| PORTFOOLIO |
Portfoolio was born in the summer of 1985 when McClelland
& Stewart, which had published 2 previous collections of
Canadian editorial cartoons in 1983 and 1984, decided not
to renew the experience.
A publisher was found in Montreal (Croc Publishing) and
"Portfoolio 85: The Year in Canadian Caricature" saw the
light that fall. Croc also published the next 2 volumes of
Portfoolio but, due to the difficulty of breaking into the
Canadian market, the duties were taken over by its
distributor. Eden Press thus published " 1988 Portfoolio,"
an unmitigated disaster that, due to a last minute decision
to cut 24 pages from the book, destroyed the continuity and
left the biographical section without any examples of the
cartoonists' work.
After this unfortunate episode, Portfoolio was published for
ten years by Macmillan of Canada. The new century saw the
book, in an ironic twist of fate, return for three years to
M&S before finding a new home with McArthur & Company.
Portfoolio has been edited since its inception by Guy
Badeaux, editorial cartoonist for Le Droit in Ottawa, and
has, through the years, been graced by the texts of Charles
Gordon, Ken Mac Queen, Jay Stone and Scott Feshchuk,
most of whom journalists from The Ottawa Citizen.
Each year, the 40 or so major editorial cartoonists in Canada
send in a selection of favourite works. The editor then
chooses about 500 from the more than 2000 drawings
received and divides them by subject. It is up to the author
of the text to make sense of all this and shape it in
coherent chapters. A further selection is made to fit the
drawings in the 130 available pages while maintaining
visual quality and decent reproduction sizes. A biographical
section provides information on all the cartoonists
involved as well as their photo and an example of their
work.This section also allows the publication of cartoons
that, because of the book's national scope, deal with local
issues.
Finally, since 1996, Portfoolio publishes cartoons that
newspaper editors laugh at but can't bring themselves to
publish. We have no such qualms.
& Stewart, which had published 2 previous collections of
Canadian editorial cartoons in 1983 and 1984, decided not
to renew the experience.
A publisher was found in Montreal (Croc Publishing) and
"Portfoolio 85: The Year in Canadian Caricature" saw the
light that fall. Croc also published the next 2 volumes of
Portfoolio but, due to the difficulty of breaking into the
Canadian market, the duties were taken over by its
distributor. Eden Press thus published " 1988 Portfoolio,"
an unmitigated disaster that, due to a last minute decision
to cut 24 pages from the book, destroyed the continuity and
left the biographical section without any examples of the
cartoonists' work.
After this unfortunate episode, Portfoolio was published for
ten years by Macmillan of Canada. The new century saw the
book, in an ironic twist of fate, return for three years to
M&S before finding a new home with McArthur & Company.
Portfoolio has been edited since its inception by Guy
Badeaux, editorial cartoonist for Le Droit in Ottawa, and
has, through the years, been graced by the texts of Charles
Gordon, Ken Mac Queen, Jay Stone and Scott Feshchuk,
most of whom journalists from The Ottawa Citizen.
Each year, the 40 or so major editorial cartoonists in Canada
send in a selection of favourite works. The editor then
chooses about 500 from the more than 2000 drawings
received and divides them by subject. It is up to the author
of the text to make sense of all this and shape it in
coherent chapters. A further selection is made to fit the
drawings in the 130 available pages while maintaining
visual quality and decent reproduction sizes. A biographical
section provides information on all the cartoonists
involved as well as their photo and an example of their
work.This section also allows the publication of cartoons
that, because of the book's national scope, deal with local
issues.
Finally, since 1996, Portfoolio publishes cartoons that
newspaper editors laugh at but can't bring themselves to
publish. We have no such qualms.
| The Year's Best Editorial Cartoons in Canada |
| Due to publishing problems, there will not be a forthcoming edition of Portfoolio (23) for 2007. |