Tuesday, January 27, 2026

Saturday, January 24, 2026

Trump vs. NATO

Trump and his insults against NATO soldiers. What should other countries do in response? 

#trump #nato
https://youtube.com/shorts/JD3wAyDiWnk?feature=share

Thursday, January 22, 2026

Carney at Davos


Mark Carney and the end of the “rules based order” that benefits big nations. What will replace it?

Sunday, January 18, 2026

CanLit and geopolitics



 

Canadian publishing produces very few works of fiction about the gritty, brutal world of bare knuckles geopolitics. The result is a somewhat limited sense of national self; we’re perceived as a nice country, but also a naive one. Can Canadian fiction improve in this regard?

Sunday, January 11, 2026

Insects’ World

Insects' World- Baram CXL
https://youtu.be/INoBL09TNtY — We assumed bad days would pass…

Monday, January 05, 2026

Remembering my brother

 



My dad phoned me on January 6th, 2013, to tell me my brother had died at Montreal General Hospital.


It was a messy ending: my mom, senile and delusional, either thought Richard just needed to “escape” the hospital in order to live, or that palliative care would bring about some kind of cure. 


The hospital staff was eager to clear his bed, and repeatedly took him off medication in order that his failing liver would finish him off. I argued with the hospital that my mom — who was frequently in Montreal — should not be main decision maker because of her dementia. 


They relented on that issue but didn’t listen to me anyway. Three times they took richard off antibiotics on a Friday night, then told my dad and me they could only reinstate antibiotics with permission from the attending doctor. When my dad and I asked them to contact the doctor, the staff said they couldn’t because it was the weekend.


Richard left behind no computer disks that I could find, countless unpaginated printouts all randomly thrown together, and old drawings on fraying paper. 


Since then, I’ve been making videopoems based on his work. Ultimately, I’ll scan the printouts and assemble them into book volumes (I’ve done this with one volume already, entitled Happyland). His work isn’t for everyone. But he was a poet who genuinely found his voice before he died. That’s a kind of solace. 


Below are two very early readings from his own chapbook Death Haiku. RIP. I still miss him so much it hurts.


Death Haiku statement:


https://youtu.be/WAJ6ZGR1a3g?si=GnlCrXPQBSUoZ0Ab

Friday, January 02, 2026

The Return of the Nerd

Literary fiction aimed at teens and young adults should, theoretically, include many male protagonists who are bookish, physically plain, and awkward with girls. However….
The Return of the Nerd?
https://youtu.be/AWKG3XmDp2w

Thursday, December 18, 2025

Juno Beach’s Keller

If you’re Canadian and know a little bit about D-Day including famous commanders like Eisenhower, Bradley, Patton, Montgomery, and Rommel, you probably don’t know the names of any Canadian commanders.

#canada #canadianhistory #junoneach

Canada on D-Day: General Rod Keller  https://youtu.be/ZtchAN7Ufbo?si=3lkp0BbSMwa7X5WI via @YouTube

Sunday, December 14, 2025

Canada and Trump

Members of Canada’s literary writing community know that the White House’s recent release of the National Security Strategy poses a threat to Canadian sovereignty. But do they know the history behind it?

#canlit #canadausa #canadianculture #trumpnss

Tuesday, December 02, 2025

Webtoons

Global Manga & Webtoon Market Statistics 2024 Market Overview 🇯🇵 JAPAN (MANGA) Market Size (2024): $7.74 billion USD Forecast (2030): $18.37 billion USD (CAGR ~16%) Digital Revenue: Largest segment (surpassed print ~2020-2021) Global Position: World's largest single-national comics market 📊 Key Trend: Digital manga (e-books & webcomics) drives rapid growth, fueling global manga popularity boom 🇰🇷 SOUTH KOREA (WEBTOONS) Market Size (2023): 2.189 trillion KRW (~$1.36 billion USD) Growth Rate (2022-2023): +19.7% Webtoon Market Share: 76.5% of total comics market Revenue Model: Paid content is largest sub-segment 📊 Key Trend: Digital-native, consumer-paid model drives explosive growth. Major global cultural export via platforms like Naver Webtoon & Tapas. Official data source: Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA) 🇺🇸🇨🇦 UNITED STATES & CANADA Market Size (2024): $1.94 billion USD (+4% from 2023) Market Context: Recovery from 2023 dip, strong vs. pre-COVID Periodical Comics: Surge to 15-year high ("floppies") Graphic Novels: Mixed performance across retail channels 📊 Key Trend: Post-pandemic market stabilization with strong periodical resurgence. Data source: ICv2 and Comichron market tracking 🇫🇷 FRANCE (BANDE DESSINÉE & MANGA) Market Size (2024): ~$1.23 billion USD Global Position: 2nd largest comics market globally, #1 in Europe Format: Print dominant; digital fastest-growing segment Source: Korean Creative Content Agency (KOCCA)

Webtoons

 

Global Manga & Webtoon Market Statistics 2024 Market Overview 🇯🇵 JAPAN (MANGA) Market Size (2024): $7.74 billion USD Forecast (2030): $18.37 billion USD (CAGR ~16%) Digital Revenue: Largest segment (surpassed print ~2020-2021) Global Position: World's largest single-national comics market 📊 Key Trend: Digital manga (e-books & webcomics) drives rapid growth, fueling global manga popularity boom 🇰🇷 SOUTH KOREA (WEBTOONS) Market Size (2023): 2.189 trillion KRW (~$1.36 billion USD) Growth Rate (2022-2023): +19.7% Webtoon Market Share: 76.5% of total comics market Revenue Model: Paid content is largest sub-segment 📊 Key Trend: Digital-native, consumer-paid model drives explosive growth. Major global cultural export via platforms like Naver Webtoon & Tapas. Official data source: Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA) 🇺🇸🇨🇦 UNITED STATES & CANADA Market Size (2024): $1.94 billion USD (+4% from 2023) Market Context: Recovery from 2023 dip, strong vs. pre-COVID Periodical Comics: Surge to 15-year high ("floppies") Graphic Novels: Mixed performance across retail channels 📊 Key Trend: Post-pandemic market stabilization with strong periodical resurgence. Data source: ICv2 and Comichron market tracking 🇫🇷 FRANCE (BANDE DESSINÉE & MANGA) Market Size (2024): ~$1.23 billion USD Global Position: 2nd largest comics market globally, #1 in Europe Format: Print dominant; digital fastest-growing segment Source: Korean Creative Content Agency (KOCCA)

Saturday, November 29, 2025

Pretendian crisis


So … writer Thomas King isn’t Indigenous after all. Was Canadian media complicit in the falsehood?

Saturday, November 15, 2025

Corporate magnates trying to repackage the human…

 



 From my comic What Is The Source of Insane Ideas?, published as a standalone project in 1991 (under the pen name Seekorum), and then incorporated into my illustrated mega novel manuscript Plastic Millennium.

In this scene, Prof. Walt Whitman meets with corporate magnate Contrat Lindl. Whitman tells Lindl that military fear of nuclear wears has turbocharged research into building a super intelligent computer that has the capacity to monitor and shape human affairs.

Lindl listens to Whitman with thinly concealed impatience, countering that nuclear weapons have succeeded “in keeping the peace” for 45 years. Whitman becomes disconsolate and says fatalistically that the existence of nuclear weapons has taken on a life of its own, and is the primary factor driving research into artificiality (eg., artificial intelligence). Whitman tells Lindl that if humanity is to survive, then it must relinquish nukes. 

As soon as Whitman leaves Lindl’s office, Lindl rejoices and walks to a small shrine he’s built to Friedrich Nietzsche. Lindl is in the habit of having feverish monologues with his portrait of Neitzsche. He says the existence of intelligent computers means there now exists on Earth a “Super-Being”, and this implies that it will now be possible for humans to develop an “uber-mensch” — that is, an Overman or Superman who is a technology-driven evolution beyond the human race.

Friday, November 14, 2025

Publishing’s blind spot


Has the contemporary publishing industry developed a blind spot?

Literature After Identitarianism 
https://youtu.be/_4UG_poURl8

Friday, November 07, 2025

Friday, October 31, 2025

Happyland 9


A videopoem (2025 version) based on my late brother's writing. He worked for years to develop a poetic voice that was uniquely his — and in the end, he succeeded, even as his personal demons and institutional indifference dragged him down.

The poem here encapsulates his talent for simile and metaphor, as well as his acute linguistic precision. He loved nature but at the same time he wanted to see *through* nature, to its constant energies.

Happyland 9 (new cut)
https://youtu.be/u4JObTuOxN0