It has to be said that The Sound Of Music is not even close to being on my 100 best films list. But without it, one of my favourite pieces of music wouldn’t exist. Sax titan John Coltrane’s rendition of the Rodgers and Hammerstein song My Favorite Things is music of beauty and power that translates the base metal of its source material into something golden.

Equivalent alchemy happens in the world of comics on a regular basis. Jack Kirby’s ludicrous but brilliant artwork brings Stan Lee’s hokey stories to life in any number of their collaborations, but particularly on early Marvel titles such as Fantastic Four and Thor. And where would Alan Moore be without collaborators Melinda Gebbie, Dave Gibbons, David Lloyd and Kevin O’Neill? Each brings something utterly right to the stories they work on: they’re literally unimaginable without the talents of those particular artists.

For similar reasons, I very specifically chose Corrina Rothwell to bring the concept of a young undead girl to life in an animation we’re jointly developing. Corrina’s style brings out the emotions of the characters, rather than the gruesomeness, which would be the wrong road to go down in a project that’s intended for a younger audience. Similarly, Andy Tudor’s work on another animated story we’re developing about a group of children living on a Martian colony, isn’t just about his tremendous graphic skill, but a reflection of his lifelong fascination with NASA and astronomy.

Which is to say, it’s all about the collaboration, stupid. And right now, ’stupid’ is the best description of the Canada Council for the Arts, who have listed Mariko Tamaki as the sole creator of the childrens’ book Skim, illustrated by Mariko’s cousin Jillian. For a full account of the situation, read here.

To be fair, we can assume naivity on the part of the judging panel rather than wilful ignorance. But to get across just how dumb this move is, consider the following thought experiment:

Imagine Spider-Man drawn in the style of Fungus the Bogeyman.

Or Watchmen drawn by brilliant childrens’ book illustrator Quentin Blake.

For that matter, what would a Roald Dahl classic for children be like with art by Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons?

Get the idea? In comics, animation, and good illustrated books, art and text are a seamless whole. If they’re not, at least one person isn’t doing their job properly. And if one person’s letting the side down, the whole thing fails to achieve the spark that can occur when collaborators add to each others’ contributions.

Which isn’t to say that there aren’t plenty of generic, typical, mediocre comics and animations out there. But any fule kno that there’s a difference between the cool of the first animated Pink Panther series and the subsequent one where, of all things, PP talked. Likewise, the magic that Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely conjure together in We3 and their other collaborations in the world of comics is arguably unmatched by either’s partnership with anyone else.

There’s a click with Morrison and Quitely as surely as there was between Scorsese and De Niro, or Bjork and Nellee Hooper; confirmation that much modern art is the product of the indefinable spark of talents rubbing together, rather than older notions of the singular genius auteur. And it’d be nice if the Canada Council for the Arts woke up to that fact.