Thoughts on The Collected Doug Wright

The Collected Doug Wright, Vol 1 by Seth & Brad Mackay, Drawn & Quarterly, 2009

I was looking over some old posts and was shocked that it has been nearly four years since I wrote about Doug Wright and his cartoons in Model Railroader magazine. The pandemic has definitely screwed up my perception of time.

I thought, fine, I wonder if I can find a copy of The Collected Doug Wright: Canada's Master Cartoonist. I tried back in the fall of 2020 when I wrote the post, but found that new copies were long sold out from the usual sources, and used ones had prices that were too rich for my blood. It was published in 2009, so I guess by 2020 it shouldn't be surprising that it was hard to find.

As it turns out though I'm having good luck this summer finding long sought after books at reasonable prices. Some I've discussed here, others are waiting in the wings. It turned out there were two new copies at Amazon for $39.95CDN with free shipping. The one they shipped had the cover banner torn off and some dents in the cover, but inside it was just fine. 

Apparently, this is the first volume of a planned two volume series. It covers Wright's cartoons and illustration work, in particular The Nipper, from 1949 up until the end of 1962. To the end of '62 you say? Wright's first MR cartoon appeared in the Dec '62 issue and was a reprint of one that appeared earlier in the Montreal Star. I'll cut to the chase, no it isn't in the book. On page 75, Seth has this to say by way of explanation,

"Wright did a great deal of work for the Montreal Standard, the Weekend magazine, and the Montreal Star throughout the 1950s and 60s. Alas, most of that work is very hard to find today - hidden away wherever great piles of yesterday's newsprint goes to hide. Even Wright's personal files only provide a scattershot collection of tearsheets - many of them torn or stained with aging glue."

So, I shouldn't be surprised the original cartoon wasn't in the book. Maybe those MR scans are the only remaining images of his model railroading oriented cartoons: there were 6 published in MR between Dec '62 and Oct '69.

And, no, there weren't any other model railroading cartoon surprises in the book - no mention of model railroading at all even though MR had noted Wright's interest in the Dec '62 story. Although there is a hilarious cartoon involving a PCC streetcar and the Nipper and his girl friend on page 94. 

But, on page 30 Mackay notes that Wright had a love for any sort of moving vehicle, especially cars, and had a passion for drawing them anytime he could. The book's pages provide ample evidence of his mastery. Mackay notes that at one time Wright did a car culture cartoon strip called The Wheels. This makes me wonder if any Wright cartoons appeared in CARtoons magazine, a car culture comics magazine that began publishing in 1959? If he sold cartoons to MR, it doesn't seem like much of a stretch that someone who was crazy about cars, and who could draw cars and cartoons like he did, would try to sell some to CARtoons. 

It's also mentioned Wright sold prints of his drawings of steam engines via mail order, which corroborates the statement in the Oct '64 MR about Wright selling steam engine prints.

Model railroading aside, the book is excellent and quite a bargain. I remember Nipper cartoons from the late '60s and '70s when the strip was called Doug Wright's Family. Frankly, back then it made little impression on me, possibly because it seemed to be oriented to adults and not children. The cartoons in this book are before my time, but reading them now, decades after they were published, well, I can't put them down. They are great. My favourites? The one from 9 August 1958 on page 185, and the one on page 194 from 13 June 1959. 

The book says it's the first of a two volume set. I've seen no sign of a second volume covering the last half of Wright's career. Given the first volume was published in 2009, and since it's 2024, maybe there'll never be one. That would be unfortunate.