Sidney Arnold Barron (June 13, 1917 in Toronto – April 29, 2006 in Victoria, British Columbia) was a Canadian editorial cartoonist and artist. During his career as a cartoonist, he drew for the Victoria Times, the Toronto Star, Maclean's, and The Albertan. His cartoons were satirical takes on social mores, and often contained a biplane towing a banner, and a bored-looking cat, holding a card bearing a wry comment. Later in life, Barron moved to Vancouver Island, where he and his wife opened an art studio and gallery.
Early life
During the First World War, Sid Barron's mother, Daisy Hilda Wormald, moved from England to her married sister Florence's household in Toronto[1] after becoming pregnant by a Belgian soldier billeted with her parents.[2] Daisy's child Sidney was born in Toronto on June 13, 1917. Florence and her husband adopted the baby and moved to Victoria when Sidney was 2.[2] (Barron grew up believing Florence was his mother and Daisy was his aunt,[3] and would not discover the truth until he was an adult).[4] He attended South Park Elementary School and Victoria High School[5] and grew up around the shipping port at Victoria’s breakwater, where he developed a passion for sketching boats.[1] He had a pronounced stammer as a child, and was treated for it at age 21 at the National Hospital for Speech Disorders in New York.[4]
Comic book artist
Example of Barron's densely illustrated style from Toronto Star, December 1970, included both biplane trailing sign in upper right corner and "puddy-tat" holding sign along bottom edge
After graduating from high school, Barron found work as a sign painter and commercial illustrator during the Great Depression, producing, among other things, schedule cards for Union Steamships.[3] At age 21, he took his first formal art classes from young art prodigy Allan Edwards (along with Pierre Berton),[1] and did some illustrations for Toronto's Star Weekly. During the Second World War, Barron worked in the Canadian comic book industry, producing comics for Canadian Heroes Comics, published by Educational Comics.[2] He started to paint harbours, ships and beach scenes in watercolour and tempera (but not oil paints because he was allergic to them).[1] He also did some war illustrations for the Toronto Star.[4]
Following the war, Barron received some art training in Detroit. He was used by the Star Weekly as a freelance illustrator until the magazine began purchasing illustrations from American syndicates as a cost-saving measure. He then spent the rest of the 1950s seeking work in B.C. and Ontario.
Editorial cartoonist
In 1958 Stu Keate, publisher of the Victoria Daily Times, asked Barron to produce editorial cartoons.[4] In 1961, Pierre Berton introduced Barron to the editor of the Toronto Star, and Barron moved to Toronto to begin a 30-year relationship with the Star, starting as an alternate to cartoonist Duncan Macpherson.[4] In 1962, he moved to Calgary to produce work for The Albertan while still selling pieces to the Star. In 1964, he started selling cartoons to MacLean's.[4]
His black-and-white cartoons were densely filled with small details, and commented satirically on the absurdity of modern and suburban life. Critic Robert Fulford called him "the poet of the mundane." Journalist Brenda Gough characterized his work as "relatively mild yet satirically insightful topical cartoons of social mores and suburbia [that] utilized a clear line and elegant, unexaggerated figures placed in extremely cluttered backgrounds full of sight gags and signs."[6]
Two distinctive "trademarks" that often appeared in his works were a bored-looking "puddy-tat" holding a sign with a sardonic comment,[4] and sometimes a biplane with a trailing banner.[6]
Artist
Barron had been married twice before when he met fellow artist Jesi at an art therapy class in 1975, and married her in 1977.[1] After the National Archives of Canada and the Glenbow Museum bought many of his original cartoons, he was able to retire as a cartoonist, and he and Jesi travelled for several years. In 1989, they moved to Coombs, British Columbia on Vancouver Island, where they opened an art gallery to sell their work. During this period, Barron created watercolours of beach scenes and nautical themes.[4]
In 1997, the Barrons moved to Victoria. Ten years later, Sid Barron died at Mount St. Mary Hospital, on April 29, 2006, age 88.
1961-66 Editorial Cartoonist for Maclean’s Magazine
1962 Editorial Cartoonist for The Albertan
1958-61 Editorial Cartoonist for the Victoria Times (Times Colonist)
1941-58 Commercial Artist, Neon Sign Designer, Illustrator for Educational Products Inc. Comics' Canadian Heroes, Union Steamships (Vancouver), and Billboard Painter (Toronto)
