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The Goderich Signal-Star, 1973-05-10, Page 15111 ear Tlg aa(pty I onstrJctlo'40 d the Coat a request loot a 11 on the old Jail. 7 loped to ak 'fusing c kng at $ally o1ew x 'zplained, r ',An irrevereht _look at :G-oderich municipal 11-ife Over the past four months a • year old cartoonist Dave services• to the Signal Start • ssions rig• decoration has been ap- McKee began plying his talents when he was about nine years deal toomany acertain rnrrnatterso pearing on the walls of some of- for the Signal Star editorial old and in grade three. t•�'es Sometimes_ they seem to have and homes around pages, or special feature stories, "I think Mr. Shrier told me the attitude, "the sooner we get Goderic h. It's a decoration that and in,;, only four months has something to the effect that I this over with the sooner we h,i-, ti tendency to curl a bit at gained an outstanding reader- should call him again in a year can discuss the new upholstery Op, edges and turn a sort of ship for his material. or two,' � yrllnw color but for those who Now a grade nine student at grin. "Drawiing ca t, ons for the knowh hwhat I mean." if you hi -rig them up they keep their the Goderich and District ,Signal has been an ambition of And what about Mayor value Il•the same. Collegiate Institute Dave ex- mine for some time." Harry Worsell? In January of this year 14 plains that he first offered his Dave first started to practice "I'm not old enough to have c., drawing town officials when seen too many mayors," Dave Dr. Frank Mills was mayor and admits; "but Harry seems to be finally broke into the Signal sort of.a "If you can't beat em Star .pages when he brought join 'em" type of mayor," Some snowmobile, cartoons to • Editor Shirley. Keller last "He trys to get in on what the • December. rest of the town is thinking. He's just trying to be himself though and seems to be the kind of guy who feels silly in the r>tvajobes, He. sr,not bad for the town though." "1 just talked to Mrs. Keller about the cartoons, showed her some of my w,ork,•_.a,1d.she DEE God P.M. 1 69 i0 "The worst that could happen would be cull' pen running Out of irk" DAY NG 01 ;IES THIS oNE FITS PRErTYG000/ ` fiAr , Izs ARE TRUOEA' il By Ron Shaw cepted it," he relates. Dave's first regular cartoon was published on January 25 of this year. Dave, the son of Mr. and • Mrs. Bill McKee of South Street, has grown up in an at- mosphere of art as it were with his mother painting as a hobby and his father being a draft- sman. "I get a lot of my cartoon ideas from my parents," he ex- plains. The weekly Signal Star cartoon is sort of a family of-' fort, with the exception of Dave's 12 year old brother, although Dave notes, "He'll be • a good cartoonist someday too,, his drawings are really well done." When he first started to produce material for the Signal Dave explains he used to ap- proach it with no real plan in, mind, now however he plots his moves .with a little more ac- curacy. "I pick up the paper on Thur- sday," he explains, "and read the whole thing front to hack making mental notes of those stories that might make a good cartoon," In the past election Dave ad- mits he thought Paul Carroll would win the race but points out he wouldn't have voted for either, even if he had a vote. "I don't approach politics in a voting way." Other councillors who stand' out in Dave's mind include Elsa Haydon, Leroy Harrison, Frank Walkom and Eileen Palmer. • "I'm a lot more sure of myself now than when I started drawing for the paper," he ob- serves. "At first I was afraid the councillors, and other people I draw, might be offen- ded but they haven't reacted that way. "When the thing came up about Eileen Palmer saying she thought petitions were mob rule- I wanted •to draw a car- toon of "Queen Eileen" on a balcony with the townspeople below her. In the caption she would have been calling for the boiling oil. I'd draw that :Cartoon if -the situation came up, now taut, I didn't want to- then. I was afraid of getting: phone calls and that sort Of. thing. Dave fiends that the coun- cillors can laugh at themselves and don't mind being lam- pooned so hic work, he feels,-is— improving. "Leroy Harrison makes a "Then I sketch it in rough to good cartoon because of his develop my idea, later I do a beard.. It makes him easy to final drawing in penfil and caricaturize, "Dave explains.,, then trace that copy for the "But he's said very little this Signal in ink." term to date. As soil talk with Dave about municipal politics, or other car- toon subjects he has dealt with, you never know just how to "1 know very _ little about F'ra.hk AValkom because his name comes up so little, hut hy'd he easv to do because of take his observations. They are xis jowls , delivered with a twinkle in his eve and a half '•grin and seem far too advanced for a 14 year old. "I like political satire,'' he notes; "maybe i got it from my grandfather, he was very conl'ical and had an open min- ded way of looking at politics, although everyone who didn't agree with his point of view' in the political field was a "Ger- man spy". Dave admits being prompted to a good cartoon most by town councillor Stan Profit. "i've done two or three on him i guess." "Stan's the easiest, next to Leroy Harrison, to draw. He's About Elsa Haydon Dave notes, "She might have made a better actress than a councillor but she's been good for the town in the beauty aspects, seeing to. it things get cleaned up. "Sometimes I see Elsa as the official opposition." In his own mind Dave feels his cartoons on "Alternatives of Parking",' "Health Unit Cot- tager", "Dog Catcher", "Profit Smoking", "South Street Storm Sewer" and "The Councillors in the Sewer Pipe" were his best. just got that look on his face What's coming up? Well I That makes a good cartoon." think I'II do one on the Signal Star sometime when you start to make your move to the new plant. There should be some good material in that con- fusion." How else does he get his ideas? ''Well besides reading the council stories each week in the paper," he explains, "the Mavor ,has even suggested a cartoon idea or two in person or through my father.' • Asked to make Rome obser- vations on Goderich Town Council as seen through the eyes of a cartooniat Dave,obRer- ves, "They're a bit like the Federal government, they ap- Dave claims he hail little trouble producing n cartoon each week, pointing out that Goderich always protides several ideas to be worked on. "The biggest problem I could face would be if my pen ran out of ink."