Conversation so far:
What happened during the early years of Canadian comics?
John Henry Walker's Punch paved the way for a number of short-lived publications, until the successful and more straight-laced Canadian Illustrated News, by George-Édouard Desbarats in 1869.

Question: What other successes were there?
Self-contained rewrite: What other successes were there during the early years of Canadian comics besides Canadian Illustrated News?