Kerry Waghorn

Kerry Waghorn, a native of Vancouver, Canada, began his career as a caricaturist with the student newspaper The Peak while attending Simon Fraser University in a Vancouver suburb. That opened doors to The Georgia Straight, a trendsetting, controversial flagship of the underground press, which syndicated his cartoon strip to a number of alternative newspapers.

Through these connections, he became a favorite illustrator of the rock promoters of the era, regularly producing posters advertising stars and groups that would achieve legendary fame. Many of these early Waghorn posters (for Led Zeppelin, The Beach Boys, Elton John, and many others) and album covers (Paul Horn, Laura Nyro, et. al.) continue to be eagerly sought by collectors.

Visiting San Francisco in 1971, Kerry decided to pop into The Chronicle to see if there might be an opportunity to place some of his cartoons. There he met Sunday and Features Editor Stan Arnold and began a 20-year relationship with The Chronicle that brought him worldwide recognition and syndication through Chronicle Features, which became part of Universal Press Syndicate in 1997. Waghorn's Faces in the News celebrated its 30th anniversary. in 2007. During that time, Waghorn has created more than 9,000 original drawings and been published in over 400 newspapers worldwide.

In addition to The Chronicle’s late Stan Arnold, Kerry credits two famous Canadian cartoonists with being most influential in his career: incisive political editorialist Roy Peterson of The Vancouver Sun and the late Len Norris, also of The Sun.

"Roy, who launched my career, and I are still good friends, but there will always be a very special place in my heart for Len Norris," Kerry says. "When he died, I was highly honored to be the recipient of boxes of his files, his work and records, both the published and the unpublished. I have no greater treasures in my possession."

Today, Waghorn lives in North Vancouver, British Columbia, and when he isn't at the drawing board, he might be spotted fishing for the big Pacific Coast salmon.

For more about Kerry Waghorn, please visit www.kerrywaghorn.com.