J. O’Henly created Spike&Mike for the comics

John O’Henly grew up in in the east end of Toronto and went to school at Danforth Tech. When he entered the world of Canadian comics it was at the Toronto company Commercial Signs of Canada at 165 York St. (later called Bell Features) in the downtown area. 

 

He created the two hobos, the Knights of the Open Road, and in the first comic they were named Mike and Spike but that soon changed.

John O'Henly enlisted in the service in September 1942 and always kept drawing when he was overseas.

 

 After V.E. day in '45 he settled in Ontario.

 

 "He returned to Canada a few months later, and decided to go back to school, choosing the Ontario College of Art, which led him to a career as a high school art teacher in London, Ontario.  Along the way he married and raised a family, falling into the rhythms of postwar Canadian life like so many of the soldiers returned from the war.  John O’Henly was interviewed by Scott Masters (see Crestwood) via Zoom, during the pandemic of summer 2020."

 

A longer more detailed bio of J. O'Henly is available at:

www.crestwood.on.ca/ohp/ohenly-john/ 

 

 

Doug Wright comic strip

Doug Wright made some great cartoons for years. He was born in England, and immigrated to Canada in his teens in 1938. A  proud Canadian citizen, this was often reflected in the modest, suburban Ontario life depicted in his comic strips Nipper and Doug Wright's Family (begun in 1967).   It's been reported that "His cartooning career really began when he landed a job as editorial cartoonist for the Montreal Standard.  In 1948 he took over the reins of Jimmy Frise’s Birdseye Center, retitled Juniper Junction. Signing the strip “DAW”, he continued with it until its end in September, 1968.  Wright created Nipper, a mostly silent comic strip, for the Standard in 1949."

(11 August 1917, England - 3 January 1983, Canada)