Taking a cue from Jillian I thought I’d mention that you can now place an online bid on my Totoro Forest Project print.

I took this photo of the piece before I packed it up and Fed-Exed it off to San Fransisco. I have to say, it was kind of sad to see it go. It’s a pen, ink, gouache and digital printed 8-colour process on watercolour paper; the auction committee requested that it be a 1/1 print - so this is the only print… ever…

Here are the instructions on how to bid. My picture is on Page 10 of the gallery (middle, bottom row).

Oh and here’s a very nice post by Enrico Casarosa about the print.

Also, I’ll be in San Fransisco this weekend for the gallery opening at Pixar. I haven’t been to SF since I was a wee tot. So if you have any suggestions on what to do there, please let me know.

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The Montreal book launch was lots of fun. I did a 20 minute talk about Korean cartoon culture and then signed books into the night.

I didn’t realize until afterwards, but A LOT of people showed up. Thanks to everyone who came - or wanted to come, but couldn’t.

Check out more photos of the event at the D&Q shop blog.

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I picked up a few copies of the new Ojingogo book on Monday. Here are some photos…

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We set up an Ojingogo window display at the Drawn & Quarterly store here in Montreal.

Here’s what the shop window looks like normally. Not bad, but it could use more whales.

Here’s a Photoshop mock-up of what I was proposing to do with the window.

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There’s a story in this week’s Montreal Mirror (arts weekly) about the Ojingogo book.

And look at the cover - that’s my comic!

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Here’s the new Ojingogo book that’s coming out at the end of August; published by Drawn & Quarterly under their Petits Livres imprint. There’s going to be a launch party in Montreal at the Drawn & Quarterly store on August 27 at 730pm.

Drawn & Quarterly store
211 Bernard W.
Montreal

PH: 514.279.2224

Here’s the Facebook Event page.

There will also be events in Toronto and Halifax in September.

You should come and bring some friends too.

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I did this print to hang (and maybe sell?) at the Ojingogo book launch next month. It’s very much influenced by the Totoro Forest Project with some obvious nods to Miyazaki, Mary Blair and Dave Cooper thrown in there.

It was too much fun to colour. All organic. I scanned gouache and sepia ink and layered it. Also added shadows from the edge of the scanner to give the sky a subtle, natural gradient. I’m trying to use natural, organic textures whenever possible these days. I can’t stand the look of Photoshop brushes in my own work any more.

The Montreal book launch will be August 27 at the Drawn & Quarterly store on Bernard st. There will also be a couple events in Toronto in September.

More details coming soon!

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Here are a couple preliminary gouache sketches I did for my piece for the Totoro Forest Project. I didn’t really need to do them, I just had my paints out and wanted to play around before starting.

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Here’s the site we’ve been working on at the NFB for the last while.

Basically, we’re putting a wealth of classic Canadian documentaries and animated films online for free. Films like The Logdriver’s Waltz, Cosmic Zoom, and Neighbours - and a whole slew of films I’m still discovering.

There’s a nice post on Metafilter that’s full of great suggestions on the site. Also Hugh McGuire suggests a few places to start.

They’re all there. They’re not in super-duper HD - but they are higher-quality-than-YouTube and quite suitable for full-screen viewing. We are testing the site, so it’s still in beta mode, but it’s quite functional.

As we’ve been uploading the films, tagging, and rewriting their descriptions for the Web, I haven’t had time to watch many of them. Only this week have I started watching what we have up there. And I’m really… moved by films I’m watching. There are films that make Canadian history riveting (Days of Whiskey Gap) and films that make Canadian art seem profound and mature (Bill Reid).

Oh and here’s my favourite film on the site so far. A gorgeous animated film from the ’60s called, Romance of Transportation in Canada. I first read about it in Cartoon Modern, Amid Amidi’s book about classic animation. Watch the whole thing here… for free.

What do you think of the site? What can we do to improve it?

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TIFF announces its 2008 line-up. The Gala screening goes to a Korean Western:

Drawing inspiration from Sergio Leone’s 1966 classic The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Kim (The Foul King, TIFF 2000) returns to TIFF with the first-ever “kimchi western.” This is also South Korea’s biggest budget movie ever.

Looks a bit block-bustery, but still infused with the style of Korean cinema.

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Here’s an illustration I did for the Totoro Forest Project organized by Enrico Casarosa and Dice Tsutsumi and the Pixar auction committee.

It’s called “Miyazaki Forest”. Pen, brush, ink and Photoshop. Printed 8-colour process on watercolour paper.

Read all about this wonderful initiative over at Enrico’s blog.

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I’m really thrilled with all the attention identi.ca is getting. Identi.ca is a new open-source microblogging platform. I think we’ve all felt a need for more competition in the microblogging field - rather than depending on a single microblogging company (Twitter).

I’ve also been disappointed with the lack of progress with Twitter. I’ve complained before that while most new applications suffer from feature-creep, Twitter suffers from feature-sleep. They’ve done almost nothing to make the service more useful or compelling since they started. It seems like all their time is spent trying to keep up with the growing demand for their servers.

Feature Idea for identi.ca

Respond to direct messages via email

In Twitter, you often get direct (private) messages sent to you via email. But to respond, you have to log back into Twitter and message that person. If someone is direct messaging me - it means they want to take the conversation off-line. There should be an option in identi.ca to allow users to take their conversations off-line and respond to direct messages via email.

Update: Go read Hugh McGuire’s post, “Why identi.ca matters” - this is basically the post I wanted to write.

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These shirts are printing and shipping.

The script on the shirt is hangeul - which is Korean writing. Each of the four blocks represents a syllable and together they say “Oh-jing-aw-go”. Ojingogo.

I’m pretty excited to get mine.

If you buy one, please mail photos of yourself wearing the shirt to pics AT topatoco.com. They’ll go in this Topatoco flickr gallery.

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I was asked to create a “sinister-looking flower” to accompany an article about microenvironments and cancer for the McGill News.

I had a lot of fun with the colours. I wanted them to be a little unsettling but also a little Sci-Fi.

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I’ve had a few conversations in the last few days about this city and how much it means to me. Yesterday was St-Jean Baptiste day here in Quebec - a provincial holiday which gives us a chance to reflect on what is unique and wonderful about this place.

There was a party on my street, with the local shop owner giving away free Kefta to all the neighbours.

I’ve been here for three years and it’s simply my favourite city in the world. I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else right now.

Bonne St-Jean.

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