{ Alan King } ~ 1947 - 2021
It's with great sadness that I note the passing of Alan King. Alan was a brilliant, inquisitive, wonderfully creative individual. He also happened to be a good friend and mentor. For those from the Ottawa area, Alan's work could be found daily on the editorial page of the Ottawa Citizen from 1979 to 1997. I still remember my first encounter with Alan. I was enrolled at the local College and working as the Editorial Cartoonist and Illustrator on the Algonquin Times. The Editor arranged for me to drop by the Citizen and visit Alan in his office. It was a crash-course in Editorial Cartooning and Humorous Illustration from one of the very best in the business. He generously offered advice and pulled down from the shelf Nick Meglin's "the Art of Humorous Illustration"; we both expressed our admiration for Mort Drucker's caricatures and the work of Jack Davis. Then Alan showed me the cartoon he was working on that day. If I recall correctly, he was cutti