The Great Northern Brotherhood of Canadian Cartoonists
A sort-of companion piece to Wimbledon Green (2005), in which he limned a fictional history of comic-book collectors, Seth’s latest effort postulates an alternate universe set in a Canada where lionized cartoonists were viewed as important cultural figures, with membership in a prestigious guild, the G. N. B. Double C. of the book’s title. A largely unseen narrator leads a tour of the league’s expansive headquarters, now in disrepair but once the scene of clubby meetings of the nation’s cartoonists—a few genuine, but most contrived entirely by Seth, who details their careers with loving care, presenting lengthy samples of such colorful creations as Kao-Kuk the Inuit astronaut and patriotic superhero Canada Jack. The work’s deceptive modesty—Seth’s drawings are uncharacteristically casual, and he limits himself to an unvarying grid of nine uniformly sized panels—belies its impressive accomplishment, creating a fully realized world in which cartoonists receive the respect they’re denied in ours. Seth treats his profession with the same mix of affection and inventiveness that marked Guy Maddin’s wry mockumentary film about his Canadian hometown, My Winnipeg. --Gordon Flagg