Now Booking for the 2010 Convention

The Sheraton Hamilton, the official hotel hosting the 2010 Association of Canadian Editorial Cartoonists convention from September 23-26 is now accepting reservations. There are two options available for booking. The easiest is online:

http://www.starwoodmeeting.com/Book/ACECconvention2010

As a secondary option, member can also call the Sheraton at 1-800-514-7101 to book via telephone.  Just make sure you quote the group name “ACEC 2010 Convention” to get the group rate.  Both of these options will be available until the cutoff date on August 24th, 2010.

NNA Deadline Appproaches with New Rules

Editorial cartoonists now must submit a body of work of five editorial cartoons to compete for the National Newspaper Award. The previous requirement was for a single cartoon or a body of work of up to three cartoons. Submissions will be made online for the second year.

Preference will be given to cartoons that demonstrate humour, originality and satire related to news events, with quality embracing line, style and likenesses of personalities where relevant.

Step-by-step instructions on doing so can be found by clicking on the How To Register and How to Submit Entries links from the Online Submissions menu.

The process is easy and has earned good reviews from those submitting online. It also makes it possible for judges to do their work online and from anywhere they can connect to the Internet.

Entries for 2009 begin December 15th

The entry deadline will be Monday, January 11, 2010.

The entry fee is $40 per submission for large market newspapers; $25 for small market newspapers under 30,000 average daily circulation. 

The three finalists in each category will be presented and honoured and the winner announced at the 61st gala awards presentation on May 14 in Toronto.

The National Newspaper Awards were established by the Toronto Press Club in 1949 to encourage excellence and reward achievement in daily newspaper work in Canada.

Past Winners of the NNA for Editorial Cartooning.

Andy Donato beats the tax man - again

Andy Donato has been skewering politicians, bureaucrats and public figures for nearly 40 years in his editorial cartoons in the Sun newspaper chain. But for the past seven years, Mr. Donato has been waging a personal battle with the government, and federal tax officials in particular.

The dispute centres around 710 cartoons Mr. Donato donated to Touro College in New York and Ontario's Brock University in 1999 and 2001. The contributions were valued at close to $500,000 in total and Mr. Donato claimed a charitable tax credit on his taxes.

In 2002, officials from the Canada Revenue Agency went after him.

First, the CRA disallowed some of the credits, alleging Mr. Donato improperly made some of the donations through his wife. When Mr. Donato resolved that issue through the courts, the CRA took him to task again, alleging he owed capital gains taxes on the gifts. At one point, the CRA was seeking more than $100,000.

Mr. Donato fought back. He filed a tax appeal and took the case to the Tax Court of Canada. In a ruling made public this week, the court dismissed the bulk of the CRA's case.

"It was almost like a persecution," Mr. Donato said yesterday from his home in Toronto. "What bothered me was I was the only cartoonist in the country that they went after. [Several other] cartoonists have been donating to universities for years, and getting tax receipts, and they haven't been touched. I was the only one they went after and that pissed me off. ... They just kept up. They wouldn't let up."

Mr. Donato said he was particularly upset because he had planned to make more donations to universities but stopped because of the dispute. He has been especially proud of the gift to Brock because the university uses his work in several courses, including art classes and political science studies.

"I wanted to keep donating to Brock because they put them to good use," he said, noting that he has donated cartoons to other universities, including Ryerson University, and to the National Archives of Canada.

"Now that this is over, I'm going to look into it again because I really would like to donate to universities rather than the archives. The archives have a huge collection of mine now."

He has also cautioned other cartoonists about his plight. "I gave them a warning about what not to do," he said. This case "has got to haunt every cartoonist."

Mr. Donato has been drawing editorial cartoons for nearly 50 years and has won numerous awards. He started at the Toronto Telegram in 1961 after working as a layout artist at Eaton's department store. When that paper closed in 1971, he helped launch the Toronto Sun. He took a buyout from the Sun in 1997 but continues to draw for the chain, with his trademark bird signature, under a contract that pays him roughly $400 per piece.

He said many editorial cartoonists began donating their work years ago because there is virtually no market for the drawings after they have been published. "You don't sell any," he said. "The odd time, you get a request for one. The first time you draw a politician, they want the cartoon and that's it. They sit around, what are you going to do with them?"

When asked if the CRA might have gone after him because he has been too hard on politicians, Mr. Donato laughed and said: "I don't think I've been that bad."

His contract with the Sun expires next year but he hopes to renew it and keep going. For how long? "As long as I can," he said. "There's so much going on." Source: The Globe & Mail

Fleg and Chapleau: 1981

Christian Daigle has unearthed this great interview he did with Serge Chapleau way back in 1981. The hair alone makes it worth viewing:

Portfoolio23 Hits the Bookstores

Quebec cartoonists need only wait for politicians to hand them ideas

BY BILL BROWNSTEIN, THE GAZETTENOVEMBER 15, 2009

There was much grief and gnashing of teeth in certain quarters when Dubya sashayed out of the White House this year, and when Sarah Palin failed to make it in, with John McCain.

No, not only among the Republicans, silly. But also among editorial cartoonists.

Similarly, there was sadness in these parts - not only Liberals - when Stéphane Dion got the boot as boss. On the other hand, Canadian editorial cartoonists aren't complaining about his replacement, Iggy, as a target. Or, for that matter, Chuckles Harper.

Sure, the world is on the brink of disaster: swine flu, economic crises, global warming, North Korean nuclear testing, Twitter, John Minus Kate Plus 8. But what a grand time our cartoonists are having depicting our planet's demise in their gloriously irreverent drawings.

To many local anglos, there may appear to be only two kinds of compendiums of Canadian editorial cartoons: those by Terry Mosher (Aislin), such as his most recent and 42nd delight, Shenanigans, and those in which Aislin merely contributes, along with colleagues across the country, such as the new Portfoolio 23: The Year's Best Canadian Editorial Cartoons (Amazon - $14.56).

And as Aislin would be the first to mention, this country is a hotbed for editorial cartoonists. This province in particular.

Apart from Aislin, there is his buddy Serge Chapleau, the ever-piquant La Presse cartoonist; Le Droit's Bado, Guy Badeaux; Le Soleil's André-Philippe Côté; Le Devoir's Garnotte, Michel Garneau; Pascal Elie, The Gazette's Sunday and Monday cartoonist; freelancers Fleg (Christian Daigle) and Nemo (Jose Neves); and, of course, the Mirror's Dave Rosen. And for the record, some of the above - Chapleau, Côté, Garnotte, Rosen - have also released their own solo volumes.

But all of the above, as well as representatives from across the land, are included in Portfoolio 23: The Year's Best Canadian Editorial Cartoons. And what a year it has been. Then again, so were the preceding 22 years, documented in previous Portfoolio editions. And, likely, so will be the years to come, until the planet blows up.

Their drawing styles may contrast dramatically, but these Canadian cartoonists all share one thing in common: they take no prisoners when lampooning ludicrous politicos and alleged cultural icons, not to mention the sad state of the universe. It is, of course, to laugh. Which beats the alternative all to hell.

Rosen feels that Quebec produces an inordinate number of acidic cartoonists for a couple of reasons.

"For starters, there are an inordinate number of daily, weekly and monthly and whatever newspapers in this province, almost all of which employ cartoonists," says Rosen, who has seven of his creations, in Portfoolio 23, including the back cover. "But more to the point, Quebec politics just makes it so easy for us. And, as an added bonus, Montreal politics have suddenly become juicy. Add to that the seemingly annual federal elections, and there's just never a dull moment here.

"You don't even have to come up with ideas here anymore. The politicians pretty much just hand them to you. And then there's the whole world stage for fodder - be it the U.S. or North Korea. These are golden times for editorial cartoonists."

Rosen, a one-time CBC Radio traffic reporter, has been doodling since he was a young teen. Not long after, he did editorial cartoons for the defunct local underground paper Logos. His inspirations were famed American cartoonist Robert Crumb as well as Aislin - who also did time at Logos - and Chapleau.

"When I began, I tried doing Aislin's masterly cross-hatching style, but over the years I've simplified my style," notes Rosen, who drew for Hour for 10 years before moving over to the Mirror seven years ago. "I'd say I was more of a minimalist now. Actually, I'm moving closer to the Looney Tunes style - which may be because I'm a big fan of Tex Avery and Chuck Jones.

"But I love doing the Canadian party leaders. They look like Star Trek characters: Harper is Kirk, Iggy is Spock; and Jack and Gilles, the two expendable crewmen on the ship. Canadian politicians are essentially a gift to cartoonists. It's the good-looking politicians like Obama who are a problem. It takes time to get their likeness into caricature."

Rosen faces different challenges than fellow cartoonists who work for the dailies. "It would be a blast to get in there four or five days a week and draw on the topic du jour," says Rosen, who has had a cartoon published in the New York Times. "The difficulty about cartooning for a weekly is to pick a story that will have legs for a week. There's a lot of serious head-banging on Monday morning before my deadline trying to find that story."

But Rosen, like the others, is at least blessed to live in a place where there is no shortage of enduring stories - soaps, sitcoms?

After a two year absense, Portfoolio reawakens for its 23rd edition. You can now order it on Amazon.

ACEC CONVENTION 2010

One year from today, Hamilton will host the 2010 convention of the Association of Canadian Editorial Cartoonists. Please mark in your calendars the dates September 23, 24, and 25 and do what you can to attend this event. While we won’t be blessed by the breathtaking surroundings of the Rocky Mountains as was the case with our last convention in Banff, you are guaranteed to be impressed and surprised by what Hamilton has to offer in terms of entertainment, culture, and, believe it or not, its natural environment.

If you’re coming a long distance and plan to make the most of it by adding a few extra days you’ll be interested to know that we are less than an hour away from Niagara Falls to the east, less than an hour away from Toronto to the north, and less than an hour away from the rolling hills of Mennonite country to the west.

The shape of the convention itself is still in its early stages with plans for engaging panel discussions plus,

• a gallery show at the newly refurbished Art Gallery of Hamilton ( http://www.artgalleryofhamilton.com/)
• a charitable auction of original works (supported by willing donors)
• a Niagara wine tour. This is the time of the year when wine festivities are in full flight, and we’ll be taking full advantage.
• Flexibility. While there’ll be scheduled events lots of time will be allocated for catching up, meeting new members and grooving to tunes.
  

Our hotel is most likely the downtown Sheraton, pending a competitive rate. You’ll be notified once we’ve secured a block of rooms:
http://www.starwoodhotels.com/sheraton/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=185

Lots of flights arrive and depart daily from Hamilton from all over Canada. Here’s a taste of who’s coming and going:
http://www.flyhi.ca/

More interesting links:
Tourism Hamilton - http://www.tourismhamilton.com
Niagara Wine Festival - http://www.niagarawinefestival.com/page/winefest_home

 Stay tuned for more updates. If you’d like more information or have any suggestions, please contact me at gmackay@thespec.com, or call  (905) 526-3439. Assistance is needed to make this a successful convention, so please volunteer if you can.

Why the portrait gallery matters

'A picture of the Canadian people': Why the portrait gallery matters

BY PAUL GESSELL, THE OTTAWA CITIZEN 

SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

Most countries have artworks considered to be such an important part of the national patrimony that they are rarely, if ever, removed from the museums that exhibit them like holy relics.

Examples include the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci at the Louvre in Paris and Las Dos Fridas (The Two Fridas) by Frida Kahlo at the Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City.

Canada's closest equivalent, many art experts say, is a group of four paintings in the collection of that institution we used to call the Portrait Gallery of Canada. They are The Four Indian Kings, portraits of four aboriginal leaders who served as ambassadors from Canada to the court of Queen Anne in 1710.

The four chiefs represent the very soul of Canada. They are, in essence, the royal forefathers of all Canadians. Few Canadians have had the opportunity to see them because, for the last quarter of a century, they have mostly been locked up in a vault at Library and Archives Canada.

The portrait gallery never had a dedicated exhibition venue for the thousands of photographs, paintings and other images in its vast collection and now the institution does not even have a name.

A leaked memo revealed this week it has been reduced to a mere "program" lumped together with other Library and Archives activities.

Daniel Caron, head of Library and Archives, maintained Thursday the portrait gallery continues to exist in a new format. But some of his employees privately disputed that, and so did much of the Canadian art world.

"This is a tragedy," said Jerry Grey, an Ottawa artist whose body of work includes many portraits, some acquired by the portrait gallery, the City of Ottawa and other institutions.

Diana Nemiroff, director of Carleton University Art Gallery, agreed. A portrait gallery is "a picture of the Canadian people," said Nemiroff.

Without an institution to identify it, that picture is out of focus.

Ottawa-based art historian Maureen Korp noted that portrait galleries began thousands of years ago when images of humans were scrawled onto the walls of caves. In fact, there seems to be a basic need by people to create portrait galleries, whether by cave drawings or a living room wall of family photos. Today, countries as diverse as the United States and Barbados have some form of a portrait gallery.

But not Canada.

The demise of the portrait gallery means most Canadians will likely never get to see The Four Indian Kings. They may show up from time to time in some exhibition in Vancouver or Halifax. But, unlike the Mona Lisa or The Two Fridas, they will have no permanent home where Canadians can come to pay their respects and make a human connection to their country's history.

The portraits, painted by John Verelst, were once owned by Queen Elizabeth, but were given to Canada in 1977.

These revered aboriginal portraits were part of an exhibition in 2007 in England. Afterward, under the auspices of the portrait gallery, there were supposed to travel across Canada alongside some contemporary First Nations portraits.

But the tour, along with so many plans of the portrait gallery, never happened. Chances are far more people in England than in Canada have seen these portraits.
The original portrait gallery was supposed to be in the former American embassy on Wellington Street across from the Parliament Buildings. There was to be a room just for the photographs of Yousuf Karsh, whose entire body of work is held as prints or negatives by the portrait gallery.

Gilbert Gignac, the retired manager of the art collection of Library and Archives, says there are enough materials in the portrait gallery collection to fill a room just on Canada's first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald. There's the first portrait of Macdonald ever done, showing a young law graduate, as well as some older pictures, and portraits of Macdonald's first wife and his children. Together, there are all the elements to bring Macdonald to life.

Portraits, said Gignac, "shorten the distance to the past." As well, portrait collections are "the family albums of the nation."

When fires or floods threaten a house, people first rush family albums to safety. Canada's family album is not threatened. But will anybody get to see it? And will more images be added?

The portrait gallery holdings date back to a superb collection of 17th-century French prints, including various kings and their top-ranking officials in New France. That collection takes Canadian history through the centuries to the present, including a cool photograph of jazz musician Diana Krall by rocker-photographer Bryan Adams.
The portrait gallery had been collecting portraits of contemporary writers, athletes, actors and others, including poet Leonard Cohen, author Margaret Laurence, hockey legend Wayne Gretzky and politician Elijah Harper. But some gallery officials privately said they fear these contemporary acquisitions will end or greatly diminish under the new arrangement at Library and Archives Canada. The danger is that the collection will become static, or only offer portraits of the long dead.

Art-savvy individuals such as Grey and Gignac say all is not lost. Grey thinks Library and Archives can stop a catastrophe if it shows some "imagination." Gignac notes that it took the National Gallery four architectural competitions spread over a quarter of a century to get its current "world-class" building on Sussex Drive.

"Maybe there will be another kick at the can for the portrait gallery," said Gignac.
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

Cartoonist Bob Muirhead Dies

From the Salmon Arm Observer

Another bright light has been extinguished far too soon.

Cartoonist Bob Muirhead died in his Salmon Arm home on Sunday morning. He was 66 years old.

A school counsellor during the day and a talented cartoonist, Bob Muirhead’s drawings offered insightful weekly commentary on the Observer’s editorial page for close to 20 years.

Until his debilitating stroke four years ago, Muirhead’s weekly visits to drop off his cartoons in the newsroom were highly anticipated.

His no-holds-barred look at the issues of the day always evoked a strong reaction – usually laughter.

Muirhead’s arrival on the Observer’s editorial page was arranged by then-editor Gordon Priestman, who often met with the cartoonist over a cup of coffee.

Ian Wickett owned the paper at the time and says Priestman, who drew cartoons himself, began running some of Muirhead’s creations. And, he adds, somewhere along the line, Muirhead wanted to create a collection of cartoons.

They were successful and, as they say, the rest is history.

“I remember one of his first cartoons involved teachers,” Wickett says, noting that the birds in the drawings represented co-workers and that the cartoons were a bit gentler in the beginning.

“He was taking humorous looks at life in Salmon Arm; then, when he was syndicated, they (cartoons) moved into politics and other issues beyond Salmon Arm.”

Recuperating at home from a stroke in October 2007, Muirhead said he got his cartooning start in Mexico, where he attended the Instituto Allende in the 1960s. He practised his craft throughout his 40-year career with school boards, first in Vancouver and then in the Shuswap.

Struggling to overcome the effects of the stroke on his speech, Muirhead said he enjoyed both his careers with the school board and as the Observer cartoonist – a position that earned him many awards over the years and sparked letters to the editor.

And his views were always his own. Though many tried, he never allowed others to give him suggestions for his cartoons.

An avid CBC radio and television fan, Muirhead said he came up with his ideas, sometimes in meeting someone or in the news of the day.

In the two years following his stroke, Muirhead had undergone intensive physiotherapy, which included a stay at Bastion Place.

His drawing table had been modified and, with CBC Radio playing in the background, he was, once again, trying to set the ideas of a keen mind onto paper.

“It’s frustrating, not to be able,” he said during an interview with the Observer in 2007, referring to his inability to create the finer details of a cartoon. “I am drawing bigger things.”

A date for a memorial service for Bob Muirhead had not been set as of presstime Tuesday.

SPECIAL REPORT: Will the Editorial Cartoonist Vanish

By Mark Fitzgerald for Editor and Publisher
Article June 11, 2009

CHICAGO To be a newspaper staff editorial cartoonist these days is to live in dread that the next phone call is coming from the human resources department. "There's a great sense of dismay and gloom in the editorial cartooning world," says Steve Greenberg, a member of that fraternity. Because their numbers were so small to begin with, the departure of cartoonists amid the mass layoffs in newsrooms around the nation has had a huge impact on the craft.

MSNBC cartoonist Daryl Cagle, who hosts the Political Cartoonists Index Web site, counts more than 30 who took buyouts or were laid off by mid-April, including such well-known figures as Don Wright at The Palm Beach (Fla.) Post, Jim Borgman at The Cincinnati Enquirer and Bill Day at The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tenn. More recently, the departures of editorial cartoonists have been coming at a rate of two or more a month.

"The number of staff editorial cartoonists who are extremely safe is tiny," says Greenberg. He speaks from experience: Before he was laid off at the Ventura County (Calif.) Star last November, he reasoned that he was safe because cartooning was a secondary job to his main occupation there in news graphics.

Winning a Pulitzer Prize isn't even enough in some cases. David Horsey, who won Pulitzers for cartooning in 1999 and again in 2003, lost his job when the Seattle Post-Intelligencer ceased print publication. Though he stayed on as the newspaper went online-only, he now draws for all Hearst papers, but not as a local cartoonist. Following the layoff of Eric Devericks at The Seattle Times last December, there is no major-metro local editorial cartoonist in Seattle.

Being syndicated is also no job guarantee. In King Features' stable of editorial cartoonists, for instance, are Brian Duffy, who was laid off from The Des Moines Register in December, and John Branch, who was let go at the San Antonio (Texas) Express-News in March. The two continue to draw, and are included in the syndicate's weekly "The Best and the Wittiest" package. "They're still extremely good at what they do, and we still value what they do," says King Features Comic Editor Brendan Burford.

Losing their staff positions hasn't affected their marketability, Burford adds: "I think there's a lot of sympathy for those cartoonists who are laid off or take the buyouts. It doesn't speak to how good they are, it just speaks to the economy of newspapers these days."

Chip Bok, who took a buyout from the Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal, is another example of a cartoonist without a newspaper who continues to be syndicated, in his case by Creators Syndicate. "I'm concerned about them as a friend, but on the other hand we're hoping there will be opportunities" in new media in the future, says Creators President and CEO Richard S. Newcombe.

This exodus of editorial cartoonists, however, isn't creating any real selling opportunities to newspapers suddenly without staff artists, syndicates say. "I wish I could tell you there was something positive out of this," Newcombe adds. "That certainly seems to be what logic would dictate — but at the same time, budgets have been cut so much that I haven't seen any change. It's just such a depressed market these days."

Another reason there's been no bump for the syndicates is that newspapers with staff editorial cartoonists often were also substantial buyers of syndicated cartoons, says King Features' Burford. While the demand for that material hasn't slackened, neither has it increased, he notes.

Greenberg, who self-syndicates cartoons themed for Jewish newspapers, admits he is experiencing the same stalled demand. "I would have thought there would be more opportunity for freelance work because of the cuts," he says, "but unfortunately, freelance budgets are being cut too."

Mark Fitzgerald (mfitzgerald@editorandpublisher.com) is E&P's editor-at-large.

Roy Peterson Laid Off

In what must come as a shock to our members, and fans of editorial cartooning in general, Roy Peterson's 47 year career at The Vancouver Sun has come to an abrupt end, as he becomes the latest victim of newspaper cost-cutting.

Roy's cartoons are the stuff of legend in Canadian cartooning, his wit and artwork second to none, as proven by his 7 National Newspaper Awards. Roy has always been an ardent supporter of this association and our members, and has been a mentor to many of us. There will no doubt be a wave of anger moving through our waters at this news. Frankly, for his position at the Sun to come to an end in this fashion is appalling.

Following is his bio from our site and a link to an article in Saturday's Vancouver Sun.

Roy Eric Peterson is western Canada's pre-eminent editorial cartoonist. Although he works for many publications, it is his work for The Vancouver Sun as successor to the late Len Norris that constitutes his major contribution to the world of cartooning. He began work for The Vancouver Sun in 1962. His work has appeared in Punch, The Spectator, Time and The New York Times, and for many years MacLean's magazine.

He is a founding member of the ACEC and served as president in 1990. He was the first Canadian editorial cartoonist to be elected president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists (1983). His cartoons have won numerous citations and international awards, including the Montreal International Salon of Humour Grand Prix. In 1999, he won his seventh National Newspaper Award, the most ever won by any journalist in the 50 years of the awards. In 2004 he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Roy Peterson: Cartoons that afflict the comfortable.