FEATURES II!
MAIN FEATURE:THIS MONTH...............GUESS!
We had to wait over 20 years but,above,CAPTAIN CANUCK #15 finally appeared!
PHIL LATTER is a major comics fan living in Halifax,Nova Scotia [I'm told that's in Canada]. He is THE biggest CAPTAIN CANUCK fan so who else should write this guide -check out "LATTER SPEAKS" on canadianheroes.4t.com!
CAPTAIN CANUCK
And everything you ever needed to know!
Phil Latter provides the information while resting from
His full time job as costumed defender of the North.
Everything you need to know about Captain Canuck? Right,Captain Canuck [1st series];#1 came out in 1975. When #2 came out a truck carrying the print-run to a distributor in
Despite this,#3 is in fact the scarcest issue of volume 1‘s run since it had a very limited print run...unless,of course,you count #15 as an “official” issue -more on that further on!
After #3,Comely Comix,the name derived from its artist,Richard Comely,which was a good choice as the word “comely” means “good looking”,thus “Good Looking Comix”!
digress. After #3,Comley Comix went under and out of business. Thankfully,this was not the end! Several months after going out of business,Comely Comics produced 15 copies only of a special,Marvel Treasury Edition sized [remember them?] Captain Canuck #4. This was done by using the unpublished George Freeman drawn #4 artwork. These were serial numbered and signed by the creators [presumably Ron Leishman (?),Richard D. Comely and Dave Abbott ~TH]. Only 15 people were/are lucky enough to own these -and I’m not one of them!
As such,these Treasury editions are the first printing of #4 with the story “Behind The Mask”,wherein criminals unmask Captain Canuck! Ironically,most fans had to wait for years to find out who was under the mask.......
It turns out that Captain Canuck is really one Tom Evans,a Canadian native indian.
Some time later a second printing of #4 was published by Doug Sulipa’s Comix World. Sulipa gratiously paid for the printing of this edition,also Treasury Edition sized,in cooperation with
Richard Comely. This time 300 copies were printed.
Both Treasury Edition Captain Canuck’s were printed in black and white. I have one of these second edition printings:mine is #169 of 300. Both versions are signed by all the creators and come with a certificate of authenticity.
Check out the Overstreet Price Guide for more information.
A few years later [by which time I had moved to
Captain Canuck,volume 1 is,of course,in the Overstreet Price Guide for the reason that these were distributed [all the later issues anyway] to the
There were 14 issues in volume 1 and one “Summer Special”,which is a large size annual of 64pp -all new,no reprints!
CC #15 had been drawn by George Freeman but it was never published as,after #14 came out,CKR Productions went out of business. Richard Comely had already left CKR due to differences with the CKR director.
The creators who worked on #15 were never paid for their efforts,thus #15 cannot be legally published. However,every-so-often,Comely prints up a very small run of #15,photocopies the pages,staples them together,and sells them to one particular
I,myself,deal with several dealers all across
For Captain Canuck collectors,here are some things you may wish to acquire from dealers:ORION #1 and #2. This is a Canadian fanzine with colour covers,professionally done,but they are comics.
ORION #1 has a Teen Titans cover and #2 has a new Captain Canuck cover.
It also contains pages of the Captain Canuck newspaper comic strip by George Freeman and others from the impossible to -find editions of the period. Also,in #1,were numerous pages by Claude St. Aubin,of a humorous newspaper comic strip that has never,apparently,been printed anywhere else!
Of course,Claude also worked on Captain Canuck.
CC's RICHARD COMELY
Yep,the man behind CAPTAIN CANUCK in a rather murky 1970s photo reproduced from the COMIC CELLAR "CAPTAIN CANUCK" feature.
HEY! He's brought his own name tab along!!
CC's GEORGE FREEMAN
Yes -the GEORGE FREEMAN,currently inking Wildstorm's ALBION series. [you'd almost think this was all linked,huh?]. Murky picture same source.
All three of these fanzines I would recommend highly.
I also have a lot of other Captain Canuck memorabilia,not just comics;posters,buttons,a 3-D stand-up diorama,stickers,bumper stickers and much more. Over the past few weeks I have been working hard on a Captain Canuck action figure of my own,since none were ever produced Hey,if I can’t buy one,I’ll make one!
Okay,let’s talk about volume 2.
Captain Canuck volume 2 are not listed in any price guides. All issues were published by Semple Comics,also a Canadian company. Comely returned to do both the writing and artwork. This time,however,it was a completely different person under the mask:Darren Oakes. The strip was set in the present and told how the adventures of Tom Evans were “just” comic books,fiction,set in the future,whereas the Semple version was the “true version” -the Semple version was,in fact,a more inferior version of Captain Canuck.
This “true version” pissed off Captain Canuck fans everywhere,because the Semple version was lousy. The first issue was #0,followed by #1,#2 & #3.
It should be pointed out that #3 is very scarce. So scarce,in fact,that I didn’t even know of its existence until 2002,when I tracked down a copy signed by Richard Comely from a dealer. Yeah,they are not very good,but I am a Captain Canuck completist. Call me an hypocrite if you will;I have no feelings to hurt - Ha-ha!
Whereas the Comely run and issues 0-2 of the Semple run,the final issue,#3,published by the latter,was all black and white newspaper comic strip reprints. Art for these strips was by Comely.
Some years back,Canada Post issued a Canadian super hero stamp set that came in an illustrated Superman envelope. This set included Johnny Canuck,Captain Canuck,Northguard,Fleur de lys,The Northern Light and others including Superman.
One of Superman’s creators,Joe Shuster,was born in
This stamp set,which frequently turns up on ebay,is,I feel,well worth collecting.
And now you know “Everything you ever wanted to know about Captain Canuck but were afraid to ask!”
~ fin ~
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My thanks to Phil and I’m hoping one day he’ll write-up something on Northguard and other Canadian heroes!
In the meantime I’d like to add my few pence worth of comments. When I helped with the old Bath Comics Mart in the mid-to-late 1980s,most stall holders knew I liked the oddities as well as old Small Press titles. David Johnson,who set up the marts asked me one day if I might be interested in Canadian comics?
He had to ask??!!
Anyway,he took me to one box and there were issues of Captain Canuck. My face must have lit-up! David said that he thought I’d be interested.
All the way back on the bus to Bristol I kept thinking about the batch of comics I’d just bought at part price -because David couldn’t sell them! - and when I got back home I opened them up and read away.
Despite the “cornflake package colour printing” [any old Charlton buffs out there know what I mean?] I read them,looked at them again and felt a warm glow.
I’ll admit here and now that I like Canadians. No idea why. Canadian artist Colin Upton said that it might be because Canadians were seen by the world as peace-keepers and the British always seemed friendlier to canucks than Americans. Maybe.
I know when I met John Byrne at one of the UK Comic Art Conventions in the 1980s I did briefly mention Captain Canuck. I loved what he had done with Alpha Flight [though it took one issue after he had left for it to be ruined -and I’m not even going to discuss the current Alpha Flight!
For everything on Canadian comics!
CAPTAIN CANUCK Trading Card given away with #15!
The card was given away,we assume,as a thank you for waiting for #15 to appear..........a longer wait than that between issues of the Brian Bolland drawn CAMELOT 3000 in the 1980s!
THE COMIC CELLAR
The "Holy Grail" for CC fans looking for info and photographs of the creators!
"UNHOLY WAR"?! Ahh,now to find out what this CAPTAIN CANUCK has to do with the original.......you really are going to have to check out that canadianheroes.4t.com site....aren't you!