Canadian author and illustrator Bruce McCall was born in 1935 in Simcoe, Ontario, Canada. He was raised in a dysfunctional family and experienced a lonely childhood due to his mother’s alcoholism and father’s emotional instability. As a child, McCall was fascinated by comic books and dreamed of becoming a famous illustrator. He showed an early aptitude for drawing fantastical flying machines, blimps, bulbous-nosed muscle cars and futuristic dioramas. Without any serious technical training, McCall began his illustrating career by drawing cars for Ford Motor Company in Toronto in the 1950s. After several decades in advertising, he sought opportunities elsewhere in the publishing industry. McCall traveled to New York City where he was hired by National Lampoon. This provided McCall the opportunity to make a name for himself as an artist with intelligent and whimsical humor. While in New York, he began illustrating magazine covers, regularly appearing in The New Yorker and other magazines since 1979. Besides being an illustrator, McCall is also known as a humorist and has written essays on some of the social ironies of modern life. McCall continues to live and work on the Upper West Side of New York City.
Bruce McCall
(1935-)
Canadian author and illustrator Bruce McCall was born in 1935 in Simcoe, Ontario, Canada. He was raised in a dysfunctional family and experienced a lonely childhood due to his mother’s alcoholism and father’s emotional instability. As a child, McCall was fascinated by comic books and dreamed of becoming a famous illustrator. He showed an early aptitude for drawing fantastical flying machines, blimps, bulbous-nosed muscle cars and futuristic dioramas. Without any serious technical training, McCall began his illustrating career by drawing cars for Ford Motor Company in Toronto in the 1950s. After several decades in advertising, he sought opportunities elsewhere in the publishing industry. McCall traveled to New York City where he was hired by National Lampoon. This provided McCall the opportunity to make a name for himself as an artist with intelligent and whimsical humor. While in New York, he began illustrating magazine covers, regularly appearing in The New Yorker and other magazines since 1979. Besides being an illustrator, McCall is also known as a humorist and has written essays on some of the social ironies of modern life. McCall continues to live and work on the Upper West Side of New York City.