Discussing the minutiae of comic book collecting.
Discussing the minutiae of comic book collecting.
Last September, I decided to use my monthly column here at Comic Book Daily to engage in a bit of armchair punditry by arguing in favour of several creators who I believe should be considered for induction into the Canadian…
As a child growing up in the 1980s and 1990s, I was innocently unaware of the fact that many of the cartoons that I watched were produced in Canada. Companies like Nelvana, Atkinson Film-Arts, Cinar and later Mainframe Entertainment and…
Benjamin Franklin once said (in a letter to Jean-Baptiste Le-Roy) that, “in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” This famous idiom has been used to the point of becoming cliché, but it still…
One of my guilty pleasures has long been magic. One of the oldest performing arts in the world, there is something about magic (be it illusion, stage magic, close-up magic and even mentalism) that find both extremely entertaining and intellectually…
Chester Brown is one of the modern giants of Canadian comics. He is often cited as one of the major figures who brought autobiographical comics to the forefront of the 1990s comics scene. He first gained critical recognition for his…
Happy New Year everyone and thanks for helping to make 2019 a great start for my Forgotten Silver column here at Comic Book Daily! There is one question that I am often asked what I think is a good way…
The early 1970s was a magical time for Canadian comic books. After decades of scant output from the mid-1940s through the 1950s, the 1960s was dominated by the giveaway comics produced by Ganes Productions and Comic Page Features/Comic Book World.…
Good morning and happy Remembrance Day! I will be taking a moment of silence to think about the many veterans and active-duty military members who have touched my life and those around this morning and I hope that you will…
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! With the Federal election only a week away, I spent quite a bit of time thinking about whether or not I should focus on political comics or environmental comics this month (due to environmentalism becoming one of…
Honouring a person who has excelled or who has had a noteworthy contribution to a certain field is a common institutional practice. A hall of fame takes this to another level by enshrining a person as an honoured member in…
As a socio-cultural anthropologist, the issue of representation has been part of my academic trajectory since I was an undergraduate. How issues such as gender and race are depicted in popular culture (and by whom) are topics that have been…
After I finished writing last month’s column about the legacy of Dave Sim and the caveats of collecting Cerebus # 1, I started thinking about Canadian comic creators who started self-publishing their own comics contemporaneously. Many Canadian creators were getting…
When discussing the most “important” characters and comics of the Canadian Silver Age, the works of several creators come to mind. The word “important” has several connotations and I use it here in part because of its ambiguity. What makes…
One of the most simultaneously infuriating, irritating, exciting and compelling parts of conducting research is when one comes across a mystery that cannot be solved. When it comes to Canadian Silver Age comic book collecting, there is one such mystery…
It’s hard to believe that another month has passed and that it is already April! Last month, I provided a broad overview of the historical context that led to the creation of Geoff Stirling’s Captain Newfoundland character and argued that…
When I discussed Fuddle Duddle during last month’s column, I highlighted that the characters Captain Canada and Beaver Boy were the first attempt at creating nationalistic Canadian comic book superheroes since the end of the Golden Age. Despite Captain Canada…
February 16, 1971 will always be remembered in Canada as the date of the “Fuddle Duddle incident.” It was on this day that Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau was accused of using unparliamentary language in the House of Commons. Nearly…
Happy belated New Year! Thanks to each of you who read my inaugural column last month. Conversing with so many people who posted comments or who contacted me via email was a welcome distraction from my Ph.D. defence on December…
My name is brian Campbell (lowercase “b”) and I am a Ph.D. candidate and part-time lecturer at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology. I am also co-owner of the eBay-oriented business, East…