The Red Panda: Pyramid of Power cover

At least I assume it is.

The following image is displayed in the last couple of issues of The Red Panda comic book (numbers 4 and 5, which combine to tell the "One Tin Soldier" tale).  It is included in the excerpts from the upcoming Pyramid of Power novel so in true detective fashion, one can put two and two together.

If print is your thing, you can still score the first trade paperback of the comic book series from Amazon. I didn't notice when the trade was released, but the story has been coloured for that format so that's an additional treat for those who bought the individual issues when they were first released.

And of course, the audio shows continue to appear regularly at the end of every month.

Upcoming Red Panda / Flying Squirrel material

That the Masks of the Red Panda digital comic from earlier this year is being collected into a trade paperback is less "news" than it is confirmation. The only unexpected aspect of it is that it is being published by IDW rather than Monkeybrain, who released the original mini-series.

Dimensions: 104 Pages, 6.3 × 10.24 × 0.39 in
Published: March 4, 2014

Racketeers, gangsters, the occasional power-mad supervillain - all have fallen before the iron resolve of the city''s masked protectors. But when forces with powers from beyond this world threaten to bring their war to the streets of Depression-era Toronto, can even the Red Panda prevent disaster? Bringing to life characters from The Red Panda Adventures, Decoder Ring Theatre''s award-winning radio drama series, Mask of the Red Panda is pulse-pounding pulp perfection for all those who love the classic two-fisted adventures of the golden age of radio, classic movie serials, and the hero pulps.

So that's cool.  I enjoyed the limited series a great deal and looked forward to having a print version for the collection.  The only disappointment is that it is not being published by a Canadian company.

My attempts at locating details about the book actually led me to find out about other Panda-based (and of course, his lovely partner, The Flying Squirrel) projects.

As mentioned in a comment to an earlier post about The Red Panda, a fourth novel is due to be released soon.  It will be titled The Pyramid of Peril. It was expected to be released in 2013 though at this late point in the year, that seems a little unlikely now.  Would love to treat myself to a Christmas present though!

What I did not know (for certain) is that more comics are planned. Here's the portion of the Red Panda Adventures wikipedia page which makes reference to this.

After the initial three-issue series a Kickstarter campaign was run to create a "full-cast video comic" of the series. The intent was to raise money for not only the video, but also to fund new issues of the comic. At the close of the campaign, Taylor announced that enough money had been raised to provide for at least 8 new issues of the series. His plan is to do four 2-part stories.

The comics were well-received (at least critically, I have no idea how much they sold) so on that level this doesn't come as a surprise.

The "four two-part'ers" claim may not be solid; on the Kickstarter updates page, writer Gregg Taylor stated that they would make 10 books if they reached $13,000 in funding.  They came close; 12,009 was raised.  It was close enough that they will still consider releasing ten.

As something of an aside, if you're not doing so already, keep an eye on Monkeybrain Comics.  They offer a variety of quality books and have a number of Canadian talents on their roster including Paul Little and Charles Pritchett working on a title that I've just discovered entitled Anti-Hero.  A-H is written by Jay Faerber of Dynamo Five and Noble Causes fame.  Good stuff.

Captain Canuck: The Complete Edition

I took the plunge this past weekend and bought this. I have the originals (1-14 and the Summer Special) but as stated previously, some are in brutal condition.


I'm very pleased that I got it...and that I waited. I had seen the first volume at Chapters, but the choice of content seemed odd. I looked it up when I got home and volume one includes issues 4-10, while volume two has issues 11-14 and the summer special. Apparently, the plan all along was to have all of that and issues 1-3 in the complete edition only.

So...why would you buy the first two volumes? I'm not sure I follow the reasoning.

This thing is gold if only for including the never-published #15 (though it's in black and white). Still, if you are a story collector, you have to be pleased by that.

It also includes the newspaper strip, but displays eight of them over two pages. I have no idea how many such strips were actually published, but the ones that are included are numbered 128 to 135 and they are clearly the middle portion of a story.

The 1.5 issue of the Legacy series makes an appearance...but the #1 issue does not. Not a problem for me as I have it, but again, I'm a little puzzled as to the reasoning.

And in light of the things that are arguably missing from the "complete" edition, a gallery that displays small version of covers from the original series, all of which are included in full size earlier in the volume anyway, seems pointless. Readers might have enjoyed a foreword detailing the character's history and iconic achievements, or perhaps some insight/anecdotes from the creator(s) similar to liner notes in CD's or the "director's commentary" in a DVD instead of getting the same content twice.

By and large though, those are minor quibbles. The reproduction is great and the unique colour style looks fantastic in this format. Plus, it's amazing to see the rapid improvement in this book from its first couple of issues to issue four or so.

And there may be very good reasons for the content selection being what it is; just because I don't know them doesn't mean they don't exist.

Going forward, if it's even possible, I'd love to see...

a) The full newspaper strip.
b) The Legacy series completed and combined with the Reborn series (to the point it reached) in a single volume.

Whether that's in one volume or separate ones, I couldn't care any less. I'm appreciative to IDW for making this collection available and hope there's more Captain Canuck content to come before long.