Angloman 2: Money, Ethnics, Superheroes

Terry A. Crowley is an associate professor of history at the University
of Guelph, and the author of Agnes Macphail and the Politics of
Equality.

Comic books serve a variety of purposes, even though they tend to be
disparaged as fodder for the semi-literate. The notoriously fickle
sensibilities of comic-book aficionados give rise to a rapid evolution
in subject matter, writing, and drawing. Cartoonist J.W. Bengough may
have amused the average anglophone Ontarian after Confederation, but
today appreciation for his almost exclusively political work is limited
primarily to the literati. What links that remote past with the cartoon
stories in Angloman 2 is the ability to poke fun at humanity’s foibles
and follies without taking sides.

Writer Mark Shainblum and illustrator Gabriel Morrissette succeed in
making us laugh about linguistic rivalries, shady ethics, political
shenanigans, and even the doughnut shops that dominate every streetscape
in Toronto. The book’s sexist title notwithstanding, the biting
sarcasm comes in a politically correct form as well: the beautiful and
commanding Poutinette and the whirlwind Matzohgirl are among the
characters that moderate the male bias.