Chris Nolan.ca - I Am

What Comics do Women Read?

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:09:04 EST

One of the things my comic books app is able to do, is level the playing field, so to speak. Much more so than asking a single store what books a certain demographic are buying, we have a top level view of what’s happening and what people are interested in.

At the Paradise Comicon last weekend, I overheard Liana K giving an interview were she spoke passionately about women in comics, both as readers and as creators. I offered to dig into the stats and pull out some info to tell her what women are reading today — and figured why keep it secret?

I have current demographics on just under 47% of my users, and of those 47% almost 19% of them are women. Yes, that’s right, 1 in 5 comic book readers are female.

I wanted to pull out info on what titles and creators women preferred, so if you needed to recommend to a new female reader what to check out, you’d have a good start.

Top 10 Creators for the ladies:

Top 10 Creators for the gents:

To see how they are mixed together, check out the popular creators page (where btw there is only one woman creator in the top 30, Gail Simone).

Top 10 Titles for the ladies:

Top 10 Titles for the gents:

I’ll leave the bulk of the observations to y’all, but let me just say how much Joss Whedon has done for comics by bringing in all his female fans of Buffy to the medium.

Comments are busted here at the moment, so if you’d like to follow-up on this, do so @ the discussion boards for the app.

Paradise Toronto Comic Con and other News

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 01:04:21 EST

Will you be in or around Toronto this weekend? If so, why not stop by the Paradise Toronto Comicon (July 12-13) where we’ll be making our first meatspace appearance!

We look forward to meeting you all and jabbing about the app, where it’s headed, what you’d like to see (or not see). I might even shower for the occasion and break my new record (soap’s overrated don’t you… wait off topic).

Note: booth #’s haven’t been assigned yet, so look for the large banner or the space where all the un-cool people are hanging out.

Swag for 100 existing users

As a reward to our loyal fans, we’ve done up a special run of 100 ‘tote bags’ to be bestowed upon the first 50 (well maybe 49 cause we might keep some for ourselves ;->) of you who visit our booth each day (the con runs Saturday and Sunday). I’ve posted a mock-up of one for you to take a peak at, and please be gentle with the comments — I code, I don’t Illustrate.

What could be handier for carry around all the books you’ll score? Well, I suppose one of those granny carts with some long-boxes might be…

If you can, try to remember your facebook password (don’t write it down, your sysadmin would scold you) so you can login at the booth to do a quick double-check that you are, indeed a registered user (or just jot down your facebook uid (that # that shows on your profile address)) or ‘become a fan’ so your picture will be in the list.

Other ways to Enjoy

Over on my personal blog I list all the guests at the show with links back to their page here.

Discovered a new artist you didn’t know about? Add them to your pull list.
Bought an indie title you haven’t been able to find anywhere else? Add it to your permanent collection.
Find a real gem? Recommend it to your friends or write a review.

As part of our prep for the convention, I recently re-did the about page so you might want to take a peak at that, ‘become a fan’ or ‘write a review’ or scroll through the long list of accolades I put up and think to yourself “I wish I said that”.

Also, I’ve done the first of a planned series of ‘screencasts’ where I take you through different features of the application. The first one is really basic and I take you through pulling by title and by creator.

Photos

We hope to be able to document the convention a bit, so I’ve made a Photo Album to keep the memories in. Who knows, maybe we’ll even be able to update over the weekend from the show itself?
There is a feature there to ‘add fan photos’ so if you take any of us (or heck even with our banner far in the background) upload it in!

Those of you who don’t want to meet us, you might want to head out near the airport to the Polaris (formerly ‘Toronto Trek’) SF & Fantasy Convention. We won’t take it too personal. We might hunt you down after to avenge our shattered hearts though! Or, maybe we’ll wait. And wait until you least expected it…

AND!

If you’re still reading, get yourself ready for next weeks beta launch of the New Facebook profiles (which means I’m going to have the app down for a short while at some point to add an extra server to the cluster to handle things (see — now that it’ll be 2 servers I can call it a cluster — fancy eh?))!

— reposted

Creators at the Paradise Toronto Comicon July 12-13 Part 4 (N-Z)

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 18:17:35 EST

Check out the list of creators at this weekend’s Paradise Toronto Comicon.

Pat Davidson Unable to Attend

Pat Davidson inks. He has been inking, mostly for Marvel comics since 2003. Pat’s last Project was the adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island for the Marvel Illustrated line. Pat has recently relocated to Saskatoon, he misses Toronto. More information can be found at Pat’s Website http://www.patdavidson.ca

Pat Olliffe

According to Pat 2008 is my 21st year in this crazy business. Over the years I’ve worked for such companies as, Malibu, Eternity, and TSR, spending the last 17 years working primarily for Marvel and DC. Some of the titles I’ve provided the artwork for are Thor, Nomad, Warlock and The Infinity watch, She Hulk, Untold tales of Spider-Man, Marvel Team-up, Spider-Girl, Namor, The Punisher and Spider-Man 2 movie adaptations, The Last Hero and Last Planet Standing mini series, Firestorm, JSA, 52, The Four Horsemen mini series, and am now currently the regular artist on The Atom. I currently live in Pittsburgh with my wonderful wife Mary and beautiful daughter Ruby.

Ramon Perez

Ram?n most current mainstream work can be seen in JSA: Classifieds 35-37 featuring Wildcat in a story that spans the both the modern era and the golden age of comics. Ram?n’s other recent sequential work includes volume two of the DEGRASSI: EXTRA CREDIT graphic novels and THE INCREDIBLES for Dark Horse Comics.
The remainder of Ram?n’s professional catalogue includes ?FEAR THIS BOOK!’ a children’s book published through Maple Tree Press as well as various Role-Playing Games, Collectible Card Games and related publications. A veteran of the gaming industry he has worked on RIFTS, MUTANTS & MASTERMINDS, IN NOMINE, L5R and STAR WARS amongst many others. He is also a regular contributor in the pages of both DRAGON and DUNGEON Magazines
Ram?n a creator in his own right is one part of the daring duo behind the peculiar slice-of-life Shuster Award nominated comic BUTTERNUTSQUASH as well as sole author of the quirky otherworldly adventure comic KUKUBURI, the story of a girl, her lizard and a doorway to a world in-between reality.
http://www.kukuburi.com
http://www.butternutsquash.net
http://www.calaverakid.com
http://www.kukuburi.com

Ray Fawkes

Ray has been writing professionally since 2001. His comic book works include the critically acclaimed SPOOKSHOW, collected by Cyberosia Publishing in 2003, THE APOCALIPSTIX with Cameron Stewart (Seaguy, Hellblazer), and MNEMOVORE, a horror title for DC/VERTIGO with Hans Rodionoff (Lovecraft) and Mike Huddleston (The Coffin, Deep Sleeper). He has two books forthcoming in 2008 and 2009: A full graphic novel of THE APOCALIPSTIX for Oni Press, and JUNCTION TRUE with Vince Locke for Top Shelf Publishing.
His intense, dark style has already garnered acclaim from comic fans and professional contemporaries alike. Reviews have declared his work to be “distinctive…intelligent and sharply written” (PopImage) and “haunting intriguing with a hint of noir” (Cold Cut spotlight Review).
He was nominated for a Shuster award as “Outstanding Canadian Comic Book Writer” in 2006 for his work on MNEMOVORE.
http://www.rayfawkes.com/

Richard Zajac

Richard Zajac has been working in comics for 4 years and has been published by various companies. After his run on Devil Due’s G.I. Joe: America’s Elite, Special Missions and Dreadnoks, he ha srecently done a short stint inking for Big City Comics and is an ink assistant for vetern inker Mark McKenna. He has published his own book, Thoughtless as both writer and inker. He keeps busy with pencilling, inking, writing, commissions, and charity work as a Canadian Representative for the Hero Initiative.
http://www.arponline.com/zajac/gallery/gallary.htm

Rob Coughler

what can you say about rob that hasn’t already been written on a bathroom wall. he’s like a dirty limerick with a happy ending. one minute he’s sweet as pie, then he throws out a quip that would make dr. ruth blush. by day he tolls in the numerous jobs he may have at any given time. whether it be coffee whore, adult store sexpert, actor, writer, colourist or occassional radio personality. these are all liable to change at any given moment. rob and ram?n have been friends for far too long and these years coould not be chronicled in any other format but a cartoon.
http://www.butternutsquash.net/

Salgood Sam

Max Douglas, aka Salgood Sam, is a Canadian illustrator and sequential artist with over 15 years professional experience. He has produced numerous editorial, narrative & commercial illustrations for a diverse range of publishers, such as Byron Press Multimedia, Appelberg Publishing Agency, Ericsson, CitatJG, Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Kitchen Sink, OPi8.com, Alternatives Journal, & the Montreal MIRROR. 2007 saw the release of Therefore Repent! With Jim Munroe A tale set in the Chicagoland area after The Rapture. In the tradition of The Book of Revelations, it’s a pretty wild dark fantasy tale filled with demons and swords and blood.
For more info go to
http://www.salgoodsam.com/

Sam Agro

Sam Agro is a Toronto based storyboard artist, illustrator and writer. Sam has created storyboards for hundreds of television commercials, and dozens of feature films, including Murder at 1600, Fly Away Home, and several installments of the Saw horror series.
Sam has also laboured extensively as a storyboard artist on animated shows, such as John K’s The Ripping Friends. In the comics field Sam has worked as writer and artist for Mr. Comics recent Planet of the Apes series, and for publisher Mark Innes’ new compilation The Comic Eye.
Sam has been writing stories for DC’s Looney Tunes title for the last five years, and his art can also be seen in Mark San Giacomo’s Tales of the Starlight Drive-In. Now Sam has teamed up with Crystal Fractal Comics publishing, supplying art for the upcoming Project:Epsilon London Town.

SCOTT CHANTLER

Scott Chantler is an acclaimed graphic novelist known for works such as Scandalous,Days Like This, and Northwest Passageas well as a popular commercial illustrator, whose past and present clients include McDonald’s, Reebok, Macy’s, Rogers, Kroger, and Wiley & Sons, as well as such publications as The New York Daily News, The National Post, The Toronto Star, Maclean’s, Atlanta Magazine, and Cottage Life. He is currently working on a relaunch of the acclaimed Image Comics series Hawaiian Dick, and a graphic novel adaptation of his grandfather’s 1943 war diary.
http://www.scottchantler.com/

Scott Hepburn

Scott’s art career includes illustrating numerous RPG books for White Wolf Publishing, and providing lead artistic duties for the Yalsa-nominated graphic novel series Sentinel from Marvel Comics. He provides the art for the new Star Wars comic series Vector, which begins in Star Wars: Knight’s of the Old Republic #25. Scott is also currently creating the online graphic novel ?The Port?
http://www.transmission-x.com/
http://kennethjunior.blogspot.com/

Scott Wegener

Scott Wegener lives in New Hampshire with his wife Dorinda and their 7yr old Widget. He is the co-creator and artist of Atomic Robo. He has most recently worked on Punisher War Journal for Marvel, and has worked on several anthologies for Image Comics. Scott shares his small studio with a poet, a washer/dryer, and a box of dust that used to be his three-legged cat.

Sean Ward

Sean Ward is an entertainer, writer, producer, director, rapper, artist, cartoonist, and master of ceremonies. A few years ago, his consciousness received an instant message that basically said “Time is ticking by and you’ve wasted enough of it. You have a lot to do and it’s time to get serious.” The very next day he stopped showing up to work and became an Artist full time. He had no money and no education and his family & friends thought he was crazy.
Sean started out by hand-selling copies of his photocopied mini-comics to passers-by on the street in order to eat & pay the rent. He quickly built an army of fans as he became a staple of Toronto’s Queen West strip. Over the next three years his release parties grew into elaborate multi-media presentations featuring comics music and a series of semi-autobiographical short films. These events attracted the attention of the producers of Canada’s #1 late-night program - Ed & Red’s Night Party - for which he currently serves as a writer associate producer and performer. Sean also serves as Art Director on Ed and Red’s Comic Strip.
http://www.seanward.net/

Serge Lapointe

It can be said that Serge LaPointe is the best comic book inker in Verdun. After toiling for years in obscurity as an unappreciated apprentice, Serge earned his well deserved reputation while inking commercial GI Joe toy projects for Hasbro, and made his leap to stardom in the critically lauded and critically late Ghostbusters: Legion. His hard work and dedication finally paid off when he landed the job as the inker of the Batman Begins Movie Adaptation for DC Comics. More high profile work is sure to follow. I loved my run on Ultimate X-Men with Yanick Paquette, hopefully we’ll work together again soon, and my current project, Teen Titans : Year One with Karl Kerschl, is a labor of love
http://www.sergelapointe.com/profile.htm
http://www.sergelapointe.com/

Shane Kirshenblatt

Shane Kirshenblatt is the founder of Freefall Entertainment, a Toronto-based publishing company formed with the goal of establishing a unique line of titles for both print and digital distribution. The first of these titles is Kirshenblatt’s own creation Dorothy Gale Journey to Oz (a dark and surreal twist on the classic Oz stories by L. Frank Baum) which showcases his talents as both author and illustrator. While working hard to complete this series, Kirshenblatt dedicates much time and effort assembling creative teams to develop new story concepts, working for the past 10 years as a freelance illustrator (Happy Worker, Sears Canada) and passing on his skills and knowledge as an instructor of the comic arts for both private and after-school programs in and around the GTA. He has designed the Comics and Animation program currently running at Zodiac Swim and Specialty Camp and has been involved in coordinating our own Comics for Kids event since June of 2007.
http://www.freefallcomics.com/home.htm

Shawn Smith

Shawn Smith (writer of “Project: Epsilon London Town” and “Magus Rex” as well as the co-writer on “Velvet Angel”) will be there as well but remains an enigma without a bio…

Steven Molnar

Steven Molnar is a Canadian artist who has illustrated comics for Marvel, Wildstorm/DC and a number of independent publishers. His latest work can be seen in the upcoming Hoverboy#1 from Canadian publisher Mr. Comics
http://www.stephenmolnar.com/home.html
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=82528354

Stuart Sayger

currently living in Indianapolis Indiana
He describes himself as: A professional illustrator who works primarially in the comic book industry. I create the comic book SHIVER IN THE DARK ( www.shiverinthedark.com )as well as illustrate the BIONICLE comic book for DC based on the Lego toy line. I also produce alot of art for the UPPERDECK card game “VS”. I enjoy just about any 2-D art. Can you draw..? Will you try..? I’m most interested in 20th century Illustration… But I also like alot of the old masters ( I like Henry Fuscelli very well… but Anthony Van Dyke is my fav!)

Paradise Conventions is happy to announce the artist of our 2008 Program Cover

Tom Fowler

Tom Fowler is a Canadian born comic artist. He has pencilled the DC comics titles Green Arrow and Caper, partnered with writter Judd Winick. Tom’s other work includes the Star Wars: Jengo Fett comic and issues of Mr. Comics’ Revolution on the Planet of the Apes comic.
Tom currently works as a cartoonist for MAD MAGAZINE, and also as an artist on Justice League Unlimited
http://bigbugillustration.blogspot.com/

Ty Templeton

In his own words Ty was born into a family of show business Gypsies in the wilds of downtown Canada back in the Sixties, and it’s never worn off. He mis-spent his youth reading comics and now makes them for a living, writing or drawing pretty well every major character at Marvel and DC at some point. Recently, he’s put his grubby fingers all over HOWARD THE DUCK, the SIMPSONS, Vertigo’s THE EXTERMINATORS, AVENGERS ADVENTURES, the SUPER-FRIENDS, Harvey Pekar’s AMERICAN SPLENDOR, SPIDER-MAN and the HUMAN TORCH, and the PLANET OF THE APES, but if you ask him nicely, he still remembers how to draw Wolverine.”
http://www.templetons.com/ty/

Tyrone Mccarthy

Tyrone McCarthy is a freelance illustrator. He has worked with such clients as The Wall Street Journal, Washington Times, Owl Magazine, Canadian Sportsman, Today’s Parent, US Banker, Golf Canada and Game Developer Magazine. Currently, he has put his indy comic Corduroy High on hold to work on his new comic titled Tyne. Tyne is about the personal life of a rookie female assassin. Other comic works include Drawing the Line Again & Ed the Sock’s Ed & Red’s Comic Strip. Tyrone graduated from Ontario College of Art and Design, majoring in Illustration.
www.CorduroyHigh.com

Valentine De Landro

In his own words Valentine De Landro is a Toronto-based illustrator who has been working in the comic book industry since 2000. He has worked for several publishers including Dark Horse Comics, Devil’s Due Publishing and Marvel Comics. His publishing history includes the G.I. Joe: Declassified mini-series written by Larry Hama and a year-long run on Marvel Knights: 4.
His work can be found in upcoming issues of X-Factor for Marvel Comics.
http://www.valentinedelandro.com

Vatche Mavlian

Vatche has been a freelance illustrator for over ten years. He has worked for Marvel and Dark Horse among the many independents in and out of the comicbook industry. His work brings a fresh take to today’s comics and has been compared to the likes of Frank Frazetta, Mark Shultz, Al Williamson and Bernie Wrightson
http://www.vatchemavlian.com/
(VATCHE WILL ONLY BE AT THE SHOW SUNDAY JULY 13)

Will Conrad

Was born in 1973 in Belo Horizonte,Brazil.
According to Will : I got my first regular job as an inker on Buffy the Vampire Slayer — Dark Horse. After that, I got all sorts of inking jobs: Angel, Scorpion King, Lady Death, Superman among a lot others.
After that, I started getting more and more pencil work, and have never stopped working since. Elektra, Outsiders, Emma Frost, Witches, She Hulk, Star Wars, Red Sonja, Freshmen, Serenity, Conan, Kull, among a lot others are some of the titles I have worked on.
Will is presently working on SERENITY: BETTER DAYS for Dark horse and will soon be working on A new KULL series

Yanick Paquette

Yanick Paquette has drawn comics for both DC and Marvel from his studio in Montreal. Among the titles he has worked on are: Adventures of Superman ,Avengers ,Codename Knock-Out,Gambit,Gen__, JLA,Negation, Power Company ,Superman: The Man of Steel, Terra Obscura, Transmetropolitan: Filth of the City, Seven Soldiers: The Bulleteer, Wonder Woman,Civil War: X-Men,Ultimate X-men. He is the current regular artist on the new series:Young X-Men
For more info: http://www.myspace.com/yanickpaquette

Creators at the Paradise Toronto Comicon July 12-13 Part 3 (K-M)

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 18:12:09 EST

Check out the list of creators at this weekend’s Paradise Toronto Comicon.

Joseph O’Brien

Joseph O’Brien’s screenwriting credits include the miniseries Robocop: Prime Directives and the thriller Papertrail. His first foray into comic books, the miniseries Revolution on the Planet of the Apes, garnered him a 2006 Shuster Award nomination for Best Writer. He is a regular contributor to both Rue Morgue and Fangoria magazines, and his short horror fiction appears in the award-winning anthologies (hailed as ?essential? by genre legend Clive Barker) Queer Fear and Queer Fear II.
He is presently at work on two original horror comics: NIGHT (with Attila Adorjany) and OCTOBER O’NEILL.
Find out more at
http://www.joseph-obrien.com.

Kalman Andrasofszky

Kalman has worked for has worked for DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Image Comics, and Devils Due Productions. He’s produced art and covers for such titles as Action Comics, The Outsiders, Satana, Vampirella, Gi Joe, Put the Book Back on the Shelf, and Vengeance of the Mummy.
He’s produced a particularly massive volume of art for Wizards of the Coast’s various Roleplaying game lines including Dungeons & Dragons, Star Wars, and D2O Modern.
In 2003 he designed and illustrated the comic book series iCandy for DC. Most recently he’s completed runs of cover art for DC’s ION, and Checkmate series, and is hard at work on a brand new, top secret Marvel project.
Find out more about Kalman at http://www.horhaus.com/v4/kalman-andrasofszky/

Karl Kerschl

Karl Kerschl has been drawing comics professionally for 14 years. He has worked on Superman, The Flash, Robin and the Teen Titans, among other heroic things, and recently self-published a graphic novella for the band Ragni, which he wrote and drew. He is currently working on an original graphic novel and living with his girlfriend in Montr?al. They have two very demanding and overweight cats, both of whom are French-Canadian.
More of Karl’s work can be seen at http://www.karlkerschl.com.
http://www.transmission-x.com

Ken Lashley

Ken is a Toronto based artist and designer best know for his creation and work with Draxhall Jump Entertainment. Draxhall is a Toronto based Illustration Concept Design and Idea company with a diverse set of clients all over the Globe. Over the past 10 years Draxhall Jump has been recognized as one of the industries most effective think tanks. Draxhall has done a wide-variety of work for such world brands as Hasbro, the NFL, Fox Sports, Warner Brothers, LucasFilm, Lucas Licensing and The Toronto Blue Jays to name a few. Ken has also worked penciling for D.C, Image and Marvel on such titles as Excalibur, Wetworks, Ascension, Flash, Black Panther, Super Girl, and Firestorm just to name a few.
(SUNDAY ONLY) http://www.draxhall.com/kenlashley/

Ken Wheaton

Ken has inked stories in Bart Simpson Comics, The Simpsons Winter Wing Ding, Bart Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror, and Radioactive Man for Bongo. He worked on the Official Adaptation of Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol, the revival of I Dream of Jeannie, and El Mucho Grande-Wrestler for Hire, all for Airwave Comics. He’s also inked issues of The Phantom and Kolchak:The Night Stalker (Moonstone Comics), Jetta and Lucha Pop (Airwave), and inked recent and upcoming stories for Negative Burn (Desperado), Futurama (Bongo), and has drawn several upcoming covers for Moonstone, including Buckaroo Banzai and Domino Lady.
http://kenwheaton.com

Kent Burles

Kent was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in 1955, moving at the age of nine to Montreal. From filling every available page with doodles at the age of two, my parents shared encouraging words and enrolled me in Art classes at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. My interest in art lead me to complete my Art History degree at McGill University. desire for further training in a more practical way motivated me to move to Toronto in 1979 where another chapter in my artistic life began. I completed the Illustration program at Sheridan College in Brampton, Ontario. I was involved in creating a series of Planet of the Apes comic books with Malibu Comics as well as a series called the Adventurers. My work can be found in many role playing games by Fasa, Steve Jackson, White Wolf and recently Palladium Books, such as Anvil Galaxy and Rifts. http://www.artincanada.com/kentburles/

Kurt Lehner

Kurt Lehner is a Canadian Illustrator & Animation Artist. He was born in Toronto, & ever since his childhood, has had an absolute passion for Comic Book & Fantasy Art. A graduate from the Ontario College of Art & Design in Toronto, his career started in Advertising. Working for such companies as TDF, ADS & J. Walter Thompson, he soon found his path into the Animation Industry. Through his talents, he has work on projects for such companies as Walt Disney, Warner Bros., Marvel, Dreamworks, Nelvana Studios & many more…
Kurt’s extensive talents as a Senior Character Designer & Development Artist on Such familiar shows as Gargoyles, The Rescue Heroes, All Dogs Go To Heaven 2, Space Jam, W.I.L.D. Cats, Cadillac’s and Dinosaurs, Beauty and the Beast - The Enchanted Christmas, Rupert, The Marvel Action Hour, Ned’s Newt & the Development Design of Franklin the Turtle

Leonard Kirk

Leonard is an American born comic book artist living in Canada. He has worked on such properties as Supergirl, JSA, Star Trek, Batman, and Witchblade.
Leonard is currently exclusively signed for Marvel Comics.
Kirk first broke into the comics field pencilling issue #5 of the Malibu Comics title Dinosaurs for Hire and issue #1 of Captain Canuck vol.2. He then went on to pencil Star Trek: Deep Space Nine comics for Malibu.
In 1995, he began working with Marvel, penciling the Barbara Kesel penned Ultragirl miniseries.
In 1997, he began a long association with DC Comics, beginning with a nearly 60 issue run on the Peter David written Supergirl series. Following that, he penciled the Dan Jolley written Bloodhound, which was canceled in under the year.He penciled the new Fred Van Lente written Scorpion story in the Marvel anthology title Amazing Fantasy.
Following that, he illustrated the acclaimed humorous miniseries, Freshmen, written by Seth Green and Hugh Sterbakov, for Top Cow.He returned for a year to work at DC, filling in on Aquaman and doing the One Year Later Batman storyline Face the Face, running through Batman and Detective Comics.
In 2002/2003 Leonard Kirk worked with Jon Bryans on a mini-series called Nature’s Guard. This was the first generation of N Guard. It was published by Warpton Comics.Later in 2006, Kirk signed an exclusive deal with Marvel Comics, his first project being a five issue Jeff Parker written Agents of Atlas miniseries, which included Wakandan-born S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, Derek Thanaka from the Scorpion story he penciled in Amazing Fantasy.
Marvel has proceeded to assign him to pencil Marvel Adventures: The Avengers (from issue #13 onwards), Spiderman Family, and a fill-in for the World War Hulk storyline in The Incredible Hulk #108.
http://leonardkirk.comicbloc.com/

Liana K

Liana K is the first female co-host in Ed’s 21 year history, and she’s also the first co-host to match Ed the Sock’s legendary lightning wit. Before she started wowing Ed viewers with her wild energy and wit as co-host, Liana guided the show’s proceedings offstage as the show’s senior producer and co-head writer. However, comics fans may know her better as Power Girl, Ms Marvel or Poison Ivy, since she has a separate fan following for her convention costumes.
Since she could walk, Liana has combined a thirst for education and knowledge with being active as a performer. And her now infamous immersion in geek culture — comic books, sci-fi, fantasy novels, Dungeons & Dragons, video games — continues unabated
Liana is now the editor of, and contributor to, the show’s spin-off comic, Ed and Red’s Comic Strip. She is also developing her own independent project, entitled The Vessel.
http://www.edthesock.com/

Marc Wolfe

Marc is a superb artist based in Lansing Michigan his
photorealistic style has made many a fan
and confused editor think his work is digital but it’s
all real! Marc specializes mainly in airbrush and
acrylic and has recently adopted oil paint into some
of his work. Some of his comic Pin-ups have proven
to be some of the most Iconic images of todays
favorite characters. Closer to his heart Army Veteran Marc Wolfe has become widely recognized for his incredible artwork honoring the men and women of military and law enforcement. Marc’s deeply patriotic spirit is embodied in these stunning tributes, which have become a source of great inspiration for those who defend their neighborhoods and this nation with their lives.
http://www.marcwolfeart.com/

Marcio Takara

Marcio Takara is a Brazilian artist who has been working with comics, illustrations and graphic design since 2000. Including character design and pinups for small studios in North America, illustrations for advertising companies, and comic books for studios like Marvel (SpiderMan & Fantastic Four: Hard Choices) and Chimaera (Consortium of Justice).
http://www.marciotakara.com/

Mark Sparacio

Mark Sparacio studied sequential art for three years under the legendary Will Eisner at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. While still in school, Sparacio received his first job to do a painting for the movie poster for the United Artist film, ?The Draughtsman’s Contract?, which led to a long run as a freelance illustrator in the advertising industry. As the market for illustration collapsed, the door opened for Sparacio to go back to the medium that is his first love: comic books. As well as doing painted covers for Alpha-Omega’s ?Spirit? comic book, Sparacio has done cover paintings for Billy Tucci’s ?Shi?, DC comic’s ?Green Lantern?, Comic’s Buyers Guide and Alter Ego. He has done paintings for card sets for UpperDeck /DC comics and Topps’ ?Wacky Packages? and ?Garbage Pail Kids?. Sparacio will be penciling the upcoming title ?Liberty Girl? for Heroic Publishing as well as Ken Lillie-Paetz’ ?Elsinore? for Devil’s Due Publishing. He is also developing his own Sci-Fi/ superhero comic and hopes to find a publisher soon. Sparacio lives with his wife and two sons on Long Island, New York.

Matthew Mohammed

Matt Mohammed is Canadian writer and self-publishes a comic book called ?The Black Bastard,? which features a brand of racial satire and humor he compares to ?Chappelle’s Show.?, he is a non descript meter reader by day But after the sun sets he becomes THE BLACK BASTARD
http://www.comicworldnews.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi?column=interviews&page=141

Michael Bocianowski

“YETS!” is the newest release by artist/author Michael Bocianowski.
Enter the Omniverse an unusual world with a talking Guinea Pig who is the captain of the great ship Niagara a feisty dog who is quite convinced that he is a Chihuahua (though no one knows where he got that idea) and the fantastic Yets who come in many shapes and sizes. These Yets haven’t decided on the name of their species “yet”
…but whatever you do DON’T CALL THEM DRAGONS (no matter what they look like)!
You will find all sorts of critters great and small romping their way through this beautiful
and prolifically illustrated work. Truly a story for all ages.
“YETS!” is the premiere book of Mike’s second published series.
Many enjoy his first published work the five volume series “Chuck the Ugly American” that was launched in 1998
Mike has been working/publishing since 1998he produces limited edition sculptures and limited edition prints and has taught Animation and Comics Drawing full time at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania for 5 and a half years. .
His Website is: http://www.artistmb.com

Michael Cho

Michael is a freelance cartoonist/illustrator based in Toronto. For 3 years, he drew the popular Max Finder Mysteries children’s comic feature for Owl magazine, which has recently been collected into 3 volumes. His comic story NIGHT TIME was a finalist for a 2005 Canadian Magazine Award. He’s also written and illustrated other comics which have appeared in NEGATIVE BURN, and PROJECT ROMANTIC. He’s also inked MY DEAD GIRLFRIEND for Eric Wight and Tokyopop and a Robin and Kid Flash story for the recent “Justice League: The New Frontier Special” that came out from DC. Right now Michael is currently hard at work on a graphic novel of short stories which he calls his baby as well as another children’s graphic novel about the adventures of a monkey in outer space. blog at: http:/ at: http://chodrawings.blogspot.com and his monthly webcomics at http://transmission-x.com

Creators at the Paradise Toronto Comicon July 12-13 Part 2 (E-J)

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 18:11:32 EST

Check out the list of creators at this weekend’s Paradise Toronto Comicon.

Ed The Sock

Ed is a true rag-to-riches story.
Debuting in 1987 on a local cable-access show in Toronto, Ed has steadily ascended from novelty character to become Canada’s most-loved and most successful pop culture hero and celebrated wit.
While his merchandise may sell out, Ed hasn’t. Among viewers, Ed the Sock has maintained a credibility that is unmatched. Ed’s ability to tell it like it is without resorting to shock-jock tactics, his skill at ‘keeping it real’ with the biggest names in show business and his rare talent at mixing edgy humour with stinging commentary has earned him the respect and love of a nation of TV viewers. Not a bad accomplishment for a TV personality, an incredible accomplishment for a sock puppet.
No wonder the Globe and Mail newspaper listed Ed as one of the 40 most Influential People in Canadian media.
http://www.edthesock.com/
and his beautiful co host

Eric Kim

Eric was born in 1977 and learned to love drawing under coffee tables. He has always loved drawing, and has always loved comics. It would come to reason that he would eventually combine the two and create a super-ultimate-love that would rock the heavens. It would be a chance meeting with J. Torres in 2003 at the bi-annual T.C.A.F. that would result in Eric’s involvement in the world of comics. He has been grateful ever since. And now having worked on projects like Degrassi: The Next Generation, Extra Credit Vol. 3 and Love as a Foreign Langauge he currently makes a comic called the Sidesteppers for Owl Magazine, and can usually be with coffee mug in hand.
Having worked both in the commercial and comics industry his client list includes Dynamic Forces, Electronic Boutique Games, Kayak Magazine, Marvel Entertainment Group, Ministry of Environment Canada, Owl Magazine, Toronto Star, and Udon Entertainment
http://www.inkskratch.com/

Eva Hopkins

Eva Hopkins has been in the comic industry for almost 9 years. Her primary employment is as colorist on Dawn & office goddess for Linsner.com. 2005 marks her solo comics debut with the B & W short story anthology Fear of Flight. Featuring dazzling art by Linsner, the Fillb?ch Brothers, Kevin J. Taylor & Jeff Lafferty, Fear of Flight is a collection of 5 stories, all written by Eva, & is 40 pages of B & W indie comics goodness - on sale at the Luna Muse Studios table. Luna Muse Studios is Eva’s new studio. She will be able to play there. It’s still very much in development, being new like it is.
Fear of Flight is one of a recent small wave of comics that have been digitally printed. Eva thinks digital printing is keen, & will allow indie creators greater control over small-run projects, giving even a mini-comic the chance to shine.
Eva’s current focus of attention is the 2008 debut of the co-creation between her & Dawn’s Joseph Michael Linsner, Dark Ivory A goth brunette teenage bloodsucker, think “My So-Called Life As a Vampire”. She also has plans for a second short-story anthology & a “Fear of Flight” T-shirt.
http://www.linsner.com/
http://www.lunamusestudios.com/

Francis Manapul

Artist, Legion of Super-Heroes (DC Comics) Was born in Manila, Philippines on August 26th, 1979 and moved to Toronto with his family in 1989. Francis works out of his home studio in Toronto and enjoys movies, music, poker and video games when he isn’t at the drawing table.
Francis began his career at the age of eighteen with a book published by SLG Publishing called “Love in Tights”. He moved on to Top Cow Productions where he worked on several books including a long successful run on their flagship title Witchblade. Francis collaborated with writer Joshua Ortega to launch the mini-series Necromancer. Beginning in late 2006 he collaborated with creator Jason Rubin (Crash Bandicoot) on his creator owned mini-series called Iron and the Maiden.
In 2007 Francis signed a two year exclusive contract with DC Comics and his first project at DC is the “The Legion of Superheroes” with writer Jim Shooter

Frank Brunner Unable to Attend

Frank Brunner has been a frequent visitor to this third stone from the sun since 1949. On one particularly notable visit in the early 70’s , Frank began working in children’s literature otherwise known as comicbooks! Frank still being a child himself, found a launching pad for his bizzare desires at a place curiously called Marvel Comics!, There, Frank decided to draw the most far-out characters available and naturally gravitated to the weirdos with names like Doctor Strange, Man-Thing, Howard the Duck and Conan the Barbarian. Frank stayed around just long enough to leave Marvel and go on to create or adapt other weird characters like Elric of Melnibone , Lord Cumulus of WARP, and The Seven Samuroid (graphic novel)on the next visit Frank landed in Hollywood and decided Movies were pretty cool to work in, (after all that’s mainly where he got his education about earthlings) Before long Frank found himself as the Art Director and chief Model Designer on shows called Jonny Quest and The Uncanny X-Men, The others were so weird they only lasted one season! ( like ?The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimly) After awhile no one would trust Frank enough to let him Direct a Major Motion picture, So he left….Lately He’s been spotted scouting locations in South Carolina, and occasionally accepts Homework ( wherever that is?) and sends weird drawings to interested parties! Frank’s only motivation to continue with this strange behavior is so that he may remain an outsider, further his studies of earthling bi-peds and pre-hensile tails.
http://www.frankbrunner.net/index2.htm

Greg Land Guest of Honor

Greg is an artist based in Florida, he was born and raised in Indiana, eventually attending Indiana State University. In 1999, Greg Land was doing covers of Birds of Prey based on the sketches of Brian Stelfreeze. Later, Land began to work at CrossGen Comics, on a series called Sojourn. Greg Land was able to move on to Marvel Comics, along with his inker and colorist from Sojourn, after the fall of CrossGen. Originally at Marvel, Land did covers to various series including Black Widow, X-men, Wolverine, Gambit and Spectacular Spider-man to name a few. This led to collaboration with Greg Pak as the main artist of X-Men: Phoenix - Endsong. Next, Land became the penciler for Ultimate Fantastic Four. He did the artwork for a crossover between Marvel’s Supremeverse and the Ultimate Universe, entitled Ultimate Power.

Paradise Conventions is happy to announce in his first Canadian appearance ever and his only Convention appearance of 2008

Herb Trimpe Guest of Honour

One of the most popular artists of the Marvel Age of Comics, Herb Trimpe is most famous for his penciling work on The Incredible Hulk. Other Trimpe projects included Godzilla, Shogun Warriors, and The ‘Nam. In 2002, Trimpe won the Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award for his work as a chaplain at Ground Zero at the World Trade Center after the 9-11 terrorist attacks. He’s written a book on his experience, The Power of Angels: Reflections of a Ground Zero Chaplain.

HOWARD WONG

Howard writes his own biography I am Canadian. I live in Toronto, Ontario with my wife, two daughters and our dog.
I launched my comic book writing career creating the smash hit, 3-issue mini series, After the Cape (Shadowline/Image Comics). Starting in November 2007 the series continues with After the Cape II. I also contributed to a short story for the Grunts (Arcana Comics) trade paperback titled Iron Snake in the Desert. I’m currently working on other projects that hopefully you will be seeing soon.
Before all of that, I wrote skits for variety shows and articles for a school newspaper, while attending university.
http://www.myspace.com/howard_wong
http://www.comicspace.com/howardwong/

J. Korim

J.Korim is a Toronto comic book artist/designer and currently the lead penciller & conceptual artist of Red 5 Comics’ NEOZOIC series. J also drew the cyberpunk series ROTOGIN for Image Comics & Sunscript Studios as well various projects in the video game and film industry. His work can be found here:
http://www.jkorim.ca/
http://www.red5comics.com/
http://www.myspace.com/jkorim

J. Torres

J. Torres is the series writer of Wonder Girl and Teen Titans Go, as well as a contributing writer to Batman Strikes and Legion of Super Heroes in the 31st Century for DC Comics.
His graphic novels include the Eisner Award nominated Alison Dare, the ALA listed Days Like This, the Harvey nominated Sidekicks and the Shuster Award winning Love as a Foreign Language, all published by Oni Press.
His upcoming projects include the Family Dynamic miniseries for DC and new Degrassi: The Next Generation webisodes for Epitome Pictures.

Jack Briglio

Jack Briglio lives in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada with his wife Giulia and his son Lucas. By day, he works as an internet content manager for Canada Post’s communications department, By night, he continues his love for writing, currently scribing issues of Legion of Super-Heroes in the 31st Century and Scooby Doo for DC Comics. He writes Growing Up Enchanted for Too Hip Gotta Go Graphics, a title he co-created and co-publishes with artist Alex Szewczuk, a former Russ Manning nominee. In 2003, Growing Up Enchanted received an Eisner nomination for “Best Title Aimed For a Younger Audience”.

Jeff Lemire

Jeff Lemire is a Toronto based cartoonist. His previous graphic novels include the Alex-Award winning TALES FROM THE FARM, and GHOST STORIES both from Top Shelf. He has also published the 2005 Xeric-Award winning LOST DOGS. His next book THE COUNTRY NURSE will be published in 2008.
One of the Top 10 graphic novels of 2007 according to booklist
GHOST STORIES:
“Lemire handles line and space and transitions between present and past so lyrically and powerfully that this story of two hockey-playing brothers with differing talents and passions for the game is one of the great graphic novels.” — BOOKLIST
http://www.jefflemire.com/comics.htm

Jeffrey Haas

Jeffrey Haas (writer of Crystal Fractal Comics’ “Doctor Twilight” and “Entropy”) has a BA in Anthropology and has worked with chimpanzees and rhesus macaques. He is a second generation comics fan and writer from the doldrums of Rhode Island. He believes comics are our mythology and is excited for the opportunity to continue its tradition. A great comic springs organically from its characters. With a good concept and imagination anything is possible.”
http://crystalfractals.com/

Jeremy Bastian

Jeremy Bastian, born in Ypsilanti MI some 29 and a half years ago, has spent almost every second of those 29 years drawing. He attended the Art Institute of Pittsburgh from the fall of 96 until he graduated in 98. The goal of those two years was to get him closer to his childhood dream of becoming a comic book artist. He is currently working on completing Cursed Pirate Girl for Archaia Studios Press. It is a book that culminates years of striving to accomplish something stylistically different, a nautical fairytale of a girl trying to find her father in a wonderfully strange and dangerous sea.
www.jeremybastian.com
http://www.jeremybastian.com/

Jesse Lam

Jessie Lam is a Toronto-based freelance illustrator/animator doing colours on Red 5 Comics’ “Neozoic” title. Apart from working on other projects in commercials and film she had previously worked with J.Korim on “Rotogin: Junkbotz” for Image Comics and Sunscript Studios. Her debut on the animation front was a short film comedy called “Last Stop” which embodied common horror stories some have had riding on public transit in just one minute. The film could be found here: http://vimeo.com/252114
For more info on her work in Neozoic and other projects:
http://neozoic.blogspot.com
http://axl99.net

Jim Munroe

Jim Munroe is a “pop culture provocateur” according to the Austin Chronicle. After leaving HarperCollins for political reasons he published five books including an Opening Act of Unspeakable Evil and Angry Young Spacemanthe most recent one a post-Rapture graphic novel with Salgood Sam called Therefore Repent! As well as his collection of short videos about videogames Pleasure Circuit Overload he has written videogame journalism for Gamasutra.com eye weekly and theculturalgutter.com. Community projects he has founded include The Perpetual Motion Roadshow an indie touring circuit that sent 100 artists on the road between 2003-2007 and currently he is running the Artsy Games Incubator a writer’s-circle style group facilitating artists without programming skills make videogames.
http://www.nomediakings.org/

Jinky Coronado

This 12-time beauty pageant winner and FHM model is more often known for creating/wiring/drawing BANZAI GIRL, her ongoing BANZAI GIRLS series is published by Arcana Studio. Jinky is also provided the pencils for AVALON HIGH for TokyoPop written by best-selling author Meg Cabot.
http://www.glasshousegraphics.com/banzaigirl/

Jon Bryans

Jon is an Irish born comic book writer who lives in Canada. He started working in the entertainment industry in the early 90’s where he was a freelancer writer, developing stories and characters for many of the major toy companies.
In the late 90’s Jon discovered there was a larger world out there than freelancing. Creating his own development company, Jon began developing properties for the Toy, Comic, Animation/TV and Film industries.
In 2001, Jon was signed by Warpton comics, and they excitedly published his first comic book series ? Nature’s Guard.
After that, Jon began working in the Animation Industry exclusively. Now Jon is an Animation Coordinator for a major animation company. He is active in the development of intellectual properties and has currently written three animated feature film script for them.
Jon is exceptionally proud to be signed with Markosia Enterprises for his N Guard series. Jon has already begun to write the follow up to this first mini-series. He is currently developing a few new properties, Wind Lancers, GoGo Ronin (which he has co-created with Leonard Kirk) just to name a few.
Jon is also working on three new animated feature scripts and a script for a live action film called Horizon Green.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=10926386031

Joseph Michael Linsner Guest of Honor

In 1989 Joseph Michael Linsner created DAWN, a modern take on classic earth Goddess mythology. The smart, scary stories from Joe’s CRY FOR DAWN work are collected in the ANGRY CHRIST COMICS trade. 2003 saw publication of THE ART OF JOSEPH MICHAEL LINSNER, which sold out instantly, & THE VAMPIRE’S CHRISTMAS, a black comedy & Linsner’s most critically acclaimed work. JML has done covers for all the big publishing houses, including cover art for issues #1 ? 7 of Dark Horse’s CONAN THE BARBARIAN comics. In 2006 Linsner did the art for CLAWS, a Marvel mini-series featuring the Black Cat & Wolverine. 2008 sees the debut of DARK IVORY, an unorthodox vampire love story. DARK IVORY is co-created by longtime Linsner collaborator EVA HOPKINS

Creators at the Paradise Toronto Comicon July 12-13 Part 1 (A-D)

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 17:38:35 EST

Check out the list of creators at this weekend’s Paradise Toronto Comicon.

Agnes Garbowska

Agnes Garbowska began her career as an illustrator mainly working on pin-ups and graphic design. Some of her early work appeared as posters for the comic StormBringers by Korby Marks and other small press projects. After working as an independent illustrator, Agnes soon moved into sequential artwork with her first published work appearing in the independent comic the Black Bastard Anthology.Agnes recently finished work on a story for the newest issue of Ed and Red’s Comic Strip planned for release later this year. Agnes is currently working on a few different comic projects that will be published in 2008. Her current projects include a title she is working on with Franco Aureliani for Blindwolf Studios and a four issue run for the Black Bastard title Bastard No More. For the latest information about Agnes including updates on release dates please visit her website at
www.evilrabbit.org

Alana Mccarthy

Alana McCarthy is an award winning illustrator working out of downtown Toronto. She graduated with honours from the illustration program at Ontario College of Art and Design. Her work is punctuated with bright colors, strong contrast, stylized realism and unique lighting. She works in acrylic and delivers digitally. Her clients have included The Wall Street Journal, Loblaws, Milk, Cadbury, Coca Cola, Scholastic, Penguin Books, and Absolut Vodka. Her art has been recognized by such design annuals as Communication Arts, American Illustration and How Magazine.
http://www.alanaland.com/

Alex Perkins

Alex Perkins is a Toronto-based illustrator. A graduate of the Illustration and Advanced Illustration programs at Sheridan College, Alex began his freelance career in 2002. He has worked with clients from around the world contributing to newspapers, print ads and promotions, film, television, the web, and theater providing unique illustration, storyboards, character design, and conceptual art. Alex’s original drawings and paintings are also commissioned by collectors.
http://www.alexanderperkins.com/
http://www.alexanderperkins.com/blog.html

Alexander Serra

Alex Serra lives in Ottawa Ontario and has been an animation storyboard artist for over ten years on such shows as Maya and Miguel, Arthur, and SuperNormal, and is currently the cover artist and one of the pencillers on Legion of Super-Heroes in the 31st Century for DC Comics.”
Mr. Briglio and Mr. Serra have been working for years to break into the comic-book business. They started out publishing their own book Growing Up Enchanted which followed the life of a young girl called Olianna who learns she is a sorceress.
The pair produced four issues of the book before moving on to other projects. Growing Up Enchanted attracted critical acclaim including a nomination for an Eisner Award (the comic-book world’s equivalent of an Academy Award) in the best title for a younger audience category in 2003.

Andy Belanger

In his own words Andy was one of the world’s most prolific hydro meter-readers of our time. Defying all logic, crawling through the city’s vermin-infested bowels, he surmounted all to record the thousands of kilowatt hours. He has since retired his uniform and handheld device to draw comics. But that’s another story?Andy is a comic artist living in Toronto and works out of the R.A.I.D. studio with a bunch of other comic rascals. In April he has two books coming out. A Friday the 13th one shot from Wild Storm written by Joshua FIALKOV and a Werewolf comic titled simply “Wolf” from Moonstone comics written by Grant Sauve. This year he wrote and illustrated promotional comics for “Tracey Fragments” staring Ellen Page and Directed by Bruce McDonald aswell as a horror film called “Jack Brooks Monster Slayer” from Brooks Street Pictures. Andy has also Illustrated numerous kids comics for Rubicon Press including ” Trouble in Tombstone” coming out through Scholastic. In June of 2007 Andy and 10 other creators started the on-line web comic collective Transmission-x where once a week each creator publishes one strip. Andy Does the Horror Romance ” Raising Hell” which is about a jaded couple on the verge of break up thrust into a Halloween Massacre.
You can check out Andy’s stuff at
http://www.deadend56.com and http://www.transmission-x.com

Arthur Dela Cruz

Arthur is a Toronto based freelance writer slash artist. He has had the pleasure of contributing artwork to various industries ranging from comic books, film, magazines and advertising.
He has been working on his Eisner Award nominated comic book series KISSING CHAOS since 2001, and was even listed as one of the Top Ten Comics of the Year at Ain’t it Cool News.
Currently, new KISSING CHAOS material appears online every thursday via transmission-x.com
http://tx.kissingchaos.com
http://kissingchaos.com

Attila Adorjany

Attila is a Toronto based Artist, comic creator, toy designer and concept artist. As a commercial artist His work has appeared in all areas of the print and entertainment industries with credits including work for EA GAMES, TOY 2 R, PAIZO, UPPERDECK, HASBRO , BBDO, WARNER BROS. and work on several mainstream titles and product lines including WARHAMMER, STAR WARS, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, WARCRAFT,
Most recently in the realm of comics Attila has been working on Night with Co-creator and partner in crime Joe O’brien.
http://www.600poundgorilla.com/
http://www.redesignthe.com/

Billy Tucci

Billy Tucci is an illustrator, writer and filmmaker best known for his modern-day samurai fable Shi. Through Billy’s Crusade Fine Arts, the multi-Eisner Award nominated Shi has been printed in four languages and has sold more than 4 million comic books. His warrior-woman has also grossed over 25 million dollars in prints, toys and other merchandise worldwide while garnering several international creative and printing awards.
Shi has been featured on FOX, NBC, and E! television while also gaining recognition in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today. The character has also crossed over with many comic book icons including Daredevil, Witchblade and Wolverine.
Billy is also one of the few comic book creators recognized by Wizard on both their Top Ten Artists and Writers list.
The former paratrooper is also an honorably discharged veteran of the US Army, the New York and Rhode Island National Guards

Brian Mclachlan

Since 2004, Brian McLachlan has been doing his silly webcomic, The Princess Planet, now part of the Toronto comic hub of Transmission-X.com. For Oni Press he authored the graphic novel No Dead Time, an office space/record store/culture jamming/romantic comedy. Brian regularly makes comics for kids in Owl and Nickelodeon Magazine as well as for Nelson textbooks. For adults he’s worked for Vice Magazine, Taddle Creek, Broken Pencil, Coach House Books and Wizards of the Coast.
http://adept.wire-fu.com/

Brian Pulido

Brian Pulido has created and written several hundred comic books including: Lady Death, Evil Ernie, Purgatori, Chastity, Smiley, the Psychotic button, Bad kitty, Jade, Lady Demon, Bedlam, Unholy, War Angel, Mischief Night, Bad Moon Rising, Gypsy, Belladonna and The Undead as well as stories based on New Line Cinema’s A Nightmare on Elm St, Friday The 13th and Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Universals’ Chucky.
As the President of Chaos! Comics, Pulido was the number one independent comic publisher of the 1990’s, achieving over twenty million dollars in sales in eight different languages.
Pulido resides in Arizona with his wife Francisca and their dogs, Raven and Midnight.
For more info, visit:
http://www.BrianPulido.com
http://www.LadyDeathUniverse.com

Cameron Stewart

Cameron is an Eisner Award-nominated Canadian comic artist who has worked for DC, Marvel, and Dark Horse.
Stewart is best known for his work on Catwoman with writer Ed Brubaker, and Seaguy and Seven Soldiers: The Manhattan Guardian with writer Grant Morrison.
October 2006 saw the release of The Other Side, a graphic novel about the Vietnam war illustrated by Stewart (and written by Jason Aaron), for which he travelled to Vietnam for research. The Other Side was nominated for an Eisner Award in the Best Limited Series category of 2007.
In 2007, Stewart created drawings which appeared in a comic book-style animation sequence at the end of the music video for Canadian pop singer Skye Sweetnam’s song “Human” the first single off of her sophomore album Sound Soldier.
www.cameron-stewart.com

Cary Nord

Cary Nord is located in Calgary Alberta and began his career doing superhero comics. He did some short stories and ‘Daredevil’ fill-ins at Marvel, and eventually became the regular artist on the ‘Daredevil’ title. He worked on other Marvel and DC titles, like ‘Mutant X’, ‘The Authority Widescreen’ and ‘Ripley’s Believe It or Not’, until he eventually took on the new ongoing ‘Conan the Barbarian’ series with text by Kurt Busiek at Dark Horse. He is currently working on Ultimate Human for Marvel Comics.

Chip Zdarsky

Chip is a force of nature, in the sense that a light, stinky breeze is a force of nature. His print/online comics include Prison Funnies, Monster Cops and Zdarskyverse. Under his very boring pseudonym ?Steve Murray? he works for the National Post as a cartoonist / columnist, chronicling all sorts of dumb stuff. His regular feature, Extremely Bad Advice, runs every Thursday. He is currently working on a new issue of Prison Funnies, for reals.
http://www.chipstudio.com/

Chris Yambar

Special guest CHRIS YAMBAR has been called everything from an “ugly baby” and “a jackass” to “a one man art factory” and one of the “god fathers of modern indie comics”. Writer, Painter, Publisher, Producer - this guy wears a lot of different hats! When he’s not working as an internationally celebrated pop artist (he’s created over 2100 images and has work in over 100 celebrity estate collections) he’s writing for mainstream titles such as Bart Simpson Comics, Radioactive Man, Tree House of Horror (which he co-wrote with Alice Cooper and KISS bassist Gene Simmons), I Dream of Jeannie, Mister Magoo, Jetta, and Elfquest. In addition to contributing scripts, graphics, and cover art for more titles than we can list here, Yambar has successfully unleashed his own brand of award-winning creator owned character properties including such icons as Mr. Beat, The Fire-Breathing Pope, Itsi Kitsi-Happy Adventure Cat, El Mucho Grande-Wrestler For Hire, Suicide Blonde, Spells, Faith: Warrior Princess, The Twerp & The Blue Baboon, McBride-The Faerie King, Misfits, Life Maxx, Buttler-Everyone’s Favorite Impacted Pup, Meow Wow, Bambeano Boy, and his latest sensation: Suckulina-Vampire Temp.
http://www.yambar.com/

Claudia Davila

Claudia D?vila is a Toronto illustrator and art director. She works primarily on children’s non-fiction books as well as her weekly online comic “Luz: Girl of the Knowing” with Transmission-X. Luz is a kid who’s gathering knowledge to help her community become self-sufficient for when the Oil crisis hits. Claudia also has a mini-comic in print called “Spoiled” an allegory of humankind’s connection to nature during this era of temporary petroleum. Five years in her profession were dedicated to the award-winning children’s magazines Chirp Chickadee and Owl first as Associate Art Director and subsequently as Art Director. Now a freelancer Claudia’s focus rests on illustrating and designing children’s books for Canadian publishers creating comics for activity books and environmental publications and pro bono contributions to non-profit organizations.
http://www.transmission-x.com/luz

Danielle Corsetto

Danielle Corsetto is the brains/boobs behind “Girls With Slingshots” (www.girlswithslingshots.com) a slice-of-life comedy webcomic about two girls a bar and a talking cactus. Danielle now does GWS five times a week and strives to keep the comic subscription- and micropayment-free paying for the domain & workload with donations and merchandise sales. She’s been a self-employed freelance cartoonist and illustrator since March 2005 and doesn’t plan on wearing a nametag/khakis/uniform ever again. She also wrote & drew “The New Adventures of Bat Boy” for the Weekly World News after Peter Bagge until the mag went tits-up. Besides drawing comics (which she’s been doing since she was eight) Danielle likes to travel camp out hike drink tea sip girly drinks at the local bar sew and photograph. She has two cats a fish and a Girl Scout troop.
www.girlswithslingshots.com

Dave Campiti

Dave is the comics writer and head honcho of the Glass House Graphics studio/agency who has, in his 25+ years in the comic-book industry, been a writer, a freelance editor, a designer, a packager, an editor-in-chief, a publisher, and an agent.Today, David oversees three offices in Brazil and one in Manila, coordinating art from a roster of more than 100 talents worldwide — to produce art and digital graphics for Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, Chaos, Dynamite, Top Cow, IDW, Harcourt Achieve, 360ep, and other companies. He teaches seminars throughout the U.S. Brazil, and the Philippines on a regular basis, and is and is responsible for launching the professional careers of more than 100 artists in the past 26 years.
Dave will be doing Portfolio Reviews all weekend.
http://www.glasshousegraphics.com/

Dave Ross

Dave Ross is a Canadian comics artist who has mainly published in the USA. He was an artist of the series ‘Rai’ at Valiant, and worked on such Marvel titles as ‘Avengers West Coast’, ‘Marvel Knights: Daredevil’ and ‘Inhumans’. At DC, he has worked on ‘JLA’ and ‘Birds of Prey’.
Dave Ross is also a teacher at Toronto’s Max the Mutt Animation School.
Dave is presently penciling Star Wars: Dark Times for Dark Horse Comics.
Dave Ross lives in Downtown Toronto with his wonderful wife Judi.

David Petersen

David Petersen is the creator of the twice Eisner nominated Mouse Guard series published by Archaia Studios Press. In 2007 David won the Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer award. As David was born and raised in Michigan, Mouse Guard continues to be a love letter to his home state featuring it’s landscape and seasonal weather. David lives in Michigan with his wife Julia and their Anatolian Shepherd ‘Autumn’
http://www.mouseguard.net
http://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/

Derrek Lennox

Derrek Lennox is the creative drive behind the Crystal Fractal Universe. So far, balancing his roles as Editor-In-Chief, Acting Publisher, Head Writer and Character Designer hasn’t been easy — but it has been fun!
For now, Derrek is the Editor for the entire line of books. He acted as head writer for all of the story bibles for the current line of books - as well as a few upcoming surprises! He wrote the script for Crystal Fractal Universe 0.0 and will be taking on the writing chores for Redorik, the Emissary limited series and is co-writing Velvet Angel. Sometimes he wishes he was an immortal.
Derrek lives in Toronto with his wife and two kids who are too young to read these books yet.

Comic Books on Facebook

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 13:09:15 EST

I suck at documentation and hype, but with our appearance @ the Paradise Toronto Comicon this weekend I’ve got to do some of it. I’ve updated the About page with the following:

Eliminating layers between Creator and Fan, Publisher and Retailer

Features

Build your “pull list” by title and/or creator to be notified of what comics are due in stores each weekly as well as when new solicitations are released so you can be sure they are on order @ your local comic shop.
Manage your collection: keeping track of what editions you own, and have read; which are your favourites — be it the book itself or just the awesome full-size cover.
Show off your collection on your profile and add to the system any back issues we don’t yet have.
Stay on top of what your friends are reading, liking and remarking on
Remark: review, comment, discuss, recommend anything in the system. (Well — not just yet!)
View Previews of comics before they hit the shelves
Follow Storylines to keep track of those massive cross-overs and tie-in events, or just the few issue arc within your favourite titles

For Publishers & Creators

Add the app to your Facebook Page to easily share with your fans what comicbooks you have due or are upcoming.

For Bloggers

Embed comics into your blog and website to enrich the experience of your readers as well as save you time.

For Comic Shops

Coming Soonish!

Accolades

“It’s one of the best apps facebook has, i think. Keep up the good work. I can’t wait to see the wonders it’ll do once it goes golden release.” — Kevin Chung
“Best Facebook Application EVER!” — Andrew Muir
“I’m loving this app! ” — Andy Riggins
“I’m really enjoying this application. I’ve always enjoyed showing off my collection.. I’m having a lot of fun adding issues to my collection here :)” — Michael Eshom
“Love this app!!! Whoever set this up, you have done a great job!!” — Dan Danielian
“This is a great application….cant wait to see it really take off” — TJ Shevlin
“THIS IS AWESOME!!” — Elizabeth S. James
“Thanks for this…really.” — Morgan Jeske
“Seriously, this is the best thing anyone’s ever come up with for this place! Thank you soooo much!” — Eric Kim
“i absolutely LOVE this application. ive been waiting for this. THANK YOU!” — Geno Mehalik
“Wow! Someone actually came up for a practical application of an application. Great work!” — Robert Rousseau
“Thanks so much for this great application. So far this is the only truly useful application on facebook.” — Stephen Abrams
“This is easily my favorite app on facebook. I love the new profile box features. Great work.” — James Bos
“I’ve been waiting for something like this!” — Tim Bavlnka
“An amazing application… Saves tonnes of time bouncing around different sites and makes it really easy to compare with your friends and talk about whats cool. Releif,,, I’ll be on top of what issues I need if I am away and simpole fun.” — Warren Wesson
“I LOVE this app… Keep up the awesome work! ^_^” — Leanne Wilingham
“Very cool!” — Cullen Bunn creator of ‘The Damned’
“Hey Chris, I’m actually a really big fan of that application and added it to my page. Great job on that, by the way! I have been recommending it to everyone.” — Jermey S. Atkins — Directory of Publicity Dark Horse Comics
“I’ll definitely be hyping your app to all my self-publishing friends as a great way to pimp their books. I think you’re definitely right- your app has the potential to be a great tool for self-publishers. Even better than most other facets on the internet, actually- on Comic Books Beta, Dead Man Holiday gets the same amount of shelf space as Wolverine #66, and that’s pretty cool. It lets people make up their minds based on the product itself. I think stuff like CBB, and the internet in general, is going to do a lot to even the playing field in the coming years- it already has greatly, in my opinion. This: “Eliminating layers between fan and creator, publisher and retailer” is excellent. You’re a good man, Chris Nolan!” — Colin Panetta — Creator ‘Dead Man Holiday’
“That’s pretty damn cool!” — christopher folino - Creator ‘Sparks’
“I added it and it looks great. Thanks much!” — Mike Baehr — Fantagraphics
“I really like your application, btw. It’s both one of the best comics services I’ve seen and one of my favorite facebook applications.” — Warren Cleven
” it looked like a cool way to keep all of my lists together instead of paying for some program or having to go through the box, its a great app and I’m excited to see where it goes.” — Tony Lovetro - 1,000,000th pull
“I run a shop down in Austin, TX called Funny Papers, and I love the Comic Books Facebook application” — Derek @ Funny Papers
I just discovered your app, and I think it’s awesome! At this point I’m resisting the urge to stay up all night and submit titles, but I have work (and school!) tomorrow so I had better not.” — Pat Reilly
“your app is awesome. In Beta it is still very impressive, and I’m enjoying it quite a bit. Nice work and thank you! I’m looking forward to watching it evolve.” — Andrew McIntire — TFAW
“I really love it and I’m hoping to make a few more people regular comic readers with it! It’s a great simple organizer. You’ve done a wonderful job on it.” — Jon Gorga
“I just discovered your Comic Book application in FaceBook. It is very cool and I think you have done a great job with it.” — John Mayo of “The Mayo Report”
“You know… I never add applications… but I added this one. :)” — Liana K

A few of the 230+ Publishers

Quick Links

Please note: we are in ‘beta’ right now, so that means things will be changing regularly and new features added all the time. Please use the discussion boards to report any problems or to request new features.

2008 Doug Wright Awards Finalists Announced

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 22:47:09 EST

The 2008 DWA finalists for Best Book are:

365 Days: A Diary by Julie Doucet (Drawn and Quarterly)
Spent by Joe Matt (Drawn and Quarterly)
The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam by Ann Marie Fleming (Riverhead Books)
Southern Cross by Laurence Hyde (Drawn and Quarterly)

The 2008 DWA finalists for Best Emerging Talent are:

Essex County Vol. 1 Tales From The Farm & Vol. 2 Ghost Stories by Jeff Lemire (Top Shelf)
Pope Hats by Ethan Rilly (self-published)
Kieffer #1 by Jason Kieffer (self-published)
The Experiment by Nick Maandag (self-published)

In addition, the Wright Awards is pleased to announce a new category—the first since its debut—dedicated to works that fall outside the bounds of traditional storytelling. The Pigskin Peters Award (named after a character in the classic Canadian comic strip Birdseye Center) was created to recognize progressive works by Canadian cartoonists that are either more experimental in nature or lack a traditional narrative structure.

The finalists for the first annual Pigskin Peters Award are:

Milk Teeth by Julie Morstad (Drawn and Quarterly)
Little Lessons in Safety by Emily Holton (Conundrum Press)
Excelsior 1968 by John Martz (self-published)
Fire Away by Chris von Szombathy (Drawn and Quarterly)

The finalists for the 4th Annual Doug Wright Awards were chosen by a nominating committee that included cartoonists Chester Brown and Seth, Canadian director Jerry Ciccoritti, comics historian Jeet Heer and writer and Sequential blogger Bryan Munn.

The winners will de decided by a jury including writer and film critic Katrina Onstad, gallery curator Helena Reckitt, writer Mariko Tamaki and cartoonist Ho Che Anderson.

Note: the above is cut & paste via Brad Mackay with my links added in.

Great blog posts that never were

Wed, 14 May 2008 21:01:23 EST

If I had been blogging the last year and a half, these are just some of the post titles you would have been able to read:

“Easy is a 4-letter word”
“Baby Buying Rules”
“Everyone is an Artist”
“How normal is normal?”
“It’s not Bad to be Sad”
“What I hate most about DVDs”
“Descartes Part Duex”
“The Principle of Escalating Convenience”
“I’m often right”
“Cloth Diapers and Me”
“Why not to know the sex of your baby”
“Goodness is a product of knowing truth”

Dark Horse Comics Solicited to Ship August 2008

Wed, 14 May 2008 13:01:21 EST

Free Comic Book Day 2008 in Toronto

Thu, 01 May 2008 21:29:42 EST

Free Comic Book Day 2008 is just around the corner — it’s this Saturday, May 3rd all around the world. Here’s a run down of a few Toronto area events I’ve gotten wind of:

Free Comics for Kids is being setup by The Beguiling and the Toronto Public Library and is hosted @ the Palmerston Library right near The Beguiling. Artists in attendance: Michael Cho, Steven Manale, Brian McLachlan, and Jeremy Tankard
Silver Snail is celebrating it’s 32nd Anniversary and is welcoming Steve McNiven, Stuart Immonen, Leonard Kirk and Ty Templeton to it’s event. They have on hand a special poster by McNiven for the event too.
Image Collections out of Mississauga is hosting a massive event which activities planned all day long. Check them out if you’re in that neighbourhood (401 & Mississauga Rd.).

For those interested in some of the mysterious details behind FCBD, check out Comics Worth Reading’s unanswered questions post and some notes by Christopher Butcher on the topic as well.

If you’d like a map to some of the many great comic shops around the city, you can use this interactive google map I did up a few years ago.

Oh, and while I’m at it, let’s leverage my comic books app to embed for y’all a list of the comics that might be available at your participating comic shops.

My Facebook Apps

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 23:00:00 EST

Have you seen my latest projects? I’ve made a few facebook apps:

Comic Books - A Facebook App to manage your Comic Books
Hearthstone - A Facebook App for World of Warcraft players
Flag Quiz - A Facebook App that quizes your flag knowledge

there, that was easy eh? No need to say anything about not blogging for over a year…

TTC Blames Riders

Fri, 09 Mar 2007 17:53:08 EST

Have you ever complained about a slow or late train when riding the subway in Toronto? Well, it’s your fault, so quit whining. That’s the message that the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is giving it’s riders this week in a new awareness campaign running in the tunnel stations of many downtown stops.

The poster, as seen here, lists Top 5 Reasons for Subway Delays:

Blocking Doors
Holding Doors
Mind-the-Gap Injuries
Litter resulting in track level fires
Passenger Illness

The ad campaign, designed and conceived of by the Metropolitan Transit Authority of New York and licensed by and loaned to the TTC might be appropriate for New York City’s denizen’s, but I feel it’s the wrong approach for our city.

Don’t get me wrong, I agree with most of these points and greatly frown on people who commit these inconsiderations, but I feel that this campaign is just too arrogant for most Torontonians. I mean, where does the TTC get off telling you to get sick on someone else’s property?

In related TTC news, why the heck are they running posters encouraging people to go to their website when it’s still the same old, hard to navigate historic site? You’d think they’d wait until revamping it before spending the city’s money in asking people to go and look at how unconventional they are at providing information?

On a positive note, one rider today decided to cheer people up with this graffiti written in the grim on the wall @ Queen’s Park station.

"Bright" and Early?

Tue, 06 Mar 2007 23:36:08 EST

Why do they say Bright and Early?

When ever I’ve been up early it’s still dark out. Plus, I wouldn’t describe my mood as anything close to a source of illumination.

People and their sayings, eh?

Hospital Time

Sat, 10 Feb 2007 23:25:39 EST

We’ve all experienced that strange time-twisting phenomenon known as Hospital Time. Once you enter the campus of any health care facility, some how, time is no longer measured the same way. Your watch is no help to you — it still operates under the laws of outside time. The clocks on the wall are no good — what clocks? You must bend over and hold onto your ankles and ride the various hospital time types out.

Specific Hospital Time Types include:

Dyslexic Hospital Time (DHT) — If you have an appointment for 10:15, don’t be surprised if you’re not seen until 15:10. Because of this, never accept an appointment at the top of the hour. You wouldn’t want your 13:00 meeting to be DHT’d into 00:13!
Hospital Time Amplification (HTA)— If someone tells you they’ll be back in 5 minutes, somehow it gets HTA’d into 50 minutes.
The Dreaded “SOON” (TDS) — No. Don’t! Don’t hear SOON inside of a hospital (cover your eyes, duck, counter attack real quick with a LALALALALALA). TDS interacting with your ear drums will almost certainly unleash the HTV (Hospital Time Vortex) upon you and your loved ones. Once swallowed up inside of it, hopefully you can be spit out again a week or two later.

Things get worse when you’ve been admitted. The HTV is likely to strike at any time in your weakened state of exposure. Most specifically, look out for the WAINRTSYNHHHHM effect (We Are In No Rush To See You Now, Ha!Ha!Ha!Ha!Moohaha), and the MTIMITYT syndrome (My Time Is More Important Than Your Time).

The origins and source of HT are still an unknown mystery many have tried to penetrate.

I’ll offer my hypothesis: Due to the obscene work schedules imposed on all levels of hospital staff, specifically medical students and residents (such as the multiple 24 hours shifts etc), time loses it’s meaning for these people. Since it means nothing to them, it begins to loose it’s hold all the walls around them too, and thusly it attaches itself to you once you enter their domain like cigarette smoke clings to an addict on a cold, winter day.

A possible solution? Have them bring the hospital to you. What other profession makes their customers travel far and wide to acquire their services? If customer service and satisfaction is important, they’d travel to you. And arrive on time.