Books of Comics

It's HERE!

2006-04-26T13:06:00.000-04:00

Hello One and All! Bonjour tout le monde!

FINALLY! Enfin!

Yesterday afternoon, I picked up 520 copies of our new book, DRAWING THE LINE AGAIN! It was slated to be completed for Friday but our terrific printing sales rep, Tim, surprised me with a call yesterday saying he had arranged to have some advance copies ready for us after 3PM (locak time). I was delighted and dashed over straight away! J’ai recuperé 520 livres hier après-midi [le 25/4/06]! Normalement, on devra avoir une livraison vendredi, mais notre gars à l’impremerie, Tim, m’a téléphoné hier en disant que quelques livres seront disponibles après 15h00h locale. Quelle bonne surprise!

This second effort, which we like to call DTLA, features stunning colour images on the cover by Moebius (on the front) and J-C Götting (on the back). With sixty artists and contributors participating this time, we are thrilled with the variety and content including contributions by Stan Sakai, Bill Sienkiewicz, Clive Barker, EGR, Dean Motter, Fred Bernard and Charlotte Légaut. Le nouveau livre, Drawing The Line Again (DTLA), a une couverture par Moebius en couleur et une image, très belle aussi et en couleur par J-C Götting en dos. Il ya une soixantaine des artistes internationaux qui ont participés. Parmi ceux il ya Fred Bernard, Charlotte Légaut, Stan Sakai, Bill Sienkiewicz, Clive Barker, EGR et Dean Motter.

The book has grown in many ways: it is now 152 pages and, literally, double the size of the original DTL! Cette fois, au lieu de 104 pages, il ya 152 pages. Ce tome, grace à la nombre des artistes qui ont contribués leur talents ainsi que le poids et l’épaisseur des pages utilisés ont créés un livre qui est deux fois plus épaisse que l’original, Drawing The Line.

DTLA will be for sale ($20 CDN) at on Friday April 28, 2006 at the Toronto Comic Con (http://www.torontocomicon.com/ ). Come by and pick up your copy at the Con! Many contributors will be at the show - so here’s a chance to get some one-of-a-kind signatures, too!! Drawing The Line Again sera vendu pour 20$ canadien dès vendredi au Salon de BD Paradise Con www.torontocomicon.com

Thank you again to Kasra, Ron and Julie my love, for their hard work on this project. For without them, this project of raising awareness and funding to conquer cancer would not be possible. And, finally: thanks to all the artists and contributors: your work has come together in this wonderful anthology. 100% of the proceeds will go towards cancer research. Your generosity has created something absolutely amazing: hope! Un énorme merci à Kasra, Ron et Julie, mon amour, car, sans eux, ce projet, lequel anticipe de soutenir la recherché contre le cancer par 100% de l’argent accumulé par ventes du livre et de dons, n’aura jamais vu le jour.

I am very touched by everyone’s contribution…THANK YOU! Je suis très touché. Merci bien.

Waiting for galleys - then off to print!!

2006-04-07T17:42:00.000-04:00

DTLA compilation complete! Our digital copy has been delivered to our printer for galley generation - we are hours away from final proofs! We intend to go to print by April 11th, 2006. Keep your eyes peeled for more news. Advance copy ordering soon will be available!! Check back soon. [www.benefitcomic.com] (Mail deliveries will be sent May 3, 2006). On a livré une copie digitale du livre à Central Reproductions, l’imprimerie. On éspère de voir une maquette le 11/4/06 et après avoir l’approuver, on commencera l’impression. Notre tirage cette fois sera 2,500 exemplaires. (Les commandes seront envoyées par la poste dès le 3 Mai 2006. Les commandes pour DTLA seront disponible <> bientot!)

Approved!

2006-03-23T23:40:00.000-05:00

Final approval from both hospital foundations now received! We have achieved the last third-party hurdle for us to get the book to the printers. We will soon finish the final layout and send our mock-up to the printer for galleys. Les deux foundations ont accordées l’approbation. Maintenant il ne reste que la mise en place avant d’aller voir Central Reproductions, l’imprimerie.

Final files submitted

2006-03-22T19:37:00.000-05:00

A draft of DTLA has been submitted to our sponsors and foundations for final approval. We are just weeks away from our final publishing date. Do not miss out on our launch at the Paradise ComicCon! www.torontocomicon.com We will be able to accept pre-orders very soon online! Check back soon. Un brouillon de DTLA est envoyé à notre sponsor et les foundations qu’on soutient. La parution est prévue pour fin Avril pendant le salon de comics de Paradise Comics à Toronto www.torontocomicon.com

Sienkiewicz Contributes!

2006-03-13T20:35:00.000-05:00

BILL SIENKIEWICZ has delivered -- at the 11th hour -- his contribution of an original story! Bill - who collaborated with writer Lysa Hawkins - had been working feverishly on a three-page story to submit to DTLA. We are honoured with this contribution! BILL SIENKIEWICZ a accepté de participer au dernière minute avec une histoire originale écrit par Lysa Hawkins. Bill a livré ses 3 planches ce matin.C’est un honneur pour DTLA!

Clive Barker Makes Contribution to DTLA!

2006-01-30T22:24:00.000-05:00

CLIVE BARKER has submitted a piece to DTLA! We are - to put it mildly - giddy! Kasra Ghanbari of VEI Press [http://www.veipress.cc/], has gifted Drawing The Line Again, again! CLIVE BARKER a livré sa contribution! On est dans les nuages!

With his magic, Kasra has secured Mr. Barker as a contributor. We'd also like to thank Hans and Amy Rueffert of Luna7 [http://www.luna7.com/] for helping in getting Mr. Barker to contribute. C’était grace à Kasra Ghanbari de VEI Press[http://www.VEIPress.cc] et Hans et Amy Rueffert de Luna7 [http://www.Luna7.com] que M. Barker participera avec DTLA.

DEADLINE EXTENDED!!

2005-10-11T14:26:00.000-04:00

Hello Friends Bonjour mes amis,
I am writing to express my thanks to your keen interest and participation with our project, DRAWING THE LINE AGAIN. As you can see, we are moving leaps and bounds ahead with the project, particularly with Kasra Ghanbari's sponsorship through VEI Press. Merci beaucoup pour votre interet et pour votre particpation dans notre project, DRAWING THE LINE AGAIN. Grace a notre sponsor, Kasra Ghanbari et VEI Press, tout avance bien.

We have EXTENDED our original deadline to 1 FEBRUARY 2006. En plus, ca nous permet l'extension au 1er fevrier 2006, de livraison des planches.

We are receiving pages all the time and I must tell you how exciting it is to see the book start to take shape! We hope to revamp the web site over the next few months so please be sure to check back once in a while...and here, too! I will be posting news updates here from here on in. Nous commencons de recevoir vos planches et c'est extra de voir ce livre en train d'etre constriuit. Dans les prochains mois le site sera ameliore... et ici ainsi! Il y aura des nouvelles des maintenant ici aussi.

Best wishes, Meilleurs voeux
Suley

VEI Press Sponsorship Announced!

2005-09-16T17:54:00.000-04:00

Lots of excitement since Monday [12 September] evening this week!!

A quick bit of background info, first: While at the con in August a man went up to Andy Lee’s table and bought a copy of Drawing The Line. Andy informed him that I was the person who had put it all together and was seated a couple of tables down. He came over and we chatted like comic book fans of a certain mode are wont. Over the course of the day he became our biggest customer, buying 7 out of the 9 books we managed to sell. He asked about the new project and about sponsoring. His name is Kasra Ghanbari.

I was at this particular table [next to Andy Lee] thanks to Walter Dickinson and Sean Menard. They had the table assigned to Frecklebean Comics, but decided not to use it. During a chat with them, Sean suggested that the best way to garner attention for DTL2 would be to launch it at a comic convention. My aim was to have the artwork in by mid-October for a 1st of December release to profit from Christmas sales and the spirit of ‘sharing/giving’.

So on Monday evening I got the phone call. Kasra, after sounding me out, said that he’d like to sponsor the print run and the artists’ copies – the majority of the proposed budget for the new project, essentially. The parent company is VEI Studios and the arm that is sponsoring our project is VEI Press. VEI Press focuses on creating limited run, hand-crafted, illustrated books. These include graphic novels, children’s books, and artist retrospectives. More information will soon be available at http://www.veipress.cc./ VEI Press is part of VEI Studios, Inc., which develops and produces a wide range of multi-media content. More information may be found at http://www.vei.cc./

Kasra is passionate yet humble and seems a great person. He also said that he has contacts with a lot of “who’s who”. I have sent off our Miyazaki proposal to him because he said he "...can deliver it into Miyazaki’s own hands”!! WOW!! Thanks to this conversation the next book is growing in size and shape. I called our printer to check out new prices and possible colour inserts. As well, there will be an extension for the artists who are sitting on the fence or looking for more time. You know who you are!!

As the conversation with Kasra began to wind down, I brought up Sean’s idea of the launch and said that the only comic convention that was on the horizon of any worth was the Paradise Con. On Wednesday [14 September] night I met with Peter Dixon and Kevin Boyd of Paradise Comics. They are very excited, too, and we will have the next book launch during the weekend of 28 – 30 April, 2006. Stan Lee is the guest of honour. See http://www.torontocomicon.com/ . There will also be an art auction so if you are ready to contribute your originals, please do so. Let me know.

So far we have 12 pages in. Ron Kasman is finished as well and waiting to send in his 4-pager. 84 pages have been committed to; that works out to 20 pages left before we reach the 104 page mark of the first book. Kasra and I were talking about increasing the number of pages in the new book and possibly having some colour pages in the middle. This all depends on the quotes we get from the printer. We are waiting for revised quotes and will be discussing that with Kasra in the following days.

Out of the 45 or so artists that have committed, 10 or so have NOT given me an estimated page count; and I’m still waiting to hear from some of you, please!! I trust this will enable you to commit. There is a new deadline for the art: Wednesday, 1st FEBRUARY 2006. My thanks must go out to all the artists who have already delivered artwork. My apologies for my off-timing. Forgive me, but I think given recent events this will be a better date for everyone.

We are, of course, also excited to make Drawing The Line's NewsBlog (www.benefitcomic.blogspot.com) live. Tell everyone to check it out!

There you have it. I look forward to all the contributions with giddy glee and want to thank all artists, again, profusely, for participating and making this project a reality. It couldn’t happen have happened without YOUR generosity and support!!!

Cheers,
Suley

So I ask again, are you in?

2005-08-31T20:54:00.000-04:00

It was so nice to see some of you last weekend at the Canadian Comic Expo!

Here's the latest: Julie and I got back to Toronto from our holiday in France and Switzerland a day before a magicians' convention and two days before Canadian Expo. No rest for the wicked. With a bit of jet lag and lots of enthusiasm we dived in...

We sold 9 books this year at the comic book Expo this past weekend in Toronto. Not bad since we sold 11 last year. It was a better show somehow this year and we managed to connect with some more artists willing to participate in this project.

By the way: I'm still waiting to hear back from some of you. Please let me know either way so that we can sort out how many more pages are available before we close our request for submissions. So far 44 artists are confirmed participants. Of the 44 participants, 5 artists have delivered 12 pages. [The latest thank you goes to Andy Lee who presented me with two lovely pages on Sunday.] So the latest page count I have is: 86 pages confirmed while 8 participating artists have not given me potential page counts yet.

Possible sponsorship: At the show I made a connection with a possible sponsor. We will be delving further into this in the coming days. I'm most hopeful about this opportunity. Please keep your fingers crossed.

All in all, a terrific way to see out August. I hope you are well and I wish to thank you for your support and contributions to the project and to my life.

Cheers,
Suley

ComiCons

2005-08-08T23:58:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

I hope things are going well. I also hope that those of you who have been to the various conventions in the past fortnight [San Diego and Chicago spring to mind.] found them particularly great.

Drawing The Line will be attending the Canadian Expo at the end of August in Toronto. Julie and I will be coming home from France a day before. We're heading off to Europe in a few hours. I'll have limited access to email depending on internet cafés enroute.

I am still waiting to hear from some artists who consented to contribute last April at the Paradise Con. I have heard from several "Old Guard" who are unable to participate and some new contributors have joined the new adventure, following recommendations by peers and friends.

We're also making headway with sponsorship, as two proposals have been put out. A few more will follow depending on the replies. Both foundations, Sick Kids in particular, have been very supportive and are presenting new ideas. These will be presented in another update once more concrete information is available.

I want to welcome all the new participants. I wish to hear from the artists who have, as yet, not committed one way or the other. This project comes to life thanks to your generosity and support and I'm truly appreciative and indebted.

Have to go pack now!
Cheers,
Suley

Are you in?

2005-06-18T00:28:00.000-04:00

Hello one and all,
Just a quick update before Father's Day and another hectic June weekend.

As of today [17 June 2005] we have 7 pages delivered by Nick Craine, 1 by Stan Sakai, 38 pages committed and in various stages of completion, roughly 25 people who I'm waiting to hear from either way and, at least, 4 pages being contemplated/discussed/conceived/negotiated.

June has been hectic for us so the website hasn't been updated yet, as I had hoped. Sorry! Working on that.

Please let me know if you can OR cannot participate.

Cheers,
Suley

Shusters Update

2005-05-03T13:30:00.000-04:00

Congratulations...Dave Sim!
Just a quick note to update you on the result of your voting for Drawing The line in the Shuster Awards: Dave Sim, who is also in our book, received the "Outstanding Canadian Achievement" Shuster Award for 25 years of work on one comic book - "Cerebus"!

We were chatting to Dave about his well-deserved award and he said that he went through a range of emotions from "I hope I get it" to "My friends Chet and Suley deserve it, too!". Funnily enough, in the car driving up to Julie's show in Brampton, Julie and I said almost the same thing!! All the nominees had such strong and varied reasons for being included in this category. It was such a huge surprise to have been nominated with such an illustrious group; especially since never, ever did it occur to me that this project would be up for any award. We got nominated because it touched and inspired people, even those who don't read comics. The project is like one of those quilts that interweaves and engenders such inspiration and gives hope. Our quilt is just made from paper and ink instead of cloth.

What I realised this weekend, was how amazing this whole project was in my life! It was a birthday gift that started it all. In turn that became the cover to my 'quilt' and thanks to Moebius' back cover dealing with those 'little presents maintaining the balance in life', a perpituity was born. [Literally a moebius strip!]

For me those little presents are there every time someone is touched and 'lit up' by the project and every time someone feels able enough to divulge a little personal story about a 'brush' with cancer. I love those stories and I thank the lucky stars that I'm deemed worthy to hear them. Thanks so much for sharing. It is an honour and a privilege.

Please pass our appreciation and thanks on to your friends and family who supported us and voted for us, because without them we couldn't have got this far.

A very special thank you must also be made at this time to Peter, Irene, Kevin and Doug from Paradise Comics for being so generous and without whom we would never have got here.

Well, now we're looking forward to selling out of this edition and creating A NEW BOOK! Many new artists have shown interest these last few days. I hope we can make it as great as the first.

Cheers and all the best,
Suley

DTL Nominiated for Shusters!

2005-03-17T17:12:00.000-05:00

Life's been most hectic lately for Julie and me!

We worked through a magic show through the Christmas season and we moved into a newplace in Cabbagetown. January and February blew by and here we are mere days away from Spring!!
We spent a fortnight in Paris, Budapest and Geneva a couple of weeks ago... We had to return for my quarterly: cat scan and follow-up check-up. We got the results yesterday: Good news all around!

Where things stand with Drawing The Line....
Julie and I were quite surprised and amazed to see that the project has garnered a "Shuster Award" nomination. It was totally unexpected and we could never have got here without all the efforts and contributions made by the artists and supporters. It's also nice to note that each category has, at least, one of our contributors nominated. Just as the project seemed to be winding down we get this great boost again!

We took 30 copies of DTL with us to Europe to have them in shops in Paris, Geneva and Lyon. Paris proved a very hard nut to crack. We sold one copy! Geneva and Lyon came through, though and no excess baggage on the return trip! Due to events beyond anyone's control [most notably the weather], none of the French contributors [Moebius, Fred Bernard and Gisele Laval] could sign any of the books that some of artists have already signed. Next time.

I hope to be writing again soon. Until then please consider voting for DTL in the "Outstanding Canadian Achievement" category on-line and please tell all your friends and relatives, too!!

Cheers and best wishes,
Suley

Happy New Year!

2005-01-23T19:30:00.000-05:00

A quick update as to where things stand with Drawing The Line....

VOLUNTEER APPRECATION
Tonight Julie and I were invited to a volunteer appreciation eveening at Princess Margaret Hospital. It was an opportunity for the staff of the Foundation, as well as the doctors, nurses and researchers to thank donors for their fundraising efforts and to briefly note where the money goes. PMH has always maintained that whether the amount is large or not as large it is all most appreciated and it was tonight.

DONATION MADE!
Last Wednesday [12/1/05] Julie and I delivered two cheques to the foundations worth Cdn$4,300 each. This translates to 34% of our intended goal of $25,000. Needless to say they were delighted!!

A SECOND BOOK?
Over at PMHF, they are wondering if we'll be doing a follow-up book....hmmmm.

As some of you know we have been considering doing a follow-up book. We were actively trying to have Will Eisner contribute a piece. Alas, that is now no longer possible.... unless Peter Dixon managed a miracle?! We already have a seven page contribution from Nick - who sent it in last June after we chatted at the Paradise Con here in Toronto.

However, the very same day we got that bit of news about Will Eisner, we also received a phone call from "Today's Parent" [which has a circulation of 80,000] wishing to promote our book. hey found us on the web and called out of the blue to see if we still had books available. They will have a blurb in the March issue that will be available in the 3rd week of February [in the 'Frontline section' I think]. There is a huge potential for selling numerous books. I will be popping into the [comic]bookshops that are carrying our book to see if they can order more copies. The DTL website has a page that list all the participating shops. Jessica of The Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation has offered to help out in any possible manner and another signing at PMH was put forward once the article has come out.

The editor of "Today's Parent" also urged us to create a follow-up book.

So, I am making my first unreasonable request of the year and hoping you will join us in contributing to Another Drawing The Line. I am not sure what your timetables are like, but I would like to launch the new book at TCAF in May [28th-29th ]. The Paradise Con is a month earlier 29-30 April and 1st May 2005. We will be hard pressed to produce something by then, but we may be able to find recruits there.

I will be talking to the foundations to secure a corporate sponsor this time and that way we won't have the rough ride we had last year. Julie would also like to see some honorarium for the participating artists or at least a larger number of copies for your use.
If you have any questions, suggestions or ideas please let me know (suley @ fengsuli . com).

Cheers and Happy 2005,
Suley