GRAPHIC DETAILS
Comic book artist doing his part to keep native language alive
Jay Odjick is one of a kind — literally. The Quebec-based writer, artist and television producer is the creator of Kagagi, the first (accurate, non-embarrassing) First Nations superhero in the wide world of comic books.
Briefly, Kagagi is the alter ego of Matthew Carver, a high school student who inherits the ancient powers needed to defeat Windigo, “the eater of human flesh” who has long been a fearsome legend in Algonquin folklore.
Since at least 2011, when Odjick published his graphic novel Kagagi: The Raven, he’s done all he can to keep his people’s language alive.
He’s paid from his own pocket to record Algonquin dialogue for the animated version of Kagagi (which airs on Aboriginal Peoples Television Network) and recently completed a Twitter project called Algonquin Word of the Day (#AWOTD), for which he drew iPad cartoons to teach his followers how to say everything from apple (wabimin) to zero (kàn kegò) in his native tongue.
Passport 2017 recently talked to the 41-year-old Odjick.
Q I grew up reading comics, and gravitated to the X-Men because it showed me heroes can come in all shapes and sizes — which, in hindsight, seems easy for a white, middle-class kid to say. I wonder how that experience went for you: trying to see yourself within the characters of popular comics.
A Like a lot of people from the reserve, my dad left his home (in Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg, due north of Ottawa) to find work because there were no jobs. He travelled all over the East Coast, and met my mother in Rochester, N.Y., which is where I was born. I grew up right down the street from a comic shop, which was awesome. They would tear off the covers of any books that didn’t sell and price them for a dime. As a poor kid, I thought that was the best thing ever. But the only time I saw any native people at all in comics, it wasn’t a good representation. We’re talking characters like Scalphunter and things of this nature.
Q Ouch. Did you have better luck after your dad moved the family back to KZA, when you were still quite young?
A I had never been around my culture or my people before. I was an inner-city kid. To live on the reserve was really strange, because my only exposure to native communities had come through TV shows, movies and comic books. The real thing was nothing like anything I had seen before, so it was very alarming. I still didn’t see a lot of native superhero comics, but did catch Super Friends on TV. Are you familiar with that show?
Q It rings a faint bell.
A It was the all-stars of the DC Comics crew — Superman, Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and Aquaman. At a certain point, I guess they looked around and thought, “Hey, we don’t have any people of colour, and there’s only one female member of this team. Maybe we should diversify.” They added new characters who were people of colour, but it was done in the worst way possible. They created a native character named Apache Chief. He got his powers when he reached a certain age and had his manhood tested against a bear — as was traditional among his people, according to the cartoon. I don’t know about where you’re from, but where I’m from, if your parents test your manhood against a bear, it means they don’t like you that much and they don’t expect you to come home.
Q That’s probably universal across all cultures.
A Oh, sure. “Hey, what are you doing today?” “Well, we’re going to have the kid fight a bear.” “Good luck with that.” But this is true, this is all canon. When Apache Chief sprinkled some quote “Indian dust” on himself and said a magic word, he would grow to 50 feet tall. The other Super Friends would jump on a plane to go find the bad guy, and he’d be like, “I guess I’ll run.” He just loped across the countryside. And the magic word was “Inukshuk,” which I’m sure most Canadian readers will know has nothing to do with giant Indian superheroes. But yeah, that was our guy. That was our representative among the comic elite for far too long.
Q That’s sounds awful — and like a problem that could only be solved by picking up a pencil and creating your own heroes.
A That’s exactly what happened. My mother says I started writing stories when I was around five. People are usually impressed when they hear that, but I’m not saying they were any good. I’m sure they had a beginning, middle and end, but probably not much more than that . ...
I had to start drawing them myself. Once I did, I got hooked. I got my first rejection letter from Marvel Comics when I was 10 years old.
Q So you worked your way up to it. Tell me about Kagagi.
A I wanted to create a native superhero that other native people could look at and say, “OK, this rings true” — and who non-native Canadians could relate to as well, because of what he goes through trying to find himself as a young man. All those things had to be present no matter what your race or background is, but it was specifically meant for First Nations children.
First I did three black-andwhite issues of a comic called The Raven just in English. Then I signed a deal to bring my graphic novel, Kagagi: The Raven, to one of Canada’s biggest comic book publishers, Arcana Studios. That was awesome, because it was available in any comic shop in North America or even the world.
Q And from there you developed a television series — which might be even more impressive, as it gives Algonquin viewers the chance to hear their own language spoken. That’s huge, isn’t it?
A When we did that book, I thought it would be a matter of time before a First Nations producer — or basically any producer in Canada — would want to give a First Nations hero a bigger platform. Apparently I was wrong. There was no interest from anybody. So my publisher and I formed a production company and did it ourselves. We made a 13-episode animated series that airs on APTN in Canada.
Kagagi: The Raven is soon to be reprinted in hardcover and will be available in July.