Ron Van Leeuwen had published a couple of Underground to Ground Level comic books back in the late 1970's with the titles of The Fantastic World of Arik Kahn and Andromeda.
The Fantastic World of Arik Kahn was a vehicle for the Filipino
artist Franc Reyes who had been living in Toronto since 1976.
It was a Sword and Sorcery story, with an exotic oriental flavour and very well done. I believe that Franc was already doing work for DC comics at the time, drawing stories for Tarzan, Weird War, Ghosts, House of Mystery, House of Secrets and Unexpected.
Franc Reyes went on to work as a designer in the Animation Industry and his credits are respectable.
Rock & Rule
Mulan
Tarzan
Brother Bear
as well as many others.
Andromeda, on the other hand, was a Science Fiction anthology and it contained work by many talented Toronto based artists. Interestingly, this incarnation of Andromeda is officially Volume 2, because a previous publisher, Bill Paul of London, Ontario, had already issued a tabloid fanzine of the same name.
Bill Paul was a well known fan publisher and he also put out several issues of his flagship title, Media5, in the same tabloid format.
Which featured the early works of such people as Dean Motter, Ken Steacy, Ronn Sutton and even a memorable portfolio of drawings by the young Terry Austin.
The reason for all this preamble, is to segue into a photograph that I rediscovered in my files the other day.
The staff of the Andromeda Warehouse as they were in 1989.
I could name several of them without help, but Tom Stormonth and Brian Morton helped out with a few that I couldn't remember.
We haven't named them all yet but here is a list of the ones we remember:
Front Row, Left to Right
Manuel
Owen Baird
Barb Higgins
Alison Kent
Tim James
Craig Bryson
Second Row
Tom Stormonth
Ron Van Leeuwen
Dennis Connolly
Shane Kenny
on the far Right Stuart Young
Third Row
Judy (Judi?) Brown
Jim Brigham
Girl in Red Pants?
Uli Havermann
Karen
Grimacing Guy?
Fourth Row
Scott Spence
Brian Morton
Fifth Row
The two guys on the left at the very back??
The guy on the right, wearing the cool shades, is
Sven Patrick Larsen.
Where are they all today? I wonder.
Girl in red pants is Gwen Baird, Sister of Owen. Girl listed as Karen is Brenda Barrows. Judy Brown and Dennis had a daughter. Judy died of breast cancer at 36.
ReplyDeleteUli
I don't think that the guy on the back row on the right wearing the 'cool shades' is Sven (last seen at TCAF 2015 with NBM). Those look like the cool shades of Frank, who looked after the Montreal Andromeda warehouse with Manuel.
Delete~jim b.
I believe that you are correct Jim!
Delete