SAFARIR
Safarir is derived from “safari” and French “ça fait rire”, “it makes you laugh”.
This monthly anthology was founded by Sylvain Bolduc in 1987 in Québec city. It remained there till 2011 when it moved to Montréal. It ceased publication in 2016.
Its stable of artists included Serge Boisvert DeNevers, Mario Malouin, Patrick Dea, Marc Delafontaine and Maryse Dubuc and their creation “Les Nombrils”.
SOURCE:
Safarir, Accessed 01 Feb. 2022
STELLA and SAM
Stella and her younger brother Sam are two story book characters who were created by Marie Louise Gay, and first appeared in 1999. They were developed into a series of Stella and Sam books. In 2001, Stella Queen of the Snow won the Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver Canadian Picture Book Award
The books were developed into a television series by Toronto based Radical Sheep Productions which produced it from 2010 to 2014 . Stella & Sacha the French language version of this series premiered on Playhouse Disney Télé on 3 October 2010. Stella & Sam, the English version premiered on the Playhouse Disney channel on 9 January 2011.
The Stella & Sam music album create by Emile Mover, Canadian singer-songwriter won the 2013 Juno Award for Children’s Album of the Year. She also wrote the music for the television series.
On 5 July 2013, Canada Post Corp. honoured this character with a first day cover, commemorative stamps and post cards.
Stella a redheaded nine-year old and Sam he four-tear old brother explore the wonders of the world outside their home where with a little imagination they turn everyday items into fantastical creatures and inventions.
MEDIUM:
BOOK TEXT & GRAPHIC:
Content story & Cover book front & back:
Stella Queen Of The Snow, Writ. & Illus., Marie-Louise Gay. Books/Douglas MacIntyre Ltd., 2000.
SOURCE:
Internet:
Emile Mover, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emilie_Mover
Radical Sheep Productions, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_Sheep_Productions
Stella and Sam, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stella_and_Sam
GALLERY:
Canada Post, Post Card.
Canada Post, Post Card.
GAY Marie-Louise
Meet Canadian Authors and Illustrators, 1994: 36.
Born 17, June 1952 in Québec City.
This creator of the “Stella” and “Sam” series of children’s stories, was born into a nomadic family and by age ten she and her family had wandered from Montréal to Vancouver and back. In this lifestyle she became an avid reader as books were her only constant companions. As well she saw the vastness and variety of the Canadian landscape and became bilingual. Interestingly enough, art did not come early to her. She failed her grade 3 art class and didn’t draw again for the next ten years. Instead she went into acting, appearing on stage and in several television series. This potential career ended when her family moved back to Montréal.
By this time she was a disgruntled teenager of about seventeen years then art came back into her life. She began drawing bizarre cartoon creatures principally in her school texts. She had found her niche.
She enrolled at the Institut des arts graphiques in Montréal, where she studied graphic design. This was followed by a stint in the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts School where she majored in animation and later the Academy of Art College in San Francisco.
She started drawing professionally when she was eighteen years old. She illustrated magazines, textbooks and posters, designed clothes for children, and wrote three plays for which she created the sets, puppets and costumes. At the same time she freelanced as an art director and production manager for a children’s book publisher and taught illustration at the Université du Québec à Montréal.
She did this work for about five years before she started illustrating children’s books. “At that point, a desire came up to write my own stories because I found I liked to be able to play around with words and the images so that they’d influence each other.” She wanted to create a world where her “characters would live great adventures and feel much emotion. A rich visual world where everything was possible.”
She writes first in English, then in French. Her books have been translated into many languages including Chinese, German, Slovenian, Hebrew and Portuguese. She uses pen and ink and watercolours and dyes to do her illustrations.
This writer and illustrator of the Stella & Sam series, has won Governor General’s Literary Awards, for Rainy Day Magic (1987) and Yuk, A Love Story (2000); The Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator’s Award for Moonbeam On A Cat’s Ear (1986), Rainy Day Magic (1988), Roslyn Rutabaga and the Biggest Hole on Earth (2011) and Any Questions (2014), the Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver Canadian Picture Book Award for Stella Queen of the Snow (2001), the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award for Caramba (2005) and the Vicky Metcalf Award for Literature for Young People (2005) for her body of work. She has been invited to meet children, teachers and librarians in schools and libraries from Inuvik to St. John’s and from Tète-à-la-Baleine to Haida Gwaii. She has attended readings, workshops and conferences throughout North America, Europe and China.
She lives in Montréal.
WORK:
WRITER/ILLUSTRATOR:
BOOK TEXT & GRAPHIC:
Content story & Cover book front & back:
Stella Queen Of The Snow, Groundwood Books/Douglas MacIntyre Ltd., 2000.
SOURCE:
Article book:
Meet Canadian Authors and Illustrators. Writ., Allison Gertrude. Scholastic Canada Ltd., 1994.
Internet:
Marie Louise Gay, https://marielouisegay.com/english This is a mini autobiography.
GYPSY JOE
This short lived character created by Edeger Gonzales, had, in spite of the rather stiff drawing style, a promising potential.
The story is set in the future 2076. Mankind has solved most of its problems but not that of individual freedom. There are two distinct zones, one is the city “Nova III” and the other the rural world outside it. “Joe” is a “Gypsy”, a “dissenter” who lives in the outside world, basically a wilderness, exiled from the city and refused access to it. We meet him and his two companions, a dog “Spike” and a falcon “Arrow” in the opening story. It is is an account of his encounter with city security for intruding into a restricted zone around it. He escapes them then meets and rescues “Alice Wren” from an aircraft crash. It turns out she is a city citizen who likes to venture outside of Nova III. He helps her return to the city. He is left returning to his “family” and “village” both of which would probably have been explored in the future episodes if they had been cartooned.
The second story begins with “Gypsy Joe” encountering a mutant bear. He is saved by what he thinks is a laser blast from someone else although there is no one there. He relates the encounter to his friend “White Owl” who informs him that his mind has created a force field around him that protects him. “Joe” then visits “Alice” in “Nova III” and of course is caught. In order to get his freedom and to protect “Alice” from losing her citizenship “Joe” agrees to fight a computer called the “Illucomp”. In the encounter the computer uses “Joe’s” memory of his encounter with the bear against him and “Joe” uses his new psychic power to disable the computer. The episode – and the serial – end with “Joe” being made a citizen of the city.
In these two episodes, Edeger appears to have been following an ecological theme presenting the advantages of the rural over the urban. Unfortunately, the serial was not pursued long enough to explore this theme further.
MEDIUM:
BOOK TEXT & GRAPHIC ANTHOLOGY: Published by Potlatch Publications. Ed., Robert F. Neilson. Art Dir., Mary Tach.
Content serial graphic:
Canadian Children’s Annual, 1977. 1976: “Gypsy Joe”: 118-125..
Canadian Children’s Annual, 1978. 1977: “Gypsy Joe in Revelation”: 141-148
POSTER
Canadian Children’s Annual 1977 “Gypsy Joe’s World”. Potlatch Publications, 1976.
CANADA WIDE FEATURE SERVICE LTD 231 Rue St-Jacques Montréal.
Information on this service which existed at least in the 1970’s & 80’s cannot be found. It appears to have distributed James Simpkin’s colour strip “Jasper The Bear”; “Winnie Witch and the Giant Potato” by Peter Adamakos and Doug Rogers, and it was used by Richard Gibson at one point to distribute his cartoons.
GALLERY:
Taken from “Winnie Witch and the Giant Potato” promotion pamphlet.
MILNE April dela Noche
The Blue Road: a fable of migration. 2019. Photographer Erin Flagg: 219.
Based in Vancouver, she studied fine art first at Langara College in Vancouver, then at Emily Carr University of Art & Design where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Art in 2014. The Blue Road was her first graphic novel.
WORK:
ILLUSTRATOR:
BOOK GRAPHIC:
Content story & Cover book front:
The Blue Road: a fable of migration. Writ., Wayde Compton. Arsenal Pulp Press: 2019.
SOURCE:
Article book:
The Blue Road: a fable of migration. Arsenal Pulp Press: 2019: 219.
GALLERY:
The Blue Road: a fable of migration. 2019: Front cover. Illus., April dela Noche Milne.
COMPTON Wayde
The Blue Road: a fable of migration. 2019. Photographer Erin Flagg: 219.
An author and editor, his collection of short stories The Outer Harbour, won the city of Vancouver Book Award in 2015. He won a National Magazine Award For Fiction in 2011. He teaches Creative Writing at Douglas College
The Blue Road is based on a passage from his debut book of poetry 49th Parallel Psalm.
WORK:
WRITER:
BOOK GRAPHIC:
Content story:
The Blue Road: a fable of migration. Illus., April della Noche Milne. Arsenal Pulp Press: 2019.
SOURCE:
Article book:
The Blue Road: a fable of migration. Arsenal Pulp Press: 2019: 219.
MUCH THE MILLAR’S SON
This character was created by Steve LeCouilliard. It is essentially a coming of age series in which “Much” leaves the family household to seek his fortune in Nottinghamshire. He quickly falls afoul of the King’s Men, is rescued by “Robin Hood” and becomes involved with the “Merry Men” and enamoured with “Maid Marion” who is of course enamoured with “Robin Hood”. The series of stories follow “Much’s” misadventures and how they affect the plans and efforts of “Robin”, “Maid Marion” and the rest of the band. LeCouilliard in his humourous tales uses the characters from the “Robin Hood” legend but not their characteristics.
MEDIUM:
BOOK GRAPHIC: All self published by Steve LeCouilliard.
Content serial & Cover book front:
Much the Miller’s Son, v. 1: the good, the bad, and much. Car., Steve LeCouilliard. 2007.
Much the Miller’s Son, v. 2: The Archery Contest. Car., Steve LeCouilliard. 2009.
Much the Miller’s Son, v. 3: Robin’s Seven or “Nobody’s Vault but Mine. Car., Steve LeCouilliard. 2011.
Much the Miller’s Son, the Doomsday Book. Car., Steve LeCouilliard. 2020. This book collects vols. 1-3 and adds vols. 4 & 5 plus a Guest Gallery, which includes portraits and stories by: Rebecca Dart, Ben Caldwell, James Lloyd, Anthony Furtado, Chuck Whelan, Colin Jack, Mike Myhre, Becky Driestad & Frank Gibson (story), Tom Pajak (story), Jonathon Dalton (story) Scott Underwood (story), Kelly Erwin, Mr, Esty, and Kenny Park..
BOOK GRAPHIC ANTHOLOGY:
Content story:
Historyonics: Stories Drawn From The Past. Cloudscape Comics, Nov. 2008: “Much Miller’s Son.” Car., Steve LeCouilliard: 4-8
GALLERY:
Much Miller’s Son, v. 2. 2009: Front cover. Left to Right: Maid Marion, Friar Tuck, Much, Sheriff of Nottingham.