Writer Mark Shainblum, a lifelong native of Montreal, leads a secret double life as both mainstream journalist and comic book writer. In the mid-eighties, Shainblum founded Matrix Graphics, an independent Canadian comic book publisher. He was also the co-creator of Northguard, a post-modern superhero series acclaimed by the Canadian Museum of Caricature as "...the most sophisticated depiction ever of a Canadian national superhero." A former literary columnist for Hour, the Montreal arts and culture weekly, Shainblum currently freelances for such publications as the Montreal Gazette and Quill & Quire, as well as New York's Broadway Comics.