Douglas Austin Wright (August 11, 1917 – January 3, 1983) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

cartoonist, best known for his weekly comic strip ''Doug Wright's Family'' (1949–1980; also known as ''Nipper'') . The

Doug Wright Award The Doug Wright Awards for Canadian Cartooning (established in December 2004) are literary awards handed out annually since 2005 during the Toronto Comic Arts Festival to Canadian cartoonists honouring excellence in comics (including webcomics) ...

s are named after him to honour excellence in Canadian cartooning.

Biography

After emigrating to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

in 1938, Wright worked as an

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicat ...

at an insurance company before serving in the

Royal Canadian Air Force The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; french: Aviation royale canadienne, ARC) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environm ...

during World War Two. It was here that his cartoons of fellow servicemen first drew the eye of a magazine editor. After freelancing in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

for a few years after the war, Wright took over ''Juniper Junction'' in 1948 after its creator,

Jimmy Frise The Canadian cartoonist James Llewellyn Frise (, 16 October 1891 – 13 June 1948) is best known for his work on the comic strip ''Birdseye '' and his illustrations of humorous prose pieces by Greg Clark. Born in Scugog Island, Ontario, F ...

, died suddenly. Within a year, Wright launched a wordless and untitled gag strip about a little boy for the ''

Montreal Standard The ''Montreal Standard'', later known as ''The Standard'', was a national weekly pictorial newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, founded by Hugh Graham. It operated from 1905 to 1951. History The Standard began publishing in 1905 as a Saturda ...

'' (called ''The Weekend'' magazine after 1951). Eventually entitled ''Nipper'', the strip switched to ''The Canadian'', another national weekly newspaper supplement, in 1967 and the name was changed to ''Doug Wright's Family''. Wright suffered a stroke in March 1980, and had another stroke on January 3, 1983. He died the next day in hospital at the age of 65. ''Nipper'' was a wordless masterpiece, capturing suburban Canadian life with wit and a keen eye, and ran uninterrupted for more than three decades. Wright also drew several other strips, including ''Max & Mini'', ''Cynthia'' and ''The Wheels'', and a series of editorial cartoons which were collected during the seventies. Wright moved from Montreal to

Burlington, Ontario Burlington is a city in the Regional Municipality of Halton at the northwestern end of Lake Ontario in Ontario, Canada. Along with Milton to the north, it forms the western end of the Greater Toronto Area and is also part of the Hamilton met ...

in 1966. He was married to Phyllis Sanford, and had three sons: William (1953-2020), James and Kenneth. In 2005, the

Doug Wright Awards The Doug Wright Awards for Canadian Cartooning (established in December 2004) are literary awards handed out annually since 2005 during the Toronto Comic Arts Festival to Canadian cartoonists honouring excellence in comics (including webcomics ...

, named in Wright's honour, recognizing Canadian cartoonists and graphic novelists, were founded. Wright himself was amongst the inaugural inductees into the

Canadian Cartoonist Hall of Fame The Canadian Cartoonist Hall of Fame, formally known as Giants of the North: The Canadian Cartoonist Hall of Fame, honours significant lifelong contributions to the art of Cartoonist, cartooning in Canada. History and Structure The Giants of the ...

(also known as Giants of the North). In Spring 2009,

Drawn & Quarterly Drawn & Quarterly is a publishing company based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, specializing in comics. It publishes primarily comic books, graphic novels and comic strip collections. The books it publishes are noted for their artistic content, ...

Books published the first volume of a

retrospective A retrospective (from Latin ''retrospectare'', "look back"), generally, is a look back at events that took place, or works that were produced, in the past. As a noun, ''retrospective'' has specific meanings in medicine, software development, popu ...

of Wright's life and career. Designed and compiled by

Guelph, Ontario Guelph ( ; 2021 Canadian Census population 143,740) is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Known as "The Royal City", Guelph is roughly east of Kitchener and west of Downtown Toronto, at the intersection of Highway 6, Highway 7 and Welli ...

-based cartoonist

Seth Seth,; el, Σήθ ''Sḗth''; ; "placed", "appointed") in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Mandaeism, and Sethianism, was the third son of Adam and Eve and brother of Cain and Abel, their only other child mentioned by name in the Hebrew Bible. A ...

, the project (''Doug Wright: Canada's Master Cartoonist'') contains a biographical essay on Wright, and is the first book-length study of the prolific artist. They also published strip reprints of ''Nipper'', starting in 2011. Three volumes have been published covering 1963–1964, 1965–1966 and 1967-1968.

Bibliography

Collected editions

* **''Volume Two'' (TBA) * * *

References

External links

*
Paul Soles interviews Doug Wright on CBC's "Take 30", Oct. 25, 1968
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Doug 1917 births 1983 deaths Canadian cartoonists Canadian comics artists Canadian comics writers Canadian editorial cartoonists People from Dover, Kent English expatriates in Canada

Biography

Bibliography

Collected editions

See also

References

External links