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?

TSOG Team-Up: Fleur-de-Lys and...Fleur-de-Lys

How do you pluralize "Fleur-de-Lys", anyway?

During last week's Heroes of the North panel at the Ottawa Comiccon, the inevitable question came up; Has there been any thought given to a team-up with Captain Canuck or Johnny Canuck?

Neither option is particularly feasible at the moment.  But one that would appear to be far more achievable, at least in comic book format, would be between these two female characters of the same name.

If required, you can learn more about the HotN version from her character sheet here.  For those who aren't familiar with the character of the same name who appeared in Northguard, here's a partial page scan from her first appearance in uniform...

Pardon the slight blurring above.  It is a result of my poor scanning, not poor interior art.

Here's FdL in action (as depicted by Gabriel Morrissette).  Right click into a new tab or window to see the full-sized version of either image.

I don't know if the Northguard edition inspired the HotN one, but there are a number of similarities.  Both have hand-to-hand fighting skills and an electricity-based weapon.

The differences in their personalities may be what makes the partnership intriguing.  The earlier FdL is a far more positive character, even smiling while fighting against difficult odds, as seen above.  The HotN character has a rather Dark Origin and is therefore more, well, dark.  That could make for an interesting contrast.

So could this match-up happen?  From the outside looking in, there doesn't seem to be that many obstacles if all parties are willing.

Even ignoring the rather fluid use of time and aging in comics, and assuming that the Northguard FdL character was in her early 20's when the last book came out, she'd be in her mid-40's or so now, right?  Even if we assume she retired after the final issue, a threat either large enough in scale, or of a personal nature, could persuade her to put the suit on "one last time".

Could Northguard and/or The Canadian appear?  Probably.  Even with the uniband destroyed, Northguard seemed to indicate at the end of The ManDes Conclusion that he intended to continue being a superhero.  There could be a significant clash of ideology and methodology between the two.

When the Captain Canuck / Johnny Canuck questions were being asked, my initial reaction was that, since the HotN characters are still being established, a team-up of sorts may not be the best idea.

But done as a one-shot (rather than a short story in an omnibus) or two-parter, and involving Northguard writer Mark Shainblum (or at least his blessing, obviously) and perhaps even artist Gabriel Morrissette (does he still work in this field?), it's easy to imagine a number of positives coming of it.

For those unfamiliar with, but interested in, the Northguard and Fleur-de-Lys characters, the series can be obtained from the comics section of drivethru.  Also available there, and partially in the superhero genre, is the short-story collection Playing Solitaire:

PLAYING SOLITAIRE
Rachel Steinberg wasn't really Solitaire. She was just a nice Jewish girl from suburban Montreal. She never asked for superhuman powers, nor the relentless, grinding cycle of violence and alienation that came with them. Rachel allowed herself a glimmer of hope when Carl said he loved her, when he swore up and down that her secrets didn't scare him. But that was before he saw her glowing like the north star, before he ran in terror just like everyone before him.

Probably not the ideal moment for an omnipotent, 3000-year-old evil slumbering under the Island of Montreal to awaken and wonder what it should do first.