Pieces of the Mosaic

I recall that I found the name "Masked Mosaic" a little peculiar when I first heard it.  "Masked" makes sense for an anthology about Canadian superheroes, but the use of the word "mosaic" seemed odd.

A few stories in, the application of the word becomes quite clear.  The book is diverse in just about every way possible.

There is roughly equal gender representation among the featured writers, for example, and several different cultures are worked into the stories.  Most (all?) provinces host a tale.  The adventures take place in several different points in time.  The characters are so varied that some probably would not meet the definition of the term "superhero".  The writing styles range from comedic, to being reminiscent of noir crime novels, to being borderline indescribable.  The editors, Claude Lalumière and Camille Alexa, did a fantastic job of displaying as much variety as possible in all facets.

The other edge of that sword though is that not all styles will appeal to everyone.  It's doubtful that you'll love all 24 stories, but after you realise that there's such an eclectic mix between the covers, you can't help but be eager to reach the next story regardless.

Some personal highlights:

THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE INTREPIDS by D.K. Latta.
Probably my favourite story in the collection.  Unfortunately, there's little I can say about this league of extraordinary Canadians without ruining a significant portion of it.  In general terms, it packs a lot of story (and history) in about 20 pages.

Latta's name was familiar to me but I coul dnot recall why.  Looking for his personal website (assuming he had one), I came across The Ultimate Captain Canuck Tribute Page, a site that I've been visiting for years.  Latta has managed it since at least 1999 (the first entry on his "updates" page) so clearly he has been interested in this subject matter for some time.  Cool.

THE MAN IN THE MASK by Emma Faraday
The main character is a woman on a very personal mission.  The titular man in the (gold) mask is a mysterious figure with an unusual ability.  The story takes place in the Yukon, or at least the same version of it that appears in one of Faraday's (Marcelle Dubé) books, Backli's Ford: Book One of the A'lle Chronicles.  It's an interesting setting and down the road, I plan on reading more about the A'lle.

GIANT CANADIAN COMICS by Patrick T. Goddard
This one's just fun.  It is written in such a way that it might not appeal to everyone, but I loved it. It's difficult to describe, but it's similar to reading a comic book without art.  Imagine being only able to read the captions and dialogue.  Think Alpha Flight #6 (original series) but done for a Golden Age comic.  It can be challenging to follow, but Goddard weaves it so that you can visualise the panels.

Masked Mosaic has been worth waiting for.  I don't know if a second volume is being considered but if so, Alexa, Lalumière and 24 writers have set a high bar.

Masked Mosaic Cover

The Masked Mosaic anthology seems to moving right along.

Earlier this week, co-editor Camille Alexa revealed the book's cover.  A small version of it is on display below, but Mrs Alexa's blog post about it includes a far larger, high quality version as well as some teaser one-liners in regards to the book's content.

Ain't it cool? :-) 

I'm enjoying trying to match parts of the mosaic to the titles of the stories announced and to the teasers in Mrs Alexa's post.  I expect that the guy screaming next to the word "Canadian" is one of the Mexican luchadores wrestling primordial evil in Vancouver, for example. And the red-lipped lady to the left of that image reminds me of the style used for the Batwoman books.  One Steve Thomas is credited (on Twitter) for the work by (the other) co-editor, Claude Lalumière.

Much like True Patriot I would love nothing more than to see become successful enough to warrants future volumes.

Masked Mosaic; Canadian Super Stories

Superheroes! Supervillains! Masked vigilantes, superpowered antiheroes, super scientists. Adventurers into the unknown, costumed crimefighters, mutant superterrorists . . . we want to see any and all permutations of the superhero genre, but with a uniquely Canadian perspective. Stories must involve a Canadian element — setting, politics, culture, history, characters, etc. Any genre-mashing goes: alternate history, crime, horror, romance, SF, fantasy, surrealism; we want a variety of tones, approaches, subgenres, cultural perspectives, etc. We’re especially interested in submissions where setting (a specific city, region, or province) plays an essential role, but we’re open to other types of stories, too.

The above was the "pitch" for Masked Mosaic, an anthology from Tyche Books scheduled to be available in February of next year.  Editors Claude Lalumiere and Camille Alexa have reviewed the submissions (the period for which opened June 1st and closed August 1st) and the following selections were announced early last week.

E.L Chen – Nocturne
Kristi Charish - Canadian Blood Diamonds
Silvia Moreno-Garcia – Iron Justice versus the Fiends of Evil
Jonathan Olfert – Never the Twain
Kevin Cockle – Circe and the Gunboat
David Nickle - Knife Fight
Derryl Murphy – On-to-Ottawa
D.K. Latta – The Secret History of the Intrepids
Emma Faraday – The Man in the Mask
Mike Rimar – A Bunny Hug for Karl
Emma Vossen – “Not a Dream! Not a Hoax! Not an Imaginary Story!” The Lost Years of Joe Shuster
Patrick T. Goddard – Giant Canadian Comics
A.C. Wise – Kid Wonder
Rhea Rose – Leaf Man
David Perlmutter – Octopi Bleakly Corners
Lisa Poh – The Seamstress without a Costume
Marie Bilodeau – The Kevlar Canoe
Rhonda & Jonathan Parrish – Sea and Sky
Chantal Boudreau – A Face in the Wind
Michael S. Chong – The Creep
Jason Sharp – Lonesome Charlie Johnstone’s Strange Boon
Alyxandra Harvey – The Shield Maiden
Michael Matheson – The Many Lives of the Xun Long
Jason S. Ridler – Revenge of the Iron Shadow: A Tale of Kingstonia

See Tyche Books' announcement for links to some of the writers' blogs, websites, etc.

Sounds like a rather eclectic collection.  I am not familiar with most of these writers so this should make for a good introduction to their work.

Along similar lines, finding out about this superhero anthology reminded me that Cloudscape Comics were planning one of their own.  There had been little news about their version of All-Canadian Comics in recent weeks, so I wrote to Cloudscape president Jeff Ellis to inquire as to its status.  Mr Ellis was kind to confirm that the project is still underway and to expect news soon.

Also, writer J. Torres has planned a similar anthology called True Patriot.  He first announced it last week and has begun naming some of the talent/characters involved.  This link will take you to the True Patriot tag on his blog so that you can follow the project's progress.  Torres plans an Indiegogo campaign next month in order to help fund the project.