PACIFICA: ROAD TRIP
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!
Festival de la BD de Québec and Website updates
From the outside, it may look like not much is happening but in fact, quite a lot is. We are in the finishing stage of wrapping up everything related to Season One, including Episode 20, the Season Finale comic, the DVD, the 440 pages mammoth trade paperback of all the stories pertaining to Season One, prepping Season 2, and updating the site in a major fashion. So please be patient in the next week or so as we have a lot of broken links. Our goal is to make the site easier to navigate, more efficient yet still packing punch! Let us know how we are doing!
Also, on April 13 and 14, Yann and Michel Brouillette, co-authors of most of our comics and several of the show’s episodes, will be in Quebec City for the Festival de la BD de Québec. They will introduce a 60 pages, extremely limited edition Fleur-de-Lys comic which they will be on hand to sign on Sunday, April 14th from 12h00-13h00 (Dimanche 14 Avril de 12h00-13h00). Also present at the event will be Marie-Claude Bourbonnais (Hornet), who will be in charge of a cosplay event.
Montreal Comicon Cast line-up
It is that time of the year again! The Montreal Comicon is almost here and this year we have a huge chunk of the cast attending!
The schedule for the Comicon is as follows (Friday, September 14 until Sunday, September 16):
| VENDREDI | 16 h à 21 h | 14 h à 21 h |
| SAMEDI | 10 h à 19 h | 9 h 30 à 19 h |
| DIMANCHE | 10 h à 17 h | 10 h à 17 h |
And here is the Heroes of the North Montreal Comicon appearances:
All three days, all hours: Hornet (Marie-Claude Bourbonnais), Alpha Q (Yann Brouillette), Black Terror (John Fallon).
Friday (all hours), end of day Saturday (3 PM until 7 PM) and Sunday (3 PM until 5 PM): 8 Ball (Anderson Bradshaw).
Friday (6 PM until 8 PM): Masquerade (Pia Metni).
Saturday (10 AM to 5 PM) and Sunday (10 to 4 PM): Donovan Easton (Howard Rosenstein)
Saturday (1 PM until 4 PM) and Sunday (2 PM until 5 PM): Canadian Shield (Michel Brouillette).
Saturday (1 PM until 4 PM): The Canadian (Larry Vinette).
Sunday (1 PM until 4 PM): Acadia (Christina Sciortino).
Sunday (1 PM until 4 PM): Medusa Commander (Constantine Kourtidis).
Sunday (1 PM until 4 PM): Introducing Black Mantis (Season 2 Character)
We will have an exclusive Heroes of the North Omnibus 2 printed especially for the Comicon, on higher quality paper, and with a different cover than the one that will be in stores.
It will also have a different binding and a bonus story not found anywhere else. It will be expensive a little because it is a limited run of 100 - but if you preordered the book from us, bring your receipt with you and you will only pay the difference!
Be there or be square!
The Heroes of the North Team
Coda Sneak peek
With the imminent release of our second Omnibus this September, it feels kind of weird to talk about the third Omnibus, Coda, already. But that one will be out later this fall, in December to be exact, so we are already hard at work on it. Featuring the stunning cover by Donald Caron as chosen by our Facebook fans - it will feature the 24 pages Season Finale by Olivier Raymond and Kellam Templeton, and written by Yann and Michel Brouillette, as well as 56 pages of NEVER BEFORE SEEN MATERIAL. That’s right - the bulk of the comic wll be brand new stories that will not be available online. So far we can tell you that the book will be featuring work by Gibson Quarter & Guillermo Ortego, who gave us the kinetic madness of the Black Terror/8 Ball team-up - you can see a sample of Gibson’s pencils above, new comer to the Heroes of the North fold Christopher Yao, who illustrates a sweet Nordik tale, Geof Isherwood who pencils a New Felquistes Halloween tale created by guest writer Jean-Dominique Leduc. There will also be a Madame Doom tale which will prepare you for events of Season 2 and introduce a new villain to the Heroes of the North universe as well as a Medusa Commander tale and much more! So keep an eye out for Heroes of the North: CODA this November!Season Finale Sneak Peak - in colours!
8 Ball and Black Terror are at it again in the last comic book of Season One currently called Season Finale, appropriately (but boringly) enough! We cannot tell you much to not ruin your pleasure but this amazing 24 pages story is brought to you by the pens of Yann & Michel Brouillette, the pencils of Olivier Raymond, the inks of Kellam Templeton and the colours of Aljoša Tomić!
The events depicted in this book will dramatically alter the Heroes of the North Universe and set the stage for Season 2...
Episode 17 is now online!
It has been a long time coming but EPISODE 17: Past and Present, is finally online! It took a while to put together as it was a very long episode and we wanted to distillate it to the most important elements. It is also an important presentation piece for things to come in regards to Medusa Commander, our main villain, his view of the world and his plans. It also sets up important stuff for Season 2. So we wanted to do it right. The episodes stars Michel Brouillette as The Canadian Shied, Constantine Kourtidis as the Medusa Commander, Ross Neil as Baxter, Marie-Claude Bourbonnais as Hortense Netter, Anoutlith Sintaraphone as Steel Tiger ans Anderson Bradshaw, who reprises the role of his 8 Ball character’s grandfather, Falcon.
We sincerely hope you enjoy this latest piece and we look forward to lead you towards the season finale of the first Season of Heroes of the North!
Sincerely,
The Heroes of the North Team
Episode 17: Monday, July 30, 2012
Episode 17: Past and Present, starring the Canadian Shield (Michel Brouillette), Mengele/Medusa Commander (Constantine Kourtidis), Hortense Netter, CEO of Medusa Industries (Marie-Claude Bourbonnais) and Baxter (Ross Neil) amongst others, will finally be online this Monday, July 30, 2012! It has been a long time coming but it will be worthwhile we hope! Straddling the past during the end of World War II and the present, where Medusa Commander is planning is latest offensive, the episode explores the many facets of one of the main villains of the Heroes of the North universe.
Season Finale Sneak Peek: The fate of the Canadian
You know we love our sneak peeks here at HOTN Central! And this one is pretty cool because it heralds the end of our comic book run for Season One. Currently titled Season Finale, it is just that: a story that wraps up most of the events of Season One in a 24 pages colour extravaganza penned by Yann & Michel Brouillette, penciled by Olivier Raymond (Fleur-de-Lys: Blooming), inked by Kellam Templeton and coloured by Aljoša Tomić. We can’t tell you much more than that because the story deals with so many aspects of the storyline of the first Season and we do not want to spoil your fun. But we can tell you this much: it is action packed, possibly the most action packed Heroes of the North comic yet! It will set the stage for Season 2. And it will feature most of our main villains and characters. And it is just so cool, we can’t wait for you guys to read it!
While it should be available by August online, it will be also part of the third and last 80 pages Season One Heroes of the North omnibus, which should be out in November 2012 in your favourite comic book stores.Our (first) most important post of the year
The Heroes of the North 80 pages behemoth, Omnibus volume 2, will hit the comic book stores everywhere in North America this fall - September to be precise. Yet, you should nag your favourite friendly comic book store this month (July) about it. Or, alternatively, if you live abroad or do not have a comic book store nearby, you can also pre-order it from our online store.This is the wraparound cover for the second Omnibus, by Geof Isherwood.
Why now? What is the rush?, do you ask? Because the way it works is as follows: The book is currently being solicited now in comic book stores all across America in a magazine/catalog called Previews and published by Diamond Comics - which is pretty much the sole distributor of comics in North America for the retailers.
Retailers ie your favourite comic book store, must collect their orders during that month and submit them at the end of it to Diamond, who will in turn, inform the publishers of the minimum amount of copies the publisher needs to make to fulfill the demand, in order for everyone to minimize their risks, especially on lesser known titles like ours.
Now here is the rub: comics are a tough business these days and most retailers are pretty conservative. They usually stick to what they know and that is why they are still in business. They do not want to get stuck with stuff that does not sell and so on. And no one can blame them for that. But if their clients ask for it, they will order it. Maybe a few more, because there is a demand. And that is good for us and the show, for many reasons. Keep reading to find out why...
For the first Omnibus, the book was under ordered by a lot of retailers - most stores had ran out of the books three weeks after its release! - and they had to order more the next month. Thankfully we over printed a bit for conventions and so on - and we were (barely) able to meet up the demand. Whatever we had left for conventions has been selling like hot cakes with the end result that we have almost none left! If you want to get your hands on it, you can always visit our store or perhaps we will have some at the next convention, but that is the extent of it: a few dozens left.The cover of the first Heroes of the North Omnibus, released in February 2012.
Now you may be thinking that we are making lots of money going through Diamond , with its extended distribution market that is so much wider than anything we could humanely cover on our own, but the truth is we are not: once you factor in the printing fees, Diamond’s own, huge distributor’s cut (60%!), our publisher’s share and other expenses like the fees of the artists and other contributors themselves, not to mention the cost of shipping at almost every steps, there is really not that much left, quite frankly. Not enough for a profit.
But going through Diamond allows us to get the book far and wide and spread the news of the shows to people we could never afford to reach otherwise. And that is why we do it and it is also why we ask you to order it from your retailers instead of through us, even though we technically lose money when you do it at this point.
As the books get more popular, get great reviews and so on, the show also gets more known and it helps on many fronts - people end up buying merchandise that is not available anywhere but in our store, they talk about the show to their friends and neighbours, they buy the next comic and so on… Allowing us to continue our growth.
And who knows, one day we might reach the critical mass in comics sales to an extent sufficient to make us a decent profit once all the people in the chain have taken their fees and all expenses are paid. We are not there yet but we are not that far off either. And with your help, we can definitely get there.
We want to do more comics and we want to keep going with the show. It is difficult but also a lot of fun and very rewarding on so many levels.
So, what can you expect in this new book, besides comics that are already on the site? As it turns out, a lot! In the first book, we only had one extra stories that appeared nowhere else. We have several more for this book. Here is a run down:
The book will feature five of the 12 pages book currently (or soon to be!) available on the site. They are:
- Nordik and 8 Ball Team-up: Chilling me softly, written by Yann Brouillette, with art by David J. Cutler, colours and lettering by Keiren Smith.
- 8 Ball and Black Terror team-up: The Bang Bang Theory, written by Yann Brouillette, with art by Gibson Quarter (with some inks by Guillermo Ortego), colours and lettering by Keiren Smith.
- The Archie style hilarious romp called Zombots being schooled, written by Yann Brouillette, with art and colours by Dan Parent and lettering by Zen.
- The tragedy packed Acadia: Pretty Clear, written by Yann and Michel Brouillette, with stunning art by Geof Isherwood, and colours and lettering by Keiren Smith.
And, last but not least, a superb story of the Canadian written by Canadian comic legend Ty Templeton, definitely the man for the job, illustrated by Daniel Wong. Those five 12 pages stories make up some two-third of the book’s sixty pages. There is twenty more to go. Here is the line up for those:
- A 12 pages, psychedelic and bat shit insane crazy Black Terror story called The Dark Alley, written by Yann Brouillette, illustrated by Zach Fisher, coloured by Aljoša Tomić and lettered by Zen. What happens in this one is so insane, we would not know where to start if we tried to explain it. So we won’t. An image should suffice:
- There is a fun little mystery three pages story called Blood Bath, featuring 8 Ball and Alpha Q, written by Yann Brouillette, illustrated by Geof Isherwood, coloured by Aljoša Tomić and lettered by Zen.
- A short but gorgeous Pacifica story called ASAP written by Yann Brouillette, with art by David Cutler, coloured by Aljoša Tomić and lettered by Zen.
- and we round up the book with a New Felquistes Halloween tale called October Crisis, written by Jean-Dominic Leduc and illustrated by Geof Isherwood.
With this line-up, we managed to feature every single characters featured on the gorgeous cover above, illustrated by Geof Isherwood. Every single one of our Heroes, and indirectly, our current main villains, made it in this 80 pages collection!
And you get all that Canadian superhero madness for six bucks! Canadian! We are not kidding, folks! As a reviewer said (about the first book): “Heroes of the North is the best bang for your buck right now in the comic book world!”. We may be biased, but we strongly agree with that! And we are bold enough to think we even topped it for the encore!
So spread the word! Like this post, tweet it, google plus it, whatever you need to do to let it be known that the time to get the book is NOW! And order it now yourselves, regardless of the way you choose to do so!
We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your support. And we look forward to entertain you with the book this fall!
The Heroes of the North Team
MAJOR UPDATE TIME! PART ONE: COMICS
We know it has been a while since new episodes and new comics have come up on the site. Be reassured - we are not dead yet. In the spirit of being honest and transparent with our fans and supporters, here is what is happening:
We had a month long conventions sequence that took us literally from one end of the country to the other. The logistics and preparation for that took its toll on our small crew. But it is not the only cause of delays.
For some reason, despite a healthy diversification of our artists and pencilers, most of our books are severely behind for reasons out of our control. Several of our pencilers had to deal with either health related or family and/or business related issues. with the end result that a lot of books are delayed. Which brings us to the following comic book related updates:
- Mr. Richard Pace, who was to pencil and ink the most excellent Ty Templeton scripted comic of The Canadian had to bailed out of those duties for health reasons. Consequently, we now welcome Daniel Wong to the team, who will pick up on Mr. Pace’s duties and will heroically attempt to nevertheless help us deliver the book on time for the end of the month for the upcoming Heroes of the North: Missions comic book coming out this summer via Ardenn Entertainment. Which is where we remind you to order the book from your favourite comic book retailer!!! Hopefully we manage to make that deadline and get that wonderful story in the book! If it does not make it in the book, you will at least get to enjoy it in our comic books section later this summer.
- You probably saw some work in progress on a Black Terror story by Zach Fisher, who did those terminally cute Chibis versions of our characters a little while back. Well, Zach has been hard at work on a very strange Black Terror story that will also be featured exclusively in our upcoming summer book. We do not want to tell you anything about this story except that it is so wild and fun, it is definitely not one you will not want to miss… Especially since it will only be available in the printed version of the Heroes of the North: Missions Omnibus! This story is also notable because we are introducing to you a new member of our little team, a new colourist from Serbia, Aljoša Tomić. Welcome to the team Aljoša! Aljoša joins to team to helps us lighten the load on poor Keiren Smith, who besides having life complications of her very own, was now faced with an incredible amount of pages to colour and letter since so many books were delayed… They are now typically, arriving mostly at the same time… Which created a major clog in the work flow and sadly amplified the delays.
- Another story that will only be found in the upcoming book is a tale called Politically Incorrect, by Yann Brouillette and masterfully illustrated by Geof Isherwood. This one is right on time. But it was meant as a back up tale. From the looks of it, it will end up in the book as well! And it definitely earned it - the art is simply stunning! Isherwood fans will be happy to hear that he also contributed his considerable talents to two short tales that will also be exclusive to the Heroes of the North: Missions release. One features the New Felquists and Fleur-de-Lys while the other is a fun 3 pages romp starring 8 Ball and Alpha Q called Blood Bath. Which is also our cue to introduce Zen, another talent coming to the rescue to help us get the books out on time! Zen will be lettering the shorter stories - and perhaps a few longer ones, in order to ease the burden on Keiren… who is heroically colouring and lettering an Acadia story, drawn by Geof Isherwood as well and written by Yann and Michel Brouillette, which will also be part of the book and very soon available online in our comic book section as well.
- Another story about to hit our comic book section very soon is the long awaited team-up by Archie artist Dan Parent. The Zombots being schooled story is a lot of fun and we just cannot wait for you to read it!!! It will be part of the book being released this summer as well.
- Those who enjoyed the art of our last Nordik/8 Ball team-up will be happy to learn that another exclusive story, a Pacifica tale this time, has been penciled and inked by David Cutler, with colours by Aljoša Tomić and lettering by Zen. And to complete the book, there will be the 8 Ball and Black Terror tale penciled by Gibson Quarter!
- And while it is not part of the next book, another important piece is being finished as we speak, albeit terribly late as well. We are talking about the 24 pages Season Finale book, which wraps up Season One and is written by Yann and Michel Brouillette, penciled by Olivier Raymond and inked by Kellam Templeton. This one is an action packed piece featuring most of the characters of Heroes of the North and is NOT to be missed!
Well, that is already a pretty major post and we have just covered the comics! So if you have read this far, you can pretty much surmised that we had our hands pretty busy just with conventions and comics! But stay tuned tomorrow as we will go over what is happening with the remaining episodes, the Season One DVD release, Season 2 preparations and more!
Season Finale Sneak peek
Acadia Sneak peek by Geof Isherwood
Omnibus 2 Cover by Geof Isherwood
Additional Shooting - Canadian Shield
For more information about the Nazi underworld, watch this documentary.
Diamond Comics spotlights Heroes of the North this November
Colour us impressed! Diamond Comics Distribution, the entity that releases comics books all across North America, has featured our upcoming 80 pages Omnibus in their coveted SPOTLIGHT section in their November magazine.
The comic book cover was drawn by Marcus MAS Smith and features more of Marcus art, along with Olivier Raymond’s, and several other contributions that will be announced shortly. The book is written by Yann and Michel Brouillette and distributed by Ardden Entertainment.
The book is currently in pre-order in comic book stores everywhere for a January 2012 release. Get yours now!