Beavers and Gators and Moose (Oy Vey!)… with an Elephantine Garnish

Over the years there have been a number of beasties that have gotten themselves firmly enmeshed in my bonnet. I’m going to commence with what is likely the most ubiquitous…

The Beaver (Castor canadensis)

This semi-aquatic rodent is the national beast of Canada. It is a most industrious creature which fells trees, builds lodges and workable dams and thoroughly confused Europeans who learned about them from returning explorers when they described the wonders experienced in the New World. Beavers were once widely trapped for their fur – used to cover hats for the gentry.

            Beavers are probably one of the most iconic symbols of Canada (vying for first place with the maple leaf). They even appear on our 5¢ coins. Because of my location I seem to have worked on an inordinate number of Canadian books over the years. With beavers and maple leafs (as we say in Toronto) figuring prominently on the covers and jackets.

The Maple Laugh Forever (a humorous poetry compilation) featured a beaver riding in a bathtub which was attached to a Canadian flag dirigible … and there were many more drawings of beavers contained therein.

Colombo’s Little Book of Proverbs, Graffiti, Limericks and Other Vital Matters had a large beaver reading a small version of the same book that he was on the cover of.

René Lévesque Buys Canada Savings Bonds & Other Great Canadian Graffiti had an industrious graffiti artist beaver in overalls brandishing a ladder, a paintbrush and can of red paint.

There were probably many more that I’ve forgotten. I did a celebratory beaver for a cover of Hurtig’s 1988 catalogue … bursting out of a set of The Canadian Encyclopedia Mk II. And I started a series with a character named Jake the Beaver with writer Peter Lowry … but it never quite made it to fruition.

Alligators (genus Alligator)

I have always been fascinated by this large reptile of the crocodile family. Never quite made it to the Florida Everglades to see them in their proper habitat though on my first visit I returned with a small stuffed one … at least there was no chance of it finding its way into Toronto’s sewage system.

            I got heavily into drawing alligators when I started doing an annual charity fundraiser called Jambalaya for something named Windfall. I figured Jambalaya was from the Deep South and that was where gators came from (if they weren’t mentioned in the Hank Williams classic — they should have been). I did these for a few years … the last one was a drag queen gator. After that they dropped me for budgetary reasons (something I thought was very odd as I’d been doing the work for free).

            And lest we forget: Theo & Sophy!!! One evening at a drama club dinner I was scribbling on my napkin (as is my wont) when I drew a baby alligator hatchling with an avian hatchling on his snout … everyone who saw it agreed that it was keeyute! Later I decided they were named Gabe and Burt. I worked up a full colour version hoping it might gain me some gainful employ but instead I got involved with a very bad news collaborator. At some point we rechristened the critters Theo and Sophy (in a nod to the theosophists) and we started to concoct a story. Unfortunately my unnamed collaborator became obsessed with religion and wanted me to draw 12 baby alligators (one for each of Christ’s apostles though I saw no reason for allocating one to that creepy Judas character) … I actually did a colour rendering of this but didn’t like it at all. And the bird became a baby flamingo. The story became much too much like Anderson’s Ugly Duckling and our publisher went belly up just after my collaborator had an argument with him over the quality of the writing (which was pitiful). My so called collaborator threatened to sue me if I did the book without him (which I found interesting considering it started as my idea upon a napkin). We no longer communicate. Good riddance. And one day I may revive the characters.

Moose (Alces americana)

Never drew many mooses until I arrived at the offices of the Independent Order of Foresters about doing a cover for them. I looked at their business card and figured out that the non-descript metallic gold blob of their logo was in fact a MOOSE. I persuaded them that they should start featuring a moose on their in house magazine covers. There followed a moose with Pegasus-style wings on skis, one in Mexico looking like a piñata with a Spanish inscription and several more. I was usually riffing off their display type … one referred to prospecting and before you could say Gold Rush I had drawn a pack moose with a wily prospector. One day I asked them what the Foresters were selling and was told “insurance” … hmmm … maybe what I’d been drawing wasn’t all that appropriate? Anyway my contact left and her replacement wasn’t interested in any more moose being plastered on covers or anywhere else apparently.

            My last fling with a moose was part of a series for children’s clothing … I did a number of moose and bear studies … including a hockey playing moose … but this went precisely nowhere. No idea if any of it ever went into production. The artist was never compensated. So it goes.

Elephants (Elphas indicus and Loxodonta africana)

I used to be more obsessed with elephants than ever I was of alligators and crocodiles. One of the first things I got to do in my first job was a catalogue cover with an elephant front and centre. But when I started trying to introduce them on book covers the drawbridge came down. The first time I encountered this prejudice was a book about Africa … I eventually was allowed a couple of tiny giraffes. When a new poetry book called Nail Polish by the venerable poet Irving Layton inspired me to submit a circus elephant with painted nails rough … the cries of derision could be heard all along Hollinger Road … refection followed. When I submitted a friendly pachyderm playing a snare drum for an ideas book for drama called A Different Drummer Jack McClelland swept it aside with some comment about it being an insult to drama students. I pretty much gave up at that point. None of the books I designed for Mel Hurtig suggested a need for an elephant. They weren’t very Canadian.

            And then I got to do Sharon, Lois and Bram’s All New Elephant Jam … I was able to put elephants on practically every page! I even put one (with a tuba and a jar of jam) on the cover together with photographs of the authors … hmmm … and a crocodile playing a kazoo! That wasn’t the last croc either. (The idea of combining crocodiles with elephants probably has something to do with that fable about how the elephant got its trunk.) That pretty much got that obsession out of my system … the elephant part anyway.

Bonus: Dragons and Dinosaurs!

I used to love drawing dinosaurs when I was in grade school.  Even won a prize in Don Mills once for a Tyrannosaurus and a Brontosaurus (though my dad helped me to ink them in somewhat).

            It all came back to me when I started working up some dinosaur kid’s book projects in the 1990s. Somewhere in there I got to illustrate a book called I Hate Dinosaurs but that’s slightly off topic. And the fire fighting dinosaurs led to fire breathing dragons but we never took anything far enough to bother showing a publisher our brilliance. Around 1996 I remembered a pair of pterodactyls named Pterry and Ptilly and decided to attempt something on my own with them. I decided an alphabet book had possibilities and proceed accordingly. Pterry and Ptilly were time travelers who managed to find themselves on a pirate ship. I actually did all the legwork for the book but found publishers were getting sick of alphabet books. So I ditched the pterodactyls and added my two Scottie dogs (Pippa and Lucy) and a shipload of very scurvy rats (known throughout the Seven Seas as PiRatts©) into the basic pirate milieu … still working on this off and on … time sure does fly when you’re having fun.

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