GRIFFITHS Marc

WORK:

CO-CARTOONIST:

PERIODICAL GRAPHIC ANTHOLOGY:

Content story:

 Andromeda, 2-4, Dec. 1978: “For Tomorrow We Die.” Co-car., Brian lee.

 

GRIFFITHS Gilbert Joseph “Bus”

Gilbert Joseph (Bus) Griffiths was born in 1913 in Moose Jaw Saskatchewan but was raised in Penticton and from 1922 Burnaby B.C. His two interests art and logging that would come to define his life started early. His interest in art came through his father who drew for him pictures mostly of his favorite topic horses. When he was 12 years old, his father hired a faller to cut down a Douglas Fir on their property and the young Bus declared “I want to do that.” His dad gave him an axe and told him to cut wood for the kitchen stove. “I really liked falling those trees but I wasn’t too handy at getting the wood up to the house.”

As a youngster, he submitted his early comic-strip efforts to the Sun and Province. He said later, “When I think about it now, I must have had a lot of crust. I’d go right in and see the managing editors. Finally the editor of the Sun told me I’d better get some drawing lessons. That sort of took the wind out of my sails for a while.” Interestingly, he never did take lessons.

He quit school at age 14 and took a business course at Sprott-Shaw Business School. He got a job in the Vancouver office of Massey-Harris Farm Equipment Company but in 1929 the Depression hit and he lost his job. He picked up work chopping second growth fir into cordwood. From this experience he entered the logger’s life moving into regular logging camps going to the smaller camps because they gave him a greater variety of jobs and skills to learn. His specialty became felling which involves cutting the top off the tree and bucking. He still occasionally worked at these in his mid-sixties.

In 1941, Griffiths read in the paper that Maple Leaf Publishing was about to be launched. Encouraged by his wife Margaret whom he had married in 1940, he took some western strips he had done earlier into Vern Miller the editor who was also a cartoonist. He asked Griffiths if he had any other ideas and Griffith told him he had thought of a cartoon story on logging. Miller liked the idea. Thus the original “Now Your Loggin” began in Rocket Comics. Although the original drawing was crude this series proved so popular that Maple Leaf asked Griffiths to revive his first proposal which became a second series “Son of the Range” – a western. At the same time he produced an educational eight page comic book about logging for the B.C. government. This project points at a future direction.

While the stories remained poplar Griffiths didn’t have the time to do both them and his logging job and so in 1943 he dropped the two series.

By 1961 he retired from logging and went into commercial fishing. Encouraged by his wife and using her dressed in logging clothes as a model he taught himself to paint and began a series of oil paintings illustrating the logging world he had known. But he was a reluctant painter. “I’d paint a little, leave it and go back. I’m an outdoor man when the weather’s good I couldn’t sit inside and paint. I had to wait for a foul day.” These paintings were distinguished by his commitment to accurate detail. The Provincial Museum of British Columbia mounted an exhibit of them in the spring and summer of 1971. The entire series was purchased by the Courtney Museum.

An article about the paintings stimulated an enquiry from the logging magazine BC Lumberman in 1973 which inspired Bus to revive the “Now Your Loggin” series from Rocket Comics but this time emphasizing the lifestyle of the loggers rather than the adventure aspect. After publishing a couple of episodes the BC Lumberman was forced to discontinue it for financial reasons. However, Griffiths continued to work on the project more or less continuously for the next five years. The result was Now Your Logging one of the earliest graphic novels produced in Canada. The novel appeared in excerpt form in three issues of the journal Raincoast Chronicles. It won the Eaton’s B.C. Book Award and sold out it two years. It was reprinted in 1992.The originals are now housed in the B.C. Provincial Museum.

During his final years Griffiths was writing a series of short prose stories about his logging career. He experienced a stroke in 2003 and lived under extended care until he died of prostate cancer in Comox B.C. September 25, 2006 at the age of 93 years.

Griffiths’ work is notable not so much for its story telling capacity as for its accuracy in portraying a way of life now gone. For that reason, Griffiths seems to fit best in that group of Canadian illustrators/cartoonists also represented by the likes of C.W. Jefferies and Gordon Johnston (“It Happened In Canada”) who focused on describing Canada’s history and heritage through cartooning and painting.

WORK:

CARTOONIST:

BOOK GRAPHIC:

Content novel & Cover dust jacket front & back:

Now Your Logging. Harbour Publishing, 1978.

PERIODICAL GRAPHIC ANTHOLOGY:

Content serial:

Rocket Comics …: “Now Your Loggin’ :… Maple Leaf Publishing Co. Black & white.
1-4, June-May 1942: 3-9.	1-5, July – Aug.1942: 31-37.	1-8, Jan.-Feb.1942[3]: 36-42.

PERIODICAL TEXT & GRAPHIC ANTHOLOGY:

Content story graphic:

Raincoast Chronicles….: “Now Your Loggin’ Raincoast Historical Society…:
6, no date: 35-45.	7. no date: 25-32.

Content story graphic & Cover inside front & back:

Raincoast Chronicles no number, no date: “The Old Chinese Shingle Bolt Camp.” Raincoast Historical Society: 24-29.

ILLUSTRATOR:

BOOK TEXT:

Content poetry & Cover book front :

Bush Poems. Writ., Peter Trower. Harbour Publishing, 1978.

SOURCE:

Article book:

The Canadian Alternative: Cartoonists, Comics, and Graphic Novels. Ed., Dominick Grace & Eric Hoffman. University Press of Mississippi, 2018: “Alternatives Within An Alternative Form.” Writ., Ivan Kocmarek: 3-15.

Article periodical:

The Beaver June/July 2005 “With Axe and Saw.” Writ., Paula Wild: 29-33.

The Comics Journal 187, May 1996:                                                                                            “Beyond the Grid up in the Woods…” Writ., Shawn Conner.:111-112.                                “Interview Bus Griffiths: Beyond The Grid Of The Woods”: 113+.

Raincoast Chronicles. No date: “Now Your Logging.” (Review). Writ., Tony Robertson.:23.

Article newspaper:

Globe and Mail, Dec. 2006: “Bus Griffiths Logger and Artist 1913-2006.” (Obituary). Writ., Grant Shilling: 8.

Vancouver Magazine (?) “Now You’re Logging: Bus Griffiths: Logger & Comic Strip Artist.” Writ., Peter Trower: 32

West Coast News…: “ “The Westcoast’s Most Unique Artist … “ Writ., Peter Trower.
10, July 1979: “Pt. 1”: 4+ 17 July 1979: “Pt. 2”: 4+.	24 July 1979: “Pt. 3”:4+. 31 July 1979: “Pt. 4”: 4+.
With some additions this series is a reprint of “Now You’re Logging: Buss Griffiths: Logger & Comic Strip Artist”. Vancouver Magazine.

GALLERY:

 Rocket Comics, 1-4, May-June 1942: 3.

 The Beaver, 85-3, June/July, 2005: 28.

 

GRIFFIN VIC

WORK:

WRITER:

BOOK TEXT & GRAPHIC ANTHOLOGY:

Content story text:

Thrilling Stories For Boys. Bell Features & Publishing, no date.                                                      “Sparks Sails The Seven Seas.” Illus, Murray Karn.                                                          “Buried In The Skies.” Illus., Adrian Dingle.

PERIODICAL GRAPHIC ANTHOLOGY:                                                                          All published by Bell Features & Publishing.

Content story text:

Active Comics, … no date: “…” …

9: “The Cockney Ranchero”: Illus., Murray Karn. 11-17. 10: “Icebound Road At the Aurora Borealis.” Illus., Murray Karn.: 20-22. 11: “He Didn’t Like The Army”: Illus., Murray Karn. 42-45. 12: “It Was A Hun-ny Of A Trip.” Illus., Murray Karn.: 41-46. 13: “Hi-jacking Davey Jones’ Locker.” Illus., Adrian Dingle: 36-40.

Wow Comics, 13, no date: “Viva La Presidente.” Illus., unidentified, (probably Murray Karn)..

GREY Xan

WORK:

ILLUSTRATOR:

BOOK GRAPHIC ANTHOLOGY:                                                                                    All published by Toronto Comics Anthology. Editor Steven Andrews et al.

Content story:

Toronto Comics Anthology, 2014: “The Ghost Of Maple Leaf Gardens.” Writ., Steven Andrews: 37-44.

Toronto Comics v. 2. May 2015: “Home. ”Writ., Mark Foo: 1-11.

Toronto Comics, v. 3.  May 2016: “Lofty Aspirations.” Writ., B.C. Holmes. 34-45.

CO-ILLUSTRATOR:

BOOK GRAPHIC ANTHOLOGY:

Content story:

Epic Canadiana, v.2. Ed., Bevan Thomas. Cloudscape Comics Society, Oct. 2015: “Sgt Sawchuk & The Red Surge: Mayhem In Stampede City.” Writ., Nelson da Rocha. Co-illus., Stephany Lein. 41-54.

GREY OWL

This costumed character was created by J. Bone and was part of a set of characters appearing in True Patriot. He first appeared however as a cover illustration on Owl magazine about a year earlier.

The stories are lighthearted and humorous. There is an ecological flavour to them. In Grey Owl vs. Big Foot a Sasquatch type creature who it turns out is an alien, Grey Owl tries to rescue a turtle from it, except that it is also trying to rescue the turtle. In the second story the villain if you can call her that is “Bee-Dazzler” who thwarts Grey Owl with the help of her bees (who don’t sting) and pollen. Grey Owl solves the case through a beautiful play on words using alliteration, and renders “Bee-Dazzler’s” bees ineffective by distracting them with plants whose names begin with “B”. The final story sees Grey Owl counseling Tundra of the Family Dynamic together.

There is no origin story but it would be nice to think that J. Bone when creating this character was inspired by Archie Belaney who in the persona of “Grey Owl” was one of Canada’s earliest environmentalists.

 

MEDIUM:

BOOK GRAPHIC ANTHOLOGY:

Content serial:

True Patriot: All New Canadian Comic Book Adventures. Ed., J. Torres. True Patriot Comics, 2013: “The Grey Owl vs. Bigfoot.” Car., J. Bone: 33-41.

True Patriot: Heroes Of The Great White North. Ed., J. Torres. True Patriot Comics, 2014: “The Grey Owl vs, The Bee-Dazzler.” Car., J. Bone: 39-44.

PERIODICAL GRAPHIC ANTHOLOGY:

Content story:

True Patriot Presents, 1, Nov. 2016. “Grey & Family Dynamic: A Lesson In Thunderland.” Writ., J. Torres. Illus., J. Bone.

PERIODICAL TEXT & GRAPHIC ANTHOLOGY:

Content information & Cover front:

Owl, March 2012. “The ABCs of Comics.” Illus., J. Bone: 12-13.

GALLERY:

 An early version of “Grey Owl.” Owl, March 2012: Front cover. Illus., J. Bone.

True Patriot, 1, Nov. 2016: “A Lesson In Thunderland.” Writ., J. Torres. Illus., J. Bone.

GREGOIRE Andrew

A Toronto based animator since 2004 and cartooning since 2011. He created the webcomic “ARG!”

WORK:

CARTOONIST:

BOOK GRAPHIC ANTHOLOGY:

Content story:

Toronto Comics, v. 3, Ed., Steve Andrews et al. Toronto Comics Anthology, May 2016: “Just In Time”: 14-19.

SOURCE:

Article book:

Toronto Comics, v. 3, May 2016: “Andrew “ARG!” Gregoire”: 13.

GRÉGOIRE Norman

WORK:

WRITER:

BOOK GRAPHIC:

Content novel:

La petite patrie. Illus., Julie Rocheleau. L’Éditions de la Pastèque, 2015.

GREEN T.G.

He specialized in illustrating stories of rural Ontario life. His work appeared in the Courier and Presbyterian publications.

SOURCE:

Article periodical:

Canadian Bookman, Jan. 1919: “Some Canadian Illustrators. “ Writ., St. George Burgoyne: 24.

GREEN EARTH CRUSADERS

Erik Sansom, a resident of Stratford Ontario in 1991, at age 32 launched “Green Earth Crusaders”: At its initiation in the “Starship” section of the Toronto Star on January 13, 1991 it was syndicated in 12 newspapers. In 1995 it was still a feature in “Starship”. It was an instructional cartoon whose theme was the environment. The principal characters were a dinosaur, an alien and a robot.

MEDIUM:

NEWSPAPER:

Content cartoon strip:

Toronto Star: “The Green Earth Crusaders.” Car., Erik Sansom. Jan.13 1991: F8. Last known appearance April 16, 1995:F7.

SOURCE:

Article newspaper:

Toronto Star 13 Jan.1991: “Meet the artist behind Starship’s new cartoon.” Writ., Pippa Wysong: F8.

GALLERY:

 Toronto Star, 21 Apr. 1991.

GREAT BEASTS OF THE NORTH [THE]

Although the Cloudscape Comics Society team appear to have created their own “Great Beasts of the North” aka “Paatoqjook”, it is highly likely they got the idea from Marvel’s “Great Beasts of the North” which John Byrne first unveiled in Alpha Fight, 1-24, July 1985.

The Cloudscape “Beasts” are Tokioq, the Slaughterer; Dagoko, the She-Devourer; Sashi, the Dark Whisperer; Amarok, the Hunter; Witiko, the Cold Cannibal. They appear in the “Ikniqpalagaq” stories in both Epic Canadiana, v.1. and Epic Canadiana, v.2.

In the description cited below, they are described as inhabiting the arctic before the arrival of man, being defeated by the shamans of the “Thule” who trapped them in various charms. These charms over the millennia have been weakening and it is possible for an evil shaman like Kalatok or natural disaster to set them free,

SOURCE:

Article book:

Epic Canadiana, v.1.Ed., Bevan  Thomas. Cloudscape Comics Society, 2013: “Great Beasts Of The North.” Writ., Bevan Thomas.  Illus., Jeri Weaver: 130.