New wave .28mid-1970s.E2.80.931980s.29 Canadian comics

lynn johnston s better or worse, distributed canadian comic strip

the world of comic strips saw number of works pop up. ben wicks doing outsiders , wicks, jim unger s herman debuted in 1975, , ted martin s pavlov in 1979. in 1978, lynn johnston, living in lynn lake, manitoba, began better or worse, noted following lives of patterson family grew older in real time, , dealt real-life issues. strip based number of storylines on johnston s real-life experiences own family, social issues such midlife crisis, divorce, coming out of gay character, child abuse, , death. in 1985, became first female cartoonist win reuben award, , friends of lulu added women cartoonists hall of fame in 2002. strip popular, appearing in on 2000 newspapers in 25 countries.

editorial cartoonists held considerable sway between 1950s through 1970s. former prime minister joe clark has been quoted lost votes in election of 1980 due political cartoons him. have experienced fear of censorship through courts, or libel chill . in 1979, robert bierman , victoria times subject of libel suit when criticized policies of william vander zalm, british columbia minister of human resources, cartoon of minister pulling wings off flies. when courts ruled in vander zalm s favour, newspapers across nation ran own versions of cartoon in support, until bc court of appeal reversed ruling in 1980, deeming cartoon fair comment . later acquired national archives of canada.

dave sim proselytized self-publishing , creators rights while pushing artistic boundaries series, cerebus.

captain canuck , orb both folded 1976, in kitchener, ontario in december 1977, dave sim s independent comic book cerebus debuted, , become longest-lived original canadian comic book. benefiting distribution in emerging comic shop market, started howard duck-like parody of barry windsor-smith s conan barbarian comics. story grew fit sim s expanding ambitions, both in content , technique, earth-pig protagonist getting embroiled in politics, becoming prime minister of powerful city-state, pope ascends moon—all within first third of projected 300-issue run. sim came conceive series self-enclosed story, divided novels—or graphic novels, gaining in prominence in north american comic book world in 1980s , 1990s. while sim , partner gerhard s technical achievements impressed , influenced peers, sim spoke out creators rights, promoted peers , up-and-coming creators, , fiercely promoted self-publishing ideal. americans jeff smith bone , terry moore strangers in paradise took sim s cue, did canadian m oak (mark oakley) long-running thieves , kings. eddie campbell took sim s personal advice self-publish collected hell @ turn of century. sim stirred considerable controversy, content of cerebus, , editorials , personal interactions.

david boswell amongst in 1980s made jump fanzine world when began self-publishing reid fleming, world s toughest milkman in 1980. out of same scene, bill marks started publishing anthology vortex in toronto in 1982. marks vortex comics expanded publishing other comics. publisher gained publicity mister x, employed talents of dean motter, gilberto , jaime hernandez and, later, torontonians seth , jeffrey morgan. notably, marks picked chester brown s yummy fur, taboo-breaking series started in 1983 self-published, photocopied minicomic. had generated buzz, , vortex started publishing professionally @ end of 1986. yummy fur s stories mix of genres, improvised, surreal ed happy clown, straight adaptations of gospels, , revealing, bare-all autobiographical stories. brown become major figure in canadian comics.

as content of comics matured throughout 1980s, became subject of increasing scrutiny. in 1986, calgary comic shop comic legends raided , charged obscenity. in response, derek mcculloch , paul stockton of strawberry jam comics established comic legends legal defense fund retailers, distributors, publishers, , creators fight against obscenity charges. raise funds, published 2 true north anthologies of canadian talent.

during time, large numbers of canadian artists making waves in american comic book market well, such john byrne, gene day , brother dan, jim craig, rand holmes, geof isherwood, ken steacy, dean motter, george freeman , dave ross. byrne particularly popular work on x-men, , originated alpha flight, team of canadian superheroes.