Canada declared war on Germany on September 10, 1939, entering
World War II. In December 1940, with Canada's
trade deficit with the still-neutral United States growing, the government passed the War Exchange Conservation Act, which restricted the importing of non-essential goods—including comic books—from the United States. Four Canadian publishers, Maple Leaf, Anglo-American Publishing, Hillborough Studios, and Commercial Signs of Canada (later renamed Bell Features), independently emerged to take advantage of the legislation. Maple Leaf focused on home-grown, 100% original material. Maple Leaf's first publication,
Better Comics #1, is thus considered to be the first true
Canadian comic book. It is also credited with the first Canadian superhero,
Iron Man, debuting in March 1941 in the first issue of
Better Comics, preceding
Stan Lee and
Jack Kirby's
unrelated superhero of the same name by over two decades. Maple Leaf's comics were modeled on the American regular comic format, minus the colour interiors. Other notable titles Maple Leaf published include
Big Bang Comics,
Lucky Comics and
Rocket Comics. However, with the end of World War II in 1945, American comics were once again dominant in Canada; Maple Leaf, Anglo-American and Bell tried to compete post-war, but failed. == Titles published ==