Comics / Comics News

Calgary's Comic Book Scene

By Hervé St-Louis
September 28, 2008 - 15:00

Wild Rose Country

The world knows Cowtown for many things, such as oil, gas, the Stampede, and easy access to the Rockies. Calgary’s comic book art scene has nothing to be envious of other power centers. Calgary and comic books have a long history of contributing to the local creative scene.

One of the comic book industry’s first millionaires is a native Calgarian. Before he received about a 100 rejections from publishers such as DC and Marvel Comics, Todd McFarlane drew and trained as a comic book artist in Calgary. In some of his early work, such as Infinity Inc., a series about the descendants of the first generation of super heroes from the 1940s, featured Calgary extensively.  He was but a comic book artist, but his presence did influence where writer Roy Thomas, would set major storylines involving the young super heroes.

Today, Calgary boasts a small but resilient comic book community made up of creators, visionaries, and readers. It has its many comic book specialty shops, but it also has two conventions that reach a wide public. The largest and newest is the Calgary Comics and Entertainment Expo which has been in town since 2006. Calgarians may recall the odd but catchy bus ads featuring nerds last spring. The other local comic book convention is the Calgary Comic and Toy Expo. An older venue, it’s still a great opportunity to meet and greet a few out of town luminaries. The next one will be held on October 5, 2008 at McMahon Stadium, so don’t miss it.

Calgary Skyline

Calgary and the rest of Alberta also boast a comic book related message board, which is highly unusual in the industry. Usually, online comic book venues are not local, unless you live in a town with a huge magnet and history of comic book production, such as San Diego, Seattle, Portland, or Montreal. Although Maple.Ink.Comics is not what it used to be, thanks to competition from Facebook, it’s the one place where comic book fans can read about what’s going on in the city.

Red5 Comics, a publisher established since 2007, is probably the best-known comic book publisher from Calgary. They publish series, such as Atomic Robo that have wide following throughout North America. Underground and Web cartoonists such as the gang from Vicious Ambitious or Devon Jopling’s Raven Prince also show that there is a lot happening in town but probably overlooked by most.

The one contribution that Calgary can make to the comic book world and to fans of the genre both in and out of town is having local talents published in books read all over the world. One such artist is Riley Rossmo, the regular artist of Proof, as series published by Image Comics, a publisher, originally founded by our very own Todd McFarlane!

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12