The scope, innovation and depth (down to the heart) of bpNichol's writing makes him one of the most important writers in English of the 20th century. He is widely known for his research into genres as diverse as the lyric, the long poem, sound poetry, concrete poetry, critical theory and now, with the publication of "bpNichol Comics," we can even add the comic strip to this impressive list.
Carl Peters has put together this major collection of Nichol's comics from 1960 to 1980, which frame characters ranging from Milt the Morph, to Bob de Cat, Lonely Fred and Rover Rawshanks: rich examples of Nichol's attempts to explode conventional syntax, narrative structure, lyric self-centredness--indeed all of the conventions of modernist art and art making. And with the inclusion of a remarkable selection of previously unpublished letters and essays around the comics themselves, Peters shows us that Nichol's comics informed not only his own work in other genres, but the work of other writers as well. But, in as much as Nichol's comics bring us to a deeper understanding of his poetics, his comics also remind us that, as Robin Blaser writes, "the truth is laughter." "bpNichol Comics" is not only for scholars, poets, cartoonists, artists, animators, writers and readers; it is for the inquisitive and adventurous child in all of us.

'All of Nichol's work is stamped by his desire to create texts that are engaging in themselves as well as in context, and to use indirect structural and textual devices to carry meaning. In "The Martyrology" different ways of speaking testify to a journey through different ways of being. Language is both the poet's instructor and, through its various permutations, the dominant 'image' of the poem. The [nine] books of "The Martyrology" document a poet's quest for insight into himself and his writing through scrupulous attention to the messages hidden in the morphology of his own speech.' - Frank Davey

Poetry. Art. Originally published in 1970 as a mimeo production by bill bissett's seminal blewointment press (the same year that Michael Ondaatje issued his documentary on Nichol titled The Sons of Captain Poetry), smatterings of THE CAPTAIN POETRY POEMS COMPLETE have appeared over the years but never in their entirety. Now, in "official book form" for the first time, along with corrections to the texts and the material that wasn't included in the original edition, and "some words on all these words" by Nichol himself THE CAPTAIN POETRY POEMS COMPLETE is available at last to scholars, poets, and other human beings alike. With an afterword by bill bissett.