Tonight I present a desktop I made a few years back. This desktop shows 3 Captain Canuck (Canada's own superhero) comics that were never officialy released. Actually that is not entirely true, as issue #15 was released as a special limited edition of 150 signed and numbered copies, in 2004. That makes 23 years between issue #14 (released in April 1981) and issue #15. This is not the only time that Captain Canuck issues had a long gap between issues. Issue #4 of the original series was released in 1976, with a cliffhanger ending. Readers had to wait 3 years for issue #5 which was released in 1979, before the cliffhanger would be revealed and they would find out who was behind the Captain's mask.
Issue #15 was released as a special limited edition, and I have issue #53 (of 150). I have one more, but its packed away somewhere, and I am not sure of the number. This special printing has a nice colour cover and black and white interior pages. There are 28 pages, 18 pages from the original issue, 7 pages of the syndicated Captain Canuck newspaper comics, and 3 pages of news, updates, ads etc. For a huge Captain Canuck fan like myself, this was a wonderful opportunity to add something to my collection that I had always wished I could have read back in 1981.
The other two unpublished issues shown are;
The unpublished Captain Canuck Summer Special #2, which, I was told recently by Richard Comley, that only the cover was ever produced, no interior pages were drawn. For my desktop, I coloured the b/w cover myself in Photoshop.
Issue #4 of Captain Canuck Reborn. I have no info on this, other than this small b/w cover that was published in an issue of Previews magazine soliciting this comic, which never came out. I have no idea if it was actually a finished product that just didn't get released, or was just a cover, much like the Summer Special #2.
Nice blog Ronn. I was surfing the web looking for info on Canadian Comic books and came across your post. I volunteer with the Grand Comic-Book Database which has the little tiny goal of recording all the info about every comic book ever. I specialize in Canadian comics and have wanted to add the 15th issue of Captain Canuck for a while, but I wasn't sure if the publisher was Comely or someone else. Is there a publisher listed in the comic?
ReplyDeleteAlso, I've read about unpublished pages of the Summer Special in two places. One was at a yahoo group called "canadiancomics". The message is at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/canadiancomics/message/7426 (I don't know if you have to be a member to read it or not). Also I remember reading once that the National Archives of Canada had some of the original art to Summer Special #2, it states that on this page http://mikan3.archives.ca/pam/public_mikan/index.php?fuseaction=genitem.displayItem&lang=eng&rec_nbr=18681&rec_nbr_list=23929,18681,3023001,3023000,3022999,3022998,3022997,3022996,3022995,3022994 but on other pages it states only the cover is there... Just thought you'd want to know...
Peter
Peter, Glad you found my blog and are enjoying it! I will definitely be checking out the Grand Comic-Book Database!
ReplyDeleteAs for issue #15, here is the info printed on the last page of the comic: "Published June 1004 by Comely Communications Inc. Printed in Ontario, Canada. Captain Canuck was created by Richard Comely and Ron Leishman. Contents produced in 1980 in Calgary, Alberta. Cover art by Jean Claude St. Aubin (1980) Electronic colouring by Richard Comely (2004) The Stygian, Black Water and Gold City - are all illustrated by George Freeman (1980). Captain Canuck is a trademark owned by Richard Comely."
As for the unpublished Summer Special. I asked Richard Comely about his and he told me that only the cover was ever produced.
Hope this info helps.
Ronn
Hi there,
ReplyDeleteReally enjoyed this post. If you are interested and already a facebook user, there is a Captain Canuck fanclub there which includes some members of Comely's family and has some interesting pictures posted.