Albéric Bourgeois (November 29, 1876 – November 17, 1962) was a Canadian

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comics illustrators/artists in that they produce both the litera ...

, credited with creating the first continuing

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics terminology#Captio ...

to use word balloons in Canada.

Personal history and career

Albéric Bourgeois was born November 29, 1876. He studied

fine arts In European academic traditions, fine art (or, fine arts) is made primarily for aesthetics or creativity, creative expression, distinguishing it from popular art, decorative art or applied art, which also either serve some practical function ...

Montréal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

until 1899, and continued in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, where he then landed a job at ''

The Boston Post ''The Boston Post'' was a daily newspaper in New England for over a hundred years before its final shutdown in 1956. The ''Post'' was founded in November 1831 by two prominent Boston businessmen, Charles G. Greene and William Beals. Edwin Groz ...

'' where he was producing '' The Education of Annie'' in 1902. He started at the newspaper '' La Patrie'' when he returned to Montréal in 1903. He did

political cartoons A political cartoon, also known as an editorial cartoon, is a cartoon graphic with caricatures of public figures, expressing the artist's opinion. An artist who writes and draws such images is known as an editorial cartoonist. They typically co ...

, as well as the comic strip '' Les Aventures de Timothée'', which may have been the first continuing Québécois

. Later, he spent 25 years as cartoonist for '' La Presse'', where he created a number of series, including '' Les Aventures de Toinon'' from 1905 to 1908, and '' Les Fables du Parc Lafontaine'' from 1906 to 1908. In February 1905, he took over '' Le Père Ladébauche'' from Joseph Charlebois. This was the most famous comic strip in Québec at the time, and he continued with it until his 1957 retirement, also adapting ''Ladébauche'' for the

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a Stage (theatre), stage. The performe ...

. He also created the humorous

radio play Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatised, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine ...

, '' Joson Josette''. Bourgeois died on 11 November 1962 and was entombed at the

Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery (, ) is a rural cemetery located in the borough of Côte-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, which was founded in 1854. The entrance and the grounds run along a part of Côte-des-Neiges Ro ...

in Montreal. He became one of the inaugural cartoonists inducted into the Canadian Cartoonist Hall of Fame in 2005.

References

External links

The Canadian Cartoonist Hall of Fame

; 1876 births 1962 deaths Canadian editorial cartoonists Canadian comics artists Canadian comics writers Canadian humorists Quebec comics Burials at Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery The Boston Post people Canadian expatriates in the United States {{Canadian-comics-creator-stub