The Canadian Alternative: Cartoonists, Comics, and Graphic NovelsDominick Grace, Eric Hoffman Contributions by Jordan Bolay, Ian Brodie, Jocelyn Sakal Froese, Dominick Grace, Eric Hoffman, Paddy Johnston, Ivan Kocmarek, Jessica Langston, Judith Leggatt, Daniel Marrone, Mark J. McLaughlin, Joan Ormrod, Laura A. Pearson, Annick Pellegrin, Mihaela Precup, Jason Sacks, and Ruth-Ellen St. Onge This overview of the history of Canadian comics explores acclaimed as well as unfamiliar artists. Contributors look at the myriad ways that English-language, Francophone, Indigenous, and queer Canadian comics and cartoonists pose alternatives to American comics, to dominant perceptions, even to gender and racial categories. In contrast to the United States' melting pot, Canada has been understood to comprise a social, cultural, and ethnic mosaic, with distinct cultural variation as part of its identity. This volume reveals differences that often reflect in highly regional and localized comics such as Paul MacKinnon's Cape Breton-specific Old Trout Funnies, Michel Rabagliati's Montreal-based Paul comics, and Kurt Martell and Christopher Merkley's Thunder Bay-specific zombie apocalypse. The collection also considers some of the conventionally "alternative" cartoonists, namely Seth, Dave Sim, and Chester Brown. It offers alternate views of the diverse and engaging work of two very different Canadian cartoonists who bring their own alternatives into play: Jeff Lemire in his bridging of Canadian/US and mainstream/alternative sensibilities and Nina Bunjevac in her own blending of realism and fantasy as well as of insider/outsider status. Despite an upsurge in research on Canadian comics, there is still remarkably little written about most major and all minor Canadian cartoonists. This volume provides insight into some of the lesser-known Canadian alternatives still awaiting full exploration. |
Contents
THE STATE AS ALTERNATIVE | |
GENE | |
PAUL MOOSE MACKINNON AND AN ALTERNATIVE CAPE BRETON | |
MICHEL GETS A COMICS | |
VICKY | |
NOWADAYS AND THE FREE WILL ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE | |
SETHS ITS A GOOD LIFE IF YOU DONT WEAKEN AS ANTI | |
LOUIS RIEL SUPERHISTORY HERO | |
HARK ANACHRONISM | |
RAY FAWKESS FORMAL AND STYLISTIC SHIFTS IN THE FIELD | |
TO DREAM OF BIRDS | |
ALTERNATIVE PARADOXES IN HEARTLESS | |
THE POSTCOLONIAL ENTERPRISE OF TRILLIUM | |
MAKING SPACE FOR MAKING SPACE | |
Other editions - View all
The Canadian Alternative: Cartoonists, Comics, and Graphic Novels Dominick Grace,Eric Hoffman Limited preview - 2017 |
The Canadian Alternative: Cartoonists, Comics, and Graphic Novels Dominick Grace,Eric Hoffman No preview available - 2019 |
The Canadian Alternative: Cartoonists, Comics, and Graphic Novels from the North Dominick Grace,Eric Hoffman No preview available - 2017 |
Common terms and phrases
Aardvark-Vanaheim Ab Normal Accessed Sept alternative comics American comics artist autobiographical bande dessinée Beaton become Billy Binkley and Doinkel Bitter Tears Brown’s Bunjevac Canada Reads Canadian comics Cape Breton cartooning CBLA Cerebus Cerebus’s chapter characters Chester Brown Cirinists colonial comic book comics in Canada contemporary context created creator cultural Dave Sim Day’s Delaf and Dubuc depiction Essex County été trop mortel father Fatherland Fawkes Fawkes’s Figure Forest Lands gender Gene Day genre government comics graphic novel hero human humanimal identity Indigenous interview issue Jaka Jeff Lemire Lemire’s literature Louis Riel MacKinnon mainstream Master of Kung metafiction monstrator narrative narrator neoliberal Nika Nika’s Nombrils Oni Press Ontario orature panel past Paul photographs political production Rabagliati’s reader representation Riel’s science fiction Seth Seth’s Sim’s social space Spectral Engine Spirou story strip suggests superhero Toronto tradition Trillium University Press Vicky Vicky’s visual zombie Zorka