Heralds of Canada

Earlier this week, I received a bundle of back issues I purchased from Mile High Comics.

Among them was the Canadian Ninja book I mentioned a while back. The only other title produced by that company was also included: Heralds of Canada.


Any comment I've been able to find about Canadian Ninja underscored the terrible spelling and clunky dialogue within. Evidently, it's not exclusive to that title; it's all over the Heralds book as well.

The peculiar thing is...the books have different writers. So I suspect what we had here is someone relying entirely too much on an early version of Google Translate. As a result, you have lines of dialogue like "You're good at that, don't you?" and "We won't be that lucky when the boss will know that his month's delivry (sic) has been destroy".

Yikes.

Mind you, the publisher's mailing address is in lovely (presumably) St. Gabriel de Brandon, QC, a town that...huh...I've never heard of before. According to Wikipedia, which as we all know, is NEVER wrong, the town's 1991 population (the year closest to the 1987 publication dates of these two books) was a cramped 2161. Less than 1% of them lists English as a first language and clearly, Herald's writer was not among them.

But could someone not find one of the 20 anglophones around town to look over the book before publishing it? It would take that one English-speaking person all of four seconds to point out that the book reads like "le shit".

You kind of wonder what could have been. Some of the art reminded me of Ron Lim's work on Ex-Mutants a few years later. Long thin legs, heels, Elvira-sized hair...


On the other hand, they clearly couldn't even differentiate between a foreword and a spoiler.


The Bombardier's chef? What, the guy who prepares dinner on a train?

So to be entirely honest, the book probably still would have sucked in proper English, but at least it would have been easier to read. It's still fun in the same way that watching a Spike TV show about kids falling off skateboards is funny. You know, that whole "a failure so epic that it's almost a success" thing. Hell, if the other issues were available, I'd get them. Unintentional comedy is still funny.

Looking Forward to Canadian Hero Goodness, New and Old

I'm out of town this week, travelling on business, but returning this weekend. The novelty of travel and hotel stay have worn off and I can't wait to get home.

Making me even more eager to get on a Bearskin flight (ahem) is that with a little good fortune and timing, I may have some goodies waiting for me when I get home, just in time for a long weekend. They are:

Red Leaf Comics' The Leaf


I'm a sucker for a character that spans generations. The current Leaf is the third in the line (that's the original above) and has a rather distinctive look.

As a "thank you" for ordering issues one through three from their online store, publisher John Helmer was kind enough to send me a pdf copy of the MacSorley RCMP book. It includes one-page teasers of the other Red Leaf books and serves as a sort of prequel to the multi-generational Leaf story. And down the road, it seems we'll be getting another leaf-wearing chracter in The Canadian Guard. I appreciate the quality customer service and am patiently waiting to read about the Leafs. Or Leaves. Not sure how that works...

Next, the Heroes of the North Omnibus.


The folks at Heroes of the North reached an agreement with Ardden Entertainment to publish their books in October 2011. HotN have since hit the road a bit to promote this book, including an appearance at a store in my area, so I should be able to get my hands on the Omnibus without dealing with brutal shipping charges.

The book is 80 pages long and listed at $5.99 on their website. Here's the solicitation:

When the threat of an international terrorist organization looms, ready to strike North America, the Canadian government is forced to put together an elite team of superheroes - Heroes who kill. This exciting collection relates the dark origins of the controversial Canadian Shield; electro-blasting femme fatale Fleur-de-Lys; drug-addicted nanobot-enhanced Black Terror; loud mouth ninja 8 Ball; west coast speedster Pacifica; and the sultry queens of evil: the disfigured Madame Doom and the deadly Hornet. MATURE READERS ONLY!

The only downside is that I won't get to listen to Nordik's crazy hot accent. ;-)

Last and almost certainly least, we have...Canadian Ninja!


I admit in this case I look forward to this the same way a movie fan may look forward to watching Plan Nine From Outer Space.

I've managed to locate a few reviews for this book, which in and of itself is surprising, since it's from the late 80's. Apparently grammatical errors were a frequent irritant to the reviewers.

Then I looked at the cover, saw the reference to "limited issues" and laughed out loud. It was actually the only issue ever released and I'm reasonably sure old Chuck at Mile High Comics isn't too bummed at unloading it to me for about 80 cents.

I don't mean to crap too much on the people who put this comic together. Hey, they did something I'll never do by getting their own character published at all so more power to them.