City of Ottawa Grant Support Round 3
In a pretty neat piece of news, my ongoing comics project Wolf’s Head has once again been awarded an arts grant from the City of Ottawa! To quote directly from the City’s email, “On behalf of the City of Ottawa’s 2025 Creation and production fund for professional artists, we are pleased to advise you that the evaluation committee has recommended funding in the amount of $ 4,000.” This is actually my third such grant from the City and I am deeply grateful and very honoured.1 Creating comics, as I’ve written about in the past, is not exactly an easy task, and the funding certainly helps facilitate all of the art materials, research, and other such activities that happen in the background, sight unseen.
In the past I’ve waited for the City of Ottawa to update their formal Summary Reports (see my previous announcements here and here), but I decided to announce this early to better align with the City’s acknowledgment policy. And, of course, why sit on good news?
I am incredibly proud of this series. Wolf’s Head is, perhaps, the most rewarding comics work I’ve ever done. In the past I’ve crafted a combination of short stories as well as stand-alone graphic novels; Stargazer, in fact, was actually printed in two volumes, though it actually wasn’t written that way. Wolf’s Head is different: it’s an ongoing series that, aside from its initial conception and the first story arc, was not excessively planned. I had never approached storytelling in this fashion before; my previous work was very carefully planned out. With Wolf’s Head, the nature of an ongoing sequential series combined with the requirements of producing writing and art on a consistent basis made excessive planning difficult.
Note that I wrote “excessive” planning. I’m not saying that I’m writing by the seat of my pants. Far from it. Rather, what I mean is that I’m not trying to write an entire series in advance of where I currently am. In other words, I haven’t planned the series to run, I dunno, 55 issues with all of that planned out. That means that the series has progressed in ways that have surprised even me, which is an utterly delightful situation. Being surprised is, I think, a key part of storytelling. There are events and characters that have appeared in Wolf’s Head that I never expected. That has kept the series fun for me and hopefully for readers, too. Besides, planning can also result in that old joke, “How do you make God laugh? Tell Him your plans.”2 That was something I wanted to avoid, because I knew there would be reversals and problems that I would have to solve3 as the series progressed.
Grant support has been critical for this. It allows more freedom to create. More freedom to try (and yup, sometimes fail). And that has all helped me learn to grow. That’s one of the neat things about art. The growing never stops. I’m certainly a different artist from when I first started, but I’ve even changed and grown from when Wolf’s Head first launched, too. That is pretty neat!
We learn by doing. And that learning, if we’re receptive to it, never stops. This life “thing” can be difficult (whew, boy), but it is one of the rewarding aspects of being alive. Or, to put it another way, here’s Paul Hansen’s translation of the late tenth-century poet Pao Hsien’s poem:
WRITTEN
ON THE WALL
AT MASTER WEI FENG’S4
The
grassy path
Leads to a deep cloister.
Arriving in
Autumn
Eases my heart
Even more.
In
town
No one I’ve known long.
Outside the gate,
another mountain.
Exploring the silence gives poetic
Thought
birth. Fasting
Confers a sick look.
On
freezing nights
You arrange to meet me often:
Silent talk
beyond
Human space.
Media Release
Grant Announcement
City of Ottawa 2025 Creation and Production Fund Awarded to Von Allan for Graphic Novel Series “Wolf’s Head”
Content
OTTAWA, July 28, 2025: Von Allan (legal name: Eric Julien), an Ottawa-based comic book artist and creator, has received a $4,000 grant from the City of Ottawa’s 2025 Creation and Production Fund for Professional Artists. Von Allan is one of several artists and organizations awarded funding through this program, which provides financial support to professional artists and organizations, fostering the creation and production of diverse cultural projects that contribute to the city’s vibrant arts and heritage community. This funding supports the ongoing production of the independent comic series Wolf’s Head (https://wolfs-head.vonallan.com), which has previously received City of Ottawa grant support.
The City of Ottawa encourages grant recipients to share this information publicly, including with media organizations (source: City of Ottawa Acknowledgement of Support Policy). While the official public summary of all 2025 award recipients will be published in early 2026 (Summary Report), independent verification of this award can be obtained through the City’s Cultural Funding Officer, Yasmina Proveyer (yasmina.proveyerllopiz@ottawa.ca).
About Wolf’s Head
Wolf’s Head follows Lauren Greene, a former Metro Detroit police officer disillusioned by systemic injustice, who becomes involved in protecting a secret artificial intelligence created by a powerful corporation. When Lauren’s mother, Patty, forms an empathic bond with the AI, which causes it to evolve beyond its original design, and the two face danger from corporate forces seeking to control the AI. The series blends science fiction and action-adventure with drama, featuring strong women of colour and explores themes of justice, technology, and hope. More information about Wolf’s Head can be found at https://wolfs-head.vonallan.com.
About Von Allan
Von Allan is the pen name of Eric Julien, an Ottawa-based comic book artist and graphic novelist. Von Allan’s work is noted for its authentic exploration of mental health, family, and social justice themes and includes his semi-autobiographical the road to god knows…, the fantasy-adventure Stargazer, and the ongoing Wolf’s Head series.
He is also featured in I Am Still Your Child, a documentary film written/directed by Megan Durnford and produced by Catbird Productions, which shares the stories, hardships, and bittersweet stories of Children of Parents with Mental Illness (COPMI). In the film, Von Allan spoke about his personal experience growing up with a mother affected by schizophrenia, a subject that also informed his earlier work the road to god knows…
Further details and background on Von Allan’s work can be found at https://www.vonallan.com and the following CBC profile: https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/longform/eric-julien/.
For interviews or further information, please contact Von Allan directly at von@vonallan.com or the City of Ottawa’s Cultural Funding unit.
Media Contact
Von Allan
Website: https://www.vonallan.com
Email: von@vonallan.com
Phone: 613-236-9957
City of Ottawa Cultural Funding Contact:
Yasmina Proveyer
Cultural Funding Officer
Email: yasmina.proveyerllopiz@ottawa.ca
Phone: 613-227-3265
Footnotes
1 I also wanted to thank Yasmina Proveyer, one of the City of Ottawa’s Cultural Funding officers. She has helped answer many of my pesky (and probably silly) questions. And she’s answered them with grace and patience, something I am grateful for.
2 I don’t know exactly how old this joke is, but I know that Joan Rivers discussed it way back in 1992!
3 Who expected COVID? I also never expected the death of my oldest, and aside from my wife, my dearest friend.
4 Pao Hsien. “Written on the Wall at Master Wei Feng’s.” The Clouds Should Know Me By Now: Buddhist Poet Monks of China, edited by Red Pine and Mike O’Connor, translated by Paul Hansen, Wisdom Publications, 1998, p. 84.
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