Tag Archives: The Second World War

Politics

Government of Canada Invites Canucks to “Have our Say” On Canada’s 150th Celebrations

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Its the big Kahuna- the big 1-five-oh ....Canada
Its the big Kahuna- the big 1-five-oh ….Canada

 

 

 

 

 

TORONTO, December  2013 – The Honourable Shelly Glover, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages, recently launched pan-Canadian consultations to seek Canadians’ views on how they would like to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Confederation.

“Canada’s 150th celebrations will give us the opportunity to reflect on all the things that make Canada the united, prosperous and free country it is today,” said Minister Glover. “I invite all Canadians across our great country to tell us how they would like to celebrate in 2017.”

The Government of Canada will undertake extensive consultations, with meetings being planned throughout Canada.  The consultations kicked off today with a roundtable in Toronto, where Minister Glover met with community leaders to discuss their perspective on Canada’s approaching milestone anniversary. Additional roundtables in other communities will be announced at a later date.

 

At the same time, Canadians are invited to participate in the consultations through an online questionnaire at Canada.ca/150 or Canada150.gc.ca.

Over the next four years, on the Road to 2017, celebrations will mark key historic milestones that have defined our country.  In 2014, commemorations will include the centennial of the start of the First World War, the 75th anniversary of the start of the Second World War, the bicentennial of Sir George-Étienne Cartier’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the Charlottetown and Québec Conferences.  For the Silo, Eva Salter

 

Comics

WW2 Smartphone Graphic Novel Katusha

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KATUSHA VOLUME ONE: EDGE OF DARKNESS, the first of a three volume graphic novel series by historical graphic novelist Wayne Vansant, is now available exclusively in digital format from digital publishing imprint Grand Design Communications.

The painting Kateryna by the Ukrainian poet and painter Taras Shevchenko (1814-1861)influenced Katusha. Kateryna tells the story of a Ukrainian country girl who is seduced and abandoned by a Russian cavalry officer.

KATUSHA is a coming-of-age story set in the Eastern Front of World War II, following the life of a Ukrainian farm girl Ekaterina Tymoshenko, nicknamed Katusha, starting with the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany in 1941. The three-volume graphic novel, which when finished will total 540 pages, follows her journey from farm girl to partisan fighter to tank commander in the Red Army, along the way participating in the Battles of Stalingrad and Berlin, among others.

During the second world war, hundreds of thousands of Soviet women served in the Red Army as pilots, snipers, tank drivers and other essential roles. Although KATUSHA is a work of fiction, Vansant based his story on interviews he conducted with living veterans in Ukraine and extensive research. He will return for another trip this fall, to conduct more interviews and do research on locations.

Lviv, Ukraine, 26 October 2010 – Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is joined by Ukrainian officials as he pays tribute to Ukrainian poet, artist, and humanist Taras Shevchenko.

KATUSHA VOLUME ONE: EDGE OF DARKNESS, the first of three volumes, is out now exclusively in digital format for iPhone, iPad, Android, and in-browser reading. It is available in two formats – as six separate chapters priced at $.99usd each and as a single one hundred eighty page edition priced at $4.99usd, and can be purchased through iVerse’s ComicsPlus app and from Grand Design’s electronic storefront on iVerse’s website.

A native of Marbleton, Georgia, writer/artist Wayne Vansant has created many historical graphic novels – both fiction and non-fiction – in a career spanning more than twenty five years. His non-fiction graphic novel about the Allied invasion of Europe in World War II, NORMANDY, were be published in September by Zenith Press.

His recent collaboration with writer Dwight Jon Zimmerman, THE HAMMER AND THE ANVIL (2012), a graphic novel about Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and the end of slavery in America was published by Hill and Wang, and Vansant was the primary artist for Marvel’s The ‘Nam for more than five years.

His other non-fiction graphic novels on military history include DAYS OF DARKNESS, ANTIETAM: THE FIERY TRIAL (with the United States National Park Service), BLOCKADE: THE CIVIL WAR AT SEA, and THE VIETNAM WAR: A GRAPHIC HISTORY.