LGP Late Winter / Early Spring Solicitations

I like to post the Captain Canuck solicitations as they are made public, but I held off for a bit when I came across the publisher's recent announcements. 

As far as trade paperback reprints are concerned, I've added the most recent attempts at publishing this past material down the right side of the page. This includes the original series from the 70s and 80s separated over two volumes, Lev Gleason Publications' (as Chapterhouse) own mini series featuring the original Captain, and the "West Coast Captain Canuck" mini series from the mid 2000s.

That done, let's look ahead. The following book is scheduled for late April.

Lev Gleason Presents #1

Lev Gleason’s Comic House returns to super-hero publishing after 75 years with Lev Gleason Presents #1. 

This series jumpstarts with Silver Streak: Season 1 Issue 1 by Keith Champagne (Stranger Things) and Stefan Tosheff (Minerva’s Map); Freelance: Season 2 Issue 1 by Andrew Wheeler (Wonder Woman) and Juan Samu (Black Panther); Captain Canuck: Season 5 Issue 3 by Ho Che Anderson (KING) and Felipe Cunha (Cult Classic); plus a classic archive adventure featuring the Golden Age Silver Streak! 

Each mega-sized issue will contain a brand-new #1 issue as well as at least two NEW 20-page stories continuing from the Comic House shared universe! Included in each issue are download codes for digital copies of each issue featured.

Captain Canuck's third issue of season five is included in this?  What if I don't want the rest of the content? Am I "stuck" paying the $9.99 suggested retail price for the one book I do want? 

Apparently not, according to Keith WTS Morris in this interview with First Comics News. 

Yes, standard 32-page single-issue comics will always be for sale for collectors and readers through our demand edition program, Never miss a back issue! Exclusive variants and Retailer programs as well all available through levgleason.com.

All right...Presumably there will be announcements specific to individual issues being released because it doesn't sound like they will be included in regular solicitations. Or if they will, they have yet to, anyway. 

Here is the solicitation for the second issue of LGP, available at the end of May. 

Lev Gleason Presents #2

“The Greatest Name in Comics” Daredevil: Season 1 Issue 1 by Kenny Porter and Iñaki Azpiazu; Freelance: Season 2 Issue 2 by Andrew Wheeler and Juan Samu; Canuck Beyond: Season 1 Issue 3 by Adrien Benson and Esteban Calvi; plus a classic archive adventure featuring the Golden Age Daredevil!  

Blue Fox!! 😀

I think at the end of the day, this gives us a little flexibility. I'll be blunt, I have zero interest in Freelance. Where the good Captain is concerned, I prefer individual issues over trades. I think I would just as soon wait on his own issues to be made available for purchase if that's part of LGP's strategy.

Good for me, but anyone who wants to know pretty well all that's going in the Captain's "universe" can keep up through the "Presents" book for relatively low cost. Makes sense, if my understanding of LGP's strategy is sound. 

Finally, the best news I received was the coming novel by D.K. Latta, also scheduled for late May. 

When Captain Canuck and his team are called to Lunartown to oversee the Space Needle’s completion, what should have been a simple job unearths a plan to sabotage the Needle’s launch. Suddenly, the mysterious disappearance of Captain Canuck reveals a scheme of alien origin. Now, Captain Canuck must choose between duty to his country and possibly the chance at a normal, everyday life. The Space Needle must be finished at all costs!

I'd be interested in any Canuck content, but I have read a couple of Latta's stories in anthologies and found them to be outstanding, so I look forward to reading an entire novel from him. In fact, based on that work and his long-standing interest in the character, if I'd been asked to select one person to write a book about the Captain, D.K. would have been the easy and quick choice. 

He wrote about his upcoming book recently and mentioned that a re-edited version of Neil Dougherty's The Terror Birds is coming down the line at some point. That's good, because that book had huge editing issues. Some sentences are outright nonsensical. It was like a first draft was mistakenly released rather than the final version.

The story itself has potential but it got lost in all the errors. I believe Neil is a better writer than that book suggested, and that a cleaned up version will demonstrate that. 

CSIS Agent: Captain Canuck

I've spent the early part of my evening updating the "season 3" and "con variants" pages and while looking for material to add to those pages, I came across a relatively recent image of an alternate version of the Captain.  Specifically, it's from March 2016.

I say it is "relatively recent" because work on this project has always progressed at a pace glaciers would envy. However, in this case, any pace might be positive news.

The project is (or was, it's always hard to tell) spearheaded by Captain Canuck creator Richard Comely's son, Christian. I believed that the emergence of Chapterhouse's version pretty well spelled the end of the CSIS Agent variety above (because I'd basically been told that very thing) but Chapterhouse was well into its publishing by March 2016 and Christian was still talking about it.  Here's what he had to say about the image when he posted it on Facebook.

I am working on it, keep an eye on the FB page that is where i will be updating as i go. I work full time not doing comics, so it is slow going but me and my writing partner have come up with some really good stuff!

Since Richard Comely still appears to be involved with Chapterhouse on some level, then perhaps Christian's version of the Captain could see the light of day at some point. Alternate reality? Back-up story?

Unlikely, but not impossible. It was cool to stumble into new (to me) art regardless and I hope Christian is encouraged to continue with the project. His design for Bluefox is copied below.

Chapterverse Moves Forward In Chapterhouse March 2017 Solicitations

Let's see what we can look forward to in the spring!

AGENTS OF PACT #3
JAN171565 

(W) Kalman Andrasofszky, Blake Northcott (A) Federica Manfredi (CA) Bella Rachlin

The Chapterverse continues! Hot on the trail of the extra-dimensional invader, the Agents are led right into the belly of the beast: Equilibrium HQ! And Michael Evans is anything but happy to see them. 

Caught between two deadly threats, all seems lost until the secret fifth member of PACT reveals herself! 

In Shops: Mar 29, 2017
SRP: $3.99

Err...Would that secret member happen to be on this cover? Because from the beginning I wondered if Bluefox was going to appear in this book, being a prominent female member of the cast and all.

FREELANCE #3
JAN171566 

(W) Jim Zub, Andrew Wheeler (A) Vaneda Vireak (CA) Alexander Perkins 

The Chapterverse continues! Terror on the racetrack! 

In the penultimate issue of the series, Apollyon has activated the Breach Key in Istanbul, and only Lance and his team stand in the way of total destruction. But when one member gets kidnapped, Lance must outrace the clock if he hopes to save the world – and his friend. 

In Shops: Mar 29, 2017
SRP: $3.99

Still no real evidence of Chapterverse participation as such besides, obviously, the mention in the solicitation text. I don't expect a Captain Canuck appearance or anything, but a mention of Equilibrium, PACT, something.