by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

Gotta love a win-win situation. The new Montreal publishing imprint X-Press has managed to concoct one - a comic book that benefits not only hospitalized kids but also, in the long run, the comic's own creator.

The first X-Press title is Dr. Robot by Montreal's Bernie Mireault, best known for his work on Matt Wagner's Grendel and with Mike Allred on the Madman series, and of course his slice-of-life, everyday-superhero series The Jam.

"Until the last decade," says Mireault, "I was ignorant of Japanese manga and anime. Dr. Robot is a reflection of how much I love that stuff now that it's taken a hold of me. Dr. Robot is my version of all the basic conventions of the Japanese stuff that I like - I'm just trying to do it my way.

"It's also very different from anything I've done in the past in that it's meant to be child-friendly. I'm not directing it to other people my age who have my interests. I'm thinking specifically of young people who have my interests." His Dr. Robot material has already seen print twice - as a backup in Madman and a limited-run one-shot collection - but has been out of reach for five years now.

Meanwhile, across town (as they say in comic books), Tony Medeiros of the Cantor bakery and deli chain has been diligently raising funds for kids in need for some time. "I started some projects with Famous Players," says Medeiros, "charity events where I gave 'em cookies and we raised close to $10,000. So I proposed to them that we give something to the Montreal Children's Hospital. Maybe a comic or a book - we could raise money through that.

"It's a way to promote literature through cinema," he adds, noting that comics today are largely adult-oriented and that without a young, new readership being invited in, the medium could dwindle away.

As a comic collector since 1972 and, in Mireault's words, "a businessman with a large emotional component," Medeiros was the perfect guy to make a link between comics and charity. When he passed along some cakes from Cantor to the publisher Drawn & Quarterly for their launch of the late Harry Mayerovitch's book Way to Go, he mentioned to D&Q's Chris Oliveros that he was seeking kid-oriented comics from Montreal.

Oliveros steered him to Mireault, and now Dr. Robot is in motion again. The comic will sell at the concession stands of the Famous Players cinemas in Laval, Kirkland and downtown, from Oct. 1 to Nov. 4, in conjunction with Shark Tales and The Incredibles. "The price is $2," says Medeiros, "but if you want to give more, that's fine. There's also a draw for a robot called Robosapien. It's going to be the toy of the year, $169 at Toys R Us. If you buy the comic, you have a chance of winning one."

That's just the beginning for Medeiros. He's mulling over all manner of future X-Press projects - cardstock storybooks, fantasy novels for young readers, even a comics workshop for local schools - as well as a children's charity film fest. Good news not just for the kids and the charities, but for artists like Mireault - "X-Press Comics," he notes, "could become a local focal point for cartoonists."