- Bus Griffiths
Bus Griffiths (1913 in
Moose Jaw ,Saskatchewan – September 25, 2006 in Comox,British Columbia ) was acartoonist ,lumberjack , and fisherman. He was best known for his full lengthgraphic novel , "Now You're Logging" published 1978. "Now You're Logging" presented, in cartoon form, a complete look at the techniques, tools, and personalities oflogging on the west coast in the 1930s.He began drawing cartoons while working as a logger, doing work for Vancouver's Maple Leaf Publishing during
World War II and comic strips about logging for "BC Lumberman" magazine. He retired from logging in 1961 and began work as a commercial fisherman. In 1972 he began work on "Now You're Logging" to document logging in the era before modern technology. A complete picture is presented of the techniques and lives of the typical logger of the 1930s, with tree felling andlog bucking , high climbers, chasers, chokersetters, a hooktender, an accident andrescue in the woods, the use of thecrosscut saw ,rigging , aspar (tree) , log transport on bothtruck and water, and operation of the thesteam donkey all shown and explained. Logging is interwoven with a love story involving one of the loggers and the daughter of a fishing family near their logging camp."
The Comics Journal " said about the book in 1996: "a true anomaly: written and drawn by a man with decades of experience in the woods, it's a book with no clear antecedent, more intent on documenting a way of life than telling a story", adding "it might just change your perception of what comics are, what they can do, and why we need them." [Shawn Conner, quoted from "Comics Journal" at http://sequential.spiltink.org/2006/12/bus-griffiths-1913-2006.html retrieved 24 Jan 2008]He also did the illustrations for the children's book "Patrick and the Backhoe" by
Howard White .References
* [http://sequential.spiltink.org/2006/12/bus-griffiths-1913-2006.html Obituary from "Comics News and Culture From Canada"]
* [http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/llt/55/hak.html An academic analysis of "Now You're Logging" from "Labour/Le Travail", Canadian Committee on Labour History]
* [http://www.camptocommunity.ca/english/bus/index.html Excerpts from "Now You're Logging" from the B.C. Forest Discovery Centre website]
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