Interview with...
ANDREW LORENZ "CANADIAN CORPS"
|
|
|
Canadian culture has experienced a renaissance in the comic book world with an avalanche of talent and heroes arriving on the scene. From Captain Canuck to The Leaf and even the Pitiful Human-Lizard, Canadian heroes are here to stay. S17's Canadian Corps is a new offering in that cultural resurgence. CBI spoke with S17's Andrew Lorenz about the property and its Kickstarter campaign...
JMH: What is Canadian Corps?
ANDREW: Canadian Corps is the story of a loose collection of superheroes, all based in Canada, who join forces when they are needed, to save the day from whatever is threatening their country.
JMH: Can you describe the world/universe they’re from?
ANDREW: As with all of the other S17 titles, they are set in the same fictional universe, though not all books take place at quite the same time so, while they are certainly tie-ins among the books, you don’t have to read all of them religiously to know what’s going on.
That being said, what would be the point of having them all set in the same universe of there weren’t any little (and sometimes not so little) nods to the other books?
Even though it’s a fictional universe, it has many similarities to our own. For the most part all the governments and agencies and such that exist in our world, exist in the S17 Universe. Clearly names change for things due to copyrights and such, but there are usually equivalents that fill the same role.
So while there isn’t a Brad Pitt or Apple Computers, there are S17 people and companies that fill those roles in a roundabout way.
JMH: Does Canadian Corps have supporting characters and if so can you tell CBI about them?
ANDREW:Canadian Corps does indeed have supporting characters but in the first volume (which is comprised of issues #1 & 2) you only see them very briefly mainly because introducing a team of seven characters is enough of a task that I didn’t want to get too much into the “secondary” characters. I say it like that because, for most people, supporting characters are less of a draw.
No one usually picks up a book because they want to read about, say, Warrant’s daughter (yes, he has a daughter and yes we will meet her in the next volume) but as a writer, those characters are a lot of fun when you do have the time to use them. They develop the world of the book sometimes even more than the main character(s) do.
All of the characters have enough of a life outside of their costumed identities to have a full and well-rounded supporting cast and we’ll see more of them as we move on to future stories.
JMH: Was Canadian Corps inspired by anything from your past or real life experiences?
ANDREW: I can’t say that it was any one particular thing… But I can point to a few things that sort of “put me on the path”.
When I came up with the notion of creating a comic universe I knew that I really wanted to have a Canadian team because no one else is really doing one (at least the “Big Two” anyhow) and because, being Canadian, I always wanted to see some stories set here. Canada has a rich history with a huge variety of cultures- in Manitoba (where I’m from) we boast the largest Icelandic and Filipino communities outside of their home countries. How crazy is that? That stuff has a ton of story potential.
Another thing was when I set up for my first Free Comic Book Day at my local comic shop. Now even though I said that one of the things I wanted to do was utilize some of the different backgrounds and cultures that are in Canada, it hadn’t really hit me how much I should be doing that.
LEGACY’s hero, Paragon, is a white guy in his early 30s and over half the people walking in that day had very little in common (at least on a superficial level) with him. I had already planned on making the team diverse in their backgrounds (something that the Big Two have jumped on in the last year) but this cemented that idea.
JMH: Do your stories carry a message to the readers?
ANDREW: I’ve never really thought about it, and that’s the first time anyone has ever asked me that. If Canadian Corps has a message I would say it was what makes a hero is standing up and doing the right thing, about making a choice to sacrifice, to put others before oneself and ones desires, simply because someone needed to. Because it was the right thing to do.
I’ve always felt that the real heroes in life were the ones who stepped up when they were needed, without expecting any sort of accolades, and then went back to their lives as though the spectacular thing they had done was just simply “doing what needed to be done”, never realizing the incredibleness of their actions.
Whether we’re talking about all the young men tending to farms that went off in World War II or the person who stops to assist a fellow driver with a flat tire. Granted the degrees of sacrifice are different, but they are still people who chose to step up and do something that a lot of people would hesitate to do. Unselfish actions that sometimes can be life-changing.
JMH: Talk about the creative team involved with Canadian Corps…
ANDREW: Best group of people who I could ever have worked with on this book.
I should probably go into more detail though, because it goes further than that. I’ll start with the first guy who signed up to do the book, penciller and inker supreme, Justin Shauf.
Justin was a guy whose work I was familiar with through his Axiom-man covers. For those of you who don’t know, Axiom-man is a Winnipeg-based superhero who appears in a series of novels by Winnipeg-based author, A.P Fuchs. As an aside, those novels are a big part of what led me to go the self-publishing route, but that’s another story- read them, they’re great books.
Anyhow… Justin was at my local con and I saw that he had drawn a wicked Justice Society of America picture and complimented him in particular on his Hawkman (I should quickly mention that I had already commissioned him to do a Paragon pin-up before the show- it too was awesome). Justin replied that if he could, he would love to draw a Hawkman book, so much was his love for the hero’s design.
I had already planned on inquiring as to whether he might be interested in doing an All-Canadian superhero book and I saw that as my “in”. Thunderhawk was originally going to have Peruvian ties but I took the character and applied it to Native American thunderbird mythology and… Voila! I presented Justin with a chance to draw his OWN awesome Hawkman character that would be inherently a hundred times better because of its Canadian and Native American ties.
Super nice guy that he is, Justin fell for my trap. We began working on the book a few months later when his schedule opened up.
Flash ahead another year, back to that same con, though this time I’m there with my September17 Productions table, Justin beside me, working on pages, and he tells me about a good friend of his who just happens to be a colourist. I agree to meet the gentleman in question, one Donovan Yaciuk. I was a tad hesitant at first, I didn’t know the guy and had a group of artists that I was familiar with that I thought I could get to colour it. I wasn’t thrilled about introducing a new element into things.
As soon as I had a few minutes to sit and talk with Donovan I knew he was the only guy for the job. I literally came back to where Justin and I were tabling and said to him, “I think Donovan is my new best friend.” A little extreme? Maybe. But Donovan is one of the most enthusiastic people you will ever meet and he makes comics FUN. Really, he makes everything fun.
I knew I had to find someone equally as cool as these guys to letter the book so I reached out to Rod Salm, whose Death At Your Door Kickstarter I had backed. Rod is another local guy who, when not doing his DAYD web-series, creating bows (of the bow and arrow variety) from pvc piping, raising the most adorable kids you’ll ever meet, cage-fighting (though he’s retired from that) or making wicked cool ceramic mugs, is just an all-around cool guy. I’d had the chance to meet him earlier that year, loved his book, loved the friendly and helpful guy he was, and knew he had to be the one to make our book whole.
Much like Justin and Donovan, Rod was far too nice to say no. They had all fallen for my trap.
Their plan, apparently, is to escape it through sheer awesomeness. This book is better than anything I could have imagined. And considering I created and entire universe from my imagination, that’s saying a lot. These guys are doing some of the best work they’ve ever done and it shows on every page. They’re doing it out of love for the characters (and very tiny paychecks) and because they believe in it, which is incredibly humbling and awe-inspiring all at once.
People talk about going “above and beyond”; these guys are invested in Canadian Corps in a way that a writer only ever dreams of artists being in their scripts.
JMH: Will Canadian Corps be released in digital format, web comic, or print?
ANDREW: We’ll be releasing Canadian Corps slightly differently than I normally do. Usually all S17 releases are out in both digital and print format simultaneously but I’m doing it in a way this time that rewards the people that come out to the conventions and support us. That means if you want the first issue this year, you’ll have to get it either through the Kickstarter or from us at one of the cons that we’re doing. It will be released digitally for general sale and in print outside of cons, in 2016.
JMH: Why Kickstarter?
ANDREW: Simply because Kickstarter has become a great place for independent comic companies to raise awareness, and hopefully along the way a few bucks to off-set some of the production costs. Making comic books is anything but cheap, even when you’re paying your artists far below what they are worth. Which is good because otherwise I’d be paying these guys a million bucks a page.
JMH: Where can fans get a hold of Canadian Corps?
ANDREW: Right now the best place to get it is through the Kickstarter. After that, we’ll be doing conventions this fall and releasing them there. Once the new year hits, it’ll be available online through IndyPlanet, DriveThruComics and directly through September17 Productions- we do and have shipped books worldwide.
JMH: How can fans contact you?
ANDREW: They can message us on the Canadian Corps Kickstarter, tweet anyone of us, comment on the Canadian Corps S17 Universe Facebook page or email me directly at [email protected]
JMH: Finally, is there anything coming up in further Canadian Corps stories, or other projects you want people to know about?
ANDREW: The art team has thrown out some ideas of stories that they’d like to do with this group of characters and I’ve got a few of my own, this fall at one of the cons we’ll probably sit down and decide which ones work best and go from there. It’s been a team process the whole way and there’s no reason for that to change now.
Other projects… I have a ton. There’s S17’s flagship title, LEGACY which is hitting issue #6 this July, New Guard is the second series I released, the much anticipated second issue of that book is nearly complete and is a 2015 release.
I’m also working on two other comic book series, The Sentries, with LEGACY #2-4 artist Andre Siregar, with Donovan colouring that book next year, and another team book called Troubleshooters, with artist Eryck Webb. The first issue of that will also be a 2016 release.
ANDREW: Canadian Corps is the story of a loose collection of superheroes, all based in Canada, who join forces when they are needed, to save the day from whatever is threatening their country.
JMH: Can you describe the world/universe they’re from?
ANDREW: As with all of the other S17 titles, they are set in the same fictional universe, though not all books take place at quite the same time so, while they are certainly tie-ins among the books, you don’t have to read all of them religiously to know what’s going on.
That being said, what would be the point of having them all set in the same universe of there weren’t any little (and sometimes not so little) nods to the other books?
Even though it’s a fictional universe, it has many similarities to our own. For the most part all the governments and agencies and such that exist in our world, exist in the S17 Universe. Clearly names change for things due to copyrights and such, but there are usually equivalents that fill the same role.
So while there isn’t a Brad Pitt or Apple Computers, there are S17 people and companies that fill those roles in a roundabout way.
JMH: Does Canadian Corps have supporting characters and if so can you tell CBI about them?
ANDREW:Canadian Corps does indeed have supporting characters but in the first volume (which is comprised of issues #1 & 2) you only see them very briefly mainly because introducing a team of seven characters is enough of a task that I didn’t want to get too much into the “secondary” characters. I say it like that because, for most people, supporting characters are less of a draw.
No one usually picks up a book because they want to read about, say, Warrant’s daughter (yes, he has a daughter and yes we will meet her in the next volume) but as a writer, those characters are a lot of fun when you do have the time to use them. They develop the world of the book sometimes even more than the main character(s) do.
All of the characters have enough of a life outside of their costumed identities to have a full and well-rounded supporting cast and we’ll see more of them as we move on to future stories.
JMH: Was Canadian Corps inspired by anything from your past or real life experiences?
ANDREW: I can’t say that it was any one particular thing… But I can point to a few things that sort of “put me on the path”.
When I came up with the notion of creating a comic universe I knew that I really wanted to have a Canadian team because no one else is really doing one (at least the “Big Two” anyhow) and because, being Canadian, I always wanted to see some stories set here. Canada has a rich history with a huge variety of cultures- in Manitoba (where I’m from) we boast the largest Icelandic and Filipino communities outside of their home countries. How crazy is that? That stuff has a ton of story potential.
Another thing was when I set up for my first Free Comic Book Day at my local comic shop. Now even though I said that one of the things I wanted to do was utilize some of the different backgrounds and cultures that are in Canada, it hadn’t really hit me how much I should be doing that.
LEGACY’s hero, Paragon, is a white guy in his early 30s and over half the people walking in that day had very little in common (at least on a superficial level) with him. I had already planned on making the team diverse in their backgrounds (something that the Big Two have jumped on in the last year) but this cemented that idea.
JMH: Do your stories carry a message to the readers?
ANDREW: I’ve never really thought about it, and that’s the first time anyone has ever asked me that. If Canadian Corps has a message I would say it was what makes a hero is standing up and doing the right thing, about making a choice to sacrifice, to put others before oneself and ones desires, simply because someone needed to. Because it was the right thing to do.
I’ve always felt that the real heroes in life were the ones who stepped up when they were needed, without expecting any sort of accolades, and then went back to their lives as though the spectacular thing they had done was just simply “doing what needed to be done”, never realizing the incredibleness of their actions.
Whether we’re talking about all the young men tending to farms that went off in World War II or the person who stops to assist a fellow driver with a flat tire. Granted the degrees of sacrifice are different, but they are still people who chose to step up and do something that a lot of people would hesitate to do. Unselfish actions that sometimes can be life-changing.
JMH: Talk about the creative team involved with Canadian Corps…
ANDREW: Best group of people who I could ever have worked with on this book.
I should probably go into more detail though, because it goes further than that. I’ll start with the first guy who signed up to do the book, penciller and inker supreme, Justin Shauf.
Justin was a guy whose work I was familiar with through his Axiom-man covers. For those of you who don’t know, Axiom-man is a Winnipeg-based superhero who appears in a series of novels by Winnipeg-based author, A.P Fuchs. As an aside, those novels are a big part of what led me to go the self-publishing route, but that’s another story- read them, they’re great books.
Anyhow… Justin was at my local con and I saw that he had drawn a wicked Justice Society of America picture and complimented him in particular on his Hawkman (I should quickly mention that I had already commissioned him to do a Paragon pin-up before the show- it too was awesome). Justin replied that if he could, he would love to draw a Hawkman book, so much was his love for the hero’s design.
I had already planned on inquiring as to whether he might be interested in doing an All-Canadian superhero book and I saw that as my “in”. Thunderhawk was originally going to have Peruvian ties but I took the character and applied it to Native American thunderbird mythology and… Voila! I presented Justin with a chance to draw his OWN awesome Hawkman character that would be inherently a hundred times better because of its Canadian and Native American ties.
Super nice guy that he is, Justin fell for my trap. We began working on the book a few months later when his schedule opened up.
Flash ahead another year, back to that same con, though this time I’m there with my September17 Productions table, Justin beside me, working on pages, and he tells me about a good friend of his who just happens to be a colourist. I agree to meet the gentleman in question, one Donovan Yaciuk. I was a tad hesitant at first, I didn’t know the guy and had a group of artists that I was familiar with that I thought I could get to colour it. I wasn’t thrilled about introducing a new element into things.
As soon as I had a few minutes to sit and talk with Donovan I knew he was the only guy for the job. I literally came back to where Justin and I were tabling and said to him, “I think Donovan is my new best friend.” A little extreme? Maybe. But Donovan is one of the most enthusiastic people you will ever meet and he makes comics FUN. Really, he makes everything fun.
I knew I had to find someone equally as cool as these guys to letter the book so I reached out to Rod Salm, whose Death At Your Door Kickstarter I had backed. Rod is another local guy who, when not doing his DAYD web-series, creating bows (of the bow and arrow variety) from pvc piping, raising the most adorable kids you’ll ever meet, cage-fighting (though he’s retired from that) or making wicked cool ceramic mugs, is just an all-around cool guy. I’d had the chance to meet him earlier that year, loved his book, loved the friendly and helpful guy he was, and knew he had to be the one to make our book whole.
Much like Justin and Donovan, Rod was far too nice to say no. They had all fallen for my trap.
Their plan, apparently, is to escape it through sheer awesomeness. This book is better than anything I could have imagined. And considering I created and entire universe from my imagination, that’s saying a lot. These guys are doing some of the best work they’ve ever done and it shows on every page. They’re doing it out of love for the characters (and very tiny paychecks) and because they believe in it, which is incredibly humbling and awe-inspiring all at once.
People talk about going “above and beyond”; these guys are invested in Canadian Corps in a way that a writer only ever dreams of artists being in their scripts.
JMH: Will Canadian Corps be released in digital format, web comic, or print?
ANDREW: We’ll be releasing Canadian Corps slightly differently than I normally do. Usually all S17 releases are out in both digital and print format simultaneously but I’m doing it in a way this time that rewards the people that come out to the conventions and support us. That means if you want the first issue this year, you’ll have to get it either through the Kickstarter or from us at one of the cons that we’re doing. It will be released digitally for general sale and in print outside of cons, in 2016.
JMH: Why Kickstarter?
ANDREW: Simply because Kickstarter has become a great place for independent comic companies to raise awareness, and hopefully along the way a few bucks to off-set some of the production costs. Making comic books is anything but cheap, even when you’re paying your artists far below what they are worth. Which is good because otherwise I’d be paying these guys a million bucks a page.
JMH: Where can fans get a hold of Canadian Corps?
ANDREW: Right now the best place to get it is through the Kickstarter. After that, we’ll be doing conventions this fall and releasing them there. Once the new year hits, it’ll be available online through IndyPlanet, DriveThruComics and directly through September17 Productions- we do and have shipped books worldwide.
JMH: How can fans contact you?
ANDREW: They can message us on the Canadian Corps Kickstarter, tweet anyone of us, comment on the Canadian Corps S17 Universe Facebook page or email me directly at [email protected]
JMH: Finally, is there anything coming up in further Canadian Corps stories, or other projects you want people to know about?
ANDREW: The art team has thrown out some ideas of stories that they’d like to do with this group of characters and I’ve got a few of my own, this fall at one of the cons we’ll probably sit down and decide which ones work best and go from there. It’s been a team process the whole way and there’s no reason for that to change now.
Other projects… I have a ton. There’s S17’s flagship title, LEGACY which is hitting issue #6 this July, New Guard is the second series I released, the much anticipated second issue of that book is nearly complete and is a 2015 release.
I’m also working on two other comic book series, The Sentries, with LEGACY #2-4 artist Andre Siregar, with Donovan colouring that book next year, and another team book called Troubleshooters, with artist Eryck Webb. The first issue of that will also be a 2016 release.
All interviews on this website © 2011-2022 Comicbookinterviews.com
