Leonard Matheson Norris, better known as Len Norris (1913 in

London, England London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major s ...

– 1997 in Langley, British Columbia, Canada), was a longtime

editorial cartoonist An editorial cartoonist, also known as a political cartoonist, is an artist who draws editorial cartoons that contain some level of political or social commentary. Their cartoons are used to convey and question an aspect of daily news or curren ...

for the Canadian newspaper ''

Vancouver Sun The ''Vancouver Sun'', also known as the ''Sun'', is a daily broadsheet newspaper based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The newspaper is currently published by the Pacific Newspaper Group, a division of Postmedia Network. Published s ...

'' from 1950 to 1988. Called by

Walt Kelly Walter Crawford Kelly Jr. (August 25, 1913 – October 18, 1973), commonly known as Walt Kelly, was an American animator and cartoonist, best known for the comic strip '' Pogo''. He began his animation career in 1936 at Walt Disney Studios, contr ...

, the creator of Pogo, "the best in the business", Norris' cartoons skewered the foibles of British Columbia politics and social mores with a barbed pencil. His intricate drawings were full of subtle detail, with several sideplots tucked into the frame, with everything from sardonic pictures on the living room wall to what the kids or the cat are doing in the corner while the main action is going on, typically with painfully ironic dialogue. Norris cartoons remain popular today even though much of their original political or social context is gone. Recurring themes and characters in Norris cartoons included the sarcastic Amblesnide and Tiddlycove, a parody of the tweedy

West Vancouver West Vancouver is a district municipality in the province of British Columbia, Canada. A member municipality of the Metro Vancouver Regional District, West Vancouver is to the northwest of the city of Vancouver on the northern side of English Ba ...

neighbourhoods of Ambleside and Dundarave; "Rodney", a

caricature A caricature is a rendered image showing the features of its subject in a simplified or exaggerated way through sketching, pencil strokes, or other artistic drawings (compare to: cartoon). Caricatures can be either insulting or complimentary, a ...

of an Anglo-centric monarchical Canadian; the " Socred cow" for the British Columbia government's

liquor stores A liquor store is a retail shop that predominantly sells prepackaged liquors – typically in bottles – usually intended to be consumed off the store's premises. Depending on region and local idiom, they may also be called an off-licence ( ...

; and lampoons of the

Pacific Great Eastern Railway The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

. A copy of his cartoon, showing a mythical day in the famed Studio G at CBC Radio on Jarvis Street sometime in the early 1960s, illustrating some of the luminaries of the great days of radio, has been preserved in the resurrected Celebrity Club at PAL Place in Toronto as a 15-foot mural. Len Norris received an honorary doctorate from the

University of Windsor , mottoeng = Goodness, Discipline and Knowledge , established = , academic_affiliations = CARL, COU, Universities Canada , former_names = Assumption College (1857-1956)Assumption University of Windsor (1956-1963) , type = Public universit ...

. One of his famous "Brockton Oval" cricket cartoons was re-produced on a limited edition T-shirt for the University of Windsor's "Senior Seminar" participants in the 1960s. There is still a small private collection of both his sketches and his final art work cartoons held by a collector of political cartoons in the Windsor, Ontario, region.Dr. C. L Brown-John, Editorial Columnist

References

External links

Simon Fraser University Len Norris Collection introThe SFU Library Editorial Cartoons Collection
*http://www.vancouversun.com/news/This+history+Award+winning+cartoonist+born+England/9234373/story.html 1913 births 1997 deaths Canadian editorial cartoonists Vancouver Sun people British emigrants to Canada {{Canadian-comics-creator-stub