GIANTS of the NORTH:
The Canadian Cartoonist Hall of Fame

Welcome to Giants of the North, a virtual exhibit that celebrates singular, life-long contributions to the art of cartooning in Canada! 
The Canadian Cartoonist Hall of Fame was founded in 2005 as part of the Doug Wright Awards for Canadian Cartooning. 

JW Bengough
(1851-1923) 

John Wilson Bengough was one of Canada's first cartoonists and rose to prominence in the late 1800s through the publication of Grip, a humourous weekly magazine he published in Toronto. 

Born in 1851, the young Bengough found he had an aptitude for drawing, in part inspired by famous illustrators of the Victorian era: 

"My interest in Cartooning was first awakened by the work of Thomas Nast in Harpers Weekly.  I was amongst the devoted admirers of his elaborate and slashing full-page attacks in that 'journal of civilization' on Boss Tweed and the Tammany Ring, as the paper reached our town each week through the local bookstore.  Nast had the field of political cartooning practically to himself for years, and must have inspired thousands of boys as he did me." 

Bengough received an autographed drawing from Nast after sending his own early attempts at caricature to Harpers. 

After apprenticing in the newspaper business with the Whitby Gazette, Bengough moved to Toronto in 1871 and landed a job with the Globe newspaper.  In 1873 he founded Grip, named after the caustic pet raven in Dicken's Barnaby Rudge, and served as Grip's editor and cartoonist for the next 21 years. 

According to Bengough, the inspiration for the magazine was simple.  Experimenting with the lithographic reproduction of his own caricatures, "the ease and accuracy with which the reproduction was done struck me with amazement; but further, it gave me an idea.  Why not start a weekly comic paper with lithographed cartoons?"  (Of course, there were other magazines featuring cartoons available in Canada.  Besides the aforementioned Harpers Weekly, other American papers as well as the British Punch (begun in 1840) and Punch's rivals were hugely popular.  From 1849-1850, John Henry Walker had published Punch in Canada, followed  by Grinchuckle, Diogenes and others.  Additionally, French-language magazines, including la Scie, occasionally emerged from Montreal and Quebec City.)  With a little financial backing from Toronto businessmen and friends, Bengough was on his way. 

Bengough's Grip set itself apart early on.  A miscellany of jokes, editorial and opinion columns, short news pieces, ads, and cartoons, the average issue was about 6 pages long.  Bengough did the majority of the work, including working in a variety of drawing styles for the 2-3 cartoons that appeared in every issue. Almost immediately Bengough was blessed with his own Boss Tweed in the person of Prime Minister John A. MacDonald --MacDonald's involvement in the various schemes and scandals of the late 1870s and 1880s, including the Pacific Railway Scandal and the second Riel Rebellion, made for unique caricatures that are still reproduced today. 

In terms of caricature, Bengough was always less effective when lampooning his own Liberal party, especially during the reigns of MacKenzie and Laurier.  Grip and Bengough had any number of hobby horses, ranging from Bengough's lifelong Protestant-reformist support for Temperance; Women's Suffrage; Free Trade; the Single Tax; and, under the influence of Grip's radical writer/editor Phillips Thompson, anti-Capitalism and anti-Imperialism.  Most of these concerns made for fairly clumsy and predictable, and only occasionally inventive, cartoons (Bengough's drawing was rarely unprofessional, however, and he was well-regarded by both his peers and more general audience).  He was at his best when passionately aroused by some Tory hypocrisy or scandal. 

The sheer variety in Bengough's art is fascinating: drawing in numerous styles and often under a pseudonym, he lampooned an amazing assortment of heroes, villains and historical subjects.  His skill with caricature also translated itself into a successful career as lecturer and performer when Bengough began a series of 'Chalk Talks', or illustrated lectures, that he continued for most of his life, travelling throughout Canada and internationally. 

Bengough's Grip has another important place in the history of Canadian art and cartooning: it later evolved into a publishing and advertising design firm which went on to employ several famous Canadian artists including C.W. Jefferys, Tom Thomson and future members of the Group of Seven. Grip's art director, A.H. Robson, later led many of these artists in a migration to Rous and Mann Press Ltd.  Franklin Carmichael and A.J. Casson later moved on to the first Canadian silkscreen printing firm, Sampson, Matthews Ltd, founded by artist J.E .Sampson and businessman C.A.G. Matthews.  Toronto Litho Co's leading Toronto rival was the English-born watercolourist J.T. Rolph's engraving and lithography concern. Rolph, Smith and Co merged with Stone Ltd to form Rolph-Clark-Stone in 1917; Grip, meanwhile, evolved into Rapid Grip and Batten, later Bomac Batten, which was absorbed by Toronto's Laird Group.  All told, these firms, more-or-less directly descended from Grip, employed dozens of painters and cartoonists during the first 25 years of the 20th Century. 

Bengough was forced out of Grip in 1892 after a conflict with his backers but revived the magazine in 1894 for one more year.  Afterwards he was a featured cartoonist in the Montreal Star, Toronto Globe, and many other publications.  He was married twice and in later life tried to establish a more literary reputation for himself as a poet, playwright and screenwriter.  Additionally, he served as a Toronto Alderman in the early-1900s and lobbied for a Senate seat from the Liberal government. 

John Bengough died cartooning at his drawing table in 1923. 

More on Bengough 
 Gallery at Canadian Cartoonists Club
 Article from "The Public", 1905
 Reminiscences of a Chalk Talker, 1922
 Self-Portrait I
 SelfPortraitII
 "Gender, Sexuality & Nationalism" in Bengough --article by Christina Burr 
 Bengough's Shakespeare

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