Quantcast
Channel: rick mercer – Montreal Gazette
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 11

Bill Brownstein: Aislin still a kid at heart

0
0

MONTREAL – Political strife, patronage, potholes: If Benjamin Franklin were still alive — and kicking in Montreal — he would have added them, along with death and taxes, to his shortlist of life’s certainties.

Old Ben might have also included another book of Aislin cartoons by Terry Mosher as inevitable as well.

Mosher’s 47th compendium of cartoons, The Wrecking Ball, has just been released. The man is a machine. Not surprisingly, it is the political strife, patronage and potholes — along with a few other choice ‘P’s: Pauline, PKP, PQ, Porter and Putin — that help fuel the Mosher machine and that bring a much-needed smile to Montrealers trying to weather the aforementioned.

So what makes Mosher tick? Certainly not what made him tick in his younger years.

His idea of a workout these days is not hoisting back shots of hooch. Clean and sober for decades, he gets his workout kicks now by hitting the gym and drinking freshly squeezed apple juice. And hanging with his beloved pooch Sparky and artist bride Mary Hughson — who lays out and designs his books — in their little piece of paradise on the Lachine waterfront.

“Champlain used to cavort in a canoe out there, and he couldn’t even swim,” cracks Mosher, pointing to a spot on Lac St-Louis from his living room window. For his part, Mosher can and does swim in those waters.

Yet while Mosher may be a more mellow man these days, he is still the maverick who delights in shredding the powerful and pompous who merit it. As Rick Mercer has so succinctly put it: “Aislin is Canada’s most celebrated shit disturber.”

He can be naughty. He can also be nice on occasion. In addition to skewering Pauline Marois on the cover with her likeness doing a priceless Miley Cyrus impression on a wrecking ball, or inside the book, with our former premier sporting a coif composed entirely of al dente pasta, Mosher pays fond tribute to Gary Carter and Queen Elizabeth.

“There is no question about it. I can be a lot gentler than I used to be. But also when I am tough now, I think I’m a lot more clever about it. It’s still fun.”

In his basement studio, there is a near-life-size caricature of Mosher by fellow cartoonist Pat Oliphant. It depicts Mosher as half-angel, half-devil, with wings and yet with what looks more like a shot glass than a halo over his head. It was done over 20 years ago, but Mosher still loves the duality of the image it projects.

Mosher remains a kid, even at 71. “I’m about to sign a new three-year Gazette contract, so I had better stay in shape,” he quips.

“I’ve discovered the importance of moving at my age, so I am being active. But I do take pride that I am the oldest guy in the gym. Trust me, though, I’m not trying to turn into Charles Atlas.”

He insists one doesn’t need bad habits for inspiration these days. Turn on the TV, radio or Internet, and the absurdities of life beckon.

“Even the healthiest person around can be quite cynical now,” he says. “I used to claim that I had to drink or do a drug to get cartoon ideas. But then I had to be honest when I woke up every morning. I had scribbled these cartoon ideas the night before, but I couldn’t read them the next day. Now I can read them.”

The Wrecking Ball is akin to a greatest hits anthology, culled from the last two years of Aislin editorial cartoons. When viewed on a daily basis, each cartoon has a certain impact. But when viewed as a collection in a book, they resonate even more, largely because many are part of a series with a striking narrative and context — be they relating to the provincial election campaign, charter of values, municipal chaos, federal senate scandal or Rob Ford.

“I usually do a book every three years, but so much has happened recently: three regime changes at city hall, a couple of Parti Québécois changes and so much more. But the fun comes in going through it all and trying to figure which cartoons to use — to give readers a sense of the last two years we’ve lived through.

“I still believe in the business of producing books,” he continues. “It’s remains the best way to be remembered. Sure, we can store up electronic data. But where is that going to be in 20 years? Whereas a book can stay around for hundreds of years.”

On that note, he announces he has at least three more books in the works. “In 2017, I will have been cartooning for 50 years. Canada will be celebrating its 150th birthday. So I will be putting together a book called Alias Aislin: 50 Years of Cartoons.

“I’ve got a lot of travel plans ahead of me, so maybe I’ll think about getting out after that book,” he says, before quickly adding: “But then again, maybe not.”

Mosher currently puts out four cartoons a week in The Gazette, but he will soon be cutting back to three. “It’s part of the aging process,” he muses. “But there will be more (Gazette cartoonist) Pascal, which is a good thing.”

Unlike many artists, Mosher is quite bullish on the work of many of his fellow cartoonists, from his good buddy Serge Chapleau of La Presse to The New Yorker’s Barry Blitt. “Really, who’s got the time to attack others? The only person I compete with, and not all that much, is myself.

“Barry is from Montreal, like so many great cartoonists who have come from here — there must be something in the air here,” says Mosher, while perusing a Blitt New Yorker cover of cops chasing a football player running down the field. “(Blitt) is so clever, a nice guy who does brilliant work. He told me that when he was eight years old, he went to one of my book signings. He’s probably saying now that I’m never going to quit.”

What makes Mosher stand out in his field are his bold strokes and brash colours — which invariably jump out from the page and immediately capture the attention of readers, regardless of whether they agree or disagree with the content.

And sometimes he’ll use no illustration at all, but rather just words. Such as this beauty in the book: On a cranberry background, under the heading of “Then,” he has a series of about 70 “blah … blah … blah;” and on a green background, under the heading of “Now,” he has an equally long series of “blog … blog … blog.” We get the point.

Which is not to suggest that he hasn’t taken advantage of new technologies available.

“I’ve adapted to today’s technology and quite like it,” he says. “Sure, I could still be doing the René Lévesque big head, little body things. But if I went on and on, just doing the same thing, I’d be bored. And, quite frankly, some do get a style and stick to it. There is a price to be paid in not changing.

“The fact is that if I’m going to keep going at it, I want to, and have to, surprise people still. And that’s a good thing, because people don’t know what to expect. Sometimes I don’t know what to expect. Some mornings I wake up and go: ‘What the hell was I thinking?’”

He has been reflecting of late on the life span of cartoons. “The reality is that most cartoons which are drawn may provide a momentary chuckle, but they are eminently forgettable. But if every once and a while you come up with a cartoon that you know has a chance of resting comfortably in the public consciousness, you have a real winner,” he says, acknowledging that his 1976 classic of premier-designate René Lévesque’s famed “OK, everybody, take a Valium” utterance achieved that. “That’s always been the goal, and that’s when you know you’ve really succeeded.

“I guess the only big difference now is that I draw cartoons for how they will look on a computer, not in a newspaper.” Pause. “God knows, I could end up being an app.”

Terry Mosher will be launching The Wrecking Ball and Other Recent Cartoons by Aislin (Linda Leith Publishing, $19.95) on Tuesday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Paragraphe Bookstore, 2220 McGill College Ave.

bbrownstein@montrealgazette.com

Twitter.com/billbrownstein


Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 11

Latest Images

Trending Articles





Latest Images