My opinion of webcomics is about the same: anything with a continuous thread more than five panels long gets on my nerves. Thankfully, Dark Horse Books has been compiling some of the most prolific webcomics into hefty printed volumes, the latest of which is Christopher Hastings’ The Adventures of Dr. McNinja: Night Powers, which debuted at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival.
Michael DeForge is a busy dude. At the Toronto Comic Arts Festival this weekend, DeForge will debut two comic books, an art book, a porn-anthology that he co-edited, and he's featured as an artist in a third anthology. DeForge has also emerged as one of Canada's most celebrated young comic book artists. He kindly agreed to chat with us this week about his new comics, TCAF, immature Hotmail addresses, cable television and Toronto's best ethnic food.
Heavily embedded in the culture and locations of Queen Street West, Snow, by Benjamin Rivers, is a very Toronto-centric indie graphic novel. It's the 30-something equivalent of Brian Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim saga, but with a more culturally relevant storyline and less manga-influenced art.
In the last few years, Paul Peterson and Jason Gilmore talked to four suicide survivors, about their experiences, the lead up and the aftermath. The compilation of these talks is called The Next Day, illustrated by acclaimed artist John Porcellino, accompanied by an interactive online component co-produced by the National Film Board of Canada. So even if you can’t talk to anyone else about it, I’m sure you may be comfortable reading it.
