Briefly Bram

BY BRAM EISENTHAL

When last I saw veteran West End writer Mark Shainblum, his newspaper comic strip Angloman was finishing up its run. The engaging, funny, politically savvy strip was Shainblum’s take on Quebec politics, dreamt up with popular artist Gabriel Morrissette, whom Shainblum had collaborated with before.

Also published were the Nuage Editions books Angloman: Making the World Safe for Apostrophes and Angloman 2: Money, Ethnics, Superheroes, the first signed copy of which I keep in my library. Shainblum generously listed me in the acknowledgements.

Shainblum, a true April Fool who turns 44 this Sunday, is a very accomplished and surprisingly sweet guy, with a complete lack of the over-inflated sense of himself you’d expect from someone who is listed in any ‘who’s who’ of Canadian comic or science-fiction creators.

Northguard and the oh-so-feminine and wily separatist superheroine, Fleur de Lys are two of the other interesting characters Shainblum has fathered, not including the darling daughter he and his wife, Andrea Lobel, celebrated the birth of scant weeks ago.

An alumnus of Bialik and Wagar high schools, and currently employed by McGill University as a communications consultant, Shainblum made his entry into both genres with his two-issue early ‘80s fanzine, Orion: The Canadian Magazine of Time and Space. “I always wanted to be a writer, from elementary and high school on, so this was a tremendous opportunity to be read,” Shainblum says. “I also always wished I could fly,” added the superhero freak, expressing a sentiment I, too, share.

In 1998, Shainblum and John Dupuis edited the book Arrowdreams: An Anthology of Alternate Canadas, which garnered our nation’s top literary sci-fi honour, an Aurora Award. He later had his prose published in Claude Lalumiere’s Island Dreams: Montreal Writers of the Fantastic and in On Spec magazine.

But one of his most challenging projects since the serialized Angloman is his latest, The Haunting of McGrath, a web-based murder mystery that you can read, for free, in weekly Friday installments. Based on an unpublished short story by Shainblum, the continuing tale features art by PEI’s Jeff Alward. “Web comics are huge today,” Shainblum told me. “And while I’m pretty sure people won’t pay for content, creators get a lot out of publishing them on the Web at no charge. It helps create a body of work for you, gets you read and therefore gets you known. Also, there are no expenses (other than the minimal annual cost of having the site hosted), whereas print publishing is quite expensive.”

Shainblum has always been an excellent writer and the first four pages of his Web tale left me with the impression that he’s better than ever. We will have found out by yesterday whether he’s got to bring Angloman out of mothballs, or whether the use of apostrophes is a deadly offense under a new regime.

For the bard’s free, quality comicbook series on line, go to www.webcomics.ca. Briefly Body

Well, actually, I can’t take credit for the material, just the extremely clever title. Every now and then, I’ll be bringing you incredibly buff trainer Lorenzo Abbatiello’s take on fitness, starting today. Lorenzo works at CSL’s PUMP Fitness and if you follow just a portion of what he recommends, you may even live a wee bit longer.

Today, Lorenzo looks at starting your journey into better shape, now that winter is finally ebbing. Set realistic long- and short-term goals for yourself and adopt a lifestyle change, not just a quick fix. Place a mental image of how you’d like to look into your head and keep it there, while signing a

personal contract with yourself, witnessed by a friend.

If you choose a gym, make it a well-ventilated, clean, hygienic facility (like PUMP) that’s close to home, which reduces the excuses. Make fitness an inextricable part of your life, like eating (which is a big part of the problem for many of us, isn’t it?) and sleeping. And finally, consult a qualified fitness professional. Ladies, I promise you’ll take one look at the handsome Lorenzo and sign up at once, while the guys will do so just to acquire one quarter of his muscle mass.

Lorenzo promised me he can conjure up a program that will yield impressive results for an investment of 20 minutes of cardio and 20 minutes of strength training, just three time a week. Now that you’ve thrown down the gauntlet, buddy, I think I’ll accept your little challenge.

PUMP is at 5555 Westminster Ave.

Tel: 514-487-3003. • Bram Eisenthal’s e-mail address is Bramsbriefs@yahoo.ca.