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NORTH COAST TIMES E A G L E , JAN/FEBRUARY2003
DENIS C. BOURLAND
Three great American cartoonists have died within days of each other at the
beginning of 2003 — the incomparable Al Hirschfeld who dominated show business
charicature for nearly 80 years, died January 21 at 99; Bill Mauldin, creator of the
immortal World War 2 dogface GIs ‘Willie & Joe' and later Pulitzer Prize winner for
editorial cartoons, died January 22 at 81; and Denis Bourland whose comic celebrity
was primarily local to the Oregon Coast, died January 11a month before his 71st
birthday
Denis was originally from the East Coast He started drawing as a child and
earned a master’s degree in art. After teaching art in Florida, he and his wife Marcia,
also an artist, and daughter Jennifer moved to the Pacific Northwest in 1973, and
"Old Blabbermouth over there is telling everybody the true meaning of life.
lived in Astoria since 1976. He taught print making at Clatsop Community College
and worked for 23 years at Coast Rehabilitation Services where he inaugurated an
art program among the MR/DD community that has been widely displayed.
Essentially an abstract painter, Denis caught what he called the “dreaded
toonitis” in 1985. “I always admired the single panel cartoons of the old timers in the
New Yorker magazine such as Peter Arno, James Thurber and Charles Addams as
well as contemporary cartoonists as Callahan and Gary Larson that you see in your
local newspapers,” he wrote early last year when the Times Eagle published a second
batch of his own cartoons.
- michael M c C usker
“Now you must admit that Doctor Norwood's cloning experiments
have gotten a wee out of hand."
"Look Alice, it's happened!... At last I've found myself!"
Oh him. ..He’s our different drummer.