License Request: Paul's Short Stories

Paul up North is easily Michel Rabagliati's most ambitious book yet.  Starting with the opening of an idlylic scene (A feat started since Paul Goes Fishing, and best employed in Paul Joins the Scouts, opening with a six-panel page of repeat moving stills of a shoe caught around a tree branch, the significance of which we don't find out until near the end) revolving around the general excitement of the Montreal Expo and the Olympics.  With the publication of Paul up North, the travails of the iconic quasi-biographical titular character Nostalgic look at Montreal (the best part being the somewhat surreal hitchhike with Paul & a friend towards a party in a snowstorm) has come to a temporary end.

With its simplistic Lingue-Claire drawings, Paul's been referred as the Tintin of Montreal, which is somewhat fitting, since there's a Blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo tribute.  The author/artist is a clear lover of European comics, and it shows, even in a three-panel layer outlook when the European norm is four tiers.

If there's a term that describes the French city, it's a rustic crumbling infrastructure, where the charm comes from flaking bricks still standing despite the years gone by.  And nowhere is that accurately displayed than in Paul's little corner of the world.  (Save for a few pages in Matz and Luc Jacamon's The Killer)

While impressive (and sometimes overly sentimental), it's also a shame, since the events surrounding Paul no longer applies to the author, since his wife left him, his mother's dead, his father's sick, and his dog's gone to the farm.  As a result, it's become somewhat harder for the self author.artist to draw recollections from his life when current personal conditions are no longer as rosy.  And when Lynn Johnson increasingly drew from her preconceived notions of what her life should be, rather than what it actually was, her life-long definitive work suffered as a result.  All of Paul's stories have a aura of heartbreak around its center, but a book filled with nothing but pathos would be difficult to swallow.

There was also an adaption of the book Paul in Québec (which was renamed Song of Roland for some reason)  The Live-Action movie was called Paul on Québec, because consistency be damned.  It was notable for having a brief scene that looked at the printing process of a volume of Red Ketchup Vs. Frankenstein, showing an interior page, flipping the inked flapout on top of the coloured board underneath.  Despite its impressiveness, that particular volume doesn't actually exist.  It was just an excuse to have the Real artist Réal Godbout show up and be posterized for eternity before it was too late, since his adaption of Kafka's Amerika would've gone into obscurity.  (I've been meaning to get back to Red Ketchup, but my usual translator hasn't gotten back to me for years)

Prior to this, the earliest adventures of Paul was composed of mini-stories, such as Paul Apprentice Typographer and Paul in the Metro, first seen in Drawn & Quarterly Vol. 3 & 4, and later reprinted in the Free Comic Book Day sample from 2005.  While these short stories were collected in a French volume of their own, they haven't been compiled in a collection in English, as per my request.  Personally, I'd prefer that they be bundled up with Paul in the Country, the shortest of the Paul books.  But that's not the only missing gem - there are others.

Now, this next bit will require some explaining.  There was a book that had re-drawings of various cartoonist pages.  On one side was the original page, sometimes with the penciled draft left intact.  On the other side was the modern-day artist's interpretation.  Several were in English, but the majority of the book was in French.  This excerpt from a typical Gaston Lagaffe page shows the eternal BoyChild engaging in various disruptive pastime activities far beyond the social norms of an office building.  (Even if said building is the publisher of Spirou Magazine)

And here's Paul's version of events:


Another short one-pager was when Paul was used as an opportunity to showcase the Visual Arts in a French newspaper, Le Devoir.  Here, he takes a very out-of-character moment to showcase the bombastic style of a pushy newspaperman that's more along the likes of Achille Talon, down to his rapid speech and verbal tics.

For the record, there actually IS a Golden Feather Award.  In the first panel below, Paul originally said "On tue la une! on bute la deux! on trucide la trois!"  I rephrased it as best as I could, including the penultimate panel.


But the major find was Paul Goes to the Hardware Store, coming from Cyclops, an anthology of Canadian artists.  As I mentioned before, my Father is somewhat of a finicky handyman, so the following pages quite ticked his funnybone.  More after the cut.

Red Ketchup Vs. Russia

It's been almost a year since I translated the first half of the second volume of Red Ketchup, and it only occurred to me that I should at least attempt to make the second half available this year.  A year between scanlation side projects is simply too long a wait time, regardless of quality.

This made me laugh more than I care to admit.

The ironic thing was, shortly after I mentioned that my translator hadn't been very forthcoming in giving me further updates, I was suddenly given a deluge of the remainder of the Ultra Kamarade volume.  The reason for the extra long delay basically boils down to one rather silly reason - I couldn't remember the exact font I'd used for the back cover in the first album, and didn't feel up to going through the whole list in order to find out which one it was.  That coupled with the various other side projects I was otherwise preoccupied with made putting the remainder text in the balloons seem rather easy by comparison.  This is a reoccurring problem I have - I'll go head along at the outskirts of the project I'm involved in, eager to get the whole ordeal over and done with.  Then, once I've made steady progress and can see the endgoal in sight, I start to slack off, believing that the job'll be done eventually.  It's a combination of the old Tortoise & Hare fable and Zeno's paradox - I'm ever so slowly inching towards my endgame, but the amount of time it takes me to get there takes me longer than it normally would if I didn't become so overconfident in my ability to deliver the goods.

Another reason for the long delay was that after I posted the first half, very few people bothered to download it in the first place, leaving me to feel that there wasn't much of a demand for Red Ketchup in the first place.  This might've been tempered by a certain warning image that likely scared some people off:

This one, f'r instance.

Apparently, people really don't want to see humanoid birds get harmed, even fictionally.  There's a double-standard that protestors are more likely to defend against an endangered animal if they're cute, rather than bug-ugly.  You're more likely to hear arguments for saving snow seals than kodomo dragons.  This was a theme in Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series, where a beautiful plant was threatening the livestock of other wildlife, because it was growing like a weed, crowding out other plants a chance for their day in the sun.  Sometimes too much of a good thing can turn out to have potentially devastating effects, as seen in Neal Shusterman's dark fairytale adaption, Duckling Ugly.  But that's nothing new - we're essentially a vain species.  Just recently, a study was shown that people are more likely to take medical advice from doctors if they're fat.

What spurred my interest back in the project was a recent article that signaled attention towards this old Canadian comic using my old blog post as a reference.  The number of commenters there suggested to me that there was still viable interest out there.  They also brought up the suggestion that Canadian-borne Drawn & Quarterly might have some interest in producing the title in English, though it's certainly more risque than their usual titles by Seth, Michel Rabagliati and Adrian Tomine.  It's somewhat closer to the dark humour of Yoshihiro Tatsumi and Chester Brown, so there's still hope there for a certain red-haired FBI agent strangling a penguin's neck out.

Part one
Part two

Binkly and Doinkel

Back in an earlier entry, I expressed some remorse for not keeping the originals of a childhood educational pamphlet because I had no idea what the exact names of the twin aliens were. It was only by the sheerest fluke of luck that I noticed a certain book; Canuck Comics while browsing the 741.5 shelves, the comic section of the library that's normally reserved for comic-related items not grouped together in the Graphic Novels section, and was where comic paperbacks were located until they got their own shelves devoted to them.


















The cast from left to right are: Stig, Mister X, Samurai, The Electric Warrior, Onésime, Le Sombre Vilain, Ududu, Capitaine Kébec, Nelvana of the Northern Lights, Red Ketchup, Kelvin Mace, Cerebus, Northguard, Doc Stearne: Mr. Monster, Brok Windsor and Neil the Horse.

Most people would've only noticed (and recognized) the off-model version of Cerebus on there. But it was only after taking a second look that I noticed a certain infamous Red-haired FBI agent arguing with another guy in a trenchcoat. (Kelvin Mace, a hilarious private eye who's just as high-strung as Red Ketchup is, though sadly, it only lasted two issues before the artist died) Some history of the tragic history of the short-lived series can be found by co-creator, Ty Templeton here.

Some further readings of the text showed that Quebec comics have had a long and fractured history. They've been highly influenced by European and American comics, which has led to their diversive output, but has also severely limited their commercial potential compared to their better-known competitors. No popular publication of any Quebec comic save for Croc and Safarir magazines lasted over two years, and most folded sooner. I would be very surprised if anybody could name more than five cartoon faces on this page here.


































Despite the overwhelming odds against homegrown cartoonists ever getting published, there's still an abundance of potential artists wanting to devote themselves to the ninth art, no matter how offputting the odds are. One of my greatest surprises was when I saw two Asian teenage girls do some penciling, inking and colouring of pages of a BD comic for a school contest. Not Manga - Bande Dessinée, with 4-layered rows, hand-drawned sound effects, big-nosed protagonists and everything. I couldn't read a word of it, but expressed my admiration for their efforts and wished them luck on winning. I have no idea if they won the prize or not, but would be curious to know the results. The link I was given could only be accessible via internal school memberships, so I had no way of finding out.





























At first, I was disappointed, because the only mention of Red Ketchup were confined to a brief sentence description as being a spinoff of Michel Risque, and a rough black & white panel of him breaking a certain linebacker's arm. I would've contented myself with making scans of the wraparound cover until I took another flip through the book and noticed that there was a certain cover that gave me the first lead I'd had in over a decade. If that picture hadn't been there, I would've missed it completely without a second glance.


































After finding the proper name, I was able to make a customary search on some more background details. One thing that perplexed me was that the cover design on that particular issue was completely different from what I was expecting. Even the species of Sniffer the dog had changed. Turns out that they were part of a series of three issues, the third of which I was more familiar with. However, the interlude between the first and third were miniscule compared to the mass discrepancies of the second, which might as well have been done by a blind person doing abstract artistic representations. (Sorry, Diane Demerais)

They were originally puppet-figure features from the National Film Board on Safety Awareness.
Sadly, the originals have been lost to time, and only the scripts still remain in their archives. All that's left is a 17-minute video that can be seen in its entirety here:

I have to say that the nostalgia value of seeing the inspirational source material is not quite as inspiring as the actual 16-page comic I saw them from. It wasn't exactly high literature or art, but it was entertaining and dramatic enough in its own right, particularly where the household chemicals of corrosives, poisons, flamables and explosives were anthropomorphized by Fingers, Bones, Torchy and Boomer.




















The only other possible relevance that this would have for modern-day S-hero fans is that the artist Owen McCarron, contributed to 'Spidey's Super Stories' and 'The Mighty Marvel Superheroes Fun Book' at Marvel in the late 1970s.

Along the way, I contacted a certain Nathan Shumate who bragged about acquiring the comic for his personal collection. I asked if he was interested in posting the relevant pages. With any luck, we should be seeing the reason why I have such fond memories of this comic up sometime soon. ...That is, if he ever gets around to finding the elusive comic among his personal effects. Until then, I won't be holding my baited breath, but be waiting with sheer anticipation until the scans are shown. All that's left to do is wait.

Stay tuned.

Red Ketchup in Antarctica

Here's the first half of the second Red Ketchup book, Ultra Kamarade. Like Cerebus and The Sandman, the second collection of Red Ketchup was released first, because it was considered the better representation of the character, compared to his first impression. Considering the lukewarm reaction to the first book, I'm guessing the second one will be better recieved, even though I practically spoiled everything that happens in my mini-review.

Originally, I was going to wait until a certain amount of time until I finished the whole book, but both I and my translator LeChatVert have been too busy with other personal stuff to get around to it. If there's stronger demand for more, we'll probably devote more time to the project. No promises.

The other reason was that I was hoping that a certain image of mine would come up first.
When Mike Sterling was giving additional comic examples from his Then... KOREA blog topic, I was inspired by some of the other reader's entries to submit my own try at the mash-up. Although I'm only mentioned by my first name, I can assure you that Funky entry is mine. However, now that he's reduced his daily entries after his computer scare, and there doesn't appear to be any more Then... KOREA entries, I might as well show you what was my intended second entry:
















Before giving the download link, in light of the upcoming CISPA (Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act) which is considered the next SOPA, here's a mandatory warning message from our unfriendly FBI representative, giving what is probably their least effective detractive tactic.

































You have been warned. If penguins worldwide go extinct, it's all your own fault.

Red Ketchup’s Untold Story

Here’s the last story of the first book that I didn’t summarize, because I had no idea of what just happened and why. Thanks to LeChatVert’s translations, I now know better, and can share the results with everyone. However, even though the story is clearer to me now, there are a few scenes that could use some clarity. Below, the curly-haired man, Ludger Risque, wonders why Red Ketchup looks so familiar, even though he’s never seen him before.


































Actually, he DID meet Red Ketchup, way back in the second Michel Risque book, when Red was looking for information, and chanced upon the one man who gave him a lead to Raoul Escobar, and we all know how that turned out.















Later on, this same man had through a series of fortunate events, broken off from the cult “Right Way”, and gone into his own lucrative business, before being found out by the cult leader, Colonel White, and is negotiated off-panel to deliver some incriminating photos of rival politician, Robert Marlborough. Below is the scene that wasn’t included, as well as some animal-bonding between Michel Risque and his bull, T-bone.


































Even though the results at political blackmail are the same, the details are subtly different, such as allowing an extra panel to show Red Ketchup throwing a karate chop that breaks the wall, though we don't get to see him enter the room. (He was guarding the front door in the colourized comic though, and only ran inside once the politician called for help)


































If you haven’t noticed by now, Ludger Risque is none other than Michel Risque’s wheeling-dealing uncle. The similarity between last names should’ve tipped you off. This also helps explain some insignificant details, such as why somebody would want to break up a fight between a sleazy photographer and a berserk albino bodyguard, and why the bull attacked Red Ketchup while ignoring everybody else. In the confusion, Michel Risque, his girlfriend Poutine and his uncle escape from Colonel White’s men on bullback. All of this occurs while Red Ketchup is knocked unconscious, and another disaster occurs shortly after.


































As before, the whole backstory takes place in the 4th Michel Risque book, where Michel and his friends and family are being hounded by Colonel White and his lunatic "Right Way" cult for the majority of the book. In fact, Colonel White is a bigger threat to Michel Risque than to Red Ketchup. Michel also doesn't find out what actually happens behind the scenes of the Coronation, while the truth is only revealed in the pages of Red Ketchup, with no reaction from the outside world.

In a way, this is a very strange kind of crossover. Two sides of a story are revealed, but are only made relevant with certain details available in one story, and other details that are missing in another. As with other creator-owned comics, this kind of crossover is easier to keep track of if the creative team is responsible for both stories.

Wencelas the Red Ketchup

Well, it’s been a week since I last posted the first few pages of Red Ketchup, and I haven’t received a cease and desist message from the author or artist in question. Too bad that only three people have bothered to download it so far. The fact that I hid the download link at the end of a long summary might have had something to do with it. Another possibility is that the concept of Red Ketchup simply isn’t that popular to my regular audience. But I'm still stubbornly going to go through with this project to the bitter end.












So to recap, here’s the link again if you missed it the first time around. And here’s the link to the latest translation effort where we find out the backstory behind the Medival Red Ketchup. While I’m a pretty faithful adaptor to the spirit of the text, there’s one particular panel where I had a slight historical anachronism in the form of a different font, but I think it works pretty well in context. (I'm not going to spoil it for you - you'll have to find out for yourself)

I’m not a regular scanlator, and would more prefer to focus on my writings about comics than be diverted by doing google translations via Paintshop. Though I’ve noticed that several albums of Red Ketchup have been regularly taken out of the library since these posts started, so maybe I’m succeeding on that front there.

Origins of Red Ketchup

When certain breakout characters such as Popeye show up and become more popular than the main character, it becomes an exercise for the creator to justify their existence. They can either downplay their usefulness or play up their appearances for all it's worth. If their story is at the risk of floundering under obscurity, usage of these madcap characters becomes more important for saving them from cancellation. The general consensus is that once a character gains popularity through public opinion, an elaborate backstory is then created for them once they've generated enough popularity. Similar to how Wolverine was supposed to be a one-off character, but eventually wound up becoming the most iconic X-man member ever.


















In Red Ketchup's first story, he was given an origin that was condensed into four short pages. His childhood is mostly defined by an abusive father, and as a result, is more sad than funny. (More details at the end of this post)

















However, Red Ketchup's first true appearance was in Black and White, and is just as crazy as the man's colour adventures. He showed up 2/3rds of the way in the 2nd Michel Risque book. Michel Risque is notoriously difficult to describe without sounding completely insane, since so much of what happens seems to be a rambling stream of consciousness where a single man gets involved into more and more outlandish situations that he has no control over. They're very much a style of this happened, then this happened form of storytelling. It could best be described as an adult Canadian version of Tintin. The influences are certainly apparent there, especially since the story is told in 3-4 page chunks, allowing for plenty of variation between chapters. If you divide a typical Tintin volume, you'll often find that where the boy detective starts out is a very different place from where he eventually winds up at least halfway through. So too is it with Michel Risque.









Red Ketchup gives an air of menace by quoting that he "always gets his man!" (The actual Mountie motto is "Uphold the law") The implying threat is that eventually, Michel Risque and Red Ketchup will eventually meet up, reaching towards a common goal. From these panels alone, you'd be hard pressed to know that Red Ketchup was a pasty Government albino. Red Ketchup starts gathering information by touring the streets with his effective negotiation skills. This tactic works effectively until he meets a suspect who likes getting hurt.

















"Talk first, then I'll hit you." (BTW, if the concealed nipples bothers you more than the implicit violence, you might want to reconsider your values) After going through several informational dead ends, he finally hits upon the location of a link to said drug runners who just happen to be on the very boat that Michel Risque is unknowingly helping.

















Once Red Ketchup catches up, there's a shooting match between the criminals and the authorities while Michel is totally oblivious to the overseas gang warfare happening behind his back. He's looking for an antiseptic in a medical box when the other one was stuffed with handguns.
















Meanwhile, the druglord, Raoul Escobar takes an immediate liking to Michel Risque's girlfriend Poupine. To get a better idea of this vision of loveliness who's stolen his heart, here's a side-by-side comparison with her love interest. He conducts an elaborate kidnapping scheme to have her by her side, while Michel embarks on a crusade to find out where his girlfriend's gone.












However, Escobar shouldn't stay confident for too long, since Red Ketchup hasn't exactly gone down with the ship. Keep in mind that this is only the end of the second book, and he has yet to ingest drugs at an alarming rate. He was already crazy long before he even took his first snort.









At the beginning of the third book, Red Ketchup is reviewing his mission from his chief back in Washington after failing to catch Escobar and surveying the amount of damage he's done, as par for the course. To put the extent of his actions in context, all of the below took place over a period of only nine pages, not counting when he was swimming for shore.
















"Eight destroyed Government cars, a coast guard boat annihilated with the crew, a hotel and three private residences dynamited, eighteen deaths, forty people injured and maimed and eleven charges against you for breaking and entering, damage to property, cuts and wounds, rape, torture, etc..."
"But chief... You can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs!"

In all fairness, The hotel bombing is the only thing Red Ketchup wasn't directly (or indirectly) responsible for, though he was there when it happened. The scene then shifts to a bordello house where perversions of every kind is tolerated. Raoul Escobar has a dialogue with a man who has some truly weird fetishes of his own.
















It isn't until he goes home and cleans up that we discover this man's true profession.
















With the Commissioner's permission, Red Ketchup hopes to find any trace of Raoul Escobar by casing out the usual joints with his typical interrogation techniques:









Upset with not finding any leads, he confronts the Commissioner because he's beginning to feel like he's being led in circles and not getting any closer to his target.























However, Red Ketchup isn't the only major worry that's hanging over the Commissioner's head. A mook gangster who's part of Escobar's crew is also tired of Red Ketchup's interference, and wants the Commissioner to have him taken care of. In a state of ethical integrity, the Commissioner objects to the gangster using language that would offend his mother.

















Said gangster decides to make things easier by blackmailing the Commissioner by threatening to show his kindly old mother incriminating photos of his little pastime activities with children unless the Red Ketchup problem is resolved.



























This page is particularly noteworthy, because it's the first time that this comic has shifted away from the main protagonist and focused on a cliffhanger for a secondary character. Quite naturally, Red Ketchup manages to get out of his predicament. Somehow, this random murder is newsworthy enough to get an article in the paper, further scaring the crooked Commissioner.






















Seeing himself backed into a corner, the Commissioner decides to go to more desperate measures and just have Red Ketchup killed by less conventional means.

















Miraculously, Red survives the grenade attack, and it's only after he gets back to his apartment that he realizes that he's still in shock.





















Under his current condition, he's in no shape to continue without help. It's at this point that he decides to take a little sniff from a pack of cocaine to boost up his strength and starts down a slippery slope that he'll never be able to back up from now on.











The man does not know the meaning of restraint. (If he ever did, it was deleted from his memory)























After killing the crooked Commissioner, he finds the first lead he's ever got on finding Raoul Escobar - an invitation to a costume party. Once he arrives at the party grounds, Red rushes into the scene guns akimbo, then stops just long enough to put on an inconspicuous disguise.















Inside the mansion, after spending months of resisting her capturers, Michel's girlfriend, Poupoune is starting to develop Stockholm's Syndrome and worrying about Raoul Escobar who's come down with love sickness. Meanwhile, Red ketchup helps himself to the contents of a snuff box.























In a contrived coincidence, Michel Risque has also somehow managed to make his way into the Escobar estate through a series of events too complicated to explain. (That's him in the bunny suit. Don't ask - it's the most normal thing he's worn in a long time) At the costume party, the two men only narrowly miss each other, and engage with a certain Escobar through a case of mistaken identity through different methods. After realizing that the shot man isn't Raoul Escobar, the party devolves into a shooting match between rival gangsters, the gatecrashers and innocent bystanders.


































In the confusion, Red Ketchup manages to make his way up to the bedroom where Poupoune and Raoul Escobar are, leading up to an inevitable conflict between between the naive Quebec hero and the FBI agent...
















...only, that's not what happens. Red Ketchup quite literally throws Poupoune into Michel's arms, since she's "getting in the way", and he's more concerned with killing Escobar than their romantic reunion.


































In a way, this was kind of a fitting exit. Red Ketchup was threatening to take over the Michel Risque comic, and thus was subsequently given a spin-off title under his own name. The differences between the two men could not be more obvious. While Michel Risque was something of a reluctant hero, Red Ketchup was something akin to a force of nature.

I've been collaborating with LeChatVert in an attempt to translate Red Ketchup for the masses. This'll continue until I either get a restraining order from Réal Godbout and Pierre Fournier, or my upload site gets cancelled. Whichever comes first. If our luck holds, I'll be able to add Michel Risque to the list once Red Ketchup's over with.

You can download the first two stories in English here: