Chapterhouse Expands in 2017

The news from Chapterhouse Books earlier this week was simultaneously exciting and frustrating. I found out about it while at a cottage with limited internet access so I wasn’t able to get at information as quickly or thoroughly as I would have liked.

On the other hand, tackling it several days later, I can refer to various sources for details.  And it all sounds pretty damn sweet.

For those who missed it entirely, Chapterhouse is expanding its output to include more books about (mostly?) Canadian characters, from the past, all of which will share a universe with Captain Canuck (in fact, it’s referred to the “Chapterverse”). The announced projects on tap include:

Fantomah by Ray Fawkes and Soo Lee. Comic Book Resources referred to this one as “joining the Captain Canuck serial” so perhaps this will take the form of a back-up story. 

Agents Of Pact: An all-female super team including Red Coat and Kebec from the modern-day Captain Canuck book.  Canuck writer Kalman Andrasofszky and Blake Northcott will write it.  

Freelance:  The Golden Age era character, re-imagined by Jim Zub and Andrew Wheeler with art by Vaneda Vireak. This book is described by Geekpron as a “globe-trotting adventure series”.  

Northern Light: Van Jensen and Eric Kim will restore the character in a sci-fi tale.

Additionally, Captain Canuck will cross over with the Pitiful Human-Lizard and the Northguard book will continue with a new story arc.

Again according to Geekpron, Freelance and Agents of Pact will kick things off in January and run for four issues at which point two other new books will replace them (presumably for four issues as well, and also presumably Northern Light and Northguard, since I’m not sure Fantomah will have her own title right away) and so on and so forth.

Now add the regular Captain Canuck / Human-Lizard content to this, as well as the bi-monthly True Patriot book, and you’ve got a regular source of Canadian characters and (for the most part) creators to look forward to. This is fantastic news.

I’m only vaguely familiar with Freelance and Fantomah but will be looking into them a little more over the next few days.

The Pitiful Human-Lizard to be Published by Chapterhouse

I have praised First Comics News in the past for their willingness to spotlight small independent publishers and will continue to do so. Perhaps others are doing it and I'm not aware of it, but FCN is the only site I've seen that regularly includes Chapterhouse Publishing's monthly solicitations.

In fact, they're better at it than I am, since I've completely neglected to include teaser text and covers for the fourth issue of Captain Canuck, due in August! Here it is:

CAPTAIN CANUCK #4   
(W) Kalman Andrasofszky, Ed Brisson
(A) Leonard Kirk, Scott Hepburn
(CA) Kalman Andrasofszky, Scott Hepburn  

Site ALEPH lies hidden deep in the Canadian Arctic.  

To save the life of his brother Michael, Captain Canuck must venture back to the place that made him and nearly destroyed him!  

Plus: Classic Canuck must defeat The Hammer in a back-up story by Ed Brisson and Scott Hepburn!  

In Shops: 8/26/2015
SRP: $3.99

Get a load of the Fiona Staples variant below, featuring Bluefox.

Now then...FCN shared Chapterhouse's September solicitations earlier today. Let's have a look at Canuck #5 which is focused on Kebec.

CAPTAIN CANUCK #5
Writer: Kalman Andrasofszky & Ed Brisson
Artist: Leonard Kirk & Simon Roy
Cover A: Kalman Andrasofszky 

Captain Canuck is in the clutches of Mr. Gold, Michael Evans is still missing, and the Equilibrium forces have been decimated. Lucky for them they have Kebec, the most notorious sharpshooter of the Afghanistan War, on their side and she believes revenge is a dish best served fast. 

In Shops: 9/30/2015
SRP: $3.99

Beyond Canuck, there was an interesting "guest appearance" of sorts in the Chapterhouse solicitations this month. The first issue of Jason Loo's Pitiful Human Lizard is being released again by the publisher.

THE PITIFUL HUMAN-LIZARD #1
Writer: Jason Loo
Artist: Jason Loo
Cover A: Jason Loo 

Toronto’s got a new superhero! And he’s pitiful! 

Lucas Barrett is a 9-to-5 office lackey during the day and a struggling superhero on evenings and weekends. He’s also broke. While his job salary is not enough to support his crime-fighting hobby, Lucas finds an alternate plan that may heighten his superhero status. 

This is the 52-page, full-color debut issue of The Pitiful Human-Lizard! 

In Shops: 9/30/2015
SRP: $3.99

Good news for me, because I had yet to order issues two through four (those released to date) for the simple reason that shipping costs were pretty brutal. If I can get my hands on them from my not-so-local comic store, then all the better.

If you want a preview of future Human-Lizard solicitations (previews of previews?), you can have a look at the character's storenvy page and for more variant covers for the first issue, and for the 5th issue of Captain Canuck, head on over to First Comics News.

Captain Canuck: Utopia Moments

Does this happen to other people who update a blog semi-regularly?  You go a few days or weeks struggling to find something you feel like writing about, then as soon as your time becomes limited you stumble into a boat load of material that you can't get to right away. Frustrating.

Such was the case last Sunday when, while looking for details about out Superhero Universe: Tesseracts Nineteen, I found Captain Canuck material that I was convinced was no longer accessible.  I was unable to look into it further at the time because I was leaving for a business trip roughly an hour later, but I can now finally sit back and enjoy it.

I had heard of this Mark Shainblum/Sandy Carruthers (of Northguard fame, which probably goes without saying by now) attempt at bringing back the good Captain in the late 90's, but had never located any of the material except for small versions of the cover (seen at right). Browsing through Shainblum's (new?) website for information about Superhero Universe, I discovered that he has made the three-part, 27-page, story available online.  It can be accessed from this page.  Mind the capitalization in the password provided.

This was the first crack at modernizing Captain Canuck by someone other than co-creator Richard Comely.  It was written in such a way that material from the original series could be worked in, or discarded, for that matter, with minimal disruption.  New characters were introduced while Redcoat, Kebec, Bluefox, etc, were brought up to date.  Pages eight and thirteen are included below as examples.

Exciting stuff.

My unpleasant customer service experience with the current Captain Canuck team had affected my overall interest in the character to the point that I neglected the Captain Canuck Legacy page I started last year. Finding the Utopia Moments story has restored my enthusiasm for that little project so there will probably be a fair amount of information added to that blog over the next few days, for those who may be interested.

What We Learned from the Captain Canuck Summer Special

The 2014 Captain Canuck Summer Special was made available for free just prior to Canada Day in comic book shops all over the country.  I wasn't able to get my hands on one right away, but a friend was kind and considerate enough to snag one for me.  He handed it off to me this past Friday night, so I finally got to read it at TSOG Secret HQ on the weekend.

Were you also unable to obtain a copy initially?  If that's the case, allow me to share some details about the book and future plans for our favourite square-jawed Canadian protagonist contained within.

THERE WILL BE A 2015 EDITION.  That might have seemed obvious, but since the last summer special came out in 1980, one probably should not have assumed.

THE 2015 EDITION WILL FEATURE RESULTS OF A FAN ART CONTEST.  There was such a contest held on deviantart.com some time ago, but this one is a bit more official.  There will be several judges and ten selections will appear in the 2015 Summer Special.  The submission can include any Canuck cast member.  Send entries to fanart2015@captaincanuck.com between now and March 15th.

THE COMIC BOOK SERIES IS SCHEDULED FOR DECEMBER 2014. We first heard about it in January, but at that point I don't believe a tentative release date had been stated.  July 1st was the obvious target date but evidently plans have changed.  Now keep your fingers crossed for a merry Canuck X-Mas.

THE GOOD CAPTAIN DIGS BOOSTER JUICE.  As he should, Booster Juices are delicious.  My personal favourite is the Soymilk Slam.  Not only is it healthy and filling, it sounds like something a superhero (or perhaps a pro wrestler) would drink.

WE GET REDCOAT AND KEBEC BACK STORIES.  Both characters make only brief appearances in the animated series, but we get to find out a bit more about them in this book.

TATIANA MASLANY IS FRIGGIN' AWESOME.  No wait...Everyone knew that already.

WHAT HAPPENED AFTER ISSUE 15.  Being a Canuck fan can require patience (and no, that's not a dig at how long it took for them to send out Indiegogo campaign perks).  Issue 14 was published in early 1981.  The 15th issue saw limited release only, according to Wikipedia, but not until 2004.  Fortunately it was included in the Omnibus published by IDW in 2011.

Well, one of the two stories in the 2014 Summer Special continues the tale that began in 1981.  The story concludes with a caption that this was "not the end" so we'll get the next installment in a little less than a year, assuming everything goes according to plan.  By comparison, the time should fly right by.

It's not me, Captain. It's you.

On March 11th, I wrote about the difficulties I and several others were having in obtaining the perks we purchased during the Captain Canuck animated series fundraising campaign.

At the time, I was trying to remain patient out of an appreciation for the character and the work done to modernize him and bring him back to the public eye (see the before and after version of Kébec at right for a good example).

But I'm done.  While I occasionally hear about people finally getting their perks, I have no confidence that I'll ever receive the goods I paid $100 for on the day the campaign began (March 28th, 2013).

A major issue is how often contributors have been told that their purchases were being mailed out, only to later find out that it didn't happen.  There's a list of such promises in the March post, which I won't copy here.  Since being asked to hold on another two weeks from late February, we were then told...

If you haven't got them already, you will within 1-3 weeks depending on where in the world you are.

...in mid-March.  And today, on May 1st, I (and several others) still have nothing.

I'm in Ottawa, so location shouldn't be an issue.  There is no way that it should take six weeks to reach me from Toronto.  None.

So once again, we have been misled. That's bad enough in and of itself, but it goes against the one positive I was hoping to see come out of this experience, which was:

I hope that lessons have been learned by the Canuck team...

Clearly that hasn't happened.  I asked for a specific mailing date a week ago.  I was told to "hold tight" on the basis that other people were now receiving their perks.

That doesn't answer my question.  And that's just it.  There's no getting through to this group and they continue to make the same mistakes over and over.  They ask people to contact them by e-mail, then often don't respond to those e-mails.  Or when they do respond, they don't provide the requested information.

Their communication is terrible and it's infuriating. They can not grasp that a little honesty would go a long way.  Delays can be out of their control.  We all understand that.  But what they tell people is totally up to them, and all they do is jerk them around.

I still want to support the characters, even if some members of Team Canuck are incapable of understanding the above, simple concept.

But I will not pre-pay for anything from them anymore.  For that matter, I'm not even sure I want to buy anything from them that requires mailing.  They obviously can't handle the responsibility.

It's extremely disappointing in light of how excited I was to get behind this project, but I feel like my enthusiasm and interest have been taken advantage of.  I have countless other projects that I can support without feeling like a sap, so that's where I'm going to direct my attention until the Captain Canuck crew have displayed that they have a clue.