Sherwin Tjia is a Montreal artist who makes everything from Scrabble-tile lapel pins to schoolgirl comics to mini-CDs inviting us to listen to his friends masturbate. His latest book of poetry, The World is a Heartbreaker, is a collection of three liners: “i don’t want to say/ payback, but you know it’s/ pretty much payback”. It renewed my faith in the power and relevance of poetry the way that the best song lyrics do. I asked him a few questions over e-mail about the book’s development.

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I first noticed the Red Panda, his hands outstretched hypnotically, on a street poster in my neighbourhood. “Adventure! has a new address… decoderringtheatre.com” the poster announced. I checked it out and spent the next few days listening to the adventures of Canada’s Greatest Superhero (and his sidekick, the Flying Squirrel) on my MP3 player as I walked around town. More homage than spoof, I thoroughly enjoyed these additions to a genre most assume is long dead, and emailed Gregg Taylor to tell him so. A couple of emails later, he’d graciously agreed to “give the nickel tour” of how to make radio drama, from the high-tech of podcasting to the lo-tech of vegetable-based sound effects.

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Lisa Smolkin is a friend who’s responsible for some of the funniest and saddest drawings I’ve seen. Simple graceful lines and watercolour give her illustrations a beautiful and fragile quality, but they’re grounded in her rough-hewn style of zine-making. So when she asked me earlier this year if I wanted to collaborate on something, I was delighted. We ended up making this little piece that you can launch full-sized in its own window or click here for the direct link (you need Flash).

It’ll also be on display tomorrow (Dec. 6, 8pm) at the Toronto launch for Lisa’s Apology Accepted, a book of new drawings being published by 2×4 To The Forehead. It’s at the excellent venue Cinecycle (129 Spadina, down alley) and features the band Pink Leotard and special guests. Free.