'No shortage of stories:' North's past, present and future found in comic books

It was one of the most successful cultural exports from the Northsince someone suggested southerners might like those littlecarvings.

Thirty years after amazing and entertaining audiences at Expo 86,Arctic Comicswith its mythological heroes, tall tales andmeditations on what it means to be Inuit is back.

"There's no shortage of stories up here," said Nicholas Burns,one of the artists behind the 88-page, full-colour comic book beingpublished this month.

The first Arctic Comicsbegan almost as a lark when theNorthwest Territories government realized it would need northernmaterial to sell at its pavilion at Vancouver's world party.

"I put in a proposal saying I'll do up this comic and do upstories of Inuit past, present and future and they thought it was agreat idea," said Burns, who was then living in Rankin Inlet, nowpart of Nunavut. "I essentially self-published and sent them downand they sold like hotcakes."

The N.W.T. pavilion turned out to be one of the hits of the fair.Eager visitors snapped up 60,000 copies of Arctic Comics.

"It was round-the-block lineups all the time."

The plan was to do it again for Expo 92 in Seville, Spain. Butthe team missed the publication window and Arctic Comicslanguished.Until now.

With the same past, present and future focus as the original, thenew Arctic Comicsfeatures a trip with a legendary Inuit Ulyssesin "Kiviuq versus Big Bee." The fantastical adventure of thelong-ago traveller, drawn from Inuit myth, was written by the lateJose Kusugak, one of the founders of Nunavut, and illustrated byGermaine Arnaktauyok, who drew the drum dancer on the back of aspecial-edition toonie.

There's a romp entitled "The Great Slo-Pitch Massacre" and ascience-fiction yarn called "Blizzard House" aficionados willrecognize artist George Freeman who drew Captain Canuck.

Dauntless RCMP Const. Lucy Puqittuq and her loyal dog Vincentmake an appearance and the theme of southerners inventing their ownversion of the North comes in for some teasing in "Film Nord."

And then there's Michael Kusugak's "On Waiting," a setting of apoem about a boy lying on a beach waiting for a seal. Almost nothinghappens except for everything.

The boy dreams, watches the tide and thinks of his deadgrandfather playing walrus-head soccer with other spirits among theaurora's dancing lights.

"There have been so many misconceptions about Inuit for a long,long time, ever since people started writing about us, that we justlie around and wait until we're hungry again and go get another(seal)," said Kusugak. "A simple, hand-to-mouth existence.

"It's not true. It's never been true.

"I thought it was time we started producing things that tell youwhat it really feels like to be there."

Burns agrees that the biggest audience for Arctic Comicsislikely to be in the South.

"I thought European audiences in particular they romanticizeFirst Nations communities and peoples and culture. But most peoplein southern Canada have very little knowledge or understanding ofthe North either."

Arctic Comicswill be first published in both French andEnglish. Burns said he looked for a publisher that could produce anInuktitut version, but the sales were unlikely to justify theexpense.

But he added an Inuktitut version will follow, funded by revenuefrom the other editions.

"I'm going to be fascinated by the responses we get from theNorth."