Jay Odjick facts for kids

Jay Odjick is a talented writer, artist, and TV producer from the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg community in Québec, Canada. He is famous for creating Kagagi (the raven), a superhero who is part of a growing group of Indigenous heroes made by Indigenous creators. In 2015, Kagagi moved from comic books to TV as an animated series shown on APTN.

Early Life and Dreams

Jay Odjick was born in Rochester, New York. When he was a child, he moved to the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg community, which is where his father grew up. Jay loved heroes and comic books from a young age. He started writing stories when he was just 5 years old! By the time he was ten, he even sent his work to a big comic book company, Marvel Comics, and got his first rejection letter.

Creating Heroes and Stories

Jay started his career in comics by publishing his own black and white comic series called The Raven in 2004. He wrote and drew all three issues himself.

Later, in 2011, he created the graphic novel Kagagi: The Raven, published by Arcana Studio. The hero, Kagagi, is inspired by the "Raven" character from the Anishinabe stories. In the comic, a young man named Matthew Carver gets special powers. He uses these powers to fight an ancient evil called Windigo.

Kagagi on TV

The graphic novel became a TV show called Kagagi, which started airing on Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) in Canada in 2014. It later came to FNX in the United States. This animated series is produced by Jay Odjick and Sean Patrick O'Reilly.

Experts like Michael Sheyashe say that Kagagi is important because it shows how Native American writers and artists are creating new heroes. These heroes are not based on old, outdated stereotypes. Jay uses Kagagi to entertain people, but also to teach about Anishinaabe culture and language.

Honors and Collaborations

Jay's artwork and the Kagagi graphic novel are a big part of the Mazinbiige, The Indigenous Graphic Novel Collection, at the Elizabeth Dafoe library at the University of Manitoba.

In 2014, Jay was a special guest at Can-Con, a conference about Canadian fantasy and science fiction. His story "First Hunt" from the book MOONSHOT was named one of the best young adult books of 2015. This story is now taught in courses at Queen's University and the University of Ottawa.

In 2015, Jay's work was shown in an exhibit called "Super Heroes: Art! Action! Adventure!" at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona.

Jay also worked with famous children's author Robert Munsch. In 2017, Jay illustrated Munsch's book Blackflies. This book is about a girl named Helen who has to save her little sister from blackflies. They worked together again in 2019 on the book Bear for Breakfast. In this story, a boy named Donovan wants to catch a bear for breakfast, just like his grandfather used to. Jay also helped translate parts of the story into English-Algonquin and French-Algonquin.

Television Work

Jay Odjick is the main writer, executive producer, and lead designer for the Kagagi TV series. He also worked as a designer and provided illustrations for another APTN series called Mouki.

Jay and his production company made three audio versions of Kagagi: one in English, one entirely in Algonquin, and a third version that was mostly English but with 20 percent of the dialogue in Algonquin.

Jay's main goal was to help First Nations children learn the Algonquin language, because it is slowly disappearing. But it's not just kids who watch the show. Older people watch it too. Jay shared a touching story about an elderly man who told him he watches the show every week because "it’s the only chance I get to hear my language." This made Jay realize how important his work is.

Using Art for Change

Jay Odjick is recognized for using graphic novels and television as modern ways to help keep the Anishinaabe language alive. His work shows how powerful stories and art can be in preserving culture and language for future generations.