Mark Shainblum (born 1963 in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

) is a Canadian writer who now lives in

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada. Though he has worked as a journalist and editor, Shainblum is best known as a science fiction and comic book writer.

Early life

Shainblum is Jewish. His great-uncle Yechiel (Eli) Shainblum was also well known in Montreal as a painter, sculptor and teacher. In the early 1980s, Shainblum published two issues of a comics and

science fiction fanzine A science-fiction fanzine is an amateur or semi-professional magazine published by members of science-fiction fandom, from the 1930s to the present day. They were one of the earliest forms of fanzine, within one of which the term "''fanzine''" was ...

called ''Orion: The Canadian Magazine of Time and Space'', and later founded Matrix Graphic Series (later known as Matrix Comics), one of only a handful of independent comic book publishers in Canada at the time.

Career

His published works include: *''

Northguard Northguard is a fictional superhero, created by Mark Shainblum and Gabriel Morrissette, who originally appeared in Canadian comic books published by Matrix Graphics Series. Northguard made his first appearance in ''New Triumph Featuring Northgua ...

'', a post-modern Canadian

superhero A superhero or superheroine is a stock character that typically possesses ''superpowers'', abilities beyond those of ordinary people, and fits the role of the hero, typically using his or her powers to help the world become a better place, ...

, created in the 1980s with illustrator

Gabriel Morrissette Gabriel Morrissette (born September 26, 1959) is a Canadian illustrator, animator and comic book artist from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Currently working for Jackfruit Press on their Prime Minister series and Chickadee on Daisy Dreamer, Gabriel ...

. Though Northguard was published as an independent comic book series and didn't achieve the notoriety of better-known Canadian superheroes like

Richard Comely Richard Comely (born October 9, 1950) is a Canadian comic book creator, penciller, inker, letterer, colorist editor, and publisher. He created and wrote the '' Captain Canuck'' comic book series which has been in and out of publication since it ...

's ''

Captain Canuck Captain Canuck is a Canadian comic book superhero. Created by cartoonist Ron Leishman and artist/writer Richard Comely, the original Captain Canuck first appeared in ''Captain Canuck'' #1 (July 1975). The series was the first successful Canadi ...

'' or

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...

' ''

Alpha Flight Alpha Flight is a fictional team of Canadian superheroes appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The characters premiered in ''The Uncanny X-Men'' #120 (April 1979), and were created to serve as part of the X-Men member W ...

'', it was well received by critics and a core following of fans. The Quebec superheroine

Fleur-de-Lys The fleur-de-lis, also spelled fleur-de-lys (plural ''fleurs-de-lis'' or ''fleurs-de-lys''), is a lily (in French, and mean 'flower' and 'lily' respectively) that is used as a decorative design or symbol. The fleur-de-lis has been used in the ...

, a supporting character from the series, even made her way to a Canadian postage stamp in 1995. *''Angloman'', co-created with

. A humorous parody of politics in Shainblum's native province of Quebec, Angloman was first published in book form and then made the leap to two Montreal newspapers, the alternative newsweekly ''

Montreal Mirror ''Montreal Mirror'' or just ''Mirror'' was a free English language alternative newsweekly based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada which was distributed every Thursday. It had a circulation of 70,000 and reached a quarter of a million readers per week. ...

'' and the mass-circulation daily ''

Montreal Gazette The ''Montreal Gazette'', formerly titled ''The Gazette'', is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Three other daily English-language newspapers shuttered at various times during the second half of th ...

''. With John Dupuis, Shainblum also co-edited the 1998 short story collection ''Arrowdreams: An Anthology of Alternate Canadas'', which garnered a

Prix Aurora Award The Aurora Awards (french: Prix Aurora-Boréal) are a set of primarily literary awards given annually for the best Canadian science fiction or fantasy professional and fan works and achievements from the previous year."Literary glow of Auroras lur ...

for Canadian science fiction in 1999. Shainblum was also a finalist in the 2001 international Mark Twain Writing Competition and recently published a story in

Claude Lalumière Claude Lalumière (born 1966) is an author, book reviewer and has edited numerous anthologies. A resident of Montreal, Quebec, he writes the ''Montreal Gazette's'' Fantastic Fiction column. He also owned and operated two independent book stores ...

's anthology ''

Island Dreams ''Island Dreams'' is an instrumental album by roots music band Lost Dogs, released on Fools of the World records in 2005. Track listing All songs written by Taylor, Roe, Daugherty and Hindalong # "Escape to Paradise" # "Wikki Tikki" # "Sai ...

: Montreal Writers of the Fantastic'' from

Véhicule Press The Vehicule Poets was a collective formed in Montreal in the 1970s by poets Endre Farkas, Artie Gold, Tom Konyves, Claudia Lapp, John McAuley, Stephen Morrissey and Ken Norris, who shared an interest in experimental American poetry and Europea ...

. In 2002–03, he served as president of

SF Canada SF Canada was founded as an authors collective circa 1989 under the title Canada’s National Association of Speculative Fiction Professionals. Several Canadian science fiction authors have made public claim to be "founding members" of the organi ...

, Canada's national association of science fiction and fantasy authors.

Awards

Current projects

Shainblum is collaborating on two webcomics projects: with artist

Sandy Carruthers Sandy Carruthers is a Canadian-American artist and retired graphic design instructor, known for his work as the first illustrator of the original ''Men in Black'' comic book series, and as creator of the webcomic series, ''Canadiana: the New Spirit ...

on a super-hero genre

webcomic Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on a website or mobile app. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or comic books. Webcomics can be co ...

project entitled

Canadiana Canadiana is a term used to describe things (e.g., books, historical documents, and artifacts), ideas, or activities that concern or are distinctive of Canada, its people, and/or its culture, especially works of literature and other cultural pro ...

, and on a mystery serial, ''The Haunting of MacGrath'' with artist Jeff Alward. He also works as a communications and media relations professional.

References

External links