Hi, folks — this is Eric Kostiuk Williams, Creator in Residence for January! I’ve had a great couple weeks becoming more familiar with the library, and getting a chance to curate one of its shelves with some of my favourite comics, pictured below. I’d like to zero in on a couple of these, and get more into what they mean to me! Gaylord Phoenix by Edie Fake: For many queers in my age bracket, the collected Gaylord Phoenix book was something really…
Comics and animation created by Cleopatria Peterson as part of their residency at CCOL this October!
There is nothing more depressing when someone praises your art and wishes they could do it too, or say they can’t be an artist. Anyone and everyone can be an artist. Next time you think like that consider the standards you’re working against. Most times they are colonial, and hetero patriarchal. For me as a marginalized creator, representation can be few and far between. This allows me to set the standard of work for myself without looking to others, but…
We are so happy to announce an upcoming spooky workshop event hosted by our October Comics Creator in Residence Cleopatria Peterson on October 30th, 6:30- 8:30pm at CCOL: All Treat no Trick: A Halloween Comic Jam In this workshop, Cleopatria will be demonstrating a few inking techniques, discussing their work, and facilitating collaborative zine making. Participants will be able to use spooky/cute/kitschy Halloween prompts to create collaborative comics! This workshop is free and open to anyone of any skill level; you do…
I wanted to create a curated comics list that reflected my identity through comics. These are things that speak to who I am as a creator and person (they’re one and the same), and things that inspire me as an illustrator and storyteller. First off, my identity is a complexity of many parts, but many of them are marginalized. Finding work that represents one let alone any part of my identity is very difficult. I still love a good story!…
My first introduction to the actual process behind writing Real Comics was an excerpt at the end of an issue of The Sandman, where Neil Gaiman talks a little bit about his writing process. I had always admired how the art style shifted so heavily with each volume as the artists changed. He described a process something along the lines of writing a loose script with dialogue but that also described what wanted each panel to look/feel like, and then…
I was so excited to peruse through CCOL’s wonderful selection of comics and zines to curate a shelf display during my residency. They had many of my old favourites, many books I’ve been meaning to read, and also many that felt like happy discoveries. Letting myself get lost in reading these books was such a pleasurable experience, and I’ve selected a few old and new favourites here. Required Reading “I read these books during formative years of my life, which…
This past July, I had a chance to participate in something truly special. When I first received the email from Canada Comics Open Library about being selected as their first Resident Creator, I was beside myself with excitement. I talked about it constantly, brainstorming ideas with anyone who paid the slightest bit of attention. Firstly, a comics library as a concept is nothing short of brilliant. For anyone who has longed to peruse comic books for hours but didn’t…
Drinking at the Movies is hilarious, irreverent and almost immediately charming. The book might seem like an innocuous compilation of comics from the cartoonist’s life, but Julia Wertz is a remarkably shrewd storyteller. More than once, you might find yourself reading a certain type of comic only for Wertz to shift the perspective just enough to see that the story is going elsewhere entirely. The book begins with a cross-country move to New York city, on…