Meet Vance Rodewalt
 "Mother can you spare a room?" painted for The Wall Street Journal, 2013. It's about 30-year-olds who still live at home with their parents. | |
| Author | Robert Lafontaine |
|---|---|
| Subject | Vance Rodewalt |
| Genre | Interview |
| Published | EF Issue 2015.4 |
Publication date | Fall 2015 |
| Pages | 27-29 |
| Website |
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An interview with Canadian cartoonist Vance Rodewalt found on pages 27-29 of EF Issue 2015.4
Article Transcript
Q: You have worked in Mad Magazine, Cracked, Marvel in your early days. What cartoons were you drawing in those years and what made you eventually stop your collaboration with these magazines?
A: I went to New York in the early seventies hoping to get a job working for Mad Magazine. My heroes all worked there, Mort Drucker, Jack Davis, George Woodbridge, and the wacky Don Martin. They weren't looking for anybody to hire at the time but they were impressed enough that their art director John Putnam sent me down the street to see Marvel Comics. They were launching a satire magazine called Parody and I was hired to illustrate movie and TV parodies ala Mort Drucker. I did this for 5 years and quit. Why? Because I didn't want to be a Mort Drucker clone. Later, Cracked magazine called and made me a nice offer and I broke down and worked for them until they were bought out and they lowered their art rates.
Q: As you know, a majority of members of EF magazine do live caricature for a living. According to you, what is the most difficult side of this type of work? Did you draw live models in gigs?
A: I was in high school when I got my first gig doing live caricatures for an advertising agency at a grand opening. I was very nervous. Even the mayor was there. I got $100 plus expenses! I thought I'd hit the jackpot! I've done many since then and I usually enjoy the people but it's hard work. It also bothers me that after people pay a small amount for a caricature that they then see all cartoon/caricature work as cheap and quick.
Q: When did you start publishing cartoons in major editorial Canadian newspapers?
A: My first editorial cartoon was published in the Edmonton Journal and was about jaywalking. At the time, I was doing advertising cartoons for commercial publications in Edmonton in a magazine called The Roughneck. It seemed to me that drawing only one cartoon a day that you could spend a lot of time on was a wonderful concept. I knew nothing about politics. Yardley Jones had left the Edmonton Journal to go and work for the Toronto Telegram so there was an opening. Edd Uluschak who had also worked for the Roughneck got the job. I had to wait until Sid Barron had left the Calgary Albertan to go to Victoria before I got another chance. This time I got the job and I worked there for 10 years before the Albertan was bought out by the new Calgary Sun. I worked for the Calgary Sun until 1983 when the Calgary Herald publisher lured me away to work at the Calgary Herald.
Q: In 1988, you won the National Newspaper Award for Cartooning. In 1992, you served as President of the Association of Canadian Editorial Cartoonists. The National Archives of Canada’s Canadian Museum have over 1,000 caricatures by you. Do I forget something about your career?
A: During my 26 years at the Herald I won numerous awards including the National Newspaper Award in 1988. I also had 2 books of my editorial cartoons published during that time: A Brush with Irrelevance and With Weapons Drawn. Also in 1988 I launched a daily syndicated comic strip called Chubb and Chauncey which ran in newspapers around the world for 14 years. In 2010 with tough times for newspapers everywhere the Calgary Herald bought out my contract and let me go. This was a shock to me but worse was telling me that the position of staff editorial cartoon itself was being killed. I always thought that I'd be able to pass the torch to some excited young cartoonist and offer a little wisdom but this was not to be. I still draw cartoons and do freelance work from my home in Invermere British Colombia and my work is syndicated internationally by Artizans.
Q: Thank’s a lot, Mr. Rodewalt, for this interview.
Robert Lafontaine is one of the organizers of 1001 Visages de la caricature in Québec. The next edition will be held October 10-12 and the guest of honor will be Aislin, who has been the caricaturist for the “Montreal Gazette” for the past 40 years. Aislin is, without a doubt, one of the most influential (and long-lasting) editorial cartoonists in Canada. http://1001visages.com/programmation-2015/invite-dhonneur/
See Also
External Links
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