We pack a lot into the pages of every issue of Kayak, but there’s always more great stuff we just can’t fit in. So join Teeka and Beau, our otter mascots, to find out more about the theme of each issue, or just pick up some random bits of Canadian history.

More About the Comics

Our Best-Known Unknown Cartoonist

Between 1949 and 1980, if you’d mentioned the names “Doug Wright” or “Nipper,” everybody would have known who you meant. The first was the creator of the second. Doug Wright published weekly “Nipper” comics in Montreal. They had few words, and showed the adventures of a young boy. When Wright moved to Ontario, he renamed the strip “Doug Wright’s Family.” He was a talented artist who could tell a whole story just with his careful black and white line drawings, sometimes accented with a bit of red. His work was forgotten by much of Canada until 2005, when the Doug Wright awards were created to honour the best Canadian cartoons and cartoonists. The trophy features characters from “Nipper.”

Comics en français

If you don’t know about the great French-language science magazine for Canadian kids, you should! And even if you don’t speak the language, you’ll get a smile from the comics, known as bandes dessinées, on its website.

The Amazing Aislin

Terry Mosher has been drawing editorial cartoons under the name Aislin (his oldest daughter’s name) for the Montreal Gazette for decades. He is considered one of the best ever in Canada. His work pokes fun at just about everyone, from leaders in Montreal to 40 years’ worth of prime ministers. You can see a gallery of his work here. 

Comic Crackdown

If you read Alex Diochon’s comic in our September issue, you know all about the time when governments in Canada and the United States decided that comic books were messing with kids’ minds. In both places, politicians felt comics were making kids do bad things, and passed laws to make comics less violent and creepy. This CBC Radio clip from 1949 gives you some idea of what worried adults were thinking.