Sandy Carruthers

Sandy Carruthers is a Canadian artist and graphic design instructor, known for his work as the first illustrator of the original "Men in Black" comic book series, [cite news| last =Stewart| first =Dave| title =Hollywood beckons Sandy Carruthers| |page= A8| publisher ="Charlottetown Guardian"| date =1997-06-20| ] and as creator of the webcomic series, "Canadiana: the New Spirit of Canada".

Biography

Carruthers was born on May 11 1962 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada and describes his earliest memory of anything comic book related as watching "Batman" on TV when he was three. He began drawing at four when he recreated an illustration of a robot stamp. Even at this early age, he was able to accurately reproduce a larger version of this stamp.

Carruthers trained at Holland College between 1979–1981 in its Commercial Design Program (later renamed Graphic Design) which he now teaches. He also attended Sheridan College in Ontario, taking its Illustration program.

He currently resides in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada.

Works

Carruthers first started working in comics at Malibu Graphics and worked on many black and white titles. His biggest success was "The Men in Black (comic)", which he illustrated, the comic later becoming a film, "Men in Black". He also worked on "Captain Canuck". [cite journal| last = Edwardson| first = Ryan| title = The many lives of Captain Canuck: Nationalism, culture, and the creation of a Canadian comic book superhero| journal = Journal of Popular Culture| volume = 37| issue = 2| pages = 184–201| publisher = Blackwell| location = Bowling Green| month = November | year = 2003| url = | doi = 10.1111/1540-5931.00063| id = ] [cite news| last =Alexander| first =Dave| title =Where are the guardians of the north?: Canadians would sooner satirize than embrace their superheroes| page =C1| publisher ="Edmonton Journal"| date =2002-07-09| ] He worked as the Editorial Cartoonist for the [http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/ Charlottetown Guardian] newspaper. He published a book of his editorial cartoons entitled "Sh-It Happened". [cite news| title =Retired Island cartoonist launches new book| page =C1| publisher ="Charlottetown Guardian"| date =2003-07-14| ]

He has worked on several graphic novels for Graphic Universe, a division of Lerner Publishing Group (Minneapolis, U.S.) including "Yu the Great", "Sunjata: Warrior King of Mali" (a 13th-century West African story), and "Terror in Ghost Mansion", a graphic novel in the style of interactive storytelling.

His other main work is the webcomic "Canadiana", also known as the "New Spirit of Canada". Began in 2004, it draws heavily on the traditions of the superhero genre, centred on the adventures and personal life of Jennifer Neuwirth. Carruthers is aided in chronicling Canadiana's adventures by penciller Jeff Alward and scripter Mark Shainblum, the latter of whom is known in Canadian comics as a practitioner of superhero genre deconstruction via Northguard and parody via Angloman. The series has resumed regular serialization in January 2007 with the assistance of artist Brenda Hickey.

Serialized in what was initially intended to be a weekly basis in fifty-two installments, but eventually settled into a semi-monthly framework, the origin story of "Canadiana" deals with several mature themes including religious theory and particularly afterlife possibilities, cult programming, parental betrayal, and the survival of sexual abuse in the course of explaining the beginnings of Jennifer Neuwirth's extraordinary abilities and her decision to adopt a costumed identity as a champion of Canada.

References

External links

* [http://www.sandycarruthers.com/ Sandy Carruthers official site] , with some of his work.
* [http://sandycarruthers.com/canadiana.html Canadiana, the New Spirit of Canada] , updated with new installments on an irregular basis