Dakwäkãda Warriors
Cole Pauls, Conundrum Press
Cole Pauls is on a roll. Hot off a busy year of workshops and featured spots at book, zine, and comic shows alike, Pauls and Dakwäkãda Warriors II won the 2017 Broken Pencil Zine Awards’ highest honour. Now, the Vancouver-based cartoonist’s decolonial space adventure is finally available in his first full-fledged book release from Conundrum Press. Together, the graphic trilogy reads like a full-blown epic unlike any other. Pauls spins a tale of Indigenous resistance that serves as both an introduction to colonialism and a rock socking sci-fi western, all rendered in a style that boldly blends the best of contemporary punk comics with traditional motifs. Pauls famously worked with two language preservers from his hometown of (Dakwäkäda) Haines Junction, Yukon, to make the book bilingual, partially written in the ancestral tongue of Southern Tutchone. This collected edition comes complete with a revised glossary, a behind the scenes look at Pauls’ process and guest illustrations from a host of Indigenous cartoonists and artists. Miss this book, and you’re missing history.