Orion #1 (Summer 1981).

§ August 9th, 2011 § Filed under fanzines § 5 Comments


“The Canadian Magazine of Time and Space” was a comics and sci-fi centric ‘zine by Mark Shainblum (who would later run Matrix Comics and publish one of my all-time favorite comic book series).

As you can see by the cover, there was a specific focus in this issue on Captain Canuck and his creator, Richard Comely. And, in what is probably one of the more unfortunate pieces of bad timing in comics history (but not nearly as bad as this, it should be noted) the publisher of the then-current Captain Canuck series went out of business as this ‘zine was going to press, necessitating the inclusion of this letter, folded and inserted between the pages:


I can imagine how much of a drag that was to find that out as this mag was going to press. And the resigned sigh that must have resulted after deciding “well, better print up an explanatory letter and throw it into each copy.”

There were a few more recent installments of Orion that you can read in PDF format here, and you can see more of Mr. Shainblum’s writing here. And what the heck, here’s the official Captain Canuck page.

5 Responses to “Orion #1 (Summer 1981).”

  • Troy Wilson says:

    And you can also check out this great ten-pager that Shainblum contributed to an online anthology called Panels for Primates a few months back:
    http://act-i-vate.com/114-31-1.comic
    (Full disclosure: I was the editor of said anthology.)

  • Chris says:

    Man this is as old as I am….sigh.

  • Gee thanks, Chris. That doesn’t make me FEEL OLD AT ALL. Not. One. Bit.

    ;-)

    Mike, thanks so much for remembering ORION. If you (or anyone else) wants a copy of the issue, I still have dozens and dozens salted away in a storage locker.

    And yes, it was indeed a blow when Comely Comix folded just as we were about to ship the issue. But not as much of a blow as with issue #2, when the Canadian comic artist Gene Day died suddenly of a blood clot just as we were getting ready to publish a feature-length interview with him. And he was just 36 (Chris: that’s 11 years younger than I am now, do the math). It was really heartbreaking, and I started to get superstitious. It was egotistical, but I started to feel like the magazine was cursed. Maybe that’s why it took me 22 years to publish issue #3!

    Thanks again, Mike! And thanks to Troy Wilson for pointing me at this page.

  • Uncle Dave says:

    MacKenzie Queen is indeed a lost gem…one of those books that set the hook, but reality came barging in and cut the line. now I gotta go downstairs and dig those books out…

  • Yeah, if I never did anything else in my life, I was Bernie Mireault’s first publisher. Mackenzie Queen was a real joy to publish. He’s really the comic book artist’s comic book artist. He influenced so many creators, especially Mike Allred and Rupert Bottenberg. It’s really quite an injustice that he’s not better known to the comic reading public at large.