Comic House is what used to be Canada’s Chapterhouse Comics company, until Lev Gleason Publications took over. Wait… who? What? How does a defunct for decades company pull something like this off? Welcome to corporate capitalism, where names and properties might as well as be be their own country. But is this outside publisher really to blame for Americanizing Canadian heroes or is it more economic? Let’s find out!
Quick Refresher
Chapterhouse Comics is the result of Canadian creatives pooling their resources to show off their stuff. Founded on 2015 by using Captain Canuck as the spearhead, a new superhero universe comes into being. Alongside the Captain are Northguard and a number of golden age IPs like Freelance and Fantomah. These titles as well as Toronto based Pitiful Human-Lizard make up the Chapterverse; although the Human-Lizard’s connection is very minimal. In addition, a few creatives across the border like Dan Parent bring out titles such Die Kitty Die as a creator-owned section.
The Original Comic House
Now let’s look at the other side of everything. Lev Gleason is the creator of the original Daredevil, now known in the US as the Death-Defying Devil to avoid copyright lawsuits with Marvel. One of the many publishers of the Golden Age, Gleason’s company is the result of a lot of company politics. Gleason tries to put quality first in his company comics to compete with DC and Fawcett. With a few magazines and imprints building up characters and stories, Gleason Publications produces superheroes Silver Streak and Daredevil. Lev Gleason’s most successful title however is the anthology Crime Does Not Pay featuring stories adapted from police files and court records. The collective company is so successful it has the nickname of the Comic House.
Unfortunately Lev Gleason Publications was also among the many companies to face anti-comics crusades like with Seduction of the Innocent. Since a lot of his comics could get in kids’ hands and there are a lot of adult-oriented subtleties inside the “illustories”, it made Gleason a prime target. That wasn’t the only problem, Gleason’s “workers first” pieces attracts the attention of Red Scare spy hunters. With all of this, Lev Gleason Publications closes down in ’54.
The Daredevil Returns
More than 60 years later, the Gleason company makes a comeback. Who better to lead that charge than its first unofficial publication American Daredevil; written by the great-great grandnephew of Lev Gleason, Brett Dakin. Only problem was, the executives couldn’t publish this without copyright battles with Marvel. So Lev Gleason publications acquires Chapterhouse to get around the legal jargon. Even if this does mean Chapterhouse is now just an imprint.
The Comic House Rules
Slowly but surely, Chapterhouse loses its identity to Lev Gleason Pub. Its website, its logo, and the original creator-owned imprint goes down. Another small but notable instance is from The Pitiful Human-Lizard; while it still has a page on the Lev Gleason website, the character does not appear on any other promotional material. Neither is the series available to order on the website, in the placeholders is a 404 message. This implies that the best reviewed part of the Chapterverse is no longer part of the company. Probably not because of Gleason mind you, creator Jason Loo always kept his character at a distance for an inevitable departure.
Now the company imprint is under the name of Lev Gleason Publication’s Comic House. This solidifies mainstream distribution at Diamond and Ingram Content Groups, but also a Canadian company’s acquisition by American corporatism. Make no mistake, the Canadian characters will still have their place as much as the new creator-owned imprint of New Friday. After getting rid of all of the old content like Die Kitty Die! that is. But it all feels like a moral loss on Canada’s part.
Oh… Canada…
I like to bring up how comics are a reflection of a country’s economic situation and the comparisons with Canada’s dependence on the US is evident here. Canada has one of the world’s largest GDPs thanks to its service industries. The problem is most of this is attributed to trade where Canada’s state is more dependent on the outside than in it. So much of Canadian outsourcing goes to the United States in finance and insurance, the United States practically controls their money. Comic House is practically that happening to what was Canada’s premiere comic company. Now that an American brand acquired the resources, its heroes are practically ads for characters who were pushed around by their fellows.
That’s the worst of it… Lev Gleason Publications isn’t the bad guy, they were forced into a bad situation they had to adapt to. Does anybody in their right mind want to challenge a Disney owned company just to publish a book? If there’s anybody to blame it’s history’s worst evil, bureaucracy.
But the ink’s not dry yet on anything so pay attention for more updates! Thanks for coming to the end and as always remember to look between the panels!