"The Great Depression of the 1930s was a golden age for advertising, as corporate America sought to retain its customer base in the wake of the Crash of '29. For a struggling paper manufacturer in Cloquet, Minnesota, the times were all the more difficult because it had recently invested in costly new machinery. In desperation, the executives of Northwest Paper called in an ad agent from Chicago to boost sales and save the company. Together, they created an ad campaign that would be one of the longest-running and best-known in American commercial history. The name of the firm and its location in the north woods of Minnesota provided the inspiration for a series of story-ads featuring the adventures of the North West Mounted Police of Canada." "The sixteen artists who worked on the Mountie series between 1931 and 1970 were among the most famous commercial illustrators of their day. The first of these was Hal Foster, who later created the Prince Valiant comic strip. Another, the most prolific "Mountie" artist, was Arnold Friberg, who stayed with the project for thirty-three years. Friberg's Mounted Police pictures are much sought-after by collectors and are still in circulation in the form of calendars, pamphlets, and other printed materials."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Over the course of fifty years, distinguished Staff Sergeant (retired) of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Alert Henry (Al) Lund amassed the largest ever collection of Mountie books, magazines, and comics. From a collection of thousands, he selected approximately one hundred of his favourites for the exhibition and catalogue. In the books, magazines, and comics, the artists and illustrators have captured the image of the Mountie in a variety of styles and have often depicted him as a Canadian hero and world icon. Lund's collection was donated to the University of Alberta Libraries and will be on display at Bruce Peel Special Collections in 2017 (bpsc.library.ualberta.ca).