Here’s my chat with Sean Karemaker. Podcast available on Apple Podcasts and player.FM
Sean is an artist living in Vancouver, BC. After a childhood obsession with reading and writing comics, he obtained a diploma in graphic design from Malaspina University-College in Nanaimo (2002) and began a career in 3D design for video games, with freelance work in graphic design and illustration. Sean’s work has been exhibited at such local art galleries as the Gam, the Gropps, the Seymour, the Pendulum, and the Ayden. Sean has released two graphic novels with Conundrum Press, The Ghosts We Know 2016 and Feast Of Fields 2018.
During our chat, Sean talked about getting away from the ‘stifling confines’ of the video game industry. He spoke about his most current work Feast of Fields and what he’s been doing to promote the book. He also described his use of virtual reality (VR) for this graphic novel as a means of ‘empathetic story-telling’. Sean chatted about VR head-sets like Oculus Go becoming an accessible tool for artists to explore. We also discuss the issue of reader attention in the VR medium when juxtaposed with the traditional linear fashion of story telling found in graphic novels.
You can discover more about Sean on Twitter at @seankaremaker and online on Instagram at instagram.com/seankaremaker and seankaremaker.com
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Here’s some of the current news about Canadian comic book creators and supporters.
Comics Beat interviewed Jeff Lemire about Black Hammer, writing superheroes and trying new things. When asked about how the current Black Hammer/Justice League crossover happened, Jeff was quoted as saying: “Honestly, I think someone at DC approached someone at Dark Horse originally. I was as shocked as anyone. But, as I stated earlier in this interview, my love of the DC Universe runs deep and far back, so I couldn’t pass it up. I still love DC. Doing freelance work can have its challenges, but I still have a lot of friends at DC, and I love the characters and universe.”
You can read more at ComicsBeat.com
https://www.comicsbeat.com/jeff-lemire-interview-black-hammer/
Barnes and Nobel published their list of best comics and graphics novels for July. The list includes:
– House of Whispers, Vol. 1: The Power Divided by Nalo Hopkinson, Neil Gaiman, Sean A. Murray, Dominike Stanton and John Rauch.
– Black Widow: No Restraints Play by Jen Soska, Sylvia Soska, Flaviano and Veronica Gandini
You can read more at BarnesAndNoble.com
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/sci-fi-fantasy/the-best-comics-graphic-novels-of-july-2019/
CBC Books wrote an article about 26 Canadian books that won awards in the first half of 2019. The list includes the following graphic novels:
– 100 Days in Uranium City by Ariane Dénommé for winning the Doug Wright Spotlight Award
– Retomber by Xiaoxiao Li for winning the Pigskin Peters Award
– Young Frances by Hartley Lin for winning the Doug Wright Award for Best Book
– The Lie and How We Told It by Tommi Parrish for the Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ graphic novels
– Surviving the City written by Tasha Spillett and illustrated by Natasha Donovan for winning the $2,000 Indigenous Voices Award for works in an alternative format
You can read more at CBC.ca/Books
https://www.cbc.ca/books/26-canadian-books-that-won-awards-in-the-first-half-of-2019-1.5198575
Newsarama interviewed Agnes Garbowska about the new Care Bears: Unlock the Magic series. When asked about the unique style of the book, Agnes was quoted as saying: “For me as an artist the new style is definitely a lot of fun to draw because of how organic and expressive it is. There is a lot that I can do with the new stylistic style and I can use a lot of body language and facial expressions to express the different emotions the bears go through.”
You can read more at Newsarama.com
https://www.newsarama.com/45868-care-bears-unlock-the-magic.html
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