A loving time capsule of midcentury Canadiana The 2008 debut of The Collected Doug Wright: Canada’s Master Cartoonist introduced the world to the charms of Canada’s mischievous little kid Nipper, who appeared in newspapers across the country in the mid-twentieth century. Nipper is the first in a series of paperback annuals that will collect two years’ worth of Wright’s ingenious and enduring comic strip. This volume covers a peak period in Wright’s four-decade career as he comes into his own as an iconic cartoonist capable of documenting middle-class suburban existence in all its minute joys and indignities. Packed with period details and loaded with charm, these collections of sublime wordless strips feature designs by the acclaimed cartoonist Seth and a brief introduction by the writer Brad Mackay.

Doug Wright’s pantomime strip about the life of a suburban family moves into the mid-1960s, and the pop culture of the time begins to seep in. Wright showcases the domestic mayhem that parents and their kids experience throughout the year. The endless play of kids is prevalent, from skateboarding to snowball fights, from the guilty pleasure of making prank phone calls to the daily roughhousing of siblings.

A FAITHFULLY RENDERED PAEAN TO MID-CENTURY FAMILY LIFE Doug Wright’s masterful newspaper strip returns to suburban life in the late 1960s, where not even the countercultural tumult of the times could ruin domestic bliss or distract from sibling rivalry. Things are still fun, innocent, and wholesome in the suburbs: there’s road hockey in the streets, boys have their friends over for sleepovers, and kids play freely on their own outside, with little or no parental supervision. The pantomime strip does reference contemporary life, however, with the entire Wright family making an excursion to downtown Montreal for the 1967 World’s Fair. As always, Wright’s stellar draftsmanship, fond eye for detail, and brilliant sense of comic timing shines throughout this volume of the Nipper series.