News’ cartoonist’s

huge success no
laughing matter

DRAW A funnier editorial cartoon and the world will beat

a path to your drafting table.

That’s been the case for Adrian
Raeside why, at age 32, is one of
the most popular editorial car-
toonists in Canada. From his home
in Victoria, Raeside syndicates his
own cartoons to newspapers across
the country, including the North
Shore News.

Working through an American
syndicate, Raeside’s work also ap-
pears throughout the United States
and occasionally even overseas. So
many publications now carry his
work that at least one Raeside car-
toon is probably published some-
where in North America every day
of the year. .

It’s been quite a success story
for this young man, all made :
possible by his unique talents as an
artist, a social commentator and
above all, a humorist.

Raeside was born in New
Zealand. His sense of humor, ex-
pressed through his art, showed up
at an early age. He remembers his
Sunday school teachers repri-
manding him for drawing the
Three Kings riding motorcycles,
and for illustrating a hot dog roast
at the burning bush.

His father, working in New
Zealand’s diplomatic service,
moved the family to England for a
year and later to Canada. The
family settled on Salt Spring Island
where Ragside attended high
school.

Success as an artist did not come
immediately. As a teenager he tried
syndicating a cartoon strip set in
the Middle Ages to newspapers but
found no takers.

“T think I sent it out to about
300 papers and { think I got about
340 rejection slips. Some peopie
sent me two, just so I’d get the
hint,”’ he recalled.

His mother Joan was writing

to all concerned.

of being seen on schedule.

the iowest budget possible.

To your health

he move towards establishing after-hours medi-
eal clinics on the North Shore will be of benefit

Congestion in the emergency ward — where people
with injuries sometimes have to wait hours to be
treated — should decrease as a result of the after-hours
access to the non-emergency clinics.

Because they will be able to consult a physician if a
concern does arise after hours, people won’t be forced
to call their family doctor for an appointment the next
day. As a result, doctors won’t have to juggie their
time to 2ccommodate such callers, and those who have
booked appointments in advance have a greater chance

And if people are hesitant to ge to the emergency
ward, doubtful of the ‘“‘emergency’’ nature of their
case, the medica! clinics will provide reassurance, in-
formation and such first aid as is necessary.

People who have busy jobs will also benefit — if
they are unable to get away from work, they can make
2 trip to the clinic on the way home.

Economically, the news is good, too. Although the
quality of service is enhanced by providing after-hours
clinics, health care costs won’t skyrocket as 2 result.
Patients will not be increasing their usage of the
health-care system — in most cases, they will simply be
seeing a doctor in a different time slot.

It’s refreshing to witness such a win-win situation in
an industry that is often torn by the conflicting de-
mands of providing the best health care ava‘lable with

children’s books and asked
Raeside to illustrate them. It was
thus at age 18 ie saw his first
published work.

Meanwhile, he tried other jobs,
working in pulp mills, a grain ele-
vator, and as a land surveyor.
Nothing caught his fancy. When
he got turned down for a job asa
vacuum cleaner salesman he real-
ized his best bet was probably in
his drawing.

“So I started doing editorial
cartoons, sending them out to
various weekly newspapers around
the province (in 1976). I got two
papers that said, ‘Yeah, we’li run
them.’ I thought, What do I do
now?”

He plunged ahead and launched
his career as an editorial car-
toonist, selling his work for $2 a
cartoon.

“Over the months I kept sending
out more and more sample

packages,”’ he said. ‘‘At the end of

the year I had 10 papers and it just
went from there.”?”

His persistence in lobbying the
editors at The Tinzes-Colonist in
Victoria led to their running his
cartcons, starting out three to four
times a week at $8 a cartoon. His
cartoons are now published in The
Times-Colonist six days a week.

His career took another upward
turn when Miller Services in
Toronto agreed in the late 1970s to
syndicate his work to 30 to 40
papers through Canada. When the
owner died, Raeside took over the
syndication of his own work. He
now sends his work out to about
100 papers.

“] felt I could do it better than

| (EANWHILE,ON A ORU

NORTH SHORE News editorial cartoonist Adrian Racside is proving popular all over the world, not just

ets.

photo by Tom Unger

localiy. He draws his thought-provoking artwork in his home office in Victoria.

anybody else. I can deal with the
editors directly. I mail directly ....
so it sped up the process. And I
enjoy the business side of it. It’s
fun,’’ he said.

He read an ariicle about Car-
toonists and Writers Syndicate in
New York City and approached
them about distributing his work.
The syndicate now includes him in
its roster of cartoonists from which
it picks the best six to send to
papers across the United States
and around the world on a weekly
basis.

The American syndicate has put
Raeside in papers he otherwise
might not have a chance of selling
to.

“They sent me a tear sheet of
one of my cartoons which was run
in Russia,’’ he said, as if amazed
by his own success. His cartoons
have also appeared in publications .
throughout Europe, Scandinavia
and the Far East.

BCS NODE PASSAGE

Publisher
Associate Editor
North Shore News,
suburban ne

esday, Friday and Sunday by

SE SHPIN

Leen ee Peter Speck
Managing Editor... . Barrett Fisher
Lees Noe! Wright
Advertising Directer . Linda Stewart
. founded in 1969 as an independent

ewspaper and qualified under Schedule 111,
Paragraph I) of the Excise Tax Act, is published each

North Shore Free
fo every door on the North

He works each morning in his
airy studio at home. He does a
rough sketch and then checks with
his editor at The Times-Colonist to
make sure he is not straying into
libelous territory before producing
his finished cartoon in pen and
ink.

He scours the daily papers, tele-
vision, radio, and news magazines
for topics to draw.

“It’s amazing what you can turn
into an idea,”’ he said.

A cartoon takes between one
and four hours to produce, depen-
ding on the subject.

Being a cartoonist is a full-time
job, After meeting his Times-
Colonist deadline, he spends his
afternoons with correspondence,
freelance assignments and the

NOEL WRIGHT ON VACATION

1139 Lonsdale Avenue,
North Vancouver, B.C.
V7M 2H4

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Friday & Sunday)

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paperwork involved in running his
own syndicate, such as the billing
and mailing of the cartoons.

As his abilities and the number
of papers publishing his work in-
creased, so have his prices. He now
earns between $20 and $100 for a
cartoon, depending on the circula-
tion of the paper printing it.

His talents have given him a
six-figure salary, a shorefront
home in an affluent section, and a
38-foot yacht. But financial -
rewards are not the sole reason
behind Raeside’s drive for ex~
cellence.

“Editorial cartooning is not just
working for a wage. We all have a
certain message we want to get
across, a point or view or whatever
we care about,”’ he said.

MEMBER

metena