Jimmy Frise
Jimmy Frise | |
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Scugog Island, Ontario, Canada | |
Died | June 13, 1948 Toronto, Ontario, Canada | (aged 56)
Area(s) | Cartoonist |
Notable works |
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Awards | Canadian Cartoonist Hall of Fame |
Signature | |
The Canadian cartoonist James Llewellyn Frise (/fraɪz/,[1] 16 October 1891 – 13 June 1948) is best known for his work on the comic strip Birdseye Center and his illustrations of humorous prose pieces by Greg Clark.
Born in
Life and career
James Llewellyn Frise was born 16 October 1891
Throughout his teens, friends and teachers encouraged Frise to move to Toronto to pursue a drawing career. In 1910 he moved there, though without aiming to develop his art—rather he sought work and found it as an engraver and printer at the Rolph, Clark, Stone lithography firm; he spent six months drawing maps for the Canadian Pacific Railway company indicating lots for sale in Saskatchewan.[1]
While seeking another job he read in the
Frise took a job at an engraving firm in Montreal in 1916
Canadian Field Artillery's 43rd Battery approached Frise in 1919 to illustrate a book on the history of their unit. The volume appeared later in the year under the title Battery Action!, written by Hugh R. Kay, George Magee, and F. A. MacLennan and illustrated with Frise's light-hearted, humorous cartoons rendered in accurate detail.[a][1]
As the Star Weekly's circulation grew, so did its comics section. Cranston encouraged Frise to create a Canada-themed comic strip in the vein of
From about 1920 Frise shared an office with the journalist and Vimy ridge veteran Greg Clark (1892–1977).[1] They became friends, and occasionally through the 1920s, Frise would illustrate some of Clark columns, interviews and stories.
Frise chatted with the frequent visitors to the office. He worked at his own pace and often tore up work-in-progress in dissatisfaction and submitted his strips at the last moment. Frise's tardiness caused such delays in production and distribution that editorial director Harry C. Hindmarsh once demanded Joseph E. Atkinson have something done about it. Atkinson replied, "Harry, The Star Weekly does not go to press without Mr. Frise."[6]
Frise was unconcerned with the resale value of his original artwork and pursued little licensing of his work, amongst which included product endorsements, products such as jigsaw puzzles, and a Birdseye Center Cabin Park on Lake Scugog,[6] opened in 1940.[5] His work provided him well enough that he bought a home in the well-to-do Baby Point neighbourhood.[6]
Beginning in 1932, Clark started penning a regular weekly humorous story in the Star Weekly—these were always illustrated by Frise. The stories generally detailed various adventures (and misadventures) best friends Greg and Jim got up to, sometimes at their homes, but also on fishing or camping trips, or exploring the backwoods and rural areas of Ontario. Frise (in real life about 5'9") was drawn as tall and gangly, and Clark short and stout.[6] This extremely popular feature ran for the next 16 years, making Frise well known throughout Canada not just as an artist, but as a continuing real-life personality in Clark's stories. A selection of stories appeared in a volume titled Which We Did in 1936; a follow-up volume called So What was issued in 1937.[7] Frise talked of their blunderings to the Star: "We've fried eggs on the city hall steps. We caulked my house and flooded the parlor with cement. I once let Greg persuade me to get a steam shovel to do my spring digging and ruined my garden. Perhaps this book is our most foolish adventure."[6]
The Clark/Frise partnership was interrupted during WWII, when Clark returned to Europe as a war correspondent. Frise continued his work as a cartoonist and illustrator, and upon Clark's return, the "Greg and Jim" stories picked up where they left off. However, Frise and Clark had grown concerned with the Star's treatment of its staff, and made an agreement in 1946 to leave the paper the first opportunity. Clark contacted John McConnell, publisher of the Montreal Standard, a newspaper with a smaller circulation than the Star's that had earlier offered him a position. McConnell offered the pair salaries similar to what they received at the Star, as well as the opportunity for Frise to have his strip syndicated in the United States, which would supplement his income. When they handed in their resignations that Christmas Eve 1946, Hindmarsh asked them, "Aren't you going to give us a chance to bid?" Frise told him, "Mr. Hindmarsh, you have nothing to bid with."[6] The last Birdseye Center episode ran on 1 February 1947.[3]
The Star maintained publication rights to Birdseye Center, so Frise re-created the feature as Juniper Junction with strongly similar characters and situations.[6] It débuted 22 February 1947,[3] and the Standard ran it in colour, as Frise had long wanted. Standard's circulation grew after the addition of Frise and Clark's collaborations.[6] Frise also provided the illustrations to Jack Hambleton's cookbook Skillet Skills for Camp and Cottage published in 1947.[8]
After feeling unwell the night before,[9] Frise died of a heart attack in his home in Toronto on 13 June 1948, at age 57. Clark telephoned Cranston on hearing the news, saying, "A great gentleman has passed on." Frise was buried at Prospect Cemetery in Toronto.[6]
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Frise in 1917 during his service in World War I
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Frise (left) with friend and collaborator, journalist Greg Clark
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Frise in 1943
Personal life
Frise stood 5 feet 9 inches (175 cm).[2] He enjoyed the outdoors and pursued fishing and hunting. He often returned to the Lake Scugog area and sometimes spoke about his career there.[5] He was a Methodist Christian.[2]
After returning from his service in World War I, Frise began courting Ruth Elizabeth Gate, who had been born in the US and grew up in Toronto. She worked at an advertising agency, and co-published with her father a magazine in braille and a braille bible. She married Frise on 21 February 1918 and the couple had four daughters, Jean, Ruth, Edythe, and Betty; and a son, John.[1] Frise often featured his spaniel Rusty in his strips.[5]
Legacy
The Montreal cartoonist Doug Wright (1917–83) took the reins of Juniper Junction, which went on to become English Canada's longest-running comic strip.[10] In 1965 the Canadian publisher McClelland & Stewart printed a treasury of Birdseye Center with commentary by Greg Clark and an introduction by Gordon Sinclair.[11] Clark continued publishing his tales for a time with illustrations by Duncan Macpherson (1924–93), but soon moved on to different topics.[6]
Scugog Shores Museum in Port Perry holds some samples of Frise's original artwork, and the Province of Ontario erected an Ontario Historical Plaque in front of the museum to commemorate Frise's role in Ontario's heritage.[5] In 2009, Frise was inducted into the Canadian Cartoonist Hall of Fame.[6]
Notes
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Plummer 2012a.
- ^ a b c d Leroux 2010.
- ^ a b c d e Barker 1997, p. 23.
- ^ Barker 1997, p. 25.
- ^ a b c d e Scugog Heritage staff.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Plummer 2012b.
- ^ Montreal Gazette staff 1936, p. 20.
- ^ Driver 2008, p. 901.
- ^ The Canadian Press 1948, p. 16.
- ^ Bell 2006, pp. 27–28.
- ^ Ottawa Citizen staff 1965, p. 11.
Works cited
- Barker, Kenneth S. (May 1997). "An Introduction to the Canadian Newspaper Comic". Inks. 4 (2): 18–25. ISSN 1071-9156.
- ISBN 978-1-55002-659-7.
- The Canadian Press (14 June 1948). "Jimmy Frise Dies at Toronto". Ottawa Citizen. p. 16.
- Driver, Elizabeth (2008). "Skillet skills for camp and cottage". Culinary Landmarks: A Bibliography of Canadian Cookbooks, 1825-1949. ISBN 978-0-8020-4790-8.
- Leroux, Marc (2010). "Gunner James Llewellyn Frise". Canadian Great War Project. Archived from the original on 27 May 2012. Retrieved 15 September 2015.
- Montreal Gazette staff (19 December 1936). "Greg and Jimmy". Montreal Gazette. Vol. 165, no. 304. p. 20.
- Ottawa Citizen staff (27 November 1965). "Book notes and comments". Ottawa Citizen. p. 11.
- Plummer, Kevin (2 June 2012). "Historicist: From Lake Scugog to Vimy Ridge: Part one of a two-part look at cartoonist Jimmie Frise's life and work". Torontoist. Archived from the originalon 13 April 2015. Retrieved 14 September 2015.
- Plummer, Kevin (16 June 2012). "Historicist: Country Boy and Urbanite: Part two of a two-part look at cartoonist Jimmie Frise's life and work". Torontoist. Archived from the originalon 12 June 2015. Retrieved 14 September 2015.
- Scugog Heritage staff. "Birdseye Center Cabin Park on Lake Scugog". Archived from the original on 22 July 2014. Retrieved 15 September 2015.
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External links
- Media related to Jimmy Frise at Wikimedia Commons
- Scugog Archives of Frise cartoons
- Greg Clarke recalls Jimmy Frise in 1972 CBC Radio interview
- Heer, Jeet (6 June 2009). "Jimmy Frise and the Canadian Cartooning Tradition". Sans Everything. Retrieved 29 December 2011.
- Brown, Alan L. "James Llewellyn Frise". Ontario Plaques. Archived from the original on 15 September 2015. Retrieved 15 September 2015.