T O R O N T O I D E N T I T Y S U P E R H E R O E S C O L L A B O R A T I O N
Osgoode Hall, Toronto
The idea for Archenemy began as a simple magazine about comics. The name: a reference to a common character archetype. The more we discovered in our explorations, however, the more the idea grew and changed. Soon the name “Archenemy� began to evoke creativity itself through the concept of a villain with their master plan, imagination, and drive.
Beyond this imagery, I see Archenemy as an effort by those who want investigate creative work, discuss our creative lives, and share those creative experiences found in Toronto, the GTA, and Canada. Archenemy gives us something to help us do it.
Joshua Duchesne Creative Director
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CREATIVE DIRECTOR. EDITOR IN CHIEF. JOSHUA DUCHESNE joshua@archemag.com
EDITOR. DISTRIBUTION. HEATHER PIERCE heather@archemag.com
WRITER. KATIE YANTZI
WRITER.
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Central Library. College St, Toronto
ROBERT IVENIUK
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CHAOS & PLAYFULNESS
The importance of collaboration in artistic communities.
SORRY SUPER, SORRY CITY?
Jason Loo gives Toronto a new hero: The Pitiful Human Lizard.
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FROM ARCHENEMY
THANKS
TRUE NORTH STRONG & FREE
What the return of classic Canadian heroes means for us.
SHORT FICTION
“The Same Don River”
Learn mo r e ab ou t u s. arch e nemyma gazi ne .c om 7
The importance of collaboration in artistic communities. ////////// Katie Yantzi
Aaron Leighton and Steve Wilson of Trio Magnus @ Future Bakery
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N
o man is an island nor is any artist,
The group was born back in 2006 when Wilson and
though
be
Leighton got a gig with Pontiac Quarterly, a magazine
isolated. Artistic pursuits are often seen
with a slight twist: all of the content is spoken,
as solitary efforts, requiring hours and hours of
read aloud as performances at The Drake Hotel, rather
individual work; thus the “lonely artist” stereotype,
than printed. Leighton and Wilson, and later Hanmer,
sketching away while holed up in a quiet garret.
were asked to illustrate the content as it was read
creative
types
can
easily
and given free artistic rein over a large sheet of Yet many artists crave something more than solitude,
paper on the wall. The concept of drawing in public
something that allows them to grow artistically from
was “a little bit alien” at first, says Wilson, but
others and be social in a way that doesn’t compromise
the trio had so much fun that they decided to continue
their artistic integrity, but rather enhances it.
making art as a team. Since then, they’ve had a book
Sometimes this takes the form of art clubs, or perhaps
published by Koyama Press, travelled to art shows
collaborative projects. In the case of Toronto’s Trio
such as the Festival International Montréal en Arts
Magnus, it involves both.
and the Design Festa in Tokyo to get ink on their hands, and have appeared at numerous local events and
Trio Magnus is an art group based in Toronto, made up
exhibitions such as Long Winter.
of Steve Wilson, Aaron Leighton, and Clayton Hanmer. They have careers in animation, illustration, and
I chatted with Leighton over email, and caught up
technology
night,
with Wilson at Moonbean Café in Kensington Market.
sometimes in front of a live audience. “It’s our
Both are passionate about making art as a group, and
chance to let go and just be as free as possible
have established Pen Club, an open group of artists
and
explains,
who informally gather biweekly at Future Bakery on
“to let the subconscious brain take over from the
Bloor to hang out and draw together. Through talking
conscious brain.”
with Leighton and Wilson, we got to the core of
not
by
day
worry
and
about
doodle
together
anything,”
Wilson
by
why collaborating and making art in community is important, exciting and, especially, fun.
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Trio Magnus @ Long Winter
Jason Loo gives Toronto a new hero: The Pitiful Human Lizard //////////
INTERVIE W
JL: Yeah, within this past year there as been a surge of new attention on Canadian superheroes.
: So you’re Jason Loo. JASON LOO: Yes. [laughing]
: It’s funny you mention New York because I wanted to ask--and this is especially true in Spider-Man--New York City often functions as a character itself. Is Toronto going to be treated the same way?
: Creator of The Pitiful Human Lizard. JL: Uh-Huh.
JL: Absolutely! Absolutely, just the same way. You know, when you open a Fantastic Four comic and you see the Thing take his date down Broadway, it’s the same with my comic. Lucas Berrett lives in Parkdale and takes the 501 into the city, whether its for work or while being a superhero. There’s a battle scene in the ROM where I made sure to accurately portray the location by taking a lot of photos.
: Who--Who is that? JL: The Pitiful Human Lizard (PHL) is an underdog superhero. It’s set in Toronto, about a guy named Lucas Berrett who is a 9-5 office clerk and a thrill seeker outside of that. He does it out of the pure need for excitement. But, you know, he’s just an average human being so there are some setbacks to him being a superhero.
: That’s really exciting. I have seen the one image of PHL riding on top of the 501 as well as another of him on top of Sneaky Dees.
: So he doesn’t have powers. JL: No, no--he’s just a guy in a costume with gloves and boots that allow him to climb walls.
JL: Oh yeah, that’s Kalman’s print. There’s a lot of character in Toronto and in the first issue, which is only 52 pages, I’m only able to reach out to maybe five major sites but they’ll be plenty more issues featuring Toronto’s hotspots.
: Oh ok! So, why? I mean why give Toronto a superhero that is so accessible and not super? JL: Well it all started when I was getting back into reading the old Marvel comics and I was noticing how titles like Fantastic Four, Amazing Spider-Man and the Man Called Nova were all New York centric. I thought, I’m a comic artist and writer, why can’t I come up with a superhero for Toronto with the same spirit of fun and amazement you’d find in a comic from the 60s and 70s? That was my approach and I wanted to see how that would go and as I posted concept drawings online I go a lot of support. I realized I have a great hook here--a Toronto superhero. And a Canadian superhero! So that’s another hook.
: Are you drawing any connections between the personality and character of this superhero and that of the city and it’s populace? JL: The creation of PHL’s character mostly parallels my life. I’ve experiences different upsets and hardship and rejection and um I’m pretty much sharing those anecdotes and putting them in PHL’s character. : So he’s a… how old is he? JL: I’d say he’s in his 30’s. Definitely not a teenager. He’s already past his quarter-life crisis and he has a stable job but he hates it…
: There are already a few Canadian superheroes and fewer still that are contemporary or new. I mean Canuck has been rebooted and Nelvana is back in the spotlight but…
: He keeps it for the security and looks for the opposite elsewhere.
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“Our hero rides on the TTC to take him to his next adventure!�
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W O R K Y O U R C R A F T L I K E
A
V I L L A I N
O
ver the past few years, Canadians have witnessed a re-emergence of classic popculture icons. With more Canadian artists
and
creative
content
emerging,
a
call
has
gone
out for us to acknowledge our artistic roots and bring Canadian figures into the limelight. Though the increased presence of Canadian figures will, of course, encourage national pride and nostalgia, the real question is what can be learned about the current Canadian identity through these characters.
Captain Canuck is probably our best-known national superhero,
just
before
the
Canadian-designed
Superman. Designed in 1975 by Winnipeg illustrators Ron
Leishman
and
Richard
Comely,
Canuck
is
a
stalwart ex-Mountie turned extraterrestrial science experiment turned super-secret agent, he was a twofisted paragon living in the far and distant future of 1993. The comic ran until 1981, despite its sporadic release schedule, but ended due to a combination of high production costs and a drop in the quality of writing after a new writing staff was brought in. Captain Canuck might have stayed lost in obscurity had it not been for a creative team in 2013, led by Toronto entrepreneur Fadi Hakim, coming together to establish Captain Canuck Incorporated (CC Inc.)
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and develop a Kickstarter-funded animated series, bringing Canuck out of the angular spaceships and laser-guns of “1993” and into the sleek modern world.
Just as the comics celebrated Canadian culture and landmarks, the new Captain Canuck carries on the tradition
right
from
episode
one,
with
our
hero
disarming a bomb at Ottawa’s Parliament Hill while Platinum Blonde serenades a crowd during a Canada Day performance. Overblown and corny as it is, it shows how the new series adheres to the original comics’ pulpy sensibilities and bloodless violence, abandoning the straight-faced melodrama to inject more humour and tongue-in-cheek references into each scene.
Absent in this new series, however, are the religious overtones
from
the
original
comic.
A
practicing
Mormon, Comely included sporadic instances of divine intervention, with soldiers in one issue arriving to help the Captain saying that they suddenly felt “compelled to do so,” with Canuck’s response being that “God was helping [them].” Times were different in the 1970s, as average Canadians adhered to JudeoChristian
denominations.
With
modern
Canadian’s
tolerance of secular thought and multiple faiths, the
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C R E A T I V I T Y
&
C U L T U R E
I N
T O R O N T O
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