Doug Wright (cartoonist)

Doug Wright
Born	Douglas Austin WrightDover, Kent England
Died	Canada
Nationality	Canadian
Area(s)	Cartoonist, Writer, Artist
Notable works	Nipper/Doug Wright's Family (1949–1980)

Douglas Austin Wright (August 11, 1917–1983) was an English-born Canadian cartoonist. Creator of the long-running comic strip Doug Wright's Family, or Nipper, he is the namesake for the Canadian Wright Awards.

After emigrating to Canada in 1938, Wright worked as an illustrator at an insurance company before serving in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War Two. It was here that his cartoons of fellow servicemen first drew the eye of a magazine editor. After his discharge, Wright began freelancing for Montreal papers and struggled to get various strip concepts off the ground.

In 1948, he took over the reins of Juniper Junction, the most popular Canadian comic strip of its day, after its creator, Jimmy Frise, died suddenly. A year later, Wright hit paydirt again when a wordless gag strip about a mischievous toddler caught on with readers of the Montreal Standard. The feature would eventually adopt the name Nipper (later changed to Doug Wright's Family).

Nipper was a wordless masterpiece, capturing suburban Canadian life with wit and a keen eye, and ran uninterrupted for more than three decades. Wright also drew several other lesser-known strips, including a series of editorial cartoons which were collected during the seventies.

Wright moved from Montreal to Burlington, Ontario in 1966.

In 2005, the Doug Wright Awards recognizing Canadian cartoonists and graphic novelists, were founded, named in Wright's honour.

In Spring 2009, Drawn and Quarterly Books published the first volume of a two-volume retrospective of Wright's life and career. Designed and compiled by Guelph, Ontario-based cartoonist Seth, the project (Doug Wright: Canada's Master Cartoonist) contains a biographical essay on Wright, and is the first book-length study of the prolific artist. They also published strip reprints of Nipper, starting in 2011. One volume covers 1963-64, another 1965-66.

External links

• An appreciation of Doug Wright
• Paul Soles interviews Doug Wright on CBC's "Take 30", Oct. 25, 1968

Persondata
Name	Wright, Doug
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	August 11, 1917
Place of birth	Dover, Kent England
Date of death	January 3, 1983
Place of death	Canada