Dergachov joins Gazette cartoon team

As regular readers know, Montreal Gazette cartoonist Aislin (a.k.a. Terry Mosher) is celebrating his 50th anniversary this year with a career retrospective book, From Trudeau to Trudeau, and special exhibitions at the McCord Museum (until Aug. 13) and in Toronto and Ottawa. He’s also sharing some of his favourite memories on page A2 of the print edition of the Gazette every Monday.

This is all a prelude to next year, when Aislin will cut back to drawing one cartoon per week for us. With that change looming, we have been introducing you to some new contributors, who will share cartooning duties with Aislin in 2018, including Boris, Nicole Fisher, Gigot, Grooch and Frederic Serre.

I am happy to announce another new addition: Oleg Dergachov, whose first cartoon for the Gazette appears today.

Dergachov was born in Russia and, after time in Ukraine, Germany and Poland, moved with his family to Montreal in 2005. He might just be the best-known Canadian cartoonist abroad. His work is in the permanent collections of such institutions as the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Library in London, the State Russian Library and Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow and cartoon museums in Switzerland, Turkey and Poland.

But calling Dergachov a cartoonist understates his many talents. He is a painter, graphic artist, sculptor and illustrator, and he teaches courses in painting, cartooning and sculpture in his Westmount studio. You can see more of his work at his website, doStudio.ca, or turn to page A18, where his cartoon appears.

Look for Dergachov’s work on a regular basis on the Opinion page.

There is another change in the works for fans of Celine Cooper. Starting July 17, her weekly column moves from Mondays to Tuesdays. The schedules of our other columnists remain unchanged.