The Second Book: Old Trout Funnies: The Comic Origins of the Cape Breton Liberation Army
In the mid-1970s, Cape Breton was undergoing a moment of existential moodiness. The future of an economy built on coal and steel was no longer certain, and the generation born after World War II came to realize that the promises their parents' generation worked so hard to enable was likely not going to happen, at least not on the Island itself. But out of that time came great artistic experimentation: music, theatre, and art, all working to express this new uncertainty and seek some kind of consolation, emerged from this educated working class background. One such effort was the comic art of Paul “Moose” MacKinnon.
From Old Trout Funnies Issue 1.
Old Trout Funnies: The Comic Origins of the Cape Breton Liberation Army book cover.
MacKinnon created Old Trout Funnies, the adventures of the Cape Breton Liberation Army, twenty-somethings hellbent on the Island independence to achieve the ultimate goal of drinking in peace while listening to East Coast Blues. Three issues were produced, and plans were made for a forth, but a book so niche was not enough to sustain a professional career. Nevertheless, MacKinnon’s CBLA continued through a series of poster calendars that were a mainstay of Cape Breton kitchens, in town and in the diaspora.
In 2015 I edited and annotated a reproduction of the adventures of the CBLA, providing the contextual information required to make sense of the immediate context MacKinnon was writing for while letting the art and humour work for itself. It was published through Cape Breton University Press.
Reviews
Readers who enjoyed Old Trout Funnies back in the day understood, intuitively, what it was all about. They were in on the joke; it was their zeitgeist. But for contemporary readers without ties to the island, the strips may prove difficult to understand, let alone enjoy. Thankfully, Brodie acts as an insightful cultural translator for this new publication. His scholarly introduction and comprehensive, explanatory endnotes provide an indispensable, nuanced guide to the distinctive vernacular culture that gave the comic books their form, content, and meaning. [Andy Parnaby in Material Culture Review]
Brodie’s work balances providing scholarly discussion of MacKinnon’s work and allowing the art to have the space to stand alone. This is not an easy balance to strike in book form, but Brodie has done it well. The research about the context, content, and interpretation of the collection is notable and accessibly written. The reproductions of MacKinnon’s original work and the corresponding information and discussion provided by Brodie help the reader explore how the OTF attempts to reach its audiences, including MacKinnon’s friends as well as a larger general audience, and how the characters and material were adapted and developed over time. [Virginia S. Fugarino in Ethnologies]
Related Work
An exhibit at the Cape Breton University Art Gallery coincided with the book’s launch. Here is the exhibition programme.
This work also generated a chapter in The Canadian Alternative: Cartoonists, Comics, and Graphic Novels, edited by Dominick Grace & Eric Hoffman and published through University Press of Mississippi in 2017.
Finally, the publication of Old Trout Funnies inspired a new musical by Wesley J. Colford, The Return of the Cape Breton Liberation Army, which premiered in March of 2017 at the Highland Arts Theatre in Sydney, Nova Scotia.