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Comic book winner has local connection
Although local residents Don and Thora McCulloch have lived in Edson for a number of years, their son Derek has yet to visit here. Victoria Carnaghan
Leader Staff
Monday June 04, 2007 In fact, the only time the 42-year-old former Edmonton resident ever came through Edson was to clean carpets for a summer job back in 1985.
It was right around that time when an 18-year-old McCulloch decided to harness his writing talents and his love of comic books and turn them into something more.
Today, you could consider his a true rugs to riches story.
After a 15-year hiatus from the comic book business, McCulloch, now living in Oakland, Cali. has authored a graphic novel that is receiving broad acclaim.
Recently, the book took top prize in four categories at the Glyph awards, presented as part of the Philadelphia-based East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention. The convention, in its second year, brings together comic book creators and vendors that cater to black readers of all ages, according to the website.
The novel, called Stagger Lee, is based on a folklore legend from the late 1800s in St. Louis, Mo. where a man was said to have shot another over a stolen Stetson hat.
The mainstream media’s lack of reporting on it and the pickup of the story through songs and storytelling have become an important and interesting part of cultural history, said McCulloch.
"It’s not the sort of thing that made the newspaper, which is why there were songs about it. That was the way the news of the day passed in the black under-classes at the time, through street ballads," McCulloch said.
The legend of Stagger Lee was spread widely and quickly, so that by the time he died, folklorists were already collecting songs about him, McCulloch said.
"That’s the kernel of story that really fascinated me, the idea that he had already been outlived by his own legend in his own lifetime."
Today over a hundred blues and folk songs have been written about the same man.
McCulloch laughed when asked how he fits into the black comic book milieu, especially because, as he pointed out, he’s neither African, nor American.
But he struck a serious note when he explained the story told in his graphic novel is one that fits perfectly with the Glyph awards mandate: to honour those who make comic books by, for or about people of colour.
"[Stagger Lee] is a huge figure in African American folklore. He’s a very culturally important story. You couldn’t find anything more precisely fitting with what the Glyph awards are trying to do, than with our book."
Stagger Lee swept the Best Male Character, Best Story, Best Writer and Best Cover categories. The book’s illustrator, Shepherd "Shep" Hendrix, is a long-time friend of McCulloch’s.
The win has his Edson-based parents pleased to the hilt.
"We’re delighted," said Don, the elder McCulloch, last week.
"We expect he’ll be very successful in the future. Ever since he was in his teens, he’s been good at making those things [comic books] work."
McCulloch has a new comic book due out next March and in the meantime is enjoying the success of his current one. Stagger Lee was also recently nominated for an Eisner award, considered to be the Oscar of the graphic novel industry.
McCulloch currently works as a technical editor at engineering company and lives with his daughter and wife. |
