2017 Zine Award Winner for Best Overall Zine & Best Comic/Art Zine

This second edition of Cole Pauls’ beloved comic follows Ts’ür’i and Aghay, two Indigenous space cadets who set out to defend the Earth from a cyborg sasquatch and an evil pioneer. Pauls teamed up with two language preservers who helped him partially translate the dialogue into Southern Tutchone, and create a reference glossary for readers.

“Dakwäkãda Warriors is something I did because I’ve always wanted to read something like that growing up in the Yukon,” explains Pauls, who is also known for his recurring comic strip Pizza Punks.

Pauls combines traditional design choices with adventure and science fiction. His unique and recognizable style makes the zine stand out plenty, but it’s the cultural and political mission that our judges and the zine community at large responded to.

“I think my book being a digestible story about colonialism, keeping culture alive and incorporating the Southern Tutchone language gives a lot of cultural importance to my comic,” says Pauls. “I’ve always wanted to create a comic incorporating formline and my culture. Dakwäkãda Warriors helped me explore that.”

Pauls has several comics on the go, including a possible full-length book expanding on Pizza Punks. Look out for the third and final edition of Dakwäkãda Warriors in 2018, launching at TCAF and VanCAF this May.