8 great comics featured on Bookends with Mattea Roach
On the show, Roach talks to authors from Canada and around the world. And here are the creators of comics Roach sat down with this year.
Degrees of Separation by Alison McCreesh
Degrees of Separation blends stories, drawings and sketches that chronicle Alison McCreesh's decade spent living in the North. From being stranded in the High Arctic to raising a baby in a small shack with no running water, the book is a coming-of-age story that recounts the challenges and joys of life living and working north of the 60th parallel.
McCreesh is an artist who currently lives in Yellowknife. She has travelled around the Arctic, and the theme of contemporary day-to-day life in the North carries through her creative work.
All Our Ordinary Stories by Teresa Wong
In the graphic memoir All Our Ordinary Stories, Teresa Wong uses spare black-and-white illustrations and thought-provoking prose to unpack how intergenerational trauma and resilience can shape our identities. Starting with her mother's stroke a decade ago, Wong takes a journey through time and place to find the origin of her feelings of disconnection from her parents.
Something, Not Nothing by Sarah Leavitt
Following the medically assisted death of her partner of 22 years, cartoonist Sarah Leavitt began small sketches that quickly became something new and unexpected to her — the graphic memoir Something, Not Nothing. The abstract images mixed with poetic text, layers of watercolour, ink and coloured pencil combine to tell a story of love, grief, peace and new beginnings.
Final Cut by Charles Burns
In Final Cut, childhood friends Brian and Jimmy set out to create a sci-fi horror movie using an old eight-millimetre camera. With Laurie as Brian's muse, they trek to a remote cabin in the mountains and Brian struggles with finding the balance between his dreams and reality.
Charles Burns is an American cartoonist. His graphic novel Black Hole won Eisner, Harvey and Ignatz awards. He is the cover artist for The Believer and has made covers for Time, The New Yorker and The New York Times Sunday Magazine.
Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life by Bryan Lee O'Malley
The Scott Pilgrim series is about an unemployed 23-year-old Torontonian, the titular character, who's going through a breakup. But when he falls for the enigmatic Ramona Flowers, he must face off against her seven evil exes in order to continue their relationship. Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life is the first book in the series.
Bryan Lee O'Malley's career in comics took off after publishing Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life, the first in a Toronto-centric series about an indie music-loving nerd who must defeat his girlfriend Ramona's seven evil exes. The bestselling books later became a film starring Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Brie Larson. O'Malley followed up this success with the acclaimed graphic novel Seconds and another series called Snot Girl with Leslie Hung.
Q&A
Before the internet, many comic books included a section to send letters to the creators and get insight into their work and their process. When cartoonist Adrian Tomine was growing up, he would send those letters — and now he's answering them. Q&A dives into the questions he most often hears from readers, and responds to them with a combination of words, photos and illustrations.
American cartoonist Adrian Tomine is best known for his series Optic Nerve, his memoir and his work in The New Yorker. He lives in Brooklyn.
Acme Novelty Datebook: Volume Three by Chris Ware
Acme Novelty Datebook: Volume Three is the third and final instalment of a series that offers readers a look into American cartoonist Chris Ware's personal sketchbooks. covers the last 20 years and tells of his journey into fatherhood and the rise of social media.
Ware is the author and illustrator of Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth, which won the Guardian First Book Award in 2001, Building Stories and Rusty Brown, which was a finalist for the PEN/Jean Stein award. He has designed 32 covers for The New Yorker and his work has been exhibited in many museums worldwide.
Spent by Alison Bechdel
In Spent, a cartoonist named Alison Bechdel grapples with her complicated relationship with capitalism, community and activism after the success of her memoir and its subsequent TV adaptation.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CTV News
an hour ago
- CTV News
St. Thomas hosting another Railway City Music and Arts Festival
The Railway City Music and Arts Festival gets underway this week, running through the weekend at the Pinafore Park bandshell. The Railway City Music and Arts Festival gets underway Friday, running through the weekend at the Pinafore Park in St. Thomas. The festival began with a small footprint in 2022 but has grown to attract thousands of people. 'There's still enough variation that, you know, I think everyone's going to come to see one particular genre, but the next band may be something that they haven't experienced before, and they may just discover something new that, they really, really enjoy,' said spokesperson Rick Nemett. Organizers say there will be more than 80 food and arts vendors to go along with a range of musical genres over four days.
CBC
an hour ago
- CBC
With short episodes and help of yellow space blob, new show Bumpadoo finds 'path forward' for kids' TV
Social Sharing An extraterrestrial yellow blob, a curious preschooler and thousands of painstakingly crafted stop-motion frames come together in Bumpadoo, a new children's show aiming to make science and math fun. Bumpadoo came out on YouTube and TVO online Aug. 8 and will broadcast on TVO Aug. 17. The short stop-motion show follows four-year-old LiLi, voiced by Olivia Yang, and her shape-shifting alien friend Bumpi. The pair learn about and discuss topics related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), such as the difference between up and down, and why you get hungry. The show, created by Carmen Albano and Celeste Koon, was first pitched in 2022 and the first season was later shot in a Toronto studio. Characters LiLi and Bumpi may be besties on screen, but in the studio they "can't go anywhere near each other," said Hamilton-raised Evan DeRushie, who is the show's stop-motion director. "Bumpi, we love him, but he's messy," he said, explaining how Bumpi's materials don't allow him to be physically with the rest of the cast. "He's oily, he's made of plasticine and he gets everywhere." That made production of the show a bit challenging, he said, as scenes between the two had to be filmed separately. Stop-motion animation is already careful, slow work, with still images put together to make movement on screen. The show was shot at 12 frames per second, and episodes are around three and a half minutes long. The math says that would be just over 2,500 frames per episode of handmade movements, not counting the scenes that had to be shot multiple times because of Bumpi's messiness. Hamilton a big influence for animator DeRushie grew up in Hamilton's Westdale neighbourhood. He said it was a co-op placement at Cable 14 while he was in school that set him up to eventually create his own studio, Stop Motion Department. "There's just a lot of patient people that have been there for a long time. And they show you how to coil cables and how to be respectful of the talent when they come in and how to manage a room of people," he said. "There's a lot of skills there that I think were really influential for me." DeRushie is now based in Toronto, where his studio is. Stop Motion Department now runs co-op programs with students from Sheridan College and Ontario College of Art & Design University. Some of the students there also took part in the making of Bumpadoo, said DeRushie. Them and the rest of the animation staff "really embraced the show and these characters," he said. "We were all quoting Bumpi all throughout the day." DeRushie said the animation team built the characters by hand and then photograph each frame. "It's a bit of just a photo collage of photos of props that are stuck together," he said. 'A lot of pressures' on children's TV industry The price and effort that goes into stop-motion animation is one of a few reasons why the episodes are short, said Hamilton-based producer Kat Hayduk. "In children's media, things are generally shorter," said Hayduk, founder of Turtlebox Productions, the company behind the show. "But this was also designed to be a digital-first show … So we put it together as little three and a half minute shorts. It's also a way to build the brand and see where it goes." Hayduk said with the children's television industry struggling, partly due to kids turning to YouTube content that may lack educational value, the show's digital nature was also intentional. "There's been a lot of pressures on the industry right now, but creators will find a way and creating a show like this that kids can find online is one path forward," she said. Albano and Koon originally pitched the show to Turtlebox Productions, led by Hayduk and her partner Cam, and the couple was "charmed by it immediately." "We loved the look of it," said Hayduk, "and we loved the pitch." The show is a comedy, she said, "which kids love and respond to," but it is also educational, exploring preschool STEM concepts such as shapes, colours and textures. "I like to think that the show is inspiring a little bit of STEM education in kids," said Hayduk. "But it's also the beautiful nature of the animation and the [colours], that could inspire some kid to become an artist." Hayduk said the team is already working toward a second season of Bumpadoo and producing "at least twice as many episodes" in 2026 to push the show internationally. "Who knows what Bumpadoo could become. We could see the potential for spinoffs and potentially some fun toys or books," she said.
CBC
4 hours ago
- CBC
Why new generations are continuing to visit a secluded century-old grotto in Vanier
Social Sharing CBC Ottawa's Creator Network is a place where young digital storytellers from diverse backgrounds can produce original video content to air on CBC and tell stories through their own lens. It's a 24-hour venue, located in the heart of Ottawa's busy Vanier neighbourhood, but this outdoor site is a space for peaceful prayer and contemplation, drawing thousands of pilgrims from different religious backgrounds each year, particularly in mid-August for the Feast of the Assumption. Abdul Farooq, 25, says he discovered the century-old Grotte Notre Dame de Lourdes when he moved to the neighbourhood in 2022, after studying French literature and translation at the University of Ottawa. He says he felt attracted by the feeling of calm he discovered there. "It struck me as something very exceptional, especially since I didn't grow up with spaces like that in the suburbs in the GTA," said Farooq, referring to the Greater Toronto Area. Though not Catholic himself, Farooq — who grew up in a religious Muslim family — says he immediately felt at home at the grotto. "Certain aspects of the grotto felt very familiar ... that focus on quiet contemplation," said Farooq, who has noticed other young people gravitating toward the peaceful space. Farooq teamed up with co-creator Gavin Lanteigne and multimedia storyteller Kevin Acquah to learn more about this sanctuary and the people who worship there for a video for CBC Ottawa's Creator network. "It felt like a way of getting back in touch with that aspect of my upbringing, but in different terms," he explained. WATCH | Experience the calm of Vanier's grotto in this Creator Network piece: This historic sanctuary draws visitors 24 hours a day, and not all are Catholic 4 minutes ago Nestled in busy Vanier, the leafy Grotte Notre Dame de Lourdes caught the attention of 25-year-old storyteller Abdul Farooq, who teamed up with Gavin Lanteigne and Kevin Acquah to tell the story of the century-old outdoor religious site and its enduring appeal in this CBC Ottawa Creator Network piece. Familiar outdoor worship Visiting the grotto has been a way for Marita El-Kadi to connect with her family's Lebanese roots. "A lot of Lebanese people before immigrating to Canada would go pray outdoors," El-Kadi said in the film, explaining that her parents brought her to the space as she was growing up in Ottawa. Now 25, El-Kadi says the grotto is a place for her to feel close to her late mother Claudia El-Kadi. "My Mom had a steadfast kind of faith," said El-Kadi. "No matter at what stage of her diagnosis, she still believed," adding "it was still able to bring her comfort at the end of the day." In her mom's final days, El-Kadi said her mother's friends visited the grotto as a means of caring for her. "They would pray for her there specifically because it is a place of healing," said El-Kadi. When Claudia died in 2021, El-Kadi said she lost some of that connection with the space. But lately, she's felt a renewed desire to stop by for a sense of peace, solace and community which can be hard to find for young people in the city. "People are still looking for this connection with others," she explained. A century of solace The grotto's history in Vanier dates back to 1908, when a group of Montfortain seminarian students recreated a celebrated grotto in Lourdes, France, where it is said the Virgin Mary appeared a number of times to a young girl named Bernadette. There are other such spaces around the world and Canada, usually built in rock, and featuring a statue of the Virgin Mary as well as an altar area and outdoor seating for masses. In Vanier, before today's stone structures were built, the cave and altar were created out of snow. "As kids we built snow castles, so we took that idea and looked at photos from France and they built something like that," recalled president of the Grotto Volunteers Committee Jean Laporte, who has been a parishioner there since he was born. "When I was young — seven, eight, nine years old — we'd go there and have picnics on Sunday afternoons with my family," he said, recalling an era when the Catholic Church played a central role in the lives of French Canadians families like his. "It was a different time," said Laporte. "The church was the heart of the community, and the grotto was a place where people came together to pray, to celebrate, and to find comfort." In particular, he said it was a place for sick people to come and pray, where the healed would leave their crutches behind. He remembers tour busses of worshippers arriving from across North America decades back. Although attendance has dwindled since it first opened, he said the site remains busy, with 10,000 people visiting annually for organized events, and an estimated 10,000 more who stop by at other times. It's especially packed in mid-August for the Feast of Assumption, with its torchlight procession and other events, including the mass with blessing for the sick. "It's not just for Catholics, we have people from across religions who come to sit and meditate, maybe to get away from the noise of the city," explained Laporte. After a fire at the church in 1973, Laporte said the grotto site was sold to the parish and now the outdoor space is entirely volunteer-run. Laporte's father was a longtime volunteer and two years ago Laporte junior took over as caretaker. "We see different generations of people volunteering to help keep it going," said Laporte, adding that today many of the volunteers who help clear snow, organize candle sales, and plan events are new to Canada. He's met people from Portuguese, Haitian, African and Lebanese backgrounds who tell him the grotto reminds them of similar spaces back home. But for Laporte, what sets this place apart is that it welcomes people year-round, 24 hours a day. "It's always been open. We've never had a fence or a gate. So people can just come," he said. "I've been there all times of day — even in the middle of the night people come." A new grotto in Ottawa's south Vanier is no longer Ottawa's only Catholic grotto, thanks to the opening of a new Catholic sanctuary this June in the city's south end, said Barry Devine, director of the newly formed Stewards of the Grotto at St. Patrick's Parish in Fallowfield. Dreamed up by longtime parishioner Charles Tierney as a means of honouring his late wife Bernadette, Devine said the Grotto of Our Lady of the Fields, which is located in the church's cemetery, took two years to build and they are still awaiting the altar and sound system to host outdoor masses. In the context of waning number of Catholic faithful, Devine said he knows it's unusual to hear of a new sanctuary. But he said his parish is thriving as the church undergoes restoration, as well as a cemetery expansion and he's been happy to hear the positive feedback over the new outdoor sanctuary, which welcomes all. "It's new, it's open, and it's for people to come and and use as a place of refuge and prayer and inspiration and [they are] encouraged to do so... I think that that's just the bottom line," said Devine. Open to all For Farooq, that sense of quiet welcome is also what makes Vanier's space special. "You're outside, you're among people, and it doesn't feel closed off," he said, adding that he decided to make a film about it because he feels it's important to share lesser-known parts of the city with a wider audience. "When people say the word 'Ottawa', they're just talking about a couple of buildings: Parliament, Senate, courts, and so on," said Farooq. "But this is an aspect of the city's history that is important to a lot of people."
