Lost Heroes Screening - Canadian Superheroes on the big screen!

 Things have bubbling over in the realm of Canadian comic historians and collectors for the last two years, with more communication, sharing and exploration than there has been for years. It’s exciting as many of work to help other achieve goals that have only been dreams in our heads for a long time. 

So it’s time to dust off Comicanuck and celebrate some big events.

I have been mostly silent on this blog in that time… burnout hit me hard. I write up to ten hours a day for my day job and don’t really get weekends off. So writing blog posts into the wee hours after work that was growing more and more difficult. And you may have noticed I tend to write long posts, which significantly increased the amount of time they took to create.

While I can only promise intermittent posting at best, working on shorter posts will help me be here more often than my old way of doing things.

The big news is that the complete adventures of Nelvana are being reprinted for the first time ever!!! (Seriously, you want this).  Check out nelvanacomics.com for more info. 

Few people beyond collectors have seen any of these stories and I suspect a rarified few have actually read all of them until now, including myself. After an incredibly successful Kickstarter campaign, comic book historians Hope Nicholson and Rachel Richey are releasing the book this weekend at the TorontoComic Arts Festival.  

More on Nelvana in a forthcoming post. (See? Short and to the point!)

To kick off the Festivities, there will be a FREE SCREENING of creator Will Pascoe’s Canadian comic book documentary, Lost Heroes, Wed. May 7 at Toronto’s Carlton Cinema at 7 pm. (20 Carlton Street at Yonge). Hope Nicholson, in addition to spearheading the Nelvana project, was a producer on the film.

Here is the info from their Facebook page:

Come join TCAF and Nelvana of the Northern Lights for a screening of Lost Heroes!

Lost Heroes explores the past of the Canadian superhero, from the golden age when millions of children read the tales of Inuit goddess Nelvana of the Northern Lights, to the thrilling days when Canadian superheroes returned to the newstands with Captain Canuck and Cerebus. Lost Heroes celebrates the unique Canadian talent behind these characters and asks why can’t Canada keep their heroes?

The film will be followed by a brief Q&A moderated by Canadian comics historian Robert Pincombe (That’s me!) with Mark Askwith (producer of Space TV’s “Innerspace”), Ivan Kocmarek (Golden Age comics historian), Jason Loo (creator of new Canadian superhero, The Pitiful Human Lizard), Mark Shainblum (creator of superhero “Northguard”), Kalman Andrasofszky (writer/artist of the new Captain Canuck comic series), Mike Valiquette (animation director of the Captain Canuck webseries), and Hope Nicholson (co-publisher of Nelvana of the Northern Lights & Associate Producer of Lost Heroes).

This is a free screening, and all are welcome to attend! Doors are at 6:45pm, with the film starting promptly at 7:00pm.

I will be moderating a short panel after the screening featuring the above line-up of diverse Canadian historians and artists. But the real in depth talking will likely happen at the official after-party up at the Spotted Dick pub, (81 Bloor St. E.) It’s the 2014 TCAF Drink & Draw!  

If you want to know about Lost Heroes, visit their website. 

After the screening, I suspect many of the participants will head up to the Spotted Dick (81 Bloor St. E.) for the official after-party, the TCAF 2014 Drink & Draw. 

Hope to see you there, True Northers!

Beavers Up! 

The Maple Leaf Forever – Captain Canuck Vol. 1

 Happy Canada Day.  I’ve decided to give you (and myself) a break from my long posts and extensive look into the past of Calvin Ayre, Canadian gambling mogul and fugitive from justice for a time.

Since my wife was born in the “land of the free and the home of the brave” and I was born here in the “true north strong and free”, we’ll be celebrating two national birthdays this week…. just as we celebrate two Thanksgivings and two Christmases (although the dual yule has more to do with two families than two countries of origin).

My Canada Day gift arrived early last week with the release of IDW’s collected Captain Canuck vol. 1. I’ve been a Canuck fan since the day way back in ’75 or ’76 when I found the very first issue in a Mac’s Milk spinner rack. After riding a little farther afield than my mother would have approved of in search fresh comics (comic shops didn’t exist back then), the Captain’s first issue was a precious find with its intense colour, slick paper, and home-grown hero.

It took Comely many months (read that years) to find a way to put out issues at a steady rate thanks to the help of fellow artists Jean Claude St. Aubin (The Victorian) and George Freeman (Digital Chameleon, Leave It To Chance). This first volume reprints issues 4 through 10 and each issue improves on the other in design, colour and story. Issue 4 and 6 feature Freeman’s inks over Comely’s pencils. Freeman gives structure and weight to Comely’s figures, adding a dynamism and consistency they lacked under Comely’s own pen, as seen in issue 5.

The colour easily blew away the mainstream comics of the day. The paint on cell, animation-style process, founded by Comely allows a great deal of flexibility and Comely credits Freeman’s eye for unique colour combinations with much of that success. The process became the basis for Digital chameleon’s later, groundbreaking comic book colour work.

By issue 7, the production process had been streamlined down to Comely as writer/editor/publisher and letterer, Freeman on story/pencils and inks with colour and some pencils and inks by St. Aubin. The redistributed workload allowed the book to soar. Freeman’s cartoony, design oriented style took advantage of Canuck’s iconic look with a subtle but powerful redesign that allowed plenty of space for colour to help tell the story. Canuck now looked less like a man in a costume and more like a national comic hero to be reckoned with.

It all comes together in issue 8's full-length tale "Space Watch Death Watch". The Canuck look has solidified and the stories become sharper and less meandering. Against a backdrop of the Canadian wilderness that could have been painted by the Group of Seven (Harris, or Lismer, perhaps?), Cap shucks the costume in favour of plain, old Tom Evans to visit his brother Mike and his new wife Saskia in their mountain horse ranch. We get to see a little of the man behind the mask here.

We have seen Canuck pray for strength in previous issues, a subtle ode to Comely’s Mormon background which added spirituality to the character without proselytizing yet apparently, negatively impacted sales. Comely moved the character away from overt displays of religion after the early issues but always strove to present a “wholesome” product. Tom Evans was also declared to be part native but that aspect was rearely explored excpet once Cap gets thrown into the distant past and must communicate with an early native Canadian tribe.

(For more on the various themes and values found in the original Captain Canuck run, check out this article and for thoughts on the various conspiracies found in the book's pages read here. Both are part of the Ultimate Captain Canuck Tribute Page.)

We also know from a flashback in issue 4 that Tom and Mike used to be fellow RCMP officers until the day Tom was captured by a UFO (while serving as a Boy Scout leader at a kid’s camp, solidifying his good citizen credentials) and given twice the strength and speed of an ordinary man. (Why bother with the strength of ten men when everyone knows the power of two Canadians are more than enough for any task?). Tom was given a costume to serve as a symbol for his country and the world while Mike ended up paralyzed from a bullet he took for his brother.

To Mike’s surprise his brother is on his feet again with the aid of a crutch. A page or two is spent showing Tom and his family hard at work around the ranch and underlying trouble brewing with the hired help before Tom is called on to don the flag once again.

Richard Comely and Business Manager
Ken Ryan pose with issue 4.

The magic of issue 8 is the fast but effortless shift from outdoor beauty to glorious outer space action in a space station orbiting the planet. The design of the station looks futuristic yet functional with no time wasted showing off for ornamental effect. Each panel serves to propel the story forward until a rousing zero-G battle ends with Captain Canuck NOT saving the day! The cliffhanger of Cap floating alone on the station as it plummets earthward was worth the price of admission all by itself.

As far as colour goes, its glorious to see the original colours reproduced on high quality stock. Comely scanned the original artwork and colour overlays at the National Archives, where they have lounged since the late seventies and then painstakingly digitized and processed them for reproduction with Freeman. And it’s wonderful to see the linework and colour working together so well.

IDW's Scott Dunbier recently spoke with Comic Book Resources about the Captain Canuck collected editions. I don’t really agree with the assessment that the original books did not look as good as desired due to bad printing. They still stood out from the US books of the time from MArvel and DC. The newsprint allowed the incredible palette to bleed together and flow quite effectively, especially issue when the colour choices grew more wild for a tale of the Captain trapped in a department store, fighting off a well-organized gang.

But I must admit the deep purples and blues of the shadowy tale in Captain Canuck 10, "Masquerade", now leaps off the page in vivid detail allowing a new appreciation for Comely and company’s artistry.

Extras are a kinda minimal with a cursory introduction from Comely (who admittedly may be a little weary of talking Captain Canuck after more than thirty years with the guy) and acouple of Freeman rooughs from back in the day. But we do finally see all the Canuck newspaper strips collected in one place at last (with the rest to be printed in vol. 2, I assume.).

What you wont see in these collections are the tremendous, artistic strides the comic made in it’s first half-dozen issues. Comely’s zine-like first three issues are like a patchwork quilt of design ideas. At times the art looks more like funky t-shirt art than a comic book. The colour is vivid and all over the map and colour photographs are sometimes used as backgrounds. By the time we hit issue 6, all the ideas that competed with each other have meshed into a cohesive, consistent whole. Apparently, Comely plans to print his first three issues in a separate collection, possibly hoping that the IDW collections will increase interest.

It’s unlikely that we’ll ever see the Captain Canuck back-up strips either. There were two short, uninspired Catman stories and the serialized Jonn, a sword and sorcery mini-epic. But the most dearly missed will Aubin’s delightful mini-features: the wacky Chaos Squad and the fantasy-based serial Beyond. It really was delightful work.

In fact, Aubin would do well to release much of his early work. I have waited years to see his wacky Chaos Squad finally have launch their long-promised battle with S.P.A.T. and find out what happened to motley heroes of Beyond! He also has several weeks of his goofy Captain Chinook strip (last seen in the first issue of Mark Shainblum’s Orion magazine way back in 1981). You can also get see Aubin work on another Canadian icon, the RCMP, in The March On Fort Whoop-Up, a graphic novel detailing the birth of Canada's world famous, national police force. there are sample pages and brief history of the project.

The various reincarnations of Captain Canuck since the original run have suffered from the law of diminishing returns, Comely abandoned much of the iconic hero element of the character to bring him down to Earth and lost some of the magic in favour of what he felt was greater realism and connection to the real world.

But don’t worry about that right now. Enjoy the Captain as he was meant to be seen; in brave artwork and bold colour with stories that zip along with lots of creative zing (which definitely helps one skip over or forgive the occasional plot holes).

In addition to the terrific resource that is The Ultimate Captain Canuck Tribute Page, there's a good overview and review of the original series at ComicReaders.com. There's also Comely's official Captain Canuck website and a new version of the good Captain by the Langlois Bros. had a four-issue run several years ago. It's still availbale at www.CaptainCanuckUnholyWar.com.

Meanwhile, thanks to Comely, Freeman, the National Archives of Canada and IDW Publishing, the original Captain Canuck lives again!

Can't wait for Captain Canuck vol. 2!

Beavers Up!

TGIF TCAF!: The Comics are dead, long live the comics! And, hooray for the Toronto Comics Arts Festival!

It's a time of upheaval in the publishing industry and in the comic industry as well. The end of 2008 and early 2009 saw layoffs and schedule readjustments at Digital Manga, Tokyopop (including several books and series cut from their publishing slate), and at Viz Media so a recent restructuring of Devil's Due is no surprise. And

Some have blamed the economy for the slowing of the manga sales juggernaut, others say supply has simply caught up with demand as the market has seen freakish growth over the last decade. Even small announcements like new Ontario tax credits for publishers (examined here at the Quill & Quire website) fail to excite anyone with the possibilities.

With all this and all the crazy hubub over Diamond's new wholesale minimum cut-off policy, it's kind of refreshing to read the business-as-usual attitude from Drawn & Quarterly's Associate Publisher Peggy Burns in Chris Mautner's Robot 6 interview over at www.comicbookresources.com. After hearing so much frustration about the death knell of the old stylefloppy comic book, she sums it up from a purely business perspective.

Look, when our artists decide to create their work in the pamphlet format, they are making a decision that this will just be sold in comic stores. When the main distributor for comics stores decides to institute minimums that may affect their work in pamphlet form, we — as both their publisher and not just their biggest fan — have to have an honest conversation with the artist if this is the best way to publish their work and if we, as a company, can continue to publish it as a pamphlet to a declining audience that is beyond our control, no matter how good the comic. The alternative of publishing books to an increasing audience is a win-win situation for everyone involved — author, publisher, retailer, distributor. This may sound like a sacrilege — such an obvious mixing of art with business. I would imagine our artists and fans know that we place art before commerce about 99% of the time, more often than not, to our disadvantage.

So many established publishers are hesitant to make a decision about what to publish and how to adapt at a time like this, it creates a bit of a vacuum and opportunity exists for those who will take it. As Steven Grant notes in his latest Permanent Damage column on what it really means to "break into" the comics business, there are more avenues for doing comics available to all than there have ever been before.

The "comics business" is far bigger and more fractured than it was in 1978, when I broke in, and Marvel and/or DC are no longer "the comics business," no matter how much fanzines and newssites and their own propaganda push that notion. "The comics business" is all over the place: newspaper strips, online comics, manga, animation, mini-comics, indie comics, alt-comics, original graphic novels... It doesn't matter whether any of these have the critical mass to challenge Marvel/DC "hegemony," it only matters that your contribution pulls in enough eyes to make it worthwhile for you. Which doesn't necessarily mean you'll be making money in a hurry, or at all. The question isn't really income but audience. Build a large enough, faithful enough audience and you will end up making money. There are all kinds of ways to make money.

Audience is the true grail now, not assignments.

The year before he was inducted himself, I managed to convince Quebec bande dessinnée legend Pierre Fournier to serve as a judge on the Hall of Fame Committee for the Joe Shuster Canadian ComicBook Awards. I remember how confused he was over the distinction we made between comics and comic books.

"In Quebec," Pierre assured me (and, as near as I can tell from my limited perspective, in Europe and most of the non-North American world), "there is no such distinction. The comics are the comics whether they appear in the newspapers, in a graphic novel, on the internet or in a comic book." In short, comics are bigger than the form in which they appear. That may define how they are presented in each case, but it doesn't define the medium itself.

The Comics aren't dead, people. Neither is music. They way we interact with and receive them is ever-changing, though. Want proof? Events like the upcoming Toronto Comics Arts Festival celebrate comics in all their varied glory. More information on this year's event can be found here.

When I see the massive public attendance and enthusiasm for the bi-annual event it always reaffirms to me that the comics aren't dead, nor is a general love and passion for them. The form is merely adapting to new forms of distribution.

Embrace change and you discover that all the things you love about comics are still around, somewhere.

Beavers Up!

Comic Canucks - Derek of Bras d'Or

They say they grow them big in Texas, but no one grew them bigger than Angus MacAskill, the true life giant of Cape Breton who served as the inspiration for Triumph Comics' Derek of Bras d'Or. The legendary feats and gentle demeanor of MacAskill served as a perfect template for writer Glen Guest and illustrator A.L. Alexander's comic book hero.

And this is one case where the comics seem incapable of exaggerating their character's feats of strength!

Triumph Adventure Comics #4,
pub. Hillborough Studios, Nov. 1941.

First, a little background…

The Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online assures me that Angus MacAskill was born in 1825 on Harris in the Hebrides, Scotland (though the Angus MacAskill Museum page at www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk's page on the MacAskill museum insists he was born "at the north end of the island of Berneray, in the Sound of Harris"). Angus was the fourth child of Norman McAskill and Christina Campbell, whose brood would eventually number either ten or thirteen, depending on the source. Somewhere's about 1831 the whole family immigrated to Cape Breton and settled on a farm on the south side of St Ann's Harbour. The district was dubbed "Englishtown" because the current inhabitants "had not the Gaelic".

As a baby, Angus was so small he was not expected to survive but he would more than confound that prediction. Though a normal-sized child, Angus soon sprouted. By 14 he was large enough to have earned the nickname Gille Mor (Gaelic for Big Boy) and by his twenties was so tall his father lifted the roof of the family home and raised the ceilings of the kitchen and living room. Kind of a seventeenth century Extreme Makeover: Home Edition without the helpful sponsors.

MacAskill and Major Tom Thumb,
in a publicity photo contrasting
the two human marvels.

By the age of 22 Angus had reached a full-grown height of 7 ft 9 inches, weighed between 425 to over 500 lbs., depending on your source and time period cited, and the palm of his hand was about a foot long. MacAskill’s gentle nature was such a contrast to expectations of one so large, that he “…endeared him to all who had the pleasure of his acquaintance", according to his obituary in The Acadian Recorder obituary of Aug. 16, 1863, by way of Wikipedia.

As with any tales passed on partly through word of mouth, the specifics vary, but the basics stay pretty consistent. One thing all accounts agree on is that Angus was unique in that that he was perfectly proportioned despite his size, with none of the usual growth abnormalities associated with such stature. TheHumanMarvels.com, a website devoted to amazing examples of the human race, explains:

In 1981 the Guinness Book of World Records recognized MacAskill as the largest true giant to have ever lived, the strongest man who ever lived and the man with the largest chest measurements of any non-obese man.

The distinction of his status as a ‘true’ giant hinges on the fact the Angus was purported to be free of any growth abnormalities. His stature was proportional in every way and his immense size and strength was due only to his natural genetic gifts.

MacAskill worked on his family's farm and as a fisherman to make his way. In a time when strength was respected above most else, the Gille Mor earned the respect of all and came to be known far and wide as the Cape Breton Giant or simply, Giant MacAskill. Though MacAskill’s immediate family were of normal dimensions, this article by Abagael MacAskill, one of MacAskill’s descendants reveals there was a precedent for Angus’ massive size.

During my travels I learned that Angus is not the only giant in the family line. His grandfather was called Neil Mor (Big Neil) and matched Angus in size. Written records are sketchy back that far so this is not "officially" documented- just passed down through the generations.

Still more fascinating is the history prior to this. The MacAskills were not a clan, but rather a sept of the McLeod clan. It is written that the McLeods considered the MacAskills the most favored servants because the whole tribe was known for their unusual size and strength back to their Viking roots!

…Almost two centuries have past since the birth of Angus and there have been no more giants. I can confirm from the family reunions that the present MacAskills are all of average stature.

MacAskill’s feats grew in renown long before crop failures and an economic downtown in 1847 and 1848 forced him to tour as a curiosity to earn money. Such demonstrations stemmed mainly from doing his chores as only he could accomplish them. This living, breathing “tall tale” could tip a half-ton boat to empty bilge water (a task that normally took six men) and set a 40-foot mast into a schooner “as easily as a farmer set a fence post in a hole”.

He could could jog down the street with 300 lb barrels of pork under each arm or hold 50kg kegs by two fingers. People also claimed to have seen MacAskill lift a full-grown horse over a four-foot fence and once silenced taunting sailors by carrying a ship’s anchor (weighing in excess of 2700 pounds) down a wharf.

In the late thirties and early forties, young painter Adrian Dingle and his artist friends likely picked up many such tales and local colour as they traveled around to paint. The adventures of folk heroes like Giant MacAskill were oft repeated in magazines, newspapers, books and through word of mouth. So at the dawn of 1941, when Dingle conscripted those same friends into forming Hillborough Studio and launched the proudly canuck Triumph Adventure Comics, it made perfect sense to use some of that folklore to create a uniquely Canadian features.

Dingle famously combined elements of Inuit legends with a dose of science fiction to create Nelvana, the most beloved Canadian comic book character that no one really knows much about. For their contribution to Triumph, writer Glen Guest and artist A.L. Alexander recast MacAskill’s adventures into a modern setting and Cape Breton Island’s handsome young Derek MacGregor of Bras d’Or was born.

Sketches of Angus MacAskill and his comic book
progeny, Derek MacGregor of Bras d'Or.

I’m not sure when Derek debuted in Triumph Adventure Comics, I haven’t seen issues 2 or 7 (the last of the Hillborough issues before selling the title, minus the Adventure part, to Bell Features). I can confirm he appears in issues three to five, with a promise of more tales to come. Truthfully, issue 3 sure reads like his first outing.

Other than some modern trappings, Guest and Alexander made little effort to differentiate their character from the real Giant MacAskill in Triumph Comics 3, quickly involving him in an incident taken from real life legend. According to a variety of sources, an American fishing vessel came to St. Anne’s to buy bait, and her Captain challenged the well-known MacAskill to a wrestling match. The Cape Breton giant refused and when the 300 hundred pound visitor verbally lambasted him, MacAskill lost his temper and tossed the brute over a woodpile ten feet high and twelve feet wide.

In the Derek of Bras d’Or yarn in Triumph 3, the unfortunate braggart is Rex O’Donnell, a champion wrestler from the big city. Guest and Alexander combined the infamous woodpile toss with another famous MacAskill tale; that of intimidating another tormentor by squeezing his hand until his fingers bed! As the city slicker runs off, never to be seen again, we know within the first three pages that Derek is one tough cookie!

In short order, Derek competes at the highland games, winning every event including the caber toss, hammer throw, hundred-yard dash and the broad jump. But a prize bull, likely enraged by the bagpipe music, breaks free, scattering the crowd and endangering a wee “Scotch Lassie” competing in the sword dance. Derek staggers the beast with one punch and saves the day.



Hillborough Studio was comprised of very accomplished artists with styles all their own and Alexander was no exception. His work on Derek resembles that of a woodcut, lending an element of verisimilitude to the folkloric storytelling. Despite his odd figure work at times, Alexander's work on Derek is full of detail and elegant etching, lending a real senses of place to its Atlantic Coast setting. It is quite similar in approach to American artist Harry G. Peter’s unique sense of design on Wonder Woman and Heroic Comic’s Man O’Metal feature, although it's unlikely he'd have seen Peter's work at so early a date. Their figures, animals, and action sequences are handled in comparable fashions.

An example of H. G. Peters' work on

Heroic Comics' Man O'Metal...

...And illustrator A. L. Alexander's similar
approach to Derek of Bras d'Or.

That style is well-displayed in Triumph Adventure Comics 4 as Derek joins his friend Captain Angus Trites and his son John on board the Silverqueen for a deep seas expedition to harpoon swordfish. In a rare case of an animal giving as good as it gets in a contest with Derek, the impaled swordfish returns the favour to Derek’s dory, leaving them clinging to the side as the pierced hull fills with water.

On the way back to the harbour, the Silverqueen spots a modern menace in the form of an enemy U-Boat near Lundy’s Head (presumably near Lundy, Nova Scotia, in Guysborough County). Captain Trites signals a patrolling Canadian Corvette while Derek proves he’s crack shot as well as a pugilist by shooting out the U-boat’s periscope with the Captain’s rifle. The corvette’s depth charges force the blinded U-boat to surface. Derek helps take the survivors prisoner and wishes he weren’t too young to join the war effort directly.


I'm unfair to single this one, unusually sensual, page of Derek art by A.L Alexander out, but it does share something else with H.G. Peters Wonder Woman work; the tendency to send mixed gender and sexual messages with awkwardly kinky posing and situations!

Of course, some messages aren't so mixed...



But I digress...

In Triumph Adventure Comics 5, Derek’s storyline keels more toward typical comic stories of the day, while still maintaining a sense of the small, coastal town in which Derek lives. Derek stumbles upon an attempt the rob local bank, largely it seems, through his natural East Coast suspicion of outsiders, or anyone “from away”. Derek tackles the crooks as they flee the scene. Snake Eyes, the gang’s luger-wielding leader, is happy to shoot Slick-Joe, his safe cracker, to get at Derek but the giant is too much for them. He holds two of the gang members while the others disappear into the night with their loot. Still suspicious, Derek sees the remaining thugs pull away from the wharf with money meant to sponsor a dope deal.

The final panel asks, “Will Derek intercept this gangster mob?”

Sadly, I have no idea.

Anybody wanna send me the covers and contents of Triumph 2 and 7 so we can all find out? Pretty please?

Learn more about Angus MacAskill at his Wikipedia entry here, and at www.TheHumanMarvels.com.

More info on the Angus Macaskill Museums can be found here for the one on the Isle of Sky and here and here for the one in Englishtown, Nova Scotia.

A pic of MacAskill's grave in Nova Scotia can be found on Flickr, here.

Beavers Up!