Background and Education
Janet L. Hetherington was born in Toronto, Canada, and grew up in the small town of Wallaceburg, Ontario. She discovered science fiction and comic books at an early age, and was especially drawn to DC Comics characters –
Superman,
Supergirl,
Batman,
Wonder Woman,
Green Lantern,
Flash and the
Legion of Super-Heroes as well as all the DC romance and mystery titles.
Janet started writing and drawing comics as a teen-ager, and created a teen hum or comic strip called
Sweet Caroline for The Grapevine high school newspaper.
Janet says that she was inspired by
Lois Lane and upon graduating high school, att ended Carleton University in Ottawa (Canada’s capital) to study journalism. While at Car leton, Janet became involved in organizing Ottawa’s Maplecon science fiction and comic book conventions. She also began writing for
Fantagraphics’ comics-themed publication
Amazing Heroes. Janet was assigned the “Canadian beat,” and interviewed many Canadian creators, including artist
Ronn Sutton.
After graduating from Carleton, Janet stayed in Ottawa and took a job as copy editor with
Canadian Consumer magazine (the Canadian equivalent of
Consumer Reports). She was later promoted to associate editor. Janet left
Canadian Consumer to take a job with Canada Post, where she worked for 11 years in stamp marketing and promoted Canada’s postage stamps worldwide.
In 1994, Janet left Canada Post to become a freelance writer and editor. By that time, Ronn Sutton had moved to Ottawa from Toronto and the couple formed Hetherington/Sutton Studio. Janet and Ronn co-created the newspaper strip Jannie Weezie, which was briefly published by the
Ottawa Citizen. The strips were collected into two booklets: The Jannie Weezie Ashcan Sampler and Jannie Weezie vs. the Brain.
In 1995, Janet and Ronn worked on Canada’s super-hero stamp issue, which featured
Superman,
Captain Canuck,
Nelvana, Johnny Canuck and Fleur de Lis. Janet wrote and Ronn illustrated an associated Canada Post comic book, Perf and Gauge, in 1996.
At the height of the “bad girl” boom, Janet and Ronn collaborated on a number of projects for Millennium Comics, including co-creating the spider-vampire character Spinnerette.
In 1997, Janet self-published
Eternal Romance under her
Best Destiny imprint. That same year, Janet served as a judge for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards. Janet and Ronn were art guests of honor at the Con*Cept science fiction convention in Montreal.
Eternal Romance was featured in two books by author
Trina Robbins: From Girls to Grrlz: A History of Women's Comics from Teens to Zines; and The Great Women Cartoonists.
Janet continued writing and editing professionally and, in 1998, began a long association with the Canadian Toy Testing Council as Editor of its annual Toy Report.
In 1999, Janet won a Prix Aurora Award for excellence in Canadian science fiction and fantasy for her work as co-curator of “60 Years of Superman” at the Nepean Museum in Ottawa.
In 2000, Janet began scripting for
Elvira: Mistress of the Dark, published by
Claypool Comics. Ronn Sutton was a key artist penciling the book, and following a lunch meeting with editor
Richard Howell, Janet was able to successfully pitch some Elvira story ideas. Janet continued writing both back-up and lead stories for six years.
In 2002, following the sale of the WizardWorld.com website by Wizard Entertainment to a high-tech company with offices in Ottawa, Janet became managing editor of WizardWorld.com. When the high-tech bubble burst, the company went bankrupt and Janet returned to freelancing. (WizardWorld.com has since reverted back to Wizard Entertainment.)
In 2005, Janet took as job as an editor with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, where she currently works as a communications advisor in its Public Affairs Branch.
In 2007, during the 10-year anniversary of Eternal Romance, Janet joined forces with Arrow Publications LLC to bring color versions of the comics to the web at MyRomanceStory.com. Janet also wrote a romance comics novella for Arrow called “Dangerous Seductions.”
Janet entered a new comics creation, Monster Love, into
Platinum Studios’ 2008 Comic Book Challenge competition. Monster Love made the Top 50 and later placed third in the Starz Character Idol pitching competition held at the 2008 Ottawa International Animation Festival.
Janet won a Judges' Choice Blue Ribbon Award for her art piece, The Witch's
Witchblade at the 2009 World Science Fiction Convention in Montreal. Her poem "The Zombie Flu" was published in the poetry anthology, Vicious Verses and Reanimated Rhymes.
In 2010, Janet’s Eternal Romance series is being offered for download as Apple apps for iPhone and iPad via Arrow Publications LLC.
While Janet still loves writing and drawing comics, she has recently turned to crafting screenplays as well as comics.
Comics Journalism
Janet Hetherington has written for:
- Amazing Heroes
- Parsec
- Comics Buyer’s Guide
- Combo
- Wizard Magazine
- Animation Magazine
- WizardWorld.com
- Animation World Network
- VFXWorld.com
- The Pulse
- PopCultureAddict.com
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