Discussing the minutiae of comic book collecting.
Discussing the minutiae of comic book collecting.
Last column, we began a look into the small textual material box belonging to Cy Bell in the Bell Features fonds at the Library and Archives of Canada in Ottawa. We began that look with a hundred-page or so ledger-type…
Rachel Richey’s new collection of Johnny Canuck pages from the 28 issues of Bell Feature’s Dime Comics is a welcome addition to the bookshelf of any Canadian comic book collector and the libraries of anybody interested in Canadiana or Canadian…
After last Saturday at Niagara Con, which seems to have found a more than viable venue in our Southern Ontario tourist hub and appears to draw more visitors each year, a bunch of us went back to the new Big…
The Whites were not only about the cliffhanger dramatics of superheroes, spies, and soldiers taking on the Axis. Satirical strips like Steele’s Private Stuff and Saakel’s Spike and Mike, both in Joke Comics, were just plain tongue-in-cheek fun.
Longtime readers know that we love us some Golden Age Canadian comics at CBD, and over the weekend I got a chance to sit down with Comics Historian and Publisher Rachel Richey to talk about her latest project, bringing back Canadian Hero and icon Johnny Canuck!
The WECA period had its share of capes, masks, and tights, but the most common heroic habit for the super-styled Canadian crime-fighter of the period was far more reserved fashion statement. This was the simple combination of jodhpurs and riding boots with a variety of top halfs.
Last week I had the opportunity to spend a couple of days at the Library and National Archives of Canada in Ottawa. It’s just a couple of blocks west of the Parliament buildings on Wellington and backs onto the Ottawa…
“Johnny (Jack) Canuck.” He was a personification of our national identity much in the same way that America had “Uncle Sam” and Britain “John Bull,” who started to be depicted in political cartoons just a couple of years (1869) after Confederation. Like all national personifications he is an hyperbole, let’s say like a lumberjack riding a Timmie’s donut inner tube down the rapids a river of maple syrup and using a hockey stick for a rudder.
The brief seventies awakening to and appreciation of the Canadian war-time comic industry began with Michael Hirsh and Patrick Loubert’s November, 1971 publication of the compendium of Bell Features material they called The Great Canadian Comic Books (Peter Martin).
The good discussion generated by my last post needs to be seen through little. Besides, I had a busy week and have nothing up my sleeve for this week’s post. The comics in the main graphic all came out in…
Your friend and mine, Walter Durajlija, the “Big” in Big B Comics, has initiated a panel discussion of Canadian Comics that will take place at Niagara Falls Comic Con (June 8-9) at the Scotia bank Convention Centre.. The panel itself…
Better Comics #1, Maple Leaf Comics, March 1941 Over the years I’ve owned many “Canadian Whites” the cool Canadian black and white comic books of the early to mid 1940s. These books are hard to find especially in higher grades.…