The Pattullo Bridge souvenir luncheon menu from the 1937 opening, animated. The original artwork is signed EVS I think (as seen in the bottom corner of the finished panel). I have to admit, it’s a pretty awesome foldout menu for any era. This animated image has been compiled/edited by me; the original PDF scan of the menu is still online at the Buzzer Blog. Special thanks to the Buzzer Blog for posting this back in 2009, and extra special thanks to Lisa Codd, the curator at the Burnaby Village Museum who originally provided the scans to the Buzzer. This item has now been transferred to the Burnaby Archives.

Virginia Ayers at the New West blog Tenth to the Fraser recently raised some critical questions around the replacement plan for the Pattullo Bridge. She also mentioned the upcoming open house on The Master Transportation Plan. It’s taking place Thursday, May 3rd at Century House from 2-4pm and at the Justice Institute from 6-9pm.

Map of North Vancouver, published by the North Shore Jaycees in 1975.

Woodsquat, a comic by Trevor M about the squat at Woodwards which occurred from September 14 to December 14, 2002. You can read the full comic on their blog here. The Woodsquat book, edited by Aaron Vidaver and published as a special issue of West Coast Line in 2004, is out of print, but a complete PDF is available here from the publishers.

Cover of Edith Adam’s Wartime Cook Book, 1943, from the Vancouver Sun (digitally enhanced). The cover art is by Fraser Wilson, who drew comics for the Vancouver Sun and the Daily Province until 1947. This quote from the publication Youth, Unions, and You:

Wilson was born in 1905, in Vancouver. A gifted cartoonist, he sold his first published illustration to a national magazine at the age of twelve. In his early life he painted ships in Wallace’s Shipyards, ran a candy store, did carpentry, developed photos, worked as a painter and decorator, and laboured in a shipyard. It was due to a work-related injury in the yard that he pursued commercial cartooning as a career. At the peak of his political cartooning reputation, he was a favoured artist in both Vancouver dailies, the Vancouver Sun and the Province.

Back to this wonderfully ambitious and optimistic guide to better wartime cooking, the publication was mentioned here in the October 2009 issue of the North Vancouver Museum and Archives paper, Express. The cover indicates this was the 9th annual issue of the cookbook, but fails to mention that Edith Adams was, in fact, a pseudonym! Actually, most folks may well have known that; the recipes in these books were prize winning entries submitted by Vancouver Sun readers, as mentioned in the book Culinary landmarks: a bibliography of Canadian cookbooks, 1825-1949 by Elizabeth Driver. A quote from the introduction of this book notes:

From 1947, Edith Adams even had her own ‘cottage’ adjacent to the newspaper’s building, where Vancouver residents would flock to see Marianne Linnell as ‘Edith’ demonstrate recipes.

If you want to see more of these books, you can seek out the Edith Adams Omnibus, a reprint from 2005 with more than 1000 recipes, compiling the first thirteen of these famed cook books and updated for today’s standards of cooking.

Happy 100th Birthday, Vancouver Sun!

Addendum by pasttensevancouver:

Fraser Wilson is the artist who painted the proletarian mural inside the Maritime Labour Centre. It was moved there from its original location at Pender Hall.

A comic by Stuart Morris from the cover of New Directions magazine, Vol 1 No 5 from April-May of 1986. I thought this comic would be suitably fun for Friday the 13th! I was tipped off about New Directions magazine by Bonnie Beckwoman, one of the original contributors of the Georgia Straight who later also contributed comics to New Directions. The lead story of this issue from 1986 was titled The Bad BCers’ Guide to Expo, and it was written by Larry Kuehn. While most of my Expo86 posts have been rosy nostalgic, not everyone was as enthusiastic about the event. You can read the article at the VPL’s periodicals reference desk. Or tweet me!

Vancouver Views Canada, a poster spotted for sale recently at the Treasure Cottage thrift store in Kerrisdale, 2319 41st Avenue. I can almost make out the artist’s name in the left hand corner, but there’s just not quite enough resolution. If anyone walks by, can they confirm who created the poster? If it actually does say M. Bender, 1996, I’m presuming that’s an alias? I do believe this framed poster is selling for $15, so check it out while you can!

Thanks for the tip, Richard!

A busy afternoon at Granville and Hastings, from The Vancouver Sunday Sun, July 18, 1920. I believe the drawing is by Ernest LeMessurier who was a UBC grad in 1916, working as a cartoonist in Vancouver in 1920, later to become a cartoonist for the Montreal Star, an English-language Canadian newspaper (which eventually folded in 1979 following an eight-month pressmen’s strike; the Star’s building, presses, and archives were acquired by The Gazette).

I like the fact that a sandwich board is employed to sell cheap land here, a man advertises a baseball game from a horse or donkey, and a tourist is lost in the centre of the street, looking for the Lions! Also, if you pay close attention, we are still driving on the wrong side of the road, (we switched Jan 1st, 1922) and a policeman directs traffic as there are no traffic lights; the first one was installed in 1928! Aside from a few small changes (like the changing of the flags atop the Sinclair Centre), the scene still looks pretty much the same as it does today!

Vancouver, The Pacific Playground: a SuperValu poster in the tradition of illustrated advertising maps of the city, conveniently pointing out all the SuperValu locations, not unlike this White Spot map. It’s signed Ed Langley, but I can’t find anything more about him. I’m also not sure of the date, but perhaps someone can pinpoint it with some of the landmarks? It shows the CBC headquarters designed by architect Paul Merrick so it must be post-1975, and it also mentions the Gastown Wax Museum, possibly early 1980s?!

Update: Thanks to theressomethingwrongwithyoubaby for this comment which seems to indicate the 1974-75 era is likely:

It shows the Crystal Pool at Sunset Beach which was replaced by the Aquatic Centre in 1974 according to the Parks Board site

I’ve passed this poster on to the VPL Special Collections.

Gastown Stories by Mary Drew, illustrated by Norman Drew. The book was published in 1980 by NC Press of Toronto. The character Chika was a favourite of the artist, and she was featured on their Saturday morning TV series as well. According to Drew’s own webpage, he would also like to release an e-book version of these stories and a DVD set of the original TV show, perhaps some time in the near future. From the title page of the book:

Mary Drew is a native of Sudbury, Ontario. Her children’s stories first appeared on the television series “Gastown Gang” in 1978. She has contributed articles to “Fun Times” magazine published in Canada by McDonald’s Restaurants.

Norman Drew was born in Kenora, Ontario and is a graduate of the University of Alberta in Fine and Applied Arts. As a motion picture animation producer, director, designer and animator he created cartoon episodes for Sesame Street, The Irish Rovers, The Beatles (Yellow Submarine), The Jackson Five, The Osmond Brothers (ABC-TV). His “Chika’s Magic Sketch Book” TV series is also produced for newspaper comic features. In 1978/79 he hosted a series of half-hour children’s shows on BCTV network called “Gastown Gang” based on his Gastown cartoon studio.

Actually, according to IMDB, Norman is one of a number of uncredited animators on the Beatles Yellow Submarine. I found this post by Norm Drew, where he reminisces about the making of the animated classic, which he posted on CartoonBrew.com back in 2010.

Norman Drew says:

03/2/10  5:18pm

As one of the original animators on Yellow Submarine who worked at the studio in London in 1968, here are some of my thoughts about a YS remake.

At the time, we were aware it was a revolutionary graphic work. Some of us could see it would ‘break the animation mould’, though most of us didn’t foresee it would become a cult classic almost half a century later. John Lasseter is quoted as saying, ‘Yellow Submarine is my favorite animated feature’.

The production itself was more a creative ‘happening’ than an organized film production. We artists had great freedom and visceral involvement, far more than any highly organized production today…

Remembrance Day panel, a comic painted on wood by comic artist Colin Upton, created in 2010.

Vancouver, an illustrated poster by W Ellis, circa 1969. The credits at the bottom of the poster indicate it’s from Studio 001, Vancouver, BC, with distributors PHD. Does anyone know which Ellis this might be, way back in 1969? Maybe a Bill or William? Thanks for the submission, Jeff!

Expo 86 editorial cartoon by Len Norris in the Vancouver Sun, date unknown. Caption: “I told you, Vincent, why don’t you do birds and trees and things that nobody copyrights…” As seen in the book The Expo Story by Robert Anderson (Editor), Eleanor Wachtel (Editor). I also didn’t find this comic in the SFU editorial cartoon collection, which predominantly features Len Norris’ earlier work. More from SFU:

Len Norris was born in London England in 1913 and died in 1997. From 1950 to 1988 Norris worked as an editorial cartoonist for The Vancouver Sun. This collection was acquired by SFU Library in 1995 and was the remainder of Len’s personal collection.

One of the Port of Metro Vancouver’s interactive games, providing an illustrated overview of the region. Designed by Kidzsmart Concepts Inc, circa 2009, digital artist unknown.

Some ways to make the ugly Coliseum at the PNE more interesting, a drawing by Mariken van Nimwegen.

Translink Street Drawing by Basco5 (Nils Blishen), photographed by Keith Loh, seen on Hastings Street, via flickr.