25th Anniversary of above/ground press

25th Anniversary of above/ground press
with Sandra Ridley, Gil McElroy and Sarah Mangold
Hosted by Stephen Brockwell
as part of the ottawa international writers festival

"The impact of above/ground press has been so great, some authors can’t remember a time without it."
— Apt. 613

Tuesday, October 30, 2018
FREE EVENT
7pm, Christ Church Cathedral • 414 Sparks Street Ottawa

As part of its silver anniversary year, the above/ground press has produced a limited edition set of single-poem broadsides by an array of above/ground press authors.

Curated by publisher/editor rob mclennan and designed by Christine McNair, the series will be launched by Sarah Mangold, Gil McElroy andSandra Ridley, who will be joined on-stage by rob mclennan for a conversation on the press’s twenty-fifth year. Moderated by Stephen Brockwell.

More details on the broadsides to be announced very soon! Copies will, of course, be available at the event;

See Sandra Ridley's bio here ; Gil McElroy's bio here ; Sarah Mangold's bio here

for further information on the event and the festival, check out the link here.

Arc Poetry Magazine’s 40th-Anniversary Launch

If you're around Ottawa, come check out Arc Poetry Magazine’s stellar line-up for our 40th-Anniversary Launch on October 30 at the Ottawa International Writers Festival. That's 40 years of fine CanLit publishing in Ottawa, folks, getting the best poetry and nonfiction and art out into not only Canada, but the world. We are writers; hear us scribble.

And the 40th-anniversary is a free event, to boot. 
Featured readers include Carolyn Smart and Robert Hogg.

Click here for more info.

Cover image from summer 2018 issue.
Gavin Lynch, Bush Fire [Edelweiss]. 

Greg Rucka's and Nicola Scott's Black Magick

One of Nicola Scott's rare panels that employs colouring, which appears only when the
characters perform witchcraft or magick is present.

Comic-book writer Greg Rucka's and artist Nicola Scott's Black Magick series deserves a mention again because it's head and shoulders beyond the depiction of magic, particularly Wicca, in other comics of the medium. Add to that Scott's drop-dead gorgeous art and Rucka's compelling script with flawed, complex, as well as strong, heroine Rowan Black, and this comic book is an example of just how good comic books can be.

The classically rendered faces of the characters and the high attention to the details of Wicca are superb. There's the element of film noir with private detective Rowan Black, combined with witchcraft and an ages-old witch hunt. The story is set in Portsmouth, a fictional U.S. city, where Rucka draws on a well of fictional local history, adding a layer of mythology that might not be possible setting Black Magick a in U.S. city that might be too relatively young to achieve the sense of history he is aiming for. The book has a great ominous vibe, a complex character in the underachieving witch (but very competent cop) Black, and her complex relationship with her hunky co-worker.

Two trade paperbacks in and I'm a recent convert. Highly recommended.

(Disclaimer: This book will ruin you for reading about Wicca in most other comics.)

October Scary and Fun Book and Comic-Book Reading: Scarlett Hart, Graveyard Shift, The Immortal Hulk, Semiautomagic, Border Town, The Thrilling Adventure Hour, Infidel

Get your October reading on with these spooky titles, ranging from YA books to comics. Here's what I'm digging into this month.

Scarlett Hart: Monster Hunter
Marcus Sedgwick and Thomas Taylor

I don’t know why this graphic novel or comic book hasn’t garnered more attention. The art’s gorgeous, with hints of Kevin O’Neill’s work from Alan Moore’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (first two volumes). The steampunk feel, too, with gadgetry abounding, and a solid parade of monsters, are also parallels. Scarlett is an Agent-Carteresque character, or an impoverished Bruce Wayne. She has her own family butler, Napoleon, with whom Scarlett hunts beasties for much-needed cash to lift them out of poverty. They even live in an estate reminiscent of Wayne Manor and make their getaways in an antique car (in a sense, her own Batmobile). Taylor stunningly deftly employs simple panels to evoke the truest and most dramatic of moments and expressions.This is a YA comic-book trade, but a great and pithy read for adults, too.

Thomas Taylor's Scarlett Hart. 

Graveyard Shift (A Hauntings Novel) 
Chris Westwood

Also known as The Ministry of Pandemonium (U.K. edition, I believe) 

Ben Harvester’s gift for drawing serves him well as he helps souls find their way to the afterlife. But Ben also has much to contend with; he's a newcomer at a school, living with his single mother, and they are down on their luck in Hackney (Fun fact: Where I once resided! - Editor's Note). Kudos to Westwood for depicting a character with lymphoma and the complications and heartbreaks that it metes out. Westwood's style is also clean and compelling. With the help of the mysterious Mr. October, whom Ben meets in the titular graveyard, Ben encounters a variety of macabre entities. Not suitable for kids under nine, I’d venture. Some truly scary and gory instances inhabit this volume, inspired by a goodly dose of Stephen King, but also J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series and arguably Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere and even Michael Moorcock. A YA title.

Joe Bennett's rendition of The Immortal Hulk.

The Immortal Hulk 
Al Ewing and Joe Bennett and various other artists

It’s spooky and unnerving. The art, even when guested by others, is compelling and creepy and delightful. Each night, Bruce Banner transforms into the Hulk to exact revenge on wrongdoers. And if Bruce is dead, the Hulk rises from the grave or, more accurately, the slab in the mortuary. He’s more devious than even the Mr. Fixit incarnation back in the early 1990's, able to smell a lie and possessing a singular preternatural intelligence. This Hulk incarnation also finds great inspiration in the 1970’s  and 1980’s T.V. series of five-years' length. Even a young female Arizona Herald reporter, Jackie McGee (does the name ring a bell?) pursues the stories of sightings of the titular green monster. He should, by rights (and at the hand of Hawkeye shooting two arrows into him), be quite dead. In addition, Ewing is building an underlying mythos regarding gamma radiation, and a green door through which other entities have come into this world. It's a whiff of Lovecraft, but it's enough to add discomfiting texture to the story. Bruce Banner also sees the Hulk in the mirror. I could go on, but you get the idea. The Immortal Hulk  is one of the most interesting ideas coming out of Marvel Comics right now, aside from anything Chip Zdarsky or Mark Waid are doing.

Jerry Ordway's beautiful work in Semiautomagic.

Semiautomagic 
Jerry Ordway and Alex de Campi
(Re-reading - Ed.)

Still so good, this Dark Horse comic (in trade paperback now) features fallible warlock Alice Creed, an avatar for John Constantine. Alice is fighting demons and the general supernatural at a great cost to herself and others. It features simply beautiful art from Jerry Ordway and a razor-sharp and merciless script from notable comic-book scribe Alex de Campi. As always, de Campi is worth watching, whatever project she is writing.

























Border Town 
Eric M. Esquivel and artist Ramon Villalobos

This is the first book out of the gate of DC Comic’s relaunching Vertigo Comics line. Border Town's half-Irish, half-Mexican protagonist, Frank (Francisco) trounces a skinhead bully in issue one. Writer Eric M. Esquivel suggests timely provocative ideas, with nods to Grant Morrison. Artist Ramon Villalobos does gorgeous work, reminiscent of Frank Quitely. And, to top all that off, readers get to feast their eyes on monsters from Mexican folklore, possibly for the first time in this medium. Step aside, chupacabra, the Latin American beastie that purportedly preys on animals, particularly goats. Border Town serves up a slew of other monsters that we've never seen in comics. Take my money, Border Town. Any comic series opening with armed American shitkicker right-wingers declaring “Make America great again, mother-f*^#*@s!”, chasing runners in border-town, Devil’s Fork and suffering karmic justice deserves, it. 

Thank you, artist Ramon Villalobos, for this.

Phil Hester's work on The Thrilling Adventure Hour,
exhibiting its dry sense of humour.

The Thrilling Adventure Hour: A Spirited Romance
Ben Acker and Ben Blacker and illustrated by Phil Hester

Based on the successful podcast of the same name, Frank and Sadie Doyle, members of the upper crust, see ghosts, kick butt, and take names. Much witty patter and booze abound. Think The Thin Man series meets Ghostbusters. Thank you, Boom! Studios.

Infidel 

Pornsak Pichetshot and artists Aaron Campbell and José Villarrubia
Writer Pornsak Pichetshot and artists Aaron Campbell and José Villarrubia portray a young American-Muslim woman who is tormented by entities that feed off xenophobia in her multi-ethnic apartment. Racial tensions and smart writing abound, showing each character’s points of view, even as they fall under the malevolent influence of racism.  Extra points for portraying a struggle with faith on all sides. Image Comics delivers on this subversive and fresh horror tale of five parts.

Aaron Campbell's art is exquisitely detailed, showing a mastery of the classic human figure.
The characters' faces are stunningly true-to-life.