In the U.S. there's an art magazine devoted to cartoon art Juxtapoz while in Canada respectability for the genre rarely appears except by way of Hal Niedzviecki (publisher of Broken Pencil: Zine Culture in Canada and the World and author of We Want Some Too). Pete Dako has been a cartoon artist since forever, churning out zines and perfect-bound cartoon anthologies (Casual/Casual), including a forthcoming collaboration with Mark Connery (watch for it). As far as I know, Dako was the first Canadian to "get" - Japanese manga, and actually took a trip to Tokyo years ago to experience the place where comics are not just for kids. I Love You Happy Face is Dako's first solo, and to see painted on little canvases all of his well-honed zine characters, including three-eyed snoopy dog and Casual/Casual boy (of striking resemblance to the artist) - is like an exclamation point of how close caricature is to fine art painting. I Love You Happy Face reads as a new chapter in Dako's career, of moving from off the page and at onto the wall with vividly coloured and preciously small paintings; and a Dako original - cartooning applied to enamelled electric saw blades. We've reached the point where cartoons are no longer containable within a distinguishable sub-genre.

Catherine Osborne.
LOLA 7, FALL 2000

© Pete Dako, 2008. World Rights Reserved.