A Canadian Protector

The Protectors book has been in the news a few times over the past couple of years, but it seems that its first issue (not counting last year's #0) was released on Friday.

The team's creator, current Chicago Bears defensive end Israel Idonije, was already familiar to me for what he DIDN'T do on the football field.  Born in Nigeria, moving to Canada at the age of four, Idonije excelled as a defensive lineman for the University of Manitoba.  He was a draft choice of  my hometown Ottawa Renegades, for which I was ecstatic...but he caught on in the NFL and never played a down for Ottawa, unfortunately (for me, it's certainly not unfortunate for him).

If you'd told me at the time that I'd be buying his comic book about ten years later, I would have found the notion ridiculous.  But apparently exposure to a Green Hornet comic as a kid created an interest in comics which lives on today, and is part of his post-football strategy.  Read more below.

Chicago Tribune:
By Andy Grimm

By day, Israel Idonije is a fairly mild-mannered defensive end for the Chicago Bears. By night -- or at least in the off season -- he’s a comic book auteur.

Idonije this afternoon will be manning a booth at McCormick Place for C2E2, the comic book/sci-fi/pop culture mega convention, hawking copies of issue #1 of “The Protectors,” a superhero team he first imagined during Bears training camp in 2007. 

Though the leader of The Protectors, Isaac Chike, is, like Idonije, a bald, bearded defensive end who immigrated from Africa as a child, Idonije first says the comic is not autobiographical, then concedes that the plot is grounded in his desire to do good off the football field.

“The characters’ athletic prowess is a by-product of their (super) powers,” imbued by a demi-god character, Idonije said Thursday. “They were put on this earth to do more than just entertain… I’d like to think I’m committed to doing more than that, too.”

Other Protectors also are super-powered jocks from the equivalent of the NBA, NHL, Major League baseball and women’s professional soccer, who must use their supernatural powers to defend the earth from alien invasion....

Idonije collaborated with comics veterans Ron Marz and Bart Sears on the comic.

I had a difficult time locating more information about Protectors other than lead character Isaac Chike.  The mention of a member being a hockey player caused me to believe that he may be Canadian.  I finally did get a brief breakdown of the cast in a Red Eye Chicago article from last year:

Set in Chicago, "The Protectors" follows a squad of athletes granted superpowers to defend Earth against an evil force called The Dissenters, which plans to enslave humanity. Each of the main characters--a diverse group that includes an African-American football player, a basketball star born on Chicago's South Side, a Latino baseball player, a French-Canadian hockey player and female soccer player--will get their own extraordinary abilities over the course of the story, which Idonije says will be a full origin story.

The #0 cover is below.  Athlita Comics has a website, but there's very little information on it at the moment.  Their Facebook page, on the other hand, appears to be quite active.

We Have a "Justice League Canada" Option of Sorts

Ah, I hate coming across this stuff at work.  I end up distracted the rest of the day because I so badly want to find out everything I can about whatever news I've just heard.

I first saw the cover at right on Bleeding Cool.

...what of those who got all excited about the Justice League Of Canada publicity?

Well, with no restrictions, retailers are now able to order a recoloured version of the issue 1 cover by Mike McKone with a relogoed version as well, reading Justice League Canada rather than Justice League United.

So that’s all right then! And just in time for Niagra Falls Comic Con.

Oh, what a lucky break!

There seems to be a trend of announcing news at Canadian conventions that will undoubtedly be met with great enthusiasm only for plans to change later.  I believe Marvel announced the last Alpha Flight ongoing series at a Canadian Con, but in no time reduced it to a mini.  Justice League Canada was announced by DC at a con in Canada, only for it to be changed to Justice League United a few months later.  The "con" abbreviation is starting to take on a whole different meaning.

But...This is still pretty damn nice, even if the most prominent character is covered in stars. ;-)

While looking for a larger version of the cover, I found a preview of the zero issue on comicbookmovie.com.

I'm embarrassed to note that it's from several days ago.  I have no idea how I missed it.  There's one page below, which you can view in larger form in a separate tab, and clicking on the image will take you to the page from which I copied it to check out the rest.

Got to admit, Adam Strange looks pretty damn cool in that shot.

Justice League United #0 hits stores next Wednesday.

Mid-April Leaflets (part 2)

All right, let's continue looking at what material we can expect to be made available by Canadian publishers and/or from Canadian talent and/or about Canadian characters.

The first I want to touch on is actually a re-release.  I bought Dino Caruso's Courage book last summer when it was being published by I'm a Geek Entertainment as a digital compilation of four issues worth of material. Fun read.

I did notice that the links through which to purchase the book recently became obsolete and there's no mention of the title on the publisher's website (at least nothing prominent).

Whatever happened there is not at all any of my business, but I was pleased to find that Evil Moose Comics will be releasing the first issue of the mini-series again next month.  Since they're going to be sold through Indyplanet, presumably a print version will be available, and hopefully a trade paperback option as well down the road.

Next, we have the third issue of Legacy from September17 Productions coming up on April 23rd.

Legacy is the publisher's flagship book and Andre Siregar's art in it is just beautiful.

S17 has since released a second title, a team book name New Guard which takes place within the same universe 10 years after the events of the early issues of Legacy and has a couple of other irons in the fire. Most relevant to this blog is work being done to add a team called (at least tentatively, for now) Canadian Corps.

As you can imagine, I'm looking forward to that tremendously as well.  Click on the cover above to get a sneak peek at the various projects being worked on by September17.

Moving right along, we have the fourth issue of Thunder, offered by Two Gargoyles Graphics.

I'll be glad to get my hands on this issue because the third one ended on a pretty intense cliffhanger. It's available now in both print and digital format from IndyPlanet so I'll be making my purchase before long.

Don't let the comical nature of the cover give you the wrong impression; there is plenty of action and drama in the Thunder series. The previous issue featured a hard-hitting battle against a frost giant, for example.  So while the publisher does offer books that are more comedic in nature (I've never read it, but I have to assume that's the case with Diaperman), I would not include Thunder in that category.  Thunder has comedy in its story, but is not a comedy.

But speaking of comedy, I recently found out about Expired Comics, a publisher from my home town of Ottawa.  Much like Diaperman above, Expired's primary offering is a comedy book, The Morningwood Guardian.

They do have another project about to launch ("spring 2014"), which looks to be more my speed, called Merve and Vinny, Earth's Finest.

What happens when an intergalactic and visually impaired being screws up and gives super powered suits to the wrong two guys? And what happens when these two are less than heroic? You get Merve & Vinnie - Earth's Finest, an Expired Comics original focusing on two unlikely "heroes" who really shouldn't have powers. Get ready to laugh as Merve and Vinnie learn what it takes to become Earth's Finest.

This could be pretty fun, so I'll be keeping an eye out for that.

Let's conclude this little spring preview with the following ad for the release of the second issue of Red Squirrel, from Poorman Comics. I just read that the first issue is sold out so congratulations to all involved in its creation.  I wish you similar success with the second one.

Mid-April Leaflets (part 1)

I don't know if it's a spring thing, but suddenly new books are...huh...springing up everywhere over the next 4-6 weeks or so.

Let's begin with reminders.  Part one of Night of The Red Panda was released on Comixology on March 19th. The 3-part Mask of The Red Panda mini-series came out regularly early last year, so we should be able to expect the second (and final, until the next 2-parter) installment this week, perhaps next. Cool book, so I'm looking forward to that.

We also have the second volume of Intrinsic on the way in late May.  The book appeared in Previews Magazine recently, displaying a rather sharp Alex Ross cover.

(W) Sean O'Reilly, Chris "Doc" Wyatt (A) Jay Busbee (CA) Alex Ross 

The Intrinsic face enemies from both within and without as they simultaneously confront the Demon King's attack on CERN, and the Council of the Philosophers, who intend to dismantle the team. 

With the odds stacked against them, and the heroes being pulled apart from one another, Philosopher Rex is forced to turn for aid to someone he never expected. With amazing cover artwork by Alex Ross, follow our Arcanaverse Heroes in their new adventure.

I'll be back a little later today with more upcoming releases that supporters of Canadian talent, publishers and/or characters will ant to be aware of.

Mister Chameleon returns in May!

It's been nearly two years since I discovered (and later wrote about) Jonathan A. Gilbert's 1930's Mister Chameleon character in the pages of All-Smash Funnies #1.  CE Publishing had planned to include more of his stories in subsequent issues of All-Smash Funnies but those issues have yet to be released.

However, it was announced about a week ago that Mister Chameleon will finally return in the pages of Warren T. Montgomery's Will Lill Comics' Grafix Chronicles #3 next month.

GRAFIX CHRONICLES #3  

RELEASE DATE: May 19th (digital and print via Indy Planet), 24 pages, b/w 

COVER: Marco Santiago

PRICE: $2.50 (print), $0.99 (digital) 

This issue features 2 short Mister Chameleon stories that were first printed in a small fanzine a decade ago. Each story created and written by Jonathan Gilbert and features the art of Seppo Makinen, David Owens, Mike Dougherty and R. Humble.

So two short stories, the first of which is the one from All-Smash Funnies.  But I don't believe I've managed to find other Mister Chameleon material, so the second story will be new to me.  Since Indyplanet is far more cooperative these days (even though my most recent order from them took almost two weeks to ship, at least I can actually place an order now!) I think this will be a print acquisition down the road.  Thanks to Will Lill Comics for making them available.

The Canuck who saved Strikeforce Morituri!

Superheroes die all the time.  Leave it to a Canadian to prevent superheroes who are meant to die from doing that very thing (even if it was quite accidental). ;-)

If you're not familiar with Marvel's Strikeforce Morituri series from the late 80's, you may want to look into it.  The concept was terrific.  Set in a future in which the Earth is under attack from an alien race known as The Horde, ordinary people could sign up for something called the Morituri Process which gave them super abilities with a nasty catch; They would invariably die from the procedure within a year (kind of like being the leader of Alpha Flight).

And the original writer, Peter B. Gillis, didn't mess around about this. There was no "loophole" out of it on his watch. What made the book particularly interesting was watching the characters deal with the sudden fame, the power, bureaucracy and the inevitable fate (their own and that of their teammates) of being Morituri.

Until this big dude came along.

Well, Revenge...And writer James D. Hudnall.  Hudnall's first story, in issue #21, is told from the perspective of a Paidean (the name of the World Government) soldier being interrogated about his experience as a Horde prisoner over the course of the previous year.  He was rescued by the Moritury team of the time, then coerced into "volunteering" for the program himself.  He didn't dig it.

That logo on Edwards' chest is the Hordian symbol for revenge.

Following his exposure to the Morituri process, Edwards developed the ability to turn matter into energy (in addition to the standard package of increased strength, speed, endurance, etc.).  He took to it rather quickly, as seen in the following page from #26.

There's probably no need to finish that sentence...

It seems that Edwards caught a virus while being held prisoner on the Horde ship, and that this virus was able offset the fatal Morituri effect. As a result, the characters were no longer "guaranteed" to die within a year.

Said otherwise, Hudnall pretty much took over the book and destroyed the concept that set it apart from the others starting in his very first issue.  Kind of a baffling move, really.

The series was cancelled after 31 issues, though a 5-part mini series called Electric Undertow was released shortly after.  It took place 10 years after the conclusion of the regular series and featured the members of the Morituri team that remained at the end of #31, Revenge included.

The 36-issues-in-total Strikeforce Morituri material was reprinted in its entirety over three volumes by Marvel Comics in 2012.