Discussing the minutiae of comic book collecting.
Discussing the minutiae of comic book collecting.
The quality of the artwork in the Canadian WECA books has often received unwarranted malignment for its primitive, almost amateur quality. Though it’s true that this was sometimes the case for the fledgling comic book industry of the early forties,…
The good discussion generated by my last post needs to be seen through little. Besides, I had a busy week and have nothing up my sleeve for this week’s post. The comics in the main graphic all came out in…
Interest in Canadian war-time comics, popularly known as the “Canadian Whites” is growing and with a scarce and limited supply of them available, their values continue to escalate. The other day I picked up one of my WECA books and…
The Funny Comics was the penultimate main title to come out of Commercial Signs/Bell Features in the early forties. First came Wow Comics in Sept. of 1941, then Dime Comics and Active Comics in Feb. of 1942, followed by Joke…
Ted(d) Steele With April Fool’s day just passing by, I want to bring attention to perhaps the quirkiest comic creator from the WECA period, Tedd Steele. Theodore Arthur Steele was born on April Fool’s Day, 1922 and his creative juices…
No, this is not going to be a piece about good girl art in the WECA books, nor about the small handful of female heroes (Nelvana, The Wing, Polka-Dot Pirate, Betty Burd etc.) that graced the pages of those…
The use of this term “WECA period” or “WECA books” is probably unfamiliar to a lot of you. I use these terms to more accurately describe the First Age of Canadian Comics—those books more commonly and affectionately referred to as…
Robin Hood Comics Vol. 3 #34, Anglo American, (Dec 46/Jan 47) The second Canadian Whites (or WECA period) meeting was held by the “Team Canada” group, or is it the “Eh Team”? Actually we have no formal name yet…
A few weeks back, in my “Team Canada” post, I made the point that WECA era books did not produce a super hero team like the JSA at National. This week I want to make note of the fact that…
Imagine that time in Canada during the early forties with the spectre of war looming over the homefront. No internet, no computers, no reality shows (except for war newsreels) or TV to speak of and everything in film-noir black-and-white. The…
There’s that significant moment in silver screen history when Judy Garland, as Dorothy, steps out of her black-and-white Kansas world, through the door of her tornado-transported farm house, into the rich, full-colour, munchkin-filled Land of OZ. This really didn’t happen…
Brok Windsor was a relatively late comer to the WECA period. He debuted in Canada’s West Coast Publisher’s (Maple Leaf’ Publications) Better Comics Vol. 3 NO. 3 from April/May 1944, just over half-way through this Golden Age of Canadian Comics. Brok…
Here’s a WECA splash mystery. Dave Sim was kind enough to send me copies of WECA related material from issue 2 of Now and Then Times as well as digital copies of his early seventies fanzine called Comic Art News…
As is well-known now, the War Exchange Conservation Act (WECA) enacted on Dec. 6, 1940 stopped all American comics from coming into Canada. Canadian entrepreneurs took advantage of this vacuum and produced the first Canadian comic age with the appearance…
A small meeting took place on Grey Cup Sunday 2012. This meeting was held in an poorly lit supply room at Toronto’s Royal York Hotel during a 1 day comic book convention. The participants of this meeting were Jim Finlay,…