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My Path To Syndication, PART 3: Step Aside, Thor
By Paul | November 23, 2008
So it was that I entered the advertising phase of my career. By year three of college I was an advertising major with editorial minor. (For those of you who don’t know, “editorial” is illustration for articles in magazines, newspapers, etc.) I graduated Sheridan College and quickly found work as a night-watchman at a tractor factory. I was supposed to patrol the grounds while a senior watchman manned the front gate, but I’d find an empty board room and spend the night watching movies and drawing comics. I figured it made no difference, since if I saw anybody robbing I wasn’t about to confront them weaponless and at minimum wage.Then I got my first job at an ad agency. It was a pay cut. I worked on the “stat machine”, a now outdated piece of equipment which was really a glorified photocopier on which you would make photo-prints of lettering and such for paste-up (before computers made paste-up obsolete). I worked in a darkroom 8 hours a day and began to resemble Gollum. Just before my skin became completely luminescent and I lost all social skills they made me a junior in the art department and I got access to fun assignments and daylight.About a year later my editorial teacher from college recommended me for an on-staff illustration job at the Ottawa Citizen Newspaper. Because they didn’t want all the art to look like it was done by the same person they encouraged me to experiment with as many different styles as possible, the combination of unionized job security and complete artistic freedom has probably never been heard of anywhere in the art world. Over the next 8 years I estimate I did probably 5,000 pieces of art for that paper. A few samples:
And the peace tower logo I drew for the masthead, my legacy of sorts:
Topics: Path To Syndication |
Comments
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November 23rd, 2008 at 4:19 pm
I can see some shades of the Pooch Cafe style in the first one, showing the airplane seats (at least, it looks like Coach class to me…) Not identical, but the similarities are there…
November 23rd, 2008 at 7:38 pm
Oh neat, I didn’t know you did the Citizen’s masthead. I hope the Citizen was one of the first to pick you up when you got syndicated.
November 23rd, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Paul, how nice of you to share all of that with us. It was delightful to read.
Whatever fates awaited you, brought you to create Pooch Cafe’, so even the night watchman thing had to be worth it in the long run…right???
Plus how many people can say they did that kind of job? Kind of sounds cool, in a Barney Fife sort of way…and that’s a good thing!
Lulu
November 23rd, 2008 at 11:21 pm
Wow, you’re the guy who did the Peace Tower for the Citizen’s masthead? I appreciate you all the more.
Nice work.
November 24th, 2008 at 12:28 am
Thanks guys, glad you’re enjoying my little saunters down memory lane. More steps along the way to Poncho.
November 25th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
Paul, you are a terrific artist! The right side of your brain must take up most of your skull to have all this packed into it.