BookLust

Brilliant BOOX

Every now and then I'll come across a cartoonist who creates something that makes me say, dammit, I wish I'd thought of that! Well, it happened again a few days ago, when the wonderful Paula Becker emailed me this bloody brilliant comic strip called BOOX:

Apparently the cartoonist, Mark Alan Stamaty, creates this comic strip BOOX for the New York Times Book Review. Damn I wish I could read it on a regular basis. Or better yet, I wish he'd get a book published with all his NYT Book Review cartoons. This is cartoonist after my own heart. It's like my Art Imitating Lit series, only like, better and smarter. Now if only I could get a regular gig like lucky ol' Mr. Stamaty...

I'm Hungry For Books

I'm swamped with deadlines again, which means not only am I not posting enough, I'm not reading enough, either, darn it. But I did just finish a great book which I promise I'll talk about very soon. And there's lots of other ideas I'd love to talk about, if I can just find the time!

In the mean time, enjoy the latest card I created for my local bookstore in the Bloor West Village. My first batch sold out!

Who Knew I was a Slasher?

Many thanks to Isabella, for bringing this little gem to my attention! I've been distracted with this and that of late, so as a consequence I completely missed this little write-up in the Wired Blog about my Lethem and Chabon strip. In this interview with Lethem, he mentions that he'd love to be in a slash fiction story. As far as he knows, he's only been slashed once, by none other than moi. Boy do I feel uncool. I didn't even really know what slash fiction was, and apparently I've done it!

I love Lethem's description of my strip as  "a sublimated homoerotic comic that was just an inch away from being Kirk and Spock." Heh. And I'd never made the connection with the Kirk and Spock homoerotic thing in my strip before. That's another duo that I love, by the way. Maybe there's another strip there, somewhere...wait a minute, my brother and I already did that, though mind you, we neglected to add any homoerotic humour.

I leave you with this very silly cartoon of the Star Trek dudes, drawn many years ago. I found it a few weeks ago, when I was cleaning out all my old portfolio cases. Sorry for the crappy scan, but I had to scan it in sections, 'cuz it's this huge poster! For the life of me, I don't know what motivated me to create this. And why did I draw it in crayon? Only my therapist knows for sure...

May The Yam Be With You

Ever said to yourself when you encounter a great book, be it literary or comical, "Now why the heck didn't I think of this idea?" This is one of those times for me.

One of my cartoon buddies, Brian Fray, while grocery shopping one day, "decided that yams were kind of funny looking. And that the word "yam" was pretty funny, too." And so Brian took it upon himself to create a book of yam cartoons to prove his brilliant theory. The end result is silly, hilarious and quite frankly, YAM-azing. I'll never think of the the phrase Yama-Llama-Ding Dong in the same way ever again.

So get the book, yammit!

Too Fond of Books

This is what you do with your time when you're avoiding finishing up your taxes. But I planned on drawing this eventually, anyway. So why not now? Heh.

A while back I approached the manager of my local bookstore about selling some greeting cards in their small card section. He seems interested, but I'll have to bring in samples before he'll approve them. The other card I'm gonna try and sell is this one:

Hope he likes 'em! I'm obviously not doing this to make a ton of cash – I just wanted to share my artwork more with my local community, as well as express through my art my love of books. And if I can ever get myself really organized, I'll finally sign up with CafePress!

Re-Gifting, New Yorker Style

Near the end of December last year I was approached by Emily Gordon of Emdashes fame to whip up a virtual Christmas present to a person, thing, or idea at The New Yorker.  I'm a good girl and always try to do what Emily asks of me, but alas, she's a very busy girl, and didn't get 'round to posting these gifts until Valentine's Day, hence the re-gifting theme. This was one of the cartoons I drew. On Emily's blog you will notice a mistletoe above Eustace Tilley's blushing mug. Please do not adjust your set. A good cartoon sometimes needs to simmer for a few months. (Ok, maybe not).

There's plenty of other good gift ideas too, from folks like author Daniel Handler and New Yorker cartoonist Carolita Johnson. You can read the whole post here.

Happy Chrismukkah!!

A fun animation by my talented pal Revilo.

Competition!!

I had heard over the years that Margaret Atwood was a closet cartoonist, but it is only recently that I finally got the chance to see samples of her work. Check out this great site , which is about all things Atwood, including samples of her comic strips.

And if you wanna see the gal in cartoon action, then you might enjoy this old CBC clip – Peter Gzowski interviews Ms. Atwood in 1978, when she was contributing cartoons for the then relatively new This Magazine.

Peggy's pretty darn good, dammit!

The Bestest Valentine

Though I'm not a super big fan of Valentine's Day, I did get to do something very special that was somewhat valentine-related.

Yesterday I spent the afternoon at The Hospital For Sick Kids in Toronto, drawing cartoons for kids in the Emergency ward, to hopefully brighten up their day. This annual event is called the Kartoonists 4 Sick Kids Kaper.

So since it was Valentine's Day, I did happen to draw quite a few valentine's cartoons. I cannot begin to express what an amazing experience it was, bringing smiles to all those kids' faces.

I wasn't the only cartoonist there, of course. There were plenty of seasoned professionals drawing their hearts out, too. What a thrill to meet Anthony Jenkins and Brian Gable of the Globe and Mail, and the hilarious and talented Susan Dewar of the Ottawa Sun. Also in attendance were Toronto Sun court artist and illustrator Pam Davies, cartoonists Tak Bui and Bob Kain, and the organizers of this amazing annual event, cartoonist Ted Martin and his wife Dawn.

Thank you, Ted, for inviting me to this very memorable event!

Party Like a Cartoonist

I'm now part of the new executive for the Canadian Chapter of the National Cartoonists Society. Specifically, I'm the Secretary and the Treasurer. Sounds a lot more important than it really is. One of the best parts of this job is working with the new Chapter Chair, Sandra Bell-Lundy, organizing any special cartoonist events. Friday night was our annual Christmas get-together to meet up with old cartoon friends we haven't seen in a while, as well as meet some talented new faces. Plenty of fun and conversation ensued, trust me.

I look drunk in this photo, but I'm really not. Honest.