[CdnAuthor]

Hi all. Thanks for welcoming me to your fascinating site! Working on a Canadian WWII story at the moment, and I have a German character who is trying to learn English through newspapers and comic books. I want to incorporate some of the superhero or comic character expressions/phrases into his developing English. In Dec 1942/Jan-March 1943 US comics didn't usually cross the border to Canada, so I'm mostly looking for Cdn comics but I may have to soften on that point. Anyone know where I could find that sort of thing?
THANK YOU!

[betaraybdw]

Superior Comics was a big Canadian Publisher   https://comicbookplus.com/?cid=623


also check out this section over at DCM

http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/index.php?cid=271

[CdnAuthor]

Thanks! The first link you shared looks like it's all post 1945, but the DCM one had lots of earlier ones. Some of the years aren't marked. Do you know how I can find out the year of publication?

[betaraybdw]

open the comic up an read the Indicia , it is usually at the bottom of one of the 1st two pages after the cover

[CdnAuthor]

Thanks! I'll give that a shot.

[jimmm kelly]

For Superior Comics you might want to check out my blog--


My Favourite Funnies No. 13 -- Weird and Strange posted October 2013

For a general overview of Canadian Comics--with greater detail on the publishers from the WW II era--there's--

My Favourite Funnies No. 12 -- Can Com 101 also posted October 2013. In particular items 21 - 70. There's hyperlinks at the top that should work (I hope).

[jimmm kelly]

Interesting idea for a novel, by the way. I wrote a novel that I'm trying to get published--but so far none of the publishers I've submitted to have responded. Oh well, I'll keep trying.

Part of my novel is set around WW II, as well. In particular an Austrian character (rather than German). And some detail about Canadian comic books. But instead of using the real comics and publishers, I invented my own Canadian publisher and line of comics--albeit informed by my knowledge of Canadian comics history.

I wish you luck with your writing.

[CdnAuthor]

Thanks, Jimmm. There is an old story around these parts about a group of young U-Boat sailors who actually came ashore and had fun at a dance before leaving and sailing back out of the channel (apparently it's a true story!) so I used that, but when the U-Boat left I had it blown up and only one man survived. Now he's stranded and forced to try and fit in with the Nova Scotian family who finds him. I thought it kind of lightened up the dialogue and gave it some humour when he starts using some comic book convo.

[jimmm kelly]

The U-boat story rings a bell.

If you haven't already, you should watch the movie 49TH PARALLEL, which has a similar idea. But it doesn't ring true for us Canadians--and the only performance that is truly Canadian is Raymond Massey's toward the end of the movie.

Massey came from an old Canadian family that made tractors (Massey Harris, later Massey Ferguson). The saying was that in Toronto there are the masses and the Masseys. Raymond's brother was Vincent Massey, who was the envoy to the U.K. during the war.

Superior didn't really take off as a comic book publisher until after the war. More likely publishers, whose comics woulld reach Nova Scotia, would have been Bell or Anglo-American. Of course, a lot of American comics got into Canada through these publishers. I find Anglo-American interesting for that, because they used the same scripts but had the stories redrawn in Canada--in particular for Fawceet comics like Captain Marvel and Captain Marvel Jr.

[CdnAuthor]

Yes! I watched 49th Parallel, and I won't say it didn't help me figure out some of my plot, but it's kind of the opposite, in that there's only one guy left. That was a pretty good movie, with all the different directions it explored. And it's kind of cool that the stories I'm using actually happened right here, 10 minutes from my house, making it a natural tie in.

Thank you for that Massey info. I had no idea, and I love that kind of trivia!

Jimmm, I'm an absolutely comic newbie. If you can take my hand and lead me to the place where I can find some of these comics, that would be awesome. I really don't know how to find them. I don't need a lot, as I say, just some words/phrases to use. Thanks a ton for whatever you can help me with!

[jimmm kelly]

Some examples of Anglo-American and Maple Leaf can be found here on CB+ in the section on Small Press. For other material on my Can Com 101 blog I had to scrounge around and I don't remember where I found half of all the scans I used, but at the bottom of that blog item 101 lists all the resources I consulted back then. Bell Features was represented in a book that came out in the '70s, but it's now out of print, although the UBC library had a copy. But the relatively recent book, INVADERS FROM THE NORTH, does a good job of laying out the history of comics in Canada.