http://www.walrusmagazine.com/blogs Fearless. Thoughtful. Witty. Canadian. And Opinionated. Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:25:02 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Walrus writer Jon Evans talks about the creation of his new comic book for Vertigo/DCJon Evans is the writer of The Walrus blog World Fast Forward. Hear me, O my rapturous children, and I will tell you the saga of page thirty-eight. By which I mean: the lettered page proofs for my ... http://www.walrusmagazine.com/blogs/2009/06/22/from-page-to-um-page/ This month, the summer reading issue of The Walrus boasts an eye-catching cover by the Dutch cartoonist Joost Swarte. His crisp style and high-concept approach help to razor his illustrations into our consciousness before we even know what we’re seeing. Feel like you’ve come across his work before? Odds are ... http://www.walrusmagazine.com/blogs/2009/06/16/joost-swarte-further-summer-reading/ This comic book does not exist. Don't look for it. Don't ask for it. Forget you ever heard about it. Marc Bell’s Illustrated Cartoon Videos is a comic book that doesn’t exist. Don’t look for it. Don’t ask for it by name. Forget you ever heard about it. If it did ... http://www.walrusmagazine.com/blogs/2009/06/08/marc-bells-songbook/ Fumbling around on the internet recently, I came across some scans of Yoshiharu Tsuge's 1968 story “Nejishiki” (translated in the Comics Journal 250 as “Screw-Style”). I have a great fondness for the short story form in comics, and I love seeing anything translated from the Japanese avant garde comics magazine ... http://www.walrusmagazine.com/blogs/2009/05/29/classic-manga-screw-style/ A couple books, so far, have really stood out among my purchases from last weekend's Toronto Comic Arts Festival, and they couldn't be more different from each other. The first is a lurid looseleaf folder of oversized story pages from (I'm guessing) the former singer of the Load Records band ... http://www.walrusmagazine.com/blogs/2009/05/15/two-from-tcaf/ If you're any sort of normal person, you're probably one of the zillions who stayed the hell away from last summer's X-Files movie, I Want to Believe. It featured a very angry Xzibit in a prominent role, and hinged on the magical psychic connection created when a Scottish comedian priest ... http://www.walrusmagazine.com/blogs/2009/04/24/this-new-x-files-comic-stinks/ Last week the nominations were announced for the 2009 Doug Wright Awards, which celebrate excellence in Canadian cartooning. By no means are the DWAs the only Canadian comics awards, but they are certainly the awards whose nominees are easiest to review. Finalists for the more mainstream/genre-friendly Joe Shuster Awards are ... http://www.walrusmagazine.com/blogs/2009/03/27/a-wright-awards-run-down/ Hard to believe, but there was in fact another comics-related movie that opened in Toronto this past weekend. Fear(s) of the Dark, a French animated film, enlists the styles and sensibilities of six international alt-comics stars and “auteurs graphiques” in the service of exploring notions of, well, fears and darkness ... http://www.walrusmagazine.com/blogs/2009/03/17/fears-of-the-dark/ Watchmen wasn't the first comic to deconstruct the myth of the superhero. Here's a look at a handful of them So I don't know if you've heard but there's this movie coming out this weekend. It looks like it's dead serious about taking superheroes deadly seriously—an artistic strategy that the original ... http://www.walrusmagazine.com/blogs/2009/03/06/a-corrective-to-watchmenmania/ In last month's Walrus, US cartoonist John Porcellino riffed on his adventures north of the 49th, casting himself and his travelling companions as explorers into this untamed wilderness. It's an autobiographical strip from one of the longtime greats of the autobio genre, and it's a hoot. For this previously undocumented ... http://www.walrusmagazine.com/blogs/2009/03/03/a-q-and-a-with-john-porcellino/