Continue reading ...

Walter Ball was born to a farming family near Cookstown, Ontario in 1911 and grew up with designs of becoming a Electrical Engineer upon reaching adulthood, but fate chose a different path entirely for him. Newspapers & magazines were the most accessible media in the day and Walter's dreams were swept up in ads for mail-order drawing lessons. Often, the first lesson was sent free, costing just a postage stamp on the letter of request for the less...
Continue reading ...

With the world economy tumbling around us, we couldn't blame one for being mindful of a time when our ancestors faced these challenges in the 1930s, the deepest days of the Canadian depression.

There seems not much specific about where the present crisis may take us, nor has it reached a point where anyone has given it a name, but the warning signs of depression are clear. We hear about it in the news internationally. However, the rubber test is when things are affected locally. More real esta...
Continue reading ...

Continue reading ...

Fifteen year-old Toronto youth Leo Bachle had just been dismissed from the Canadian army for lying about his age and through a chum, had taken a job delivering lenses. During one delivery at the Percy Hermont building, Bachle came across a stack of comic books in front of an office for Bell Features. He began to thumb through several, when a middle-aged man stormed out of the office and confronted him. A heated exchange ensued, which led to the gent challenging Bachle to do a rehearsal...

Continue reading ...

     In my brief, but enriching cartooning career, I got to view some great cartoons and meet many talented people. Of these, I got to know one or two very well, through sharing the road of discovery of the craft. One such person, is someone I have great admiration and respect for: Paul Curtis, creator and artist of a comic strip I hope to have permission to share and talk more about, one day.
     I met Paul during my two years at Sheridan College's Cartooning and Graphic Story Arts course, i...
Continue reading ...

    Yard sales are a great place for cheap history lessons. Recently, I browsed at a community yard sale in my local area and came across a book by a Canadian cartoonist who was hitherto unknown by me.
    The book was a 1959 reprint of "Herbie!", by William Garnet "Bing" Coughlin, published by Nelson and Sons from 1946. The material in the comics seems best suited for those with military background and inclination, so most of the humor went over my head. I was a bit surprised at the ra...
Continue reading ...

     Jimmy Frise was a living, breathing phenomenon. Once as close as it was possible to be a living legend in the world of Canadian publishing. A genuine character. A twinkling star that shone so bright, one could even catch a glimmer of his light, in a sullen, self-absorbed pubescent daze.
     It was probably the winter of 1971. A 13 year-old kid from the farm rides shotgun into town with his mom to get away from his perceived dreary rural existence. She shops for groceries and clothing, wh...
Continue reading ...

    Canadians have watched their game flogged and marketed like soap, ever since the game was introduced to Americans. The game just never reached the level of football, baseball and basketball, despite the sports greatest efforts.
    One of the techniques explored has been comics and cartooning, with varying and variable degrees of success. Animation icon Walt Disney, (whose father actually lived in Goderich, Ontario briefly), produced a couple of the earliest hockey cartoons: "The Hockey Ch...
Continue reading ...

     When Canada declared war on Germany in 1939, it inadvertantly resulted in an embargo on U.S. based fiction literature. It caused an entertainment vacuum, which four Canadian owned publishers feverishly positioned themselves to fill. Maple Leaf Publishing, was based in Vancouver, while the other three: Anglo-American Publishing, Hillborough Studios, and Commercial Signs of Canada, called Toronto home.
     In March of 1941, Maple Leaf and Anglo-American hit newsstands, while Hillborough a...
Continue reading ...

     Since I was a boy, the role and prominence of comics in the world has changed. First of all, publishing and the print medium has transferred over largely to the world of the internet and the explosion of something called "social media". The simple line cartoon seemed to be lost for a time, while newspapers downsized, or vanished altogether.
     However, there seems to be a brand new phenomenon bringing this style, perfected by such bygone stellar Canadian talents as Jimmy Frise, Doug Wri...
Continue reading ...

Aside from having a bit of cartooning talent myself and knowing others who do also, I look back on Canadian history for the art of the graphic story artform and only see a couple of exteme high points. Number 1: The Canadian WHITES, a breed of comic book which blased onto the scene during the Canadian embargo against U.S. based comic books in the 1940s and Number 2: Lynn Johnston, one of the craft's top artists from the eighties until the present. In between, there are a lot of lesser known b...
Continue reading ...