From Funerals to Revivals, from Music to Comics

[dewline]

A couple of morning notes:

First, Dave Brown at the Ottawa Citizen remarks on the memory of Les McLaughlin, long-time CBC staffer and a musical performer as well. In the latter capacity, he was part of the team that set a dozen of the most beloved poems of Robert Service to music in the album, The Songs of Robert Service.

I'm happy to report that I have that CD in my collection at the moment, and hope to keep it - and keep listening to its music - for decades to come, no matter the forces of technological obsolescence arrayed against us all.

Second, there's a push on to get Captain Canuck into the movie theatres. The Los Angeles Times details the efforts, and Canadian movie-goers - and fans of shows such as Due South past and present across the planet - may not be entirely surprised or willing to complain about this aspect of co-creator Richard Comely's plans:

If the movie deal does come to fruition, Comely said Captain Canuck will surprise fans accustomed to the fiery violence and high-tech gizmos that define the American masked-men movies. “I wanted him to be as real as possible,” Comely said in a phone interview from Ontario. “He’s polite, by the way. Just a little bit gentler.”

Which of the three iterations of the character published either by his hand or with his approval thus far gets used as the framework for the movie - if it goes ahead - is being left unsaid for now. Probably not a bad idea, although I'm still looking forward to seeing the comics pick up where they left off. Particularly given the fact that we were left with all three versions of the good Captain co-existing in the same universe and starting to work with each other at the end of the last issue of the latest series.

Comments

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

My first thought is that a filmed version of Captain Canuck would be ghastly - but I'd like to be proved wrong.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Depends on who gets it done and how, I expect. We've got good people who can do the Work.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I have no doubt that we have the talent, but we've both seen good material turned into rubbish by producers or directors who just don't get it.

[kallisti.livejournal.com]

I see they didn't mention Northguard...which in many ways owed a lot to Captain Canuck.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Mark and Gabriel were the first to acknowledge the inspiration Comely, Leishman and Freeman provided them. Right in the first Northguard story itself, as you and I both remember.

[kallisti.livejournal.com]

Mark is a really nice guy. I didn't get to know Gabriel all that well.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Gabriel's still around and still drawing. Most recent stuff I've seen him and Mark working on together saw print in a book that's sitting in the open area at Northern Lights (http://www.northernlightsptbo.ca/nlvs/index.php?file=nlvsabout).

I wish I could remember the name of the book, though!