Art imitates comic fandom in satirical new graphic novel

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This article was published 26/10/2024 (405 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Before the launch the first and only edition of Hero-Man on Thursday night, graphic novelists Lyndon Radchenka and Zach Schuster thanked visitors for rescuing them from their worst nightmare.

“Chadwick!” Radchenka screamed as he greeted a friend who strolled into Whodunit? Mystery Bookshop on Lilac Street. “Thanks for saving us from empty seats!”

The collaboration between the Winnipeg-born Radchenka, 31, and Calgary-based Schuster, 29, began in 2018 with some creative conversations at Another Dimension, a comic book shop down the hill from the Alberta College of Art and Design.

Schuster, who was studying at ACAD, was working at the store while learning how to make the books he was selling.

Meanwhile, Radchenka was wrapping up his law degree at the University of Calgary and struggling to accept that a call to the bar might mean putting his comic-book aspirations on hold. An English graduate from the University of Manitoba with a minor in theatre, Radchenka — a former member of the Black Hole Theatre Company — felt more drawn toward comic creators Jeff Lemire and Jason Lutes than case law.

“I started falling in love with the medium again,” says Radchenka.

After he was called to the bar in 2019 and he finished articling, Radchenka and his wife moved to Boulogne-sur-Mer in Northern France, where he worked in online marketing and she taught English. But when he returned to Canada in 2021, Radchenka connected again with Schuster, who had finished art school and started illustrating for comics and board games in Calgary.

They decided to work together on the graphic novel Hero-Man, their “Adam West cheesy” antidote to edgy superhero series like The Boys and a page-by-page homage to the works that helped forge their comic and bookish sensibilities.

“Dedicated to all the comic greats, whose shoulders we stand on,” the epigraph reads. “You gave us a lot to make fun of.”

For Radchenka, that mostly included cartoon adaptations like Batman: The Animated Series. For Schuster, it was Young Justice, D.C. comics’ Next Generation to the publisher’s original Degrassi class, Teen Titans.

“It poked a lot of fun at the superhero comics, so that was the first thing I went back to when I started researching for this,” he said. “I have a ratty trade paperback from the public library for 50 cents and it’s a prized possession.”

Earlier this year, Schuster and Radchenka — who will be have a table at this weekend’s Winnipeg Comiccon — represented Canada and their local publisher, At Bay Press, as part of the featured delegation to the Angoulême Comics Festival in France.

The city takes the event seriously, transforming for its duration into a comic haven. As Calgary has its Stampede, Angoulême has the comics festival, Schuster says.

“A lot of the comics there came from Ontario and Quebec, with only a few of us from the Prairies,” Radchenka says. “It meant a lot to us to be included.”

At this weekend’s Comiccon, the Hero-Man creators will be showcased alongside some famous comic creators, including Arthur Suydam (The Walking Dead), Renee Witterstaetter (The Sensational She-Hulk), Brianna June (Archie Comics) and Hugh Rookwood (Howdy, I’m John Ware).

However, Hero-Man isn’t the only book to feature Radchenka and Schuster’s ink. Both artists contributed to Dire Beasts: A Monster Anthology, featuring work from Manitoba artists including Scott Henderson, S.M. Beiko, GMG Chomichuk, Scott A. Ford, Steven Kaul, Jonathan Ball and Justin and Tracey Currie — a mother-son duo who each contributed their own pages.

The beastly collection includes 14 stories powered by one rule: it must contain a creature.

ben.waldman@winnipegfreepress.com