Tariffs could hit consumers where it hurts – the comic book store.
In 2016 Image Comics published the series We Stand on Guard.
Written by American Brian K. Vaughn with art by Vancouver’s Steve Skroce, the six-issue series posited a future in which Canadian loyalists defend themselves against an invading American force.
Set 100 years in the future, the series was only off by 92 years.
Defending our lives: Canadian movies and literature
Driven by the threat of tariffs and economic destruction, a new wave of patriotism is sweeping the country. Canadians are encouraging each other to buy Canadian, at least at the grocery store. But what does that mean when it comes to our entertainment dollar?
In the last 30 or 40 years the Canadian film industry has grown significantly and has produced many hundreds of films, many decent or better. You could spend a full year** watching nothing but Canadian films and still not see everything worth seeing. Hell, a year would be enough just to cover Quebec cinema.
Or books. Canada is very strong in literature. Margaret Laurence! Robertson Davies! And those are just the ones you gave up on in high school. We also have contemporary heavy hitters like Margaret Atwood. And every year the Giller Prize is awarded to the best in Canadian fiction, often featuring at least few young-ish up-and-coming scribes. We have beloved genre authors too—Louise Penny (crime), Paul Tremblay (horror), Emily St. John Mandel (dystopian sci-fi), Conrad Black (historical fiction).
In the non-fiction arena we could do worse than drop everything to read The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, Naomi Klein’s 2007 book about how politicians exploit natural disasters to further their own ends. Or Stephen Marche’s The Next Civil War: Dispatches from the American Future, a 2022 book that offers five scenarios in which our neighbours to the south take up arms against each other. Or John Vaillant’s Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast, which follows the aftermath of the Fort McMurray wildfire.
Of course, there are also Canadian non-fiction works that won’t inspire trips to survival-prep trips to Canadian Tire. Ask AI for recommendations.
Then there’s the idiot box. We might not have produced prestige dramas on the order of Mad Men or The Sopranos, but we excel at comedy. From SCTV to Trailer Park Boys to Corner Gas to Schitt’s Creek we have a time-honoured tradition of poking fun at ourselves.
Cindy Lee tops year-end best-of lists
What about music? Again, riches are ours. There’s so much great Canadian music out there that one could spend the next decade listening to nothing but Neil Young, the Tragically Hip and Cindy Lee (an Alberta musician whose album Diamond Jubilee topped just about every year-end best-of list in North America) and not hear everything.
Of course, there are logistical problems in trying to go on a strictly Canadian entertainment diet. Many of our homegrown product can only be accessed on platforms owned and operated on the dark side. But that’s a whole other article.
And let’s not forget the performing arts. We have those as well—at least us city-dwellers do. On any given night, except Monday-to-Wednesday when most Canadian theatres are shuttered, we can step out of our shoebox-size high-rise condos, look away from the person defecating in the alley and check out a cornucopia of theatre, comedy, all manner of music, even bluegrass, contemporary dance and ballet, all featuring Canadian talent. Come from Away, Cirque du Soleil, Royal Winnipeg Ballet and that improv showcase that your friend is in are ours for the cost of a ticket and parking.
In other words, with our neighbour to the south having pulled the proverbial rug out from under us, now is the time to support Canadian talent. Choose Yukon Blonde over Florida Georgia Line, Beachcombers over Baywatch, Mommy over Mother!, Brent Butt over Jim Gaffigan.
Canadian comics industry
But what are we going to do about the comic books?
Try dedicating a year to reading only Canadian comic books and you’re going to run dry pretty quickly.
That’s not to say that there isn’t a wealth of great work by Canadian artists. Julie Doucet, Chester Brown, Seth, Michel Rabagliati, Kate Beaton and Jillian Tamaki are some of the major talents that have emerged in the last three decades. But their work comes out sporadically at best, and even then it’s usually in graphic novel form.
By far, the majority of books that keep the industry running, that keep addicts like me running to their friendly neighbourhood comic book store on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, are American. And that’s not just the unending Batman, Spider-Man and X-Men titles but also science fiction, horror, crime, children’s, alternative and other genres and styles.
So could I give up my weekly comic book habit? Of course.
But I also want to support my local comic book store, which is after all a Canadian small business.
Only a blackguard of the first magnitude could have forced us into this position.
*Estimates made off the top of my head
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