Fourth Time's The Charm?

The North Shield is a graphic novel project by William Byrne that's been percolating for some time. Here's its elevator pitch:

They thought they killed him, but they were wrong... Rising from the ashes to be found by a secret government agency under the streets of the Toronto as he struggles to understand and cope with his newfound abilities. 

He will be trained by a battle scarred WW2 French Canadian superhero/spy and armed with an alien battle-suit. 

He will claim back his new home from the dark tyranny that threatens to destroy the city. 

He will become the hero the city/country and the world needs!

Byrne attempted to kickstart it on three separate occasions earlier this year. The first campaign was cancelled for reasons which escape me now and the next two failed to meet their goals.

But...Byrne deserves some credit here, for a variety of reasons.

1) Many people would have called it quits after the first attempt. Byrne believes in his project and persevered.

2) Byrne received quite a bit of press over his project including the CBC, local newspapers and of course a variety of comics sites. That's not always easy to do so clearly he managed to strike a chord with some people.

3) While he didn't reach his goal, he was still able to obtain thousands of dollars in commitments.

Referring back to point one, after the third attempt did not meet expectations, Byrne stated that he and his character would be back soon. Honestly, I've read this claim a dozen times from folks who were never heard from again so I admit I've begun to think of it as the standard farewell speech.

Prior to writing this, I went over the past few months of activity on The North Shield Facebook group to look for news I might have missed since the end of the last fundraising campaign. There are two types of posts by Byrne that stand out; Those relative to his various attempts at improving his product and the more general ones about not giving up on a goal.

Then today, Byrne shared a post from Toronto artist Loc Nguyen which displays a redesign of The North Shield character.

Pretty smooth, eh? It builds nicely on Marvin Law's art above (I don't know if Law was involved in the original design or only as the artist on the book). Nguyen's use of darker colours and the added detail work very well here.

Byrne's own hard work, public requests for feedback, positive attitude and a sleek new look for the main character all indicate that he truly has not given up on seeing his graphic novel published. Don't be surprised if The North Shield appears on Kickstarter once again before long.

ICYMI Art: Dominion Jack by Steve Rude

Jack Briglio shared the image yesterday as part of his Merry Christmas message to friends, family, etc.

As a True Patriot & Dominion Jack treat, thought I’d share an image of a gift I received from none other than the “Dude” himself, Steve Rude! His take on Dominion Jack and Mashup. Cool or what, eh? 🙂 Enjoy! 

I’ll have some shots from the next True Patriot Presents Dominion Jack chapter that Hugh and I are cooking up in the new year! The story is heating up...

No better gift than one you can also share.

The "Hugh" being referred to is no doubt Hugh Rockwood. Hugh has handled art duties on the last couple of installments of the Dominion Jack stories in True Patriot Presents and apparently will continue to do so. He also contributed the cover below to the third issue of Captain Canuck Chapterhouse Archives book. Alas, it never saw print.

Looking Ahead to 2018 Some More!

The last chronological post here displayed the cover for Deborah Daring #4 but as the year comes to a close, I should take the time to mention some of the other great books that are schedule to become available in the early part of the new year.

These three covers are displayed in the order that I remember seeing them in. It is not a reflection of the order in which they might be released or indicative of my affection for the product and/or its creator(s). ;-)

Big Nick #3

Auric #5

It's good to see the Auric cover. I have yet to receive #4 after supporting it in the recent Kickstarter campaign. I have no concerns about it reaching me, as the team behidn Auric and Great North comics has always been reliable in that sense, but seeing work on #5 already being shared makes me hopeful that there will be a little less time between these two issues.

Project I.M.P.A.C.T. #1

More serious fare here. I'd been hoping a coloured version would come quickly after the black and white one was revealed a few days earlier.

I know work continues on North, Oktana @ Co, North Force Alpha, the Lucky Comics version of The Leaf, Psychosis and more as well. One book that met its fundraising goal and that should be coming my way soon is Atticus Drake. Here's the cover for that.

Find out more about that project here. It may end up being a one-and-done, but I'm always all-in for a good war story. I wish I'd been more vocal in supporting it (for whatever little good that might actually do) so I was quite glad to see it meets its goal.

If you are aware of other projects involving Canadian characters, creators, settings and publishers, get in touch with me at jf4nier(at)gmail(dot)com.

Deborah Daring #4 Getting Kickstarted Soon!

I've praised the folks behind the Psychosis book a few times over the handling of their crowdfunding campaigns but Rob McKinnon, the man behind the Deborah Daring limited series, deserves those same accolades as well.

Rob sent a campaign update earlier today in which he apologized to some backers over a delay in shipping the collected edition of the book that they'd pre-purchased. I've backed individual issues and have encountered no such delays. If any of the three books were late, it wasn't particularly noticeable.

The update came with cover art for the next issue which I very much plan to support again. Artist Jae Korim is a great choice for this book.

The Surprising Superieurs

I received an unexpected surprise (aren't they all?) this afternoon when Charlie McElvy, creator of the Watchguard Universe, sent out the following image to those who supported the Kickstarter campaign for his Watchguard and/or Teen Force 5 comics.

The above ass-kicking was provided by Chahine Ladjouze and gloriously displays Charlie's subtly Canadian super team, Les Superieurs. The image will be used for the cover to an upcoming WatchGuard Sourcebook supplement.

My surprise stems from the fact that I supported the WatchGuard campaign...in early 2012.

I did so knowing full well that Les Superieurs were peripheral to it, of course. It wasn't about them, they just happened to inhabit the same setting. The Watchguard characters were interesting enough on their own though and supporting the "universe" could only help the Superieurs material get made, so onwards.

Since then I've enjoyed purchasing character fact sheets for the various team members or some of their opponents. They are reference material for the Mutants & Masterminds role-playing game, is my understanding, which I don't play, but they provide a great deal of background material on their respective subject.

It had been quite some time since I'd had the opportunity to purchase one so I figured this was one of many, many projects I've backed in which the creator(s) lose(s) interest for whatever reason, such as Heroes Of The North and Legion Unleashed.

(No knock, by the way. Life happens. It's all I can do to maintain this blog, let alone create a comic series or write a novel)

Today's teaser confirms that a) the project is still a go and b) I should quit doubting Charlie because whenever I give up on seeing Les Superieurs, they resurface in some way. Hopefully there's still a chance that a comic book will follow as well, along the lines of the one that was produced for Watchguard. Just, you know...Don't go camping out in front of your local RPG or comics store just yet.

In the process of refreshing my memory about this team, I found this character as well.

Defending Canada's provinces and territories from villainy isn't an easy job. Luckily the nation has Red Serge as their national hero! A member of the RCMP that uses a strange, crimson-colored energy to fight the forces of evil, he protects the nation from villainy both within its borders and beyond them.

I have no idea how he fits into all this, in fact I don't believe he does. He may just be a pre-made character for those who want to play the Mutants & Masterminds game but not a part of the Watchguard Universe as such. Still, I dig the design and who knows? Just because he's not in Les Superieurs doesn't mean he can't operate on his own in Watchguard Canada.