[majorcanuck]

I've read about them a little, but I'm wondering about the publishers. Does anybody know when Maple Leaf & Bell Features were actually founded?

[Hayabusa449]

I don't know the exact dates for Bell, Maple, Anglo-American, or any others, but the general timeline is from 1941-1946 (although I've heard that Bell was founded in 39 and simply didn't publish anything for give or take 2 years).

[jimmm kelly]

You might want to check out my blog post CAN COM 101.

If I were not just about to go out the door, I'd give you more detail here. But you should find the info you need in that link.

[jimmm kelly]

From my blog--

WECA: WECA stands for War Exchange Conservation Act

[Robb_K]

Here's a great website dedicated to our own Canadian Golden Age WWII wartime comic books (which dwells heavily on WWII wartime comics, and the couple years after:

http://canadasowncomics.com/comic/joke-comics-8/

Here's the proper, Home address for the website:    http://canadasowncomics.com/home/

I grew up in The Winnipeg Area (West Kildonan, Manitoba) during the late 1940s and 1950s, and "inherited" my older male cousins' (who lived in our house) early 1940s comics.  Unlike the rest of you, I wasn't much of a fan of the action based human figure comics.  I was a fan of cartoony human character comedy and funny animal cartoon-style comics.  Of our home-grown Canadian comics, I liked Bell's "The Funny Comics Starring Dizzy Don", Maple Leaf's "Bing Bang Comics"; and Bell's "Joke Comics", with Spike & Mike, and Doodlebugs;

But, really, things got a lot better in 1946, when the Canadian-produced comics went back to colour, and the US imports, and Canadian publishers distributing US-produced comics, and I could get Disney, Warner Brothers, MGM, and Walter Lantz funny animal comics.

[The Australian Panther]

Robb,

Unlike the rest of you, I wasn't much of a fan of the action based human figure comics.

, That's an understandable assumption, but not necessarily correct Story, maturity and coherence were always what I wanted in a comic to start with. Without being aware of it, till decades later, I was reading Carl Barks when I was 6 and not much else [in comic books] was up to that standard. Although, that wasn't necessarily the case with cartoony character comedy in Newspaper strips.  I also read and enjoyed the Archie comics - 3 creators in particular, Harry Lucey, Samm Schwartz and Dan DeCarlo.Lucey was amazing and one of the most underappreciated comics artists.

The word for Lucey was "motion," and if not that, it was "gesture." Lucey could communicate a lot with a few lines, which would explain why he drew so many silent strips. He could also match DeCarlo himself when it came to Good Girl Art, and his girls always seemed flirtier than everyone else's).You can tell a Harry Lucey story from sight right off the bat. He's the guy who draws a whole mouth on the side of the face in a profile shot, and when a character does something with energy, they put their whole body into it. Jaime Hernandez, of Love and Rockets fame, frequently cites Lucey as an influence, stating in his introduction to The Best of Harry Lucey that "For me, there are very few artists in the history of comics who brought their characters to life with body language, simple gesure, and timing as Lucey did."

Also Mighty Mouse and the Harvey Characters and when I got old enough to appreciate it , Pogo. Hell, I was hooked on comics and I read anything and everything.

Thanks for the Link! 
   

[Andrew999]

Hey - that's interesting. Now it's been pointed out I can see the influence in Love & Rockets - Hernandez Bros being an all-time favourite of mine (though never enough attention given to Penny Century in my opinion)

[The Australian Panther]

I forgot to supply the link for the Harry Lucie quote above.

https://www.comicscube.com/2013/02/reclaiming-history-top-10-archie-artists.html

This site also has many really thoughtful articles on other comics subjects.

Cheers