SHAINBLUM, Mark (1963-)

250px-New_Triumph1Mark Shainblum (1963-)
Mark Shainblum was born and raised in Montreal with extension credits in comic books, newspaper strips, webcomics and prose science fiction and fantasy. He is best known the comic community as the co-creator, along with illustrator Gabriel Morrissette, of the acclaimed indy superhero series Northguard and the bestselling parody comic series Angloman, which appeared in two books from Signature Editions, and later as a weekly comic strip in the Montreal Gazette.

Mark also worked on the classic Canadian superhero Captain Canuck, and with Sandy Carruthers, Canadiana: The New Spirit of Canada, a webcomic featuring the first female Canadian flag superhero with her own series. To get away from maple leaves a little bit, Mark also wrote Michael Moorcock’s Corum for First Comics and stories for other independent publishers. He is currently working on a new science fiction series for Charlton Neo, and a revival and reboot of Northguard from Chapterhouse Comics.

5dbce451ab0967cfc8f7e7f992003a73-d72dfhuMark also casts a wide shadow across Canadian comics history as a publisher. At 18 he published two issues of a semi-pro comics and sci-fi fanzine called Orion: The Canadian Magazine of Time and Space. Later, he founded Matrix Graphics and published the first guide to Canadian comic books, edited by John Bell. In addition to Northguard, Matrix also put out the mini-series Mackenzie Queen and back-up strip The Jam, the first published works by comic artist Bernie Mireault.

In late 2016, Chapterhouse Comics will be publishing a colour trade paperback collecting the entire run of the original Northguard (with new colour by Mireault), and the brand new reboot series.