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Remembering Comics Icon James Simpkins
Photo by Peter Bregg.
Jasper the Bear was a hugely popular comic character created by Canadian artist James Simpkins. Running from 1948 to 1971, the strip was syndicated in such faraway places as Europe and Mexico. The chubby bear’s image also appeared on stuffed dolls, T-shirts, baseball caps, postcards, books, salt and pepper shakers, pennants, silver charms, collector plates, and other souvenirs. Author Peter C. Newman—who penned an introduction to one of Simpkins’ five Jasper the Bear collections—believed that Jasper embodied Canada’s character so well that he mused, “Someday we may even change our national emblem from a beaver to a bear.”
Shortly before James Simpkins’ death in 2004, journalist Robert Hoshowsky and photographer Peter Bregg met with him for an article Maclean’s commissioned for its hundredth anniversary issue. Bregg shot the last known photos of Simpkins, but unfortunately the article was cut from the issue and was never printed. It was a shame to pass over one of the country’s most iconic characters. Jasper the Bear ran in Maclean’s for over twenty years.
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