Jamie Michaels

Winnipeg's Jamie Michaels is arguably the best self-promoter we've had on the podcast and what he's promoting is a graphic novel about a little known happening in Canadian history at the height of fascism's march across Europe in the years before WWII. Christie Pits is a graphic novel detailing the little-known happenings behind Canada's only race riot – when Nazi sympathizers unfurled a Nazi flag during a public baseball game and Jews and Italians united to throw down against them in Toronto's Christie Pits Park. Coming out now, the work seems more relevant than ever with Trump in office and fascism seemingly getting more of a foothold than it has ever had since the Second World War in governments around the world. We talk about that on this podcast and why Jamie Michaels decided to make a little-known moment in Canadian history the subject of the second graphic novel he has written with art by Doug Fedrau. The first was Canoe Boys the story of how he and his friends canoed to Mexico for a bet and this podcast addresses that too. We also talk about why he founded his independent comics company Dirty Water Comics and what it's like trying to make it in the independent comics game outside a national centre like Toronto and do a deep dive on the comic scene in Winnipeg, Manitoba. This podcast is sponsored by Hairy Tarantula. @dirtywatercomic @dirtywatercomics Dirty Water Comics Christie Pits Kickstarter (archived) CBC article on Christie Pits Sponsor Hairy Tarantula