When Peter Quaife began drawing dialysis cartoons as a way to pass time at the clinic, he had no idea he was creating a sensation. But then again, creating sensations is nothing new to Peter Quaife, as he and three of his friends had created a musical smash some thirty-five years earlier.

“It was really just something to do because I got bored with doing crossword puzzles and watching TV all the time,” said Peter. So he began to draw cartoons purely for his own amusement, depicting the trials and tribulations to which all dialysis patients and staff can relate. However, when one of Peter’s regular nurses saw what he was doing, she was simply knocked out.

“I was really impressed with the quality and the uniqueness of the drawings, but more importantly by the content,” says Deborah Young of the Belleville Dialysis Clinic near Toronto, Ontario, Canada. “Those cartoons so humorously summed up everything that happened at the clinic - both funny and not so funny! Peter really has a flair for humour and observation.”

Peter Quaife’s artistic talents are not confined to only paper and pencil. When he was just 19 years old he and three friends from his North London suburb became worldwide stars nearly overnight as “The Kinks”. Their smash single ‘You Really Got Me’ raced to the top of the British pop charts smack dab in the middle of Beatlemania.

“It was very exciting and a lot of fun in those early days,” says Peter. “We were just four ordinary kids one day and the next we were the second biggest group in the world!” The Kinks continued to make the Top 10 frequently throughout the 1960s, and though they soldiered on until 1996, Peter left the band in 1969. “I’d just had it with the whole thing,” he says now.

He moved to Canada in 1981, living a quiet life and indulging in his many artistic hobbies. In 1998 he was diagnosed with kidney failure and has been a dialysis patient/cartoonist ever since. “I like to look on the bright side of things,” says Peter of his cartoons. “You take the hand you’re dealt and you make the best of it. It’s really up to you.”

In early 2004, Deborah Young urged Peter to let her assemble his cartoons in a photo album so that all of the clinics’ patients and staff could enjoy them. “Everyone really got a kick out of the album and I think the reaction encouraged Peter to continue drawing. We all felt that those cartoons should be seen by a larger audience.”

Peter approached Jazz Communications in Toronto about the possibility of turning his works into a proper book. Not knowing how the cartoons would go over, Jonathan Zweig, Jazz Communications’ Vice-President of Operations approached Maryann Kerr, Executive Director of Kidney Foundation Central Ontario. “I thought those cartoons were brilliant and I loved the whole idea!” said Kerr. But not trusting just her own opinion, Kerr arranged to have a group of dialysis patients preview the proposed book. “The result was uproarious laughter and overwhelming approval!”

Kerr hooked Jazz up with a few sponsors to help get the ball rolling and The Lighter Side of Dialysis Volume 1 was printed in December 2004, just in time for Christmas. The accolades poured in almost immediately and by March 2005 Jazz Communications was nearly depleted of 20,000 copies! “It was just fantastic!” says Peter of the reaction. “E-mail upon e-mail arrived and people just loved it! Patients, staff, family members – everyone! It felt to me like it was 1964 all over again!”

As a result of the success of the first volume, Jazz Communications released The Lighter Side of Dialysis Volume 2 in Canada in November 2005, and has now made Volume 1 available for worldwide audiences. “It’d be great to conquer America again!” jokes Peter. “Just no touring this time,” he adds with a laugh. “I wonder if anyone even remembers me there…”

No doubt that in the very near future Peter Quaife will have himself another American hit!