Tales of Brok Windsor: Interview with Hope Nicholson

Last year, Hope Nicholson and Rachel Richey launched the successful Kickstarter campaign Nelvana of the Northern Lights, reprinting the classic Golden Age Canadian Comic, that was thought to be lost. This year, Hope Nicholson is bringing back another classic Golden Age character Brok Windsor. The comic was created by Jon Stables and it was one most popular comics in the '40s . Today is the start of the Brok Windsor Kickstarter and you can click here to back this campaign. CBNAH spoke with Hope to talk about Brok Windsor campaign, Kickstarter, current climate of the comics industry and more.

CBNAH: Last time we chatted you were in the middle of putting the finishing touches on Nelvana and promoting Lost Heroes. Now, you're doing another Kickstarter and another documentary film. Do you sleep?

Hope Nicholson:  I will say, this makes me feel terribly guilty, but I always get at least 8 hours sleep a night. However, I rarely think of anything during the day other than my projects!

CBNAH: For our readers who are unfamiliar with Jon Stables, can you tell us a little bit about him and Brok Windsor?

HN: Jon Stables was creating pulp illustrations for serials featured in the monthly Farming Magazine called the Country Guide in Winnipeg, when he decided to move to Victoria and work in the shipyards painting signs for the war. Shortly after, he started working for Maple Leaf Publishing in Vancouver, where he created the heroes Bill Speed and Brok Windsor, as well as house ads and funny animal cartoons. Brok Windsor was named for a friend of his who died in combat overseas during the war. Brok Windsor was this gorgeous comic that showed a combination of his pulp and signmaking experience with lushly drawn illustrations. Brok was an outdoorsman and medical doctor who became a giant when he visited a futuristic land hidden in the wilderness of Canada. Here he was forced to battle all sorts of strange foes, with the aid of his new friends, the giants Starra and Torgon, who is a member of an advanced hidden aboriginal civilization.

CBNAH: Brok Windsor feels more like a pulp hero. Was Stables greatly influence by the pulp novels when he created Brok Windsor?

HN: Jon Stables had to have been influenced by pulp novels, as he worked with them so long in Winnipeg.

CBNAH: How many issues from the original series you will be able to restore?

HN: I have located 14 stories, and one script that was never turned into a comic! There should be no stories that I cannot find. There are 4 left I need to travel to Winnipeg and Vancouver to collect, but after that I'm done.  

CBNAH: How will you and Rachel approach Brok Windsor kickstarter differently from Nelvana? 

HN: This is a solo project, Rachel is not working on Brok Windsor with me. I have definitely learned a lot from my experience working with Nelvana, there are a few things such as printing comic issues or calendars that was too time and money extensive to repeat. In addition I'm giving myself a lot longer this time to make sure that nothing gets rushed!

CBNAH: What comics/titles did you know from The Golden Age of Canadian comics that are sadly in the sands of time?

HN: Honestly, I don't think any are completely lost! Or if they are, they are so lost that I don't know about them at all. Through luck and perseverance I have been able to find dozens of collections, and hopefully will continue to locate more as word spreads about my projects.

CBNAH: Do you think that comic industry is currently going through a new golden age?

HN: I think we're going through an exciting time for comics, but it's definitely not a golden age, but that's not a bad thing! The golden age was exciting because the entire medium was new and they had no idea what would work and what they were capable of. I'd like to think that the artists and writers now have learned from the mistakes made in the past, and are also aware that they are capable of so much more innovation in artwork and storytelling.

CBNAH: You're currently developing a documentary on the history of queer comic book representation. You are in pre-production mode and what can people expect to see in the film?

HN: Documentaries take a lot of time! We filmed some segments already at TCAF, with Trina Robbins discussing her history working with underground queer comics, and Zan from Northwest Press talking about creating a publisher that only focuses on queer comics, and both interviews were really fascinating. There's a lot more work to do on this project, but it's one that is constantly in the background of my mind, and I'll be very excited when I can start doing interviews again for it!

CBNAH: Is there anything you would like to say to the backers/fans of Nelvana and Brok Windsor?

HN: I hope if you backed Nelvana and were happy with the book that you will chip in again for Brok Windsor! It's a bit scary, choosing a character that is gorgeous, and fun, but incredibly obscure. I have no idea if he will resonate with the public like he did for me, and I'm going out on a bit of a limb. But if you do, I promise, I have even more amazing characters and history to share with you, much of which I discover day by day in my research, and is brand new information!

Interview with Hope Nicholson

When it comes to Canadian superheroes, comic fans tend to think of Wolverine, Superman(Co-Creator Joe Shuster was Canadian), Alpha Flight and Captain Canuck, to name a few. But Nelvana of the Northern Lights is Canada's first superheroine during the Canadian Golden Age of comics, predating Wonder Woman by several months. Created and developed  in 1941 by Adrian Dingle. The character was created once Canada passed the War Exchange Conservation Act (WECA) which banned the import of luxury goods from the United States, including comic books. With the whole market to themselves, Canadian publishers began creating their own superhero titles. Nelvana was one of the most popular characters during this time. Shortly after the Second World War ended, the WECA ban was lifted in 1946, Nelvana and all of the Canadian superheroes got lost in the shuffle. It's been almost sixty-seven years since Nelvana last appeared in print. Hope Nicholson and Rachel Richey, two Canadian comic book historians created a Kickstarter campaign campaign late last year to bring Nelvana back in print. The project was successfully funded with almost one thousand and one backers and making over $54,876. CBNAH spoke to Hope Nicholson to discuss Nelvana, Adrian Dingle, the restoration process and more.  

           

CBNAH: First off, congratulations on the success of the Kickstarter and the upcoming documentary film Lost Heroes. Its been a long journey and  how does it feel to wrap up on both of these projects?

Hope Nicholson: Nelvana still has quite a ways to go before it's wrapped, we are currently restoring the original comic pages after spending a few months tracking down the original sources. I don't think I'll believe it's done until I physically have the book in my hand! I'm really glad to have Lost Heroes wrapped, and I'm very excited-and nervous- about the audience's reception.  

CBNAH: For our readers who are unfamiliar with Nelvana can you tell us a bit about the character?   

HN: Nelvana is an Inuit demi-goddess, the daughter of the King of the Northern Lights Koliak and a mortal woman. Her powers are based on trihe northern lights and wane the longer she is away from the outside world. She can fly, disrupt electronics, turn into dry ice, and create explosions. In addition she has a magic cape that she can use to turn her brother Tanero into a dog, as he has been cursed with not being able to be seen by white men, and she can call on her father Koliak for assistance when needed. She uses her powers to fight nazis, aliens, and crimelords.

CBNAH: How did you first discover Nelvana?

HN: I discovered Nelvana in my undergraduate degree at York University when I decided to look into Canadian comic book history. John Bell's book Invaders from the North had just came out, that and Michael Hirsh/Patrick Loubert's book The Great Canadian Comic Books introduced me to the world of the Canadian Golden Age, and Nelvana in particular.
     
CBNAH: Adrian Dingle was a key figure to the Canadian Golden Age of comics. Where does his legacy fit in world comics history? 

HN: Sadly, I don't think Adrian Dingle had much of an impact on the international comic book industry, as the comic books were mostly contained within Canada. I do know that John Byrne created characters named Nelvanna and Kodiak in Alpha Flight, who were the mother and grandfather of the demi-goddess Snowbird, so that's a bit of a legacy.

CBNAH: Have you got any feedback from the Dingle family? If so, what’s their reaction to the Kickstarter and the character coming back to print?  

HN: Yes, I have talked to Adrian Dingle's sons, in particular his son Christopher has been a great help. They are excited to see the project come out and have additional attention paid to Adrian Dingle's artwork career. I hope that this will lead to a revival of interest in their father's career and his artwork outside of comic books.

CBNAH: The series did come out during the wartime, is there any insensitive material in the comic?     

HN: There is a great deal of insensitive material in the comic books, sadly. In particular the representations of Japanese is jarring, and in later issues the portrayal of Inuit tribes changes significantly to a more negative representation.

CBNAH: What challenges did you face during the restoration process?     

HN: Access was the biggest issue. Currently, we have issues that have been sourced from 14 different public and private collections, and finding them was difficult. The pages themselves range in quality, every single one is deeply yellowed, most have significant fading, and many have misprints due to the original printing process itself. Luckily they're all black and white which makes the process significantly easier.

Rachel Richey (left) and Hope Nicholson (right)

CBNAH: You've been working the Lost Heroes film for sometime now. The film will be playing on the Super Channel in March. Will there be a DVD release in the near future?

HN: There will be a DVD release, but this will be after theatrical exhibition, festivals, conventions, and broadcast screenings.

CBNAH: What's your convention schedule for this year? 

HN: My personal goal is try to make it into at least one convention per Canadian region, and the odd US convention if we have time. Currently, we are confirmed for conventions in Toronto, Halifax, Northern Ontario, Oshawa, Winnipeg, and Washington.

CBNAH: What does the future hold for Nelvana?

HN: We are currently deciding how to approach our retailer strategy for Nelvana, and hope to bring news of that process soon, but right now we are just concentrating on working on restoring the original book and having it to our funders in time. If Adrian Dingle's estate is interested in any further projects with new Nelvana content, I'm sure that something could happen, but it's not a project that we would undertake at this point.

For latest news and updates check out the Nelvana of the Northern Lights website: http://nelvanacomics.com/
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