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Brok Windsor
Brok Windsor, the greatest Canadian hero of all time – that you’ve never heard of. Created by Winnipeg-turned Vancouver artist Jon Stables, Brok Windsor was first published in 1944 and lasted for only two years. Brok Windsor was the incredible tale of a Winnipeg doctor who crash-lands on a magical island in the middle of cottage country. Here the residents grow to be 7 feet tall, treachery is around every corner, and monsters are out to get him! Joining Brok in his journey is Torgon the son of a deposed leader of the local Blackpaw tribe, an expert marksman and flyer, and Starra the lovely, imprisoned descendant of a malicious British ghost.
258 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
December 28, 2015
This is truly a beautifully drawn "Canadian White" comic with some fabulously creative story lines. The initial issues have a distinctly rugged (you cannot say "western" as they are set in Northern Ontario) sci-fi feel to them. Some of the foes our eponymous hero faces are down right creepy but that just makes this uniquely Canadian (Brok even tosses in the odd "eh" from time to time)gem even better. I really loved the early panel work,and I have to say I was disappointed Stables aborted those efforts and instead adopted a more traditional panel layout. The look was so distinctive.
The Editor, Hope Nicholson, included some fabulous artwork, a few short essays that detail the history of Brok Windsor,and a lost/last chapter that was never completed by Stables is also included featuring the artwork of another Canadian comic artist, Scott Chandler. A fabulously fun read that was very nicely restored.
The Editor, Hope Nicholson, included some fabulous artwork, a few short essays that detail the history of Brok Windsor,and a lost/last chapter that was never completed by Stables is also included featuring the artwork of another Canadian comic artist, Scott Chandler. A fabulously fun read that was very nicely restored.
March 30, 2019
'Brok Windsor' with story by Jon Stables edited by Hope Nicholson is a collection of Canadian comics from the 1940s.
Brok Windsor, a doctor, crash lands on a strange island. He finds himself in a strange land where he grows a foot every night. He learns that this will kill him unless he drinks water from a certain lake. Luckily, he finds a 7 foot tall Blackpaw tribal member named Torgon. This land is full of strange flora and fauna that is trying to kill Brok and Torgon. Also trying to stop them is a rival tribe that has overthrown Torgon's father.
With plot aplenty, I had a great time reading this graphic novel. It collects all the stories, includes essays and a script and a story done with a new artist.
I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Bedside Press in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing to review this graphic novel.
Brok Windsor, a doctor, crash lands on a strange island. He finds himself in a strange land where he grows a foot every night. He learns that this will kill him unless he drinks water from a certain lake. Luckily, he finds a 7 foot tall Blackpaw tribal member named Torgon. This land is full of strange flora and fauna that is trying to kill Brok and Torgon. Also trying to stop them is a rival tribe that has overthrown Torgon's father.
With plot aplenty, I had a great time reading this graphic novel. It collects all the stories, includes essays and a script and a story done with a new artist.
I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Bedside Press in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing to review this graphic novel.
November 9, 2018
It is truly a tragedy that Brok Windsor did not survive after December 1946, when American comic books returned to the Canadian market. Brok Windsor is a triumph of story telling and beautiful imagery. Jon Stables' art is elegant and his narrative completely captivating.
Brok Windsor, a Canadian doctor, chances upon the island of Chaqua during a summer fishing trip. There, he meets Torgon, the gargantuan son of the chief of a technologically advanced indigenous society. Torgon tells him he must drink from the Blue Spring or the island's air will kill him. Together, Brok and Torgon face all kinds of adventure, from monstrous creatures to strange people who inhabit the land as they travel towards the mysterious Blue Spring.
Brok Windsor, a Canadian doctor, chances upon the island of Chaqua during a summer fishing trip. There, he meets Torgon, the gargantuan son of the chief of a technologically advanced indigenous society. Torgon tells him he must drink from the Blue Spring or the island's air will kill him. Together, Brok and Torgon face all kinds of adventure, from monstrous creatures to strange people who inhabit the land as they travel towards the mysterious Blue Spring.
May 17, 2018
A beautifully restored piece of Canadian comic-book history!
I was pleasantly surprised by how quick paced the stories were in this one. While some of the vernacular is now outdated (how Stables refers to the indigenous people in his work), I still would say it is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of Canadian comic-books.
It was also a great treat to see Scott Chantler illustrate the lost issue of Brok Windsor.
I was pleasantly surprised by how quick paced the stories were in this one. While some of the vernacular is now outdated (how Stables refers to the indigenous people in his work), I still would say it is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of Canadian comic-books.
It was also a great treat to see Scott Chantler illustrate the lost issue of Brok Windsor.
May 18, 2019
Beautiful looking Canadian He-Man adventure comic books with more fantastical monsters than you can shake a canoe at. The one disheartening thing is that you get to the end you realize that this is it. There are no more comic books that were written and drawn by John Stables.
April 10, 2022
Surprisingly dense, high quality Golden Age serial from Canada. Great, often surreal lost world tale (primarily), with impressive art & refreshingly non-racist depictions of Native Americans from the 1940s.
June 15, 2017
Good old fashioned fun. A mix of Flash Gordon, Dan Dare, John Carter and The Lone Ranger. Brok Windsor does not disappoint. Surprisingly not racist, as well.
January 26, 2019
This was so enjoyable! I really adore Canadian comics from the WWII era. If it wasn't for Hope Nicholson I wouldn't know of them. So glad she keeps bringing them out to a wider audience.
December 9, 2015
What sort of vehicle would a Canadian superhero adventurer from the mid 1940s travel in? That’s right, of course it is a canoe. Comic book superhero Brok Windsor was a creation of Jon Stables, writing under the pseudonym Jon St. Ables. The Brok Windsor comics, like most golden age Canadian comics, were produced during the years around world war II when Canadian rationing laws meant that American comics were no longer being shipped to Canada. Stables and his contemporaries were able to create their own Canadian superheroes and rewrite the Canadian landscape as a place of adventure. The Brok Windsor comics ran from 1944-1946 and was produced by Maple Leaf Publications. Hope Nicholson has now resurrected this historical comic and published it as a collection through Bedside Press.
But where is a Canadian adventurer like Brok Windsor to find adventure in this Canadian landscape?… well, don’t forget that Canada is huge, and, of course, most of the country is largely unexplored, so when Windsor is fishing in his canoe and sees strange mists on a large lake named “The Lake of the Woods”, of course he needs to investigate. Through the misty barrier, Windsor finds himself in a new realm of islands, and, as we know, islands are always places of mystery and adventure.
Jon Stables’ Brok Windsor comics were about the immensity of the Canadian landscape and its ability to be both familiar and strange, a place that can be opened to adventure and whose magical quality is only a thin wall of mists away. Windsor’s body itself is shaped by his landscape and when he crosses through the mists he becomes immense in size, his body emulating the bodies of the giants who occupy these islands of adventure, and, even when his body is returned to its normal size, the intrinsic difference is still written on his body, providing him with the immensity of strength that his giant body possessed… just in the form of a smaller, more Canadian shape.
The oddity and magical quality of this different landscape hidden within Canada’s hugeness is expressed throughout the comics. Even seemingly familiar aspects of the landscape are alive with oddity. When Brok first encounters trees in this landscape, rather than providing a sense of familiarity, they add to the oddity of the landscape. Rather than stationary figures of the landscape, these trees are active and potentially consumptive, reaching out with branched fingers to consume flesh. Through this device Stables illustrates the oddity of the landscape and the notion that the expectations of Canadian geography are about to be disrupted. Brok Windsor encounters new civilizations, alien lifeforms who are able to detach their heads from their bodies, possessing spirits, gigantic bird-bats, horned lions, insectile people who are horrified by water, magnetically powered flying cars, and an indigenous civilization that has become giant and have developed space-age technology.
Windsor’s companion in this strange world is one of the giant indigenous men that he has encountered, Torgon, who serves as a translator for the adventurer as well as a co-explorer in a realm of new possibilities.
Stables’ art evokes the mystical quality of the Canadian landscape, the power of sky, lake, and treescape that were frequently evoked by Canadians trying to find a sense of identity in the war years and served as a shorthand for belonging. The power of Stables’ art is such that it is able to evoke both these familiar shorthands for Canadian geographical ideas of belonging and also estrange these icons of belonging by creating a strange landscape within the expectedly familiar place.
But where is a Canadian adventurer like Brok Windsor to find adventure in this Canadian landscape?… well, don’t forget that Canada is huge, and, of course, most of the country is largely unexplored, so when Windsor is fishing in his canoe and sees strange mists on a large lake named “The Lake of the Woods”, of course he needs to investigate. Through the misty barrier, Windsor finds himself in a new realm of islands, and, as we know, islands are always places of mystery and adventure.
Jon Stables’ Brok Windsor comics were about the immensity of the Canadian landscape and its ability to be both familiar and strange, a place that can be opened to adventure and whose magical quality is only a thin wall of mists away. Windsor’s body itself is shaped by his landscape and when he crosses through the mists he becomes immense in size, his body emulating the bodies of the giants who occupy these islands of adventure, and, even when his body is returned to its normal size, the intrinsic difference is still written on his body, providing him with the immensity of strength that his giant body possessed… just in the form of a smaller, more Canadian shape.
The oddity and magical quality of this different landscape hidden within Canada’s hugeness is expressed throughout the comics. Even seemingly familiar aspects of the landscape are alive with oddity. When Brok first encounters trees in this landscape, rather than providing a sense of familiarity, they add to the oddity of the landscape. Rather than stationary figures of the landscape, these trees are active and potentially consumptive, reaching out with branched fingers to consume flesh. Through this device Stables illustrates the oddity of the landscape and the notion that the expectations of Canadian geography are about to be disrupted. Brok Windsor encounters new civilizations, alien lifeforms who are able to detach their heads from their bodies, possessing spirits, gigantic bird-bats, horned lions, insectile people who are horrified by water, magnetically powered flying cars, and an indigenous civilization that has become giant and have developed space-age technology.
Windsor’s companion in this strange world is one of the giant indigenous men that he has encountered, Torgon, who serves as a translator for the adventurer as well as a co-explorer in a realm of new possibilities.
Stables’ art evokes the mystical quality of the Canadian landscape, the power of sky, lake, and treescape that were frequently evoked by Canadians trying to find a sense of identity in the war years and served as a shorthand for belonging. The power of Stables’ art is such that it is able to evoke both these familiar shorthands for Canadian geographical ideas of belonging and also estrange these icons of belonging by creating a strange landscape within the expectedly familiar place.
December 28, 2015
Classic, long-lost Canadian comics, excellently restored and reprinted here. Brok Windsor by John Stables (St. Ables, as he signed the books) is a beautifully-drawn adventure strip with a Sci-Fi fantasy vibe. The earlier issues are especially interesting, with their unusual panel shapes and transitions and use of lettering; the later issues settle down into more conventionally-designed comics pages but still benefit from Stables's strong line. One storyline features some particularly creepy creatures with detachable heads. Unusual for its time in that there were long, multi-issue continuities more like what one found in comic strips than the more usual self-contained comic book stories. However, it feels like at some point several issues into the run the decision was made to shift storylines radically; there is an evident gap between issues (suggested by the a story being prefaced with a synopsis of what went before), and then the ongoing storylines and characters are rather peremptorily dropped without much resolution. The book was cancelled within a couple of issues of this shift anyway, so the adjustment didn't save the book. Regardless, it is really great to see a complete run of this rarity now available, in such a nice edition. There are useful but too brief essays on Maple Leaf (the publishing company), Jon Stables, and the real guy on whom Brok Windsor was apparently modeled, as well as a final lost story (script only having survived) drawn by Scott Chantler, and a bunch of pin-ups--some quite gorgeous--by various comics figures. Must-have for Canadian comics fans, and worthwhile for anyone interested in adventure/SF comics.
December 17, 2015
I kind of thought it was going to be boring but I really loved it, a lot! The art is really pretty, the fonts used in the lettering had me pausing often to admire them. Jon Stables was very very talented, it's a shame that the Canadian comics died off when the US ones because available up here again!
February 7, 2016
Lovely art (especially for the 40's) and a fun plot and characters in a Flash Gordon type of vibe. Definitely a comic from the Golden Age which held up well. Really nice art gallery in the back too.
December 26, 2016
Beautiful art, imaginative and delightfully weird. This is a wonderful glimpse at the history of Canadian comics.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews