Monday, September 19, 2016

SNYDER/LEMIRE AD: AFTER DEATH OUT NOVEMBER 23!


“What would a world look like when death becomes a thing of the past?”--VULTURE

“The most grounded and emotionally authentic glimpse at immortality ever put to the page.  This is only the first chapter, but it may just be the beginning of a masterpiece.”--Damon Lindelof (LOST)

“Mind bending.”--ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

Like nothing else out there. A+.” - FORCES OF GEEK

“This book is next level stuff.”--Charles Soule (CURSE WORDS)

“A.D.: After Death – Book One pushes beyond the notion of what a comic book should be and gives readers a completely different, magnificently engrossing experience.”--COMICOSITY

“A mind blowing experience.”--CBR

"A hauntingly aching, and thought-provoking work."-Brian Azzarello (MOONSHINE)

Hauntingly beautiful…. Snyder and Lemire are a dream pairing, two creators in fervent harmony that explore the uncomfortable, undeniable fear of death and the scarier prospect of what happens when it’s gone.”--ALL COMIC

“A different kind of sci fi comic.”--IGN

“Do you know the first thing I did after I was done reading A.D. After Death? Flipped to the beginning and started reading again. It’s exciting, intriguing; it’s imagination run wild…. This book is a must-read, an instant favourite and a sure contender for Book of the Year.”--COMIC BASTARDS

“Snyder and Lemire’s world building is incredible.”--GEEK.COM


SEP160618
(W) Scott Snyder (A/CA) Jeff Lemire 
SERIES PREMIERE

What if we found a cure for death?
Two of comics' most acclaimed creators, SCOTT SNYDER (WYTCHES, Batman, American Vampire) and JEFF LEMIRE (DESCENDER, Moon Knight, Sweet Tooth) unite to create a three-part epic like no other, set in a future where a genetic cure for death has been found. Years after the discovery, one man starts to question everything, leading him on a mind-bending journey that will bring him face-to-face with his past and his own mortality. A unique combination of comics, prose, and illustration, A.D.: AFTER DEATH will be serialized monthly as three oversized prestige format books written by SNYDER and fully painted by LEMIRE.
In Shops: Nov 23, 2016
SRP: $5.99

Friday, September 9, 2016

SECRET PATH by GORD DOWNIE & JEFF LEMIRE



GORD DOWNIE ANNOUNCES SECRET PATH
 PRODUCED BY KEVIN DREW AND DAVE HAMELIN
WITH GRAPHIC NOVEL BY JEFF LEMIRE
& CBC ANIMATED FILM SPECIAL
TELLS THE STORY OF CHANIE WENJACK, AN INDIGENOUS BOY WHO DIED RUNNING AWAY FROM A RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL FIFTY YEARS AGO
PROCEEDS WILL BE DONATED TO THE NATIONAL CENTRE FOR TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION

STATEMENT BY GORD DOWNIE
Ogoki Post, Ontario
September 9, 2016
Mike Downie introduced me to Chanie Wenjack; he gave me the story from Ian Adams’ Maclean’s magazine story dating back to February 6, 1967, “The Lonely Death of Charlie Wenjack.”
Chanie, misnamed Charlie by his teachers, was a young boy who died on October 22, 1966, walking the railroad tracks, trying to escape from the Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School to walk home. Chanie’s home was 400 miles away. He didn’t know that. He didn’t know where it was, nor how to find it, but, like so many kids - more than anyone will be able to imagine - he tried. I never knew Chanie, but I will always love him.
Chanie haunts me. His story is Canada’s story. This is about Canada. We are not the country we thought we were. History will be re-written. We are all accountable, but this begins in the late 1800s and goes to 1996. “White” Canada knew – on somebody’s purpose – nothing about this. We weren’t taught it in school; it was hardly ever mentioned.
All of those Governments, and all of those Churches, for all of those years, misused themselves. They hurt many children. They broke up many families. They erased entire communities. It will take seven generations to fix this. Seven. Seven is not arbitrary. This is far from over. Things up north have never been harder. Canada is not Canada. We are not the country we think we are.
I am trying in this small way to help spread what Murray Sinclair said, “This is not an aboriginal problem. This is a Canadian problem. Because at the same time that aboriginal people were being demeaned in the schools and their culture and language were being taken away from them and they were being told that they were inferior, they were pagans, that they were heathens and savages and that they were unworthy of being respected – that very same message was being given to the non-aboriginal children in the public schools as well… They need to know that history includes them.” (Murray Sinclair, Ottawa Citizen, May 24, 2015)
I have always wondered why, even as a kid, I never thought of Canada as a country – It’s not a popular thought; you keep it to yourself – I never wrote of it as so. The next hundred years are going to be painful as we come to know Chanie Wenjack and thousands like him – as we find out about ourselves, about all of us – but only when we do can we truly call ourselves, “Canada.”
——
Gord Downie began Secret Path as ten poems, incited by the story of Chanie Wenjack, a twelve year-old boy who died in flight from the Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School near Kenora, Ontario, fifty years ago, walking home to the family he was taken from over 400 miles away. Gord was introduced to Chanie Wenjack (miscalled “Charlie” by his teachers) by Mike Downie, his brother, who shared with him Ian Adams’ Maclean’s story from February 6, 1967, “The Lonely Death of Charlie Wenjack.”
The stories Gord’s poems tell were fleshed into the ten songs of Secret Path with producers Kevin Drew and Dave Hamelin. Recording took place over two sessions at The Bathouse Recording Studios in Bath, Ontario, November and December 2013. The music features Downie on vocals and guitars, with Drew and Hamelin playing all other instruments. Guest musicians include Charles Spearin (bass), Ohad Benchetrit (lap steel/guitar), Kevin Hearn (piano), and Dave “Billy Ray” Koster (drums).
In winter 2014, Gord and Mike brought the recently finished Secret Path music to graphic novelist Jeff Lemire for his help illustrating Chanie Wenjack’s story, bringing him and the many children like him to life.
The ten song album will be released by Arts & Crafts accompanied by Lemire's eighty-eight page graphic novel published by Simon & Schuster CanadaSecret Path will arrive on October 18, 2016, in a deluxe vinyl and book edition, and as a book with album download.
Downie’s music and Lemire’s illustrations have inspired The Secret Path, an animated film to be broadcast by CBC in an hour-long television special on Sunday, October 23, 2016, 9pm east

The Secret Path is produced by eOne and Antica Productions Ltd. in association with CBC. The Secret Path was created, written, direction, and composed by Gord Downie, with illustrations by Jeff Lemire. The film is executive produced by Mike Downie, Patrick Downie, Gord Downie, and Sarah Polley. Jocelyn Hamilton is executive producer for eOne Television and Stuart Coxe is executive producer for Antica Productions. Justin Stephenson is director of animation.

The broadcast date marks the fiftieth anniversary of the morning Chanie’s body was found frozen beside the railroad tracks only twelve miles into his journey.
Proceeds from Secret Path will be donated to The Gord Downie Secret Path Fund for Truth and Reconciliation via The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR) at The University of Manitoba. The NCTR is dedicated to preserving the history of the residential schools in Canada, making this history known, and moving our country forward on the path of reconciliation. 
Secret Path acknowledges a dark part of Canada’s history – the long-supressed mistreatment of Indigenous children and families by the residential school system – with the hope of starting our country on a road to reconciliation. Every year as we remember Chanie Wenjack, the hope for Secret Path is that it educates all Canadians young and old on this omitted part of our history, urging our entire nation to play an active role in the preservation of Indigenous lives and culture in Canada.
Jeff Lemire shares insight on Secret Path
I first met Gord Downie and his brother Mike back in the winter of 2014. They wanted to discuss a potential project and, over coffee, they told me the story of Chanie “Charlie” Wenjack. Gord was then in the final stages of recording his incredible songs based on Chanie’s life and he shared the rough mixes with me in the hopes that I would be interested in creating a graphic novel to accompany his album. Before we left the coffee shop I knew I was going to do it. I had to. Chanie’s story is one that will not let you go once you hear it. It’s a story that can’t be ignored. And yet, somehow, it has been ignored. By nearly all of us. 
Growing up white in Southern Ontario, I never learned about Chanie Wenjack or about any of the tens of thousands of other indigenous children like him who were part of Canada’s residential school system. This is such a massive part of our country’s history, yet our schools didn’t teach us about it. Why? Maybe because it’s easier to live with ourselves if we pretend stories like Chanie’s never happened. But they did happen, and still happen. Chanie Wenjack lived and died, and no one knows his story.
I’ve spent the last three years living with Chanie’s story and living inside Gord’s music. Gord’s haunting songs introduced me to Chanie Wenjack. Music is universal. It crosses languages and cultures and speaks to everyone, and I’ve always felt the medium of comics could do the same. It’s our hope that one day Secret Path will be taught in schools and that it will help to shed a light on this all too often ignored part of Canada’s past. I think, above all else, that’s what Gord and I wanted to create: something that can’t be ignored. Every Canadian should know Chanie Wenjack’s name and I hope Secret Path helps to make that a reality.
 

Gord Downie
Secret Path
w/ Graphic Novel by Jeff Lemire
Deluxe Edition (Vinyl & Book)
October 18, 2016
Arts & Crafts
Deluxe Album Cover Art HERE
Side A:
1. The Stranger 
2. Swing Set
3. Seven Matches
4. I Will Not Be Struck
5. Son
Side B:
1. Secret Path
2. Don’t Let This Touch You
3. Haunt Them, Haunt Them, Haunt Them
4. The Only Place To Be
5. Here, Here and Here

Gord Downie
Secret Path
w/ Graphic Novel by Jeff Lemire
Book w/ Download
October 18, 2016
Simon & Schuster Canada
Book Cover Art HERE




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Gord Downie and Jeff Lemire will not be available for media requests. For comment please reach out to: 
Ry Moran - Director, National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, University of Manitoba Ry.Moran@umanitoba.ca / 204-318-2926