Canada's forgotten superheroes

[comicwiz]

Canada's forgotten superheroes

 

Honouring the Canadian comic artists whose work emerged during WWII

 

By Derek Chezzi

 

 

This year’s Doug Wright Awards, which recognizes excellence in Canadian comics and cartooning, will be honouring the Canadian Whites, a group of artists and comics that birthed a roster of forgotten Canadian heroes in the World War II era. Two living members of the group will be on hand to accept the Giants of the North hall of fame award on Saturday evening in Toronto. The awards are an unofficial part of the Toronto Comic Arts Festival programming.

 

Awards co-founder, Brad MacKay, uncovers the history behind this little-known league of artists.

 

Who are the Canadian Whites? Where did they get that name?

 

They were a group of 100 or so Canadians, mostly men with a couple of women, many of whom were teenagers working as artists on comics during World War II. It’s also the label put on the original Canadian comics themselves that were published at the time.

 

From 1940 to 1946, a pop-up homegrown Canadian comics industry was born due to wartime austerity measures. The government had passed a bill – the Wartime Exchange Conservation Act – that restricted the import of magazines and comics from the U.S. that Canadians had been reading.

 

So almost overnight, owners of printing presses who were, until then, turning out church pamphlets and the like, realized there was an opportunity because all these popular comics weren't going to be available. They started with reprinting some of those books, skirting the rules until they couldn't get away with that any longer, and then they courted, hired and trained a group of artists, all these kids, who would produce original work.

 

The name “Whites” came from the fact the publishers didn't have enough money to print in colour. So the covers were full colour, but the interiors were black and white. It became a bit of a derogatory term – those “Canadian Whites” – for the books because they didn’t have the same level of quality as Marvel and DC books from the time.

 

There are only four living members of the group today: Jack Tremblay, Jerry Lazare, Mel Crawford, and Murray Karn.

 

Adrian Dingle, Gerald Lazare, Jack Tremblay, Murray Karn and Mel Crawford.

Did Joe Shuster, creator of Superman, run with this crowd?

 

No, Shuster’s family left Canada when he was 9 or 10 years old for the United States, which is where he drew Superman.

 

He would come back to Toronto to visit, and he pulled inspiration from the city remembering his youth. Metropolis is based on the landscape of Toronto.

 

So, what happened to the books?

 

After the war, they stuck around for about a year and then disappeared once kids could get their hands on the more popular books by Marvel and DC again.

They were long forgotten until a few years ago when they became a bit of a Canadian curiosity. There have been one or two books on them. The documentary Lost Heroes debuted at Toronto International Film Festival and was released earlier this year, and there is a Kickstarter-funded book about Nelvana debuting at TCAF this year.

 

Why is this era considered by some to be the Golden Age of Canadian Comics?

 

This period in comics is known as the Golden Age – the Silver Age followed from the late 1950s to 1970 and the Bronze Age from 1970 to 1985. But from a Canadian perspective, nothing has preceded it. It was definitely a unique era in the history of Canadian comics.

 

What influence did these characters and creators have on modern comics?

 

I doubt much. The reason these are fantastic books is that finding them is like unearthing the lost city of Atlantis. They were long forgotten until a few decades ago. They are unique, a curiosity – a one-time thing that will never be recreated. Even if the artwork is at times juvenile, these are fun, charming books to read.

 

It’s so bizarrely Canadian that an import ban would have a role in the creation of these distinctly Canadian comics. It’s like the story behind the creation of Bob and Doug McKenzie coming out of SCTV due to Cancon rules.

— Brad MacKay

 

Why weren't these books successful in the long run?

 

It's a typical Canadian story. Without the government support, this wartime import duty ban, the books couldn't maintain the sale. Readers wanted the flashy colour stories from the brand-name heroes that they couldn’t get their hands on for 5 or 6 six years; probably much like the TV industry.

 

So the industry just died out, and the guys went on to work on other stuff. But the comics died.

 

Over the years, some comic companies have sprouted up but most have gone away. Today our success stories in comics are a handful of publishers that include Drawn + Quarterly in Montreal, Koyama in Toronto, and Conundrum in Nova Scotia, but they don't do superhero books.

 

It seems to be very difficult to create a successful Canadian hero that doesn’t seem hokey. Not just a successful book, but a compelling “Canadian” character with a good narrative. Why is that?

 

Marvel and DC have probably saturated the market – DC puts out 52 books a month and Marvel probably something similar – and so there is no hole the fill.

 

There have definitely been small players who have tried but we've had much more success with literary comics. The Canadian comics community has grown exponentially. There is lots of talent in this country, but they’re creating more literary books, which is what we've become known for now internationally.

[comicwiz]

Shout out to Subliminal and eccomic if they haven't yet seen the article (thumbs u

[Tony S]

Interesting information. I was not aware of the war time ban nor these books. Thanks!

 

[Kevin Boyd]

Oh good lord, of course, everyone had completely forgotten about these comics until the Doug Wright Awards discovered them... sigh.

 

We've been consistently honouring 'Canadian Whites' creators at the Joe Shuster Awards annually since 2005. Dingle and Lazare have already been inducted.

 

http://joeshusterawards.com/hof/

 

In 1971 the folks that bought the Bell Features Archive put the comics art artwork on tour and wrote a book about it. While working at the National Archives, historian John Bell prepared an exhibit on Canadian comics which is still available online:

 

https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/comics/027002-8300-e.html

 

Bell has written two books on the subject, Canadian Comics and Invaders from the North, both have extensive sections on the Whites.

 

These books have been collected and archived by many collectors, and as such I'm told that there will be an article in this year's Overstreet about them.

 

They are called Canada's Golden Age, and it ran from 1941 to 1946, because we didn't have a unique comics publishing initiative in Canada before it --- or after it. It was artificially created because of the absence of American comics - with the passing of the War Exchange Conservation Act comics were declared non-essential (along with pulps) and could not be imported into Canada. When the Act was repealed, the comics fizzled out. Publishers were based in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal.

 

Canada's Silver Age began in the mid-1970's and does not correspond with the US one (by the time Canada's Silver Age begins the US market is well into it's Bronze...), with titles like Orb Magazine, Andromeda, Captain Canuck, Cerebus, and other publications. There were little to none original comics published in Canada between 1946 and the early 1970's other than Superior Comics' reprints/repackaging of US comics into the 1950's and some educational material and a few undergrounds. I'm not sure we've got a corresponding Canadian Bronze Age yet, perhaps only recently with the flourishing of new small press publishers like Koyama, Conundrum, etc. joining Drawn + Quarterly.

 

 

 

 

[Ares]

There is a documentary called Lost heroes that some might find interesting

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1964883/

Canada's forgotten comic book superheroes and their legendary creators. A journey to recover a forgotten part of Canada's pop culture and a national treasure few have ever heard about, the tale of a small country striving to create its own heroes, but finding itself constantly out muscled by better-funded and better-marketed superheroes from the media empire next door.

 

 

http://lostheroesmovie.com/

Look for it on Superchannel in Canada

[Kevin Boyd]

I'm in it.

[Ares]

I'm in it.

 

I recorded it but between changing shifts at work and my daughter I haven't had the chance to watch it.

Still on my PVR

[comicwiz]

These books have been collected and archived by many collectors, and as such I'm told that there will be an article in this year's Overstreet about them.

 

I was recently talking about this with Walt of Big B - I know Stephen and Jim have been tapped - will you be a contributor as well Kevin?

[Ares]

Is there a full list of these books?

They might be an interesting side project to chase down

[eccomic]

Hi all:

 

Thanks Joseph for reaching out. I have not seen this article.

 

I am cast in Lost Heroes, and I am now an Overstreet Advisor. Look for my Market Report in the upcoming edition of the Overstreet Price Guide on Canadian Whites. (thumbs u

 

Stephen Lipson

[quadman78]

Is there a full list of these books?

They might be an interesting side project to chase down

 

Not a side project at all. Full time endeavour. I believe Ecconomic here on the boards has the largest known collection of them and he's been at it for quite a while from what I understand.

[Jimmy Linguini]

at TCAF - Jack Tremblay had original art from his Canadian Whites.

 

He even had portraits of William Lyon Mackenzie King!

 

It was neat.

 

None were for sale.

 

(and I didn't take any pictures because of distractions - but he did say "this was my answer to the batman"...)

[Bronty]

at TCAF - Jack Tremblay had original art from his Canadian Whites.

 

He even had portraits of William Lyon Mackenzie King!

 

It was neat.

 

None were for sale.

 

(and I didn't take any pictures because of distractions - but he did say "this was my answer to the batman"...)

 

cool. Might be a good time to post this article:

 

http://todaysinspiration.blogspot.ca/2013/06/the-artists-of-canadian-whites-jack.html