VANCOUVER – CANADA – Cloudscape Comics, Vancouver’s largest and most prominent independent comic collective, is excited to announce that one of our own publications, Epic Canadiana #2, has received the 2016 Gene Day Award, which honours the best self-published comics in Canada.
The Gene Day is part of the Joe Shuster Awards, which celebrate the greatest Canadians creating comics at home or abroad. To learn more about the Shusters, visit https://joeshusterawards.com/.
Epic Canadiana #2, the brain child of editor Bevan Thomas, is the second in a series of anthologies about Canadian superheroes, whose wide variety of stories and artists serves as a tribute to the classic Canadian comics of the 1940s. The anthology’s over-arcing story is that Department None, a hidden branch of the Canadian government, has been tracking superhumans and vigilantes, making sure they are not a threat to the government. Each contributor’s story is presented as one of the Department’s investigations. However, while the Department has been tracking heroes, an enigmatic entity known as the Loon has been tracking Department None, and is willing to protect the heroes from exploitation by any means necessary.
“I am thrilled that Epic Canadiana received this award,” Thomas says. “I love seeing modern creators pay tribute to Canada’s classic wartime comics – a fascinating part of our popular culture. I also love the numerous interpretations of Canadian heroism that were submitted for our anthology: French-Canadian Nazi-hunters, immigrant adventurers, gay activists, First Nations vigilantes, autistic champions, and more. It really showcases our country’s diversity.”
The anthology features an introduction by Hope Nicholson, comics historian and editor of Margaret Atwood’s Angel Catbird. Nicholson is excited about the anthology as it “imagines a Canada that never lost her superheroes, and tells it through the pens of creators who…create something reminiscent of our Canadian comics’ past triumphs yet also altogether new.” These creators includes indie comics veterans Colin Upton and Julian Lawrence, Scribblenauts artist Edison Yan, Graphic Canon contributor Eric Johnson, Graphic Classics contributor Craig Wilson, Superdames’ D. M. Higgins, and many others.
The Cloudscape Comics Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to the comics community in British Columbia. Its members have produced numerous anthologies with a rotating cast of local creators, taught classes in various Vancouver community centres, and run programs and events from their headquarters in south Vancouver. Over the years Cloudscape Comics has made its mark as Vancouver’s largest and most prominent independent comic collective with comic workshops at numerous events, extensive involvement with the Vancouver Comics Art Festival and with Langara College’s comics art program, and, of course, publishing 12 graphic novel anthologies on a wide variety of themes.
For more information, such as a media kit or samples from the book, contact Bevan Thomas by e-mailat media@cloudscapecomics.com or by phone at 604-710-1659. You can visit our website at
www.cloudscapecomics.com.
