Hamilton Illustrated
David Collier
November 2012
88 pages | ISBN 978-1-894987-70-7
**Winner of the 2013 Pigskin Peters Award (Doug Wright Awards)**
David Collier has long been a fixture in Hamilton, whether wandering through the streets, paddling though Hamilton harbour or biking through the city only to stop suddenly to pull out a sharp pencil and a well-worn sketchbook. His artist’s eye is drawn to the beauty of the city and to the warmth of the people who live here. In Hamilton Illustrated Collier shows the Hamilton he knows and loves. The reader can’t help but love it too.
Articles
Holiday Gift Guide (Hamilton Magazine, 30/11/2013)
Hamilton Magazine listed Hamilton Illustrated on its 2013 Holiday Gift Guide.
A tip of the hat for an award-winning Hamilton cartoonist (Adam Carter, CBC News, 19/05/2013)
"He expresses this diverse landscape in Hamilton Illustrated through a series of comic essays about living in working in the city. Within the pages, Collier captures the landmarks as well as the lesser-known local haunts and curiousities that make Hamilton unique."
Rabagliati, Collier and Bunjevac winners of 2013 Doug Wright Awards (Doug Wright Awards, 12/05/2013)
Hamilton Illustrated by David Collier wins the Pigskin Peters Award
2013 Doug Wright Award winners (The Beat, 12/05/2013)
“The night was stolon [sic] by winner David Collier, however, who delivered a long, quintessentially Collieresque monolog on trying and failing to show Australian cartoonists the finer side of Canadian life.”
Five Things Literary: Hamilton, with David Collier (David Collier, OpenBook Ontario, 08/05/2013)
"In today’s edition of Five Things Literary, David tells us about five people who play a key role in Hamilton’s literary scene, including his book-loving author mother Sandra Collier, an enthusiastic comic book lover and Hamilton Public Library patron by the name of Jen, and Wolsak & Wynn Editor and Publisher Noelle Allen. These descriptions are each paired with some of David’s fantastic illustrations, which highlight these important people of literary Hamilton and their passion for books."
Hamilton is the star of David Collier's comics (Amy Kenny, Hamilton Spectator, 28/12/2012)
“Some stories focus a full page on swimming across the bay or cycling the city, but the lengthy pieces are peppered with single panels that are less story than snapshot. They’re the visual equivalent of a string of sentences highlighting a handful of separate, but somehow connected, points about where we live — the bike racks that were stolen from Bennetto Community Centre (presumably for the scrap value), the bearded road biker who races around the city in his cycling jersey, the juxtaposition of boarded-up buildings next to beautifully maintained homes.”
Comic Effect: Luke Doucet’s musical tribute to Hamilton, Ont., comes complete with a graphic novel as well as a CD (Mark Medley, National Post, 31/08/2012)
Medley talks about the liner notes for Luke Doucet's Steel City Trawler, which were reproduced in Hamilton Illustrated. "Steel City Trawler is also a collaboration with Hamilton artist David Collier, who transformed Doucet’s introspective lyrics into a 20-page mini-graphic novel. No ordinary liner notes, the acclaimed cartoonist imagines a day-in-the-life of Doucet, as he walks through the streets of Hamilton."
Reviews
Visualizations (Mike Borkent, Canadian Literature, 01/04/2014)
“Collier’s inter-subjective focus informs the entire book through his use of comics to embed himself in scenes as he documents them, while also commenting on historical and social elements of his community. Collier elegantly employs the form and practice of comics as an entry point into the dynamics of life in Hamilton in order to reflect on those dynamics directly.”
Interviews
9 for 9: Get to know David Collier (Doug Wright Awards, 02/05/2013)
"Today the spotlight turns to David Collier, a veteran of the Canadian comics scene (and the Canadian Forces). Collier has received three Doug Wright Awards nominations; Best Book nods in 2005 for The Frank Ritza Papers, and 2011 for Chimo and this year for Hamilton Illustrated."
About the Author
Since publishing his first essay in R. Crumb’s Weirdo magazine, David Collier has been known for his thoughtful comic essays, often biographies of endearing eccentrics like himself. With his strong feeling for rustic scenery, Collier has carved a niche drawing homely images of grain elevators and abandoned cabins for publications like The Globe and Mail, The National Post, Saturday Night and Geist.
