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Adrian Raeside tells tails

Veteran cartoonist releases a collection of dog cartoons from his long-running comic strip
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dog days Adrian Raeside recently released his book, Tails Don't Lie , featuring dog comics from his The Other Coast strip. Photo by Adrian Raeside, submitted

For Adrian Raeside, out of sight is out of mind — at least when it comes to his cartoons.

You can't blame him when he says he almost immediately forgets about a piece after he sends it off to his editors; after all he's spent 32 years as the editorial cartoonist for the Victoria Times Columnist and over a decade producing his syndicated cartoon strip The Other Coast, with his work appearing in over 400 newspapers and magazines around the world (including this one).

As a result, putting together his latest book Tails Don't Lie: A Decade of Dog Cartoons (Harbour Publishing), made up of 10 years of dog cartoons from his Other Coast series, was a stroll down memory lane for the Whistler resident. "It was almost like reading the strips again for the first time," Raeside says over a pint at Dusty's on a recent afternoon. "This was the first time I'd seen from beginning to end in colour how the characters progressed. The dogs (Koko and Sakura, based on his late, real-life dogs) slowly took the strip over. I sort of knew that was going to happen with dogs because they have such strong personalities. For me to see the progression was quite fascinating."

Cracking rapidfire jokes, Raeside chatted with Pique about creating the book, the state of the cartoon business and why we love our pups.

Pique: At this point you have more than 12 books out. Does a new book feel like a big deal anymore?

Adrian Raeside: I'm hyperventilating, as you can tell. The thing about it is because each book is different each one has its own appeal to me. For Tails Don't Lie, it's a collection of cartoons. Normally when I look at the strip it's in a newspaper with other strips around it — which are all very good, of course. To see it in the book in colour instead of black and white in newspaper, all lined up chronologically, you can see how they progress and how the characters progress.

Pique: Do you submit the cartoons in black and white? Did you have to go back and colour them?

Raeside: I (add) colour after. I'm one of the few people, I think, that still draws by hand. A lot of guys draw with tablets. I tried that, but it's the hand-eye coordination thing — actually it's because I'm really stupid when it comes to computers — it's the hand-eye coordination thing, you know? For me I know there are less and less people drawing by hand because when it comes to buying drawing boards and ink and pen, it's becoming harder and harder to find. They just don't make it anymore with the market.

Pique: I imagine it's different, drawing by hand verses translating to pixels.

Raeside: I agree. We're gods. Actually, no I'm a dinosaur, let's be honest. I have to admire people who can draw like this. When you're on a screen, the screen is just like a couple of millimetres above where the image appears so there's a lag. I couldn't get used to it. The pen isn't actually touching where the ink line is. I'm not complaining... much. But it's the way of the future.

Pique: With the book, did you have the idea in mind for a long time?

Raeside: I've always thought of doing it. I had two Other Coast collections done before through another publisher... the strip is like a black hole. Everything goes in, but nothing comes out. In this case this (the book) came out, which is unusual. Normally nothing comes back from the strip except fan mail or a request for a print.

Pique: There's not really any other medium where you have to fit so much — art, writing, humour — in such a small amount of space and time.

Raeside: You're right. The strips are shrinking in size as newspapers shrink. In some places the colour pages are disappearing altogether. There's probably more future in making 8-Track players... But that's the nature of the news medium changing. You can complain about it. The Other Coast is syndicated from Los Angeles, but I keep the rights to Canada. All the syndicates are scratching their heads trying to figure out how to make money online. You want to be where people are going to get their news. But no one has really figured out how to make money off of it. Maybe one day there won't be comics. I hope not. But I can see the day when they'll have shrunk to the point where we've lost our audience.

Pique: Does it worry you?

Raeside: Well, I mean every once in a while I swallow a pill bottle of amphetamines. You know, it bothers me more because there's less opportunity for the younger people who want to get into it. There are good people too who never get published. I've been at it for 35 years if it ends for me — who would've thought I could get a job like this where I can work out of my house in a housecoat and be drunk by noon. Not bad. So I've got no complaints. I enjoy what I do and I'm no good at anything else anyway. It would be a sad thing for newspapers if the strips disappeared because it is such a unique medium. There's nothing else like it.

Pique: Coming to Whistler, everyone has a dog here. I wondered if that influenced or if Whistler influences you in any way.

Raeside: I think it does. We moved here about 13 years ago from the island and it was one of those things where I just wanted to get away from doing — I was doing a lot of public speaking. It started years ago and I'd never take a fee for it. I'd say, 'Look, give it to the hospice society or whatever charity' because I didn't think it was right to accept money for standing up, rambling on half drunk. I sort of got known for doing that...

I was thinking, 'This is crazy. This is not what I do.' So, we moved to Whistler just basically to get away from it. I don't think I did a single interview for almost 10 years. I didn't talk to anyone.

Pique: Obviously you don't need to do press. Tails Don't Lie is already on the B.C. best seller's list.

Raeside: To me it's amazing. It really is and I don't take it lightly. I really don't. I think it's amazing that somebody will, after all these years, even if they don't know me, look at a book and pick it up. Here's the reason why: when you're in a newspaper like the Pique, they're picking up the paper for any number of reasons... the cartoon just happens to come with it. But when (they) pick up any book that you've done that has your name on it, that's a big deal. I'm only as good as the last cartoon I draw. And for politicians, I think some of them hope it is the last cartoon I draw.