25th Anniversary of Drawn & Quarterly and Me ~ PART 2

A few days back I posted a strip I did for the Canadian publisher Drawn & Quarterly (in honor of their 25th anniversary - and my 25th anniversary of being published by them) and here is another (also nowhere to be found in their recently published lavish history book). 

This was the last comic I did for them. They decided they'd manage just fine without me. Can't say I blame them. I know that plenty of comic readers (and creators) weren't quite sure what to make of me. And if you guessed I was in the midst of one of my nervous breakdowns when I did this head-scratcher, you wouldn't be wrong.

25 YEARS AGO ~ Drawn & Quarterly

The Canadian publisher Drawn and Quarterly has released a magnificent book in celebration of their 25 years of brilliant comics. It’s filled with amazing work and is highly recommended to anyone who likes comics of quality.

I was one of their earliest contributors (maybe half a dozen comics and a cover during the wilderness years) - but also one of the lesser cartoonists in their long, distinguished history, so naturally I’m not in the book. (sniff!) 

(Above is one of my typically silly contributions). 

My only real claim of any significance in the work I did for them was that I was one of the earliest “alternative” cartoonists to have painted work printed in full color. It was years before other publishers caught up to printing full-color painted comics (it was expensive, for one thing). Unfortunately the reproduction in those early issue of Drawn & Quarterly was pretty dreadful and heartbreaking. By the time they finally got the bugs out - particularly evident in Maurice Vellekoop’s beautiful watercolors - my work was no longer appearing.

Significantly, the real strength of the new book comes from including comics by many newer, younger cartoonists - maybe one of the strongest generations of cartoonists ever - allowing the focus of the book to be on where we are now, even as it details their history.