Captain Canuck is the Right Hero, Right Now
By Dan Brown This is my love letter to Captain Canuck, who in 2025 celebrates 50 years of battling aliens, evil businessmen, radiated monsters, neo-Nazis, and street-level crooks in the True North. First appearing in 1975, Canuck has had a sporadic publishing history in the decades since but that didn’t stop the superhero from making a deep impression on me, as well as an entire generation of young comic fans in Canada. I came on board when issue No. 4 showed up on the spinner rack in the variety store at Westown Plaza Mall (now Cherryhill Village) on Oxford Street. That would have been 1979. Captain Canuck co-creator Richard Comely, who still appears at fan gatherings (most recently Toronto Comicon last weekend), has said the red-and-white-costumed do-gooder filled a niche that Marvel and DC weren’t addressing back then. When I close my eyes and think about the Canuck of my childhood, what jumps out at me is . . . the colour. Captain Canuck popped off the page. It was the first comic I had found in which the skin of white characters wasn’t a flat pink; it was pink mottled with all kinds of purples and reds. And I wasn’t a kid who read comics for the colouring or quality paper. Yes, I was also a fan of Wolverine over in the pages of the Uncanny X-Men. But there was something about Canuck. Perhaps it was his modest powers – Tom Evans, struck by an alien ray, gains the strength of two, count ’em two, mortal men. Logan may have been an unstoppable killing machine, but Canuck was a real Canadian in that he was much more modest and realistic. I grasped that, even as a kid. Even the odd touches wormed their way into my imagination. When Canuck is imprisoned by the underlings of the dastardly Mr. Gold in that fourth issue, he does what any superhero would do: He prays to God for help. In the ensuing panels, he spots a loose brick in the cell he’s housed in, and targets it to gain back his freedom. I also loved the science-fiction look to the whole thing. Captain Canuck took place in the futuristic world of the 1990s, when Canada has fulfilled Wilfrid Laurier’s prediction that it would own the 20th century by becoming the most important country on the planet How important was Captain Canuck? So much so, his series was the only one I got a subscription to, that’s how much I loved the George Freeman-drawn action. I couldn’t chance missing even one issue. Smarter people than me have pointed out how Canuck seems to have a sense of occasion, with his 50th birthday coming at this particular moment in our nation’s history, when the U.S. president has been musing aloud about his wish for Canada to become part of the United States. Comely has seized on the revulsion many Canadians are feeling right now, offering a variant cover with Canuck telling Donald Trump firmly to back off – not by smashing him in the mouth, just forcefully squeezing his arm. Another cover on offer at Toronto on the weekend by Ty Templeton goes a step further, showing a reluctant Canuck giving a solid punch to Uncle Sam. “Please don’t make me fight you!!” he pleads as he lays out the star-spangled symbol of the American people. Since those early days, there have been several different versions of Canuck. The character got stranded in the past just as the series went on hiatus, leaving us diehards moping about the fate of our favourite homegrown hero for decades. But he came back, keeping the faith with his now grown-up fans who still remember the glory days. Captain Canuck had originally appeared in the Me Decade in the afterglow of Canada’s year-long centennial celebrations. The hardscrabble 1970s, a decade of disillusion, brought Canadians back to Earth. Canuck captured our hearts with his essential decency – even in the future time of 1993, Canadians were still the envy of the world, fighting for decency, using their influence to forward the cause of goodness. So maybe his 50th anniversary is coming at just the right moment in the history of our dominion. Perhaps everyone here and abroad needs a reminder of all the good things Canada has brought, and continues to bring, into this world. That’s why Captain Canuck is always the right hero at the right time. Dan Brown has covered pop culture for more than 32 years as a journalist and also moderates L.A. Mood’s monthly graphic-novel group.
New Comic Back Issue Collection Available Starting Saturday, March 8
A new back issue collection available starting Saturday, March 8 at 10 AM. Eight plus boxes of new back issues! Highlights include CGC graded and ungraded early Amazing Spider-Man, a near complete run of TMNT (Mirage) and more! This collection will be available in store and the following week select comics will be added online. Visit early for best selection! Watch for future emails and Facebook posts for more reveals. See below for a sneak peak! See the collection in person. Collection drops Saturday, March 8, 10 AM. L.A. Mood Comics and Games100 Kellogg Lane, Suite 5, London ON N5W0B4
New Star Wars Comic for Fans Only
By Dan Brown Although it’s well-made, Star Wars: A New Legacy No. 1 will likely appeal mostly to diehard fans of the interstellar epic. If you’re a devotee of characters like Valance, Black Krrsantan and Doctor Aphra, this is the comic for you. The presence of heroes from the movies – Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo – is felt here, but those old favourites aren’t actually part of the action. Instead, this comic contains a trio of tales which were created as vehicles for minor players in Marvel’s Star Wars universe. As Marvel begins a new phase of its Star Wars offerings, they’ve been promoted. Some members of this introductory issue’s cast have a long history. Valance, for instance, originated way back in 1978 in Star Wars No. 16. He was introduced as a self-loathing cyborg, which seemed to be a Marvel specialty back then – the publisher also had Deathlok on its roster in those days. This was years before Star Wars fans got a peek under Darth Vader’s helmet in The Empire Strikes Back. However, there’s no sign of Jaxxon, the giant green alien rabbit, who has gone from being a bad joke to beloved by fans. Hey, if people today can openly express their love for Jar-Jar Binks, then anything’s possible. Marvel got the rights to print Star Wars comics when the original movie debuted in 1977. It was an astute move, as some observers credit that title alone for keeping the company solvent in a financially precarious era. It’s hard to believe now, but over the decades the space fantasy’s appeal faded, so Dark Horse Comics eventually became the official headquarters for Star Wars comics. When Disney brought Marvel under its corporate umbrella, the licence soon reverted back to the House of Ideas. In the first section of A New Legacy, Valance appears on the trail of Doctor Aphra.For years, I wanted to see a Disney+ series featuring Aphra, but my prediction that the gonk droid would get a show before the rogue archeologist seems less and less like hyperbole as Aphra continues to go unloved by the Star Wars brain trust. Even one of her sidekicks, the wookiee called Black Krrsantan, made the leap to the small screen in the Book of Boba Fett without Aphra. She also appears in the back-of-the-book section in a story that inverts the old saying about letting the wookiee win at holographic chess. It turns out that advice doesn’t apply when one of the big, shaggy aliens is playing against a murder robot: “Let the droid win.” Sandwiched between those two stories is a narrative about the Empire’s Scar Squadron, who are also known as Task Force 99. This tale has a slight flavour of the Wild Bunch in that these stormtroopers are men out of time – they embody everything Imperial at a moment when the Rebellion is on the rise. They can’t understand why the crowds that used to cheer them want to rise up at the urging of rebel scum they consider terrorists. “We bring order, while all they have to offer this galaxy is chaos,” their sergeant laments in his inner monologue. This means the white-armoured soldiers – who operate on the outer rim of the outer rim – are on their way to becoming like the U.S. commander in Vietnam who famously said, “It became necessary to destroy the town to save it.” These grunts are on their way to setting fire to the universe so they can preserve it.Every Star Wars buff has their own favourite obscure characters from the vast universe created by George Lucas. If the one’s I’ve mentioned here are among yours, then you’ll enjoy A New Legacy. If not, you’ll want to give it a miss. Dan Brown has covered pop culture for more than 32 years as a journalist and also moderates L.A. Mood’s monthly graphic-novel group.
The Few, The Proud, The Unproductive
By Dan BrownLet us now praise those comic creators who had a big impact on comic history despite spending very little time in the spotlight.I’m talking about your David Mazzucchellis, your Michael Goldens, your Paul Chadwicks. You may have your own favourites.What do these artists have in common? Compared to such stalwarts as Kurt Swan and Jack Kirby, they were . . . not all that productive. Which hasn’t stopped them from inspiring wildly loyal fandoms.Some of them are still active today. Once in a while.They had brief runs (that are still remembered 50 or 60 years later), they did an amazing job, they revolutionized comics. And then they more or less disappeared.Perhaps some of them had a hard time meeting the grind of monthly deadlines. No doubt some of them made more money as illustrators in other fields. For whatever reason, they found other vineyards to toil in.Oh, we young comics fans loved them. If it was up to us, they would have had their choice of assignment.Mazzucchelli we knew as the artist on Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One, which reset the Dark Knight’s origin for a new generation. The Neal Adams Batman belonged to our older brothers, but this one was OURS. The brilliance of his style was that you couldn’t tell which era this Batman came of age in. Was it the 1970s? The 1930s? The modern day? You couldn’t pin this Batman down, he was timeless.Oh yeah, Mazzucchelli also worked on Daredevil briefly, then years later came out with the graphic novel Asterios Polyp. Might he be a perfectionist, might that be the reason that prevented him from doing more?Michael Golden lit the comic world on fire with his 12-issue run on the Micronauts. It was a comic adaptation based on a toy line, and like Mazzucchelli he also created an otherworldly milieu, with exhausted heroes and truly diabolical villains. Then, a glimpse of something even more awesome: For one issue, Star Wars No. 38 in 1980, Golden showed us a vision of a galaxy far, far away with art that we actually dug.It had seemed up to that point Marvel was abusing Star Wars fans on purpose by using mediocre artists.When we got a little older, graduating to more mature stories, Chadwick spoke to our young-adult selves with his thought-provoking Dark Horse series Concrete. A book built around a superhero who wanted only to sit around and think? We were intrigued, It was as if Ben Grimm had become a philosopher.But unfortunately for us, it didn’t last. He was another creator who, it seemed, had found other things to do outside of comics. Perhaps he just lost interest.Like I said, not everyone is blessed with the work ethic of a Kirby or the endurance of a Swan or a John Romita. Not every comic creator even wants to be in the conversation.Some are destined to be excellent, then be gone. Could be it’s a blessing in disguise? One byproduct is we will never get sick of their expressive lines.Nor am I suggesting any of these talented people are snobs for finding other pursuits. Not everyone has thousands of individual issues in them, I get it.Heaven forbid they should ever be among the most productive people in the industry’s history. Because those folks get a different label: We deride them as hacks.Dan Brown has covered pop culture for more than 32 years as a journalist and also moderates L.A. Mood’s monthly graphic-novel group.
Nothing Compares to Negasonic Teenage Warhead
Negasonic Teenage Warhead was unknown to me until the first Deadpool movie. She’s a young mutant who has the power to blow up – literally.So when I saw the debut issue of a Marvel Comic named after her, I picked it up. Turns out it reprints the story from a previous series she starred in. Since she first appeared on my radar, I found out, the character has developed more powers. This time out she isn’t just a living explosion, she can potentially snuff out all reality.Talk about teenage angst!With writing by Andrew Wheeler and art by Eleonora Carlini and Carola Borelli, the new Negasonic Teenage Warhead No. 1 is a breezy tale of one teen’s search for a date for the end of the world.The complication is, if she doesn’t find a specific girl to date, all of existence goes kablooey. And NTW would be to blame.Deadpool appears in a brief prefatory section. He is a one-mutant reference machine, spouting on about Thelma and Louise, Alien and Predator, Frost and Nixon.Also appearing are agents of the Time Variance Authority, which I remember from the Loki Disney + series. These are the folks who make sure time is unspooling as it should. If they find a fugitive from one timeline in another, as a result of time-travelling, they can erase them permanently. Since Negasonic Teenage Warhead – or, more accurately, a future evil version of her – threatens everything that ever existed, the TVA wants to put her on trial. Thus begins a breakneck story co-starring pretty much every female Marvel character. Scarlet Witch makes the scene, as do Sue Storm, Jean Grey, and Emma Frost.The complaint from some older Marvel fans is that the current comics are just expansions of storylines that in the old days would have been resolved in a single issue. So the X-Men will fight the Avengers, let’s say, but in today’s comics it will be a year-long event that spawns multiple side series.This comic is the opposite of that. It’s one of those old-fashioned universe-shaking premises – “What if NTW was even more powerful than Galactus? – but it is so compressed. In the world of the comic, it takes place within one hour. In other words, it won’t dispel comments from readers my age that today’s fans have a limited attention span.I have read Marvel sporadically in the last few years, but I was able to keep up fine with the story.Genosha, the site of a mutant massacre, is one setting, and the Krakoa Era of mutantkind is also evoked. From what I understand, the children of the atom have moved on from their island Utopia in the main Marvel continuity. There’s also a sly reference to the most popular mutie of all, Wolverine.There’s even a bone thrown to oldsters like me in the form of an in-panel reference to another Marvel comic, the kind the narrative voice used to drop in every Marvel issue. What’s next? Are thought balloons also going to make a comeback?And there’s some patented Marvel philosophizing, with one character expounding on a central quote from Friedrich Nietzshe.I will leave it to you to find out if Negasonic — also known as Eloise Olivia Phimister – is able to save the universe from herself. I’m glad I checked this one out. Now I know why the Sinead O’Connor circa 1989 lookalike is brooding so deeply every time Deadpool comes calling.Dan Brown has covered pop culture for more than 32 years as a journalist and also moderates L.A. Mood’s monthly graphic-novel group.
Is There Product Placement in Comics?
By Dan BrownMaybe it’s because I’m a naive fool, but I don’t ever remember seeing an instance of flagrant product placement in a comic book.I’m talking about the classic kind of product placement, the same type you see in movies or on TV where products are written into the plot of the show in return for brand exposure.(I’ll get to advertising partnerships in comics in a minute. They are a different animal.)For example, in an old episode of Big Bang Theory Raj gets a new iPhone. We know it’s an iPhone because after he and Howard unwrap the device, Raj has a conversation with Siri, Apple’s digital assistant. Not very subtle.Product placement like this would in theory be easy to do in comics. The reference could be written into a comic’s script and then the brand’s product would be drawn by the penciller.We all know Wolverine – being Canadian – loves beer, right? So in a scene in which the deadly mutant walks into a bar, he could order a Budweiser or other brand, and the artist could reproduce the label on the bottle or can in Logan’s hand. Easy-peasy, providing you can get the creative team on board with the idea.As straightforward as the process would be, it doesn’t seem to happen much. Maybe I’ve got feeble eyes, but I don’t recall much along those lines taking place in Marvel or DC Comics. There are opportunities aplenty, it’s true.Batman’s alter ego, Bruce Wayne, might prefer a certain make of sports car. Ben Grimm could make his preferences known for a specific type of cigar. Photographers love to talk about the equipment they favour, so why would Peter Parker be any different?The argument in favour of product placement in comics might go something like this: “We live in a world of brands, so superheroes having brand preferences would make them and their milieu seem more realistic. If advertisers want the exposure, publishers could use the extra revenue.”I’m talking solely about comics here. I know there’s plenty of product placement in motion pictures that feature the same superheroes. That’s a whole other column.Nor am I talking about the advertising partnerships comic publishers occasionally embark on, which are embarrassing because they’re so blatant.For example, Marvel characters such as the Hulk and Spidey were loaned out to Hostess in the 1970s to go on adventures in which the villains were all defeated or distracted the same way: By being fed Twinkies. These appeared as clearly marked ads, not part of a comic's storyline.Likewise, about a decade ago, motorcycle maker Harley Davidson signed a deal with Marvel to feature their fine wares in a series of one-shot issues. This led to odd situations in which the Avengers, instead of using the full range of their powers, including that of flight, would ride Hogs to do battle with evildoers.I did once read a Hawkeye storyline set in Madripoor in which a specific brand of credit card was name-dropped, but I can’t recall having seen anything like it since. And I can't say for sure it was the result of a deal.Perhaps the reason for the dearth of product placement in comics is publishers might have to share the fee with creators. Or maybe comic creators who consider themselves "artists" feel they’re above crass product placement.Or maybe it goes back to the traditional perception of comics being stuff for children, and therefore product placement being viewed as unfairly taking advantage of kids. Of course, both you and I know the average comic reader today is in their 40s or 50s so that argument no longer holds water.Dan Brown has covered pop culture for more than 32 years as a journalist and also moderates L.A. Mood’s monthly graphic-novel group.
