BOOKS Boy in the Moon, Ian Brown (Random House) The old cliche of “you’ll laugh, you’ll cry” stands true for Ian Brown’s essays on his son, who was born with a rare genetic defect. Brown lets down his macho journalist persona and delivers an incredibly honest reflection on manhood. —SCF February, Lisa Moore (Anansi) I […]
Rachelle Goguen
Posted inArts + Music
Asterios Polyp, David Mazzucchelli (Pantheon)
Since its release in August, David Mazzucchelli’s original graphic novel Asterios Polyp has been praised by critics as a masterpiece, and deservedly so. I have no doubt this book will be at or near the top of every comic reviewer’s Best of 2009 list. The book tells the story of a middle-aged, pretentious, semi-successful architect […]
Posted inArts + Music
The Muppet Show: Meet The Muppets (Boom! Studios)
Boom! Studios, a smaller big comic book publisher, launched their new Boom! Kids line earlier this year, which features comics based on the Disney-owned properties Pixar and The Muppets. Time will tell if this arrangement lasts now that Disney owns Marvel. Hopefully nothing will happen that affects the Muppet Show comics that cartoonist Roger Langridge […]
Posted inArts + Music
Wednesday Comics (DC Comics)
Six weeks ago, DC Comics unleashed one of the most ingenious ideas to hit the stands in years. While publishers everywhere are rushing to make books smaller, digital and more portable, DC boldly released Wednesday Comics, a giant-ass newspaper-sized collection of superhero comic strips by some of today’s biggest stars. This delightful format pays tribute […]
Posted inArts + Music
The Invisible Man, Michigan-style
The Nobody is the latest graphic novel from Toronto-based cartoonist Jeff Lemire, who earned critical praise and awards for his Essex County trilogy. In The Nobody, Lemire re-imagines the classic HG Wells story The Invisible Man by setting it in a tiny Michigan fishing village. The reactions of the locals to their bizarre new resident, […]
Posted inArts + Music
Tales Designed to Thrizzle Vol. 1
Michael Kupperman’s Tales Designed to Thrizzle comics are some of the most insane, laugh-out-loud hilarious things I have ever read. The New York-based cartoonist was recently praised by Conan O’Brien for having “one of the best comedy brains on the planet” in an Entertainment Weekly list of the talk-show host’s favourite things. Kupperman is not […]
Posted inArts + Music
Comic of the month: Blazing Combat
It’s interesting to read previously banned literature and it’s even more satisfying when the material is an outstanding representation of a medium’s potential. Blazing Combat is a new hardcover book that collects the entire short-lived 1960s anti-war comic of the same name. The black-and-white comics were originally published by Warren Publishing in 1965-66, before American […]
Posted inLifestyle
Easy streets
Ah, summer in Nova Scotia. That glorious 10-week window of sunshine between the long stretches of frigid dampness so seldom mentioned in our tourism ads. A time for us to “come to life,” as it were, and maybe take a break from watching DVD box-sets and eating ketchup chips from bags we’ve rested on our […]
Posted inArts + Music
A love apart
Consider Canadian filmmaker Vic Sarin’s latest film, Partition, to be a labour of love. Sarin, who was born in Kashmir, sets his film against the tumultuous backdrop of the 1947 division of India and Pakistan. The film focuses on a classic Romeo and Juliet story of forbidden love between a Sikh man, Gian, and a […]