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Leo Bachle 192? - 2003



Nearly a month ago I wrote about a Canadian comics site that I had enjoyed and which provided me with the majority of information about Canadian comics that I possess today. I was especially intrigued by the odd circumstances of the Canadian comic industry of World War II, specifically the story of one particular cartoonist, Leo Bachle. I had been considering trying my hand at interviewing someone for the blog, and Mr. Bachle (or, Les Barker as he was now known) seemed to be a perfect candidate, completely in keeping with my interests. I wrote the National Archives of Canada, but they didn't have any current contact information. I tried a few other options, but gave in soon after when no leads showed up. I wish that I had kept going.

In the first entry of Journalista's Monday Mailbag, an anonymous correspondent wrote in with news of Bachle's passing. Like it says in the link above, there's nothing on the Globe and Mail site, or on any other Canadian news site that I can find. Not knowing what particular day the correspondent wrote the letter, I wasn't even sure which day's paper to check up on. After a little digging, I found this one sentence news item on the website for Space, the Canadian science fiction television station, confirming the news.

In December 1940, the Canadian government adopted the War Exchange Conversation Act. This was put into place to stop the importation of non-essential goods into Canada, and help keep the economy from faltering. One of the non-essential items on the list was comic books. The adventures of the costumed superhero had barely begun, but by then it's popularity was already firmly established among Canadian youth. To meet this demand, and fill this suddenly vacant niche, various publishers rushed out new, all-Canadian product. These comics would eventually be known as "Whites" due to their being printed in black-and-white.

Brothers Gene and Cy Bell, owners of a Toronto-based sign company, saw the writing on the wall previous to the December ban, and started work on their first comic book, Wow Comics. The success of this first issue prompted the Bells to increase the number of titles in their line. Soon they were selling more than 100,000 comics a week, which isn't bad considering the population was approximately 11.5 million at the time. Since there was virtually no comic book industry in Canada before this time, they were forced to take almost anyone who could hold a pencil into their stable, including a number of teenagers. Bell Features made up in quantity what they lacked in quality, publishing such characters as The Penguin, Dixon of the Mounted, Nelvana of the Northern Lights (which began at Hillborough Studios and moved over with Adrian Dingle, arguably the best artist of this era), and Doc Stearne (aka Mr. Monster, a character used to this day by cartoonist Michael T. Gilbert). And Johnny Canuck.



John Ezrin, Bell Feature's major financial partner, struck up a conversation with a 16-year old high school student he spotted reading a number of the company's comic books. Ezrin asked the boy for his opinion on the comics, and the student replied with a nasty critique of the artwork he found within. Ezrin challenged the critic to do better by drawing a small comic sequence right there. The boy, Leo Bachle, who had been drawing comics for years, whipped up a page that impressed Ezrin enough that he offered the student another challenge. To conceive of a new character to propose to the company by the next morning.

The name "Johnny Canuck" had been used in Canadian political cartoons of the 19th century, an equivalent to the United States' Uncle Sam. This, combined with the template of patriotic super-soldier Captain America, the youthful fantasies of war as seen from the sidelines, and the boyish good looks of the artist himself, resulted in the creation of one of Canada's first superheroes, Johnny Canuck. The next day, Leo Bachle became a freelancer for Bell Features, and Johnny Canuck debuted in the first issue of Dime Comics. This issue can be read in it's entirety here, or you can skip ahead to the Johnny Canuck portion.

Bachle achieved this while still attending the Danforth Technical School in Toronto, where he was regarded as something of a celebrity. He often found ways to sneak references to classmates into his work. He also found time to create various other characters, such as Wild Bill, The Brain, and Invisible Commando, though none of them enjoyed the popularity as his overnight creation, Johnny Canuck.

In 1944, impressed by Bachle's raw, energetic talent, New York publishers such as Prize and Croydon tempted him Stateside. Soon after, the war ended and the ban was lifted. All the Canadian comics publishers either gave up or moved into similar businesses, like reprints of American comics. Bell Features tried to compete by buying a colour printing press, only to find out that newsprint was still be rationed to a degree that prevented them from competing with their American neighbours. The Canadian comic industry fell. In the 1950s, Leo Bachle changed his name to Les Barker, and left the comics industry to become a movie and television actor and nightclub entertainer. Even though he never re-entered the comic industry, he was still fondly remembered by a generation that grew up on the "Whites" and the thrilling expolits of Johnny Canuck, and appeared at numerous comic conventions as a guest of honour.



In 1995, Canada Post issued a stamp featuring Johnny Canuck, a testament to a time when, through a simple bureaucratic loophole, an industry was born. A time when a kid from the Danforth could up and create a national hero overnight.

Rest in Peace, Mr. Bachle.








posted by Steven at 2:09 PM