With a mighty “ZZAKK!”, a thunderous “THOOM!” and a resounding “KSST-FOOM!”, Dartmouth-based Grandway Comics is going toe-to-toe with other independent Canadian publishers in the home stretch of a nationwide competition.
Issue two of creators Jeff Knott’s and Derek Jessome’s Space Cowboy & the Triumphanteers is up for Sequential Magazine’s best Canadian comic book of 2020, a fan-voted award with a deadline of midnight on Sunday to cast a ballot at www.sequentialpulp.ca. The pair’s homage to classic slam-bang superhero team adventure is up against series like the Death Comics short story anthology, the LGBTQ+ comic Spectrum, and the surreal cyberpunk detective story The Remedy.
“There’s no two comics alike in there, it’s a broad variety,” says Jessome, who works with Knott to create books that appeal to both younger readers and adults who enjoy Grandway Comics’ nods to the four-colour stories of their childhood.
“It’s really nice to see there are so many creators across Canada and they’re all doing different things, and we’re all putting our best foot forward to tell great stories.
“We’re all creating something from nothing. You start with a white page, and you build it from there, and all the respect in the world to anyone who does it because it’s not easy.
“But it sure is a helluva lot of fun.”
The fun is built in to Grandview Comics offerings like The Street Fighting Man with its gritty 1970s aesthetic and the youth-oriented Grand Adventure, featuring the exploits of Lazer Boy and Wild Girl.
The nominated issue of Space Cowboy & the Triumphanteers recalls classic Marvel and DC Comics superhero team titles like the Avengers and Justice League of America, as its titular hero and cohorts like Scubaman and Mega-Girl face off against a crew of villains like the infant genius Babyhead and Mew-Man, who has the head of a cat and the body of a barbarian.
Launched by Jessome and Knott in 2018 out of a love for vivid art and storytelling, Grandway Comics is designed to provide the kind of books that its creators remember buying as kids in a rotating rack at the corner store and bringing home to read by flashlight under the covers at night.
“It’s pretty light fare, it’s meant to be a distraction from the everyday,” says Jessome, whose work can be found locally at Strange Adventures stores as well as comic book shops across North America. “The stories aren’t heavy, they have morals, and the heroes and heroines have nobility, they know what’s right and they act accordingly.
“They’re meant to be a lot of fun. Older readers tell us they get a kick out of them, they put a smile on their face, and the same with the kids. We’ve got a real opportunity for a broad audience because mom and dad can read the books with their kids too.
“There aren’t a lot of newer comics out there with drama and action that everybody can enjoy.”
As an added incentive to get fans to vote, Grandway Comics is making its nominated issue available as a free PDF download. There’s a certain convenience in having a comic you can peruse on your computer or tablet with full digital colour, but Jessome still feels like the best experience is to have a physical copy.
“The digital version looks really nice, but when you have the comic book in your hand, and it’s on newsprint and it smells like a comic and you’re kicking back on your couch with a root beer and a popsicle, it’s a whole different feeling.”
