The Dying Breed

The little lady below caught my eye a few days ago while I was doing my periodic review of new Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns.

Named Fennec Sands, and nicknamed The Aviator, she is the poster (or banner) girl for The Dying Breed comic book project that was recently launched.  The initial portion of its pitch made it seem awful likely that there'd be some Canadian content to look forward to therein.  Have a look:

Five people living in very remote and wild parts of North America each live a 'dying breed' lifestyle. Happy in their chosen lives they find themselves diagnosed with mysterious and chronic/terminal diseases. 

They all come together when they realize the source of their diseases came from the New Day Corporation and the owners Mitch and Orrin VanBeck aka The Brothers. 

The Dying Breed realizes they need to find a cure to save themselves, and that is the red algae which The Northeastern Mariner aka Machias St. John can help them find. The Brothers want it too, to patent and profit from in their Big Pahrm business.

Surely among five people living in "very remote and wild parts of North America", one would be Canadian.  But of course!  Creator E.J. Cedric confirmed as much on Twitter earlier today.

E.J. Cedric ‏
@TSOGblog You should check out The Dying Breed - Fennec Sands is French Canadian and many other Canadian ties to the story & comics!

E.J. directed me to his website about the book, which includes character bios. I could have sworn I'd found the site earlier in the week but did not come across the biographies because in addition to Fennec's, which begins...

French Canadian, grew up near Chicoutimi. Her father was a commercial pilot and a Catholic Quebecois. He wanted her to be a good Catholic girl, become a wife, and turn herself into a human-pez dispenser, shooting out little incense swinging French Canadian Catholic kids. Not Fennec's style, she rebelled and decided to never have kids nor ever be tied down. Instead, Fennec studied hard at McGill University in the engineering program while simultaneously earning her pilot's licence. Upon finishing her schooling she took several flying jobs until she landed a choice position as a test pilot with the Royal Canadian Air Force. 

It was here she was intrigued with the space program, specifically a joint US/Canadian Space Shuttle mission. She made passed the grueling tests and became one of the astronauts on the binational mission.

...We also have one Machias St. John (The Northeastern Mariner)

A man born of the sea, along the shores of the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick. Machias clings to the old ways, hand jigging for cod in his hand built sea dory, selling his catch along the docks of the bay to local restaurants, shops and people. Machias despises the industrial trawlers that have ruined the Grand Banks and fishing along the maritimes. He has a very particular distaste and hatred for the New Day Corp. and it's agri-businesses that have ruined not just the Grand Banks but the environment of his beloved eastern Canada.

E.J. Cedric mentions that the story also includes Saskatchewan and the Yukon.

I've gone ahead and thrown in.  It sounds like a cool, varied bunch of characters in any event, and the confirmed Canadian content just sealed the deal.  The campaign is geared towards funding the second issue, but one perk offers both issues in digital format for $5.00 (U.S.) or in both print and digital formats for $25.

Coming in September: The Athenian

There's not a lot I can add to the information posted below.  It is a copy and paste job from this deviantart page.  Thanks for making it easy, Nick.

This triptych is comprised of the first three covers for my upcoming comic The Athenian. 

Centering around the diminutive Anne Pike, Ottawa, Canada and the world will never be the same once she takes up the mantle of the Athenian! A jaunty, fast paced adventure through out the world, world history, and the time stream, our heroine the Athenian valiantly attempts to quell the daunting forces of chaos, and its arbiter Rask, the primordial Lord of Chaos.  

It's gonna be released twice a week, ad nauseam, hopefully kicking off sometime in September. I have the first 48 released written drawn and coloured (I have been busy) and this piece is me working through that content, and where the book goes from there.  

For updates and more Athenian news and pin-ups, follow me on twitter: twitter.com/thatnickog

Gérard The Protector!

Shortly after first posting information about Athlita Comics' The Protectors on April 28th, I proceeded to order issues #0 and #1 of the book.

First things first; Here is the French-Canadian hockey player that becomes a member of the team.

The above is from #1. "Gerard" would be a little weak as a superhero name but the character file in the zero issue confirms that all the Protectors will have code names, they have just not yet been revealed.

I was a little concerned with the the zero issue. The introductory story, entitled "Seeds", is a good teaser but was light on dialogue. I thought that might be a trend in the book, but at least based on #1, it doesn't actually appear to be the case.

There is also a 6-page preview of the first issue, rather useless if you've just bought that very issue, but I believe it was produced quite some time ago so it was logical t the time. The remainder of the book is character sheets and creator interviews.

The first "official" issue's story is mostly told in recent flashback (five days prior) as the characters are introduced to the reader through their individual sporting achievements, then later to one another at a gala event. It is at this event that the wheels are set in motion for the members of the group to gain their respective powers.

Overall it's pretty cool. Creator Israel Idonije has some experienced heavyweights bringing his vision to life in writer Ron Marz and artist Bart Sears, among others. If you want to see for yourself, you can order the two books as a package for $10 (plus shipping) on the Athlita Comics website.

"Look What I Found!"

I can't pretend that I'm totally caught up in Justice League United.  I find it awkward for the same reason (well, one reason, anyway) that I hated Astonishing X-Men with Northstar and (of course) Wolverine two years ago; There doesn't appear to be a reason for this group to be, or stay, together.  And still along the same lines, I'm not a fan of most of the non-Canadian characters.

But this I enjoyed:

The more I see Adam Strange's updated look, the more I dig it.  That's pretty sleek right there.

Now he does appear to be something of a dork.  Shortly after that panel, he loses control of his flight and crashes.  As he should; I doubt he has much experience with jet packs.  Done well though, watching the hero grow into his role can be very entertaining and hopefully we get to see that play out.

I'm even more hopeful that we get to see Equinox in the next issue since she is a no-show in this one after a well-hyped debut last month.  Puzzling, and frankly, disappointing.

Anyway...We need to acknowledge the possibility that those criticisms will get sorted out later in the story.  Maybe Equinox becomes more prominent.  Perhaps an actual reason for being for this team will be identified.  But early in the game I'm the furthest from being blown away.

Final note: For those who are into such things, Bleeding Cool reported that the second and third issues of the series will also have Justice League Canada variant covers.  Would have been nice to get those in the digital version too, but no dice.  I would at least hope then to have that option with the trade paperback down the road.  We'll see.

Kagagi is Intrinsic!

Even though it did not include a Canadian character, I've mentioned Arcana's The Intrinsic title a couple of times because it features a number of the Vancouver-based publisher's key characters.  I'm now pleased to find out that one of Arcana's all too few Canadian characters is apparently considered an unofficial member of the team!

I did not recognize Kagagi on the Alex Ross cover I posted last month (April 13th, specifically, if you want to go back and have a look).  The character has been redesigned for the animated series which will air in the fall.

The Intrinsic returned on May 3rd as part of Free Comic Book Day.  The digital version was made available yesterday (still free) on Comixology.

The book, clocking in at 15 pages, serves as a lead-in to the team's second mini series.  Sub-titled "Singularity Zero", its first issue will be released next month.

Unfortunately, Kagagi does not appear in this "zero issue" of sorts, but since he is included in a two-page describing the group, it's safe to assume that he should make a strong contribution later.  In the meantime, you can track the character and the progress of the upcoming animated series through this Facebook group.

It's not me, Captain. It's you.

On March 11th, I wrote about the difficulties I and several others were having in obtaining the perks we purchased during the Captain Canuck animated series fundraising campaign.

At the time, I was trying to remain patient out of an appreciation for the character and the work done to modernize him and bring him back to the public eye (see the before and after version of Kébec at right for a good example).

But I'm done.  While I occasionally hear about people finally getting their perks, I have no confidence that I'll ever receive the goods I paid $100 for on the day the campaign began (March 28th, 2013).

A major issue is how often contributors have been told that their purchases were being mailed out, only to later find out that it didn't happen.  There's a list of such promises in the March post, which I won't copy here.  Since being asked to hold on another two weeks from late February, we were then told...

If you haven't got them already, you will within 1-3 weeks depending on where in the world you are.

...in mid-March.  And today, on May 1st, I (and several others) still have nothing.

I'm in Ottawa, so location shouldn't be an issue.  There is no way that it should take six weeks to reach me from Toronto.  None.

So once again, we have been misled. That's bad enough in and of itself, but it goes against the one positive I was hoping to see come out of this experience, which was:

I hope that lessons have been learned by the Canuck team...

Clearly that hasn't happened.  I asked for a specific mailing date a week ago.  I was told to "hold tight" on the basis that other people were now receiving their perks.

That doesn't answer my question.  And that's just it.  There's no getting through to this group and they continue to make the same mistakes over and over.  They ask people to contact them by e-mail, then often don't respond to those e-mails.  Or when they do respond, they don't provide the requested information.

Their communication is terrible and it's infuriating. They can not grasp that a little honesty would go a long way.  Delays can be out of their control.  We all understand that.  But what they tell people is totally up to them, and all they do is jerk them around.

I still want to support the characters, even if some members of Team Canuck are incapable of understanding the above, simple concept.

But I will not pre-pay for anything from them anymore.  For that matter, I'm not even sure I want to buy anything from them that requires mailing.  They obviously can't handle the responsibility.

It's extremely disappointing in light of how excited I was to get behind this project, but I feel like my enthusiasm and interest have been taken advantage of.  I have countless other projects that I can support without feeling like a sap, so that's where I'm going to direct my attention until the Captain Canuck crew have displayed that they have a clue.