March Finds

It’s been a busy March.

The OCAD Zine Fair was held on March 3, in the lobby of 100 McCaul. It was a smallish affair but lots of goodies.

http://www.ocad.ca/

Check out http://bonblivious.blogspot.com ’s Fuck Making a Zine. !

Daniela Jordan Villaveces, on the far right, sold her own prints as well as The Wilding for me. Beside her: Toni Darling and Jesjit Gill.

Daniela: http://glowinthedarkmoustache.blogspot.com/

Jesjit: http://www.nowtoronto.com/daily/story.cfm?content=169006

http://www.tonidarling.com

Jesjit offered up an old gem, Raw Pizza Zine from 2007, and brand new Adrienne Kammerer’s Summoning Sickness.

http://adriennekammerer.blogspot.com/

Andrea Manica always brings the goods.

See the insides of her mini-zines at http://cerealwithasmile.blogspot.com/

Got issue #2 of Jason Bradshaw’s comics zine Boredom Pays.

http://boredompays.blogspot.com/

New discoveries for me at and next to Fantasy Camp’s Eunice Luk’s table: her boyfriend on left, Ted Gudlat’s Bald Men, and on right Nathan Robert Enkel’s collab with Spencer Butt’s Digital Warlock Criminalz.

http://euniceluk.blogspot.com/

http://tedgudlat.blogspot.com/

http://digitalwarlockcriminalz.blogspot.com/

Ness Lee, on right, in the house, scored some free stickers.

Nancy Zhang zine-ing on the left.

http://nessleee.blogspot.com/

http://www.nancyzhang.net/blog/?p=1996

Marta Ryczko had new mini-zines and moustache stickers! Score!

http://martaryczko.com/about.html

Also picked up list #14 and babe-a-day-ish Zine Vol. 2 from twelveohtwo zine distro

https://www.facebook.com/twelveohtwo?sk=info

Another new zinester to me: Jocelyn Cheung, on the left side, sold mini-zines and mini-print outs.

http://www.jocelyncheung.com/

The zine fair was taking place in the OCAD Learning Zone as well. Daniela continued making free buttons post fair. Mick Hemans gets one. Roomies Eunice Luk and Andrea Manica exhibit their art works on the wall of the zine library.

Andrea Manica
Eunice Luk

Sometime during the month I dropped by the Beguiling and picked up wildman painter/drawer Casey McGlynn’s new zine masterwork. It’s chock full of his colourful rawk n’ roll drawings. References to food, love, Satan, Star Wars, and vans create a very potent mix!

http://www.beguiling.com/index.php

http://www.cuckoocollection.com/mcglynn.html

This week I received in the mail my hot new copy of Wowee Zonk co-founder and wunderkind Chris Kuzma’s new comic COMPLEX. Be sure to order this one, it is sure to sell out:

http://chriskuzma.blogspot.com/

http://www.woweezonk.com/

My new graphic novel The Never Weres was launched by This Is Not A Reading Series last Sunday, March 13^th. Have a look at the TNW blog for the full story:

http://www.theneverweres.blogspot.com/

The Never Weres Book Launch

Fiona Smyth’s new graphic novel launches with RM Vaughan interview, live performance, and drawings/comic jam.

Readers, writers, and artists celebrate the debut of Fiona Smyth’s first graphic novel for young readers, The Never Weres (Annick Press), as art critic for the Globe and Mail, RM Vaughan joins author and illustrator Fiona Smyth for a conversation about her vivid career. Audience members of all ages are invited to grab Sharpies and doodle a panel for the event’s collective drawings/comics jam and watch as narrators bring a chapter of The Never Weres to life against a changing backdrop of the book’s illustrations.

Sunday, March 13

The Gladstone Hotel Ballroom
1214 Queen Street West

Doors open at 2 pm; Event starts at 2:30 pm

$5 or Free with book purchase

I have been watching, collecting, writing about, and loving Fiona's work for 20 years. “The Never Weres” is the latest installment in a long, beautifully strange career.

– R.M. Vaughan, the Globe and Mail art critic

THE NEVER WERES: Cartoonist Fiona Smyth shares the story about three teens who become humanity’s only hope for survival in this science fiction, fantasy graphic novel.

Late in the next century, the human race is on the verge of extinction. A mysterious virus has resulted in no births in almost a generation. Despite the impending doom, three urban teenagers try to live their lives with hope.

Mia strives to preserve humanity’s compassion through her art and her volunteer work with the “oldies.” Tech-savvy Xian spends her time tinkering with the robots she’s sure will inherit the earth. Jesse, the son of geneticists, is convinced the future lies with cloning, but society is reeling from the grotesque failures of previous attempts. When the friends stumble upon the 60-year-old mystery of a missing girl, it leads them to the world’s only successful clone—and the key to saving our species.

As graphic novels continue to increase in popularity, this story uses the form to its best advantage in depicting a dystopian future as visually detailed as it is emotionally rich. Fiona Smyth’s energetic, hip illustration style will appeal to kids while the gripping narrative will keep them breathless to the very last page. For more information about the book, visit www.theneverweres.blogspot.com.

Fiona's Cheez Shoppe at INDEXG

Here's a closer look at the larger pieces in the Cheez Shoppe. They are 12"X12" and painted in acrylic. They are available for $800.00 each. Contact the fine folks at INDEXG if you are interested in purchasing one or more. The series is titled The Mouth.
http://indexg.com/exhibitions.asp
There are also $2.00 mini-zines, $3.00 buttons, $5.00 The Wilding zines, and $20.00 mini-paintings.

Saturday Stroll

On February 5th I take a walk around west end Toronto. Catch the Sketchkrieg show at Xspace:Sketchkrieg! is a band of comic artists and illustrators based in Toronto. This collective consists of Evan Munday (Stripmalling, Quarter-Life Crisis), Brian Hoang (Medicine), Zen Rankin (Action Satisfaction Supreme), Alana McCarthy (Owl Kids, Scholastic), Tyrone McCarthy (Corporate Life, Corduroy High, Tyne), Jason Loo (Canadian GI Joe Con, AWOL'd) and Gillian Newland (Big and Small, Room for All; A Chanukah Noel).
http://sketchkrieg.blogspot.com/


An ambitious comic jam...




Things turn even more goth over at Angell Gallery for Kim Dorland's Nocturne show.
http://www.angellgallery.com/exhibitions/


This critter could be viewed in black light but I missed out.

Over to Katharine Mulherin's for Bodies and Politics: Balint Zsako,


Michael Caines,


and Oscar de Las Flores.
http://www.katharinemulherin.com/dynamic/exhibit_artist.asp?ExhibitID=311&Exhibit=Current


Mr. Nobody surveys the changing hood from the Fly Gallery window.

Phasers on for IndexG's opening of Rene Zamic's OK Galaxy


and Sally Ayre's Nature's Shadows.
http://indexg.com/exhibitions.asp


It is also the vernissage for Tomio Nitto's Camerashop and my own Cheez Shoppe: both regular exhibition wall venues for our work at IndexG.


Iris Lee and Tomio Nitto greet well wishers.


I'm out of blue cheese at the moment.


The day ends with some excellent bedtime reading: Patrick Kyle's Black Mass #4:
http://www.patrickkyle.com/
Punk is Dead, Long Live Punk!!


Thanks Patrick for the pocket pal!