FLOYD Original Release Date: Nov 2, 1993.

FLOYD is the title for a Canadian comic book series by Kevin J. Johnston. The series ran from 1993 to 1995, and was published by HoocLyne (Hook Line) Entertainment.

The covers of FLOYD issues 1, 2 and 3

The comic series takes place in the year 2023 and is set in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Fraiser "FLOYD" Galderhoff is the main character, a selfish unemployed 27 year-old bent on stealing electronics for a living. His best friend Sam is a martial arts expert, and dynamite with firearms as he escaped the collapsed and warring society of Western Europe (A sub-plot discussed in an epilogue of issue 4). The two friends live in a run down apartment in the Queen and Spadina area of downtown Toronto, and waste away their days watching TV and planning their next heist.

FLOYD's cousin Mikey is the local hacker, dying to hook up with any girl, at any time in his future (which he never does). He helps FLOYD and Sam find holes in security systems at local warehouses and stores via his bedroom computer, always envious of the two main "heroes" and the fact that they get all the adventures and all the chicks.

Spoiler Warning Issue 1: FLOYD and Sam are eager to break into the Dach Efreme Tower, a new office tower downtown Toronto that is under construction, and when finished will take over the title of world's tallest building. Mikey finds them a route inside through sewers, and when FLOYD and Sam make their way through the sewer they come across an old munitions storage facility with vintage World War II weapons and a tank. Grabbing a pair of Pistols each, they arrive in the lobby, which is loaded with construction equipment. The pair make their way up the Dach Efreme Tower and stumble across a room full of NAZI weapons and war vehicles. In the distance they hear voices so they investigate. The conversation apears to be between two leaders of two different armies, and when the plot is about to be revealed, FLOYD sneezes giving that two of them away. They are chased and caught by Bob, the massive cannibal bodyguard of Globe, the self loving and well groomed villain of the story.

Preliminary Sketch of FLOYD and Thippy

FLOYD is then tortured by a masked man wearing a traditional NAZI officer’s uniform. His face is cut and badly burned with a blowtorch. Welding goggles are then screwed and fused to his head covering his eyes. FLOYD and Sam escape their captors and proceed immediately to the hospital to have FLOYD’s face looked at. The doctors stop the bleeding but inform him that he will need plastic surgery to correct the damage done to his face, which of course is grossly overpriced and completely outside of FLOYD’s financial grasp.

The streets of Toronto are very rapidly being taken over by neo NAZI gangs dressed in a frantic NAZI gear. The local police departments are all powerless to stop this onslaught as it is happening at a very rapid rate. FLOYD and Sam attempt to talk to the Toronto chief of police were simply dismisses them as a pair of drug addicts. The army is brought in to stop the assault on the city but are no match for the gangs.

Being the selfish individual that FLOYD is, he chooses to rescue the city of Toronto from the neo NAZI regime that is tearing it apart, only to find the man who destroyed his face and exact his revenge.

We learn towards the end of the story that Globe is from the future and is bringing true Nazis from 1943 to the year 2023 in order to help the third Reich continue its quest for a 1000 year rule of the earth. Globe’s only wish when the Nazis take over modern Canada, is to rule as second in command to Adolf Hitler whom the worships. Naturally are heroes thwart the villainous plan to destroy Toronto, Canada and the rest of the world by crushing the villain in a cardboard compactor in the back room of a grocery store. FLOYD, Sam and Mikey find Globe’s time machine and wire it so that they can use it whenever they wish.

Issues two and three were released shortly after the new York, comic convention in 1994. Although FLOYD was a Canadian comic book containing Canadian humor the book sold far better in the United States than it did in Canada. Sales in the United States were more than fifteen times what they were in Canada which was incredibly disappointing to creator Kevin Johnston.


FLOYD in the red shirt with Thippy on his shoulder, Sam on the right, and Mikey in the front

Fraser "FLOYD" Galderhoff Age: 27. Very good looking and smooth talking. FLOYD has a severe attitude problem. His focus is chicks and cash. He works out heavily and is a master at picking locks. FLOYD is constantly combing his hair and loves himself more that any man could.

Sam Age: 25 Sam escaped the turmoil of the Spanish-Euro war after being trained in the Spanish military. He is master of firearms, explosives and martial arts. Sam is ugly as sin, but when FLOYD is finished telling stories of how he pulled FLOYD from a burning car, the ladies are all over him. Sam's only concern in his life time is protecting FLOYD.

Mikey Galderhoff Age: 18 Computer genius, hacker, dork. Can't score babes, but can score anything you need from his PC.

Auntie Myla Age: 42 Mikey's mom, FLOYD's aunt. A dumb but incredibly sweet lady with nothing but peace and love in her heart.

Thippy Age: ? First appears in issue 2, an alien captive of the RCMP. He is serpent-like and has a complete understanding of the world around him. Speaks in simple syllables, like "roo", "woom", "dooo". Nobody understands him, but he understands everyone around him. Thippy is 4' long and has a tongue that can break almost any substance on the planet which extends up to 18 feet.

Sergent Richard Baseline Age: ? Hardcore RCMP agent that is (reluctantly) assisting in the RCMP cover-up in issues one and two. His loyalties shift to a state of neutrality after he is abandoned by the Prime Minister, but saved by FLOYD. Baseline becomes a friend to FLOYD in issue four.

Globe Age: ? Hailing from the future, Globe's body died when he was at the age of 45, but he transferred his consciousness into a hovering sphere. He appears as a very clean cut and handsome man, but it is only a holographic projection from the globe his mind resides in. He is utterly ruthless.

Bob Age: 35 Villain in issue one. Bob is the big cannibalistic enforcer and bodyguard to Globe. He is 8' tall, and weighs in at over 350 pounds of muscle. His favorite pastime is making sausage from human intestines.

Billiard Age: 62 Billiard is a thin old man with so much contempt for man kind that he chosen never to converse with anyone again. The only time he speaks is when he is calling his shots with his spinner, a device that launches steel balls by spinning them ultra fast. He likes to bounce his shot off of multiple surfaces before hitting his target.

Issue 1 was released on November 2, 1993 and was plagued with production problems. The first artist after completing all but the last page of the book, quit the comic and shredded all of the artwork. The only reason that was given was that his new girlfriend didn't like it. In an interview that appeared in Fast Forward magazine shortly after the book's release, creator Kevin J. Johnston was quoted "Mark is a fool. We were friends for 3 years before we agreed to work on this book together, and now that he has been de-virginized he is going to do whatever his ***ch tells him to. I hope she's worth it". Johnston in a later interview on CHCH, Channel 11 in Hamilton indicated that he regretted what he said "I was 23 when that interview took place, and had not yet learned diplomacy. My battle with Mark has been reconciled. We're friends again, but we'll never work together again, and we are both cool with that.” CFNY 102.1, a Toronto Radio Station sponsored the book by offering 280 radio ads for FLOYD that ran for the entire month of October, 1993, a contract that was almost lost as a result of all the artwork being destroyed. Johnston had less than 3 weeks to redo the entire book, and as a result ended up using a very untalented artist to have the book on the shelves for November 2, 1993. To ad insult to injury, the printing company (the now defunct West Star Printing in Toronto) that was handling the printing account for HoocLyne Entertainment held the finished books claiming that the original price of 40 cents per book was only a guideline for book printing, and that the actual cost after “service charges” brought the cost of the books to $1.75 each.

There was nothing that could be done to fight this outlandish claim by the printing company as Johnston’s copy of the contract was in his briefcase that was accidentally left in West Star Printing’s main office. The contract was not in the briefcase when it was returned to Johnston, and the series almost ended right there.

Ted Kritsonis, freelance writer for the Toronto Star, interviewed Johnston in January of 2007. Johnston had this to say: “I am going to rework the books, and do it the way I wanted to from day one. I was bound by the rules and regulations of the radio stations that sponsored the comic, so weed smoking, substance abuse, mental illness and truly violent crime were issues that I simply could not tackle, not properly. The new FLOYD will be set in the present as all of the technology that I was trying to portray as future-tech in the original series is all a reality today, and 15 years earlier than I predicted it. FLOYD will be an incarnation of what we all want to be. Someone that lives by his own rules, and severely punishes anyone whom bothers him. The intelligent readers out there will understand what I am trying to say with this book.

North American culture is what I call an anti-culture. We have no ceremonies worth attending, or that we can afford to attend. Life has become cheap and sedentary. The main character will speak to that through his actions, and of course he will usually loose in his attempts to thwart society.”

When FLOYD returns, it will be a web comic only, the domain name is yet to be announced.