Legendary editorial cartoonist Merle (Ting) Tingley, who, from 1948 to 1986, met the challenge of providing the London Free Press with a daily drawing that highlighted public affairs and human foibles, passed away last month. Tingley was 95 years old.
“There are so few editorial cartoonists left these days, and the ones who are still around cover national and international events,” says Diana Tamblyn, the founder of London’s Ting Comic and Graphic Arts Festival, in a piece published in the Free Press on Tingley’s death.
“Ting was first and foremost a regionalist — his work reflected his local environment — London and Southwest Ontario. He loved this Forest City, and that love shone through each one of the lines he put down on paper, whether it was a cartoon about city hall or a map of Storybook Gardens. And London loved him back.”
