Nelvana Granddaughter Guest of Honour
by BK Munn
Cartoonist Jay Stephens (Jetcat, Secret Saturdays) is supervising the design of Canadian superhero-themed floats for this Sunday’s Santa Claus Parade in downtown Guelph, Ontario. Stephen’s own Arrowhead will be part of the fun as well as versions of Captain Canuck, DC Comics’ Equinox (created by Toronto’s Jeff Lemire) and more. The highlight of the parade should be the appearance of Nelvana of the Northern Lights, Canada’s first female superhero (1941). Created by cartoonist Adrian Dingle, Nelvana was inspired by a real-life Inuit woman and her granddaughter will be appearing in the parade as Nelvana. Her name is Cecile Lyall, and she has been flown in as the Guest-of-Honour by The Dragon comic book shop, the co-sponsor of the parade.
The parade kicks off at 1.30 and the Dragon is hosting an event in its shop afterwards: “parade-goers the chance to meet with their superheroes. Based in the warmth of Old Quebec Street Shoppes, the store will run the event directly after the parade and will have local illustrator and creator of Arrowhead, Jay Stephens, and Captain Canuck costume creator Kalman Andrasofszky signing for fans, as well as Nelvana historian [and co-publisher of the complete Nelvana book] Hope Nicholson to tell us all about Canada’s first female superhero.”