Nipper 1967 - 1968

After a bit of a delay I'm happy to report that Drawn and Quarterly has just released Nipper 1967-1968, the third in their series of reprints of classic Doug Wright comics. If D&Q's head honcho Chris Oliveros is to be believed, this latest volume of "Canada's Peanuts" is sure to fly off the shelf in Tokyo where they recently sold out of their Nipper stock at a comics convention in a couple of hours.

But the real reason I mention it here is because I contributed an introduction to the new book which offers up some historical perspective and perhaps insight into Wright's creative process at the time.   

As well, D&Q fills us in on news from the recent grand opening of Doug Wright Park in Burlington, Ontario. Phyllis Wright and her three boys were on hand, as was Seth. Photos over on the company blog.

 

I met Paul Martin last weekend (and he's a huge comics fan)!

It's true -- it's all true! I was in Montreal to attend a comics conference and lo and behold, one of the speakers is former Prime Minister (and ex-CEO of Canada Steamship Lines) Paul Martin Jr.! It turns out he's a big big fan of political cartooning, but apparently he digs Doug Wright too. The proof is right there! 

I finagled my way into a little face time with Martin, in part to gift him with a copy of The Collected Doug Wright, the massive awesome tome that I worked on. He knew Wright's work as soon as he cracked it open. Could Martin be a future jury member? A DWA host? A nominee? Who knows? More pictures and the full story are over at the Doug Wright Awards blog.

How Nipper took Addis Ababa

If there's one thing I learned from my 10 or so days in Ethiopia it's that time has no meaning and generosity no bounds. Case in point: last Saturday Fatuma Ahmed Ali, a Ethiopian parliamentarian and the first lady of the Afar state, took me shopping in Addis Ababa after hearing me stress-out over the purchases I had to make (including for my wife whose birthday coincided with my return home). So, when Saturday morning rolled around she rolled up in her car with her charming nephew and niece and we headed out to the markets of Addis.

The gang's all here

The joke here is that Fatuma told one of my colleagues that she'd have me back in 15 minutes; an impossible feat in a city like Addis. Minutes into the ride she asked me if I had eaten lunch. When I said Yes, she asked if I wanted to eat a second lunch - she was not joking. As I quickly learned, the Afar are very generous; more generous than an Italian/Jewish grandmother. Their need to please is ever-present and boundless. After insisting that I was not hungry, we drove about 20 minutes to a market somewhere in town (preceded by lots of dead-ends and sharp turns).


Video:

 

Once we were there we hopped out and Fatuma quickly made a bee-line to a clothing store where she proceeded to pick out silk scarves for my wife, my mother and my mother-in-law -- and anyone else who might need a gift. Then we moved on to dresses (for my daughter) and a traditional Ethiopian suit for my son. Some trinkets followed - and some shirts, and some souvenirs. When I pulled out my wallet to pay, her driver and accountant jumped between Fatuma and myself as if I was brandishing a gun. They take their generosity very seriously here.

After an hour or two of shopping we were driving again -- i assumed back to the hotel. It was not to be. Instead we ended up at an Italian restaurant for lunch (of course). I chose a safe menu option: spicy tuna pasta.

 

Our driver went for some tibs (beef), also good. 

 

 

But the kids, being smart and fearless, ordered some pizza. They ignored my please to stop as I tried to snap a photo.

This little guy Hoovered down most of the pizza, so I figured I'd ask him to show off his belly.

Full of "za"

In fact, they were so nuts about pizza that I let them play a "Pizza Maker" game on my iPod that my kids are crazy for.Fun stuff.

  

At some point Fatuma disappeared to conduct some business, so I burned time by handing the camera over to the kids.

I know. I am so cool. 

So, I'm done right? Of course not. We returned to the market where more goods were acquired (this time for my fellow Canadians in Ethiopia) then we hit a jewelry store where she helped me pick out earrings and a necklace for my wife. (I was successful in paying for this one). 

 

  

A couple of stops later (more shopping) and we finally rolled into the hotel at around 5:30 p.m., where she deposited me on a couch in the lobby. I felt like I had been subject to the most benevolent kidnapping ever, one in which my captor fed me like a prince and lavished goods on me. Anyways, even though I understood her extreme generosity I felt bad about it. But what could I do? I couldn't give her money, right? That's crass.

Then I remembered that I had brought a copy of one of Doug Wright's Nipper collections with me. Fatuma was talking about a library she was building back home in an Afar school she established (and we had visited) so I zipped up to my room and got the book. Famously, Doug Wright drew his classic Canadian strip without the benefit of words, so language wasn't going to be an issue. She seemed very pleased by the gift, but not as much as her nephew who grabbed it and was well and fully absorbed in the 1960s antics of Nipper and his family. 

 

I swear, I think he may have liked this better than the pizza. And why not? Nipper's devilish antics have rung true with my kids and many others some 40 years after they first appeared, after all a kid is a kid, right? Anyways, it was a genuine thrill to see this Ethiopian kid, who knew maybe 10 words of English, devour this book. Here's to the global power of comics!!

That's a Nipper look if I ever saw one

A lost monument to a comic strip of the past

I suppose I should have saved this post for Canada Day, but the guys over at Sequential compiled a thoroughly satisfying post today about Canadian cartoonist landmarks that roused me from my lazy blogger tendencies. Is there anything more satisfying than a statue or structure to a once-great comics character? They serve as permanent reminders of the profile these characters once enjoyed, even long after their cultural gravitas has waned. Just think of Chief Wahoo (who is based on the 1940s comic strip character Big Chief Wahoo) or,my personal favourite, Hamilton Tiger Cats mascot/booster Pigskin Pete who is the direct descendant of Jimmy Frise's boisterous Birdseye Center character Pigskin Peters.      


All of this got me thinking about a great lost monument to Birdseye Center, made by Frise's replacement on the strip, Doug Wright. On top of being a master artist, Wright was also an obsessive model-maker. During the research for The Collected Doug Wright Volume 1 I heard stories of his model plane, cars and trucks -- all made from scratch in his spare time. So it only made sense that after inheriting the popular strip from Frise, he would eventually turn his model making to the strip's fictional namesake.


At some point in the 1950s, Wright turned his obsession to Frise's great creation and built a scale model of Birdseye Center (which had become known as Juniper Junction due to copyright issues). The model (seen below) featured "Noazark" (a sightseeing ship/tourist trap), a dock building and a structure that looks to be the town hall.    

For comparison's sake, here's a Juniper Junction strip as drawn by Wright depicting the sink-prone  "Noazark".
 

I was lent the picture by Phyllis Wright, Doug's widow, who told me that he passed the model on to a neighbourhood teen after the strip came to an end in the late 1960s. That was very kind of him, if a bit foolhardy. The teen eventually grew up and grew tired on the model and threw it out years later. Egads, that shattered a little piece of my soul! But at least Wright was smart enough to take this picture, which remains the last evidence of a great comics -- if little-seen -- monument to Canadian comics history. 

Ink Studded

Robin 'Dirty Bird' McConnell rang me up last week to discuss Doug Wright, comics and Canada for his radio show Inkstuds. I think it was actually a lucid chat, with very few Ahhhs or Uhmms from yours truly.

And there's a special bonus for anyone brave enough to click on the link: Part of a rare interview that Wright did in the 1970s for a Mohawk College TV show. Go listen already!

Blabitty, blabitty, Brad

Mr. Nigel Beale, a very nice man with an unquenchable thirst for books, sat down with me a few weeks ago to chat about comics, graphic novels ansd Doug Wright. Thanks to a generous glass of scotch, I can't quite recall what I said -- and since I can't stand listening to myself, you'll to take my word for it when I say this is a podcast worth listening to.

While you're at it, you should explore the rest of his site as well. He has a cornucopia of images of old and rare books taht is sure to make you drool.

'The Collected Doug Wright' as educational tool

Apologies in advance for the back-to-back cute-kids posts, but this one was too good to pass up. Drawn and Quarterly has some swell pics up of Joe Ollmann's (maybe 6-year-old?) son absorbed in The Collected Doug Wright Vol. One. It doesn't get any better than that (except perhaps hearing from Bob Rae that he had his copy of the book proudly displayed on his coffee table. That was kind of cool too.)


It's funny, because my daughter (5) did the same thing Joe Jr. here did when i got my copy of CDW in the mail. There's something about the colours and the lack of words that makes it a magnet for little kids. In fact, Seth and I got a fan letter from a retired school teacher earlier this summer that verified/quantified this appeal. I include the letter below as evidence of Wright's unheralded educational benefits:

This is actually a really good idea. Any teachers out there willing to give this a whirl in their classroom, please let me know the results.

Done and gone, like dinner

Yes, I have been horribly remiss in keeping up this blog. But I have a good reason, really. It's all Doug Wright's fault, see. First, it was the 2008 Doug Wright Awards, which I am the director of and the host. When I wasn't doing that, I was busy finishing up my part of the upcoming book The Collected Doug Wright: Canada's Master Cartoonist.

The first volume of this retrospective look at the artist's life is due to hit shelves next Spring, and for much of the past year (longer if you include the months of research) most of my free time and holidays have been consumed with writing what I hope is the definitive take on Wright's life and art. Anyway, I'm happy to report that the final book is being sent to the printer later today. This piece of art from a 1950s Christmas card kind of sums up how i feel right about now:


It's been a long process, and an eye-opener for me in terms of the publishing process. It's a laborious, back-breaking job getting a 200-page plus book in shape and I'm glad it's not my . I mean, how can any right-thinking person (ie. Chris Oliveros) feel like they can do Seth's amazing design justice, not to mention Wright himself?

Luckily, he is the right man for the job. I've seen a layout for the book, and what can I say: it's eye-popping. Seth has outdone himself, with a classy (duh!) design that both honours Wright's work and frames it in a way I think newer readers will embrace. So, here's to Doug, and hopefully the beginning of a mini-renaissance for his work. (below is a sample strip that kind of sums up what was so great about the strip: that combination of anger, frustration and, well, love.)