; profiles of creators; and a Cartoonist-In-Residence, the incredible Clayton Hanmer (you can find his page here).

Whazamo! is presented in collaboration with the Organization of Book Publishers of Ontario and the Toronto Comic Arts Festival and it welcomes you.

Rodeo Magic, by CTON

Rodeo Magic, by CTON

Rodeo Magic, by CTON

Rodeo Magic, by CTON

Rodeo Magic, by CTON

Rodeo Magic, by CTON

Rodeo Magic, by CTON

For more info on kei cars in Toronto check out Right Drive Inc., where I bought mine. -cton

Rodeo Magic, by CTON

Rodeo Magic, by CTON

Rodeo Magic, by CTON

Rodeo Magic, by CTON

Rodeo Magic, by CTON

Rodeo Magic, by CTON

For more info on kei trucks in Toronto check out Right Drive Inc., where I bought mine. -cton

Rodeo Magic, by CTON

(Sorry for the delay on this folks... should have been posted Sept.25/09 - CTON)

Rodeo Magic, by CTON

Rodeo Magic, by CTON

Rodeo Magic, by CTON

Pivot Readings: Brian Francis, Yannick Marshall and Matthew Tierney

When
Wednesday, September 9, 2009 - 8:00pm
Where

The Press Club
850 Dundas Street West
Toronto, ON
Map to The Press Club

Details

Rodeo Magic, by CTON

Rodeo Magic, by CTON

Rodeo Magic, by CTON

Rodeo Magic, by CTON

Rodeo Magic, by CTON

Rodeo Magic, by CTON

FULL THROTTLE FICTION WEEK-END

When
Saturday, October 3, 2009 - 10:00am
photo_MarnieBio.jpg
Where

Toronto Writers' Center
627 Bloor St west
Toronto, ON
Map to Toronto Writers' Center

Details

Rodeo Magic, by CTON

Rodeo Magic, by CTON

Whazamo! Bonus Track: Jeff Lemire

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When Whazamo was getting ready to launch, one of the first artists to get back to us was Jeff Lemire, an amazing Toronto cartoonist best known for Essex County, a haunting graphic novel series about life on a small town Ontario farm. Now he’s back with a whole slew of new projects, including The Nobody , an update on the Invisible Man, the trailer for which you can find here. Though we missed it during May, we knew we had to share it with you now—think of it as the Whazamo bonus track!

Name: Jeff Lemire

Hometown: Woodslee, Ontario

Website: http://jefflemire.blogspot.com...

Role: Cartoonist

Rodeo Magic, by CTON

Welcome to Rodeo Magic, my new webcomic for Open Book Toronto. It will be running once a week, usually posted on fridays, and will follow the adventures & observations of a comic-loving hick who has relocated to the Big Smoke to pursue his dream of working as a professional creative person. Enjoy!

Dark Adaptation & Lorenz Peter

Artist and writer Lorenz Peter takes to the tracks to explain what the phenomenon of Dark Adaptation means, and why he named his seminal full-length graphic novel after it. Between bizarro animation and a strange encounter on the railways, Peter walks us through his creative process, a hardscrabble upbringing in a Northern Alberta oil town, and the oft painful affair of transmuting personal experience into art.

Interview with Tom Humberstone

My Fellow Americans by Tom Humberstone

Two years ago at TCAF, I met a comic artist from the UK named Tom Humberstone. Somehow he was invited to Pen Club (more on this later) where he quickly became a welcomed guest during his short visit. Over the past couple years, he kept in touch with some of the other Pen Club members including Anne Koyama of Koyama Press, and also produced an entire library of comics (a few obtaining critical success in the UK...winning an Eagle Award in '08 for best B&W UK comic). During this time, he also produced a blog inspired comic book about a road trip he took across the States during their Democratic Primaries, called My Fellow Americans. You may wonder, what does a Brit comic dude have anything to do with Canadian comics? Well two things: a very small Canadian publisher, Koyama Press helped Tom out on some of these projects, AND he is thinking about moving to Toronto soon (which would make him a 'Landed Canadian Comic Artist'). Anyways, besides all of this, Tom is a total dude and deserves some press over here in Canada (a place he might be calling home soon).

Whazamo! Profiles: George Walker

georgewalker

Name: George A. Walker

Hometown: Brantford Ont. Although I’ve lived in Toronto since 1979. Toronto.

Web site: www.george-walker.com

Role: Illustrator, graphic novelist (Book of Hours); writer (Woodcut Artists Handbook , Graphic Witness ,pub. Firefly Books)(Inverted Line and Images from the Neocerebellum, pub. Porcupine’s Quill); Acquisitions editor of the Graphic Novel Series at The Porcupine’s Quill

Latest Work: Name of Book, Press, Graphic Witness ,Firefly Books, Images from the Neocerebellum, Porcupine’s Quill and an upcoming trade edition of Book of Hours 2011 Porcupine’s Quill

What’s It About in a Nutshell: Visual narratives : the image as text.

Comic Creation with CTON

Comic Creation with CTON

Here's a little ditty showing my ritual for creating a comic for Owl Magazine, a great Canadian children's magazine. I do a regular column called 'CTON's Corner' whith this little orange dude and a green blob, named 'Blob'. Its a ton of fun, and allows me a lot of freedom to create. (This comic first appeared in Craig Battle's blog - he is the editor of Owl Magazine).

One of the biggest questions I get asked by people is 'how do you think of a comic'? Well thats a good question.

Whazamo! Profiles: Brian McLachlan

Brian Mclachlan

Name: Brian McLachlan

Hometown: Toronto

Website: www.theprincessplanet.com

Role: Cartoonist

Latest Work:
Ticket To Space , Scholastic Canada

What’s It About in a Nutshell:
After a clerical error, a 13 year old girl gains a chance to go aboard the space shuttle. The space agency tries to make the pre-flight training ridiculously hard that she'll give up and they won't have to put a child into a dangerous situation. Ha! Good luck, space agency!

What first inspired you to create comics or graphic novels?

Interview with Wowee Zonk

wowee00.jpg

Way back at the beginning of May I visited a great local Toronto comic book launch of some young, new Canadian creators here in the city. I was so impressed with their work, along with the massive amount of their work, that I thought it would be interesting to hear a bit about them, what drives them, and how they got into Canadian comics.

Generally I'm under the opinion that one shouldn't be interviewed until they're well into their career with much experience under their belt. It is theoretically only at that more senior point in one's creative life that their words & ideas might hold the most value to readers, younger creatives, and humanity in general. In the case of the Wowee Zonk crew, they are all very young and very new, but I felt it was an excellent opportunity to find out what makes new artists like themselves tick, as well as showcase an extremely talented group of (relative) newbies to comics. Hopefully their words, and already massive piles of work, will inspire other Canadian comic makers to get off their collective asses and do some work! I know they've lit a bit of a fire under my butt.

Whazamo! No Girls Allowed

No Girls Allowed! Willow Dawson and Susan Hughes spin historical yarns in their graphic novel about women that dressed as men for fortune, fame and love. Follow the lives of women vikings, doctors, generals and soldiers from the age of Pharaohs to the Civil War.

Whazamo! Profiles: John Bell

John Bell

Name: John Bell

Hometown: Montreal-born Haligonian living in Ottawa

Website: http://www.collectionscanada.g...

Role: Comics Historian

Latest Work: Invaders from the North: How Canada Conquered the Comic Book Universe (Dundurn, 2006)

What’s It About in a Nutshell:The history of comics and graphic narrative in English Canada, with emphasis on comic books.

What first inspired you to write about comics? I grew up in the 1950s, when comics were a mass medium – and a kid’s salvation.

How I got into Comics

Life of CTON (from Dose Magazine, 2006)

I'm an unlikely comic-book nerd. I've played rugby. I've driven tractors. I've renovated houses. I've worked on cars. I love beer and eating steak. Plus, I've stopped a run-away team of horses. You might wonder, why am I writing a comic blog for Open Book Toronto then? What the hell does this hick know about comics? Well good question.

Whazamo! Profiles: Kate Beaton

Kate Beaton

Name: Kate Beaton

Hometown: Mabou, Nova Scotia

Website: www.harkavagrant.com

Role: comic artist

Latest Work: Never Learn Anything From History, self published

What’s It About in a Nutshell:A collection of comics, mostly poking fun at historical events and people.

What first inspired you to create comics or graphic novels? It's just been something I've done for myself for a long time, and now for an audience.

What for you makes a comic or graphic novel AWESOME!? Ah that is a hard question, I think it is different for every example.

Whazamo! Profiles: Marta Chudolinska

Name: Marta Chudolinska

Hometown: Toronto, ON (as well as St. John's, NL; Vancouver, BC; Mississauga, ON; Warsaw, Poland)

Website: www.backandforthbook.wordpress...

Role: artist

Latest Work:Back + Forth, The Porcupine's Quill
available at http://www.mcnallyrobinson.com...

What’s It About in a Nutshell:

Toronto Comic Arts Festival 2009

CTON does TCAF

The Princess Planet with CTON & Jay Stephens (courtesy of Brian McLachlan)

This past weekend was the comic event of the year in Toronto in terms of the type of comics I prefer. The Toronto Comic Arts Festival (also known as TCAF to comic nerds) happens every two years and is put on by the Beguiling (mentioned before). For 2009, the venue was at the Toronto Reference Library which is huge and sprawling with all sorts of nooks'n' crannies to get lost and hide comics in & around. I had the opportunity to share a table with my artist collective, Trio Magnus, and my first publisher, Koyama Press. We had all sorts of goodies for sale, including a whole wack of great books.

Whazamo! Profiles: Evan Munday

Evan Munday

Name: Evan Munday

Hometown: Toronto? (Originally Ramsey, NJ, or Oakville, ON)

Website: www.idontlikemundays.com and www.sketchkrieg.blogspot.com

Role: Sometimes illustrator, sometimes cartoonist

Latest Work: Stripmalling (written by Jon Paul Fiorentino), ECW Press

Whazamo! Making A Softer World

Emily Horne and Joey Comeau, creators of A Softer World, demonstrate how their highly popular web comic is made, and discuss how it came to be. Dinosaur Comics creator Ryan North guest stars. Look for all 3 creators at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival! And you can find
A Softer World at: http://www.asofterworld.com
and Dinosaur Comics at: http://www.quantz.com

In Conversation with Seth about Doug Wright

The Collected Doug Wright.jpg

This Saturday night at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto the annual Doug Wright Awards, which recognize excellence in Canadian cartooning, will be handed out as part of the Toronto Comic Arts Festival. The free event will also serve as the launch of The Collected Doug Wright, the first of two volumes that will collect the works of the late cartoonist Doug Wright, whose comic strips “Nipper” and “Doug Wright’s Family” appeared in Canadian newspapers in the 1950s, 60s and 70s.

Toronto Weirdo Comics Rule!

wowee00.jpg

For those of you who don't know me or are too lazy to read my bio, I'm an illustrator by trade which is a great job, but (sometimes) it can be daunting when I'm asked to draw very mundane or structured images. So when I see younger illustrators & comic creators drawing whatever the hell they want, it really gets me excited... especially when they're based here in Toronto!

This past wednesday night, I had the absolute pleasure to see such a group of illustrators at Keep 6 Contemporary Gallery here in the city (of Tdot). This group of seven (cheezy Canadian Art joke here) are producing some really wacky'n'weird comics and artwork which, in my opinion, might be some of the most exciting and creative stuff to be seen around these parts recently.

Whazamo! Profiles: Ashley Spires

Name: Ashley Spires

Hometown: Tsawwassen, BC

Website: www.ashleyspires.com and www.chickentika.com

Role: writer/illustrator

Latest Work: Binky the Space Cat, Kids Can Press (Coming August, 2009)

What’s It About in a Nutshell: A delusional house cat entertains notions of exploring outerspace (which is anything outside of his house) and fighting aliens (all flying insects) while secretly building a rocket ship in his litter box.

Whazamo! Profiles: Kid Koala

Whazamo! Profiles looks at Kid Koala, who kicks off the TCAF celebrations tonight with his Loud Party.
He's also about to release Space Cadet, a graphic novel told through 120 white-on-black etchings, about a a girl who was raised by a guardian robot, to become a famous space explorer. Find out more about Kid Koala's latest comics below!

Name: Eric San

Hometown: Montreal, Quebec

Website: www.kidkoala.com

Role: illustrator, scratch dj, diaper changer

Latest Work: Space Cadet

What’s It About in a Nutshell: Parenthood and space travel

The super line-up with Whazamo! inspires us to ask: what would be your superpower?

Flight (Never wait for a bus or streetcar again).
38%
Invisibility (Hey, what you do with it is up to you).
22%
Super-Speed Reading. (Finally a way to get through all those books!)
19%
Mind-Bullets.
22%

As seen at Free Comic Book Day

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Last weekend on Saturday it was Free Comic Book Day around the world (as described in my previous post). I had the honour of sitting my butt down & signing comics in front of the Beguiling with a whole wack of amazing Canadian comic creators including Brian McLachlan, Chip Zdarsky, Kate Beaton, Willow Dawson, Ryan North, and Ramon Perez to name a few. Not that I'm a big name dropper, but I was pretty excited to be amongst such talent!

Whazamo! Profiles: Troy Little

Name: Troy Little

Hometown: Summerside, PEI but spent many years living in Ottawa.

Website: www.meanwhilestudios.com

Role: writer / artist (sometimes publisher).

Latest Work: Angora Napkin, IDW Publishing

What’s It About in a Nutshell:

Whazamo! A Softer World Preview

Emily Horne and Joey Comeau, creators of A Softer World get stuck up a tree discussing what their highly popular web comic is all about. Ryan North guest stars in this preview for the full story of "The Making of A Softer World", coming later this week on Whazamo! Look for all 3 creators at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival this weekend.

Free you say?

freecomicbookday.jpg

Free Comic Book Day is this saturday! Yep, free. Just head to your local participating comic book shop, and they'll have a bunch of free comics available from awesome publishers like Drawn & Quarterly, Fantagraphics, Marvel, and DC. These are specially produced editions or collections of comics specifically for the Free Comic Book Day event held around the world. It's a great way of promoting comics and getting folks (including kids) out and into the wonderful world of comics!

Welcome to Whazamo! Ontario Graphic Novel Month

Whazamo! is a cavalcade of all that is excellent in Canadian comics and graphic novels, inspired by the Toronto Comic Arts Festival. Throughout May we will showcase comics by Ontario's independent book publishers, as well as present unique video and interview profiles of the best Canadian cartoonists in bookstores and on the web. Why comics for Open Book: Toronto? Why not! Toronto is a comic-book town.

Whazamo Writer in Residence

Whazamo! May 1 to May 31, 2009

Clayton Hanmer »

Clayton Hanmer_author pic.jpg

Clayton Hanmer (aka CTON) is a Toronto-based illustrator, author and graphic artist. He is the creator of CTON's Corner, a popular feature in OWL Magazine, as well as the author/illustrator of CTON's Super A-Maze-ing Year of Crazy Comics.

LATEST SUBMISSION »

Rodeo Magic, by CTON

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Paul Vermeersch

Trillium Book Awards

Toronto Comic Arts Festival May 9-10 2009 | www.torontocomics.com

About Whazamo

WHAZAMO! is curated by Ian Daffern and produced by Ian Daffern and Tate Young from Vepo Studios.

VEPO STUDIOS

Vepo Studios is an independent production company that develops and produces short films, videos for the arts, culture and publishing industries. You can see more of our work at www.vepostudios.com.