Author Archive

One of the things that makes Toronto so awesome is the fact that this city loves comics. More so than ever before, in the past few years Toronto has become a hotbed for comics creation and innovation. Out city is full of illustrators and graphic designers, cartoonists and writers, all contributing their words and images. One of the great strengths of creating comics — the innately collaborative nature of the art form — can also be one of its challenges. Finding a writer to give voice and narrative to your images, or an illustrator to give life to your words, can be difficult.That’s where Image Seeks Words comes in. Image Seeks Words hopes to bring comics writers and illustrators together, one profile at a time.

Some art is neat, tidy, and simply pretty. Vicki Nerino does not make that kind of art. She describes herself as having a “penchant for drawing the most disgusting scenarios imaginable,” and has made a name for herself exploring the grotesque and fascinatingly obscene. While her online portfolio proudly displays an obscene section, she is quick to reassure prospective employers that she is also willing to make perfectly nice pictures for cash, and her list of venerable clients includes The Globe and Mail, Matrix Magazine and Open File.

Vicki Nerino

What first attracted you to make comics as a form of artistic expression?

I was sort of bullied into it, actually. It all started in a narrative class in college when we were asked to do a short comic about our first memory. Of COURSE I had to draw myself coming out of my mother’s vagina, and my then pal/now best friend Britt Wilson, who is WAY better a comics that I ever will be, by the way, got on my case. I then decided that, sure, I wouldn’t mind splitting a table with her at a local convention, and it all went from there. I’m still nowhere near where I would like to be with them, but that’s the journey, and why I love comics so much. Always a new challenge.

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Fans of heavy metal are some of most rabid, knowledgeable, dedicated music fans on the planet. They are the sort of people who collect ticket stubs, who own all their favourite bands’ records in multiple formats, who lust after obscure tapes and fight tooth and claw to get to the front of the stage at shows. Devoted metal heads aren’t just fans of a genre of music; they have embraces an entire lifestyle and community. For everyone already invested in heavy metal culture, this leads to an incredible sense of belonging and camaraderie. For new-comers just beginning to dip a toe in tis musical pool, the look, the sound, and the prospect of penetrating a tight-knit community can be daunting.Heavy Metal Ambassador is your entry point into this loud, dynamic, and powerful subculture. Every column will explore a different aspect of the heavy metal community in Toronto, from locals bands and record release shows, to fashion and graphic design. By demystifying and celebrating this rich and vibrant community, and showcasing some of the fantastic music being created right here in the city, Heavy Metal Ambassador hopes to encourage neophytes, casual listeners and other curious people to dive into the scene, while also in-depth coverage of events, records and products for life-long metalheads.

If you like dark, metal-inflused psychedelia; experimental heaviness; and 1980s-era cult horror films in the spirit of John Carpenter’s They Live, then you are going to love this video.

Heavy Metal Ambassador is thrilled to host the world premiere of the music video for “Mousetrap” off Toronto band Ten Kens’ ominous and complex third album Namesake. Ten Kens is the brainchild of Toronto masterminds Brett Paulin and Dan Workman, who also engineered and produced Namesake. Artful but never pretentious, Nakesame is a decidedly intellectual take on stoner rock. It’s all about denial and delay, the slow build and withering burn that suddenly flares up into a wildfire. The purity of the instrumentation is set off by intelligently deployed distortion, feedback and psychedelic effects.

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One of the things that makes Toronto so awesome is the fact that this city loves comics. Moreso than ever before, in the past few years Toronto has become a hotbed for comics creation and innovation. Out city is full of illustrators and graphic designers, cartoonists and writers, all contributing their words and images. One of the great strengths of creating comics — the innately collaborative nature of the art form — can also be one of its challenges. Finding a writer to give voice and narrative to your images, or an illustrator to give life to your words,, can be difficult.That’s where Image Seeks Words comes in. This column will profile a different artist or writer in each instalment, with a specific focus on any projects that they may be currently looking to share with potential collaborators. Readers are encourages to contact the comics creator in question, and offer their skills if they think they would be a good fit. Image Seeks Words hopes to bring comics writers and illustrators together, one profile at a time.

This column is about impossible things. Or, rather, it is about, how previously impossible things are becoming possible.

Impossible Arts is a newly registered non-profit arts organization founded by award-winning author Emily Pohl-Weary, who grew up in Toronto’s west-end. Its mandate is to promote creativity, confidence, and self-expression for inner-city youth, through hands-on artistic and literary workshops and events. This organization connects inner-city youth, many of whom don’t feel comfortable in traditional learning environments, with established filmmakers, authors, cartoonists, and hip-hop poets. Impossible Arts programs take place at our host and partner location the Academy of the Impossible, a west-end maker culture community hub.

The latest initiative by Impossible Arts is a reading series called Impossible Words, which “resents culturally and stylistically diverse literature by established and emerging contemporary Canadian writers to all members of the public, and youth audiences in particular.” The reading series launches on September 8th 2012 with a reading by Governor General’s Award-winning poet George Elliott Clark, which will take place at 1:30 pm at the Academy of the Impossible (231 Wallace Ave. [At Lansdowne]).In addition to readings, all of the instalments of the Impossible Words series will feature an audience Q&A with the author as well as an open mic.

Image Seeks Words had the opportunity to speak to writer Mariko Tamaki, who will perform at the second Impossible Words event on September 22nd.

How did you become interested in and involved with Impossible Arts?

I’ve known Emily Pohl-Weary, Impossible founder, for almost ten years now. Back in the day, I wrote a column for her literary magazine, Kiss Machine, called “Ephemera.” I’m a huge fan of all of Emily’s arty schemes. I once drove to Wisconsin and back in a car with Emily and two other super heroes, Daniel Heath Justice and Carly Stasko. It was a crazy mess of a blast and resulted in the comic Skim (with Jillian Tamaki), which Kiss Machine originally produced as a mini comic.

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Fans of heavy metal are some of most rabid, knowledgeable, dedicated music fans on the planet. They are the sort of people who collect ticket stubs, who own all their favourite bands’ records in multiple formats, who lust after obscure tapes and fight tooth and claw to get to the front of the stage at shows. Devoted metal heads aren’t just fans of a genre of music; they have embraces an entire lifestyle and community. For everyone already invested in heavy metal culture, this leads to an incredible sense of belonging and camaraderie. For new-comers just beginning to dip a toe in tis musical pool, the look, the sound, and the prospect of penetrating a tight-knit community can be daunting.Heavy Metal Ambassador is your entry point into this loud, dynamic, and powerful subculture. Every column will explore a different aspect of the heavy metal community in Toronto, from locals bands and record release shows, to fashion and graphic design. By demystifying and celebrating this rich and vibrant community, and showcasing some of the fantastic music being created right here in the city, Heavy Metal Ambassador hopes to encourage neophytes, casual listeners and other curious people to dive into the scene, while also in-depth coverage of events, records and products for life-long metalheads.

This piece has a twofold purpose. First, I thought it might be fun to expose my process a little bit, as the way I go about music reviews is something that I developed for myself rather than learned. Secondly, am writing this as my entry into the The How-To Issue, a project organized and curated by the fabulous Molly Templeton. As Templeton explains:

“This weekend, the New York Times Book Review ran its how-to issue, which is a rather nifty idea. The cover of the How-To issue lists eight pieces, two of which are by women. The cover reads, in part, “Judith Warner on How to Raise Your Kids” and “Kate Christensen on How to Cook a Clam.” That cover made me feel like I was in a time warp.”

In response, Templeton invited any woman who was interested to write a how-to guide on the topic of their choice, and submit it to be included in the project. This article also serves as my submission to her excellent issue.

I learned to write heavy metal album reviews (and live reviews, and conduct interviews, and write features etc.) entirely through trial and error. I have worked with several excellent editors in my two-and-a-half years of music writing who all gave me excellent feedback on the finished product and helped shape my skills, certainly, but the raw process was something I had to come up with entirely on my own. This is what I have come up with. I haven’t come across many step-by-step guides for writing album reviews in the past, so hopefully this get someone started if they’re interested in reviewing but aren’t sure how to begin.

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One of the things that makes Toronto so awesome is the fact that this city loves comics. Moreso than ever before, in the past few years Toronto has become a hotbed for comics creation and innovation. Out city is full of illustrators and graphic designers, cartoonists and writers, all contributing their words and images. One of the great strengths of creating comics — the innately collaborative nature of the art form — can also be one of its challenges. Finding a writer to give voice and narrative to your images, or an illustrator to give life to your words,, can be difficult.That’s where Image Seeks Words comes in. This column will profile a different artist or writer in each instalment, with a specific focus on any projects that they may be currently looking to share with potential collaborators. Readers are encourages to contact the comics creator in question, and offer their skills if they think they would be a good fit. Image Seeks Words hopes to bring comics writers and illustrators together, one profile at a time.

Currently based in Montreal, QC, Georgia Webber fell in love with comics while a student in her home town of Toronto. She remains tied to Toronto’s vibrant and active comics community through social media and events like the Toronto Comics Arts Festival. Georgia is a passionate and vivacious creator bubbling over with new projects.

Georgia Webber

What first attracted you to make comics as a form of artistic expression?

Comics gave me a gateway to artistic expression that I had previously found to be frustratingly elite. (I actually wrote a blog post about this some time ago when I was pretending to like blogging). When I had this “Aha!” moment, I just started running with it, drawing whatever popped into my head at any given time, mostly nonsense. It was beautiful. It was like the cork of a champagne bottle being popped, and all the bubbly creativity in my body and mind just started pouring out. That’s what first attracted me to comics, and what keeps me adoring them with every particle in my being. Limitless possibility.

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Fans of heavy metal are some of most rabid, knowledgeable, dedicated music fans on the planet. They are the sort of people who collect ticket stubs, who own all their favourite bands’ records in multiple formats, who lust after obscure tapes and fight tooth and claw to get to the front of the stage at shows. Devoted metal heads aren’t just fans of a genre of music; they have embraces an entire lifestyle and community. For everyone already invested in heavy metal culture, this leads to an incredible sense of belonging and camaraderie. For new-comers just beginning to dip a toe in tis musical pool, the look, the sound, and the prospect of penetrating a tight-knit community can be daunting.Heavy Metal Ambassador is your entry point into this loud, dynamic, and powerful subculture. Every column will explore a different aspect of the heavy metal community in Toronto, from locals bands and record release shows, to fashion and graphic design. By demystifying and celebrating this rich and vibrant community, and showcasing some of the fantastic music being created right here in the city, Heavy Metal Ambassador hopes to encourage neophytes, casual listeners and other curious people to dive into the scene, while also in-depth coverage of events, records and products for life-long metalheads.

What do you picture when you image a heavy metal music video? Is it something like Patton Oswalt’s description of metal videos from the 80s, featuring a munch of sweaty dudes wearing vests with no shirts, playing their instruments in an abandoned factory whose only purpose seemed to be manufacturing sparks? If you’re a metal band whose out to make a metal video and wishes to combat that stereotype, then Ax Media Studios may be just what you are looking for. These local video directors and producers are know for their clean, slick and contemporary designs. They specialize in live concert videos as well as full-concept music videos, and also offer photography packages for bands looking to convey a more professional image. They employ a full camera crew as well as a makeup artist, and are an excellent option for local bands who want the exposure that having a well-crafted music video can bring, but don’t have the budget to travel.

Ax Media Studios representative Alexander took the time to sit down with Heavy Metal Ambassador to discuss some of the top-notch video services they are offering right here in the fair city of Toronto to some of our spectacular local metal bands.

Describe your business and business model.

Ax Media Studios is a production company servicing artists and musicians of all genres across Ontario. We are a one stop shop providing music videos, photography, live concert videos, graphic and logo design, websites, audio recording, all under one roof. The stress and difficulty of finding professional and reliable services to assemble an electronic press kit is taken out of the equation by going with our company. We offer flexible financing plans, and our packages are meant to service bands of all budget levels.

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