HighWater Press Archives | Otaku No Culture

Nerds, Assemble! The Unbeatable Sonya Ballantyne More Than Just Another Energetic Coming-of-Age Story

If you love comics, pop culture, and stories with real punk spirit, The Unbeatable Sonya Ballantyne features a bit of everything to get your heavy metal spirit on!

Highwater Press
Spoiler Alert

Sonya Ballantyne is just like many other nerds, and just because she’s from a First Nation should not make a difference at all. When she helped pen and direct The Death Tour, a movie I reviewed two years ago, I knew there’d be some work of hers I’d eventually follow up on, and to read The Unbeatable Sonya Ballantyne is an eye-opening revelation about what she loved when growing up. Not only does she love her Star Wars, but she’s a DC Comics enthusiast too!

And she must watch wrestling, hence that movie! To call her unbeatable is an understatement, and reading her life story in this self-titled graphic novel really highlights where she came from, what obstacles she had to face while growing up, and how she managed to carve a niche that’s truly punk. It’s less about fighting against the establishment and more about knowing where the curve balls come from. Whether that’s dealing with bullies at school who can’t see past her skin colour or navigating grandma’s overprotectiveness, what’s reflected upon here doesn’t dwell on the negativity.

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Wanda John-Kehewin’s Powerful Visions From The Fire Looks Toward Healing

In Visions From The Fire, Damon Quinn’s search for identity deepens through dreams, spirits, and painful truths. Wanda John-Kehewin and Nicole Marie Burton shape a thoughtful second chapter that blends coming-of-age drama with Indigenous spirituality and quiet emotional power.

Visions From The Fire Graphic Novel Cover_544x838 — Volume Two is available on Amazon USA

HighWater Press

Wanda John-Kehewin and Nicole Marie Burton’s graphic novel The Dream series is beginning to take shape. With the release of the second volume, Visions From The Fire, the next stage of Damon Quinn’s journey is becoming clear. What’s presented here is more than a traditional coming-of-age story. To appreciate where it is heading, though, it helps to begin with the first book, Visions of the Crow.

Here, Damon feels like a ne’er-do-well, struggling simply to survive as high school graduation draws near. It is easy to sympathize with him. At school, he is bullied because of his mixed heritage. As a Cree-Métis teen, he is left wrestling with questions of identity and belonging. He does not know who his father is, and he desperately wants answers. At home, his relationship with his mother is strained by her alcoholism, often leaving him to spend as little time there as possible.

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7 Generations A Plains Cree Saga’s 15th Anniversary Release. On Why This Story Still Resonantes.

This may be the season to be jolly, but for others it can also be a time for reflection. 7 Generations A Plains Cree Saga invites that quieter pause, asking us to look back in order to understand what we carry forward. While it isn’t a holiday tale like Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, it shares a similar impulse, using reflection as a means of understanding responsibility, memory, and the path ahead.

David A. Robertson and Scott B. Henderson’s 7 Generations A Plains Cree Saga marks its 15th anniversary this year, and the newly released collected edition offers a powerful reminder of just how emotionally devastating, and quietly resonant, this story remains. It’s been recoloured and relettered, which makes its message all the more powerful. At its centre is Edwin, a young man who cannot find a reason to live. When his mother discovers him at death’s door during an unplanned visit, even a desperate rush to the hospital seems insufficient. The book opens not with hope, but with exhaustion.

It’s a moment many people encounter at some point, particularly during the holidays, when expectations, memory, and pressure collide. In that sense, Edwin’s despair feels painfully recognisable. I couldn’t help but feel for him, namesake coincidence aside. What changes everything, though, is the way life reasserts itself, not as a lecture or a solution, but through story.

Continue reading “7 Generations A Plains Cree Saga’s 15th Anniversary Release. On Why This Story Still Resonantes.”

Highwater Press. From Little by Little to The Rez Doctor, This Publisher is Paving A Bright Future for Everyone!

Sometimes, reading influential books and graphic novels is enough to show how young readers can change their lives for the better, and Highwater Press is leading the way!

Highwater Press continues to impress readers with heroes who can make a difference in everyday life. Whether this concerns a young child in Little By Little to another who desires to dream big in The Rez Doctor, just what makes these stories special is that these role models come from indigenous roots.

I’m glad this publisher has given me the opportunity to read most of their late summer and autumn catalogue of works. They opened my eyes to what anyone can be capable of. While the focus is on what these writers with First Nations upbringing can imagine up, I really enjoyed their takes on life, how to change for the better, and be more humane to one another.

For example, the Reckoner Rises (review) series shows teens coming together and learning how to use their mutant (superhero) abilities to take on the establishment. Not every graphic novel released are as simple as that. They just tackle social issues everyone should be aware of. After the discovery of a mass grave in Kamloops, the theme of how to heal and do better for a rewarding future will always be a theme. That aspect is central to what the Surviving the City series (review) is about.

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When The Reckoner Rises, Just Who Are the Watchman?

God Flare is the latest volume in the Reckoner Rises series from best-selling author David A. Robertson.

Highwater Press

The Reckoner Rises is a graphic novel series that’s sure to turn heads. I would not advise jumping in with the latest volume, titled God Flare. I was curious because of the fantastic attention grabbing cover by Scott B. Henderson, but in order to understand what’s going on, I had to chase down the first two graphic novels. I got the feeling this work took inspiration from Alan Moore’s The Watchman, and overall, I’m not wrong!

When readers are first introduced to Cole, we find him on the verge of a breakdown and he doesn’t understand why he’s The Chosen One. He has the mutant ability which allows him to communicate with the dead, and for Eva, who has the powers of flight, they could easily become the next Alpha Flight! But when they’re living on a reserve, it seems they don’t have a lot of inspiration to go to the next level and do stuff for the good of their community. In the harsh winter world of what I assume is Northern Winnipeg, I’m sure the life there is no different from what I’ve learned in other works, like The Death Tour (documentary review link), which examines what life is like in these sleepy indigenous communities.

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Surviving The City Can Be Rough. In Volume 3: We Are the Medicine What’s Examined is Based on Real Life.

In this graphic novel series, Surviving the City, isn’t just about how one culture is dealing with colonialism, but rather with how many other lives can get affected at the same time.

HighWater Press
Spoiler Alert

Some knowledge of what the graphic novel series, Surviving the City, wants to educate is required to acknowledge what the latest instalment Volume 3: We Are Medicine, hopes to heal. Ever since the news about finding a mass grave of children near a former residential school in Kamloops broke out in 2021, there were a lot of protests and finger pointing. The world blamed people in prominent positions of power of the atrocity. Even now, the after-effects are still ongoing. Some reconciliation has happened since, but what’s presented here as fiction is coming true in the real world after reading “Chief says grave search at B.C. residential school brings things ‘full circle’” from the Kelowna Capital News.

This story by Tasha Spillett (pictured above left) makes up the backdrop where Miikwan and Dez are thinking about their futures. This author/educator/public speaker strives for a world where multiculturalism is embraced and everyone is treated with compassion. It’s basically what Gene Roddenberry envisioned for Star Trek, and everything Sisko would fight for when he travelled back in time and became part of the protests for equal rights in “Past Tense, Parts One and Two (Deep Space 9).”

In this story, these youths want to make the world a better place. They will soon graduate, and instead of figuring out what to wear for their last prom, these two indigenous teens change their plans and want to help after this news broke out. These are wonderful kids. Even Dez, the protagonist from the first two books, gets involved! After her own dealings with “The System,” how she deals with authoritarianism is important too. Continue reading “Surviving The City Can Be Rough. In Volume 3: We Are the Medicine What’s Examined is Based on Real Life.”