Roy Eric Peterson

Roy Eric Peterson

Roy Eric Peterson, cartoonist (b at Winnipeg 14 Sept 1936). Editorial cartoonist at The Vancouver Sun since 1962, Peterson has won six National Newspaper Awards but is perhaps best known for his illustrations that accompany AllanFOTHERINGHAM's column each week on the back page of Maclean's magazine.

Peterson moved to Vancouver when he was 12 and graduated from Kitsilano High School. For 8 years he worked in display advertising for Woodward's and Eaton's department stores while he attended the Vancouver College of Art night school. His cartoons first appeared in The South Cariboo Advertiser, and when he sold three gags on the same day to Montreal Magazine, The Spectator in London and a US men's magazine he quit his day job. He joined The Vancouver Province in 1962, and a few months later went to work for The Sun as a freelance editorial cartoonist. He's been there ever since.

In 1973 Peterson took first prize in Montréal's International Salon of Caricature and Cartoon, and in 1983 was elected president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists. Professor Lucy Shelton Caswell, curator of the Cartoon Research Library at Ohio State University, has described Peterson as a master of his form."He is not content to make jokes or entertain his readers. His task is to prod, jolt, anger or otherwise stimulate viewers into responding to his work."

Peterson's drawings have appeared in major international publications including Punch, Time, The New York Times and The Washington Post. He has illustrated a number of books including the Frog Fable and Beaver Tale series, The Canadian ABC Book, and Drawn and Quartered, a collection of editorial cartoons about the Trudeau years. He likens his distinctive drawing style to a barbeque chicken: "Take it apart and there's a lot of parts there," he says. "I've been influenced by all sorts of people: Ronald Searle, Duncan MACPHERSON and Punch illustrator Leslie Illingworth."