Given that you鈥檙e reading this page, you probably already know all about Adrian Raeside. He has had a lock on a chunk of real estate near the top of the page since we started buying his cartoons three and a half decades ago. Odds are, you鈥檙e a fan.
And through the years, through 10,000 or so cartoons, he has come up with some good ones. The best of the best have been collected into a book that hit the stores this week.
For full disclosure, I should note that Adrian is not only a colleague, he鈥檚 also a friend. As a result, this column falls somewhere between a valuable reader service and a shameless plug.
The new book is entitled The Best of Adrian Raeside: A Treasury of B.C. Cartoons. It is a collection of about 230 examples of his work published between 1989 and 2014.
Raeside has been with us since 1979, a decade earlier than the earliest toon in this book, which makes me think that perhaps his work in the first 10 years was not very good. He disagrees with that, saying that he just couldn鈥檛 find the early originals. Whatever.
Raeside鈥檚 career as a cartoonist began when Don Vipond, the editorial page editor at the old Daily 91原创, took a chance on a raw, untested artist from Saltspring Island.
Thirty-five years ago, we didn鈥檛 have goodies such as scanners and email accounts. Every time Raeside drew a cartoon, he would have to drive it to the Times 91原创 office. We paid him for each cartoon, but these payments didn鈥檛 cover the cost of the gas and the ferry, let alone the ink and drawing boards.
For some reason 鈥� perhaps his math skills were weak 鈥� he stayed with us. He survived the merger of the 91原创 with the Victoria Times in 1980, and then a succession of editors, publishers and owners.
As the years passed, his work improved, and we started paying him enough to cover his costs. Today, he is the grand old man of cartooning in Western Canada, and his influence is huge.
I asked him the obvious question. He told me that it wasn鈥檛 easy coming up with the list of his best.
鈥淚 was faced with thousands of cartoons and it was tough to know which ones would make it, as I鈥檓 a lousy judge of what鈥檚 funny,鈥� he said. 鈥淐artoons I think will be a hit, flop. And ones I think will flop, get tons of mail, although not all writers are fans.鈥�
His book includes a running commentary as a reminder of the events that inspired the cartoons. That helps, because it can be hard to remember all of the twists and turns in B.C. politics.
鈥淪ome, like those in the chapter on our unique B.C. lifestyle, really didn鈥檛 need explanation, but as I was being paid by the word, I added commentary anyway,鈥� he told me. I hope the people at Harbour Publishing don鈥檛 read this.
Raeside鈥檚 personal list of favourite cartoons might surprise you. He says his favourites are the ones with interesting angles or details.
鈥淣ot many readers would say: 鈥榊ou should have seen the way he drew Harcourt鈥檚 head,鈥� but I always felt the drawing is half the cartoon,鈥� he said.
True enough 鈥� but if the gag is lame or the idea misses its mark, no amount of dressing up a cartoon with squiggly lines will save it. That鈥檚 something all cartoonists have to figure out if they want their careers to be long. At 35 years and counting, it鈥檚 safe to say that Raeside gets it.
His best guess is that this is his 15th book 鈥� again, he鈥檚 not a math major 鈥� and it follows gems such as No Sailing Waits and Other Ferry Tales, Tales Don鈥檛 Lie: A Decade of Dog Cartoons and Return to Antarctica, on the 1910 Scott expedition to the South Pole.
The Best of Adrian Raeside might turn out to be the most popular of the lot. But remember 鈥� as a dedicated follower of this page, you had a sneak peek!
