2022 Ottawa Comiccon

After a three-and-a-half year hiatus due to the pandemic, Ottawa Comiccon had finally returned. What better way to celebrate a grand return than having Gail Simone (Birds of Prey, Secret Six, Villains United, Batgirl) as a featured guest? This was Simone's FIRST time visiting Ottawa and her visit was met with a lot of enthusiasm.

You're probably wondering how Ottawa's first post-COVID Comiccon went? On Sunday evening the Ottawa Comiccon media team reported an attendance of over 40,000 visitors over the weekend. Not bad considering this convention was later in the summer than usual and fell around the same time students were returning back to college and university.

Since we're a site that tends to zero in on DC comics and/or 80s properties, comic guests of interest included Ken Lashley (Legends of the DCU, Legion of Super Heroes), Marco Rudy (Swamp Thing), Janet Hetherington (Elvira), Ronn Sutton (Elvira, Edgar Rice Burroughs comic strips), Tom Fowler (Doom Patrol), Dan Parent (Archie), Richard Comely (Captain Canuck), Mark Shainblum (Captain Canuck), Jack Briglio (Legion of Super Heroes) and Casey Parsons (covers and pinups for various DC titles). Geof Isherwood (Suicide Squad) was scheduled to appear, but had to postpone. 

Marco Rudy told us about his new creator-owned graphic novel, RDW: A Tale of Lost Fantasy, which he wrote and illustrated and had total creative control of. "I'm making a move towards creator-owned properties", he explained. We flipped through a few pages of his new hardcover book and it looked gorgeous -- exactly what we've come to expect from Marco. If you're a fan of his painted work, you'll want to check this out. More information and how to order can be found here. 

RDW: A Tale of Lost Fantasy

Janet Hetherington told us about Galaxy Warriors, a new sci-fi film directed by Brett Kelly that was filmed here in Ottawa and premiering at the Gladstone Theatre that weekend. Janet wrote the screenplay for the film and described it as 'a throwback to the B-movie sci-fi exploitation films of the 1970s': 

This film looks pretty entertaining and I'm a big fan of anything filmed locally (I still remember attending early screenings of Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter back in 2001), so I was all over this. As an added bonus, the movie poster was illustrated by Ronn Sutton and colored by Geof Isherwood: 

Janet Hetherington and Ronn Sutton with poster for Galaxy Warriors.

How could you NOT want to see this film? Just look at this flyer:

We stopped to chat with Casey Parsons, freelance artist, co-editor and co-publisher of Cauldron supernatural anthology magazine, at his table to check out his art and latest copy of Cauldron published by RAID press. Writer Sam Noir, who's love of DC comics from the 1980s automatically makes him a kindred spirit, was also hanging around and we had a chance to chat with him about his favorite comics of the era and discuss some sort of future collab for the future -- stay tuned for more on that. Sam also gave a shout out to Eric Anthony's Cave of Solitude podcast (which were already huge fans of, but it never hurts to remind people).

Artist Casey Parsons posing with Cauldron Magazine and Baxter Stock

Once we finished prowling through Artists Alley, we made our way over to the vendor tables on the other side of the convention (which will be a separate article). For anyone wondering: yes, we did get an interview with Gail Simone, and we'll be posting it shortly. 

The cosplayers were out in full force on Saturday and Sunday. Lots of anime/manga characters and lots of Marvel and video game characters. In terms of DC comics cosplay, Harley Quinn and Joker were still the most popular costumes. We're always on the lookout for the obscure DC characters, a few that stood out included:  

Katana (seen with Batman). It's nice to know that she's still in the public consciousness after that first Suicide Squad film. I'm a fan and I hope we see more of her in the DCU:

Image source: Martin Lee Photo

Polka Dot Man. A decade ago I don't think anyone would've ever expected a 1960's z-list Batman villain to be recognizable enough to be cosplayed at a comic convention. Thanks to the last Suicide Squad film, here we are:

Image source: Ottawa Comiccon

Peacemaker (seen with Harley Quinn and... I think... Catwoman). You already know we're Peacemaker fans, so we pretty much went crazy for this cosplay.

image source: Lee Riggins Photography

Truth be told, that Peacemaker cosplayer knocked it out of the park and that previous pic doesn't really do her costume justice, so we managed to find a better photo of her:

image source: Tiggi/Goose

While there were a few Wonder Woman cosplayers, this was the only KINGDOM COME Wonder Woman cosplay we saw (of course, this could just as easily have been Wonder Woman 84 cosplay):

Image source: Martin Lee Photo

We immediately recognized Troia of the Teen Titans, but mistook the cosplayer on the left for Superman's father from the original Superman film. It was actually the Lords of Justice Superman from the DCAU:

image source: DC in the 80s

Batwoman and Knightmare Future Batman (as seen in Zack Snyder's Justice League). Every time Ottawa Knight's cosplay comes out to a convention they always slay: 

image source: DC in the 80s

This Wonder Woman cosplayer (with Spider-Man) really went for that classic WW look that was prevalent throughout the 70s, 80s and 90s. Got to love the classics:

Fitness trainers Natasha Aughey and Xavier Renart 
image source: DC in the 80s

There was a Bane cosplayer and a Tank Girl cosplayer wandering around, but we couldn't catch up to them in time to snap a pic (or find any online pics of them). Maybe something will surface eventually?

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...and that's a summary of our visit to the 2022 Ottawa Comiccon. Thanks to Agence Pink for bringing Gail Simone to Ottawa and organizing a great show. We're looking forward to the next one.

The new Suicide Squad film is fast approaching, and we're here to provide you a brief summary of the comic book origins of the characters in the film (especially the ones who played a big part in DC comics during the 1980s).

Know your Suicide Squad: Katana

Katana, the character, is very familiar to me. I was one of those kids who grew up reading Batman and the Outsiders (and, by extension, The New Teen Titans) because an older cousin donated a heaping pile of unwanted comics to me. I could easily write this entire article based on anecdotal observation and my memories of reading Batman and the Outsiders (and later The Outsiders v1 Baxter edition), but - for the sake of keeping this interesting - I'm going to try to include as much source material as I can.

Katana, created by Mike W. Barr and Jim Aparo, first appeared as a member of a brand new Batman-led team called 'The Outsiders'. Other than Batman (who is the main reason a lot of us picked up this title - admit it), Katana was the only non-powered member of the team. This new team book (according to DC editorial) required a mix of existing DC characters and some brand new ones [I'm suspecting they were using the 'New Teen Titans formula' here]. Black Lightning (created by Tony Isabella and Trevor Von Eeden) and Metamorpho/Rex Mason (created by Bob Haney and Ramona Fradon) had both been added to the team because they seemed like an interesting fit and had already acquired a bit of a fan following. Katana, Geo-Force and Halo were brand new characters conceived by Mike W Barr.

Brett Schenker, of Graphics Policy, met with Mike W Barr in an interview earlier this year and asked him about the genesis of Katana. Barr replied with:

"Well, I was trying to, I had created a lot of character for the Outsiders, a variety of characters. You want guys who are not just big and strong or with great powers, you want to mix it up a bit. I always had an interest in Japanese culture, so I thought it’d not just be interesting to do a samurai, but a female samurai. And the samurai’s blade is the katana, which is a perfect name for the character with the nice sharp “k” sound, and the feminine “a.” It was almost impossible to misspronounce so it worked out well."

In an earlier interview by Matt Santori-Griffith of Comicosity, Santori-Griffith asks a similar question and Barr replied with:

"I had an interest in Asian culture and enjoyed tales of samurais and samurai characters. I thought it would be interesting to have a samurai on the team. Then, when the line-up came, there were a lot of male characters. I figured a female samurai may not be totally unique, but at least it was something that had not been done a lot. And from there, we came up with Katana."

First impressions go a long way, and when the reader was introduced to Katana for the first time in Brave and the Bold #200 (1983) they met a woman in a garish samurai-inspired costume armed with a Japanese sword and a killer instinct, along with... apparently... random speech bubbles? A split personality, perhaps?

Barr introduces Katana as a character shrouded in mystery — not really one for chit-chat, but more of 'a woman of action'. It's also established from very early on in the Batman and the Outsiders ongoing series that she suffered a great personal tragedy.

Among other things, Katana possesses a strong sense of commitment towards the code of honor and morals followed by the Japanese samurai. She's also portrayed as a very independent woman — she is no 'damsel in distress' by any means. A ferocious hand-to-hand combatant, unless my memory is failing me, I believe that she is the only Outsider that seems to kill her opponents in battle (depending on the writer). To further the point about Katana being an independent woman: she wasn't recruited by Batman, she just kind of joins the team due to common goals.

According to Mike W Barr:

"Writing Katana, I always start first with the driving force of her personality, which is — despite her samurai skills — probably the strongest thing about her. She’s only like five foot, two inches tall, but we refer to her as “5’2″ of bad attitude.” Basically, Katana always knows what she wants, but there’s always something in the way. She needs to go through that or around that to get it, and that’s usually where your story comes from." (Comicosity, 10/5/2015)

and

"Katana for me is the essence of the noble lone samurai. When I was creating the character back in 83, I thought it’d also be interesting to also to make the character female. I thought it’d give her an added edge, and added level of complexity, and that seems to have worked out well." (Graphics Policy, 01/26/2016)

As the Batman and the Outsiders series progresses along, we gradually learn more about Katana. Those mysterious speech bubbles mentioned earlier? In issue #7 it's revealed that it's her sword talking to her.

Barr did a fantastic job at keeping the reader engaged in the 'mystery of Katana' throughout the first year of publication of Batman and the Outsiders v1. He never reveals too much, just enough to keep you guessing the background of this intense character. Character development was a key component in this team book, which is another reason why I suspect it had a pretty strong fan following in the first few years of it's publication.

Another important aspect of Katana, established very early in the ongoing series, is her maternal relationship with the child-like Halo. Throughout the series, you can see the bond between Katana and Halo grow, and would demonstrate the softer side of the battle-hardened Katana (this relationship would sometimes be used for comedic effect during the Outsiders v1 series). At some point it is worked into the series that Halo becomes Katana's ward.

From the same Comicosity interview, Barr commented:

"One of the interesting things about Katana and Halo is that they were created to be sort of a mini-Batman and Robin team. But, as it turns out over the years, it seems like both characters can work just as well on their own, which I hadn’t foreseen. I’m certainly happy about it though, for dramatic purposes."

Finally, after nearly a year of build up, all is revealed in regards to the origin of Katana in Batman and the Outsiders #11 and #12 (1984). Her sword is called 'the soul-taker' and it's an enchanted sword that somehow captures the souls of the people it kills. Her husband was slain with that very sword (by her brother-in-law — same guy who killed her children) and it's her husband communicating to her through the sword. Also, she has some sort of bad blood with the Yakuza due to ties with her brother-in-law. With that, the mystery of Katana and her sword is revealed.

To be completely frank with you, nothing really significant happened to Katana during the 1980s after this two-part story arc resolved. During this time period she was tightly associated with a solid team book (i.e. Batman and the Outsiders, Adventures of the Outsiders, and The Outsiders v1) that lasted from 1983 to 1988. The series ended on a cliff-hanger with Halo taking a bullet laser blast from a Manhunter meant for Katana during the Millennium cross-over event.

If you're skimming this article and read only one paragraph, know that the most important things to remember about Katana are:

• she's a ferocious Samurai,
• she possesses a mystic sword called the soul-taker,
• her husband's spirit is trapped in soul-taker and communicates with her, and
• she has a strong sense of commitment to team member Halo (not sure if this is still the case in the new 52)

Barr did a great job with this character. He was writing a team book and juggling a cast of 6 characters, making sure that they all got a fair bit of attention, while moving the series forward and sending the team on adventures and etc. Various characters got the spotlight after Katana's mysterious origin was resolved — most notably Metamorpho, Halo and a new recruit named Looker. It's apparent that Katana took a back seat during the Baxter edition of the series as a lot more attention was given to Halo and Looker.

Since this is an article inspired by Katana's recent appearance in the new Suicide Squad film, I'd be remiss not to mention her Suicide Squad appearance in 1991's "The Dragon's Hoard" story arc (Suicide Squad v1 #53 - #57). I'm not going to give you the entire play-by-play of the five issues (I'm sure Jason Brown will get to it someday), but Katana worked alongside the Suicide Squad in a joint effort to take down the Yakuza. This was her first appearance in 3 years after being last being spotted in the 1988 Invasion cross-over.

As previously mentioned, the most interesting parts of this article (in my humble opinion) came from two fantastic sites each containing two equally fantastic interviews. Both Graphics Policy and Comicosity are two comic blog/review/news sites I'd strongly recommend checking out.

Links to FULL Mike W Barr interviews:

• MIKE W. BARR TALKS KATANA AND SUICIDE SQUAD MOST WANTED by Brett Schenker
• Interview: Mike W. Barr Unsheathes the Sword of KATANA by Matt Santori-Griffith

Justin