Moonshot is a collaboration and Kickstarter success story, being named as one of the Top Canadian Entrepreneurial Crowdfunding Campaigns by the Globe & Mail, and raising over $74,000. This project involved a publisher, an editor, and dozens contributors to bring this vision to life and celebrate indigenous storytelling in many forms. 

Here are some of the talented writers and artists who have contributed to MOONSHOT:
Claude St-Aubin (R.E.B.E.L.S., Green Lantern, Captain Canuck), Jeffery Veregge (G.I. Joe, Judge Dredd), Stephen Gladue (MOONSHOT cover artist),Haiwei Hou (Two Brothers), Nicholas Burns (Arctic Comics, Curse of Chucky, Super Shamou), Jon Proudstar (Tribal Force), George Freeman (Captain Canuck, Aquaman, Batman), Elizabeth LaPensee (Survivance, The Nature of Snakes, Fala), Buffy Sainte-Marie (Fire & Fleet & Candlelight, Coincidence & Likely Stories), Richard Van Camp (Path of the Warrior, Kiss Me Deadly),David Robertson (The Evolution of Alice, Stone), David Cutler (The Northern Guard), Menton J. Matthews III (Monocyte, Memory Collectors, Three Feathers), Jay Odjick (Kagagi: The Raven), Ian Ross (Heart of a Distant Tribe, Bereav’d of Light, An Illustrated History of the Anishinabe), Lovern Kindzierski (X-Men, Wolverine, Incredible Hulk, Thor, Spiderman), Arigon Starr (Super Indian, Indigenous Narratives Collective), Michael Sheyahshe(Dark Owl, Native Americans in Comic Books), Fred Pashe (SpiritWolf) and more!

 These are their stories. 

Event News: 

Contributor Ben Shannon is going to be leading two comics workshops for us this summer! Come and join us at:

Aug 6, 2 pm at Runnymede Branch

July 16, 11 am at Spadina Road Branch

Andy Stanleigh

Andy is the owner of AH! Comics. Based out of Toronto, Canada, AH Comics is settled into one of the most diverse and popular cities for writers and artists. Through this rich market AH Comics has tapped the landscape and produced several critically successful books since it’s inception in 2011.

Andy and AH! Comics previously published The Jewish Comix Anthology, and teamed up with Nelvana of The Northern Lights editor Hope to kickstart the indegenous comics collection Moonshot.

Hope Nicholson

“I am an editor, researcher, producer, publisher, and passionate fangirl. My aim in life is to help create space for stories to be told, that aren’t commonly told but are highly desired. Community building and helping others succeed is the aim of the company I’ve developed, Bedside Press.

I worked within the film industry for several years as a researcher and marketer. Now I own Bedside Press, a niche publisher specializing in archival and anthology collections. I support diverse representation and am passionate about the inclusion and safety of women in the comics industry & fandom. I speak frequently at conventions and events on women in fandom, Canadian comic book history, and self-publishing.”

For more of Hope’s projects, see her website at hopenicholson.com. 

@hopelnicholson 

Contributors: 

Arigon Starr

An enrolled member of the Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma, Arigon Starr is a multi-talented and award winning musician, actor, playwright and artist based in Los Angeles. Her comic “Super Indian” was originally produced as a nationally broadcast radio comedy series in 2007 and became a webcomic that debuted in April 2011. In May 2012, she published “Super Indian Volume One,” followed by “Volume Two” in April 2015. She is a contributor to the award-winning indigenous comic anthology “Moonshot” and a founder of the Indigenous Narratives Collective (INC), a group of Native American comic book writers and artists. INC published a compilation comic and will debut the anthology “Tales of the Mighty Code Talkers” in 2016.

For more about Arigon, visit her web page at arigonstarr.com.

Elizabeth LaPensee

 Elizabeth LaPensée, Ph.D. expresses herself through writing, design, and art in games,transmedia, comics, and animation. She is Anishinaabe, Métis, and Irish, living near the Great Lakes.

Most recently, she designed and programmed Invaders (2015), a remix of the arcade classicSpace Invaders inspired by art from Steven Paul Judd. She also designed The Gift of Food (2014), a board game for the Northwest Indian College about Northwest Native traditional foods. She is currently working on Honour Water (2016), an Anishinaabe singing game for healing the water.

She also contributes to communities by providing access to the tools and skills to develop games. She created curriculum for the award-winning Skins Workshops developed byAboriginal Territories in Cyberspace and the Initiative for Indigenous Futures. 

Elizabeth highly recommends watching the 2015 video “The Fire That Has Always Been That Always Will Be: Indigenous Comics and Games,” available at https://vimeo.com/134917433.

For more about Elizabeth, see her website at elizabethlapensee.com.

David Alexander Robertson

David Alexander Robertson won'the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer in 2015 and is a nine-time Manitoba Book Award nominee. He has created several bestselling graphic novels, including the 7 Generations series, the Tales From Big Spirit series, as well as his newest graphic novel Betty: The Helen Betty Osborne Story. He was a contributor to the anthologies Manitowapow: Aboriginal Writings From the Land of Water and Moonshot: The Indigenous Comics Collection, and his work has been featured in CV2 and Prairie Fire. His first novel, The Evolution of Alice, was published in fall 2014, was shortlisted for the Burt Award for First Nations, Inuit, and Metis literature, and in 2016 won'the province-wide literary competition On The Same Page. He is currently working on a children’s book, When We Were Alone, about the residential school system, a graphic novel about Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (Will I See), and a Young Adult Supernatural Mystery series entitled The Reckoner.

For more about David, see his website at darobertson.ca.

Michael Sheyahshe

Michael Sheyahshe is an enrolled member of the Caddo Nation and has been published in various magazines and journals. His book, Native Americans in Comic Books: A Critical Study, is available from McFarland publications. 

Michael received two separate Bachelor of Art (BA) degrees (cum laude) from The University of Oklahoma: one in Native American Studies and another in Film. He earned a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in 3D Modeling from the Academy of Art University. Michael achieved the rank of Shodan (1st degree Black Belt) in Okinawan Karate in 2011 and was awarded the rank of Nidan (2nd degree black belt) in 2013.
 
His comic book character, Dark Owl is featured in a collaboration with the comic, “INC’s Universe #0”. Michael illustrated a story written by Mary Skaggs in Literati Press Presents “What The Stars Must Think Of Us”, and his story, “Strike & Bolt”, illustrated by George Freeman (“Captain Canuck”) for AH Comics’ Kickstarter-funded, “MOONSHOT: The Indigenous Comic Collection”.  Michael and Mary are currently co-authoring the monthly comic book series, “Native Son”, from 412 Comics (http://412comics.com/native-son).
 
His company, alterNative Media (aNm) is a Native American-owned small business, providing a slew of vital creative, artistic, and innovative services to various Indigenous groups as well as numerous business entities on a local, regional, and national level. (www.alter-native-media.com)

Nicholas Burns

Nicholas Burns is a comics creator of long standing.  While living in the Arctic in the 80s & 90s, he wrote and drew numerous educational comics for federal and territorial agencies including True North, Arctic Comics 86, Super Shamou, New North and Rick’s Recovery. In the 1990s, he contributed to the underground magazine Sunburn.

In 2003, Nicholas’s script for “Snoring” was one of six winners chosen to be financed and produced from one hundred and sixty-nine entries in the national MocDocs competition. “Snoring” premiered at Hot Docs 2003, in Toronto and has since aired on CBC Newsworld, Zed, and Roughcuts.

To learn more about Nicholas’ projects, check out his website at nburnsart.com

Nicholas attended TCAF 2016 in support of ARCTIC COMICS (Volume 2) published by Renegade Entertainment Arts.

Richard Van Camp

Richard Van Camp is a proud member of the Dogrib (Tlicho) Nation from Fort Smith, NWT, Canada. He is a graduate of the En’owkin International School of Writing, the University of Victoria’s Creative Writing BFA Program, and the Master’s Degree in Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia.

He is an internationally renowned storyteller and best-selling author. His novel, The Lesser Blessed, is now a movie with First Generation Films and premiered in September of 2012 at the Toronto International Film Festival. He is the author of three collections of short stories, Angel Wing Splash Pattern, The Moon of Letting Go and Godless but Loyal to Heaven, as well as two children’s books with Cree artist, George Littlechild: A Man Called Raven and What’s the Most Beautiful Thing You Know About Horses?

Richard’s first comic book on deterring youth away from gangs, Path of the Warrior, is published with Cree artist, Steve Sanderson, through the Healthy Aboriginal Network. His second comic book on sexual health is Kiss Me Deadly, with Haida artist Chris Auchter is now out and can be read in its entirety at www.thehealthyaboriginal.net.

Richard wrote for CBC’s North of 60 television show for two months under their Writer Internship Program and was a script and cultural consultant with them for four seasons. He taught creative writing at the University of British Columbia, worked as a Creative Writing and Storytelling instructor with the Emily Carr Institute and was the Writer in Residence at the University of Alberta for 2011 and 2012 and at MacEwan University in 2013 and 2014.

Richard has three new books out: “Three Feathers”, a graphic novel on restorative justice with artist Krystal Mateus (Portage and Main); “Whistle” a mini-novel exploring mental health (out soon with Pearson  Canada) and his new short story collection, “Night Moves”, will be out with Enfield & Wizenty in October, 2015, as well as a new graphic novel, “A Blanket of Butterflies” with Portage and Main, illustrated by Scott B. Henderson also out in October, 2015.

Find out more about Richard at his website, richardvancamp.com.