EXTRACTS: llustrators issue 7 © 2014 The Book Palace (96 PAGES in Full edition)

81 twenty-two, and Simon who is aged nineteen. Peng says “I’m very proud of both our boys and can easily imagine them accomplishing great things in the future!” In the early 1980s, Peng went to Sheridan College to study illustration, and was determined to become a professional comic book artist. One particularly stern professor there, his editorial art class instructor, Lillian Lampert, informed him in no uncertain terms one day, “We do not do that Disney crap in this class,Mr. Peng!”, effectively steering the young artist in a new direction, and forcing himtoopenhis eyes to aworldof other possibilities. On a visit to Toronto in 1964, I met the illustrator Muriel Wood and her graphic artist husband John Wood. They came from Kent in England, and were keen to return to the old country. I gave John a job as a page designer on Woman’s Mirror, and commissioned Muriel to paint several illustrations. However, their return to the UK turned into a misadventure, and they returned to Canada. Peng told me, “I was greatly inspired by my third year mentor and instructor, John Wood. He was in charge of the Advertising Illustration major I’d chosen to study. I felt a real kinship with John. His stories of his career, and of his life’s philosophy powerfully influenced me during that impressionable time. “I left the Illustration program with a Diploma in Illustration, although granting it was hotly debated amongst the faculty. I had a final semester work placement at Ogilvy & Mather—six weeks of front line experience in the studio of the Toronto office, drawing marker layouts and storyboards for real advertising clients. “At the end of the six weeks the studio manager, Roger Burrell offered me a staff position. I took it—how could I not? It was why I’d gone to art school in the first place! But the instructors of my program were not LEFT: ‘Braindriver’ has echoes of Ed ‘Big Daddy’ Roth’s manic ’60s hot-rod graphics. BELOW: ‘Do Not Adjust Your Set’, another of Peng’s ‘trash culture’ parodies. Peng observes that they were some of the most fun illustrations that he created, but client demands reduced the amount of time he could devote to marketing these ideas and ultimately he had to move on to greener pastures.