Book latest coup for artist and cartoonist McLain

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Windspeaker cartoonist Kim McLain has finally done it!

No, he hasn't slipped over the edge while sketching a cartoon of Sam Sinclair still holding onto the steering wheel after all those years while the rest of the MAA car was falling apart, and he hasn't applied electric wires to his head (yet) while drawing a cartoon of the little ole lady from Lubicon screaming "Where's the beef?"

Instead, he has gone beyond all of that and put together 64 pages of "The Best of Kim McLain."

Inside his easy-to-hold-and-read booklet, Kim has taken the best of his cartoons, picked personally by himself, from the three years he has been with the Windspeaker (AMMSA) organization as a cartoonist, sometimes writer and now production editor, and has filled those pages with a great deal of humor - humor that still portrays a positive message.

Alongside his cartoons, Kim has taken the time to enter quotes from such celebrities as Humphrey Bogart, Mickey Mouse and the rock group ABBA, telling it as only Kim McLain can.

Kim also portrays the concerns that Native people have today - concern over land and mineral rights, the government's sometimes lack of responsibility toward Native programs, and Native concerns in general.

He has taken quotes from Native personalities and poltical leader like the one

from MAA president Sam Sinclair that runs also side a cartoon that shows two Natives, one worrying about life after death, while the other person thinks he is talking about government funding:

Sinclair's quote reads: "Those funds are our right, not a privilege."

I, for one, like the quote that Kim used from Wagamese.

"Self government: Waking up Monday and deciding which color socks to put on - sometimes most people can manage without a band council resolution or an amendment to the Constitution. What's all this fuss about."

Kim McLain is an "artist," and cartooning is only one expression of his many talents.

Born in Oxbow, Saskatchewan, Kim has also lived in the Northwest Territories, and the states of Montana, South Dakota and Missouri.

While attending school, McLain won numerous art awards, which prompted him to further his training at the Alberta College of Art in Calgary.

McLain is actively pursuing a career as a fine artist. His paintings are already in a number of prestigious collections and can be viewed at the Vik Gallery in Edmonton.

His work at AMMSA has not hindered Kim's art work to any extent, as proven when he recently won second prize in "Asum Mena 1986," an art competition sponsored by the Alberta Indian Arts and Crafts Society.

Director of Print Media for AMMSA, Clint Buehler, writes of McLain's work: "The final judgment of any cartoonist's work is the response it gets, and McLain gets plenty. Sometimes outrage and offense when he accurately hits a deserving targett, but more often delight and admiration at his insight and skill."

"The Best of Kim McLain" is a collector's item, and should not be missed.