Toronto Based Projects

In my last post I informed readers of the upcoming Nelvana of the Northern Lights reprint project, I wanted to give you a quick update regarding that before I moved on to the rest of my post this week. Nelvana of the Northern Lights project now has a Kickstarter up and running (http://nelvanacomics.com), and they have been pretty successful so far, they have made their initial goal and continue to raise funds for this amazing project.  If you love comics or Canadiana or both! You should donate what you can: you will even get incentives depending on how much you donate. For some more information check out my previous post.

Now, to my post this week.

I must admit, this is a kind of selfish post, wait! Before you decide not to read further, let me tell you why. I am lucky enough to live in one of the biggest cities in Canada (Toronto) and because of this I have had the opportunity to meet some amazingly talented people. Recently, many of these people have been launching projects that I am amazed and very proud of them for. So, I thought instead of hoarding all the information I know about these projects, I would share some of them with you.

First off, the Nelvana of the Northern Lights Project, as stated above, I think this project is amazing. Rachel Richey and Hope Nicolson have put their heart and soul into this project. They want to bring Canadian History to your fingertips. It is something worth checking out.

Next, my friend Dani Vulnavia has just officially launched her clothing line that contains some amazing superhero themed pieces. I have mentioned her before in my post about Cosplaying. (I was also the model for her website so you have to check it out). And this upcoming December she will be having a one day pop-up shop to celebrate her official launch.

The talented Kalman Andrasofszky is writing and drawing the first arc of the main story of a Captain Canuck comic that is in the works and is scheduled to come out in 2014. Each issue will feature the new Captain Canuck but will also have a feature on the classic Canuck as well. It will have rotating teams of writers and artists creating all-new material.

Marcus To and Ian Herring launched a graphic novel called CYBORG 009 from Archaia Entertainment. It is a modern adaptation of the classic manga series created by Shotaro Isinomori. The story follows nine mortal humans kidnapped from around the world to become unwilling test subjects by a secret society that provides weapons of mass destruction to the highest bidder. Illustrated by Marcus To and Coloured by Ian Herring. http://www.archaia.com/archaia-titles/cyborg-009/

The first issue of Marvel Knights: Spider-Man hit stands recently, art by the amazingly creative Marco Rudy. If you are a fan of art in comics I would suggest picking this up. Marco’s pages are unique, beautiful and worth a look.

One of the most flattering photographers I have met to date is Paul Hillier (I always smile when I see him at events because I will always end up with a good profile picture for Facebook) was exhibiting some of his pictures this past september. This may seem a bit off for a list of comic themed projects but Paul’s photos are Cosplay themed. He has a great collection of costumed focused art and I think his pieces are great and worth a peek. Plus he covers a lot of the comic focused events here in Toronto, so if you are in the scene you may have noticed him bopping around behind the lense of a camera. www.paulhillier.com

True Patriot came out this summer, it’s an amazing comic book anthology featuring Canadian superheroes by Canadian artists and writers, including Ramon Perez, Adrain Alphona, J. Torres, Howard Wong and more! It is so interested to flip through the pages and see all the different styles of art and writing. It was one of my favourite purchases I made this summer.

And last but not least, Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato are moving their dynamic dual to work on Detective Comics starting early next year. The two have done a great job on The Flash and will now be trying out a little darker content with Detective. This one I am particularly excited for as Detective is one of my regular pulls at my local comic book shop and it will be great to see a friends work in a book I have been picking up since the relaunch of DC.

I hope that some of these projects interest and intrigue you to check them out. The people behind them are amazing and talented and hell, just great to be around. They work hard and produce amazing things. If you know of any other great upcoming projects, or have questions about any of the ones listed above please leave them in the comments below.