Three Harvey Award Nominations!

Well, this was a genuine surprise. Despite being nominated in past years for virtually every other major industry award, the Harvey Awards (named for MAD founder and '50s war comics artist Harvey Kurtzman, one of the most talented men to ever dip a brush in ink) have never really paid much attention to my work. But it seems now even they are solidly aboard the Scott Chantler train.

The Annotated Northwest Passage has been nominated in two categories: Best Graphic Album - Previously Published Material, and the Special Award for Excellence in Presentation.

And, sort of surprisingly, Stephen Colbert's Tek Jansen #1 was nominated for Best Single Issue or Story. This came out nearly a year ago and, frankly, doesn't represent my best work. I'm really rather shocked that anyone remembered it when they were filling out their nomination forms. Still, John Layman's and Tom Peyer's script was hilarious, and Jim Massey's and Robbi Rodriguez's back-up story is terrific, so I really consider it a nomination for the rest of the team, not myself. But I'm glad that enough people seemed to enjoy it to give it this honour.

The Harveys will be handed September 27th, at the Baltimore Comic-Con.

NWP on Attack of the Show

I'm on TV again! Well, not me, personally. But Northwest Passage got a nice mention/review last night in Blair Butler's "Fresh Ink" segment on G4's Attack of the Show. Click the image for the video (though you'll have to listen to a minute and a half of stuff about Secret Invasion first):


Thanks for the coverage, Attack of the Show people!

Northwest Passage Nominated for an Eisner Award!

On the heels of last week's announcement about being nominated for a Joe Shuster Award, comes this week's news that The Annotated Northwest Passage has been nominated for a Will Eisner Comic Industry Award in the new category of Best Publication for Teens. This is the big one, the "Oscars" for cartoonists. And Mr. Eisner himself was a hero of mine, so it's a most surprising honour to be among the many exceptional nominees.

The Beat has a full list of the nominated books and creators, which are an impressively diverse bunch this year. The winners are announced at a ceremony on July 25th in San Diego. Again, wish me luck!

Joe Shuster Award Nominations Announced

The 2008 nominees for the Joe Shuster Awards were announced today...and, well, I wouldn't be mentioning it if I hadn't been nominated for one, now would I? I've been nominated in the new category of Outstanding Cover, for my work on The Annotated Northwest Passage, an honour I really ought to share with designer Keith Wood, who really nailed the "Robert Louis Stevenson" look that I wanted. As in previous years, I'm up against some amazing competition. But win or lose, the Shusters are always a good time, so I'm looking forward to the big ceremony on June 14th. Wish me luck!

Original Art Auctions on eBay

I just put a couple of original art pieces up on eBay: page 7 from the just-released Hawaiian Dick #3, and page 18 from the third volume of Northwest Passage.

These auctions end March 3rd, so get in there and get bidding! And don't forget that a large selection of my original comic art is always available in my art store over at ComicSpace.

2008 Off to a Good Start

A couple of nice surprises in this first week of the year:

First, twelve pages of Hawaiian Dick #1 have been reprinted in the comics section of New York Magazine. I have no idea what the circulation of New York Magazine is, but it's got to be, you know, big. A nice piece of mainstream media exposure for our little indie-comic-that-could.

And as if that weren't enough, The Annotated Northwest Passage has just been named one of Comics Worth Reading's Best Books of 2007. An honour, indeed.

Hopefully these are a sign of things to come in the year ahead!

Look Ma, I'm on TV!

The fine folks over at Space: The Imagination Station (Canada's answer to the Sci-Fi Network) ran a nice spot about The Annotated Northwest Passage throughout the day today on their HypaSpace news segments. Those who missed it can click the link above for the online version. They did a really nice job cutting together panels from the book (with some heroic music over top) with interview segments filmed at The Toronto Comic Arts Festival back in August to create something that should really help promote the book.

Thanks for the airtime, Space!

In the Media

The Annotated Northwest Passage got a review early this month in The Toronto Star. The author's main criticism of the book seems to be that it isn't Chester Brown's Louis Riel (which to me seems perfectly clear by simply glancing at the cover, and akin to criticizing oranges for not being grapefruit.) Still, it's some big-time mass media exposure for the book (The Star has the highest circulation in the country,) and the reviewer seems to have liked it well enough, so I'm thankful for it.

More recently, my new friend Rachelle Goguen interviewed me for her blog Living Between Wednesdays ahead of my appearance at Halifax's Word on the Street festival last weekend. It's a good interview, and covers lots of stuff, so go give it a read.

"A Modern Classic"

Reviews for The Annotated Northwest Passage continue to appear, and most have been almost embarassingly positive. Here's a quick round-up of some of the most prominent links:

Ain't It Cool News calls it "a wild, crazy frontier ride. It’s fun, thrilling, and smart."

Earlier in the month the book turned up on the "Top Five Books of the Moment" lists of four of the five reviewers at Comic Pants.

And over at Comics Worth Reading, Johanna Draper Carlson calls the book "a modern classic." I'm blushing!

TCAF this Weekend!

This weekend is the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, which is, in my humble opinion, the best comics-related show in North America. It's not your standard flea market nerd-fest with William Shatner and people dressed like Sailor Moon. It brings out the entire Toronto arts community, and really celebrates the ART of comics, not the commercial side. It's a bona fide cultural event.

I'll be signing there all weekend in the OWL Kids tent, with plenty of copies of both THE ANNOTATED NORTHWEST PASSAGE and STEPHEN COLBERT'S TEK JANSEN for sale, along with original art, bookmarks, sketches, etc.

Oh, yeah...did I mention that it's FREE? You've got no excuse now but to come and join the fun.

San Diego Signing Schedule

I'll be in sunny San Diego, California on Wednesday through Sunday this week, rubbing elbows with fans, Hollywood folks, and damn near the entire comics industry at Comic-Con International. There will be huge stacks of both The Annotated Northwest Passage and Stephen Colbert's Tek Jansen available at the Oni Press booth, where I'll be signing at the following times:

Thursday
10:30am-11:50am
3:00pm-4:20pm

Friday
1:30pm-2:50pm
6:00pm-6:50pm

Saturday
12:00pm-1:20pm
4:00pm-5:50pm

Sunday
12:00pm-1:20pm

During my signing times, I'll have original art for sale, as well as the snazzy Northwest Passage bookmarks pictured above (pick one up along with your hardcover!) It's also a pretty good bet that I'll be involved in the Oni Press 1oth Anniversary panel that takes place Saturday at 1:30pm. Come out and celebrate with us!

More Reviews

Entertainment Weekly has a brief review of The Annotated Northwest Passage in this week's (June 29/July 6) issue--their big "EW 100" double issue. They give it a solid B, which is about as well as I did in high school, so it works for me.

The Toronto Metro is more enthusiastic, giving the new collection four and a half stars out of five.

Annotated Northwest Passage Reviewed in Publishers Weekly

Publishers Weekly has given thumbs-up to The Annotated Northwest Passage. The full review reads as follows:

While being hyped as the greatest Canadian western comic book ever may sound like faint praise indeed, in the case of Chantler's thrilling historical adventure, it definitely is not. Categorized as young adult historical fiction, the book is a James Fenimore Cooper–styled thriller set in remote Rupert's Land, circa 1755. Fort Newcastle, an English-run trading post commanded by the stout-hearted hero Charles Lord, is overrun in a vicious sneak attack by French mercenaries looking to get rich off the fur trade. Lord and the survivors of the massacre wander the wilderness, looking for allies and plotting their revenge, while inside the captured fort, the villainous Guerin Montglave plots evil deeds. Chantler's sharp black and white artwork (replete with dramatic closeups and muscular action choreography) has a welcome precision to it, while the writing has a pulp immediacy (" 'T'ought you could 'ide, English dog?' ") which brings history to life. This collected edition of the three-issue original comes with copious and welcome annotations at the back, where Chantler discusses various plot points and historical references as well as the different styles used from one frame to the next (including one he calls his "Frank Miller shot").

Rumour has it there's a review coming up in Entertainment Weekly, so keep your eyes peeled for that, too, NWP fans!

It's Here!

The first copies of The Annotated Northwest Passage arrived Tuesday and, as you can see, they are things of beauty. Usually when I first see my books in print the first things I see are the mistakes--my own, the printer's, etc. Not this time. It's exactly how imagined...better, in fact. A top-notch production all the way through.

Thanks again to Keith Wood for an ultra-classy design job, and to Randy and Jill at Oni for their delicate handling of my baby.

The copies I have are early promotional copies for Monday's signing at Book Expo Canada, so unfortunately I won't have any for sale at this weekend's Paradise Comics Toronto Comicon. I'll have a copy on display that people can thumb through, though, before it ships in another couple of weeks. Trust me, you're going to want one of these.

The Annotated Northwest Passage lands in June!

The collected, annotated hardcover edition of the first three volumes of Northwest Passage that was supposed to be released in April will now debut in early June, at Book Expo Canada. It's a beautiful book...designer Keith Wood has really knocked himself out putting the package together. Here's a sneak peak at the cover: