Grawlix Comics Anthology Number 0

pg 1Dave Lapp

BOOK3.indd 1 10-05-02 9:40 PM

pg 1

GRAWLIX Comics Anthology Number 0 Spring 2010 Grawlix is a new anthology that emerged out of a network of cartoonists and friends in Toronto, from comic jams in coffee shops, bars and apartments to conversations in used bookstores and zine fairs, to small launch parties with volunteer bands. CONTENTSCover by Joseph Bergin IIIInside front and back covers Dave LappJames Simpkins Article by Robert Hoshowsky, photos by Peter Bregg

The Origin Jason Laudadio pg 4 www.laudadio.ca

Dirty Ditties Jay Marcy pg 8 www.jaymarcy.com

Gone Fishing Joe Decie pg 11 www.joedecie.com

Philosphical Phunies Nick Mandaag pg 13

Mad Scientists Assistants Union Uncle pg 15 sayuncle.livejournal.com Overtime Jeff Bent pg 16 www.sporecloud.com Iceman Dalton Sharp pg 21 www.daltonsharp.com

Create Grant Fatt pg 22

Endless Karma Michael Fikiris & Dan Cross pg 23 www.comicslifestyle.com/profile/frothindustries

The Other Day Diego D’mario pg 24

Not As Good As the First Time Madelaine Boyce & Jordan Bursach pg 25 sach.livejournal.com

Dewberry Michael Hawkins pg 30 www.myspace.com/michaelwhawkins

Doug Michael Faust pg 31 www.myspace.com/gozerrocks Boy Who Saw His Future Canaan Grall pg 33 www.zudacomics.com/celadore Explore Your Fear Uncle pg 34 sayuncle.livejournal.com Ocean David Booth pg 35

Mamalou Canaan Grall pg 36

Welcome to the 23rd Century Rob Westall pg 37 www.oddnogginz.com

BOOK3.indd 2 10-05-02 9:40 PM

pg 4

Market Day Colleen MacIsaac pg 39 www.littlefoible.net

Shout Uncle pg 42 sayuncle.livejournal.com

Monster Jason Turner pg 43 www.jasonturnerproject.com

Slutty Ho Canaan Grall pg 48

Nerdz Robin Bougie pg 49 bougieman.livejournal.com Psychic Twins Cameron Lee pg 51 Dreams of a Laundry Bot Scott Breese pg 53 Scramble Uncle pg 56 sayuncle.livejournal.com Fred of the Dead Uncle pg 60 sayuncle.livejournal.com

Snif Michael Enzbrunner pg 61 The Park Philip Barrett pg 63 blackshapes.co Undeniably Ignorant Michael Fikiris pg 66

Cute Cat Comix Dexter Cockburn pg 67 dexter-cockburn.livejournal.com

I’m Dancing Uncle pg 69 sayuncle.livejournal.com James Simpkins, Robert Hoshowsky & Peter Bregg pg 70Jasper the Bear’s Kindly Creator

Joseph Bergin III (pen name Uncle) sayuncle.livejournal.coma master of digital comics, Joseph has had numerous gallery shows and is a cartoonist for Tokyo Disneyland. Dave Lapp www.childrenoftheatom.comcreated Drop In, a graphic novel detailing his observations teaching comics to kids in low income Toronto neighbourhoods. His second book, collects the entire run of his poetic comic strip, Children of the Atom, which ran in a Vancouver newspaper. Robert Hoshowsky www.truecrimecanada.comis a journalist whose first book, Last to Die, examined the the controversies around the last two people to be executed by Canada. His latest is Unsolved: True Canadian Cold Cases. Peter Bregg www.peterbregg.comis one of Canada’s preeminent photographers. He is photo editor for Hello! Magazine.

Jason Laudadio www.laudadio.caJason has been a Toronto based Illustrator and Designer for over 15 years. He has also worked as a Creative Director and Web Designer and loves working in comics. [email protected] Grawlix Comics Anthology Number 0. Spring 2010. Entire contents Copyright 2010 by the respective creators (unless otherwise stated) and may not be reproduced in any way (including electronically) in whole or in part without their express permission, with the exception of brief excerpts for review.

BOOK3.indd 3 10-05-02 9:40 PM

pg 4Jason Laudadio

BOOK3.indd 4 10-05-02 9:40 PM

pg 5 pg 6Jason Laudadio

BOOK3.indd 5 10-05-02 9:40 PM


BOOK3.indd 6 10-05-02 9:40 PM


BOOK3.indd 7 10-05-02 9:40 PM

pg 7 pg 8Jason Marcy

BOOK3.indd 8 10-05-02 9:40 PM


BOOK3.indd 9 10-05-02 9:40 PM


BOOK3.indd 10 10-05-02 9:40 PM

pg 11 pg 12Joe Dicie

BOOK3.indd 11 10-05-02 9:40 PM

pg 11 pg 12Joe Dicie

BOOK3.indd 12 10-05-02 9:40 PM

pg 13 pg 14Nick Mandaag

BOOK3.indd 13 10-05-02 9:40 PM

pg 13 pg 14Nick Mandaag

BOOK3.indd 14 10-05-02 9:40 PM

pg 15 pg 16Uncle

BOOK3.indd 15 10-05-02 9:40 PM

pg 15 pg 16Jeff Bent

BOOK3.indd 16 10-05-02 9:40 PM


BOOK3.indd 17 10-05-02 9:40 PM


BOOK3.indd 18 10-05-02 9:40 PM


BOOK3.indd 19 10-05-02 9:40 PM


BOOK3.indd 20 10-05-02 9:40 PM

pg 21 pg 22Dalton Sharp

BOOK3.indd 21 10-05-02 9:40 PM

pg 21 pg 22Grant Fatt

BOOK3.indd 22 10-05-02 9:40 PM

pg 23 pg 24Fikaris & Cross

BOOK3.indd 23 10-05-02 9:40 PM

pg 23 pg 24Diego D’Amario

BOOK3.indd 24 10-05-02 9:40 PM

pg 25 pg 26Madelaine Boyce & Jordan Bursach

Not as good as the first time

BOOK3.indd 25 10-05-02 9:40 PM



BOOK3.indd 26 10-05-02 9:40 PM



BOOK3.indd 27 10-05-02 9:40 PM



BOOK3.indd 28 10-05-02 9:40 PM



BOOK3.indd 29 10-05-02 9:40 PM

pg 29 pg 30Michael Hawkins

BOOK3.indd 30 10-05-02 9:40 PM

pg 31 pg 32Michael Faust

BOOK3.indd 31 10-05-02 9:40 PM

pg 31 pg 32Michael Faust

BOOK3.indd 32 10-05-02 9:40 PM

pg 33 pg 34Canaan Grall

BOOK3.indd 33 10-05-02 9:40 PM

pg 33 pg 34Uncle

BOOK3.indd 34 10-05-02 9:40 PM

pg 35 pg 36David Booth

BOOK3.indd 35 10-05-02 9:40 PM


BOOK3.indd 36 10-05-02 9:40 PM

pg 37 pg 38Rob Westall

BOOK3.indd 37 10-05-02 9:40 PM

pg 37 pg 38Rob Westall

BOOK3.indd 38 10-05-02 9:40 PM

pg 39 pg 40Colleen MacIsaac

BOOK3.indd 39 10-05-02 9:40 PM


BOOK3.indd 40 10-05-02 9:40 PM


BOOK3.indd 41 10-05-02 9:40 PM

pg 41 pg 42Uncle

BOOK3.indd 42 10-05-02 9:40 PM

pg 43 pg 44Jason Turner

BOOK3.indd 43 10-05-02 9:40 PM


BOOK3.indd 44 10-05-02 9:40 PM


BOOK3.indd 45 10-05-02 9:40 PM


BOOK3.indd 46 10-05-02 9:40 PM


BOOK3.indd 47 10-05-02 9:40 PM


BOOK3.indd 48 10-05-02 9:40 PM

pg 49 pg 50Robin Bougie

BOOK3.indd 49 10-05-02 9:41 PM

pg 49 pg 50Robin Bougie

BOOK3.indd 50 10-05-02 9:41 PM

pg 51 pg 52Cameron Lee

BOOK3.indd 51 10-05-02 9:41 PM

pg 51 pg 52Cameron Lee

BOOK3.indd 52 10-05-02 9:41 PM

pg 53 pg 54Scott Breese

BOOK3.indd 53 10-05-02 9:41 PM


BOOK3.indd 54 10-05-02 9:41 PM


BOOK3.indd 55 10-05-02 9:41 PM

pg 55 pg 56Uncle

BOOK3.indd 56 10-05-02 9:41 PM

pg 57 pg 58Uncle

BOOK3.indd 57 10-05-02 9:41 PM

pg 57 pg 58Uncle

BOOK3.indd 58 10-05-02 9:41 PM

pg 59 pg 60Uncle

BOOK3.indd 59 10-05-02 9:41 PM

pg 59 pg 60Uncle

BOOK3.indd 60 10-05-02 9:41 PM

pg 61 pg 62Michael Enzbrunner

BOOK3.indd 61 10-05-02 9:41 PM

pg 61 pg 62Michael Enzbrunner

BOOK3.indd 62 10-05-02 9:41 PM

pg 63 pg 64Philip Barrett

BOOK3.indd 63 10-05-02 9:41 PM


BOOK3.indd 64 10-05-02 9:41 PM


BOOK3.indd 65 10-05-02 9:41 PM

pg 65 pg 66Michael Fikiris

BOOK3.indd 66 10-05-02 9:41 PM

pg 67 pg 68Dexter Cockburn

BOOK3.indd 67 10-05-02 9:41 PM

pg 67 pg 68Dexter Cockburn

BOOK3.indd 68 10-05-02 9:41 PM

pg 69 pg 70Uncle

BOOK3.indd 69 10-05-02 9:41 PM

pg 69 pg 70

Jasper the Bear was a hugely popular comic character created by James Simpkins. Running from 1948 to 1971 it was syndicated as far away as Europe and Mexico. Soon, the chubby bear was appearing on stuffed dolls, T-shirts, baseball caps, postcards, books, salt and pepper shakers, pennants, sterling silver charms, collector plates, and other souvenirs. Author Peter C. Newman – who penned an introduction to one of Simpkins’ five Jasper the Bear collections – believed Jasper embodied Canada’s character so well that he mused, “someday we may even change our national emblem from a beaver to a bear.”Shortly before the death of cartoonist James Simpkins, journalist Robert Hoshowsky and photographer Peter Bregg met with him. Bregg shot the last known pictures. The article was commissioned for Maclean’s magazine’s 100th anniversary issue, but was cut.

As Hoshowsky recalls:

“I think when I talked with him it was the last known interview. I had the idea of interviewing him

because of Maclean’s upcoming 100th Anniversary, and a friend of mine mentioned Simpkins. He was wondering if anything had been done on him in years and I thought ‘no’. I talked to the art editor at the time, Donna Braggins, and Aislin, who was cartooning for Maclean’s and they both practically jumped out of their skins when they heard about this. Aislin especially was like ‘you gotta ask him this and that’. I understand he gave a lot of this stuff to the people of Alberta, and I think it was an issue here with his family, especially with his children. My gut tells me they resented their father giving this stuff to Alberta, because during his life there were several successful anthologies of Jasper cartoons. I think anthologies are one of those things that can always be resurrected. Everything old is new again type of thing. I have a feeling they were upset that their father just gave this stuff away.

Simpkins was in a nursing home outside of Hamilton, and I remember going with Peter Bregg to see him. I immediately got a feeling for the man’s

Jasper the Bear Takes His Final BowBy Robert J. Hoshowsky, Photos by Peter Bregg

BOOK3.indd 70 10-05-02 9:41 PM

pg 71 pg 72

sense of humour when I glimpsed a hand-drawn sign with a drawing of Jasper the Bear and the words, ‘Have Pencil, will travel.’

It was upsetting because when he opened the door, He had a huge bump on his head. The staff told me he had fallen the week before. He was starting to lose his health, his balance as well as his thoughts.

So I had this whole list of questions prepared “But when I realized he really wasn’t mentally there, I thought, “I can probably just toss these out the window.” Instead I improvised with my questions.

Simpkins excitedly encouraged us to look around his room. The sheer volume of drawings, posters, books and ads is a lot to absorb. From floor to ceiling, his cramped apartment is filled with reminders of his days at Maclean’s, and his career as one of Canada’s foremost magazine and book illustrators, cartoonists, and animators. On one wall, a framed 1965 letter from Buckingham Palace thanks Simpkins for two signed copies of Ookpik the Ogling Arctic Owl, a book illustrated by the cartoonist and written by Alfred Dudley Copland. Another wall reveals hand-drawn Christmas cards, and a framed sheet of 20 Canadian postal stamps, presented to Simpkins by Hughes Lapointe, postmaster general, on January 23, 1956. Nearby, a T-square wobbled from a hook on the wall.

There was evidence of Jasper everywhere you looked, from postcards, to magazine covers and tear sheets, including a framed ad for a Chevrolet Vega, a subcompact car featuring Jasper with two bear cubs. Simpkins’s apartment is a cartoon lovers’ dream. Positioned on either side of his drawing table are bookshelves, overflowing with the artist’s originals works, and a multitude of published collections from other cartoonists, such as ‘Carl’ Ronald Giles, the British artist known for his many cartoons in Britain’s Daily Express. Another row of books holds several volumes of For Better or For Worse by Canada’s own Lynn Johnston, a fellow artist Simpkins holds in high regard. On his drawing table, Simpkins, like many artists, uses old metal liquor containers to hold paint brushes; in this case, it is a dented can which one held single malt Scotch whisky Glenfiddich.Certain things would trigger a reaction. I think that to Simpkins, Jasper was the embodiment of purity. He didn’t tell me that, but when the

BOOK3.indd 71 10-05-02 9:41 PM

pg 71 pg 72

whole subject of Jasper’s image being on a cigarette lighter came up he freaked out. He was very upset by that. There was marketing, but then there were also things he inherently didn’t believe in. Possibly promoting smoking for kids... no, no, no, no, NO! The feeling I got from Simpkins was that he was just a very nice guy, deep down a very decent person.

When I talked to him about the people he liked the most, one of them was Duncan MacPherson. He loved MacPherson’s work. I’m quite sure that they were friends as well.

At one point, while Simpkins was slipping in and out of lucidity, Peter Bregg asked him, ‘oh, you know, could you draw me Jasper?’, and right away it was like he became a fully functioning adult again. He automatically picked up pen and paper and dashed off a drawing of Jasper. Even at (name his age) his hand was so steady.

From the hands of a master, Bregg got the drawing.

Simpkins passed away on February 1, 2004, at age 93

BOOK3.indd 72 10-05-02 9:41 PM

pg 73 pg 74

BOOK3.indd 73 10-05-02 9:41 PM

pg 73 pg 74Dave Lapp

BOOK3.indd 74 10-05-02 9:41 PM

Documents

Grawlix Comics Anthology Number 0