He was Canada’s most celebrated cartoonist — but fame could not erase his dark side.

by Brad Mackay

34 APRIL–MaY 2015 canadashistory.ca Artwork copyright George Feyer Estate/Photo from Maclean’s Magazine APRIL–MaY 2015 35 t a formal dinner an angry cognoscenti club, a role that saw him hob- the very summit of his creative powers,” man chokes a fellow diner nob with the likes of Marshall McLuhan, Berton lamented. with one hand. In the other Peter Gzowski, George Jonas, June Call- As tragic as his death was — he left be- A he’s holding a fork, ready to wood, and . hind an ex-wife and seven-year-old son — strike. Before he can finish the job he’s Small in stature and raunchy by inclina- the grander tragedy may be that, outside of started, his wife butts in, “Henry, Henry! tion, Feyer was part of a wave of Hungarian family, friends, and a clutch of cartoonists, That’s the wrong fork.” intellectuals, artists, and writers that immi- George Feyer and his epic body of work re- Mary and Joseph walk out of a phar- grated to Canada in the years following the main virtually unknown to Canadians. macy with an ad for pregnancy tests in its Second World War. Like many of his coun- window. Appearing beatific, Mary strides trymen he was highly motivated and wast- yörgy Feyer was born on February 18, along with a halo perched over her head. ed little time constructing an eclectic and G1921, in , Hungary, the only Her aggrieved husband mutters to himself, eventful career that was unprecedented in child of a lawyer father and a social-worker “Bullshit.” his day — and possibly unrivalled in ours. mother. Though he was brought up Ro- A little girl strolls away from a depart- Berton, a frustrated cartoonist himself, man Catholic, Feyer’s mother was Jewish, ment store Santa Claus who is sitting was magnetically drawn to the diminu- which granted him Jewish status in the eyes dumbstruck in his chair. Off-panel an adult tive whirlwind. In an article published in of Judaic tradition. is shouting to the girl, “Lolita! Let’s go!!” the wake of Feyer’s death in 1967, Berton Almost a year to the day before Feyer’s Each of these ideas originated more than praised his friend as “the most inventive birth, Miklós Horthy, a right-wing ideo- fifty years ago in the brilliant and bizarre man I have known,” adding that “ideas logue and well-known anti-Semite, seized mind of George Feyer, a tragically short- crackled from George in meteoric showers.” power in Hungary, booted out Commu- lived giant of Canadian cartooning. Equal Decades before British graffiti artist/ nist forces, and installed himself as head parts madman, genius, imp, and intellec- prankster Banksy stole his first can of spray of state and regent. Horthy wasted little tual, Feyer was a one-of-a-kind artist whose paint, Feyer was known for his penchant time implementing legislation that capped Jewish enrolment in universities to five per cent. It would be the first of many such “It was impossible for George to pass laws to come. These were tumultuous times, and they so much as an elevator button without played a critical role in shaping Feyer’s world view. turning it into a cartoon.” When he was a young boy, Feyer’s par- ents divorced and later remarried. “I had two fathers and two mothers. I loved them body of work defies categorization. His for drawing on anything — and anyone — all, and they were all very friendly,” Feyer initial burst of fame came thanks to his in- with his ever-present felt-tipped marker. told McKenzie Porter in a 1960 profile cisive gag cartoons, which cut through the Hotel walls, ceilings, floors, doors, toilets, in Maclean’s magazine. “They were liberal pretentions and hypocrisies of 1950s North sinks, mirrors, women’s backs (and their intellectuals. They hated soldiers, flags, America — often without the benefit of a chests and stomachs), even his best friend’s priests, n