How the Rule of the Road was Changed in BC, a BC Electric brochure promoting the switch from driving on the left to driving on the right, which actually took place in two stages. First, on July 1, 1920, most of British Columbia made the switch. The coast region, including most of the major cities was the exception, and they were given until January 1, 1922 to make the necessary mechanical changes.

The mini comics decorated the corners of the pamphlet, and the 16 page brochure went to great lengths explaining what was involved (I estimate around 3,000-4,000 words!) Fortunately, by all accounts, the switch was without incident. Oh, and if you kids are wondering what a Wye is, see Wikipedia. Pamphlet from the VPL Special Collections, NW 388.4 B86h Pam.

pasttensevancouver:

The Last Street Car, Sunday 24 April 1955

Source: The Buzzer, 20 April 1955

Illustrated by Bob Banks, who drew cartoons for the Buzzer from 1954-1976.

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.

City of Neon (aka Granville in the 50s), Sterling Richter’s electrical box wrap, on the 1000 block of Granville. B&W photo from the Downtown Electrical Box Wrap Facebook page, colour concept from Sterling’s gallery at deviantart. Sterling provides some colour commentary in this video (featuring an amusing sign of the times sidewalk interaction with a guy peddling digital apps, or something like that). These box wraps were installed some 5 months ago, but this one was a real favourite of mine, so I thought it deserved revisiting.

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.

2011 was a big year for Illustrated Vancouver, and following (late) on the heels of the Past Tense Vancouver blog, I wanted to add my own year in review, even if it is rather tardy. According to studiomoh.com’s best of tumblr tool, below are my best posts of 2011, automagically generated for your viewing pleasure. The results are in fact, not 100% accurate, but I speak to this in greater detail here at VancouverIsAwesome.com:

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erikaglover:

2010 Vancouver Olympics Illustration by Jeff Hamada.  I *heart* maple leafs!  Jeff Hamada also illustrated a fine piece that my company mounted specially for Working Format for a poster exhibit at the Waterfront Canada Line station.  See more of Jeff’s work here. 

takohako:

comic about moving to vancouver from seattle and getting to know a new place.  page 2 of 2.

takohako:

comic about moving to vancouver from seattle and getting to know a new place.  page 1 of 2.

Looks like Takohako could use a recommendation; where’s the best place to get some felt in this town?

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!

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!

Map of Vancouver by artist uncredited, although the artwork looks so much like Don Blood’s style, as seen in this colour map from 1955, I think it’s safe to attribute the work to him. From the November 1958 issue of the Vancouver Guide, a small handout advertising pamphlet published by George A. Vickers, lithographed by Evergreen Press Ltd. The year 1958 was celebrated as the British Columbia colonial centennial. 

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…

White Spot placemat (dated Aug 22, 1947 in ink on the reverse). The initials L.D. appear in the bottom right of the placemat; anyone know a cartoonist from the 40s who might have those initials?!

Cross-posted to VancouverIsAwesome.com with additional text.