FanExpo opens today and I have the good fortune of hosting a panel on Canadian war-time (WECA) comics. I urge all readers who are attending FanExpo on Sunday to attend this panel if they have the opportunity because we expect to provide some quality information on this cloudy and arcane first age of Canadian comics.
The panel will be offered from 2:15 PM to 3:15 PM and I will be presenting and moderating a discussion between the audience and the following participants (in alphabetical order):
Walter Durajlija – Our own intrepid energy source here on Comic Book Daily with his Undervalued Spotlight column, member of our Canadian Whites Project team (along with Stephen Lipson, Jim Finlay, and myself) and chief cook and bottle washer of Big B Comics . Walter will bring the dealer’s and collector’s perspective on these great old Canadian books.
Stephen Lipson—Stephen has worked hard and is proud to have the best collection (over 450 books) of Canadian Whites in existence, and is a leading expert in the valuation and the scarcity of individual titles and copies of these Canadian Whites (he also has tremendous expertise in the area of E.C. comics). He is another member of our Canadian Whites Project and without the access to Stephen’s superb knowledge of these books and his wonderful collection, the Canadian Whites Project wouldn’t be able to get off the ground. Stephen will bring all aspects of the collector’s perspective on the Canadian Whites.
Hope Nicholson—Hope is one of those rare female anomalies who are mired in the often chauvinistic world of comic fandom. She is a producer on the upcoming documentary “Lost Heroes” which is in post production and is set to appear very soon on Canadian Superchannel. She has been researching the Canadian Whites for the documentary and will be able to offer all sorts of interesting information.
Robert Pincombe—Robert is an eloquent and knowledgeable script writer and story board artists for a number of TV animation series. He is involved in a number of blogs including one on Canadian Animation and another on these Canadian Golden Age books. Rob was a good friend of Les Barker who created and drew Johnny Canuck and has published some work on him. Rob is also involved in high resolution imaging of Canadian Whites and has solid historical knowledge and a creative and artistic perspective to offer on these Whites. Rob has to participate in a panel immediately after ours and may need to leave before we have time to wrap up the questions.
Rachel Richey—Rachel has had a chance to spend a solid bit of time at the Canadian Archives in Ottawa and with their collection of Canadian Whites. She is another anomalous female who understands and appreciates what comic fandom is about and is heavily into the comic scene in Toronto. She has a popular blog about Canadian comics called Comic Syrup . Rachel has a breadth of valuable knowledge and insight that she can bring to this discussion.
After introductions and a brief video presentation about the Canadian Whites and some takes on this period in Canadian comics we plan to open the panel to questions from the floor and there should be time for 15 or 20 minutes of questions from the floor and interaction with the panel.
Again we invite to come and participate in a slice of a valuable part of our Canadian heritage that needs to be recovered and protected. I hope to meet many of you there.
I really enjoyed your presentation today at Fan Expo. The crowd of 45-50 people clearly enjoyed it as well. I got in a little late (you were introducing Hope)and I had question I wanted to ask the panel but time ran out.
Does the panel have any idea how many of these Canadian Whites still exist? I know I have collected books for over 40 years and only every seen 2 at a comic shoppe.
Exciting news on the Nelvana front. Clearly Hope and Rachel are excited about it!
Thanks for your comment, Mike. Next time I lead one of these talks I have to remember not to spend a full day on the floor of the con. Now that I am retired, I was too beat after carrying around a laptop and camera along with the gear I’d picked up at the con when it came for the time of the presentation at 2:15. I stumbled over a few thoughts that were so simple, but I’m glad the younger people on the panel covered for me.
I have always been estimating that there are over 700 different issues that came out from 1941-46 but yesterday one of our project members, Jim Flynn, was suggesting a figure of over 750 which probably is true. So that is how many individual titles and issues we estimate actually came out.
If your question is how many still exist, that is more difficult. I know of three collectors in my immediate circle who have over a hundred each in their collections. I have over a hundred myself, but the grand daddy of these collections belongs to Stephen Lipson who has over 450. They are so hard to find anywhere and I hope our work over the next few years will bring some more out of the woodwork. You just don’t see that many in comic shops as you said and there were only a couple in all the books that were brought to FanExpo, but I bet that there are still a few in dusty attics and farmhouses and barns all over this vast country of ours. We need to find them and record them in our project so that they can be shared with everybody.