Issue one of Arcana by T.S. Wells and Rob Clark.
Arcana is a comic book series original appearing in 1994, written by T.S. Wells with art by Rob Clark. The independent fantasy comic was published under the creators’ names, “Wells & Clark”, out of Grimsby, Ontario. The first issue in the series is a double sized issue at 72 pages and in black and white and contains two parts.
Clark and Wells continued the series for three more years, publishing issue eleven as the final issue in June of 1997. The comic remained in black and white including the distinctive black and white covers, at 24 pages each.
Arcana stars three anthropomorphic characters including the con artists, Flagg (a raccoon) and Foxglove (a fox), and later a third character, Clorinda (a tiger). The story follows the petty criminals and the haunted Clorinda as they travel on their journey to find Clorinda a new beginning from her mysterious past while discovering more about each other in every village and adventure.
- Arcana #1 – 1994
- Arcana #2 – March 1995
- Arcana #3 – May 1995
- Arcana #4 – July 1995
- Arcana #5 – September 1995
- Arcana #6 – January 1996
- Arcana #7 – April 1996
- Arcana #8 – July 1996
- Arcana #9 – September 1996
- Arcana #10 – January 1997
- Arcana #11 – June 1997
Arcana was distributed throughout the US and Canada at around 3000 books a print run.
Hillborough Studios was created and launched by Adrian Dingle with the assistance of the Kulbach brothers, Rene and Andre. Its only title, Triumph Adventure Comics, debuted in August of 1941 and contained the first appearance of Nelvana of the Northern Lights, also created by Dingle. She continued to be featured in all of Hillborough’s Triumph Adventure Comics up to issue six when Cy Bell of Bell Features purchased the title and the company and merged them with his own. Since then, Bell began publishing the comic from issue seven onward as Triumph Comics. Adrian Dingle was hired as art director for Bell Features but continued to work on the series as sole creator.
Nelvana’s most famous adventures are that of her battling the Axis, with evil characters like Toroff and Mardyth and the Dictator! Subsequent storylines included Vultor, Queen of Statica and Knuckles, among others. She was assisted by her brother Tanero as both dog and human and her friend Corporal Keene, the RCMP officer. Although no Canadian Golden Age comics have been collected or reprinted since they were first published almost 70 years ago, my associate Hope Nicholson and I have obtained exclusive reprint rights and are crowdfunding the project until November 1st. Donating to this project will not only get you a copy of the complete collection of Nelvana, but funds will also go to promoting her and creating the highest quality product possible. The ultimate goal is to make Nelvana a household name!
The comic is an interesting perspective into the relatively new awards ceremony, which, considering the few that Canada boasts on the subject, is exclusively Canadian. After the 2011 ceremony, Harbin created his comic The Doug Wright Awards 2011: An Essay in Comics, by Some American which was featured on The Comics Journal website. This was Harbin’s contribution as diarist to the magazine as part their Cartoonist Diaries initiative. It was also later published in hardcopy and can be purchased on Harbin’s site.
Murray Karn began his career with Bell Features in early 1942 while the publisher was still under the name Commercial Signs of Canada. Only 18 at the time, much of his original work was done for the Thunderfist and Jeff Waring storylines.
As Bell Features continued to gain prominence in Canada’s comic book industry, Karn was easily accepted back into the ranks just shortly before the end of Canada’s Golden Age and finished the last two issues on Jeff Waring. Shortly after, Karn went to New York to pursue other opportunities.
The book also has that very distinct feel of the seventies with the science fiction fascination at the time, while there is also a very strong influence of underground comics, especially with MacLeods already satirical style. But most importantly, it shows a broad range of talents from more mainstream styles like Ken Steacy and Jim Craig to cartoonish spoofs by Bill Slavin and Tom Nesbitt. It even has Neil the Horse, a comic that successfully bridges the gap from the seventies to the eighties. As sited above in the Potlach Publications link, this book is still for sale by the publisher, but it’s also available on ebay or Abebooks if you look.
