Nice Art

This month’s nice art features is from Molly Mendoza. I’ve really enjoyed her comic The Worst that was included in one of the recent Shortbox. It’s about a friendship gone awry and it is beautifully illustrated. You can buy an issue of it here and go visit her website to see more of her wonderfully colourful art. There’s something really fluid and light about Mendoza’s line and her use of colour is outstanding. You can follow her on Twitter or Instagram.

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Plugs

§ There’s a new graphic novel by Katie Skelly coming out really soon called The Agency

§ Have you been following Kriota Willberg t’s Get a Grip series? Kate recently joined the Comics Beat team and has been doing this really important series on self-care for artists and really anyone else who sits at a desk for a long time. Go check it out!

§ Kevin Czap has a launch event at CXC on June 6th. If you’re in Columbus, go check it out.

§ Reimena Ashel Yee has a newsletter to provide you with details about her upcoming graphic novel The Carpet Merchant of Konstantiniyya

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News

§ This month will have a lot of news as I missed the month of “Small Press & Indie Comics Comics Galore” in May due to a family emergency. It’s been a though month, my mother passed away after a very sudden and extremely aggressive pancreatic cancer. I’m slowly getting back on my feet and into comics news, so there’s quite a lot of items I haven’t flagged, but there should be more than enough to keep you busy for a little while.

§ The biggest news of the month for me is the announcement of the first full-length graphic novel by Carta Monir called I Want to be Evil. It will be published by Youth in Decline sometime in 2019. I’ve spoken at length about Carta Monir’s fantastic body of work and I’m excited to see a more substantial graphic novel from her. That’s an instant buy for me.

§ Anya Davidson talks with Gina Wynbrandt & Jessica Campbell over at her Mindkiller Podcast.

§ I’m keeping an eye on Osvaldo Oyola‘s project of comparative reading between the two Marvel series Omega the Unknown from 1976 and the most recent revisionist series by Jonathan Lethem and Farel Dalrymple from 2007. It’s an interesting concept that he used to explore Howard the Duck and this time Oyola focus on Omega the Unknown. Oyola is also just done looking at the issue drawn by Gary Panter. You can find the entire series over at the Middle Spaces

§ The biggest and most surprising graphic novel I’ve seen at the Quebec City Book Fair was Autoportrait de Paris avec chat from Dany Laferrière. Dany Laferrière is a Haitian-Canadian novelist, journalist and sitting member of the Académie française. He’s written countless modern classic since his first novel (Comment faire l’amour avec un négre sans se fatiguer) came out in 1985. He recently released a graphic novel, well, it’s sort of a graphic novel, it’s very experimental and mixes words and illustrations in an interesting way. It’s already a best-seller and a book that I doubt will ever be translated, but it’s interesting to look at if only for the boldness of the work. Here’s an interview with Laferrière over at Radio-Canada

§ Radio-Canada reports the passing of William Vance, the cartoonist behind the European series Xiii

§ In superhero land, Marvel recently introduced a young Inuit superheroine called Snowguard. Jim Zub created the character with support from Nyla Innuksuk, the founder of Mixtape BR in Toronto and an Inuit woman from Iqaluit. It was very interesting to see the ideas behind the characters, what she’s bringing to the Marvel universe and the team of Champions, the teenage superheroes.

§ Sarah-Jeanne Labrosse narrates India Desjardins’s YA graphic novel Une histoire de cancer qui finit bien over at Radio-Canada. It’s also available as a podcast

§ A short but interesting interview with Mikael about his latest graphic novel series Giant about the construction of skyscrapers in New York in the 1930’s

§ The comic series Magasin Général, by Loisel and Tripp will be adapted as a movie. Set in 1920’s rural Quebec, Magasin Général is a historical series following the life of Marie Ducharme, a young women who inherit the ownership of the town’s general store after her husband. Details are sparse for now, but it’s something to keep an eye on.

§ CBC Books had an entire series of profile on some of the creators attending TCAF 2018. They’ve profiled Connor Willumsen, Ho Che Anderson selects his favourite books at the Beguiling, Joe Ollmann and the joy of creating, Hartley Lin on his daily rituals, Alison McCreesh on comics in Yellowknife, Jesse Jacobs on his weird characters and GG talks about things that make him cry

§ Chris Arrants provides a list of available Comics Residencies. There’s only one in Canada, but there has to be more. If you know comics residencies that aren’t listed there, feel free to tweet at it.

§ I always like seeing process details. Carta Monir tweeted that she used a Game Boy Printer for the cover of her 2016 comic Secure Connect. An interesting use of that platform. She recently put Secure Connect on a “pay-what-you-can” basis on Gumroad and you should buy it.

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COMICS

§ It goes without saying that The Nib has put out some fantastic political comic, but you should go see a few of their strong piece including this one on the Dakota Access Pipeline, 70 years of conflict in Palestine, The Revolution that almost was, Environmental catastrophe is coming, Family Leave and how Autism isn’t to blame for bad behaviours

§ Laura Knetzger has a new comic on video games up on Medium where she talks about Legend of Mana

§ Priya Huq had a great comic at the Nib as part of the Extraordinary Aliens series

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REVIEWS

§ Sam Ombiri on Gabrielle Bell’s comic in Kramer’s Ergot 8

§ Alenka Figa talks about Jessica Campbell’s XTC69

§ Etelka Lehoczky reviews Nick Drasno’s Sabrina for NPR

§ Sara L. Jewell reviews Eleanor Davis Why Art? over at Your Chicken Enemy

§ Austin Lanari on Juliacks Architecture of an Atom over at Your Chicken Enemy

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§ If you see something I should know about, tell me in the comments or tweet at me @Leblanc_Phil