| Status | Defunct (1953) |
|---|---|
| Founded | September 1941 |
| Country of origin | Canada |
| Headquarters location | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Key people | Cy Bell, Gene Bell, Edmund Legault, John Ezrin |
| Publication types | Comic books |
Bell Features, also known as Commercial Signs of Canada, was a Canadian comic book publisher during the World War II era. They were the most successful of the publishers of "Canadian Whites", and published comics such as Adrian Dingle's Nelvana of the Northern Lights.
Founded in 1939 as a commercial art business, the company found success when it started publishing comics in September 1941, and changed its name to Bell Features in 1942. It folded in 1953 under increasing competition from American publishers.
Brothers Gene and Cy Bell ran a commercial art business in Toronto called Commercial Signs of Canada. [1] [2] They had previously been approached by Edmund Legault, who was looking for a publishing outlet for his comic books. When the War Exchange Conservation Act passed in December 1940, the importation of American comic books was cut off. Cy Bell saw an opportunity and contacted Legault. With capital invested by John Ezrin, the result was Wow Comics in September 1941 a colour comic which soon switched to the black-and-white format common at the time that became known amongst collectors as "Canadian Whites". [1] More titles were added, including Active, Commando, Dime, The Funny Comics and Joke. [2] The comics initially carried the Commercial Signs label, but switched to labeling them as Bell Features in 1942.
In April 1942, the company picked up Adrian Dingle from his own Hillborough Studios. [1] He brought with him most of the Hillborough staff, [3] as well as his popular Nelvana of the Northern Lights, one of the earliest female superheroes in North America, who was inspired by Inuit legends.
Canada's second superhero, Leo Bachle's Johnny Canuck, appeared in Dime Comics #1 in February 1942. [1] Bachle had been spotted by Ezrin in late 1941, when he was 16. Ezrin asked for Bachle's opinion on the Bell comics he was browsing, and Bachle was critical of them. Ezrin challenged him to draw two men fighting, and the results were impressive enough that Ezrin invited him to come up with a character and bring it to the Bell offices the next day. [4] Johnny Canuck was a hit, and Bachle's talents were considerable enough that he was snatched up by New York publishers in 1944. Johnny Canuck's serial adventures continued with art by André Kulbach and Paul Dak. [5]
Other characters that were popular for the company were another Dingle creation called the Penguin (no relation to the Batman villain), Legault's Dixon of the Mounted, Jerry Lazare's Phantom Rider, Edmond Good's Rex Baxter, and Fred Kelly's Doc Stearne. [1]
Bell was the most prolific of the Canadian publishers, issuing nearly twenty titles, and its comics were a big success, achieving combined weekly sales of 100,000 copies by the end of 1943. [6] Bell provided work for over fifty freelance creators, including René Kulbach, Ted Steele, Manny Easson, Jack Tremblay, Mel Crawford, Lou Skuce, Doris Slater and Patricia Joudrey. [1]
After the war ended in 1945, trade restrictions were loosened, and American comics once again flooded the Canadian market. With better distribution, colour interiors and glossy covers, Canadian publishers found it hard to compete in such a small market. Nelvana's last issue came out in 1947, and Bell ceased operations in 1953.
Canuck is a slang term for a Canadian. The origins of the word are uncertain. The term Kanuck is first recorded in 1835 as an Americanism, originally referring to Dutch Canadians or French Canadians. By the 1850s, the spelling with a "C" became predominant. Today, many Canadians and others use Canuck as a mostly affectionate term for any Canadian.
Johnny Canuck is a Canadian cartoon hero and superhero who was created as a political cartoon in 1869 and was later re-invented as a Second World War action hero in 1942. The Vancouver Canucks, a professional ice hockey team in the National Hockey League (NHL), currently use a hockey playing "Johnny Canuck" logo as one of their team logos. In addition, the Vancouver Canucks' American Hockey League affiliate, the Abbotsford Canucks, use it as their main logo.
Captain Canuck is a Canadian comic book superhero. Created by cartoonist Ron Leishman and artist/writer Richard Comely, the original Captain Canuck first appeared in Captain Canuck #1. The series was the first successful Canadian comic book since the collapse of the nation's comic book industry following World War II.
Fleur de Lys is a superheroine from Quebec and an ally of Northguard, created in 1984 by Mark Shainblum and Gabriel Morrissette in the comic New Triumph featuring Northguard. The name of the character is inspired by the heraldic symbol of the fleur de lys, which is the official emblem of Quebec and a prominent part of the Flag of Quebec. The character was honored with a Canadian postage stamp in 1995, with fellow superheroes Superman, Nelvana of the Northern Lights, Johnny Canuck and Captain Canuck.
The Joe Shuster Canadian Comic Book Creator Awards are given out annually for outstanding achievements in the creation of comic books, graphic novels, webcomics, and comics retailers and publishers by Canadians. The awards, first handed out in April 2005, are named in honour of Joe Shuster (1914–1992), the Canadian-born co-creator of Superman.
John Adrian Darley Dingle, known professionally as Adrian Dingle, was a Cornish-Canadian artist. In the 1940s, he was a creator of comic books, including Nelvana of the Northern Lights.
The Great Canadian Comic Books is a 1971 book from Peter Martin Associates. It was written by Nelvana founders Michael Hirsh and Patrick Loubert, with partner Clive Smith as designer and illustrator. It looks at the "Canadian Whites" series of comic books made during World War II, with some focus on Nelvana of the Northern Lights, the genre's first superheroine, and Johnny Canuck, as well as their publisher, Bell Features. It was accompanied by a two-year travelling tour of the art, the National Gallery of Canada's "Comic Art Traditions in Canada, 1941–45".
Leo Henry Bachle, a.k.a. Les Barker, was a Canadian comic book artist in the era of the Canadian Whites, and later became a comedian.
The Brain is a fictional character created by Leo Bachle for Bell Features, a Canadian comic company in the 1940s, and first appeared in Active Comics #1.
Nelvana of the Northern Lights is a Canadian comic book character and the first Canadian national superhero, debuting in Hillborough Studios' Triumph-Adventure Comics #1. She is also one of the first female superheroes, debuting before Wonder Woman, but after Fantomah, the Golden Age, Black Widow, Invisible Scarlet O'Neil and others introduced in 1940. Nelvana of the Northern Lights is Canada’s first distinctly Canadian female superhero.
John Bell is a Canadian comics historian and senior archivist at Library and Archives Canada. He specializes in the history of English Canadian comic books, and has curated a number of exhibitions and websites.
Canadian Whites were World War II-era comic books published in Canada that featured colour covers with black-and-white interiors. Notable characters include Nelvana of the Northern Lights, Johnny Canuck, Brok Windsor, and Canada Jack. The period has been called the Golden Age of Canadian comics.
Maple Leaf Publishing was a World War II-era Canadian comic book publisher active during the Golden Age of Comic Books. They were one of four publishers—along with Anglo-American Publishing, Hillborough Studios, and Bell Features—which published "Canadian Whites"—black-and-white comic books with colour covers that proliferated during the war years when American imports were restricted. Maple Leaf Publishing started publishing comic books in March 1941 and went out of business in late 1946.
Hillborough Studios was a short-lived Canadian comic book publisher, founded in 1941, most notable for publishing Adrian Dingle's Nelvana of the Northern Lights.
Canadian comics refers to comics and cartooning by citizens of Canada or permanent residents of Canada regardless of residence. Canada has two official languages, and distinct comics cultures have developed in English and French Canada. The English tends to follow American trends, and the French, Franco-Belgian ones, with little crossover between the two cultures. Canadian comics run the gamut of comics forms, including editorial cartooning, comic strips, comic books, graphic novels, and webcomics, and are published in newspapers, magazines, books, and online. They have received attention in international comics communities and have received support from the federal and provincial governments, including grants from the Canada Council for the Arts. There are comics publishers throughout the country, as well as large small press, self-publishing, and minicomics communities.
Anglo-American Publishing was a Canadian comic book publisher during the World War II era. While they published a number of Canadian creations, they also printed Canadian reworkings of scripts bought from American publisher Fawcett Comics.
Iron Man is a Canadian fictional character, created by cartoonist Vernon Miller for Maple Leaf Publishing. A superhero, the character's debut was in the first issue of Better Comics in March 1941, a colour title, unlike most of the other Canadian comic books at the time which were printed in black-and-white and known as "Canadian Whites".
Edmond Elbridge Good was a 20th-century Canadian illustrator, writer and co-author of more than a dozen comics during the Golden Age of Comic Books.
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