Brad Mackay joined us for a chat about Canadian cartoonist, Doug Wright. Brad is the organizer of the Doug Wright Awards, an award that recognizes the best in Canadian cartooning. More importantly, Brad is one of the three men(along with cartoonist Seth and DQ Chief, Chris Oliveros) behind the Doug Wright collection from Drawn and Quarterly. The collection is a true testament to the passion that Seth, Chris and Brad shared in seeing this important Canadian work in print. Here is what the Doug Wright Awards, have to say about the man himself.
Doug Wright created the long-running comic strip Doug Wright’s Family.
Born in England, Doug Wright came to Canada in 1938. His cartooning career really began when he landed a job as editorial cartoonist for the Montreal Standard. In 1948 he took over the reins of Jimmy Frise‘s Birdseye Center, retitled Juniper Junction. Signing the strip “DAW”, he continued with it until its end in September, 1968. Wright created Nipper, a mostly silent comic strip, for the Standard in 1949. Wright excelled at the depiction of childhood and the daily charms and frustrations of late-20th Century domestic life. A skilled draftsman, his fluid cartoon figures whirled through meticulously-rendered backgrounds and suburban landscapes.
Nipper was rechristened Doug Wright’s Family in 1967 when Wright moved from Montreal to Ontario. The strip enjoyed a long run, entertaining a generation of Canadians on a weekly basis until Wright ended it in 1980. Wright created a number of other strips and attempted to syndicate them, with some limited success, in addition to regular work in illustration and drawing syndicated editorial cartoons for the Montreal Standard and later the Hamilton Spectator.
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