The Many Lives of Captain Canuck:Nationalism, Culture, and the Creation of aCanadian Comic Book Superhero

RYA N E D WA R D S O N

‘‘

CANADA FINALLY HAS HER OWN HONEST-TO-GOODNESS COMIC MAGA-

ZINE, with Canada’s very own superheroFCaptain Canuck!’’(C.C. 1).1 Captain Canuck’s 1975 release was the first

Canadian comic book success since the collapse of the Second WorldWar comic book industry. Captain Canuck, clad in a red and white suitand maple leaf emblems, used his strengthFderived from a healthydiet and fitnessFto fight for Canadian ‘‘peace, order, and goodgovernment.’’ He avoided violence when possible, prayed beforemissions, and dedicated himself to protecting Canada and the worldfrom evildoers. Canadian readers enjoyed the familiarity of nationalimages, symbols, and locations infused with the action-adventure formatestablished by American comic books. Yet, despite its popularity, thecomic collapsed several times due to the economics of publishing inCanada and the problem of American cultural ‘‘dumping.’’

Captain Canuck is more than a comic book relic, however; it is acultural artifact, a key item in the construction of modern Canadiancultural identity and consciousness. While in print, the comicpresented popular cultural characteristics, myths, symbols, andstereotypes that legitimized the national identity and reinforced theconception of Canada as a ‘‘peaceable kingdom.’’ Following the comic’spublication run, Captain Canuck was revived by the Canadiangovernment and incorporated as a national icon valuable for fosteringnational awareness and pride. It is an example of perpetual nation-building, an item of popular culture presenting national signifiers that,

The Journal of Popular Culture, Vol. 37, No. 2, 2003r 2003 Blackwell Publishing, 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA, andPO Box 1354, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK

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following its demise, was resurrected and recycled into a nationalsignifier itself; it was fostered in a period of nationalism, empoweredthe national identity, and later was integrated into the national myth-symbol roster.

‘‘Nationalism,’’ according to Ernest Gellner, ‘‘is not the awakeningof nations to self-consciousness: it invents nations where they do notexist’’ (169). Benedict Anderson has furthered this idea, arguing thatnations are imagined into existence because ‘‘the members of even thesmallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meetthem, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image oftheir communion’’ (6). Comic books, as a visual medium, engage thisact of imagination, in turn facilitating the mental construction of thenation and national identity. It is an act that may be an essential part ofbeing Canadian. Canadian cultural historian Daniel Francis has argued(perhaps too generally but a valid observation nonetheless) that‘‘because we lack a common religion, language or ethnicity, because weare spread out so sparsely across such a huge piece of real estate,Canadians depend on this habit of ‘consensual hallucination’ more thanany other people’’ (10).

National identity, it can be argued, is also consumed into existence.Commodities can embody and popularize social identities andlifestylesFsuch as Nike and ‘‘Just do it’’ or the Body Shop andenvironmentalismFwhich are in turn confirmed through theconsumption of those products (Klein). Through the consumptionof commodities proposing certain myths, symbols, and values,national identities can be popularized and validated. In the area ofJapanese national identity, Kosaku Yoshino has made some interest-ing insights into ‘‘a ‘market’ process where by ideas of culturaldifferences are ‘produced,’ ‘reproduced’ and ‘consumed’ ’’ (9). Bydrawing on Jean Baudrillard’s argument that consumption ‘‘is a wholesystem of values, with all that expression implies in terms of groupintegration and social control functions’’ (81), one can see how culturalconsumption provides a basis for identity construction. The materialconsumed carries a series of meanings that are either accepted orrejected by the consumer. Consumption is, in Baudrillard’s complexarrangement,

an order of significations in a ‘‘panoply’’ of objects; a system, or code,of signs; ‘‘an order of the manipulation of signs’’; the manipulation

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of objects as signs; a communication system (like a language); asystem of exchange (like primitive kinship); a morality, that isa system of ideological values; a social function; a structuralorganization; a collective phenomenon; the production of differ-ences; ‘‘a generalization of the combinatorial processes of fashion’’;isolating and individualizing; an unconscious constraint on people,both from the sign system and from the socio-economico-politicalsystem; and a social logic. (15)

Consequently, in mass culture one can find mass national identity.Captain Canuck’s red and white costume adorned with maple leavessignified his Canadianness, while his moralism, natural strength, andself-sacrificing persona reinforced conceptions of Canadians as polite,kind, moral, heroic peacekeepers. Distinctively national comic books,then, are vessels for transmitting national myths, symbols, ideologies,and value. They popularize and perpetuate key elements of the nationalidentity and ingrain them into their readersFespecially, given theprimary readership, younger generations experiencing elements of thatidentity for the first time.

All in the Family: Captain Canuck’s Comic Book Lineage

Late nineteenth-century Canadian newspapers often explored social,political, and cultural issues through comical caricatures, not only tohighlight the editor’s view, but to use as an aid for those lackingreading abilities. In the tradition of Miss Britannia, Canada often wascast as Miss Canada, the young daughter of the British Empire, orjoined other masculine charactersFincluding Britain’s John Bull andAmerica’s Uncle SamFas a youthful and sprightly Johnny or JackCanuck.2 Political parties, for example, attacked each other throughnewspaper cartoons that depicted Miss Canada in jeopardy, her virginalVictorian morality threatened by the older, seedy Uncle Sam. Jack orJohnny Canuck, on the other hand, embodied the ‘‘youthful’’ nationalspirit, ready to take on the world or, more often, confront Uncle Samover an issue of trade or natural resources.

Comic books first appeared in the early 1930s, bringing togethercollections of reprinted comic strips. By 1938, stimulated by thepopularity of Superman and similar superhero figures, they oftenincluded full-length original stories.3 From the very beginning, thelack of a Canadian publishing industry and the cheap cost of American

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comic overruns ensured that the Canadian market was dominated byAmerican comics. Stories of American heroes and villains suppliedentertainment through exciting and spectacular figures, includingSuperman, the Flash, and Batman. They were a part of the Americanmonomyth that ‘‘secularizes Judeo-Christian ideals by combining theselfless individual who sacrifices himself for others and the zealouscrusader who destroys evil’’ (Land and Trimble 158). Yet Canadiansshare those ‘‘youthful, physically vigorous’’ and ‘‘morally upright’’heroes, not only because their popular fiction is predominantlyAmerican in origin, but because their national, social, and economicdevelopments have been similar. Thus, while the comics were ofAmerican origin, they engaged the imagination of Americans andCanadians by drawing on a shared North American monomyth ofindividualism, self-sacrifice, and personal humility. The fact that thesuperheroes existed in American cities like New YorkFor, at best, anundefined or imaginary ‘‘Anywhere, USA’’ metropolisFwas a requisitepart of reading comics in Canada.

In 1940, however, the American comics in Canada faced a challengethey were powerless to overcome: political policymaking. Americancomic book dominance was delivered a swift blow by Prime MinisterWilliam Lyon Mackenzie King’s War Exchange Conservation Act,which limited the importation of ‘‘nonessentials’’Fincluding comicbooksFas a means of conserving American dollars for the war effort.Canadian companies, previously unable to compete against the‘‘dumped’’ American comics, prospered in the protected market. MapleLeaf Publishing, Anglo-American, Hillborough Studios, and BellFeatures and Publishing filled the Canadian demand for comic bookentertainment. They produced superhero figures in mass quantities,relying on established American character types and war-inspiredstorylines. Out of the numerous heroes emerged Canada’s firstdistinctly Canadian superhero, Nelvana of the North. The product ofHillborough Studios, Nelvana drew on the powers of the AuroraBorealis to fight super-powered Nazi agents. Nelvana’s name camefrom an Inuit legend, but she was drawn as an Anglo-Saxon andclothed in a cape and miniskirt. In Guardians of the North: The NationalSuperhero in Canadian Comic-Book Art, John Bell, Canada’s foremostcomic book historian, describes Nelvana as coming from the ‘‘samemold as the many white queens and goddesses that had appeared inpopular fiction’’ (7). Nelvana was joined by Johnny Canuck in 1942,

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taking care of Nazis with his fast fists and solid jaw in adventure-packed (if slightly monotonous) comic book stories. Lacking super-powers but endowed with wit, charisma, and a strong right hook,Johnny Canuck traveled the world fighting Nazi tyranny. The war’send, however, brought the return of American comic books and the endof comic book Nazi antagonists. Canadian production quickly ended,once again unable to compete with the cheaper American material.

Until the 1970s, Canadians were limited to American comic books.There was little to ask for in the way of quality, as the comics suppliedelaborate plot lines, skillful artistry, and exciting characters. Thecomics were very American, however, in their symbols, figures, myths,and locations, right down to advertisements and the spelling of words.In Bell’s assessment,

what all Canadian comic-book readers of the 1950–1970 period hadin common was a sense of alienation. For English Canadians, comicshad become an American medium: the heroes were American, thesettings were largely American, and even the alluring comic-bookads for toy soldiers and sea monkeys were American. Like U.S.television, comics seemed to contain an implicit message: Canadawas a backwater bereft of heroes, bereft of guardians. For FrenchCanadians, the medium was also dominated by the Europeanfrancophone publishing houses. (Guardians of the North 19)

Indeed, in Canuck Comics, Bell notes that ‘‘Life in America, we justknew, was more exciting. Superman might visit his Fortress of Solitudein our Arctic from time to time, but never Toronto or Montreal, letalone Halifax where I lived’’ (13). It was a common experience for manyCanadians. Reflecting on his own experience, Francis has described how

in the universe I inhabited as a boy, there were no Canadian stars.There was no room; the skies were filled with the super novas ofAmerican history, politics, and pop culture. . . . When I waslooking for ‘‘role models’’ . . . I found them on American televisionor in the myths of the American West or the comic books about U.S.marines in World War II. (112)

American cultural dominance increasingly came under criticism in thelate 1960s, as a Canadian nationalist boom sparked an intense interestin cultural identity and concern over the lack of domestic culturalproducts. While American comics utilized ideas of heroism and self-

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sacrifice common to both Americans and Canadians, the dominance ofAmerican symbols and references drew scorn. Nationalists wereespecially keen to distinguish between conceptions of the Americanmelting pot, tarnished by race riots and Vietnam violence, and theCanadian mosaic, a ‘‘peaceable kingdom’’ and multicultural haven ofpluralism and understanding.4 They called for cultural productsreflecting distinct Canadian values, myths, and symbols.5 Where werethe Canadian songs, movies, books, and even comic books? they asked.

‘‘Up, Up, and Away, Eh?’’: The Birth of a CanadianSuperhero

Ron Leishman, a teacher and amateur cartoonist living in Winnipeg,Manitoba, first sketched a character he called Captain Canada in 1971.About a year later, Leishman met fellow comic book fan RichardComely at a meeting of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.They talked of creating a Canadian-themed comic book based onLeishman’s Captain Canada, but the venture did not look promising.They were unable to get funding through government programs orloans, and in 1974 Leishman left to work in Alberta, followed by atwo-year church mission in Belgium and France (Comely 2001).

Despite Leishman’s absence, Comely did not give up on the plan.There were trademark problems with the name Captain Canada, soComely changed it to Captain Canuck. The similarity to JohnnyCanuck, however, was accidental; Comely was not aware of the nationalNazi fighter until after the first issue of Captain Canuck was published(Comely 2001). ‘‘Canuck,’’ the slang term for a Canadian, wasdistinctively national but not without its drawbacks. As one fan wroteinto the comic, ‘‘I thought it was some kind of a joke. Who wouldseriously think of naming a heroFeven a comic book heroF‘CaptainCanuck’? Even if he is Canadian?’’ (12). The editor responded that‘‘Canuck’’ was just ‘‘a casual term,’’ and ‘‘like Yankee, it depends on howand when you say it.’’ By placing the slang in a culturally positivecontext, Captain Canuck empowered the term, helping to popularize itas a valid nickname for a Canadian.

The first issue of Captain Canuck was published in 1975 withComely as editor, artist, writer, publisher, production manager, andfloor sweeper. Comely was, however, aided by Dave Abbott’s ‘‘writing

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assistance,’’ and he consulted Leishman on aspects of the comic. By thethird issue, he was joined by George Freeman and Jean-Claude St.Aubin on penciling and coloring duties. Its release is regarded as thebeginning of English Canada’s ‘‘Silver Age’’ of comic book production(Bell, Guardians of the North 39). It was a milestone in Canadian comicbook production. ‘‘Captain Canuck’s very existence,’’ Bell notes,‘‘underscored the paucity of indigenous heroes that Canadian kids hadexperienced throughout the fifties and sixties’’ (Canuck Comics 39).

Captain Canuck was set in the future of the early 1990s, with Canadaas the dominant world superpowerFcertainly a situation that couldonly occur in a comic bookFfacing evil forces seeking worlddomination. Tom Evans, a Mountie recruited into the CanadianInternational Security Organization, was of British descent, clean cut,strong and stocky, part ‘‘Indian blood,’’6 bilingual, and an ardentnationalist: a suitable candidate to protect Canada. As Captain Canuck,he literally embodied the Canadian flag, clad in a red and whitecostume adorned with maple leaves. Joined by the French Canadianagent ‘‘Kebec’’ and the super-Mountie ‘‘Redcoat,’’ Captain Canuck wasthe first line of defense against supervillains seeking world domination.From futuristic Mounties to a maple-leaf emblazoned snowmobile,Comely incorporated numerous Canadian references. Nelvana of theNorth may have fought superagents in the arctic while Johnny Canuckwas overseas, but, in the first three issues alone, Captain Canuck’stravels included dog sledding across the arctic, flying over ‘‘themagnificent Rockies,’’ strolling ‘‘across the rooftops of scenicMontreal,’’ and being abducted from ‘‘smog-ridden Sudbury’’ (Issues1–3).7

Comely was ‘‘moved by the nationalism at the time’’ and proud ofthe comic’s origin (Comely 2001). ‘‘We’re 100% Canadian,’’ the firstissue announced, with the letters column in the third issue describing‘‘national pride and patriotism [as] worthy attributes.’’ Captain Canucktapped into the nationalism of the period, and readers responded withgreat enthusiasm to having a distinctively Canadian comic: ‘‘as aCanadian I am proud to see our nation’s greatness recognized,’’ ‘‘here’sto success in making Captain Canuck 100% Canadian,’’ and ‘‘CaptainCanuck has brought out the nationalistic spirit in all its readers, a pridethis country now needs’’ (Issues 2, 3) are a few of the comments mailedin. He tried to make the comic as Canadian as possible, right down tothe advertising. It was not easy, however. He contacted over 600

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Canadian and 250 American companies, but had more success with theAmerican advertisers. ‘‘Hopefully,’’ Comely noted in the second issue,‘‘it won’t be too much longer before Canadian companies realize that itwould be to their advantage to advertise in a 100% Canadian magazinelike Captain Canuck.’’ The lack of a Canadian publication industryposed problems, so distribution was handled by a U.S. company (TIME1975, 10).

The myths and symbols were Canadian, but Comely’s interest inconspiracy theories and his Mormon beliefs shaped the comic’s content.‘‘We’re proud to say that there is nothing within that is degradingor offensive,’’ the introduction to the first issue stated. RadicalCommunists bent on world domination were dealt with swiftly andwith as little violence as necessary.8 Captain Canuck prayed beforemissions and fought with God on his side. His abilities came fromhis moral character and natural health, a strong contrast to thesupernatural powers of the American comic book characters. ‘‘CaptainCanuck’s tremendous strength and endurance come from a goodwholesome diet and lots of exercise,’’ Comely explained in the secondissue. ‘‘His alertness and determination come from having a strong,clean mind.’’ As the Canadian edition of TIME magazine noted in its1975 review of the comic, ‘‘What distinguishes Captain Canuck fromhis American counterparts? Answer: The Canadian is polite and God-fearing and, although immensely strong, is not noted for his speed’’(10). Concerned about the impact of excessive violence in society, inissue 2, Comely reprinted a four-page article on ‘‘How do movies andTV influence behaviour?’’ from a Mormon magazine. Comely wasconcerned with establishing a greater moral standard than existed inmany mainstream comic books. He told TIME that ‘‘we need somemoral fiber today and U.S. comics are tending more and more toviolence and sexual innuendo . . . [Captain Canuck] will give thanks toGod from time to time. [But] I don’t want people to think I’m out tosubvert them through a comic’’ (10).

At thirty-five cents, it was significantly more expensive than thepopular twenty-five-cent American comics, yet Comely tried to provideplenty of value for the money. The early issues used a higher qualityglossy paper and more complex coloring than their Americancounterparts. The issues contained a Captain Canuck story as well asa second feature story, often featuring two of Comely’s other herofigures: ‘‘Jonn,’’ a space commander stuck on a planet of iron-age

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warriors, or ‘‘Catman,’’ a costume-clad vigilante. Occasionally there was‘‘Beyond,’’ a comical adventure series set in the Middle Ages. The earlyissues also included lessons on drawing and illustrating comiccharacters, a gallery for reader-submitted art, and small comic stripfiller. With fewer ads, ‘‘at least 30% less than most super hero comics,’’issue 2 boasted, and a lower comic-to-ads ratio than the Americancomics, Comely offered a graphic-packed comic.

Captain Canuck was a source of inspiration for many Canadian comicbook artists. Bell has noted that ‘‘the comic served to demystify thecomic book business. Suddenly, the dream of creating Canadiansuperhero comics, which so many young artists and writers obviouslyharbored, became attainable’’ (Bell, Canuck Comics 39).9 Yet CaptainCanuck could not maintain production. Comely Comix, as the businesswas called, described itself as ‘‘a small struggling company with grandand lofty ideas’’ (C.C. 3)Fan accurate claim for many Canadianpublishing houses. Although ‘‘Canadian content’’ was fostered intelevision and radio through broadcasting regulations, and the artscommunity benefited from the Canada Council for the Arts, publishinghad very little protection or domestic support.10 The extensive coloringand higher quality paper added to the cost of production, but thebiggest problem was the cost of producing a comic book in Canada.The market was small, funding sparse, distribution difficult, andprinting expensive. As Comely explained to the readers in issue 2,

I’m sure you’re . . . aware that C.C. cost [sic] slightly more thanU.S. comics. Sure, the higher quality increases the cost, but this isnot the main reason. The small print runs and the fact that printingcosts of comics are higher in Canada, cause our magazine to costmore than twice as much to produce than the U.S. comic magazines.I’m trying my best to bring cost down. One of the ways is toincrease sales by distributing through out the U.S. as well asCanada.

Besides funding problems, the comic suffered from rigid characters,poor detailing, and unsophisticated plots with little tension or hook. Inits review of the first issue, TIME magazine criticized its ‘‘amateurishquality’’ and ‘‘often clumsy artwork and story line’’ (‘‘Canuck to theRescue’’, 10). Issue number three was released in 1975, leaving thereader hanging on as Captain Canuck, badly wounded, was abductedin an ambulance by evildoers. Unfortunately, Comely Comix folded,

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unable to bear the costs of publishing Captain Canuck. It was astoryline cliffhanger that lasted for four years.

In 1979, Comely and partners, as CKR Productions in Calgary,Alberta, restarted the series at issue number 4. Comely wrote thestories, Ken Ryan was the business manager, George Freeman did theartwork, and Jean-Claude St. Aubain took care of the inking andcoloring. Although this allowed Comely to focus on improvingstorylines, it isolated him from the aesthetic side of the comic. As ofissue 5, Freeman was editing the comic with Comely as editor-in-chief.

This next generation of Captain Canuck maintained the focus onCanadian content. When confronted with the possibility of a Canadiancivil war, for example, Captain Canuck announced that it would bestopped by ‘‘the War Measures Act! Then the Army would beeverywhere!’’ (C.C. 6). Issue 11, set in Quebec City, had charactersspeaking French without translation for much of the issue, to thedelight of some readers. One fan told the comic that he had ‘‘beeninterested in Captain Canuck over these years because of its potential tovoice Canadian traditions and attitudes but, never in all that time, didI ever expect you to venture into such a sensitive area as Canadianbilingualism, especially when your magazine is so dependent onpopularity for its existence’’ (13). Captain Canuck traveled to Halifaxdockyards, Labrador ice fields, and visited his brother on a westernCanadian ranch, interspersed with trips to more exotic places,including a lost South America city of gold and a multinational spacestation. ‘‘It is nice to see some Canadian landmarks for a change,’’ areader remarked, ‘‘such as Ottawa and Halifax. It is better than seeingNew York and Washington all the time’’ (C.C. 9).

Under the new team, however, the revamped series integratedaspects of the established American comic book genre while sheddingthe elements that gave Comely’s first three issues a grassroots feel. Thereligious undertone disappeared, and the conspiracy-driven plot lineswere replaced by superhero supernaturalism and space-oriented themes.Captain Canuck no longer derived his strength from diet and moralcleanliness; history was rewritten, making him the product of an alienray-beam that doubled his strength and speed (C.C. 5). Although thismoved Captain Canuck in line with the established superhero genre,one fan complained that the change ‘‘lowers him to the level of theAmerican super-heroes’’ (9). In addition, Captain Canuck became afreelance operative, serving both the Canadian government and a

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science-fiction style international antiterrorist organization called EarthPatrol. Along with hoods and crooks, the Captain increasingly foughtsupernatural creatures and space aliens. Finally, perhaps in an attemptto spark circulation among American readers, Captain Canuck wasremoved from the future of the 1990s and, like most other superheroes,was relocated into the contemporary timelineFby that point, the early1980s (13). Business manager Ken Ryan told readers that the timeshift was for the best, as ‘‘a whole new lifestyle has been opened up forCaptain CanuckFone that was not possible in the confines of thesemi-futuristic period of the mid 1990s’’ (13).

The revitalized Captain Canuck was quite successful. In Bell’sassessment, ‘‘Captain Canuck was transformed into one of the mostaccomplished alternative superhero comics ever published’’ (CanuckComics 41). One fan confessed that ‘‘at first I only bought the comic outof Canadian pride, but now, who can resist?’’ (Special Summer issue1980). In 1979, it was the bestselling comic book in Canada (C.C. 7),even though, at fifty cents an issue, it was still more expensive thanmany forty-cent American comics. A year later, Captain Canuck was thefirst Canadian comic to be distributed coast to coast in both Canadaand the United States (10). There was even a Captain Canuck comicstrip in the Winnipeg Tribune. Yet in 1981, with thirteen issuescompleted, Comely left Captain Canuck, returning to freelance design.In 1982, he released a new comic book titled Star Rider and the PeaceMachine, but it only lasted two issues. With Comely’s departure,Freeman was to take over the writing duties. Captain Canuck’s timeshift and the impact of Comely’s departure did not have a chance tocome to fruition, however, as CKR Productions only produced onemore issue before financial difficulties caused it to shut down; CaptainCanuck once again came to an end.

If Captain Canuck proved his heroism by never giving in to defeat,it reflected Comely’s personal dedication to producing a Canadiancomic book. In 1993, Comely and a new production staff releasedCaptain Canuck Reborn, a new series with a different cast of charactersand a new origin for Captain Canuck. The comic provided Comelywith the opportunity to return to his original conception of CaptainCanuckFa national superhero of natural strength and health in a comicwith plenty of Canadian references and conspiracy theories.

In the new series, Darren Oak, along with his Native Canadianfriend Daniel Blackbird, uncovered an international conspiracy to take

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over the world, led by none other than Darren’s brother, Nathan, andhis New World Order conglomerate. As a Captain Canuck Reborncommemorative trading card, released in 1993, explained,

In a desperate attempt to rally a nation against an internationalconspiracy, Darren Oak becomes Captain Canuck. His big brother,Nathan, is involved in a devious plan to ignite civil war. Canada isto be HQ [Head Quarters] for a New World Order, but first theymust gain complete control of Canada’s government. Darren, armedonly with truth and tremendous courage, must conceal his identitywhile he exposes the conspiracy. Inspired by a comic book, hebecomes Captain Canuck.

Aided by Blackbird and other pro-Canada freedom fighters, CaptainCanuck fought the New World Order on Parliament Hill, infiltrateda white-supremacist group in Lucyville, Alberta, and recoveredfrom wounds at his home in Ourtown, Northern Ontario (C.C.R.0–3).

Comely’s skills as an artist, storywriter, and businessman hadmatured in the two decades since he first released Captain Canuck.Unfortunately, Captain Canuck once again fell victim to an enemy hecould not defeat: the problems of publishing a comic book in Canada.The new series lasted for only four issues, ending in 1996 and takingwith it a Captain Canuck newspaper strip that had started to run invarious newspapers.

Captain Canuck was not only comic book entertainment, it was partof Canadian consumer culture. From the very first issue, readers wereoffered a barrage of items, including T-shirts, posters, iron-on crests,pens, pins, and doodle posters. Issue 7 introduced a series ofmerchandise with ‘‘New Captain Canuck paraphernalia to please eventhe pickiest patron!’’ There was even a Captain Canuck fan club,including a membership card and special merchandise for membersonly. The sale of Captain Canuck merchandise eventually made its wayfrom the comic book and into Eaton’s department stores in westernCanada (Comely 2001). This was a key part of keeping the comic bookgoing. According to Comely, ‘‘Captain Canuck merchandising mademore than the sale of comic books. Printing costs were too high. TheC.C. club, T-shirt licensing deal and other merchandise kept us afloat’’(Comely 2001).11 CKR Productions even went so far as to offer sharesin the company to the readers. ‘‘This share bonus is not a gimmick!’’

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the advertisement stated. ‘‘We’ve consulted the appropriate represen-tatives of the Government of the Province of Alberta and we’vereceived their cooperation and approval for our proposal to let you, thereaders, actually own a part of the company’’ (14). It may have been alast ditch attempt to keep the company afloat, however, given that theoffer was in the last issue of Captain Canuck to make it to press. ThisCanuck commodification was supported by publicity campaigns.Comely drove around Winnipeg in a yellow AMC Pacer with CaptainCanuck emblazed on the side. As well, a 210-pound, 60300 karate expertwas hired to dress in a Captain Canuck costume and make publicappearances at shopping centers and special events. Comely thoughtthe events were quite successful (9, 11).

Post-Comic Book Life and the Transition from NationalDefender to National Icon

Nations need heroes, even fictional ones.12 Not surprisingly, govern-ments that lay claim to popular heroes, instituting them asrepresentatives and manifestations of national might, validate thenational identity and add cultural depth to an institutional hegemonicagent. Embracing popular culture, the Canadian government created apublic showing of its comic book superheroes. From February 13 toJune 7, 1992, the National Archives of Canada held ‘‘Guardians of theNorth: The National Superhero in Canadian Comic-Book Art,’’exhibiting Canadian comic books and paraphernalia, and detailingthe development of Canadian comic art and superheroes. Canadiansuperheroes, the exhibition explained, were the ‘‘embodiment of ournational spirit and identity’’ (Bell, Guardians of the North 50). CaptainCanuck’s natural strength and abilities, for example, were cited by theexhibition’s catalogue as Canadian characteristics:

. . . typifying Canadian reticence in so many things, some of theseheroes possess no actual superpowers, relying rather on superiorphysical and intellectual skills to enable them to combat theirenemies. . . . In a sense, Canuck was the appropriate superhero for amiddle power that was somewhat distrustful of heroism and verymuch aware of the limits of power. (v, 25–26)

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The exhibition claimed that comics were much more than adventurestories: they probed Canadian society and reflected the issues within anational context.

Why superheroes? Why comics? These are not just entertainingfantasy figures. They are important to our history because they aresymbols of the Canadian identity. Their creators were probing issuesof great concern to the Canadians of the dayFWorld War II,national identity, our relationship with the United States. (v)

There is certainly some truth to this. As Alphons Silbermann hasnoted, ‘‘comics mediate, even as pure entertainment, certain mentalvalues. Since the fact is that entertainment and information do notexclude each other, comics are latently or overtly open to any ideology’’(21).

The National Archives exhibition was followed by Canada Post’srecognition of five Canadian comic book heroes, institutionalizingthem as important cultural icons. On October 2, 1995, Canada Postissued a booklet of ten stamps containing the ‘‘Canadian crusaders’’Superman, Nelvana of the North, Fleur de Lys (who appeared in thelate 1980s comic Northguard ), Johnny Canuck, and Captain Canuck.Ironically, the government that would not provide funding for CaptainCanuck two decades earlier now provided a different form ofinvestment: a symbolic one. The Captain Canuck stamp commoditizedhis image in a new way, as an official national commodityFforty-fivecents of federal currency added to the hats, pins, and pens Comely soldto keep the comic afloat.

Canada Post’s inclusion of Superman as a Canadian superhero reflectsan interesting part of the Canadian cultural psyche. Striving toestablish strong cultural mythologies and heroes, it associates thenation with an internationally recognized, culturally important icon.This has been supported by some cultural nationalists, includingMarsha Boulton, who gives him a section and a predominant place onthe cover of Just a Minute: Glimpses of Our Great Canadian Heritage.Superman cocreator Joe Shuster was born in Toronto, Ontario in 1914,and that alone was sufficient for Superman to be deemed Canadian.Shuster left Canada for the United States when he was eight years old,and Superman was not created until a decade later with his friend JerrySiegal. First a comic strip reflecting American New Deal politics andsocial consciousness, it was later reconfigured into a comic book action-

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adventure format. Let’s not forget that Superman defended ‘‘Truth,Justice, and the American Way,’’ not Canada’s motto of ‘‘Peace, Order,and Good Government.’’ Heritage Canada reaffirmed the government’sclaim to Superman through historical tampering, releasing a Superman‘‘Heritage Moment’’ as part of its series of sixty-second televisioncommercials that dramatize a moment in Canadian history. The spotshowed a young Joe Shuster boarding a train, ranting about a new typeof superhero he was creating, and passing a drawing of Superman to hisfriend ‘‘Lois’’ as she laughed about ‘‘you Canadian kids!’’ It was purefabrication. And, as author Will Ferguson has slyly noted, CaptainCanuck is from Canada, Superman is from Krypton (175).13

The image of Captain Canuck has become so associated with Canadathat the nation itself has been placed in the costume. The April 28,1997 Canadian edition of TIME magazine cast Captain Canuck on itscover, along with a banner declaring that ‘‘Canada is the new superheroof global trade (and even Superman is being produced in Winnipegthese days).’’14 Inside the issue, CanadaFas Captain CanuckFliftedbar graphs and hurled pie charts detailing Canada’s economic strength.In the context of TIME, Canada became Captain CanuckFCanada wasstrong and powerful. The magazine detached Captain Canuck’s imagefrom the comic book and resituated it in a new context and narrative,constructing a new denotative meaning that drew on the establishedconnotation of heroism and strength.15

Soon after these developments, Captain Canuck was reconfigured yetagain, his status as a national icon attracting the interest of the artscommunity. Featuring artwork from the Captain Canuck Reborn series,‘‘Canada’s Own Captain Canuck: Inked Drawings by Richard Comely’’was exhibited at the Burlington Art Centre in Burlington, Ontarioduring the summer of 1998. By exhibiting the artwork as individualpieces instead of as part of the comic book whole, the segmented,paneled aesthetics separated the artwork from the storylines. CaptainCanuck was no longer just a comic book; it was now popular art andmaterial for aesthetic critique and display, the images providingcontent for the exhibition.

Captain CanuckFcomic book superhero and national protector,embodiment of Canadian values, forty-five-cent postage stamp,Canada’s alter ego, and, finally, popular artFsurvived not onlyfictional supervillains, but, perhaps even more heroically, the dangers ofthe Canadian publishing industry. Captain Canuck’s history is a story of

198 Ryan Edwardson

grassroots cultural production and a distinctly national superhero whobecame valuable to the government it fictionally protected. The comic’sdemise, however, may once again be temporary. In 1999, MarkShainblum (writer and cocreator of popular 1980s Canadian comicbook Northguard ) and Sandy Carruthers, both contributors to the early1990s Captain Canuck newspaper comic strip, attempted to bring backTom Evans as Captain Canuck in Captain Canuck: Utopia Moments.Plans were made for a four-issue miniseries, but these have yet to cometo fruition. An issue was compiled and released on a trial promotionalrun limited to one hundred copies, but has not progressed any further.Comely returned to the comic book scene in 2000 with a plan for yetanother Captain Canuck. Establishing media contacts and setting up anInternet Web page, his project is still in the works. Things lookhopeful, though. The Canadian publishing industry is not as weak nowas it was twenty (even ten) years ago. Captain Canuck may againprovide a generation of Canadian comic book fans with a sense ofnational identity in a cultural arena where New York overwhelms NewBrunswick, and one rarely sees a maple leaf.

NOTES

1. Captain Canuck citations will be listed by issue number, not page number.

2. For examples, see J. W. Bengough, A Caricature History of Canadian Politics.3. For a solid overview of the transition from comic strips to comic books, see Ian Gordon, Comic

Strips and Consumer Culture, 1890–1945.

4. William Kilbourn popularized the term in Canada with the title of his edited collection of

nationalist writing, Canada: A Guide to the Peaceable Kingdom.

5. Defining just what constituted ‘‘Canadian,’’ however, was a more difficult task.

6. In issue 12, Captain Canuck slipped back in time and encountered a group of Micmac Native

Canadians. In hopes of ingratiating himself with them, he pulled off his mask, showing them

his ‘‘Indian blood,’’ and was welcomed by them.

7. The location of issue 3 was identified in issue 4.

8. Interestingly, the Communist leader in issue 1 was drawn so similar to Lenin that a fourteen-

year-old reader wrote into the comic about it in the second issue.

9. For an interesting look at comic books and fan mentality, see Matthew J. Pustz’s Comic Book

Culture: Fanboys and True Believers.

10. The 1972 Ontario Royal Commission on Book Publishing’s Canadian Publishers and

Canadian Publishing noted that there may have been ‘‘Canadian publishers,’’ but that did not

necessarily mean that there was ‘‘Canadian publishing’’ (60). ‘‘Commercial realism’’ and

profitability prevented many Canadian publishers, foreign-owned or not, from publishing

large quantities of distinctly Canadian content material (63).

11. Comely puts the number of C.C. club members at 1,200–1,500. The phenomenon of comic

book commodification first took hold with Detective Comics’s trademarking of Superman and

the extensive merchandising of products during the 1940s, including a toy ray gun and

The Many Lives of Captain Canuck 199

wristwatch. Ian Gordon explains that ‘‘In the hands of a corporation, Superman was more

important as a business asset than a fictional character’’ (134). Merchandising hit a high point

in the 1990sFwith the fusion of comic book characters and global media productionFwith

characters such as Batman commoditized into billion-dollar industries. For more information,

see Ian Gordon’s Comic Strips and Consumer Culture, p. 133–35 and 152–57.

12. Much can be said about the role of fiction in the stories of nonfictional heroes, of course.

History is far from a precise science and, especially in the case of national history, is quite

positive and supportive of its heroes. History, after all, is not only written by the victors but

also by the heroes.

13. See Will Ferguson, Why I Hate Canadians, p. 175.

14. Part of the colorization process for Superman was handled in Canada.

15. Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure’s semiological work showed how a signifier (the

communicative) is connected with a signified (mental concept, object, and so on) to construct a

sign (the arbitrary signifying construct). Roland Barthes produced the most influential work

on semiology and culture, first outlined in Mythologies (1957), Elements of Semiology (1964),

and The Fashion System (1967). Extending Saussure’s work on the denotative, Barthes explored

the connotative, a subjective meaning produced by the meeting of the sign and the viewer. It

is within the connotative that emotions, values, and so on are expressed.

Works Cited

Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities. London: Verso, 1991.Baudrillard, Jean. The Consumer Society: Myths and Structures. London:

Sage Publications, 1998.

Bell, John. Canuck Comics. Downsview, Ontario: Eden Press, 1986.Bell, John. ‘‘Curator, National Archives of Canada.’’ Guardians of the

North: The National Superhero in Canadian Comic-Book Art. Ottawa:Minister of Supply and Services Canada, 1992.

Bengough, J. W. A Caricature History of Canadian Politics. Toronto:Peter Martin Associates, 1974.

Boulton, Marsha. Just a Minute: Glimpses of Our Great CanadianHeritage. Toronto: Mcarthur & Co., 1998.

Canada Post Corporation. Press release, 26 Sept. 1995.Comely, Richard. Correspondence with author, summer 2001.Captain Canuck. Issues 1–3. Winnipeg, Manitoba: Comely Comix,

1975.Captain Canuck. Issues 4–14. Calgary, Alberta: CKR Productions Ltd,

1979–1981.Captain Canuck Reborn. Cambridge, Ontario: Comely Communications,

1993–1996.Francis, Daniel. National Dreams: Myth, Memory, and Canadian History.

Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 1997.

Ferguson, Will. Why I Hate Canadians. Vancouver: Douglas &McIntyre, 1997.

200 Ryan Edwardson

Gellner, Ernest. Thought and Change. London: Weidenfeld andNicolson, 1964.

Gordon, Ian. Comic Strips and Consumer Culture, 1890–1945.Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998.

Klein, Naomi. No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies. Toronto:Vintage Canada, 2000.

Land, Jeffrey, and Patrick Trimble. ‘‘Whatever Happened to the Man ofTomorrow? An Examination of the American Monomyth and theComic Book Superhero.’’ Journal of Popular Culture 2 (1988): 157–73.

Ontario Royal Commission on Book Publishing. ‘‘Canadian Publishers& Canadian Publishing.’’ Toronto: Queen’s Printer and Publisher,1992.

Pustz, Matthew J. Comic Book Culture: Fanboys and True Believers.Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 1999.

Silbermann, Alphons. ‘‘The Way Toward Visual Culture: Comics andComic Films.’’ Comics and Visual Culture. Ed. A. Silbermann andH. D. Dyroff. New York: K. G. Saur, 1986. 11–27.

TIME. ‘‘Canuck to the Rescue’’. Canadian edition, 9 June 1975: 10.TIME. ‘‘Captain Exporter’’. Canadian edition, 28 Apr. 1997: Cover.TIME. ‘‘Super Exporter.’’ Canadian edition, 28 Apr. 1997: 34 – 40.Yoshino, Kosaku. ‘‘Rethinking Theories of Nationalism: Japan’s

Nationalism in a Marketplace Perspective.’’ Consuming Ethnicityand Nationalism: Asian Experiences. Ed. Yoshino Kosaku. Honolulu:U of Hawaii P, 1999.

Ryan Edwardson is a doctoral candidate in history at Queen’s University inKingston, Ontario. His thesis explores the construction of a distinct Canadianculture in the post-Second World War period.

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