#condo heartbreak disco

[koyamapress]

FORGE, the wonderful art magazine published by Matthew James-Wilson, has an in depth interview with Condo Heartbreak Disco author Eric Kostiuk Williams! Check out the whole interview and magazine here!

[torontocomics]

Debuting at TCAF 2017 - CONDO HEARTBREAK DISCO by Eric Kostiuk Williams

Published by Koyama Press

ISBN: 978-1-927668-45-0 $10.00 7 x 10”, 52 pages, b&w, trade paper May 2017

The condopocalypse is engulfing Toronto and a dynamic duo of gender fluid superheroes is all that’s left to stop it.

Towers of steel and glass are decimating Toronto’s neighbourhoods; replacing communities with condos. Can the city’s primary purveyors of socially motivated revenge and personal guidance, Komio and The Willendorf Braid, save the city from condo hell, or are they too late to save this Hogtown from the twisted CEO?

ERIC KOSTIUK WILLIAMS is a cartoonist and illustrator based in Toronto, ON. His debut autobiographical work Hungry Bottom Comics was nominated for the 2013 Doug Wright Spotlight Award, and each issue of the series was selected for The Best American Comics’ Notable Books of 2013, 2014 and 2015, respectively. Recent commercial clients include Joe Fresh, the Drake Hotel, Xtra!, and the Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention.

“Evil and urbanity parry in this oh-so-very accurate portrait of Toronto the Good—or is it Toronto the Bad? A pair of superheroes (or perhaps demons) is queered into a deliciously devilish duo, kind of like Ab Fab on steroids. Denizens of Queen West, and specifically Parkdale, they skewer the shadow that lurks behind the explosion of condo high-rises, or “artists’ studios” as one developer so coyly names them. But will our heroines stand up for community and neighbourhood values or will they give in to the side of darkness? A kind of roman à clef for the hipster know-it-all. In other words, a must-read!” — AA Bronson

[kostiukwilliams]

komio & the braid, through the ages

[kim-jooha]

(Canadian) Futures of Comics at Fumetto 2019

At Fumetto International Comic Festival 2019 in Luzern, Switzerland, I installed an exhibition / public library of Canadian comics; held four talks with reading and discussion sessions; and gave a talk at the symposium. It was part of Futures of Comics, one of ten main programmes of the festival, directed by Ilan Manouach; and curated by Manouach and Jana Jakoubek, the festival artistic director. Francesc Ruiz, Aarthi Parthasarathy, Guillaume Dumora, and Josh O’Neil also took part in the edition of Futures of Comics. The Phrontistery hosted the programme. 

Talks

“Appropriation / Collage / Comics: From Sources to Subjects”

“Notes on Deskilled/Ugly Comics”

“Feminist Critiques of Comics Histor(iograph)y” 

“On Trans/National Comics: the Canadian Case”

“An Elegy For Comics”. Futures of Comics Symposium. 

List of Canadian comics exhibited: 

Hot Potatoe by Marc Bell

Undocumented by Tings Chak 

Hellberta by Michael Comeau

Rudy by Mark Connery, edited by Marc Bell

Leaving Richard’s Valley by Michael DeForge

REAKER UNTLD IV by DDOOGG

Carpet Sweeper Tales by Julie Doucet

Fluorescent Mud by Eli Howey

Climb-ing Mushrooms Fabric Zine by Ginette Lapalme

Meow Means Hi by Ginette Lapalme, Mark Connery, and Zuzu Knew 

Roaming Foliage by Patrick Kyle 

Hey, I don’t mean to be condescending or anything, but we’re friends, you don’t have to be afraid of me by Victor Martins

Sprawling Heart by Sab Meynert 

Flash Marks by Carel Moiseiwistch 

310,310 and 978-91-87325-43-4 by Mushbuh 

Nexus by Aeon Mute

Red Rainbow and It’s Time to Wake Up Now by Hue Nguyen

Somnambulance by Fiona Smyth

Boundless by Jillian Tamaki 

The Palace of Champions by Henriette Valium

Condo Heartbreak Disco by Eric Kostiuk Williams

Magical Beatdown by Jenn Woodall

Seasons of Butterfly by Kendra Yee

Above pictures are from @thephrontisteryluzern on instagram

[comicsalternative]

Episode 240: A Publisher Spotlight on Koyama Press

Episode 240: A Publisher Spotlight on Koyama Press

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Time Codes:

00:00:26 – Introduction

00:02:17 – Listener tweets!

00:08:18 – Interview with Annie Koyama

00:31:51 – You & a Bike & a Road

00:50:…

[meterteller4-blog]

HBO’s United Skates Takes a Thrilling Spin Through Roller-Skate Culture

Straight from the “Here’s Why We Can’t Have Nice Things” Department, Dyana Winkler and Tina Brown’s vital United Skates works as a celebration, lament and exciting overview of its subject: the roller rink as African-American community center. With rousing footage of skaters acing stylish tricks, the directors survey the past and present of roller-rink culture. They tell the story of the time the Bloods and Crips reached a peace accord on the neutral ground of one Los Angeles skate palace, and link New York, New Jersey and L.A. rinks to the rise of hip-hop. We glimpse a young Queen Latifah working a crowd, and Salt-N-Pepa note, in an interview segment, that an act performing for skaters had to be especially powerful because the audience was already annoyed that the show was interrupting their skate time.

Meanwhile, the filmmakers survey life today on the rink scene, charting the differences in skate style between different cities. L.A.’s skaters favor fluid, gliding maneuvers, while anyone hoping to keep up in Chicago, where the DJs blast specialty James Brown remixes geared to what’s called “J.B. skating,” must master moves such as the big wheel, the low shuffle and the gaga. Skaters demonstrating techniques for the directors’ cameras make for continual highlights. And much of the present-day free-skate footage, shot at what have come to be known as “adult nights” at skating rinks, also proves invigorating, an invitation to relish the momentum, the joy and the peacocking pride of grown-up skaters.

One adult-night stalwart describes the rush of arriving at a good rink in terms similar to what dancers used to characterize entering the world’s most storied disco in the recent Studio 54 doc: first, the thump of the bass from outside, then the thump of your own heart and then the first look at the crowd on the floor, in continual thrilling motion, surging along on its own spirit of love. The filmmakers capture one new arrival’s wait, at a Chicago rink, for an opening in the crowd circling the skate floor. He’s beaming so wide his face might crack.

The skating rink and those African-American adult nights are endangered, of course. One rink owner says he still charges just $5 a head, so everyone can come, so that there’s a place anyone can go to — but then he notes, “It takes a lot of $5 to pay off $96,000 in taxes.” Rising real estate prices have inspired landlords to give rinks the boot, and cities have proven eager to shutter these meeting spots in favor of big-box stores and condo developments.

And then there’s the persistent heartbreaking truth that white folks — and law enforcement — get so easily scared by the prospect of black Americans gathering together and enjoying themselves. The filmmakers’ cameras continually catch police cruisers patrolling adult nights, and too many white rink owners prefer to keep black skaters away. We meet a married pair of North Carolina skaters who get their fix by visiting a local rink with their earbuds in, gliding their child’s stroller across the rink floor while listening to their own R&B rather than the business’ charmless hard rock. More disturbing are scenes of black skaters being shooed away from a rink for using skates with small wheels, while white people with similar skates are left alone.

Often, a scene-survey doc that takes on so much — cultural history, present-day portraiture, regional distinctions, celebrity interviews, fly-on-the-wall reportage — can play as scattershot. That’s not so with United Skates, a film that’s smartly shaped, its every element revealing, its commitment always to forward motion. 'Round and 'round it flows — why not jump on in?

Alan Scherstuhl is film editor and writer at Voice Media Group and its film partner, the Village Voice. VMG publications include L.A. Weekly, Denver Westword, Phoenix New Times, Miami New Times, Broward-Palm Beach New Times, Houston Press and Dallas Observer.

Source: https://www.laweekly.com/film/united-skates-shows-how-rinks-are-rolling-with-the-punches-10081569

[banjooxygen68-blog]

HBO’s United Skates Takes a Thrilling Spin Through Roller-Skate Culture

Straight from the “Here’s Why We Can’t Have Nice Things” Department, Dyana Winkler and Tina Brown’s vital United Skates works as a celebration, lament and exciting overview of its subject: the roller rink as African-American community center. With rousing footage of skaters acing stylish tricks, the directors survey the past and present of roller-rink culture. They tell the story of the time the Bloods and Crips reached a peace accord on the neutral ground of one Los Angeles skate palace, and link New York, New Jersey and L.A. rinks to the rise of hip-hop. We glimpse a young Queen Latifah working a crowd, and Salt-N-Pepa note, in an interview segment, that an act performing for skaters had to be especially powerful because the audience was already annoyed that the show was interrupting their skate time.

Meanwhile, the filmmakers survey life today on the rink scene, charting the differences in skate style between different cities. L.A.’s skaters favor fluid, gliding maneuvers, while anyone hoping to keep up in Chicago, where the DJs blast specialty James Brown remixes geared to what’s called “J.B. skating,” must master moves such as the big wheel, the low shuffle and the gaga. Skaters demonstrating techniques for the directors’ cameras make for continual highlights. And much of the present-day free-skate footage, shot at what have come to be known as “adult nights” at skating rinks, also proves invigorating, an invitation to relish the momentum, the joy and the peacocking pride of grown-up skaters.

One adult-night stalwart describes the rush of arriving at a good rink in terms similar to what dancers used to characterize entering the world’s most storied disco in the recent Studio 54 doc: first, the thump of the bass from outside, then the thump of your own heart and then the first look at the crowd on the floor, in continual thrilling motion, surging along on its own spirit of love. The filmmakers capture one new arrival’s wait, at a Chicago rink, for an opening in the crowd circling the skate floor. He’s beaming so wide his face might crack.

The skating rink and those African-American adult nights are endangered, of course. One rink owner says he still charges just $5 a head, so everyone can come, so that there’s a place anyone can go to — but then he notes, “It takes a lot of $5 to pay off $96,000 in taxes.” Rising real estate prices have inspired landlords to give rinks the boot, and cities have proven eager to shutter these meeting spots in favor of big-box stores and condo developments.

And then there’s the persistent heartbreaking truth that white folks — and law enforcement — get so easily scared by the prospect of black Americans gathering together and enjoying themselves. The filmmakers’ cameras continually catch police cruisers patrolling adult nights, and too many white rink owners prefer to keep black skaters away. We meet a married pair of North Carolina skaters who get their fix by visiting a local rink with their earbuds in, gliding their child’s stroller across the rink floor while listening to their own R&B rather than the business’ charmless hard rock. More disturbing are scenes of black skaters being shooed away from a rink for using skates with small wheels, while white people with similar skates are left alone.

Often, a scene-survey doc that takes on so much — cultural history, present-day portraiture, regional distinctions, celebrity interviews, fly-on-the-wall reportage — can play as scattershot. That’s not so with United Skates, a film that’s smartly shaped, its every element revealing, its commitment always to forward motion. 'Round and 'round it flows — why not jump on in?

Alan Scherstuhl is film editor and writer at Voice Media Group and its film partner, the Village Voice. VMG publications include L.A. Weekly, Denver Westword, Phoenix New Times, Miami New Times, Broward-Palm Beach New Times, Houston Press and Dallas Observer.

Source: https://www.laweekly.com/film/united-skates-shows-how-rinks-are-rolling-with-the-punches-10081569

[czapbooks]

The most wonderful time of the year is upon us once again, which sends up north for another round of tabling at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival this weekend, May 13 & 14!

Czap Books will be set up on the second floor (at the top of the stairs) at table 215. New this year will be the gorgeous Witchlight by Jessi Zabarsky - if you haven't had a chance to grab this yet, do yourself a favor and pick it up here.

Ley Lines and art/pop music fans will be ecstatic to know that our debut book for the show is Eric Kostiuk Williams' "How Does It Feel In My Arms?" (Ley Lines 11) - a heady manifesto for love and happiness set to Kylie Minogue. We'll also have the previous issue, Tommi Parrish's "And They Rush On Me, Like Some Kind of Fragrant Dream", as well as the full 2016 run, featuring new work by Aaron Cockle, Mimi Chrzanowski, Kevin Czap, and Laila Milevski.

We'll also have time-tested favorites like Bug Boys, Úlcera, Cyanide Milkshake, and more at our table. PLUS beautiful postcards for our next title (due in the fall) - don't tell me not to worry (i'll worry all i want) by Kelly Kwang!

Speaking of Kelly, she'll be on a stacked panel called Aesthetics of Sci-Fi, 10am Saturday in the Toronto Reference Library Learning Centre, along with a bunch of our favorite cartoonists (shout out to Beatrix Urkowitz ♥). At that exact time (10am on Saturday morning), over at the Pilot, you can catch Eric Kostiuk Williams on the panel Sound and Vision: Music in Comics. Later in the day, Tommi Parrish will join other luminaries on LGBTQ Comics Abroad at 4pm in the Forest Hill Ballroom at the Marriott.

The show will run from 9am-5pm on Saturday and 10am-5pm on Sunday, come to Table 215 and say hi! We're going to have Jessi Zabarsky signing copies of Witchlight through the weekend, but otherwise you can find her at table 222. She'll have a brand new mini comic, which I'm personally very excited to snatch up. Kelly Kwang will be on the third floor at table 312, and word on the street says she'll have a brand new, mini, sneak peek zine. Eric Kostiuk Williams will be at table 153 on the first floor, near Koyama Press (who are debuting his book Condo Heartbreak Disco!). Tommi Parrish will be in the Wowee Zonk room, which is always on the Not-To-Be-Missed list. Other friends and Czap Books family will be spread throughout the show, see the full exhibitor list here.

There's going to be a million things to do and too many friends to see - I hope we see each other ♥

[robkirbycomics]

Condo Heartbreak Disco by Eric Kostiuk Williams (Koyama, 2017) & War of Streets and Houses by Sophie Yanow (Uncivilized, 2014): 2 excellent graphic novels that are practically *begging* for a compare/contrast exercise in a Comics Studies class. Your move, instructors!

[smashpages]

Nominees announced for the 2018 Doug Wright Awards

Nominees for the 14th annual Doug Wright Awards have been announced by the nominating committee. The Doug Wright Awards honor “the best work and most promising talent in Canadian comics.”

Duncan Macpherson, editorial cartoonist at the Montreal Standard, Toronto Star and Maclean’s magazine over the course of five decades, is this year’s inductee to the Giants of the North, the Doug Wright Awards’ hall of fame. Macpherson passed away in 1993. You can read more about him on the Doug Wright website.

Other nominees include:

Doug Wright Best Book Award, presented for the best graphic novel book published in Canada (in English):

Hostage by Guy Delisle (Drawn & Quarterly)

I’m Not Here by GG (Koyama Press)

Crawl Space by Jesse Jacobs (Koyama Press)

The Abominable Mr. Seabrook by Joe Ollmann (Drawn & Quarterly)

Anti-Gone by Connor Willumsen (Koyama Press)

Doug Wright Spotlight Award (a.k.a. The Nipper), presented to a Canadian cartoonist (or writer-cartoonist team) deserving of wider recognition:

Kris Bertin and Alexander Forbes, creators of The Case of the Missing Men (Conundrum Press)

Gillian Blekkenhorst, creator of All-Inclusive Fully Automated Vacation and House of Strays

Eric Kostiuk Williams, creator of Condo Heartbreak Disco (Koyama Press)

Jason Loo, creator of The Pitiful Human-Lizard Nos. 12, 13 and 14 (Chapterhouse Comics)

Jenn Woodall, creator of Magical Beatdown Vol. 2 and Marie and Worrywart

The Pigskin Peters Award, which honors the year’s most experimental, unconventional, or avant-garde comic:

The Dead Father by Sami Alwani

The Death of the Master by Patrick Kyle

Crohl’s House Nos. 1 & 2 by Alexander Laird, Jamiel Rahi and Robert Laird

Creation: The First Three Chapters by Sylvia Nickerson

Potluck by the Wavering Line Collective

The jury for this year includes: Bo Doodley, a Toronto-based artist; Jim Munroe, a writer, producer, and creator of games, comics, movies, and novels, living in Toronto; Marc Ngui, a Windsor, Ontario–based sequential artist and speculative designer; and Pamela Marie Pierce, a multi-disciplinary visual artist and illustrator based in Saint John, New Brunswick, whose work has appeared in Heavy Metal and elsewhere..

The winners will be announced May 12 at the 2018 Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF), which takes place in and around the Toronto Reference Library, May 12 and 13.

[koyamapress]

The 30th Annual Lambda Literary Award finalists have been announced and Eric Kostiuk Williams’ Condo Heartbreak Disco has made the LGBTQ graphic novels list! Check out the most excellent nominees here!

[torontocomics]

Koyama Press, the vital hometown publishing house, turns 10 this year! And so they're making this TCAF a big one! With 6 essential debuts from 7 of the freshest voices in the medium, Koyama Press and crew are reminding us that comics (especially Canadian comics) wouldn't be the same without them. Heck, it's even hard just to remember a TCAF with out them! Helping KP ringing their entry to double-digits are:

Eleanor Davis is a cartoonist and illustrator. She lives in Athens, GA. She was born in Tucson, Arizona. In 2009, Davis won the Eisner's Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Award and was named one of Print magazine's New Visual Artists. In 2013, her short story In Our Eden received a gold medal from the Society of Illustrators. In 2015, her book How To Be Happy won the Ignatz Award for Outstanding Anthology or Collection.

Eleanor is debuting her new book, You & A Bike & A Road, at TCAF 2017. She is also a TCAF 2017 Poster Artist!

An Nguyen is a cartoonist and illustrator based in Ottawa, ON best known for her romantic comic series Open Spaces and Closed Places. She has drawn comics for Spera: Ascension of the Starless, Electric Ant zine, and various Love Love Hill anthologies. She and Jane Mai have previously released a zine titled Don't Talk to Me or I'll Set Myself on Fire.

Jane Mai is a freelance illustrator and comic artist from Brooklyn, NY. Her work has appeared in several anthologies and self-published zines. Koyama Press published her first book, Sunday in the Park with Boys, which was followed by the zine Sorry I Can’t Come in on Monday I’m Really Really Sick, and See You Next Tuesday.

An and Jane are debuting So Pretty / Very Rotten, a collection of short story and essay collection exploring the Japanese fashion subculture, Lolita. Their debut will be accompanied by a Lolita fashion exhibition at the Japan Foundation. Stay tuned for more details!

Eric Kostiuk Williams is a cartoonist and illustrator based in Toronto, ON. His debut autobiographical work Hungry Bottom Comics was nominated for the 2013 Doug Wright Spotlight Award, and each issue of the series was selected for The Best American Comics' Notable Books of 2013, 2014 and 2015, respectively. Recent commercial clients include Joe Fresh, the Drake Hotel, Xtra!, and the Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention.

Eric is debuting his first major graphic novel, Condo Heartbreak Disco, as well as a new issue in the Ley Lines series from Czap Books/Grindstone Comics.

Jesse Jacobs was born in Moncton, New Brunswick, and now draws comics and things from his home in Hamilton, Ontario. In 2009, his books Small Victories and Blue Winter were short listed at the Doug Wright Awards for Canadian Cartooning. He received the Gene Day Award for Canadian Comic Book Self-Publisher of 2008. Even the Giants (AdHouse, 2011) marked his major publishing debut. His work has appeared in the acclaimed Latvian comics anthology š!, as well as the 2012 edition The Best American Comics. He made his debut with Koyama Press in 2012 with the psychedelic creation myth By This Shall You Know Him, which was followed by the trippy take on nature versus nurture Safari Honeymoon in 2014.

Jesse is debuting his latest graphic novel this Spring, the kaleidoscopic CRAWL SPACE.

Keiler Roberts autobiographical comic series, Powdered Milk, has received an Ignatz Award for Outstanding Series and was included in The Best American Comics 2016. Her work has been published in The Chicago ReaderMutha Magazine, Nat. Brut, Darling Sleeper,Newcity, and several anthologies. She was a Special Guest at CAKE (Chicago Alternative Comics Festival) in 2015 and Chicago Zine Fest in 2013. Miseryland, Roberts’ third book, has been reviewed by Publisher’s Weekly, The Comics Journal, Broken Frontier, Sequential State, and more. Newcity named Roberts one of the Top Five Comics Artists in Chicago in 2015.

Keiler is debuting Sunburning, which collects the fun, messy, and real moments that make up the days of a bipolar artist and mother.

Ben Sears is a cartoonist, illustrator and musician born and raised in Louisville, KY where he continues to live and work. His Double+ character has appeared in a number of zines, online anthologies and the all-ages adventure comic Night Air, where he has been perpetually in over his head.

Ben is debuting his latest Double+ instalment, Volcano Trash, which is bursting with adventure and intrigue.

For more information on these and all TCAF Guests and Exhibitors, check out our Creators tab in the Who's Coming section [Link]

HAPPY 10TH ANNIVERSARY, KOYAMA PRESS!

[comic-bastards]

Review: Condo Heartbreak Disco http://dlvr.it/PNn7yp

[comicsalternative]

Episode 240: A Publisher Spotlight on Koyama Press

Time Codes:

00:00:26 - Introduction

00:02:17 - Listener tweets!

00:08:18 - Interview with Annie Koyama

00:31:51 - You & a Bike & a Road

00:50:09 - Sunburning

01:07:19 - Crawl Space

01:24:45 - Condo Heartbreak Disco

01:38:05 - Volcano Trash

01:50:13 - So Pretty/Very Rotten

02:03:14 - Wrap up

02:04:18 - Contact us

For this week's review episode the Two Guys with PhDs turn a critical spotlight on Koyama Press and its spring 2017 releases. They devoted an entire episode to Koyama a couple of years ago, but this season there are just so many great titles coming out from the press that the guys wanted to look at all of their releases and not just two or three scheduled across several weeks. First, though, they share a brief conversation with the press' founder and publisher, Annie Koyama, who provides an overview and history of the Canadian publishing house.

Then the guys start discussing the new releases, beginning with Eleanor Davis's You & a Bike & a Road, a diary comic of her time biking from Arizona to Georgia and the various experiences and encounters she had along the way. Reading this book has even gotten Derek back exercising on his bike, although Andy wasn't inspired in quite the same way. After that they look at another autobiographical work in diary form, Keiler Roberts's Sunburning. The Two Guys have discussed Roberts's work on the podcast previously, but this is the first time the both of them have focused on one of her entire books, her first Koyama Press release.

Next, they turn to Crawl Space, the latest from Koyama creator Jesse Jacobs. This is a visually unique work, combining Jacobs's geometric abstractions with a straightforward, yet self-reflexibly revealing, storyline. Another experimental work is Eric Kostiuk Williams's Condo Heartbreak Disco. At the center of this narrative are Komio and The Willendorf Braid, two figures whose stories are part of Williams's Hungry Bottom Comics series, of which neither of the guys are familiar (unfortunately).

Then it's on to Volcano Trash, the follow up to Ben Sears's Night Air which was leased last year. This all-age adventure featuring Plus Man and Hank is one of the highlights of the week, and the guys hope Sears continues developing this series. And finally, Andy and Derek wrap up with Jane Mai and An Nguyen's hybrid text, So Pretty/Very Rotten: Comics and Essays on Lolita Fashion and Cute Culture. This is a fascinating exploration of a cultural trend that neither of the guys really knew much about -- at least in detail -- and one that caters to their scholarly sensibilities.

Check out this episode!

[koyamapress]

High-Low reviews Eric Kostiuk Williams’ Condo Heartbreak Disco, which readers quickly learn “is less a super-hero comic than it is a horror comic in many ways.”

“Williams' imagery is intense and splashy, but above all else, he's a thinker as a cartoonist. He's always trying to find a new way to express ideas, combining his personal and political ideas into a potent, visually startling, storytelling experience.” — Rob Clough, High-Low

Check out the whole review here!

[koyamapress]

Lambda Literary’s Cathy Camper interviews Eric Kostiuk Williams, author of the “uncanny, hallucinogenic, and coloured-saturated examination of urban gentrification” Condo Heartbreak Disco. Check it out here!