Joe Shuster Awards To Induct Four More Canadian Comic Book Creators to the Hall of Fame in 2007

The Canadian Comic Book Creator Awards Association has announced the four additional inductees to the Hall of Fame, to be presented at the Joe Shuster Awards ceremony on Saturday, June 9th, 2007. These four creators join the already inducted Hal Foster, Leo Bachle, Adrian Dingle, Ed Furness, Rand Holmes, Owen McCarron, Win Mortimer, Dave Sim and Joe Shuster, for whom the awards are named.

The 2007 Inductees are:

Albert Chartier (1912-2004)
Albert Chartier was one of the best Canadian comics artists. He turned to comics after studying fine arts. His first comic was the daily 'Bouboule', which appeared in La Patrie from 1930. Ten years later, he moved to New York, where he worked as a humorous illustrator for Columbia Comics Corporation. During World War II, Chartier was a staff artist at the information office of Ottawa. Albert Chartier created his most popular character in Le Bulletin des Agriculteurs du Quebec: 'Onesime'. For the same magazine, Chartier produced the 'Seraphin' series from 1950 to 1968. From 1968, he drew 'Les Canadiens' for the Toronto Telegram News Service. At the same time, Chartier worked as an illustrator for several magazines and promotional campaigns.

Gerald Lazare (1927-)
Gerald Lazare was born in Toronto in 1927 and left school at age sixteen to draw comic strips for Canada’s Golden Age comic publisher, Bell Features. At Bell he created such strips as Nitro; the Wing; the Dreamer; Drummy Young; Air Woman and others and acknowledges that Alex Raymond was his greatest influence for his comic book work. He went on to work as an illustrator for Saturday Night Press, Bomac Engravers, Clement Salias Inc. and Art Associates. Along the way he took the Famous Artists Course and studied for a year in Europe, before returning to Bomac as a senior illustrator. In 1956 Lazare started his freelance career working for magazines, books and television in Canada. In the United States he created historical paintings and murals for museums and governments. Lazare joined the faculty of the Ontario College of Art in 1966 and returned to gallery painting in 1974.

Gerald has been widely published and exhibited. Collections and commissions include; Confederation Life, Bank of Montreal, MacLean Hunter, McLelland and Stewart, City of Toronto Archives, The Hudson Bay Company, Metro Toronto Library, Museum of Man and the Cartier Museum.

As a cartoonist, illustrator, teacher and fine artist, Gerald Lazare fills a sizeable chapter in the history of Canadian Art.

Jacques Hurtubise / ZYX (1939-)
Jacques Hurtubise, who uses the pseudonym Zyx, was a member of the Cooperative des Petits Dessins, a group of young Canadian artists, since 1969. In November 1971 he cooperated on the launch of the periodical l'Hydrocephale Illustre. Later on in the 1970s he drew the comic about bad guy 'Sombre Vilain' for the daily magazine Le Jour. This series was later continued in the satirical magazine Croc, which he founded himself along with Pierre Huet. In the 1980s he co-founded yet another magazine, Titanic, which wasn't that successful however. Not only because of his talents in graphics, but also because of his editorial exploits, Zyx is one of the big names among Canadian artists of the 1970s and 1980s.

Gene Day (1951-1982)
Gene Day began his career in the Canadian alternative comix scene. In 1974, he published the short-lived underground comic Out of the Depths. He cooperated with Dave Sim on Oktoberfest Comics #1, published by Now and Then Publications in 1976. Day drew for the Skywald magazines Psycho and Nightmare from 1974, as well as Mike Friedrich's independent comics company Star Reach, contributing to Star Reach anthology, Image and Quack. Day did illustrations for fantasy role-playing games and published his own graphic novel, 'Future Day', in 1979.

He was a longtime inker on Marvel's 'Master of Kung Fu' title by Mike Zeck, starting in 1976. He also inked on the licensed 'Star Wars' series, pencilled by Carmine Infantino, as well as 'The Mighty Thor' and 'Marvel Two-in-One' featuring 'The Thing'. From 1985 to 1986, Renegade Press published four issues of Gene Day's 'Black Zeppelin', an anthology series primarily featuring stories and painted covers Day completed before his death, as well new contributions by Sim, Bruce Conklin, Augustine Funnell, and Charles Vess. More of his work appeared posthumously in Caliber Comics' anthology series Day Brothers Presents, which also featured the work of Day's artist brothers, David Day and Dan Day.

REMINDER: VOTING FOR THE JOE SHUSTER AWARDS ENDS THIS FRIDAY - MAY 11TH! Vote online at: www.joeshusterawards.com

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