Happy Canada Day! Al Beaton, editorial cartoonist at the Toronto Telegram, drew Ookpik, a strip based on a popular Arctic owl stuffed toy, in the mid-1960s. It ran for two years in 50 newspapers ending because of the artist's glaucoma. Part of the proceeds went to the Ookpik doll's 62 year old creator Inuit Jeannie Snowball and her neighbours at Fort Chimo. She had been lost in the ice and survived by eating the flesh, raw, of one of the small Arctic owls.Ookpik, Dec 1, 1963, Copyright Her Majesty the Queen.
Cartoonist, illustrator, storyteller, born in Nelson, B.C. in May 1950, has contributed to Chronicle, Weirdom, and Visions fanzines. John illustrated ‘Ronald and the Dragon’ by Lawrie Peters in 1975.