As I enjoy some time off, this week marks the 25 year milestone since officially beginning my role on July 7, 1997, as staff editorial cartoonist at The Hamilton Spectator. Previous to then my illustrations regularly appeared on a freelance basis in this paper as well as several other newspapers and magazines across Canada and the United States. I had been editorial cartoonist for the chain of Hamilton area community newspapers known as Brabant, and I got my first start as a published cartoonist as a student at The Fulcrum, while attending the University of Ottawa in the late 1980s and early 90s. Visitors here will know thousands of my cartoons can be mined in searches from this very website. Upon being hired 6000 editorial cartoons or so ago, the Internet was in its infancy, so while all of my cartoons many be found after 2000, ones before then have been added years after they originally appeared in print. Thoughts of putting together a print catalogue book going back several decades are always swirling in the background as a possibility of happening until they aren’t. So until then, folks will just have to settle for nostalgic MacKay cartoons from tablet glass through my vast archives instead of paperback. So many cartoons from the biggest characters from the past quarter century…
Hamilton Spectator Editorial Page – July 9, 1997