Following the success of the first graphic novel in his Wheetago War series, Richard Van Camp is ready to develop the second book in the planned trilogy.
Described as the “Indigenous Walking Dead,” the series is set in Alberta and the NWT and features feared monsters from Dene legend.
“This is an incredible story and it really showcases the beauty of being Dene from Denendeh. It really showcases the beauty of being deadly,” Van Camp said.
The renowned Tłı̨chǫ author and his team have launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds toward creating the new novel, which Van Camp has given the working title Angels with Antlers.
People who pledge money to the project are eligible for a variety of rewards from a signed, limited edition, deluxe hard copy of the first book in the series – Wheetago War: Roth – to the chance to be depicted as a cameo character in the second novel.
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Van Camp said anyone who invests will also get updates on how the series is coming along.
“I want people to have early access to see the character sketches,” he said.
Monsters and medicine
According to Tłı̨chǫ stories, a wheetago is a malevolent being that devours humans and becomes hungrier the more it eats.
In Van Camp’s novel, the monsters have returned after they were dug up by industry in the Alberta oil sands.
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The first book follows a character, known as the child-finder, as he tries to reach his family in Edmonton and fights to retain his humanity after being bitten by a wheetago. Van Camp said as the man is holding rat root, a powerful Dene medicine, he only half turns into a wheetago.
“The beauty of Wheetago War the series is that it really is Indigenous people who are leading the charge against the wheetago, and I’m really proud of it,” he said.
Beyond Indigenous legend, Van Camp said the series was inspired by The Walking Dead, a post-apocalyptic zombie comic book series and TV show, and what that would look like in the NWT.
Artwork from Wheetago War: Roth by Christopher Shy.
“All my books, really, they all start the same way. It’s always two little words: what if?” he said.
“So this one is, what if Indigenous people – with everything we know about the wheetago – what if we used our traditional knowledge and our medicines and what we know in terms of warfare, spiritual warfare, to take them on and reclaim Mother Earth for the world?
“Once again, it’s up to the Indigenous people to save the planet.”
Van Camp said the third book in the trilogy will take place in the future and be titled Future War.
“It’s brutal, it’s incredible, it’s epic,” he described. “It’s gonna make Lord of the Rings look like a slow walk to Granny’s house.”
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Familiar faces
Van Camp said one thing that makes his graphic novel special is Indigenous people from the NWT were used as reference models in illustrations by artist Christopher Shy.
Among the pages of Wheetago War: Roth, northerners may recognize Dwight Moses, Joel Evans and David Burke from Fort Smith, who starred in the film Three Feathers, based on the book of the same name by Van Camp. Actress, artist and traditional moose hide tanner Melaw Nakehk’o and her son Oz are also depicted.
“I love using northern talent, whether as models or actors,” Van Camp said.
“I love seeing the North on the big screen, whether it’s in a movie, whether it’s in a TV series, or whether it’s in a graphic novel. I love seeing the faces of home in all that I do.”
Artwork in Wheetago War: Roth by Christopher Shy, inspired by Melaw Nakehk’o and her son Oz.
Van Camp, who has been collecting comic books since he was a seven-year-old living in Fort Smith, said working on the Wheetago War series has been a dream come true. That’s in part because he has been able to with artist Shy, who he described as one of his “biggest heroes.”
“I kind-of feel like when we were working on book one I was cheating with life, because it’d be Tuesday morning and I’d get up to write and there’d be three new panels in my Dropbox and I’d be like, this is Christmas in April,” he said.
“Like, how lucky I am to be looking at this artwork that Christopher Shy has done, using people I grew up with from Fort Smith as models – people I’ve known my entire life – as heroes in this book.”
He quoted the words of a poster he remembers in the guidance counsellor’s office at Fort Smith’s Paul William Kaeser High School: “They haven’t built an axe that can chop down a dream.”
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