East Coast Comic Expo
A little less than a month ago, we were contacted by several hotnorthians from New Brunswick informing us of a new comicon in the area, the East Coast Comic Expo. It was going to be their first year altogether. Who says first time usually says problems but this year our focus was the East Coast and we had decided we would try to do as many events in the East as possible. So the fans wanted us there (at least 15 of them), it fitted the travel plans for this year and it sounded like fun to be part of a first time ever Con!
So it was with great excitement that we headed down the 20 towards Moncton New Brunswick last week to be part of the Moncton adventure! And what a thrill it was! This convention was so well organized that it put to shame several much bigger events we attended. Even though it was only one day, it was quite busy and it helped generate sufficient revenues to cover all of our travel expenses. Kudos to all the organizers and a special mention to Georgio for throwing such a nice party afterwards!
The Heroes of the North wish you an even better Second Edition!
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INTRODUCING MANTIS
We took the opportunity of the Ottawa Comicon to introduce one of our new villains of Season 2, the deadly Mantis, played by the lovely Marie Ty. Mantis is a Medusa agent that works closely with Hornet. She has ties to the Heroes of the North vigilante known as 8 Ball. In fact, the most astute of the Hotnorthians will have noticed that Marie Ty makes a brief appearance in Episode 3: 8 Ball Origins as Tony Falcon’s wife, Brownwyn, where she meets a gruesome fate at the hands of some random thugs, triggering the events that will lead Tony Falcon to become 8 Ball. You will have to watch closely Season 2 to find out the sinister secret behind it all. On a side note, Mantis stylish costume was designed by Andy Bradshaw and created by Marie-Claude Bourbonnais (Hornet herself!).
The Nathan Fillion Adventure
14/05/13 07:22 Filed in: Nathan Fillion | Ottawa Comicon | Hornet | 8 Ball | Mantis | Marie Ty | Marie-Claude Bourbonnais | Anderson Bradshaw
For Halloween 2012, Canadian actor Nathan Fillion disguised himself as his own version of a World War II Canadian superhero and tweeted several pictures in said costume. A fun yet innocuous gesture that resulted in us getting thousands of emails, tweets, DM and FB messages and comments as a lot of people thought he was doing his version of our Canadian Shield character. We even ended up doing a blog post about it. We seriously doubted he was aware of the show and we were convinced it was totally related but it was fun.
Flash Forward to May 2013 and Heroes of the North is headed to the second Edition of the Ottawa Comicon. And surprise, Nathan Fillion is the guest of honour this year. So we decided to go try to talk to Mr. Fillion and tell him the Halloween anecdote and how it affected us and our site traffic positively and we wante to give him a Canadian Shield comic book at the same time and tell him a little about the show.
When we got to him, at the signing booth, his first reaction was to react at the 8 Ball costume, ask Anderson Bradshaw to step back and using his phone, he flashed a picture or two. We got to tell him the anecdote and a little about the show and gave him a bunch of our comics. He was very enthusiastic and appeared delighted. “I did not know about this!”, he said.
We went back to our booth and the day proceeded briskly. Around 12:30, during lunch hour, as things quieted down, Anderson and Marie Ty decided to do what we call a flyer run: going to different booth and into the crowds, taking pictures and chatting with people and distributing the show’s flyer.
Cliff, one of the organizer of the Comicon, came by and said: “You will never guess who specifically requested to come by your booth!”. We had no idea. He said: “Our guest of honour, Nathan Fillion, asked to come visit you guys. He will be here between 12:40 and 1:15. Don’t tell anybody because we don’t want to create a commotion.”
We of course agreed. And started to run around and chase our missing flock. There was so much people, we did not manage to find them on time. Mr. Fillion arrived with his entourage, but we did not have the actors with us.
“Where is everybody?”, asked Mr. Fillion as he approached. “We are looking for them! We got warned of your visit after they had just left!”. He looked disappointed. “I will try to pass by again later!”, he said before being hustled away. As he disappeared around the corner, 8 Ball and Mantis arrived…
8 Ball and our producer ran in the direction they had disappeared but they lost them in the crowd. And we thought we had missed a great opportunity. But 8 Ball went to the signing area and managed to speak to the management. He came back with the following news: Mr. Fillion would meet us at 3 PM in the VIP area, backstage for a few minutes before his next appearance. Class act!
So about an half hour before three, we braved the crowd and headed down to the other end of the convention centre with everyone in tow, leaving only one man at the booth.
We got there a little faster than we thought, waited a little and then Mr. Fillion walked in, camera in hand, clicking away: “Look at you guys!” He took several pictures with our Heroes, Hornet, 8 Ball and Mantis, both with him and individually and then we took a couple of pictures as a group with him holding the Shield, which had started this whole thing in the first place.
So now the story is wrapped with a neat little bow. We wish to warmly thank Mr. Fillion for his time and generosity as well as everyone that made the encounter possible!
And that concludes our Nathan Fillion adventure!
Ottawa Comicon 2013
07/05/13 16:33 Filed in: Ottawa | Comicon | Black Mantis | Hornet | 8 Ball | Anderson Bradshaw | Marie-Claude Bourbonnais | Marie Ty
Come and meet us at the Ottawa Comicon, May 10-12 2013 at the Ernst & Young Centre. We have several brand new things this year, including a Nordik and 8 Ball figurine, the third volume of the 80 pages Omnibus series, two brand new costumes to introduce, including a brand new Hornet (Marie-Claude Bourbonnais) costume and the very first introduction of the Black Mantis Costume (Marie Ty). Both actresses will be in attendance, alongside 8 Ball (Anderson Bradshaw). As Stan Lee used to say: Be there or be square!
Free Comic Book Day 2
Besides the free comics from Marvel and Co., La Boîte à BD also offers their own in-house compilations of stories clocking in at roughly 50 pages featuring artist from Quebec and everywhere else. Heroes of the North contributed a never before seen Nordik story by Yann Brouillette and Christopher Yao. Best of all, it's FREE, but tomorrow only!
En plus des BD gratuites fournies par Marvel et Co., la Boîte à BD vous offre gratuitement une compilation maison d'une cinquantaine de pages avec divers artistes d'ici et d'ailleurs! Nous avons une histoire inédite avec Nordik (Yann Brouillette & Christopher Yao). De plus c'est totalement gratuit mais demain seulement!
VODA by Geof Isherwood
28/04/13 10:50 Filed in: Voda | Geof Isherwood
This is the first glimpse of Voda, our New Manitoban superhero, drawn by Geof Isherwood! Voda is one of the new characters that will be introduced in Season 2. An origin story detailing how she came to get involved with the WDO, what are her powers and so on, will be found in the trade paperback that will be out later this year and will set the stage for her implication in the Heroes of the North Universe.
As usual, the illustration is available in our store.
PACIFICA: ROAD TRIP
26/04/13 00:29 Filed in: Pacifica | Hastings & Pain | Yann Brouillette | Andre St-Amour | Michel Brouillette
We do not usually promote every single story we make but we like this one and it has been a long time coming. Plus, besides being another fun one from the terrible brothers duo of Yann & Michel Brouillette, it also features the dynamic artwork of Gatineau based artist Andre St-Amour! This 20 pages masterpiece will be part of the 440 pages Heroes of the North trade paperback coming out this fall. It will be the only way to read this story - and you do not want to miss it!!! Hastings & Pain, two Vancouver based superpowered junkies, cause mayhem all across Canada and Pacifica struggles to keep them in check. Even The Canadian himself has to pitch in to help put things on the right track! Yet another Heroes of the North classic tale in the making!
Crimson: Dark Origins comic book near sold out
Our most critically acclaimed comic book, Crimson: Dark Origins is nearly sold-out - in fact, there is only 4 copies available. If you ever wanted to get your hands on it, the moment is NOW!
FREE COMIC BOOK DAY
22/04/13 23:59 Filed in: FREE COMIC BOOK DAY | Marie-Claude Bourbonnais | Hornet | Yann Brouillette | Christopher Yao
We will be attending the Free Comic Book day at La Boîte à BD in Laval this year. They have a great initiative where they give, alongside the already free comics, a black and white comic that they get made themselves by asking various indie creators to contribute a few pages. Heroes of the North contributed to the initiative with a 2 pages Nordik story by Yann Brouillette & Christopher Yao. The comic is being handed out alongside the other comics from Free Comic book day! Looking forward to meet everyone and spend a good day filled with fun, comics, fans and friends!