Maidanyk, Yakiv

Maidanyk, Yakiv [Майданик, Яків; Majdanyk, Jakiv] (Maydanek, Jacob), b 20 October 1891 in Svydova, Chortkiv county, Galicia, d 3 June 1984 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Cartoonist and writer. Maidanyk developed an interest in art as young student in Kolomyia and then completed a two-year course at a textile design and ornamentation academy in Rakszawa, not far from Rzeszów. After emigrating to Canada in 1911, he graduated from teachers' college in Brandon and worked as a teacher for a while. His popular caricatures and humorous letters and stories on Ukrainian immigrant life, written in the voice of the loutish cartoon character Shtif [Steve] Tabachniuk, appeared in the Ukrainian and English press. He also wrote a successful comedy, Manigrula (1915). In the 1920s he edited and published the magazine Vuiko and illustrated calendars of Shtif Tabachniuk. He also published two collections of his drawings and writings, Vuikova knyha (Uncle's Book, 1931) and Vuiko Shtif Tabachniuk i inshi novi korotki opovidannia (Uncle Shtif Tabachniuk and Other New Short Stories, 1959). Halya Kuchmij's film Laughter in My Soul (1983) provides a portrait of Maidanyk and his comic creation.

[This article was updated in 2009.]