Here they are! The Pythor Comics superheroes!!!
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Before I was bitten by the puppetry bug as a teenager and became obsessed with puppets, I spent a great deal of my time drawing and making up characters on paper. All throughout elementary school I was often pointed out as being "the artist" in the class, no matter what grade I was in. At first I taught myself how to draw popular cartoon characters such as Popeye, Garfield, Pink Panther and so on, then in my early teens I discovered superheroes and have been drawing them ever since!
That being said, my artwork has always been somewhat cartoonish so I've never considered it to be as exceptional as the kind you'd find in a DC Comics comic book. None the less, I'm quite proud of my artwork and find it well suited to my particular sense of humour. Drawing is something that I enjoy immensely, especially when I'm making up my own characters. So with that in mind, I've compiled this blog page to present a few of my own original superheroes. Enjoy!
Canadian Crusader
Here is Canadian Crusader, my main superhero character. I'm serious about superheroes, but I also like to have fun with them. I don't think that superheroes should be taken too seriously as that takes the fun out of it, at least for me it does. Canadian Crusader likes to heat hero sandwiches because "You are what you eat!" This illustration is from 2020.
This is the very first drawing of my patriotic superhero Canadian Crusader which I created in the late 80's. During my mid to late teens I drew comics about Canadian Crusader for fun and created his entire backstory. Although I was a teenager, when it came to designing his costume I knew enough to do my due diligence as any professional artist would do, so I researched other Canadian superheroes of the day to avoid copying someone else's design, and have acquired a registered copyright for this drawing.
Of course my research was done well before the internet had become so widely accessible, so I had to do things the old fashioned way at the public library. Now a days, with the ease of the internet there really is no excuse for accidently copying another artists work due to lack of research... or ones laziness to do so. In addition to the registered copyright, I also own Canadian Crusader as a registered trademark.
In 2006 I made a puppet of Canadian Crusader for my show "Heroes Past and Present". I've included more information about that project on the Superhero Puppets page of this blog.
In 2014 I made this Canadian Crusader mini comic book based on my "Heroes Past and Present" live show. Included in the comic is the origin story which shows how RCMP officer Melvin Maples becomes Canadian Crusader. You can read it for free on this blog!
Here is another drawing of Canadian Crusader in a more serious pose!
Canadian Crusader also has some official merch! Here is the first Canadian Crusader T-shirt!!!
Blue Jay Boy
Canadian Crusader's side kick is Blue Jay Boy. You can read the above Blue Jay Boy mini comic for free on this blog!!! In the 1980's when I was in my early teens, there weren't any gay superheroes for me to relate to or admire. Even today it's still an anomaly for a main superhero character to be gay. Therefore the Pythor Comics universe will definitely include gay characters and Blue Jay Boy is one of them!
Blue Jay Boy originally started out as Falcon Boy when I designed him back in my teens. However, he always had blue feathers and was always intended as a side kick for Canadian Crusader. Eventually I realized that a blue falcon didn't make much sense and wasn't very Canadian, so I decided that he should be a Blue Jay instead and redesigned his costume! It would be fun to have Falcon Boy show up in a future story along side Blue Jay Boy!
Also joining my superhero lineup are Moose Man and Goose Gal. Together, with Canadian Crusader and Blue Jay Boy, this patriotic team of heroes is known as... the Canuck Crusaders! Recently I've been working toward making some toy puppets of all my hero characters. Above are the Canuck Crusaders puppets. These are smaller 12 inch hand puppets as compared with my original superhero puppets, which are roughly 20 inches tall. In all, I've completed puppets of 16 characters from my Canadian Crusader storyline, which are all shown below.
Moose Man
Moose Man unmasked, this is his alter ego Harry Harrison.
Here's my original sketch for Moose Man created in the late 1980's during my mid teens along with Canadian Crusader, so they've been fighting crime together for quite a long time! :)
Here's Moose Man in action. Harry finds it very difficult to see out of his moose mask so he's always complaining about it. He often has trouble walking through doorways or and getting his antlers stuck on things, such as clothes lines or tree branches, so he ends up carrying the mask around with him most of the time. Moose Man is a skilled fighter and is training Blue Jay Boy.
Goose Gal
Here is the fourth member of the Canuck Crusaders, Goose Gal!!!
This sketch of Goose Gal is from 2011. My original drawing of her was quite bad and will remain in the vault indefinitely! Unfortunately I'm not as good at drawing women as I am at drawing muscular male superheroes!
Goose Gal's alter ego is Jenny Featherstone.
Lemming Lad
Meet Lemming Lad, aka Donald Keener! He's the secretary, accountant and logistics organizer at the Canuck Crusaders' team headquarters. Keener doesn't have any super powers, he just wanted to fit in with the gang so he wears a costume. He's a little guy and shorter than all the others so he chose Lemmings as his theme because they're small too.
Here is the first drawing of Lemming Lad. I drew this picture on February 14, 2015. Lemming Lad is one of the toy puppets that are part of the Canadian Crusader series, shown below.
Shown here are Avalanche the Snow Beast, Countess of Canada (Canadian Crusader's sister), Lemming Lad, and a time traveler from Canada's historic past, Flying Wolf an aboriginal warrior. Flying Wolf is the alter ego of River Wolf, a crossover character from the stories about Pythor the Barbarian discussed on the Fantasy Characters page of this blog. Pythor and River Wolf have been best friends since childhood.... but how does River Wolf end up in the future with the alias Flying Wolf? Well, when I finish writing that story, I'll let you know! :) Below is my original drawing of the character.
Flying Wolf
Flying Wolf's real name is River Wolf. He is good friends with Pythor the Barbarian and travels to the future to join the Canuck Crusaders. Therefore he exists in multiple timelines.
This is the first drawing that I did for Flying Wolf , created on October 3, 2005. I've since omitted the feathers on his head from later drawings.
Dominion Kid
Here's Dominion Kid, the alter ego of Ricky Sweetbottom. His costume is based on the Union Jack flag. Dominion Kid doesn't fly so he has a really cool motorcycle which also has a Union Jack design. When I get around to doing the comic books with Dominion Kid in them, he's going to be Blue Jay Boy's boyfriend (I already have the books roughed out). I think they would make a nice couple, we'll see!
This drawing is from February 2015. I've made a puppet of Dominion kid for the Canadian Crusader series, shown below.
Shown here are Dominion Kid, Buffalo Queen, Canadian Crusader's alter ego Melvin Maples, and Melvin's horse Pancake.
Buffalo Queen
Here is the panel from the Canadian Crusader Mini Comic in which Melvin Maples is rescued by the Buffalo Queen and she gives him his super powers!
Icicles Man
Canadian Crusader's arch nemesis is Icicles Man, a cold hearted scientist and inventor. His hideout is an evil igloo laboratory and he has a space ship called the Iceberg Orbiter!
When I performed my puppet show "Heroes Past and Present" at the Puppets Up festival in 2006 Icicles Man was the main villain of the story, and caused trouble for Canadian Crusader. Here is their climatic battle scene that was choreographed to some campy disco music. At the time the puppet of Icicles Man was actually one of my other characters, Griffon Shadow, dressed in Icicles Man's costume.
Icicles Man is included among the last bunch of character's for the Canadian Crusader prototype toy puppet series, which are all nasty villains: Mad Moose, Icicles Man, Wilderness Man, and Raccoon Woman!
Eventually I'm going to make some stuffed vehicles for my superhero prototype toy puppets as well, which will also be seen in future comic books. For example, Wilderness man drives a Beaver Launching Log Mobile (the beavers are his robotic minions!) while Blue Jay Boy has a Bird Nest Go-Cart. Canadian Crusader has a cool car named the Canadian Cruiser (even though he can fly!), and Moose Man drives the Moose Mobile! Although Goose Gal can fly she also has a space ship called the Goose Glider! Meanwhile Canadian Crusader's sister, Countess of Canada, drives a stylized dune buggy called the Maple Leaf Mobile!
Other Superheroes:
Vengeance
At some point in the late 80's, when I was in my mid teens, I became interested in drawing superheroes. In fact I was comply hooked on them. In addition to drawing DC Comics heroes and a few characters from Marvel Comics, I spent a lot of time designing my own characters. Vengeance is one of those characters. His design is based on "hair band" Heavy Metal music that was popular at the time. Just for my own amusement, I drew a comic book about Vengeance which established that he's a rock band drummer by day and superhero by night!
Here's one of my first drawings of Vengeance from the late 1980's when I was a teenager.
Below is the updated version of this drawing.
These are cut-out cardboard dolls of Vengeance and Boomer, his alter ego who is a rock star drummer. The figures are illustrated on the front and back so that I could hang them from a shelf with a string. They're seven inches tall and were made in the early 1990's. Below is a similar seven inch paper doll of Vengeance with his superhero costume and all of his rock star outfits! The figure of Boomer is a card board cut out, just like the above figures, but is only illustrated on the front.
I'm a huge fan and collector of the 8 inch Mego superhero dolls that were produced in the 1970's. In the late 1980's I made this Vengeance 8 inch doll costume to fit on a Mego doll. It was a challenge to figure out the pattern with all the different colours and shapes. One of my other blogs called Mikey's Dolls has pictures of my entire Mego doll collection.
Vampire Villain
Here is an example of the superhero character design drawings that I made during the late 1980's and early 1990's. Some of my drawings from back then have since been lost to time, though I still have about twenty of these design sheets for my various superheroes including one each for Canadian Crusader, Moose Man, and Vengeance. The above character is a vampire villain that I never named but always thought was cool! Though I'm not sure why I thought his pink Speedo needed a shoulder strap?!? LOL Perhaps his name will be Pinky? Pinky the Vampire! :)
A Catman
By the mid 1990's I was studying Animation at Algonquin College which really helped to improve my drawing skills....
Lightning Dude
I'm forever inventing new superhero characters. Here's Lightning Dude and Thunder the Tiger! I created this picture on September 12, 2002. The sketch below shows another version of the character, created October 3, 2005.
Zedgar the Wild Jungle Dude
Here's Zedgar the Wild Jungle Dude! I drew this on April 8, 2003 when I was 29. Zedgar is my version of Tarzan but instead of being raised in the jungle he arrives there from present day, having been transported to a mysterious land by a UFO! His story arc is centered around his quest to figure out why he was transported to the jungle and by whom, as well as his ongoing search for a way to transport himself back home. Admittedly I made Zedgar's loincloth as skimpy as possible to show him off, but also because he's living in an uncivilized jungle so he wouldn't need clothes. In any case, I think he's beautiful and I just love his long hair! :)
Another drawing of Zedgar from 2003. This drawing is on a large 14 X 26 inch piece of card stock similar to Bristol board. The picture was folded through the middle for storage. Zedgar looks quite intense in this picture as originally I thought of him as a brooding, angry character. A much happier version of him appears in the mini comic book, below.
I've created a 12 page mini comic about Zedgar and posted it online. It shows him being chased around by dinosaurs and lion-like cat people. Poor Zedgar! You can read the comic for free on this blog.
In September 2014 Artelle Puppets had a booth at Ottawa Geek Market. Shown above is my display of superhero items including hand-made puppets, hand-made and illustrated stuffed superhero figures, mini comic books, and three different T-shirts for Griffon Shadow, Pythor the Barbarian and Canadian Crusader. These are all available on this blog
Here I am in March 2016, when I was 42, with some of the superhero puppets on display in my workshop.
I've posted some of my fantasy art characters on a separate page of this blog.
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Thanks for visiting!
-Mikey
Originally Posted Online: Feb 2016
Last Updated: June 2024
Legal stuff:
Please contact me through my website at www.artellepuppets.ca
The contents of this blog page are TM and © Mike Artelle, 1990, 2016 as detailed below. Use of any material from this blog page for any purpose requires advance permission from the copyright holder, Mike Artelle. Contact information can be found at: www.artellepuppets.ca
Superhero Puppets
Canadian Crusader, Melvin Maples, Blue Jay Boy, Moose Man, Goose Gal, Canuck Crusaders, Lemming Lad, Dominion Kid, Countess of Canada, Flying River, Buffalo Queen, Pancake the Horse, Icicles Man, Mad Moose, Wilderness Man, Racoon Woman, Avalanche the Snow Beast, Griffin Shadow, puppet designs, character names, likenesses, and puppets are TM and © Mike Artelle, 1991, 2015
Superhero Character Drawings
Poingo Pig, Spike, Cockroach, Captain Roger Ray Beam, Canadian Crusader, Melvin Maples, Blue Jay Boy, Troy McKenzie, Moose Man, Harry Harrison, Goose Gal, Jenny Featherstone, Lemming Lad, Donald Keener, Dominion Kid, Ricky Sweetbottom, Flying River, Buffalo Queen, Icicles Man, Vengeance, Vampire villain character, Catman, Lightning Dude, Thunder the Tiger, Zedgar the Wild Jungle Dude, character designs, character names, likenesses, and art are TM and © Mike Artelle, 1987, 2015
Various Projects
Canadian Crusader, Blue Jay Boy, Pythor the Barbarian, Griffon Shadow, Perseus Son of Zeus, and Zedgar the Wild Jungle Dude mini comic books, stories and art are TM and © Mike Artelle, 2014, 2016
Toy puppets and dolls, designs and patterns TM and © Mike Artelle, 2011, 2015
Artelle Puppets and Pythor Comics names, logos and website contents TM and © Mike Artelle, 2011, 2015
Additional Information
All remaining puppets, dolls, text, stories, photographs, and art presented on this blog page are TM and © Mike Artelle, 1976, 2016
