Canadian comic book news for Aug. 30, 2025

Here’s the latest news about Canadian comic book creators and supporters for Saturday, August 30, 2025

Prairie Comics Festival in the spotlight
Winnipeg Free Press wrote about the upcoming Prairie Comics Festival slated to take place September 6 to 7 in Winnipeg, Manitoba at the Manitoba Museum to celebrate article, comics and the creators who make them. The article outlined the various events planned for attendees including comments from creators Nyali Ali and Jonathan Dyck.

Ryan North leads Hulk to ‘Smash Everything’
Marvel.com announced that Ryan North will pen Hulk: Smash Everything, a new comic book series with artist Vincenzo Carratù. The write up indicated that the five-issue mini-series will be available on December 3 and includes comments from both creators that promise ‘chaos and smashing’.

Ontario creators stay close to home
Insauga interviewed a variety of Ontario comic book creators at the recent FAN EXPO Canada about the current issue of tariffs and travel to the U.S for other comic book events. The article features comments from Michael Cho, Mike Del Mundo, Fred Kennedy, Nick Marinkovich and Mike Rooth.

Elsi-Con Comic Convention report
CBC News wrote about the recent Elsi-Con Comic Convention that took place recently at Elsipogtog First Nation in New Brunswick. The article includes comments from convention organizer and host Susan Levi-Peters about the event that occurred at the Chief Young Eagle Recreation Centre that included actors, cosplayers, comic book artists, vendors and others.

Katie Sawatsky in the spotlight
CBC Arts spoke with Katie Sawatsky about making the switch from designing games to creating graphic novels. In the chat, Katie talked about how to got into the game development and comic book industries, how fashion inspires her art and design, how the game Elden Ring influenced her new graphic novel Blackmouth, and her thoughts on gothic horror as a theme.

Canadian Children’s Book Awards finalists announced
Quill & Quire published a list of the finalists for the 2025 Canadian Children’s Book Awards, designed to celebrate exceptional books for young people. Notable finalists include:
– Rosena Fung for Age 16 (published by Annick Press) in the categories of Amy Matheers Teen Book Award and Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People
– Trina Rathgeber, Alina Pete and Jillian Dolan for Lost at Windy River: A True Story of Survival (published by Orca Book Publishers) in the Sharon Fitzhenry Award for Canadian Children’s Non-Fiction category.
The article mentioned that winners will be announced on October 27 at DoubleTree by Hilton’s downtown Toronto location.

Canadian WWII comic books in the spotlight
InSauga reported on a panel that took place at FAN EXPO Canada featuring Ivan Kocmarek who spoke about Golden Age of Canadian comic books that were published during World War II. The article summarizes Ivan’s talk about the various comic book heroes including The Wing, Johnny Canuck, Nelvana of the Northern Lights, The Iron Man, Speed Savage, Penguin, Freeland and many others. Also mentioned was the forthcoming Kickstarter for Heroes on the Homefront Comic Creators & Covers Collection launching soon at RAID Press.

New comic book store opens in Thorold, Ontario
PelhamToday.ca announced that Sketchbook Comics & Games has opened in Thorold, Ontario led by owner Geoff Rousseau. The article references that in addition to providing patrons from 5 to 85 with comic books from yesterday and today, the store also supports weekly gaming nights for Dungeons & Draongs, plus Magic: The Gathering.

And in case you missed it, check out:

• This interview with Allison Danger about the new Wayside Creative publishing effort.

• And Andrew Hawthorn promoted the upcoming St. John’s Comic Arts Festival.