Canadian Golden Age

The Original Adventures of Doc Sterne/Mr Monster is the latest project from comics historian Rachel Richey, who is working to bring a number of classic Canadian comics back into print via Kickstarter. Doctor Jim Stearne was an adventure hero created by writer/artist Fred Kelly in the 1940s, who eventually transitioned into the role of monster hunter Mr Monster. Richey is bringing his stories back to print after decades in the wilderness, with a Kickstarter campaign launched this past weekend to coincide with Fan Expo Canada. To find out more about the project, we spoke to Richey about what drew her to Doc Stearne, and where he belongs in the pantheon of lost Canadian heroes.

While Captain America is perhaps fictional history's best-known Hitler-puncher, he is far from the only hero to sock old Adolf in the jaw -- and now Canada gets its turn courtesy of Francis Manapul's fundraiser sketch for the Johnny Canuck Kickstarter. The Toronto-based Detective Comics co-writer and artist filmed himself as he sketched, and the video offers a fascinating glimpse of his process. Like Nelvana of the Northern Lights and Brok Windsor, Johnny Canuck is one of the lost Canadian comic heroes of the 1940s, a time when American comics weren't allowed into Canada because of restrictions on non-essential trade. Long out of print, a new generation may get to enjoy his adventures thanks to this Kickstarter.

Canada offers an impressive range of comics talents, but its comic industry has usually been overshadowed by the buying power of the U.S. market -- but for one brief period in modern history. During the Second World War Canada restricted the import of non-essential items -- and that included comic books. For much of the 1940s, Canadians could only read Canadian comics. The era has become known as the Canadian Golden Age. Hope Nicholson was a researcher on a documentary about the characters created during this era, Lost Heroes. Fascinated by the subject, Nicholson and her partner Rachel Richey launched a project to restore and republish the stories of one of the first comic superheroines, Adrian Dingle's Nelvana of the Northern Lights. With that book now in print, Nicholson has launched a Kickstarter to revive another lost Canadian hero; the square-jawed action man Brok Windsor.