This is McCulloch's first graphic novel, but he's had a long history within the comic-book universe. In the '80s, he joined a coalition of comic book enthusiasts, which would eventually come to be known as Strawberry Jam Comics. Through this group, a total of 14 issues of two titles were published in a time that McCulloch refers to as the "black-and-white boom."

"[The boom] followed the advent of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, when all of a sudden, a whole bunch of people at the same time realized that it was actually pretty cheap to publish a black and white comic book," he recalls. "And, as evidenced by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, it didn’t really have to be that good to do very well.

"Following the boom, very quickly there was a bust," he continues. "Unfortunately, our publication schedule was very erratic, and we managed to put out a bunch of them before the boom happened, and a bunch of stuff after the bust happened. So we completely missed the window when there was money to be made."

Labels: comics history, Edmonton, graphic novels