Len Norris

Who was Len Norris?

Leonard Matheson Norris, better known as Len Norris, was a longtime editorial cartoonist for the Canadian newspaper Vancouver Sun from 1950 to 1988. Called by Walt Kelly, the creator of Pogo, "the best in the business", Norris' cartoons skewered the foibles of British Columbia politics and social mores with a barbed pencil. His intricate drawings were full of subtle detail, with several sideplots tucked into the frame, with everything from sardonic pictures on the living room wall to what the kids or the cat are doing in the corner while the main action is going on, typically with painfully ironic dialogue. Norris cartoons remain popular today even though much of their original political or social context is gone.

Recurring themes and characters in Norris cartoons included the sarcastic Amblesnide and Tiddlycove, a parody of the tweedy West Vancouver neighbourhoods of Ambleside and Dundarave; "Rodney", a caricature of an Anglo-centric monarchical Canadian; the "Socred cow" for the British Columbia government's liquor stores; and lampoons of the Pacific Great Eastern Railway.