Canadian musician, singer and songwriter Lights will be adding comic book writer and artist to her repertoire on July 12th. The two time Juno award winning artist has something very special planned for the release of her fourth album; Lights will be writing and drawing a comic series called Skin & Earth. Each issue will be accompanied by new music until finally, the series and full length album by the same name, are completely released.
In the late 1800s the Canadian government enforced one of the worst policies in the young country’s history. The government introduced Aboriginal Residential Schools. The Christian church run boarding schools would remove Aboriginal children from their families and culture effectively to teach them to be white Canadians. This involved teaching away their language, teaching the children they were savages and pagans, teaching them that they were inferior to white children. Many cases of physical and sexual abuse have been reported from these residential schools. Out of the approximate 150,000 children forced into this school system at least 6,000 children died while in attendance. Many others were abused and all were taught that everything happening was their fault for simply being born the way they were. This is disgusting. Lives were lost. Families torn apart. A people persecuted.
Continue reading Walk with Gord and Jeff on the Path to Reconciliation
Do you remember that summer day in 2014 you went to the comic book store and decided to give Shutter #1 a try? You recognized Joe Keatinge’s name but unsure from where. You didn’t recognize Leila Del Duca’s name but the cover looked pretty cool so you added it to the stack. Remember the first two page spread when your jaw dropped and you realized you may have just found a hidden gem? I know I do. Shutter hit the ground running and blasted onto the comic book radar from the first issue. Now in 2015 Shutter gets deeper into the mystery of Kate’s family as Keatinge and Del Duca swing those shutters wide open and tell the wacky, fantastical and funny story of a dysfunctional family in a dysfunctional fantasy world. Shutter released 10 issues in 2015 which span from issue #8-17.
Continue reading This Year’s Finest 2015: Shutter, The Story So Far
A popular store to shop in this holiday season is Chapters. I have been in a few times this season shopping for my family. Chapters is the Canadian version of Barnes and Noble. They have a good comic book selection but I rarely buy comics from there, I prefer to support my local shop owner. One of the first things you see upon entering the store is their best seller wall and this holiday season it shocked me to enter and find Saga volumes 1 to 5 sitting right front and centre on the best sellers rack. I understand Saga is a big deal, but I dabble mostly in the comic book world. I had no idea I would find Saga on the best sellers rack of Chapters. More importantly, I didn’t find Saga Volume 1 on the best sellers rack, I found volumes 1 to 5. Sure, you may pick volume 1 up for your nephew one Christmas, but you can be sure he is coming back for volumes 2, 3, 4 and 5. Saga is addicting. It is the gateway comic. The year 2015 marks the release of Saga issues #25-#31 which comprises volume 5 plus the beginning of the next arc. The epic continues.
Continue reading This Year’s Finest 2015: Saga Teaches Family First
This is a tweet by James Tynion IV on February 24th 2015 of Scott Snyder outlining this year in Batman. The picture clearly shows everything Snyder was planning for the year, so for me to write a post breaking down one of my favorite comics of the year seems rather silly at this point. However, after just rereading the whole year of Batman comics there is simply nothing left to do but write.
Continue reading This Year’s Finest 2015: Batman, Endings and Beginnings
“Nick and I always knew that when the comic got to a certain point we would be changing format, as Manhattan Projects was always intended to eventually be a book where we could tell any kind of story – in any genre – we wanted. We were also aware that doing so would mean that we would be changing the entire structure narrative that moves each individual character’s story incrementally along, and replacing that will be tight arcs focusing on a single (or few) characters.” – Jonathan Hickman
Continue reading This Year’s Finest 2015: The Manhattan Projects Space Is Depressing
Have you ever played a murder mystery game? I have never played, but I did host one at a Halloween party a few years ago. As the host, I could not play but I was able to send out the invitations to the party. In these invitations it told attendees a few details about their character so they could arrive dressed and prepared. I was able to observe as my friends quizzed each other on the murder which took place shortly after their arrival. The murder mystery contained four acts and each act revealed a bit more about each character. The key was asking questions. There was only one person that night who was able to deduce the identity of the murderer. He was the only one who asked the right person the right question. After the question was asked everything became clear to him and only him. The provider of the answer was unaware she was dishing the crucial clue. She just thought she was answering an innocent question that didn’t have to do with her. The Fade Out is this murder mystery game, except this time I get to play. Each issue slowly reveals more about each character. If I can find the right question to ask of the right character, I think I can solve this mystery. I will be adopting Dwight Schrute’s method of solving a mystery, “It’s never the person who you most suspect. It’s also never the person you least suspect since anyone with half a brain would suspect them the most. Therefore, I know the killer to be Phyllis… The person who I most medium suspect.”
By Jason Aaron, r.m. Guera and Giulia Brusco
The purpose of this article is not to offend anyone; the purpose of this article is to review a comic book which falls into the biblical noir genre.
Feel the rhythm, feel the rhyme, get on up, it’s comic book time…COOL RUNNINGS. In this segment I will be examining various runs by our favourite creators. I will begin with the rich run of stories coming from Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. There is a lot to this catalogue and therefore will span multiple weeks. This week we talk Incognito. Warning: Cool Runnings may contain spoilers.
Continue reading Cool Runnings: Brubaker and Phillips – Incognito
In this segment I will be highlighting a variety of work. Something old is a book from my shelf I have read in the past. Something new is a new comic series I am excited about. Something borrowed is a book I do not own and have borrowed to read specifically for this segment. Something queued is a book I have now placed in the “to-read” pile as a result of the previous three. Every now and then I will pop something off the queue and write about it. This week I am highlighting Greg Rucka, specifically his stories with strong female detectives. (Technically they aren’t all “detectives” but investigative work is done).
Nothing But Comics 