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lsparrow's review
4.0
Collection of a Canadian comic from the 40's. not without it's issues from the time - but fascinated by a heroine created at this time. I found the strength of the character got lost throughout the series.
drdena's review
4.0
This is the full available collection of Dingle's Nelvana of the Northern Lights series, a Golden Age Canadian comic series. I do appreciate that the editors were able to bring this project to fruition. Nelvana was one of the first female super-heroines (coming before Wonder Woman by a few months).
Not all Golden Age comics age well; they really are a relic of the time. Nelvana is no different. There is cringe-worthy casual racism, sexism, and violence that doesn't jive with modern readers. It should make you uncomfortable, it shows how far comics have come in the last 75 years.
I really do appreciate all the hard work that went into this collection. It was a labour of love and the editors deserve full credit for the image quality. The story is rough, but I expected that. I was really pleased with the complete package.
Not all Golden Age comics age well; they really are a relic of the time. Nelvana is no different. There is cringe-worthy casual racism, sexism, and violence that doesn't jive with modern readers. It should make you uncomfortable, it shows how far comics have come in the last 75 years.
I really do appreciate all the hard work that went into this collection. It was a labour of love and the editors deserve full credit for the image quality. The story is rough, but I expected that. I was really pleased with the complete package.
shea_proulx's review
5.0
Both bizarre and beautiful, Nelvana is unlike anything I've ever seen in comics. The art is stunning, but Nelvana's real value is that it is a strikingly different kind of time-capsule, appearing both in the midst of, and as a result of WW2. Anyone wishing to dive deeper into historical Canadiana, or looking for a novel but problematic text with which to guide younger readers through the racial issues that arise in media produced in a country deep in the mires of total war, will find a valuable resource here.
frasersimons's review
4.0
A product of its time, no doubt. But still quite fresh and interesting. It’s not immune to the problems of racism and stereotyping of Inuit culture. It vacillates between progressive and cringe, but I find that to be true of every comic from the time period, to be honest. It’s worth a read if you’re into comics and want to consume some history. Very interesting takes on conflicts and resolutions sometimes.
The hardcover from the Kickstarter is pretty nice but they did not account for the gutter. It’s sometimes pretty hard to read pages where dialogue is jetting out toward it. Took me a long while to get to this, had it packed away in a box for years.
The hardcover from the Kickstarter is pretty nice but they did not account for the gutter. It’s sometimes pretty hard to read pages where dialogue is jetting out toward it. Took me a long while to get to this, had it packed away in a box for years.
emilycait's review
3.0
Probably not the best place to start with comics, but still a kinda neat piece of Canadian literature.
bent's review
3.0
Interesting as a historical work. Nice to see a Canadian superhero. The plots are outlandish and weak. The ones involving the Japanese are racist very racist and make no sense - why would Japan go all the way to the north to attempt an invasion of Canada? And Nelvana disappears for a couple of issues to tell the story of an American fighting the Japanese and trying to build a bridge. It's nonsensical. However, I don't know that it's any worse than any of the war-time propaganda coming out of the US comics at the time, and the plots are clearly aimed at kids.
When Nelvana becomes a secret agent and moves south to a big city, she loses a lot of what makes her unique. She becomes just another superhero battling crime, except when Nelvana's around, the criminal's going to die.
That something that really stood out - Nelvana clearly has no compunction about killing her adversaries. Enemies are killed left, right and centre. In one case, the women impersonating her kills herself and Nelvana just shrugs and walks away. No code against killing here. And when earth is threatened by an invasion by aliens because our radio waves are driving them crazy, there is no thought of "is there something we can do to help them?" It's screw them, we'll beat them up and make them submit. I think comics may have gotten a little gentler as time has gone along.
When Nelvana becomes a secret agent and moves south to a big city, she loses a lot of what makes her unique. She becomes just another superhero battling crime, except when Nelvana's around, the criminal's going to die.
That something that really stood out - Nelvana clearly has no compunction about killing her adversaries. Enemies are killed left, right and centre. In one case, the women impersonating her kills herself and Nelvana just shrugs and walks away. No code against killing here. And when earth is threatened by an invasion by aliens because our radio waves are driving them crazy, there is no thought of "is there something we can do to help them?" It's screw them, we'll beat them up and make them submit. I think comics may have gotten a little gentler as time has gone along.
justabean_reads's review
3.0
Well, that was interesting... This wasn't so much a comic as six different comics with the same title, and often more or less the same character, or at least a character with the same name. The Nelvana comics were published in the 'forties as a serial in the Triumph Comics anthology (64 pages for ten cents!). Each story line pretty well took a different approach to the character, her powers, and the genre they were set in, and I'd approach it more as a linked collection than anything else.
They were, however, all by the same guy, and have consistently good art and layouts, even if the narration boxes feel more than a little old-fashioned. Comics hadn't consistently hit on the marriage of visual storytelling and prose, and at times it's a bit more like an illustrated radioplay script than a graphic novel, though this too changes as the series goes forward.
Story 1: We lead in with seven issues of Nelvana defending the Territories from Nazis, who are for unknown reasons called Kablunets not Germans or Nazis, which confuses me since Canada was well and truly at war and had been for some time, Anyway, the Inuit summon Nelvana, who is supposedly one of their goddesses, and she and her brother foil various Nazis plots. It's pretty standard war adventure stuff, with ridiculous Panto Nazis who speak English with a phonetic accent that resembles no existing accent ever, and are for reasons unknown are obsessed with sneaking into Canada via Baffin Island. On a scale of one to ten for offensive portrayals of the Inuit (not being Inuit myself, of course), I'd give this about Four: Could Be Worse. For an Inuit demi-goddess, Nelvana looks suspiciously like a Hollywood starlet in a miniskirt. She's also pretty ruthless, and outright kills quite a bit, which I found surprising, but I don't know '40s comics well. She has various electromagnetic ice powers that make me throw my hands in the air and yell, "BUT SCIENCE!"
Story 2: Next there are seven issues of Nelvana (sans brother, who never shows up again) travels to a fantasy kingdom under the north pole. This kingdom gets frozen in time for thousands of years, and is just thawing out again for the first time in five thousand years (cue picture of woolly mammoth fighting a dinosaur. BUT SCIENCE!) Nelvana gets involved in a dynastic struggle, flirts with the king's son, uses her electromagnetic ice powers to turn invisible and save the kingdom by killing a bunch more dudes. OKAY! I GUESS! (For those considering this for a Retro Hugo, I think this is the plot that ran in 1942.)
Story 3: Story two ended with the ice kingdom being hit by a Japanese missile. This story starts with a solid dose of racism, and Nelvana going to find out what the hell. Then it goes into FOUR ISSUES of no Nelvana at all. Instead we get a heart-stoppingly racist plot about the Japanese bribing the Inuit to help them invade Canada, and, it's worth saying again, doesn't have Nelvana at all. Our heroine is replaced by two white dudes (fighter pilots?) doing something or other. I'll be honest: I skipped ahead until Nelvana showed up riding a polar bear and saved the white dudes. I really do not have any words to describe how offensive this plot is, and heartily rec skipping all of it. (Except Nelvana on the polar bear. That was pretty great.)
Story 4: Nelvana moves to Ontario and becomes a secret agent. She still has electromagnetic ice powers, but spends much more time sleuthing. She rescues a scientist and foils a Japanese plot (fortunately very few Japanese appear, and then I think the war ends, and we're all saved for any more of this shit.)
Story 5: RCMP Corporal Keene (I'm not kidding), goes to Ottawa to enlist Nelvana's help in defending the Earth against radio-waved based Ether People who are sick of all our broadcasting and are going to wipe out humanity. Nelvana and Keene spent a bunch off issues (one in colour!) bobbing around different dimensions trying to foil the Ether People. They have banter. It's a bit painful, but I did appreciate that Nelvana is still her competent cool cookie self.
Story 6: Nelvana fights various gangsters. I skimmed a lot. It did end with her fighting an impersonator of herself who was using her rep to rip off the Inuit.
As you can probably tell from the verbiage expended, I was much more interested in the first storyline, followed by the second, and then five was non-terrible. In the early books, she's much more clearly allied with the Inuit and their territories, and not with Canada. I liked her brother, and fighting Panto Nazis was a lot better than really, really racist depictions of the Japanese, and the more secret agent-style stories later were a little dull (though I appreciated that her letterhead read: ALANA NORTH: SECRET AGENT.)
This reprint had several good essays in introduction (notably by Benjamin Woo who talked about the portrayal of the Inuit, and how the story telling changed), and an end note by editor Hope Nicholson about tracking down the historical basis for Nelvana (who turns out to have her name ripped off from an actual Inuit elder). There's also some wonderful full-colour fan art. I do wish it had included more information about the publication dates of each issue.
They were, however, all by the same guy, and have consistently good art and layouts, even if the narration boxes feel more than a little old-fashioned. Comics hadn't consistently hit on the marriage of visual storytelling and prose, and at times it's a bit more like an illustrated radioplay script than a graphic novel, though this too changes as the series goes forward.
Story 1: We lead in with seven issues of Nelvana defending the Territories from Nazis, who are for unknown reasons called Kablunets not Germans or Nazis, which confuses me since Canada was well and truly at war and had been for some time, Anyway, the Inuit summon Nelvana, who is supposedly one of their goddesses, and she and her brother foil various Nazis plots. It's pretty standard war adventure stuff, with ridiculous Panto Nazis who speak English with a phonetic accent that resembles no existing accent ever, and are for reasons unknown are obsessed with sneaking into Canada via Baffin Island. On a scale of one to ten for offensive portrayals of the Inuit (not being Inuit myself, of course), I'd give this about Four: Could Be Worse. For an Inuit demi-goddess, Nelvana looks suspiciously like a Hollywood starlet in a miniskirt. She's also pretty ruthless, and outright kills quite a bit, which I found surprising, but I don't know '40s comics well. She has various electromagnetic ice powers that make me throw my hands in the air and yell, "BUT SCIENCE!"
Story 2: Next there are seven issues of Nelvana (sans brother, who never shows up again) travels to a fantasy kingdom under the north pole. This kingdom gets frozen in time for thousands of years, and is just thawing out again for the first time in five thousand years (cue picture of woolly mammoth fighting a dinosaur. BUT SCIENCE!) Nelvana gets involved in a dynastic struggle, flirts with the king's son, uses her electromagnetic ice powers to turn invisible and save the kingdom by killing a bunch more dudes. OKAY! I GUESS! (For those considering this for a Retro Hugo, I think this is the plot that ran in 1942.)
Story 3: Story two ended with the ice kingdom being hit by a Japanese missile. This story starts with a solid dose of racism, and Nelvana going to find out what the hell. Then it goes into FOUR ISSUES of no Nelvana at all. Instead we get a heart-stoppingly racist plot about the Japanese bribing the Inuit to help them invade Canada, and, it's worth saying again, doesn't have Nelvana at all. Our heroine is replaced by two white dudes (fighter pilots?) doing something or other. I'll be honest: I skipped ahead until Nelvana showed up riding a polar bear and saved the white dudes. I really do not have any words to describe how offensive this plot is, and heartily rec skipping all of it. (Except Nelvana on the polar bear. That was pretty great.)
Story 4: Nelvana moves to Ontario and becomes a secret agent. She still has electromagnetic ice powers, but spends much more time sleuthing. She rescues a scientist and foils a Japanese plot (fortunately very few Japanese appear, and then I think the war ends, and we're all saved for any more of this shit.)
Story 5: RCMP Corporal Keene (I'm not kidding), goes to Ottawa to enlist Nelvana's help in defending the Earth against radio-waved based Ether People who are sick of all our broadcasting and are going to wipe out humanity. Nelvana and Keene spent a bunch off issues (one in colour!) bobbing around different dimensions trying to foil the Ether People. They have banter. It's a bit painful, but I did appreciate that Nelvana is still her competent cool cookie self.
Story 6: Nelvana fights various gangsters. I skimmed a lot. It did end with her fighting an impersonator of herself who was using her rep to rip off the Inuit.
As you can probably tell from the verbiage expended, I was much more interested in the first storyline, followed by the second, and then five was non-terrible. In the early books, she's much more clearly allied with the Inuit and their territories, and not with Canada. I liked her brother, and fighting Panto Nazis was a lot better than really, really racist depictions of the Japanese, and the more secret agent-style stories later were a little dull (though I appreciated that her letterhead read: ALANA NORTH: SECRET AGENT.)
This reprint had several good essays in introduction (notably by Benjamin Woo who talked about the portrayal of the Inuit, and how the story telling changed), and an end note by editor Hope Nicholson about tracking down the historical basis for Nelvana (who turns out to have her name ripped off from an actual Inuit elder). There's also some wonderful full-colour fan art. I do wish it had included more information about the publication dates of each issue.
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