Monday, October 14, 2013

Nelvana

There were days, back when eBay first started, where I thought that website might be the death of me. I'm pretty eBay resistant these days. I think I might have bought about a half dozen things in the past couple of years. But in terms of new temptations, Kickstater is doing a pretty good job.

I think Kickstarter has lured me into supporting about a half dozen or so projects so far, and there's normally one going on that I have to talk myself out of, just for the sake of the pocketbook. The big one we've supported so far was the Veronica Mars movie. Cathy and I are huge fans of the first two seasons of the show (we just pretended the third season didn't happen), so when there was an opportunity to support doing a movie...we were all over that one.

But one of the big lures for me have been some of my favourite comic book creators deciding to give Kickstater a try. So when Brian Q. Miller (writer of a beloved run of Batgirl) decided to launch a creator own series called Earthbound on Kickstarter, well, I'll give that a try. I like giving money directly to artists I like.

And then, well, Greg Rucka (dozens of superb books) launched Lady Sabre, well, that was another one. Then Amy Reeder came out with Rocket Girl, which looks like entirely too much fun, so clearly I needed to get that.

So yes, I have issues. This is not a news flash.

For most people I suspect these are probably not things that would lure your attention, although I think they're all excellent books (I'm past due for another graphic novel review post. Maybe later this week). But if you're Canadian, I'm going to point you in the direction of a Kickstarter worth taking a glance at. It's not only comic book based, but also Canadian and historical. So it's a solid trifecta.

This Kickstarter is for Nelvana of the Northern Lights. She was Canada's first superheroine and the story behind her creation and what happened to her is seriously fascinating. I mean, I knew of her existence, but not much more than that. I didn't realize, for example, that she was created in part because US comic books were banned in Canada during World War II, but that there was still a demand to read comic book stories. I also would have sworn there would have been a collection of some of kind of her comics already out there, but I would be wrong.

I could go on at length about this, but there are already two really good interview with the women spearheading the project to collect all of Nelvana's into one book. The more mainstream one came out last week in The Star. Go here to read it, assuming their firewall doesn't drive you nuts. You can also go to Sue's Tumblr called DC Women Kicking Ass and read her interview here.

As it stands, they've already made enough money to get the book made. They're into Stretch Goals now (If they hit certain goals, they offer up more items to go along with the book). And there are a few cool other things you can get, like posters, a calendar, original artwork, etc.

However, I guess due diligence requires me to tell you that if you are interested that this book does collect comics from the 1940s. They were a much different beast back then. I remember when I was younger picking up a copy of Batman Archives which collected the first couple of years of Batman comics from the late 30s and early 40s. I figured it would be something like the Marvel books of the 1960s. But no, it's not. It's a much more...raw and almost primitive version of the comics you will find today. It's not for everyone.

Still, I think what Hope Nicholson and Rachel Richey is wonderful. It's an act of historical preservation, in a way. And I think people in Nunavut would find it interesting and worth taking a look at.

I also love the idea of updating the character and relaunching her. I hope one this Kickstarter is over they find the interest in an update. I suspect that'll be another Kickstarter I'll be interested in supporting.

Last Five
1. Let it be - The Beatles
2. Everybody's trying to be my baby - The Beatles
3. Knuckles - The Long Distance Runners
4. Bohemian like you - The Dandy Warhols
5. Back to the start - Lily Allen*

1 comment:

John, Canberra AU said...

I thought the name Nelvanna sounded familiar. In the Marvel universe, she was the mother of Snowbird in John Byrne's "Alpha Flight". I think I remember Snowbird calling upon Nelvanna during times of extreme stress.

Obviously not the same as the original comics, but it's good odds Byrne was inspired by the originals in some fashion.