Funding Superiority

As much as I would love to support oodles of Kickstarter and Indiegogo project to help independent comic publishers, I am not made of loonies. Upon starting this blog, I decided to focus primarily on Canadian projects but am making an exception for Watchguard / Teen Force 5.

Well...only technically.  I was first drawn to this universe by stumbling into Runabout (see tag at right) while doing a Google search on Canadian superheroes.  At the time, there was no specific comic book project planned around the Watchguard characters (publicly at least, that I knew of).  The product being promoted was a sourcebook for a role-playing game.

Writer Charlie McElvy now intends to begin publishing comics about his creations and while it will not be specific to Les Supérieurs (Runabout's team), early success may very well open the door to that very thing.

With that hope in mind, I committed a few bucks to the cause, and would encourage any comic fan to do the same.  Your money is only transferred if the project is fully funded, so you are under no risk of getting nothing for your pledge.

Here's a look at a couple of other Supérieurs team members.

To this point, I'd been buying the Supérieurs character sheets from RPGNow.com (in pdf file format) as a show of support even though I don't actually play the game for which the sheets are made.  Still, I love the uniform designs and the detailed back story that comes with each.

There are only two days left in Charlie's campaign but he has seen a flurry of activity around it of late and his goal is within reach.  Who knows, if he gets the funding he needs, maybe we can get a Supérieurs cameo or pin-up while we wait for a team-specific book (yes, that's a shameless hint).  Best of luck either way, Charlie, if you happen to read this.

Sept 1st edit: Charlie didn't need luck.  He reached his goal early this morning. :-)

Captain Canuck Animated

Information about this is surprisingly hard to come by.  When it was announced that a Captain Canuck movie was in the works, several media outlets carried the news, but for the moment anything having to do with an animated version of the character seems to be restricted to conventions and such.

In any event, here is the teaser currently making the rounds


CC Teaser from Mike Valiquette on Vimeo.

Edit: I was on captaincanuck.com just a day or two ago and the most recent news displayed was from November of last year, if my memory is sound. It has since received a complete overhaul to reflect this project.

Greyman

Speaking of monsters...

The above is the cover to the Greyman graphic novel, an Arcana Comics publication.  It was written by Glenn Arseneau.  Here is the solicitation from Comixology...

87 pages! For Adam Grey, dying in a car crash is only the beginning of his nightmare. Stranded on the Dead Highway with only a strange homeless man for guidance, separated from his beloved fiance, Sarah, and hunted by motorcycle-riding demons intent on feeding on his human memories, Adam soon discovers that there are, in fact, fates much worse than death. Confronted by a mysterious and powerful astral entity, Adam has only one choice left: Allow the entity to use him as a vehicle through which it can wreak havoc on the living world, or never see Sarah again!

...and a sample page.

The book was only released about a month ago, so its Facebook page is quite active at the moment.  One of the reviews linked on that page, in its description of the book, mentioned seeing tones of Todd McFarlane's Spawn character.

That struck me too, but I would add The Crow as well since a significant part of the story revolves around Greyman needing to track down demons individually, much like Eric Draven hunted those who had wronged him and his girlfriend.  The character is also "built" in such a way that other versions of Greyman (Greywoman?) could emerge which might be an interesting aspect to explore.

The art (by Andy Gray) is very interesting. It may be easier to tell from the cover, particularly the logo, that it is very graffiti-like.  Because of the use exaggerated features or dimensions it can be difficult, in certain panels, to make out exactly what's going on right away, but after my first read I found myself going back just to take in the art specifically.

You can purchase, or further preview, Greyman on Comixology or buy the print version on Amazon.  Mr Arseneau has other irons in the fire, including Bulletproof Angel and Sinreaver for us to look forward to.

TSOG Team-Up #2: Mr. Monster and Ghost Woman

Mr. Monster's inclusion among the Canadian characters listed in the International Heroes page some time back came as something of a surprise. Michael T. Gilbert, by far the man most closely associated with the character, is American. I owned a few issued of the book and could not recall any mention of Mr. Monster being Canadian (and he certainly didn't "look" Canadian).

As the page linked above indicates, the original version of Mr. Monster is the creation of Canadian Fred Kelly. It seems the character only appeared in one book, Super Duper Comics #3 in 1947 but that adventure indeed took place in Canada. If you're interested in checking it out, you can download/preview it here.

After coming across a copy of that book in the early 70's, Michael T. Gilbert modernized the character, making his version the son of the original and adding loads of back story. That Mr. Monster only saw the light of day in Vanguard Illustrated #7 in 1984, but quickly developed a following in the mid and late 80's. The bulk of Mr. Monster's material was published during those years by Eclipse and Dark Horse and the latter included the character in its "Dark Horse Presents" book as recently as last year.

Now Ghost Woman's status is a bit more murky, but it appears to have certain similarities. Here is a page from Star Studded Comics #1 (1945) which displays the character.

Her appearance in the above is said to be her only one, and the story's conclusion does seem to indicate that there was no intention of using the character again in the future. But once again, it appears as though a character's single appearance inspired an American creator decades later.

This isn't solid.  It is only an unsupported mention on Wikipedia's page about Ghost Woman which I have not been able to confirm to this point.  Here it is:

The first publication to use the name was published in 1945 by Cambridge House Publishers, and featured Captain Combat, Comandette, Red Rogue, Ghost Woman (the inspiration for the later Dark Horse Comics character, The Ghost), and several other characters.

Really now?

The Dark Horse Ghost is most certainly not Canadian, having first appeared during that company's "Comics Greatest World" launch in 1993 and being based in a city called Arcadia. Much of the storyline revolved around the main character's attempts to piece together details of her past.

After a decade or so of inactivity, Ghost is currently appearing in Dark Horse Presents, the same book in which Mr. Monster resurfaced last summer.

Both being occult-based characters, presently published by Dark Horse and with a history of cross-overs (Mr. Monster with Airboy, Ghost with The Shadow, Hellboy and even the Cassandra Cain version of Batgirl), there would appear to be very few roadblocks in making this happen. It wouldn't technically be Canadian characters meeting, mind you, but apparently two characters with little-known Canadian origins.

As a final note, Ghost Woman was brought back briefly in the unfinished Northern Guard series from Moonstone.  She is second from the left in the picture below, but her role was minimal in the two issues that were published.

Lastly, I want to draw attention to something pretty damn great that Mr Gilbert is said to have done for Mr. Monster's creator Fred Kelly.  How cool is that?

The Scarlet Riders

I'm on vacation for the next two weeks (finally!) and since I'm going to have a little more free time than usual, including a few days at a cottage, I'm gathering a little reading material for the trip.

A little something I bought on ebay found its way into my mailbox on Friday, just in time.  This is the first of seven books in the Scarlet Riders series, featuring one Corporal John Cavannagh.  I've never been a fan of westerns as such, as this book is labelled, but thought it would be interesting to read a story about an RCMP character from that era.

It'll be a fairly quick read; The book is only about 230 pages long.  I've only read the first chapter and already writer Ian Anderson does a good job of establishing the setting, including a mention of Custer campaigning against the Sioux at Black Hills to help clarify the time frame.

Somewhat surprisingly, Ian Anderson is actually Australian.  Based on the biographical information included in the back of the book, Anderson determined at a young age that he wished to become both a member of the RCMP and a writer.  It seems he accomplished both goals.  He has had postings in Lethbridge and Medicine Hat, among others, which would become inspirational as settings for his Cavannagh character.

The entire Scarlet Riders series was released in the mid to late 80's.

Alpha Flight strip from Pitabow Comics

Time to segue back from G.I. Joe-related (or similar) material into the more traditional superhero genre.  And being that the last entry was about a comic strip, may as well make this one about one as well.

This one is most definitely "rated E for everyone", especially compared to E.H. Joes.  Here's a sample (right click and open in a new tab or window for a better view)...

The rest of them can be found here.  I don't know that there's much of a story here, besides a guy making a strip about a team he enjoys.  It's been a few months since the last one was posted, but they probably just appear when inspiration happen to strike writer/artist James Duncan.

E.H. Joes: Real Canadian Heroes?!

Ah yes.  E.H. Joes.

I meant to have this post done this past weekend while the G.I. Joe convention was on, but missing my self-imposed deadline is not a huge deal; Name aside, E.H. Joes has nothing to do with those other Joes.

My first exposure to E.H. Joes was this rather awesome piece of art.

Clicking on the picture will take you to its page on comicartfan.com and Joes writer Davis Dewsbury's explanation that the piece is a tribute to the cover of Captain Canuck: Unholy War #3.

This bad dude is named The Colonel.  I had to find out more about him and when I did...it wasn't quite what I expected.

E.H. Joes is a web comic strip from Double D Comics.  The above art doesn't quite describe its tone but the title of the first volume certainly does; "Attack of the 500 Foot Horny Naked Stripper".  Guess what it's about??

Is it funny?  Well, it's crude and juvenile, so...yes!  But as a mild warning, it's probably not to everyone's taste.  Click here to read their adventures and check out the "specials and one-shots" page for a wicked coloured version of the above image.

GI Joe "Avec Les Gars de la Police Montée"

Nice touch with the French on the cover below. 

This issue came out well after I'd stopped buying the book.  I only recently became aware of the Joes' mountie-assisted mission in Canada or rather, their mission to assist the Mounties.  According to the Yo Joe synopsis: "Clutch, Rock n Roll, and Chuckles are under fire in Montreal (while) they are serving as advisors for two Mounties."

Figures.  One gets the sensation that the mounties are little else than tag-alongs, eh?  Bah...whatever.  The story continues in issue 98.  The books came out in late '89, early '90.

To be fair though, I was a little surprised at the degree of significance of some of the events that take place in these books.  In the first, the synopsis states that Destro is unmasked and in the second, Cobra Commander returns from apparent death (in a Marvel Comic??  The devil you say!).  Neither event takes place during the story involving the mounties, mind you, based on the Yo Joe recaps.

Also noteworthy is that Geof Isherwood provided the pencils for issue 97.  Oh, and no sign of everyone's favourite, Back-Stop. ;-)

Heroes Force

Yesterday's post was about Can-Con on the G.I. Joe team.  Today's is about what some call Canada's version of G.I. Joe.

But Heroes Force isn't really a Canadian G.I. Joe. At least not the modern day version of that team.

Heroes Force is far closer to the original (bearded) version of Joe than it is the "Marvelized" one, as you can clearly see from the picture of the first edition below.

Photo credit to Harry Sullivan for Truro Daily News

They are inspired by G.I. Joe, mind you, but certainly not intended to copy that team.  They are meant to accurately represent the Canadian forces while raising funds for the "Soldier On" Fund.

All is explained in this National Post article from January, some of which is copied below in case the link goes dead.

Shannon Thibodeau is a vintage toy collector, a father with two young sons and a member of the Canadian Armed Forces, with two tours of Afghanistan to his credit.

He is proud of everything he is and everything he has done. But the aircraft metal fabricator instructor at Canadian Forces Base Borden, near Barrie, was also deeply perplexed and mildly miffed by the fact that whenever he went shopping for military action figures for his boys he could never find a figure that resembled him.

Sure, there were G.I. Joes to be had, but no brave Canucks. Nothing to commemorate the Canadians Mr. Thibodeau served with and, in some cases, helped bury.

“Shannon wanted to make something that would represent his buddies and acknowledge our troops,” says John Alan Sperry, a civilian and longtime friend of Mr. Thibodeau’s from Truro, N.S.

Mr. Thibodeau articulated his vision to Mr. Sperry, a graphic designer, who then brought it to life, or at least helped render it in plastic, using computer illustration software and his muscular soldier buddy as a model.

The result was “Heroes Force,” a series of Canadian military action figures that has stormed the toy market and struck an unforeseen emotional chord among buyers.

...

Heroes Force has seen about 4,000 sales in six weeks. The figures retail for $10, with $1 from each purchase earmarked for Soldiers On, a charity for injured military personnel.

The Canadian action figures were not intended as a money-making venture. They were conceived as a hobby, by a hobbyist, and are looking to break even, which isn’t going to be a problem now.

The action figures can be bought from the Heroes Force website, but shipping costs as much as the figures themselves.  I'd rather work towards getting them in stores first, if you get my meaning.  But one way or another, one of these guys (or maybe one day gals??) is finding his way into my little Canadian hero collection.  Terrific idea, Mr Thibodau.

G.I. Joe's Canadian Real American Hero

It was shortly after creating a Twitter account for TSOG that I became aware of the Canadian G.I. Joe convention, first taking place in 2002 and next taking place in Toronto on August 10th and 11th.  That event's account was recommended as a "follow" option, which was a nice change from Todd McFarlane and Justin Bieber.

I can't say that I'm a huge Joe fan.  I did buy the Marvel series as a kid for a while, but as more and more two-dimensional toy advertisements were shoehorned into the stories, I lost interest.  If I recall correctly, the breaking point was some guy who's "thing" was that he ate bizarre sandwiches (like peanut butter/tomato).  Pretty thin characterization there.

A tweet from the convention account that highlighted a convention-exclusive action figure perked my ears, however.  Get a load of Joe Canuck.

Pretty bad ass, eh?

Now Joe Canuck isn't an official character as such, but he did prompt the question as to whether G.I. Joe actually has a Canadian member.  As unlikely as it seemed, it turned up that the team does have at least one Canadian (born) member named Back-Stop.  A cropped version of his bio from Wikipedia is included under his picture below (which I've lifted from an ebay auction).

Back-Stop is the G.I. Joe Team's Persuader tank driver. His real name is Robert A. Levin. Back-Stop was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He was first released as an action figure in 1987, packaged with the "Persuader" high-speed tank.

Back-Stop's primary military specialty is armor, and his secondary military specialty is mechanized infantry. As a youth playing in junior league hockey in Canada, he injured so many opposing players that his family had to move to the United States to escape angry parents. He grew up in Detroit, where he boxed in the Golden Gloves under (sic...should that be "until"? TSOG) he was barred from competing; he also spent two years as his high school's undefeated wrestling champion when no one would challenge him. After a short demolition derby career, he found his true calling in the Army and eventually the G.I. Joe Team.

In the Marvel Comics G.I. Joe series, he first appeared in issue #64 (October 1987). He joins the team when they are in their Utah Quonset hut base...He appears in issue #68 as part of a security team sent in to support Battleforce 2000, who are operating in the fictional country of Frusenland....

The 2009 Canadian G.I. Joe convention had a limited edition box set that included a 25th Anniversary-style figure of Back-Stop. The set also included a comic book, 110 copies, produced for attendees. Part of the story featured Back-Stop fighting Cobra allies in Canada.

It should probably be pointed out that the Canadian version of the toys in the 80's included Canadian birthplaces on the bio card.  Nice marketing touch, but not something particularly logical for a team of "Real American Heroes" so we won't give it much weight.  Back-Stop, however, to the best of my knowledge has a consistent background.

Back to Joe Canuck, their site includes a wiki which provides details about the various characters that have emerged from this gathering of Joe fans.  Some items related to those characters (cards and comics, primarily) are available for pre-order from this page of the convention site.

I might just need to snatch the comics for myself.  I don't know if the story that appears in this newsletter from December 2010 is included, but it should provide a suitable preview.  I found it linked on the Sketchkrieg blog.

Pretty cool, eh? Here's wishing the Joe Canuck bunch a great time next weekend.

August solicitations updates

I started building the Solicitations page a little over a month ago, knowing full well that some books would not come out in the month in which they were first expected to be.  No problem; they just get moved to the following month.

Having done my little clean-up, there are a few details to which I'd like to draw attention:


John Michael Helmer from Red Leaf Comics was kind enough to send me a digital version of All Canadian Comics #1, a book I've been looking forward to quite a bit.  It isn't completely necessary in order to follow the story, but the background of the American Guard's visit to Canada (and meeting with the Canadian Guard) is actually detailed in Surprising Theater #5 from sister publisher Surprising Comics.  ST5 also includes a brief appearance by the modern Leaf, which scratches my completist itch.

While Northern Adventure Quarterly may appear in the August solicitations, that is actually a reference to the print version hitting stores.  The book has been available in digital format for a couple of weeks already and can still be purchased using that method.  See the bottom right of their home page.

I've listed Axiom-Man #3 as an upcoming comic book but the character has been around for a few years already in novel form the first of which is, well, Axiom-Man.  I would classify it as an "all ages" read, which is not another way of saying "for kids"; it can be enjoyed by adults as well.  But those adults would have no concerns about handing it off to the young 'uns.  Click on the link earlier in the paragraph for a synopsis.  The comic books are a retelling of that novel's story in that format.

And finally, while at first glance it didn't appear to feature Canadian characters, I've added a link at right to Crystal Fractal Comics out of Toronto.  Then looking further, I noticed that they listed one modern-day character named Redorik as being "affiliated" with Laurier High School.  Sounds Canadian enough, but art in the preview shows him walking towards a school with a name that begins with "Spring" (Springfield?), so who really knows?

Their pdf comic retelling of The Sleeping Giant, however, is undeniably Canadian and I would direct you to their Facebook page to have a look (they are providing it free of charge).