Peter: All the time I was writing advertising copy and jingles I was also writing and drawing cartoon strips. One day I sold one, about a cat called Bogart, to a national newspaper called Today where it ran for 9 years. When Today closed down the strip was picked up by the Daily Mail where it remained for another 6 and was also picked up by the Sunday Times. My cartoons and illustrations have also been published by the Canadian Globe and Mail, Toronto Sun, The Ink Group, Penthouse Magazine, Macmillan and Arrow Books.
Dude: Thanks for talking to us, Peter.
Peter: You‘re welcome, Dude.
Dude: Peter, tell us a little about yourself.
Peter: Well, I was born in Toronto Canada to parents who were so poor they couldn't afford to buy me any designer clothes or pay for private tennis lessons. But I found solace in playing my ukulele, reading Little Lulu comics, pretending I played right wing for the Toronto Maple Leafs and drawing cartoons.
Dude: Who was Little Lulu?
Peter: A cartoon character created by Marjorie Henderson Buell, probably the first woman cartoonist. Little Lulu appeared as a weekly comic book in the 40s, 50s and 60s but to this
WE CATCH UP WITH PETER PLANT IN HIS STUDIO FOR AN EXCLUSIVE AND IMPROMPTU CHITCHAT
day it remains the best strip I have ever read. I also loved George Feyer’s and Virgil Partch's cartoons and the original Warner Brothers animations. Bugs Bunny, Yosemite Sam, Elmer Fudd, Foghorn Leghorn. Today my favourite artist is Jean-Michel Folon.
Dude: Tell us about school.
Peter: I went to the local high school where I kept the teachers and class entertained with my ready witticisms and then to university in Winnipeg to study architecture but flunked out in the first year because I spent all my time in the newspaper office writing and drawing cartoons for the university newspaper. I guess I didn't want to be an architect that much.
Dude: And after that?
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