"The political cartoon is my method of protest, my comment on the injustice and craziness of people in authority. It's marvelous what you can do with a cartoon."
Roy Carless is a compulsive storyteller. He delights in recounting anecdotes of his life as a blue-collar worker, as union steward at Westinghouse (Hamilton), or as a self-taught political cartoonist. Like his cartoons, though, his stories are short and to-the-point. They are told in a direct manner and punctuated by mild expletives.
Born in Toronto, Carless moved to Hamilton in 1948 to work at Westinghouse, and immediately joined the union. His cartoons lampooning what he considered to be silly corporate/management decisions became a favourite method of sounding off, much to the delight of the men on the factory floor.
He estimates he's done 6,000 drawings since the 1940s. One thousand of these have already been donated to the National Archives in Ottawa. And he admits, rather offhandedly, that he constantly gives drawings away.
Carless doesn't own a computer. He draws by hand in ink, creating what he proudly calls "Carless originals". At age 80, he draws every day, even if there is no market for the cartoon.
Many of Roy Carless' political cartoons are featured in The Carless Cartoon Collection: Not Bad for an Old Bastard by Kerry J. Schooley (Seraphim Editions, September 2006). We interviewed Carless recently at his Hamilton home.
When did you start to draw?
I was always drawing in public school. Then I got on the editorial board for the high school paper and yearbook (at Runnymede Collegiate, Jane Street, Toronto). My first published cartoon was in the Magna Carta (school newspaper).
How would you describe your style?
It's simple, uncomplicated. I'm a black and white and grey guy! I use a lot of black - that gives it mass. And I use a lot of wash - to fill in the grey. Colour is for comics; cartoons should be in black and white. I've worked in every medium: pencil, crayon, India ink. I do a lot of self-editing, taking out all the stuff that's not required or that makes it too busy. I work to get everything in balance and to focus the eye (of the reader), to simplify it and tie it all together.
