True Patriot vs. Sandy, Canadian superheroes on a mission

It started as a collection of stories about Canadian superheroes written and drawn by Canadian comic book creators. Now True Patriot takes on a truly heroic task – raising money for Hurricane Sandy Disaster Relief.

The Canadian comics scene is, as many other Canadian scenes, vibrant but understated. The list of Canadian creators is extensive and includes some top talent in the industry; however, there aren’t any Canadian superhero comics anthologies out there. But that could change if J. Torres, a Toronto-based comic book writer who is editing a graphic novel compendium featuring stories about Canadian superheroes written and drawn by Canadian comic book creators, has his way. The book, titled “True Patriot”, has just finished a successful campaign for its production, raising just above their goal of $20,000. Torres promises all-new, never before seen characters in the book, by the likes of Adrian Alphona, J. Bone (who did the pin-up of Marvel’s famed Canadian team Alpha Flight, below), Scott Chantler (with a story about WWII-era Canadian hero The Red Ensign), Faith Erin Hicks, Ramón Pérez and many others.

After the recent events of Hurricane Sandy, Torres decided to re-release the campaign, this time as a fundraiser for the Red Cross. The goal is to raise $1,000. On the campaign page, Torres says that Canadian creators involved in True Patriot have strong ties to the publishing community in New York City and New Jersey, areas heavily affected by the hurricane. In an attempt to “reach out to “True Patriot” funders, the Canadian comic book community, and other comic book creators and fans out there,” Torres reignited the campaign, but now the pledges will support American Red Cross Disaster Relief.

At the time of this writing, the campaign still has a good 12 days to go. All donations are tax-deductible. 100% of donations will go to Red Cross, via the PayPal Charitable Giving Fund.