Are geek conventions the new campaign ground for political candidates? Toronto Mayoral candidate David Soknacki spent part of his day at the Toronto Comics Arts Festival.
Current Toronto Mayor, the disgrace(d) Rob Ford helped kick off last years Fan Expo by arm wrestling Hulk Hogan.
Are conventions the new political campaign ground?
Comic book fan Alex Brovedani decided to dress up as Batman and head to the streets of Toronto.
(via Bleeding Cool)
Current Guelph City Councilor and former National Hockey League referee Andy van Hellemond is suing the Toronto Star for libel over the Adam@Home comic strip it ran. Van Hellemond is claiming the strip has caused “serious and irreparable harm.” From the notice.
Our client takes the position that the publication of his last name and prior occupation in respect of his ability to referee professional hockey games was calculated to disparage both his personal and professional reputation and was defamatory.
You can head to The Star to read the whole story.
(h/t Bleeding Cool)
Pop culture conventions are in a resurgence across North America with what seems to be dozens of added shows in the last year. Well, it looks like some of those cons will not be fighting it out in who has the best guests, coolest exclusives and biggest attendance. Hobby Star Marketing, who handle the Toronto Fan Expo Convention, have filed an injunction against Zuffa LLC, which operates the Ultimate Fighting Championship league (UFC), and Reed Exhibitions over the name of Zuffa’s upcoming event, UFC Fan Expo. That show is taking place in Toronto this weekend which also hosts the latest UFC pay-per-view event, UFC 128 which features some high profile fights including legend Randy Couture vs. Lyoto Machida and a title belt fight featuring headliners Georges St. Pierre vs. Jake Shields.
Hobby Star has filed a trade-mark infringement over the use of the term “fan expo” as well as the slogan “the ultimate fan experience.” They’ve also taken issue with the website http://www.ufcexpon.com. The lawsuit was filed in a federal court in Toronto. The UFC has held other events with the words “fan expo” throughout the world. There’s no mention of those in this suit.
Zuffa is the primary defendant while Reed Exhibitions as the organizer is also mentioned. What makes this more interesting is Reed Exhibitions puts together the New York Comic Con and New York Anime Festival. Both of which could be seen as a competitor to Hobby Star’s Fan Expo. Could this really just be bad blood between two comic book conventions?
Who knows how serious this is and how far in the courts it’ll go. My gut tells me there’s more to this than a complaint over two words. In the end, maybe one will give up in the fight and tap out?
Official Press Release
Kill Shakespeare’s first ever public performance to highlight Bard’s birthday (and death day) celebrations in Toronto.
Toronto, Canada: On April 23rd the Kill Shakespeare team plans a HUGE birthday surprise for history’s greatest writer – the performance of a Shakespearean adventure that the Bard never actually wrote.
The creators of the popular comic which “mashes up” all of the Bard’s greatest heroes and most menacing villains in the same world and story are teaming up with one of Canada’s most innovative theatres to provide a unique afternoon of entertainment on the anniversary of both Shakespeare’s birth and his death.
Soulpepper Theatre and Kill Shakespeare Entertainment invite you to first “Watch Shakespeare and then Kill Shakespeare” this Saturday a 1:30 PM at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts (55 Mill St., Building 49).
“We’re very excited to get to show our fans what Kill Shakespeare looks like as a performed piece” says series co-creator Anthony Del Col, “after all the Bard is meant to be seen and not just read – we think this takes the comic’s story into an entirely appropriate new medium.”
Click here for a link to the Soulpepper press-release and find out how you can get a special discounted ticket to A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the Marilyn and Charles Baillie Theatre just by being a follower of Kill Shakespeare. Then, if you stay after the show you can watch the Soulpepper troupe do a live reading of Kill Shakespeare #1 in the Kevin and Roger Garland Cabaret.
Or go to http://www.youngcentre.ca/Tickets/reserve.aspx?perf=4723 and use Promocode “Kill” to book your seats.
About the series:
Kill Shakespeare is an adventure story that pits all of Shakespeare’s greatest heroes (including Hamlet, Juliet, Falstaff, Othello, Puck) against the Bard’s most menacing villains (including Richard III, Lady Macbeth, Iago) in a quest to track down and kill – or save – a reclusive wizard by the name of William Shakespeare. ComicBookResources calls it “a tour de force of the storytelling marriage of words and art.” Kill Shakespeare has been profiled by NPR, BBC Worldwide Radio, Wired.com, The Globe and Mail and Publisher’s Weekly. It’s also been debated by Shakespearean scholars online and in the pages of Maclean’s. Written by Conor McCreery and Anthony Del Col, the series art is provided by Andy Belanger (D.C.’s Bottle of Awesome), with colours by Ian Herring, and covers by internationally renowned illustrator Kagan Mcleod.
More information about the series can be found at www.killshakespeare.com.
Official Press Release
It’s tempting to call Chester Brown a recluse, but if you live in Toronto, he’s not. But it is rare for him to hit the road, and he will be on tour in 2011 for PAYING FOR IT, with more dates to be announced. But for now, mark your calendar….
TORONTO | Sunday, May 1st | Goodhandy’s | With Sasha
TORONTO | Sat & Sun May May 7th-8th | TCAF
CHICAGO | Wed May 11th | Quimby’s
NYC | Thursday May 12th | Strand | With Tracy Quan
MONTREAL | Saturday May 14th | Librairie D+Q
VANCOUVER | Wed May 18th | Vancouver Public Library | With Lucky’s
SEATTLE | Thur May 19th | Elliot Bay
Chester Brown has never shied away from tackling controversial subjects in his work. As the cartoonist of the autobiographical The Playboy and the biography Louis Riel, Paying For It is a natural progression for Brown as it combines the personal and sexual aspects of his autobiographical work with the polemical drive of Louis Riel. Brown calmly lays out the facts of how he became not only a willing participant in but also a vocal proponent of one of the world’s most hot-button topics–prostitution. Paying For It offers an entirely contemporary exploration of sex work–from the timid john who rides his bike to meet his escorts, wonders how to tip so as not to offend, and reads Dan Savage for advice, to the modern-day transactions complete with online reviews, seemingly willing participants, and clean apartments devoid of cliches street corners, drugs, or primps.
Paying For It is a book that stands for itself and will be the most talked about graphic novel of 2011. In stores this May.
Hardcover, 5.5 x 7.5, Black & White, 272 pages, ISBN: 9781770460485, $24.95 US / $25.95 CDN
“PAYING FOR IT is a very enlightening book, as well as being entertaining…{Chester Brown} is a very skillfull artist in that way.”–R. CRUMB, from his introduction to PAYING FOR IT
“In PAYING FOR IT, Chester Brown not only makes a compelling case for the decriminalization of sex work but he also seems like an excellent client. Sex workers and sex worker rights advocates couldn’t ask for a better ally. A must read in the canon of sensible and sensitive voices making a case against prurient ideology-based rhetoric about consensual sexual behaviour.”–SASHA, Nationally syndicated sex columnist, playwright and sex worker rights activist.
“The self-aware john, a quirky and surprisingly realistic guy, is everywhere, but he’s also been silent and overshadowed by his belligerent deluded brothers. PAYING FOR IT is a fascinating modern (and enjoyable) response to that anonymous Victorian sex classic My Secret Life. The characters encountered here evoke Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City. Chester Brown’s emotional honesty is riveting. This is what sex ed looks like when we refuse to stop learning.”–TRACY QUAN, author of Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl and Diary of a Jetsetting Call Girl
“Chester Brown is perhaps the most transparent, honest and relevant voice remaining in contemporary comics, and this is, to my mind, his most powerful and affecting work to date. PAYING FOR IT explores life in the world’s oldest customer-base, and does so with heart, intelligence, and a complete lack of sentiment or self-justification. Rewarding repeated readings, this book will love you long time.” –ALAN MOORE
“I’ve loved Chester Brown’s work since the early days of Yummy Fur. He started out as a remarkable cartoonist telling strange stories that slowly became, over time, increasingly personal.
PAYING FOR IT is as personal as you can get. It’s a clear-eyed, not-even-slightly-erotic, compulsively readable, sometimes painfully honest account of his time, reasons and experiences paying for sex. I learned things about Chester from reading this, and I learned things about sex-workers, and about the world, and, oddly, I think I learned things about myself.
The argument about when or whether comics had grown up ended when people started making comics for grown-ups. This is one of them. PAYING FOR IT is the kind of book that will engage your mind and force you to think about things in ways you may never have done before. Chester would probably like that. And if you find yourself arguing with the page, or with the author’s notes, I think Chester would probably like that too.”–NEIL GAIMAN
Steve Murray is running for Mayor of Toronto. You might know Murray as Chip Zdarsky. Working in politics, I have to say his campaign website isn’t too bad and you can also follow him on Twitter. Best of all his campaign has the fantastic short name on M4M (Murray 4 Mayor) which makes him a popular fellow on Craigslist.
Listen, you’re either with the cops or you’re Doctor Doom. It’s pretty simple in Steve Murray’s Toronto. Go Argos.
We can get behind Murray 4 Mayor.
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