I’m in deep conversation with Luis Fernandes, Creative Director of Toronto’s Assembly Theatre.
The rumpled Fernandes is a personable, energetic fast-talker. And he’s got a problem. Runaway addiction is consuming his disposable income and waking hours. And there are few people he can talk to about it.
It’s not drugs, though some would argue the high is similar.
No, he’s hooked on comic books: the crisp pamphlets and glossy graphic novels shipped by companies like Marvel, DC Comics and Top Shelf each week to comic book shops like West End Comics, which is his local.
Fernandes loves comics to distraction, and he’s lucid and passionate in explaining why.
But let’s be clear: he wants to pull you into his addiction. And to accomplish this goal, he’s adopted a deceptively simple – and wildly fun – tactic. Every month, he’s mounting live monthly readings of comic books and graphic novels by local performers at the Assembly Theatre.
Off-the-wall idea? Certainly.
In practice? Amazingly fun.
Let’s start with the upcoming April 7 show
The “first issue” of Comic Books Live!!! on March 3 and 4 (using comic book parlance just feels right) was comedic and irreverent superhero fun. But a good series can’t re-tread the same ideas month after month, so for the “second issue” on April 7, Fernandes is orchestrating a deliberate pivot to an “artist indie showcase, where we’ll do a dramatic reading”.
The work to be read is local creators Duane Murray and Shawn Daley’s graphic novel Better Place, which was published to acclaim in late 2021 by Top Shelf Productions. Comic Books Live!!! will provide an opportunity to rectify the book’s lack of a true book launch, thanks to its mid-pandemic publication.
Better Place is a heartfelt tale that can be enjoyed by readers of all kinds. It tells the story of a young boy named Dylan. After hearing his grandfather has gone to a “better place”, Dylan sets off — dressed as his favourite comic book character — on a grand adventure to find him. Murray and Daley’s debut graphic novel features endearing cartoony black-and-white artwork with colour enhancements that really pop. It’s a celebration of vintage comic book imagination and a roadmap to reconnecting with the things that really matter.
And best of all, as “an actor himself,” Murray has “helped to cast his entire show!” The all-star cast includes Canadian Screen Award Nominee Jenny Raven and Josh Peace (The Boys, TallBoyz), and the reading will be followed by a live talk back with the creators and a book signing. Ticketholders get a discount on their own copy of Better Place, so they can read along with the show.
Going forward, Fernandes plans to alternate months between superheroes and indie comics: “If you’re a comic book fan, I want these events to be an opportunity to engage with something that is a passion of yours: maybe your favorite superhero or favorite comic — but then also with something dramatic and local that you may not have picked up in the first place.” And if you’re not a comic book fan, this can be an immersive gateway drug experience.
For like a corner dealer, Fernandes hopes you’ll love the rush, and need more – and not just more Comic Books Live!!!: “I want to motivate people to go to the comic book store and read comics. I want to have people enjoy that. I don’t want to see that form die.”
The Secret Origin of Comic Books Live!!!
The show’s origin story is equal parts love letter, heroic aspiration and endearing rationalization.
“I’m a huge comic book fan,” confesses Fernandes, ”And in recent years, my fandom has grown to the place where I’m back in the habit of buying books on the regular basis — even though it doesn’t necessarily make sense with my bohemian life and actor’s life.”
Translation: inflation has made buying print comics an impossibly expensive habit. And that habit leaves in its wake an ever-expanding residue of boxes or shelves filled with comics.
So no . . . not completely rational.
But “as much as I love the digitization of the form, I still love the idea of going to collect print comics,” Fernandes confesses. “It’s a costly way of consuming this art, but it’s also a beautiful way. And for me, it’s the only way.” He’s on a mission to share that passion — and in the process open up a new, fun space where the comic book-savvy and the comic-book curious can explore it.
“Much like other fringe things, we have the Internet to combine our comic book fandom,” he notes. “But online in ‘nerd circles’, it can be difficult to enjoy jumping in, in case you experience intense anger and toxicity. I want to have a safe space for people to talk about comic books. And I enjoy theater, so this is my love child of these two things.”
For some time, Fernandes had been kicking around “ideas about how to get people who read comic books like me together, read things, and talk about them passionately — because I don’t really have that in my life.” And then it hit him: major productions at the Assembly Theatre take months to mount, and – in a post-pandemic world where we’re still re-establishing the habit of theatre-going — there’s room on the theatre’s calendar for nimbler projects “in the dark days” in between.
“I have a history of doing variety shows that are comedy events — not comic book readings per se — but putting together local talent and having a fun night is something that I’ve done throughout my history as a performer.” So Comic Books Live!!! is a way to unite his curious, impractical comic book compulsion with his “day job” running the Assembly Theatre.
Best thing of all? “It gives my comic book collection a reason to be”, he notes wryly. (As someone with a massive comic book collection of my own, I appreciate just how great that sounds!)
Last Issue Recap: Comic Books Live #1 (March 3-4)
Not knowing quite what to expect, I attended the inaugural Comic Books Live on March 4. I found the experience unpretentious and hilarious.
The first half of the show was a variety show featuring standup, improv and dance that intersected he comic book milieu in a glancing way. The second half was the theatrical reading. Fernandes had chosen the 30-year-old X-Men #1 by X-Men uber-writer Chris Claremont and then-hotshot new artist Jim Lee
The first half of the show was like a variety show, with standup, improv and dance that intersected he comic book milieu in a glancing way. The second half was the theatrical reading. For the text, Fernandes chose the 30-year-old X-Men #1 by X-Men uber-writer Chris Claremont and then-hotshot new artist Jim Lee. It just happens to be the best-selling American comic book of all time. (Back in the 1990s at the height of a speculative bubble, it sold more than 8 million copies)
The reading was a mix of love letter and comedy sketch. With arch enthusiasm, seven actors, abetted by simple props and wigs or hats, took on multiple roles, which included iconic characters like Wolverine and Professor X. (To be frank, this book is overstuffed with plot, dialogue and characters). Fernandes was a jovial Master of Ceremonies, reading the narration, winking slyly at plot contrivances, and reveling in the excesses of the art.
Of course, comics are a unique medium comprised of words AND pictures in sequence. When – as the actors did — you read just the words, they can sound silly, melodramatic, and even absurd. The actors leaned in, of course, and much laughter ensued. Copies of X-Men #1 from West End Comics were available for purchase at the door, and most audience members had one, so they could appreciate the artwork and the full comic book experience, augmented by the actors’ voicework.
It’s important to note that comic book storytelling happens in instalments. When you read a single issue like X-Men #1, you’re getting one piece of a story, not the whole thing. Fernandes knows this – and it’s a feature of the Comic Books Live design, not a flaw. He doesn’t want you just to have one great night at the Assembly Theatre. He wants you to seek out the next part(s) of the story, in order to find out how it ends. And he hopes you might even make your way to your local comic book shop to find a physical copy of it.
In our digital age, he’s swimming upstream . . . but he’s doing so with goodwill and passion that’s infectious.
Lightning Round!
Fernandes and I spoke for a full hour, and our discussion covered a lot of other comics and theatre-related turf. Here are the highlights.
- What makes comic books so addictive?
While they are sometimes “pretty shallow” and function as commercials for “soulless product”, Fernandes loves them because they “bridge the gap between other visual mediums. Film basically does all the work for you: special effects, sound and audio.” But in comics, “you bridge a gap between theater and film — where you get the visual and you get the words, but you fill in the rest with imagination. So it’s not quite like reading a novel where you have to build the entire world in your mind. Someone gives you a visual representation and the words – and YOU imbue them with the drama!”
- DC or Marvel?
“I’m a Marvel guy through and through. It all comes down to characters. When you look at the breadth of characters in the Marvel Universe – even their B-level, their C-level, their D-level –are distinct. They have great back stories, and if they didn’t have great back stories, someone retrofitted an amazing story in there somewhere along the history. I just think that when I see the DC Universe, I am a fan of Batman and of Green Lantern, but their second-tier cast just don’t hold a torch to Marvel’s.”
When I reveal that I am a DC guy, Fernandes’ eyes light up. He doesn’t want to argue: he’s genuinely curious. He asks me to name my most under-appreciated second-tier DC character or comic. I volunteer the 1990s Starman series by James Robinson and Tony Harris. It’s an 80-issue story of the rise and eventual retirement of reluctant second-generation hero Jack Knight. It’s great superhero comics, but it’s also a long-form, four-colour meditation on fathers, sons and legacy. He’s pumped about our brief discussion: “What you just said to me is, I guess, a real reason for this show! I want to have this kind of conversation, and now I’m definitely going to investigate that book. This is the kind of exchange that I’m craving!”
- Is Comic Books Live!!! good for Marvel movie fans?
“People have become fans” of the Marvel characters through the medium of film, “not realizing how rich and deep the characters go, and how much history is in those stories and that storytelling. I think that’s a true shame. If you’re a Marvel film fan and you have not taken your favorite character and gone to the comics, and seen where that comes from, you don’t even know half the story of these characters. So that’s part of the show I want, as well. If you love the films – if you loved going to see Infinity War — then I want to motivate you to pick up some of these books, because it will blow your mind much deeper the experience can be.”
- Long-term, where would he like to take the Comic Books Live!!! series?
“Thinking really big, it would be a lovely thing to eventually outgrow the [Assembly Theatre] space. With my sensibilities and my absurdism, I would love to see like a full string quartet and a full choir do the Infinity Gauntlet. I would love to see it get to that big a scale . . . It would be almost Wagner-like! I think that would be fantastic. But of course that’s the far future. For now, we’ve got the Assembly, and we’re going to make the most of it!”
- Can comic shops get involved?
Comic book retailers can be found across the GTA, and they are “obviously an industry that could use a boost… West End Comics is my local. They have all my business. But I want people to go and check out their local comic book store.“ So “if a comic book retailer sees this, please reach out to me. I’d be more than happy to support your store and plug you at these shows. I really think people should know about their local comic book stores. I would love for you to have a presence: just so people know that you exist and they can visit, check things out, and maybe get their books from you.”
Parting Shots
Whether you’re comics-curious or a longtime comics fan, Luis Fernandes and the Assembly Theatre want to hook you up with a great evening at Comic Books Live!!! Your next opportunity is April 7 with Better Place. After that, May 26 and 27 bring the cosmic – and no doubt comedic – mayhem of Marvel’s The Infinity Gauntlet #4 (a major precursor of the Infinity War and Endgame movies).
When you go, be sure to say hi to Luis — and talk some comics!
For information and tickets, visit theassemblytheatre.com.
© Scott Sneddon, SesayArts Magazine, 2023
