Billican

• Born 1888-05-09 · Died 1929-04-03

Additional biographical information is found at: Stripper's Guide, "Ink-Slinger Profiles by Alex Jay: Billican" by Alex Jay, Friday, February 04, 2022: http://strippersguide.blogspot.com/2022/02/ink-slinger-profiles-by-alex-jay.html Wilfred Canan, working under the pen name of Billican (a contraction of his name), was a cartoonist who worked in the early 20th Century. Working as a machinist resulted in becoming a disabled person in 1912, Canan began to study through The W. L. Evans School of Cartooning. After his studies, he began to work for The Crow Wing County Digest (The Crow Wing County Digest, 1914 series) and also freelanced, with material published in the Duluth News-Tribune (Duluth, Minnesota), Duluth Herald (Duluth, Minnesota) at various times. Afterward, he worked for the Brainerd Daily Dispatch (Brainerd, Minnesota) and the Brainerd Journal Press (Brainerd, Minnesota, "mining" chalk plates for the paper for about six months). Beginning in 1917, Billican became a staff cartoonist for Fargo Daily Courier-News (Fargo, North Dakota) and then for the National Nonpartisan Leader [The North Dakota Leader]. From February 1918 onward, he provided cartoons for Nonpartisan weekly and daily newspapers throughout the Dakotas and Minnesota. By 1920, he was the publisher of a periodical for organized farmers and workers in North Dakota called The Goat. He returned to Brainerd, Minnesota in 1921 after falling out with the Nonpartisan League. By 1924, he had cartoons published in the Daily Worker (The Daily Worker Publishing Company, 1921 series). By 1928, he was working for the Krieg Letter Company.