Ipellie to become a giant

Alootook Ipellie will be recognized for his satirical comics about Inuit life in Canada when he’s inducted May 11 into the Giants of the North Hall of Fame for Canadian cartoonists.

The induction will be part of the 15th annual Doug Wright Awards, a featured event of the 2019 Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF).

Ipellie was born in 1951 in Nuvuqquq, a small hunting camp located near what was then Frobisher Bay, N.W.T.—now known as Iqaluit, Nunavut, according to a blog on the Doug Wright Awards website. Ipellie later settled in Ottawa and died there in 2007.

He became a graphic artist that often satirically examined the modern world’s impact on traditional Inuit life. Ipellie was the editor of Inuit Today magazine and contributed comics to many publications, including Nunatsiaq News.

Ipellie was also an accomplished writer, designer, photographer, and Inuktitut translator.

A touring retrospective, Alootook Ipellie: Walking Both Sides of an Invisible Border, was launched in Ottawa in 2018, with stops scheduled this fall at the Art Gallery of Hamilton and in spring 2020 at Gallery 1C03 at the University of Winnipeg.

Artists are elected to the Giants of the North Hall of Fame by the Doug Wright Awards executive committee, which solicits input and suggestions from across the Canadian cartooning community. 

Also being inducting into the Giants of the North Hall of Fame will be Fiona Smyth, an artist and teacher known for her comics tackling female sexuality.