Free Comic Book Day unites lit and art lovers, creative types, and penny-pinchers looking for some free swag. I have no interest in owning a Smurfs comic book, but slap a free sticker on that bad boy and within seconds I’ll don a white cap, paint my face blue, and move into a mushroom hut. Free merchandise is a foolproof way of broadening your audience and once again FCBD pulled out all the stops this year.

On my street car ride down Queen West I passed by the Silver Snail and saw lineups that nearly curled around the corner. There were rumours that TCAF was turning people away due to the Reference Library being over capacity and the idea of having to wait in line made my stomach churn. So headed up to Paradise Comics instead, and to my surprise it was delightfully low key, but still had the same buzz as the downtown scene.

Entering the store for the first time, I was amazed at how they’d utilized such a small space – despite wall to wall product you are still able to navigate around without fear of bumping into someone or something. The shop was attractive, clean, organized; its Yonge and Lawrence location boasted modest customer traffic that never became overwhelming. With such a low head count my meandering around the store wasn’t a big inconvenience. Best of all was the quaintness that inspired a feeling of being apart of something unique and special, a quality that many bigger stores have lost.

This being my first time in Paradise and new to the dork crew, I wanted to introduce myself to the staff. Unsure of where to turn, I set my sights on the first person to come out from behind the counter, who actually turned out to be Paradise regular and self-proclaimed volunteer for the day, Jason Federman. “If I’m going to be hanging around here for 3 hours, they might as well put me to work,” he said, “I came in here on a whim one day to buy a graphic novel for something to read at work, and I never left.”

I asked him if he prefers coming to a smaller store. “Definitely,” he replied, “I love this neighborhood and so does Peter (the owner), it has lots of families with children and the traffic today is not unlike any other Saturday, and the vibe is a lot different up here.”

I was then pointed in the direction of owner and fellow comic book enthusiast Peter Dixon, who quickly greeted me with a handshake and a warm welcome. Without skipping a beat, he rushed downstairs to show me something. When he emerges he tells me, “It’s great to have a day where we can give away comics for free, while also buying comics for 2,700 bucks,” and presents me with the comic seen to the right.

“This is the fourth appearance of The Flash,” he told me. A rarity not every comic book store has on its shelves. Peter has a real passion for the old school, it shows in his enthusiasm and his collection, but it is also refreshing to see he does not discriminate against the new school – he embraces it.

Marvin Law was also doing prints by request on this holiest of comic book days, for free no less. Marvin, who is usually situated at the Silver Snail for FCBD, says he likes the change of pace of a lower traffic store because it gives him time to be a little bit more social with the customers.

Marvin is currently working with New Myth Comics out of Oklahoma, who discovered him through his deviantArt page and wanted to collaborate. He is now the head artist on the book Salt and Ignite. Law is also working another book called Hot Heads, that is geared for a younger audience. Not something he usually does, but is really enjoying doing it.

My visit with Marvin was short and sweet. I made my way to the front of the store, picked up a few of the usuals, said my goodbyes, and was on my way. Success.

In an over-saturated and over-stimulated market where “bigger is better” and only the strong survive, it’s a breath of fresh air loitering in such a fabulous store that is independently doing its own thing. A place where everyone is welcome and elitism is left at the door. Stay dorky my friends.

If you’ll indulge me, I find myself in a reflective mood on an unusually nerdy Monday afternoon following three unusually crazy days. It was a very good weekend to be a nerd, and I’m not just talking about The Avengers. In fact, I didn’t even get a chance to see it. I only made it to a fraction of the festivities on a weekend that also included Free Comic Book Day, Star Wars Day, and the Toronto Comics Arts Festival (TCAF) and there are only so many spare hours in a day now that nerd is the new normal.

Take a step back, however, and that last sentence seems patently insane. I can now state without any hint of sarcasm or irony that Joss Whedon is responsible for the biggest box office smash in history ($600M and counting), a suggestion that would have been beyond impossible around the time that Fox was cancelling Firefly. I’m not complaining, but I can’t be the only one who thinks this is all a little absurd.

I’m not going to try figure out how we got here, but I’m thrilled that I’m able to ask the question. After a weekend that brought about such an incredible confluence of general geekery I feel that a brief retrospective is in order.

You see, I spent the majority of my weekend TCAF, which is odd because I’m not particularly invested in the indie comics scene. That’s mostly due to a lack of funds rather than a lack of interest, but I like conventions so I nonetheless found myself at the Toronto Reference Library at Yonge and Bloor for a good chunk of Saturday and Sunday. I saw some stunning prints and picked up a few things for my collection, but I had even more fun catching up with old friends and making new acquaintances. Somewhere along the way, I realized that – more than anything else – I simply enjoy being a part of a crowd that frequents events like TCAF as eagerly as I do.

If you can stomach the occasionally cloying miasma of body odor (some stereotypes are unfortunately true), it’s truly amazing to be able to gather in a public place to share an appreciation for properties that exist outside of the cultural mainstream. TCAF is a showcase for art that wouldn’t otherwise get a lot of attention, but it’s also a place of acceptance, and that may be the weekend’s more enduring legacy.

From the cosplayers gathered outside the Silver Snail for Free Comic Book Day to the of the Comics vs. Games exhibit at the Magic Pony and TCAF, there was entertainment to be had regardless of your preferred flavor of nerd. We shouldn’t take that for granted. In high school I considered myself lucky to be able to play Magic: The Gathering without fear of being bullied, and there are still places in North America where people are ostracized for daring to like things other than football.

Knowing that, it’s doubly important to take a moment to appreciate what we have here in Toronto. Somewhere between play sessions of The Yawhg, my interview with Home creator Benjamin Rivers (coming soon to Dork Shelf), and my questionable attempt to sing “Under the Sea” in front of a room full of witnesses, I began to appreciate how much I love the community that I’ve found in this city. Being a nerd is awesome, but – contrary to the stereotypes of socially awkward loners – it’s even more awesome when we get to share the experience with other nerds.

So maybe I never did get a chance to see The Avengers. That’s a problem that I’m more than happy to address. The movie is still playing, and when a weekend is that crazy sometimes you just have to roll with it and see where life takes you. For me, that was a post-TCAF crowd at a Korean karaoke club on Bloor Street at 3 A.M. on Saturday morning, but the fact that such a day is even possible – that I have to sit down and figure out how to prioritize my nerd hours for any given weekend – is, to my mind, a cultural wealth of riches worth celebrating.

I only hope that I’ll be able to recover in time for another weekend of insanity. TOJam kicks off on Friday, and I can’t wait to sit down with a laptop to keep the party going.

Lucky for you, we’re here to help make it all worth it by pointing you spendthrift nerds in the right direction. Like your personal Comic Book saviour we’ll guide you through the weekend with a complete list of Toronto’s best hot spots and ‘must see’ events.

The Comic Book Lounge

587A College Street (2nd Floor)

Hours: Saturday 12 – 7 PM

You can get your face painted while rubbing shoulders with the likes of local Marvel duo Kathryn and Stuart Immonen, Marvel cover artist Mike Del Mundo, DC artist Marco Rudy and many more! Did I mention you can get your FACE PAINTED!?

And from 7:30 til 11 pm Ty Templeton (Stig’s Inferno, Bigg Time) will be doing his live and interactive ON THE COUCH! So get off your couch and don’t miss out!

The Silver Snail

367 Queen Street West

Hours: Saturday 10 – 7 PM

Patience and a fresh pair of slacks (in the event of unintentional bowel movements) are all you need for this event featuring PHIL NOTO (Buffy, X-Men Origins) who will be signing swag at The Snail! Also performances by Wordburglar and our good friends Nerds with Guitars. TDOT represent!

“Rhyme O’Clock” Wordburglar

Click here to view the embedded video.

“Hero” by Nerds with Guitars

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Beguiling

601 Markham Street

Hours: Saturday 12 – 5 PM

A perfect place to bring the kids with arts and crafts provided by The Burrow Art Centre, How To Draw sessions, story readings and free comics for children UNDER THE AGE OF 13. Featuring Jeremy Tankard illustrator of “Grumpy Bird,” artistic contributor to chickaDEE magazine, Steven Manale and the artist for the “Max Finder Mystery” series by Michael Cho.

One Million Comix

531 Yonge St

Hours: Saturday 11 – 8 PM

Drop by OMC from 12:30 – 1:30 to meet the double threat Raffaele Ienco, writer and artist of the new Image Comic “Epic Kill.” It will be totally epic.

Paradise Comics

3278 Yonge Street

Saturday 10:30 – 6 PM

Come to Paradise Comics and celebrate Free Comic Book Day with local talent Marvin Law. And don’t miss out on MEGA! ULTRA! AWESOME! sales on graphic novels, toys and sweet, sweet comics.

Toronto Comics Art Festival (TCAF)

789 Yonge Street at the Toronto Public Library

Hours: Saturday 9 – 5 PM & Sunday 11 – 5 PM

The  MECCA, the EVEREST, the ZANZIBAR of the weekend has to be the Toronto Comics Art Festival, with so much going on the mere thought of listing it all makes my mind bleed with anticipation. Situated in the heart of downtown Toronto at the Reference Library, this annual comic book convention showcases the very best writers, artists, and publishers in the independent scene. Featuring meet and greets, readings, showcases, panels and gallery shows, there is enough action to keep even the most attention deficit riddled brain occupied for hours.

Honourable Mentions

The Labyrinth (386 Bloor Street West) and Hairy Tarantula Comics and Cards (354 Yonge Street 2nd Floor). Be sure to stop by these and other locations for all things nerd.

Unfamiliar with Delisle? Let me fill you in.

For the uninitiated, Guy Delisle is a Canadian comic book author known for his autobiographical works about his time spent abroad in places of the world suffering from totalitarian regimes or political conflict.

My first encounter with Delisle came when I stumbled upon his book Shenzhen, a diary of Delisle’s culture shock and melancholy while working in China. Delisle went abroad in his early twenties as a representative of a Belgian animation company to oversee Chinese animators working on sequences for a TV series. The problem? This isn’t Shenzhen as we know it now and Delisle found himself isolated and more than a little bored. Tie in some twenty-something disenchantment and work dissatisfaction and you have the book. The graphic novel illustrates his discoveries, both personal and cultural and the tone of the book shifts from office-humour to situational malaise; a slice of life graphic novel peppered with French Canadian humour.

Immediately I was hooked.

His next major work, Pyongyang would take a more political stance, as Delisle would once again act as a liaison, this time for a French animation company outsourcing to North Korea, something he’s less than comfortable with. In two months he meets a slew of foreigners who are also in the allegedly ‘closed state’ for business, as well as some depressed NGO staffers and Delisle reflects on the luxury that foreigners enjoy in Pyongyang compared to the highly controlled life North Koreans must bear. Despite the darker reflections in the book, one of the more memorable scenes is Delisle’s attempts to explain the music style of the band Aphex Twin to North Korean officials before entering the country.

Finally, we come to the Burma Chronicles, a more personal work reflecting his time spent in Burma with his family. (Delisle’s wife works for Médecins Sans Frontières which explains this travel.) In Burma, Delisle finally embraces his role as cultural tourist and because he’s not at work, interacts with Burmese and ex-pats alike. His storytelling in this work is much more introspective due to his new role as father to baby Louis. He becomes preoccupied with the hilarious situations Louis brings him to and the way Burmese neighbours interact with them. It’s a slice of life book, not as political as his other works, but with interesting cultural commentary.

This brings me to Jerusalem Chronicles, his latest work released in English by Drawn and Quarterly. In this book, (which is MUCH larger than his other works) Delisle explores a region of the world where each square foot is full with conflict, from discovering the East/West divide of the city, to iPod parties. With two small children in tow, Delisle documents Jerusalem and its youth in a way only now, as a father, could he comprehend. I’ve barely reached a mid-point in my copy but be sure that I’ll have it down by the time TCAF rolls around,

Guy Delisle’s newest book Jerusalem Chronicles will be available for purchase at TCAF which runs May 5th – 6th at the Toronto Reference Library. On Thursday May 3rd at 7pm at the Carlton, there is a special evening with Delisle celebrating his newest work and launching the documentary of his time in Jerusalem. The screening is $5 and tickets are available for purchase at the Beguiling.

Snaps‘s inspiration was a box of old photos, shot during the 1940s, that Kraatz found at a flea market. “I studied the unknown people in the pictures,” she explains in her introduction, “often with a magnifying glass, trying to decipher their relationships with one another.” The result of this acute analysis takes place in Victoria, British Columbia, but save for a handful of references you would be hard pressed to notice. More importantly, it follows a cast of over two dozen during the Second World War, book-ended by enlistee Gordon’s departure from home to serve overseas and his impending arrival home. Each character gets only a couple of pages to tell his or her story until the point of view switches to someone else – some stories are related, while others stand completely on their own.

The breadth and variety of the people we meet in Snaps is shocking, often telling stories in a scant two pages with surprising emotion and power. And that’s often how we remember things, isn’t it? The pivotal moments and the echos of those moments we still feel to this day. Gordon makes this obvious in the first vignette, as he spends his last day on home soil with his girlfriend Lena: “I can’t remember certain details. The pattern of the drapes escapes me.” We next hear from Lena her memories on the day she sees Gordon off at the train platform, and the images she remembers most vividly.

It continues in this fashion, and in some cases we see how different characters remember the same day. Kraatz’s art tells us at least as much about these people as the words. Characters wear their expressions on their faces, perhaps because that’s exactly how we remember ourselves when looking back – though you might be occasionally terrified by their piercing gazes. The fashion and backdrops of the 1940s are charming but unobtrusive, unless they want to be. A few plots, including one that takes place on a navy ship, give a haunting picture of what it’s like to live with your loved ones on the other side of an ocean during wartime. Kraatz’s dives into the surreal, like Albin’s stroll into his future, are as enchanting as they are absurd.

My main complaint is that the snapshots we get of these characters can become as cloudy as actual memories. The handful of storylines that continue throughout the book are shown intermittently, through several characters’ viewpoints. It might take several reads to get a handle on everything that takes place in Snaps - and while the act of poring through the pages like Kraatz did with the original photographs are rewarding, at first it can be disorienting.

In spite of the large ensemble cast and its dalliance with the nonsensical, Snaps contains stories that will hit many readers at home with their everyday joys and horrors.

Dr. McNinja has been around the interwebs for several years now, but all you have to know when picking up this volume is that the main character is both a doctor and a ninja. If you can wrap your head around this concept, Hastings does rather well taking it from there.

Night Powers contains three full-length features – “Monster Mart,” “Death Volley,” and “Doc Gets Rad” – that were originally posted on DrMcNinja.com from 2008 to 2009. These stories marked the comic’s foray into full-colour. Carly Monardo and Anthony Clark add a bright and vibrant palette to the already colourful world penned and pencilled by Hastings.

Dr. McNinja is a shining example of modern, offbeat internet humour. “Random” is probably the way to describe its stories and characters, although that doesn’t give enough credit to Hastings. The one-liners are hilarious and the timing is exquisite, even with the online format’s requirements for roughly one punch-line per page (one per post, of course). The only constants throughout the volume are the machinations of King Radical, a totally-not-Burger-King who rides a sweet motorcycle, and cameos by dinosaurs.

Most exciting for longtime McNinja readers is the preview story called “Beyond Winter Wonderdome” by Tick team Benito Cereno and Les McClaine. TCAF visitors will appreciate the Doctor’s foray into Canada and an Alpha Flight-ish comedy troupe, including a young woman who apparently is the manifestation of those Canada Heritage Moment videos. Couple that with Canuck cartooner Kate Beaton’s introduction comic, and you’ve got a volume bookended by some awesome northerners.

Night Powers stars a lethal doctor not seen since the likes of Autobot Ratchet. It’s in full colour. It has a motorcycle with a rainbow on the outside and the soul of a unicorn on the inside. If that doesn’t make your decision on whether to pick it up, I’m not sure what else I can tell you.

Michael DeForge 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. Not only is DeForge prolific, he has also emerged as one of Canada’s most celebrated young comic book artists. He’s also happens to be a pretty wicked guy. 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. Here is our conversation:

Dork Shelf: Having read your work for a while, I’ve always gotten the sense that you’re enamoured by the idea of flipping “Disney character” cuteness on its head. Whether it’s pretentious puppy undergrads, addict deer creatures, a boy finding respite from bullying in his maggot-horse, or a dog family struggling to cope with an ugly divorce – it’s a pretty consistent theme. Am I onto something here?

Michael DeForge: Yeah, I usually like drawing cute things, but I like the tension of changing one or two elements of the characters design to make it hideous. Or figuring out why something that is, on its face, kind of horrifying or weird looking, but can actually look cute. I like that tension there.

DS: Open Country – your new serial is being printed on Tuesday.

MD: Actually, Open Country isn’t going to be Koyama Press, that’s just me self-publishing it. Each issue is going to be printed with a risograph (a machine me and some friends bought). So once I finish all of the issues – and there will probably be for four or five of them – then I’ll see what I can do to collect it, but until then it’s going to be self-published.

DS: Now Open Country has got actual human characters, and a linear narrative throughout. This is somewhat of a departure from what we’ve come to expect from the Lose series… Can your fans expect more of the same going forward? Are you trying to get away from that more fragmented style?

MD: I’m never consciously trying to… Put it this way, I think my interests tend to change from story to story, and the focus of this one is a bit different. Because it’s a longer story I have more space to go on more tangents. With a comic like Lose #2, it’s a really short story – there’s only so much I can do and only so much of each character that I can explore – so I kind of just wanted to do it it as, like, “the events of one day.”

But with Open Country I can go on tangents, so some issues are going to be more about the logistics of – the whole story centres on this concept of these psychic projections in a silly way – and I think, in some issues I can focus more on that. And then other issues can be more about the conversations between characters, and some can be more action driven. So having it spread out over a few issues gives me more flexibility with that kind of thing.

Lose 3 - Michael DeForge

DS: The “Artist in his home” back panel of Lose #3 – am I correct about it being an Archie reference?

MD: It’s not an Archie reference, but I guess the way it’s kind of drawn – my face and that – looks a bit like that Archie construction… Nah, that’s just me.

DS: I’ve always been curious about your personal “king trash” branding – where did that originate?

MD: I never thought of it as branding, and part of me kind of regrets not registering michaeldeforge.com as a domain. I got the website in grade 10 or 11 or something, and at the time I just thought oh it’s a “cool thing” and all these artists have “cool names”… But since then, I mean some other guy has michaeldeforge.com and I’m like – I don’t even know what “king trash” means! I guess I like trashy things or something?

DS: So it’s the website equivalent of everyone’s first Hotmail account…

MD: Yeah, it’s sort of like that. I guess it’s good that it’s not something embarrassing… it’s not like a Beastie Boys reference or something.

DS: So before I go ahead and ask you a bunch of questions about your art specifically – What is your least favourite thing to be interviewed about?

MD: The one I never really – I mean, I’m not like mad whenever someone asks it – but I can never answer it, is when people ask “Why do you draw drips on everything?” And again, I’m not like annoyed when someone asks me that – I just never have a good answer for it. I hope that’s not one of your questions I would feel bad if it was.

DS: It’s not. *Crosses question off the page and chuckles nervously* So Dog 2070 is sort of a more mature version of Dogs in College. Do you find it difficult to write dark, personal material, or do you intend there to be an underlying optimism in your work?

MD: I think, there’s an optimism in Lose #2, but I don’t think that is really there in Lose #3. But I don’t find it difficult. I sometimes find it difficult too – I mean, I consciously try and lighten things up a bit more, and go against my instincts to make everything too personal. I don’t want any of my comics to read like I’m just “going through stuff.” So I make a real effort when I’m writing them to have the personal material, but mostly I want them to read as a funny comic, or an interesting comic or a character study. I don’t want them read like it’s clearly me trying to grapple with “issues” or some shit.

Manananggal by Michael DeForge

DS: So in contrast with Dog 2070‘s rather verbose dialogue – Um, and you might have to help me with the pronunciation of this… *totally butchers the pronunciation of Manananggal so it sounds like mananangna*

MD: Oh, it’s Mananananggal.

DS: Oh, there’s an L at the end…?

MD: Yeah that’s an L – it’s the name of a mythological Filipino monster – and the actual comic, and the way I depict the monster has little to do with its [traditional depiction], it’s just with the space concept of a witch that can separate its torso from her lower-half. And if you salt the lower half while the torso’s out flying around, then it can’t re-attach and that’s like how it dies.  So the actual comic is that, and the effect of the separation.

DS: And the familial separation is also sort of a recurring theme there… What I found curious about it was how it directly followed Dog 2070, which, was so full of dialogue – and in Manananggal you have blank word-balloons to convey a sense silence or wordlessness… Have you ever used this technique before and where did you get this idea?

MD: I can’t remember if I’ve ever actually done the blank word balloons before, I’ve always really liked the way Dan Clowes does word balloons, and I think I steal a lot of his techniques. Like I’ll do overlapping word balloons or have one dialogue balloon cut off by a panel border maybe, to indicate a character actually being cut off, or some sort of distraction in the conversation. So I think that’s partially it too – I think the way he uses word balloons – and not that he was the first, necessarily – but the way he uses word balloons in particular influences the way I use them.

DS: What’s up for you at TCAF, where will you be, what are you showing off and what panels will you be participating in?

MD: I’ll be at the Koyama Press table – my publisher – and I’ll be launching Lose #3 which will make its debut from Koyama Press… Open Country #1 which I’m self-publishing. Then I also co-edited an anthology called Root Rot with Anne Koyama, that’s an art book. And I co-edited a porn anthology with my friend Ryan Sands called Thickness #1 – and that’ll come out too. And I’ll also be in an anthology called Gang Bang Bong edited by Janette Lepalme and Inés Estrada – and yep, those are all out for TCAF. And for panels there is going to be a Root Rot signing, sort of, and a few artists will be drawing and that’s going to be in the morning on Saturday. Then at 3 PM I’ll be at an Adventure Time panel and that’ll be with me, Bob Flynn, Steve Wolfhard, Andy Ristiano and Pendelton Ward the creator of the show who I think has been confirmed to actually be there too. Oh and Phil Rydna.. So yeah a bunch of people who’ve worked on the show will be there.

Michael DeForge holding Lose 3

DS: You’ve been a regular presence at TCAF for a few years, can we get some of your thoughts on the evolution of the festival and how it has come along?

MD: I’ve only been there as an exhibitor for two years – but I think the first one I attended was when it was first held, or the first time I went was the one hosted at Old Vic… It has – obviously – grown a good deal since then.

So far it’s been the best comics festival that I’ve attended – the fact that its curated, is really great. And I guess I’m a bit biased because I’m from the town, but it’s run a lot more smoothly than other festivals I’ve been to (the exception would be the Brooklyn festival in December, I think that’s probably the only one I’ve seen so far that’s comparable) – and I haven’t been to Stump Town which is hear is wonderful… But yeah – it’s run really smoothly, there’s nothing hectic about it, and the whole time you have the impression that you’re just hanging out with a bunch of your friends – who I guess, just happen to come from all over the world. But for a festival as big as it is – it always tends to seem very casual and stress-free, which, I’m sure is not the case for the organizers themselves.

DS: I’m well aware of your fondness for serialized cable television, and you’ve got a hidden Wire reference, and a rather clear AMC reference in Lose #3 – What’re your thoughts on Game of Thrones so far? And is there anything you’re looking forward too, that’s coming up over the next year and a bit in cable television?

MD: Oh man, yeah I’m digging Game of Thrones – the third episode the show really came together… I think it’s sort of like how Deadwood took about six episodes (and I thought the first six were really good), but it took a little bit for Deadwood to fully realize – and for you to really realize – what the scope was and what the focus could be. Game of Thrones – these first three are great – I haven’t read the books, and I don’t know – maybe I’ll start hating it by the end of the season, but so far I’m fully on board.

As far as other TV goes, I’m stoked for Louie to come back on – really like Louie, and I’m curious about Luck when that comes out because yeah, Deadwood is an all time favourite series, so I trust that writer despite him being responsible for John from Cincinnati.

DS: Lose 3 is filled with a bunch of ethnic food references – in fact, an ethnic food argument dominates an entire page– give me your five best ethnic food recommendations in Toronto.

MD: Oh man…

DS: Take time to think about it man

MD: Well Chinese Traditional Bun, that’s pretty close to me and it’s where I go, very often, on Dundas…

DS: I want five man, need four more.

MD: Oh, I don’t know… I feel like my feet are being put to the fire

DS: We ask tough questions here man…

MD: Well Sushi Couture is solid. Dosa Mahal on Bloor Street… Caribbean Queen – also in the Bloor village… Is that 3?

DS: I think we’ve got four…

MD: We’ve got four huh… ? I feel like I need a really good one.

DS: You’ve got to cap it off right, Mike.

MD: I need something no one has thought of.

DS: Not sure that matters, just give us some good food!

MD: Okay, I’ll go with the fried chicken at Ajuker – the Korean Fried chicken… It’s awesome.

DS: Good calls man. Alright that’s all we need! Thanks so much!

MD: Thank you!

Snow

Heavily embedded in the culture and locations of Toronto’s Queen Street West, Rivers’ protagonist Dana acts, reads and feels like a real person you could bump into on your way to the bar. This fun blending of fiction and recognizable locales lends Snow a very real-life quality.

References to the Bathurst fire and the upscaling of this once edgy-indie neighborhood, make the reader feel as though they are just off-panel from the characters. This transforms the storyline – which is essentially a random string of banal events and everyday experiences – into a plot with meaning and impact. This is your city. These are your friends. It’s your life.

Benjamin River’s art is sparse and yet highly effective. As someone who is trying to learn the craft/art of producing black and white comics (which have their own unique visual tricks and techniques), I found myself studying the pages, learning a great deal from his illustrations. Simple, strong line work, which plays so well in the B&W medium, make Snow a strong visual read.

It is exciting to see a graphic novel so tied into Toronto (and to one of its great downtown communities) debuting this weekend at the Toronto Comics Art Festival. An amazing celebration of the more cultural, independent and ‘person-to-person’ aspects of the comic industry, TCAF is running all weekend at the Toronto Reference Library! Join me in heading down there, and be sure to drop by Benjamin’s table and take a look at the new Snow: Complete Edition graphic novel.

There aren’t questions, sometimes there are answers, at times explanations, but mostly there are just moments. Appropriate snippets of conversation tied together through open themes like family, substances, highs and lows. It can feel like there are a lot of gaps, but another way to look at it, is as a grouping of journal entries rather than a streaming development.

What really pins The Next Day is Porcellino’s art. Simple but really well thought out, Porcellino’s magnificently striking interpretations of even seemingly insignificant quotations really push The Next Day forward as a creative endeavour over a sociological document. John is simple, and it may strike some as a bit close to the cartoonish side, but if it were to brand a more serious look it would seem more ridiculous. Instead the style comes off as gentle, easy, but poignant.

If there is one thing that the online component does better than the book does it is the storm theme. What the interactive form gives you is the sound, of their voices and a truly disturbing growing rumble of clouds in the distance, while illustrated in the book it’s a little too easy to dismiss.

The Next Day isn’t asking for your judgement. While you may be able to relate to many of the feelings and snippets of these four people, the spaces in between and the mix-tape of tragedies doesn’t let you forget that, no, this isn’t something for you to sync with. Depression and suicide are complicated, if this book was thicker than a residence floor’s reading list it still wouldn’t paint the whole picture. Instead The Next Day is frames, fragments and letters, a diary of carefully selected visions that draw together how human and easily triggered the darkest times can be.

Creators Conor McCreery and Anthony Del Col with George Zotti at The Silver Snail

In this dark tale, the Bard’s most famous heroes embark upon a journey to discover a long-lost soul. Hamlet, Juliet, Othello, Falstaff, and Romeo search for a reclusive wizard who may have the ability to assist them in their battle against the evil forces led by the villains Richard III, Lady Macbeth and Iago. That reclusive wizard? William Shakespeare.

Any English majors reading that synopsis feel their heads exploding yet?
Those who survive this initial assailment on First Folio canon will want to check out Kill Shakespeare, the planned 12-issue comic book series from IDW Publishing co-created by Anthony Del Col and Conor McCreery. I sat down (okay, leaned against some short book shelves) with them last weekend at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival. They were attending as part of Transmission X’s entourage (Kill Shakespeare artist Andy Belanger is one of TX’s founders).

Jonathan: Can you give us a synopsis of what the comic is about?
Conor McCreery: Kill Shakespeare is an action-adventure series in which we pit all of Shakespeare’s greatest heroes against his most menacing villains. And they’re all on their way to either kill or save a reclusive wizard by the name of William Shakespeare. It’s being published by IDW, and it’s a 12-issue series.

Jonathan: Where did the idea for this story come up?
Conor: The origins are: We came up with it about six years ago. We were just brainstorming ideas for video games, and Kill Bill had just come out. We thought, hey there should be a Kill Bill video game, but instead of tracking down David Carradine, we should be tracking down Bill…Shake…speare? And we thought, ‘Oh my god, this is fantastic.’
Anthony Del Col: At first we thought of it as a massive multiplayer online role playing game, but then as we started to develop it, we just discovered how great the medium of comic books is. Conner had worked at the Silver Snail for a while, and we felt that Kill Shakespeare would be best as a comic series.

Kill Shakespeare #1

Jonathan: Where do you see this going, besides a comic book?
Conor: The first thing we really want to do is make a really good comic book. It’s perfect for Shakespeare because comics are a visual medium, and of course you’re not supposed to read his plays, you’re supposed to see them performed. So one of the neat things is that you get the sense of almost watching a performance. As we’ve gone on, we’ve had some people come to us. So someone’s said to us they want to do a role-playing game, so we’re just in the final stages of launching that product. We’ve been approached by Hollywood about whether we would want to do a film version of this.

We always wanted to do something in the online world, just because it’s a really great way to build a community. I mean, I’m a big comics geek, Anthony’s a huge Shakespeare geek, so it kind of gives us a way take two worlds that we love, and merge them. But it also lets people who are fans of Shakespeare and of comics to get together. Because it’s funny – Shakespeare and comics are still two sort of geeky pastimes. You might say that you’re a Batman fan, but you might not say that you’re a Hamlet fan. There’s something different about that. People talk about how they play video games, but a lot of comic fans are still a little nervous to get on the subway and, on a Wednesday, are they going to pull out and read their comics on the subway ride home? Some comic fans won’t because there’s still that bit of a stigma. We’d love it if we can help break down that stigma.

Jonathan: This is not a typical approach to Shakespeare, or merely an adaptation of an existing play. These characters are coming together in very unusual ways. How do you work with characters from such established roles and different backgrounds?
Conor: The big thing is that we’re not “doing Shakespeare.” We have a new story. Now we’re using Shakespeare characters, and we think we’re being respectful and honourable to what The Bard did with these characters, but we made a decision early on that it would be our own story, and also say something about us. So in a weird way, it’s not intimidating, because we aren’t pressured to use Hamlet the way the Bard did. We want to use him in a way that’s exciting for us, and both being Shakespeare fans, I think the average Shakespeare fan will say “Yeah, that makes total sense.” But yeah, we’ve had scholars come say to us “I don’t know about this. There’s something wrong about this.” What can you do?
Anthony: We want this to appeal to everybody. If you know Shakespeare, that’s great. If you know nothing about him, that’s even better. It’s the kind of thing where if you haven’t read Hamlet or Romeo & Juliet or any of these plays, you still know who these characters are. So we’ve consciously made the decision not to get too caught up in the actual stories, and to let them breathe as characters on their own. Yet you have to be somewhat faithful to these characters as they were originally conceived.

Jonathan: How do you figure out where that line is? How familiar are you guys with Shakespeare, and did you do any research specifically for this project?
Anthony: We’ve both been Shakespeare fans. We’re not English graduates or anything like that; we both went to business school. But Conor was a theatre minor, I was a film minor, and so we were just interested in that sort of thing. I’ve loved Shakespeare since high school; I go every year to the Stratford festival. Conner was moved by a production of The Tempest when he went to Stratford back in…Grade nine?
Conor: I think it was Grade seven, actually.
Anthony: Yeah, we had a really great teacher in high school. I’m from northern Ontario, and our teacher would organize a trip every year. We kind of brushed up on our Shakespeare, to paraphrase a song, but we also made a conscious decision not to read them word-for-word or line-by-line, because we didn’t want to get too caught up in that scene. Again, we wanted to make it fresh and accessible to everybody.
Conor: It was very challenging because I had to read them, every other word.
Anthony: Then it’s not iambic pentameter!

Jonathan: Yes, why did you choose not to work with iambic?
Conor: We didn’t want to write in iambic for a couple of reasons. One, because Shakespeare’s done it better than we ever will. The language is beautiful. But it’s not contemporary, and that’s kind of a problem. The vocabulary is not quite what we use nowadays. And even in Shakespeare’s time it was a little different – it was theatre speech, not common speech.

The other thing is that we wanted to create a new level of accessibility—either for someone who’s never been into Shakespeare, or for someone who’s going to return to it. We don’t want someone to not read Hamlet and read our comic instead. We want them to read them both. If dropping iambic is what gives someone the incentive to dip their first toe into Shakespeare, and then they might say “Okay, I can take on Othello now, because I kind of have a sense of what that guy’s about,” that would be awesome.

The best compliment that we’ve had so far is from a guy who said that it made him want to read other things. It made him want to read Shakespeare; it made him want to read other comics; it just made him want to be creative. If we can get that response out of a bunch of people, that would be a dream.

Jonathan: Tell us about your connection to Transmission X.
Anthony: Transmission X is a webcomic collective, from artists mostly in Toronto. Our connection is to Andy Belanger, he does one called Raising Hell. The great thing about TX is that these are some of the best artists in Toronto. It’s putting Andy into the North American comic book scene, much like how Cameron Stewart has been in the last little while. You know, people talk about Toronto being one of the hotbeds of comic book talent, and TX is really at the forefront of that.

Jonathan: What’s your favourite Shakespeare play?
Anthony: My favourite is Othello. In a lot of his plays, Shakespeare works with the fantasy element, but in Othello he just bypasses that entirely and it’s just about pure human emotion—jealousy, revenge, all the great ones. That really speaks to me.
Conor: For me it’s probably still The Tempest. I love the notion of these creatures on the island. What I really like is the notion of Prospero, who is this god who ultimately chooses to let the people make their own decisions. It was so interesting to see this powerful character decide to just let things go and see how things work out. It kind of informed a lot of my decisions about how people with power should act.

Scott Campbell is the art director at Double Fine Productions, a video game development studio founded by Tim Schafer of Lucasarts adventure game fame. Campbell’s cartoony and light-hearted art style form the canvas of Double Fine’s critically acclaimed games Psychonauts and Brutal Legend. I spoke with Campbell at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, after he spoke on a panel that discussed the convergence of video games and comic books. He has a webcomic of his own on Double Fine’s website, called Double Fine Action Comics.

Jonathan: Tell me about the games you worked on at Double Fine.

Scott Campbell: Psychonauts was the first game we did and I was art director on that, which meant that I helped establish the visual style of the game. I did a lot of designs for it, including the characters, and sort of kept the vision intact. Same thing with Brutal Legend, except by that time we had a bigger production team, so we had a pre-production phase as well.

Jonathan: You mentioned that with a project like Brutal Legend, you went through several stages of concepts, refining and editing. How long was the process?

Scott: Tim Schafer, the head guy at Double Fine, is a total perfectionist. I am a perfectionist too, so we always just want to iterate, iterate, iterate until it’s perfect. With that project it took about five years to make, and it’s pretty ongoing, as far as redesigning things to get them to work.

I would design something, and then I would bring it to Tim, and there are certain reactions you want to get out of him. So if you show him a drawing or a concept for something, and you’re pretty excited about it, but you’re not entirely sure, and Tim’s like “ah, that’s pretty cool,” then you know. You could stop there, but you have to keep on going until he’s like “Ah, heh heh!” laughing out loud and having a good time about it.

That’s what makes that environment so great; creatively everyone wants to make everyone else psyched, and to laugh at each other’s ideas – well, a good laugh – just really to inspire each other, and that environment creates some really interesting stuff. I think we all appreciate how Tim works to create that environment. In crunch time it gets crazy, but it’s still good to have someone making sure that everything is still top quality.

Psychonauts from Double Fine Productions

Jonathan: Any one artistic aspect you can point to in Brutal Legend or Psychonauts that is yours?

Scott: I started at Double Fine because Tim wanted me to establish their style, based kind of on my cartoony style, for Psychonauts. So I guess that entire game has my signature on it. I designed all the characters, and designed and hand-placed all of the figments in the game. There were these collectibles, sort of like hand-drawn memories in the game, and that was the one thing I did beside the concepts.

Brutal Legend was a different style, so it called for a different look. We wanted it to be powerful, to make it feel like it could be on the cover of a heavy metal album, so that a metal fan would like any image from the game. So we wanted to do that, but also give it some of that Double Fine style as well.

Jonathan: Brutal Legend featured characters based on real people, like Jack Black and Ozzy Osbourne. Were there any constraints on how far you were allowed to take their representations?

Scott: Dude, yeah. Those characters were the hardest ones for me to design. We didn’t have any constraints with them specifically; they didn’t tell us, ‘you have to make us look a certain way’ or anything. But just trying to work on the likeness of such recognizable people and have it work with the stylized look of the game, was really difficult. I was doing a lot of noodling to make sure it works. It’s very hard.

Jonathan: So you didn’t have any constraints from the celebrities or their agents/promoters at all?

Scott: No. Our guidelines came from Tim, because these were all his idols. So he had images in his mind that he grew up with and that he loved about him. You know, like having Ozzy with a bat body and a straitjacket. They’re like gods in a fantasy world. The game is basically Tim’s fantasy world. And we were all trying to realize his world, to bring it to life in different ways.

Brutal Legend art by Scott Campbell

Jonathan: Brutal Legend wasn’t as big a commercial success as some may have hoped. Did you get a sense that it didn’t reach its potential, or reach as many people as it could have?

Scott: That’s an area I don’t know much about. I think a lot of us just move on to the next thing. Because after working for five years on a project I rarely want to think about it. (laughs) You know? So it’s hard for me to gauge everyone’s reactions. But it seems good, far as I can tell.

Jonathan: Can you say what you’re working on now?

Scott: With Double Fine? Top secret! But it’s a very exciting place right now. My own stuff is working out. I’m just finishing a kid’s book about zombies. I’m going to be done about in June. It’s with Simon & Schuster. And various art shows and things.

Jonathan: You have a very distinctive art style. Can you tell me where that came from, and how you started drawing?

Scott: After art school, there were a few years where I was working with some others who were trying really hard to keep each other excited with art. All my artist friends had a reason to do it, like “Oh, I have to create art or I will die!” or “I have to paint or I’m going to lose my mind!” and I just didn’t feel like that.

I wanted to figure out what I was trying to say with my art, and that was the one thing I never learned in art school. What am I trying to say? What was my reason for creating? I felt like I always wanted to get that same kind of excitement that you got when you woke up as a kid in the morning; you were so excited to get back to drawing that battle, or that weird thing you were drawing the other day. It was less about drawing and more like you were on an adventure. That’s what I wanted to get, that same childlike excitement.

Once I started using the watercolours, because I was struggling to find a medium too, they were very non-committal for me. It’s not like with washes, or oil, or acrylic; those are very decadent and you can layer and whatever, but you’re very committed to these colours. Watercolours are very subtle and very pleasant. I could put a little bit of colour and then keep adding it, but you can go very slowly with each stroke. You don’t have to really commit to it, and I think it gives a certain kind of light-heartedness to it. It feels more in tune with the themes that I have – which are supposed to be light-hearted, and make you feel really good. I feel like my role is to make things that make others feel gleeful.

Jonathan: Double Fine Action Comics is a little more under the radar, and it has pretty much nothing to do with the major projects the studio is working on. How do you figure out what to do with these comics that have the studio’s name on it?

Scott: Well Tim’s always wanted an environment like that. So many things can happen, not just games. And we have the site act as a hub for everything. We have it for everyone at the studio to get their own ideas out there. It’s very encouraging to have everyone coming up for ideas for games, and for stories. That’s what he wants Double Fine to be: an exciting place where lots of things are happening. There are comics, and some mini-games as well on the site, some of which are based on the comics.

Also, it’s about putting things out there while in the middle of a five-year project just so people can see – oh, they’re still alive in there! They’re still creating things! Having everyone there working on “extra-curricular” things helps the main projects.

Great Showdowns by Scott Campbell

Jonathan: Do you feel added pressure from publishers, especially closer to release dates when you have to put all that aside and get the game ready in time for that date?

Scott: Oh, there are definitely times when we just don’t output as many comics. Most webcomics are very, very regular, which makes them very effective. You expect to get them every single day, or every week or whatever. And it does slip sometimes at Double Fine, when it gets really busy, which is a bummer. There were a few artists who did them for a while but then stopped, because once it starts feeling like a second part of your job, and then it’s not fun. It’s supposed to be a way to just release some pent-up stuff. Not necessarily releasing frustration, just so that you’re not all working on one thing.

Jonathan: Have you been playing any video game or reading any comics lately?

Scott: I haven’t had much time to play many games recently, which totally bums me out. But for webcomics, I like Kate Beaton’s Hark a Vagrant, and Ryan Pequin’s Three Word Phrase. Kate’s work is amazing. And they have a bent that I really like because they’re historical, the dialogue’s amazing, and the jokes are just so funny. And Ryan’s are just so simple, that every time it’s just a sort of mini-joke, but it’s always just so good. And there’s also Graham Annable’s Dunk at Telltale Games – which is another thing. They [Telltale] have the same thing with games as well as comics on their site.

Jonathan: What’s on your dork shelf?

Scott: I’m kind of addicted to buying books. I have this awesome book about knights that I found. I also got a Brutal Legend action figure on my shelf, it’s of Eddie [Riggs, Jack Black/the game’s main character] jumping down with his axe. It very much sticks out with the rest of the stuff. Oh, and my puppets are next to Eddie, which is an interesting combination. Oh, and an Elisabeth Ito plush cat-dude.

Think Hot Docs is the only festival happening in Toronto this week? The exhibition portion of the Toronto Comic Arts Festival kicked off today, and if you’re looking for a great way to spend this rainy weekend, TCAF is the place to be.

Don’t expect to see any comics from the big two at TCAF though. The fest is not a comic convention in the classic sense, the focus is on independent artists, creators and small publishers of comic books and graphic novels. In addition to the hundreds of guests and exhibitors showcasing their work, TCAF also includes panels and group discussions about the independent comic scene. Guests include Paul Pope (Batman: Year 100, 100%), Jim Woodring (Frank, Jim), Evan Dorkin (Milk & Cheese), Kate Beaton (Hark! A Vagrant), Brandon Bird, the fine folks from Transmission X and many, many more.

Comic books not your thing? Not to worry, the Hand Eye Society has you covered. Hand Eye epresenting Toronto’s indie video game development community. This is a  great chance to check out the latest projects from local developers GetSetGames, Spooky Squid Games, SpyeArt, Untold Entertainment Inc. and many more. You’ll also have an opportunity to try the legendary TORONTRON: a classic arcade machine that has been retrofitted to play indie games by local developers. Local game journalist Matthew Kumar will be moderating a panel called The Spirit of Indie: Where Comics Meet Video Games, exploring the convergence of the two mediums.

Scott Campbell, art director and concept artist for Double Fine (Psychonauts, Brutal Legend) will also be in attendance.

The Toronto Comic Arts Festival takes place May 8th-9th 2010 at the Toronto Reference Library. Admission is free!

For more info check out the official TCAF site or just head down to the Ref.