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Metro Toronto - Published May 8, 2006
Fight against cancer inspires
second compilation
Drawing The Line Again — Another Book Of Comics Benefiting Cancer Research
Publisher: Fengsuli Press/VEI Press
Price: $20 (Paperback)
***** (out of five)
Most book critics don’t pay for the texts they review.
Publishers send them to newspapers, magazines and other publications with their compliments (sometimes in such quantity that they threaten to kill editors under an avalanche of printed matter) and hope someone will give them a kind word or two.
So how’s this for an endorsement: I willingly, gladly and even eagerly slapped down my $20 for a copy of Drawing The Line Again and you should, too.
This second collection of brief stories and illustrations, featuring work by some of the most famous names in comics, is one of the most noble and moving undertakings I’ve even seen. All proceeds from the sale of this book will be shared equally between SickKids Foundation and The Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation going directly to cancer research, education and equipment needs.
The co-ordinators of this original anthology, Suley Fattah and Kasra Ghanbari, mixed the work of noted creators like Bill Sienkiewicz, Clive Barker, Stan Sakai Moebius (the legendary French comic painter provided the cover) with some of the brightest lights of Toronto’s comic scene like Attila Adorjany, Eric Kim, Diana Tamblyn, J. Torres, Chip Zdarsky and more than 50 others to create something special.
“Everyone who has seen it, from the printers on down, has been amazed by the quality of the work in the book,” Fattah said.
“People have been coming up and shaking my hand and saying ‘this is really something great.’ ”
The first Drawing The Line book — which earned Fattah a Joe Shuster Canadian Comic Book Creator Award nomination for outstanding achievement in 2005 — has already raised $13,000 and is still selling. He said his aim is to raise $25,000 per book.
The content of the book ranges from striking one-page illustrations to stories that range from the thoughtful to the humourous and the genuinely moving.
As for Fattah’s favourite — he said he likes them all for different reasons, but one hit very close to home.
“Being a cancer survivor, I think Anthony Van Bruggen’s piece (entitled My Cancer Story) is very strong,” Fattah said. “It really captures what it’s like to go through that.”
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