Inkspot38 by Australian Cartoonists' Association

SPRING

City of Echuca. Detail of George Haddonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s series for the RACV calendar 2003.

Inkspot is an important record of Australian cartooning history but more importantly, even in the omnipresent domain of the WWW, it is a vital part of today’s Australian cartooning scene.

f the gods are willing, the printer’s schedule allows and the post person struggles through that legendary gauntlet of speculative weather conditions, you will be reading this around mid-September. Spring will have sprung, hay fevers will have tormented and you may have even voted in this year’s Stanleys. (If not consider this a reminder).

Shortly after the inaugural Stan Cross Awards, in November 1985, the Australian Black and White Artists’ Club published its first newsletter , which it called “The Inkspot”. There were a couple of reasons for its publication. The results of the first Awards’ night could be quickly passed on to those few members who were unable to attend and witness Alan Moir take gold while John Spooner become the first dual-Stanley recipient . The outcome and minutes of the first AGM of the newly national ABWAC could be quickly passed on to those other than the few who attended the meeting at the Sydney Journalists’ Club. However the main reason for the newsletter was to give our rapidly burgeoning membership, on both sides of the country, a “clubhouse”; if not a clubhouse at least a water cooler or coffee machine around which to gather. Inkspot was to be a place where we could exchange ideas and opinions, catch up on gossip and news and generally revel in the comradeship of what otherwise tends to be a solitary occupation.

Inkspot is produced four times a year by the Australian Cartoonists’Association and is posted to all major regional and suburban newspapers and national mag azines. P.O. Box 318 Strawberry Hills NSW 2012 Australia Post Registration PP533798/0015

In March 1986 South Australian Wayne Baldwin edited Inkspot Number 1, which in form and content was much the same as you are presently reading, and a Club icon was underway. Since that time various members have volunteered to continue fill ing the water bottle and perking the coffee. Through highs and lows, typos and literals, thirty-eight editions have now made it to the printers, along with seventeen that spread the news under the “Sketches” masthead.

INKSPOT September 2003

In is impossible for one or two people to continually produce a regular magazine, of any quality, in their own time on an honourary basis, occasionally without even receiving out-of-pocket expenses. The fun of “getting it out” quickly wears off after number three or four have been put to bed and the burn-out factor crunches in. Exhaustion rather than apathy is the unseen enemy. As an association we are unfortunately not in a position to be able pay to have the magazine produced outside the membership; we do however have enough members to spread the load evenly. I would like to see as many Inkspots in a year as possible, however from a practical and financial position a maximum of four would appear to be the most we could expect and afford within the constrains of our annual budget. Ideally they should be published at the a start of each Season, produced in turn by a different State chapter . With six States and two territories, ( no, I’m not including New Zealand but I wouldn’t refuse a Kiwi offer of help), you do the maths and work out how often the ball might drop in your State’s slot. I have never heard of a one-issue burn out!. In 2003 NSW, through Steve Panozzo, produced Winter’s edition while Victoria’s Gerald Carr and Robert Mason make their Inkspot editorial debuts and become part of the magazine’s history with this, Number 38. My sincere appreciation, and no doubt yours, go to them both, and others who helped along the way, for this excellent effort. Thanks guys! So you know. The editorial team have the opportunity to give the magazine the look and feel of their particular patch and of course have the backing and support of the President and National Committee of the ACA. Is there anybody there? The Summer edition is due out by early December while the Autumn tome should make the mail-bag by mid-March. Please email or phone me if your sense of adventure has “editor” scribbled in your “things-to-do-before-I-cark” note book. On the subject of editors, Inkspot’s distribution continues include every major metropolitan and regional newspaper in the country and is our major opportunity to put cartoon-

ing in front of many of the industry’s coal-face decision makers.

The Australian Cartoonists’ Association is concerned with those reports that Evans was sacked because of pressure brought to bear from factions within the broad community unhappy with the cartoonist’s commentary on the situation in the Middle East.

I mentioned New Zealand above and as regulars to the ACA website and those on email would be aware, the shaky isles have been a little more rickety lately than usual, especially in our inky and more lately pixel-driven world. In August rumours were widespread about the dismissal of Auckland Herald editorial cartoonist Malcolm Evans. The sacking took up more than a few column centimetres and airtime on both sides of the pond as well as abundant bytes web-space here and abroad.

We believe cartoonists are, and have always been, valued by society for their editorial independence and for being free to ‘speak their mind’. In the strongest way possible the ACA supports the upholding and the continuation of this freedom without compromise and is abhorred by any action which may impede, inhibit or in any way alter the historically independent role of the newspaper cartoonist.

Feeling it was important to do so, on behalf of the ACA, I wrote to the editor . I reprint that letter below. At the time of this parlay I had not received a reply. In the meanwhile if the gods weren’t willing, the printer was too busy and the post person was climate intolerant… didn’t we all have a great time in Woy Woy! Sir

James Kemsley President, The Australian Cartoonists’Association president@abwac.org.au

You are no doubt aware of the current debate, and controversy, regarding the termination of Malcolm Evans’ employ with the Auckland Herald, not only on both sides of the Tasman but also internationally, and in particular with cartoonists worldwide.

For the record, an Inkspot correction. In the Les Dixon story in the winter issue it says Les joined Smith's Weekly, where he worked as an art editor until just before it ceased publication in 1952. It should have been, “He joined Smith's Weekly and became art editor just before it ceased publication in 1952.”

As there are varying and conflicting reports regarding his dismissal I am writing to seek clarification of the matter in order to put the confusion to rest and counter the perception developing in Australia, and internationally, that a precedent may have been set which threatens to curtail the independent role of the cartoonist.

Censorship in New Zealand?

Malcolm Evans makes his stand

cartoonists across the Tasman. It has been a bitter “The principle is very important as it effects all carsweet year for Malcolm, at the Qantas Media Awards t o o n i s t s a n d s o , b o t h a s a n i n d e p e ncartoonist dent held in Auckland, NZ, on 6 June, The New Zealan and as President of our fledgling cartoonists’ association here i n t h e s h a k y i s l e s , I h a d no Herald's Malcolm Evans was named Best option but to stand up for it. Despite tryCartoonist. ing for months to find a solution through A cartoonist of such calibre would be a discussion, I was eventually given the p r i z e d a s s e t for a newspaper, but option of either agreeing that the Editor Malcolm's tenure was recently terminathad a right to dictate what cartoon themes ed amid claims that he was ordered by his I could or could not supply for his coneditor not to do cartoons on the subject of Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians. sideration, or face dismissal. There were also reports on an Israeli web While I have always accepted that the site ( now removed ) that the Israeli editor has the absolute right to reject an ambassador had spoken to the New Zealand idea, he can never be allowed to direct it! Herald’s editor but not on an official And for months I have been trying to help Malcolm Evans basis. Broadly speaking, there were no him see the important difference. The at work claims of racial or religious vilification, cartoonist is a commentator who draws, and the reader is entitled to believe that the imagest h e r e w a s n o d e t a i l e d o f f i c i a l i n d i c a t i o n a s t o w h y produced each day are the sum of his sincerely held any group found the Evans’ cartoons offensive. views - not just some of them. Readers form an opin- It must be pointed out that the editor of the Herald ion over time of where the cartoonist is coming from, denies that the refusal by Malcolm to stop drawing cartoons about Israel is the reason for his dismissal. and either agree or disagree with his ideas.” This is the message Malcolm Evans sent to his fellow

Gerald Carr

INKSPOT September 2003

Dave Coverly

the NCS Board of Directors to Australia for a mini-convention at the pub(s) of your choosing...we’re not picky. The way that “Speed Bump” has circumvented cultural barriers when being published in foreign newspapers is by offering the papers the entire back catalogue. The Observer, published in the UK, uses this method. They’re allowed to pick and choose which cartoons they’d like to print, and since they’re a Sundayonly newspaper, there’s a seemingly endless supply. The Irish Times, on the other hand, is a daily paper, and might run 2 of my cartoons one week, then 4 the next Creators has given them free rein to decide which cartoons the editors feel will appeal to Irish readers. This also gives the Times a lot of flexibility by not being tied to a specific day that a specific cartoon must run (and this is made easier by the fact that “Speed Bump” has no continuing characters or story lines). Despite this sporadic, scattershot approach to publishing my cartoon panel, it seems to have made “Speed Bump” fairly well-known in Ireland...For instance, The City Council of Sneem voted to award me the Key to the City and asked if I would be the Grand Marshal of their annual parade...and the Murphy’s Cat Laughs Comedy Festival in Kilkenny has flown me over to exhibit my originals and participate in panel discussions and slide shows the past two years. The best part of these trips, besides the pubs, is getting to meet Irish and British cartoonists, and to spend time chatting with them about process, inspirations, and our different markets. One of these years I’m going to make it to Australia and hopefully do the same with many of you. You’ll find me in the pub... Until then, though, drop me a note at speedbump@reuben.org if you feel like a little international comics conversation... Fraternally yours~ Dave Coverly

ell, as one of the Vice Presidents of the NCS (which is quite an honor, as there are only 230 VP’s of the NCS, approximately), I’m delighted that we’ve come to a “fraternal agreement” with the ACA. Of course, Americans and Australians have a long history of agreeing on things—a recent war springs to mind—but a formal agreement to Collude Regularly Over Drinks? Now you’re talkin’... For those of you who know neither me nor my work...and that would be all of you but Kemsley, I assume...I draw a panel cartoon entitled “Speed Bump.” It’s been named Best Newspaper Panel a couple of times by the eminently shmoozable NCS...it’s syndicated by Creators Syndicate to about 200 newspapers around the world...and some say it contains clues to the apocalypse if read backwards... While I’m obviously quite happy that there are papers in other countries that run “Speed Bump,” I’ve always been baffled that the U.S. import-to-export ratio of comics has been so onesided. There are brilliant cartoonists all over the world, yet I’m hard-pressed to name a foreign cartoon strip or panel (Canada excepted) that runs in a decent number of American papers. “Zits” and “Dilbert” and a myriad of others are translated into nearly every language possible and sold in the four corners, but Quino’s massively popular Argentinean strip “Mafalda” is unknown even to Americans who follow cartooning. The ACA may have discussed the topic of Australian cartoonists cracking the American market ad nauseum for all I know, but it’s not something we at the NCS have really touched on, and I think it would make for a fascinating conversation between the two groups...so if I may, I’d like to formally request that the ACA fly

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Cover caricature Is by Robert Mason of four time Walkley Award winner for excellence in press illustration George Haddon. George was recently featured on the Melbourne’s club wall of fame.

coffs harbour results....... Hot off the press with photos by James Kemsley eft, the 2003 Cartoon of the Year and below the man who walked away with the prize money top gong, ACT's multi-talented David Pope.

Winners grinning... well some of the are. Back row l - r: David Pope, David Rowe, Vince O'Farrell; Front l- r: Sean Leahy Gary "I rarely look at cameras" Clark and Neil Matterson.

Sean Leahy 's clever Brisbane honed repartee obviously amusing Coff's Sandy Champion as they stopped chatting to pose.

Cartoon aficionados Barbara Hamilton-Foster and Jan Hopkins soaking up the Bunker's atmosphere and hospitality.

A "Thank you " rarely come any more sincere than Sean Leahy's after he picked up the Best Comic Strip medallion.

INKSPOT September 2003

The usually jovial Vince O'Farrell taking a moment to be serious as he accepts his award. It must have been the tie or the haircut!

Lindsay Foyle, one of this year's competition judges, explains how spiders walk.

Good sport Neil Matterson collects his prize for Best Sports cartoon from the sometimes sporty ACA President James Kemsley. Below, Local Coffs Harbour ACA member Hec Goodall getting a giggle out of his colleagues' work or maybe it was that he didn't have to travel as far as they did.

The prolific David Rowe snags yet another award and almost manages to wake the Bunker's Tom Hamilton-Foster in the process.

NOTICE OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING Notice is hereby given that the Annual General Meeting of the The Australian Cartoonists' Association Incorporated (Incorporated as the "The Australian Cartoonists' Association") will be held at the Ettalong Beach Memorial Club, 211 Memorial Drive, Ettalong Beach on Saturday, 11 October, 2003 at 9:00am. Notices of Motion should be delivered to the Secretary, Australian Cartoonists' Association no later than Monday, 6 October, 2003, either by mail (P.O. Box 318, Strawberry Hills, NSW, 2012), by fax on (02) 8920 9997, or via email (secretary@abwac.org.au). Notices of Motion received after that date may not be included in the AGM Agenda.

INKSPOT September 2003

GROUP HUG Was it Spanish guitars or the sound of a bikie’s tryke spluttering to life that has made Roger Fletcher draw in Stuart Hale to the bliss of the moment? Right, Tracey Warren has found the old trappers’ tricks to be true, the way to capture a treasured species is to catch them at the local watering hole. Let’s see Norman Hetherington squiggle out of this one, Miss Pat! TÍhe NSW Smock Night at Los Molinos Tapas Restaurant, Leichhardt Joanne Brooker on assignment in China with a proud owner of an original Brooker caricature...

Gerald Carr congratulates John Allison for his win at the Savage Club cartoon competition. John received a winners check but that was the last time he used his drawing hand, heh,heh,heh! INKSPOT September 2003

Mark Bagley & Ashley Wood! Mark Bagley. One of comic books' hottest artists, thanks to his work on Marvel's Ultimate Spider-man, Mark's story-telling style has seen him work on titles like Thunderbolts, New Warriors, Captain America and the Hulk movie adaptation.Mark's session will include using his own original artwork and books as examples. Learn from Mark's talent and experience as he teaches his approach to comics story-telling. Ashley Wood. Australian born and internationally acclaimed, Ash is the artist of comics like HellSpawn, Automatic Kafka and CSI. He's an award winning commercial illustrator and concept artist working in movies, TV and video games. His technique is a combination of traditional painting coupled with digital photography and graphic software.At this MasterClass, learn some of his secrets and be amazed by how he does it. This MasterClass follows in the steps of three highly successful predecessors that featured Walt Simonson, David Mack and Team Red Star. Many participants have come to more than one MasterClass, some to all three!, and all agree it is not to be missed, by the aspiring artist, the professional or the interested fan. Cost: $55 (gst inc) Tickets: at Ticketek or cash at the door Contact: Tim McEwen 02 9644 1650 or tim@unrealism.com.au Time: 6.00pm, Friday, 12th September Venue: Room S05_2.04, (Central Lecture Theatre), Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, 226 Grey Street, South Bank, Brisbane, Queensland.

Hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s to a great funny cartoon! Rolf Heimann soaks up a good drop while Victorian Vice President Vane Lindesay soaks up the atmosphere of the Savage Club...

hael and Olga Atchison brating Michaelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 70 th day. Both are still partying e the young party-pooper is past his bed time.

etary and former President Steve "Noz" Panozzo, was at a Club function in Sydney with the a traditional artist's ned by his colleagues. In Noz's case it was also an early hday present. Steve, a very sensitive fellow, was overwhelmed sture. ACA president James Kemsley is doing the honors.

INKSPOT September 2003

headed Manfred with a similar appearance to his mount; Oigle, brought over from the Smith’s Weekly strip; Uncle Joe, part owner of Radish ; the not-liked-much interfering Mrs Fifey-Twiddle; together with racehorse nobblers, touts and urgers. The humour of the strip was simple, innocent and perhaps by today’s standards and attitudes, naive. Certainly there was no pretence of sophistication, but it must be remembered that the humour of Radish in the 1950’s was a legacy of Smith’s Weekly’s rollicking humour of factual statement, with no concern for the exotic or the bizarre. Joe Jonsson’s technique was perhaps the most deceptive drawing style of any comic draughtsman working for the Australian press. Compared with the work of his contemporaries, and for that matter that of today, Jonsson’s drawings looked from the start - for he never changed his style - as if instead of a pen, they had been drawn with a toothbrush, yet his brilliant pen drawings of burglars, card - sharps, turf punters, jockeys, ship wrecked sailors and needless to say his ‘blottos’, all characters from a vaudeville world, were outstanding for their skill and humour, drawn always with tremendous dash and zest. The Uncle Joe’s Horse Radish strip feature appeared first in the Brisbane Sunday Mail Magazine on the fourth of February, 1951, and immediately syndicated to the Sydney Sun Herald, the Melbourne Sun News Pictorial, the Adelaide Sunday Mail’, and to a Perth weekly publication continuing up until Jonsson’s death. On his death in March 1963, the poets, artists and journalists of Sydney honoured ‘the Bletty, Blutty Gentle Swede’ with a traditional form of wake reserved for those they considered a worthy, loved and respected person.

mong the famous horses to race in the Melbourne Cup were Carbine, White Nose, Peter Pan, Hall Mark and of course Phar Lap, all icons of the Australian turf. Although he trained for it in 1952, Uncle Joe’s horse Radish never raced in that famous First Tuesday in November event. Josef Nils Jonsson, the creator of Uncle Joe’s Horse Radish comic strip feature, had been a sailor on windjammers, a timber cutter in Queensland, and a high rigger on Sydney’s White Bay wheat silos, before he decided to become an art student and join the Watkin Art School full time. Then followed a period both as a commercial artist and as a freelance cartoonist - some of his earliest comic drawings appeared in ‘The Cheerful Monthly magazine Aussie during the early 1920s. An offer to join the celebrated art staff of Smith’s Weekly was accepted, where, for twenty six years he drew joke cartoons and created a weekly comic strip,Oigle, featuring a young boy of that name, and Granpa, the buff of Oigle’s many mishaps. Smith’s Weekly, after many years of popular and successful publishing, was losing circulation, and in editorial decline. It ceased publication in October 1950. Joe Jonsson was immediately engaged by Sir Keith Murdoch of the Melbourne daily Herald newspaper group to create a weekly comic strip feature for the colour supplements. The result was Uncle Joe’s Horse Radish, an outlandish racehorse owned by a battling rural family, the answer - when it was not occupied with various duties around the farm - to the punter’s dream. The comic art historian John Ryan has observed that Radish looked like a candidate for the glue works, for it is true much of the fun of the strip was his scrawny, knobby kneed often hang - dog appearance. After Radish, the main characters were his jockey, the bald

INKSPOT September 2003

YOUR VIEW ON....

SPRING... Spring is in the air you can feel it in every sneeze...(Sniff!) Our cartoonists venture outside to take a peek through puffy eyes...

Spooner Honored Melbourne, Australia, March 10, 2003 - Melbourne caricaturist John Spooner has just been named the winner of the 2002 Graham Perkin Award for the Australian Journalist of the Year. The judging panel agreed that John Spooner was ‘an incisive commentator of the highest calibre: thoughtful, acerbic, artistic, brilliant. And on every level Spooner is one of a kind...’ Michael Gawenda, editor of the Melbourne morning paper, said: ‘John Spooner is a genius - a truly remarkable illustrator with a unique range of skills. He is one of Australian journalism’s great treasures...’ (The accompanying Spooner-illustration satirises the Prime Minister’s attitude towards asylum seekers - his lips stitched together by the word “welcome”. This followed reports that asylum seekers had protested by sewing their lip together). Also launched in March: John Spooner’s first illustrated children’s book “A Kingdom for a Hat,” published by Lothian, Melbourne, and authored by Rolf Heimann. Steve Panozzo

THE

NSW SMOCK NIGHT AT LOS MOLINOS

Around 40 of Sydney's finest took the opportunity to go Spanish, throw back some Sangria and get social for the first time in ages. The social side of things in NSW had almost become a distant memory, save for the efforts of Roger Fletcher. Let's hope that this was a portent of things to come. Among those present were Richard Jones, Norman Hetherington, Lee Sheppard, Luke Fox-Allen, Lindsay Foyle, Don Ticchio, Stuart Hale, Christophe Granet and Chris Kelly. Tracey Warren drove up from Canberra. Add a few friends and the odd family member, and you've got a fairly potent evening! The Committee was represented by James Kemsley, Steve Panozzo and Roger Fletcher. The last smock recipient, Kerry Millard, sent her apologies. Chris Kelly gave a fairly comprehensive account of his trip to China (with Ian Sharpe and Jo Brooker) complete with one or two surprising insights, at once both funny and thought-provoking. The centrepiece of the night honoured the 80-year-old tradition of presenting an artist's smock, emblazoned with the imprimatur of as many fellow cartoonists as possible. James Kemsley deftly maintained the smock-night practice of ambushing the unknowing recipient - this time in the guise of ACA Secretary, Steve Panozzo! For someone who had quite gleefully participated in "setting up" previous surprised recipients, it seemed only appropriate. A second smock, emblazoned with the signatures not only of Australian cartoonists, but with those of many American colleagues, will be available for auction at the Stanley Awards dinner in October.

ACA Interim President James Kemsley and Matthew On Sunday, 12 July, a small band of fellow cartoonists braved the winter chill to happily watch the Sydney Swans demolish St. Kilda - unremarkable except for a few small points of note. For Matthew Martin, it was almost like a real "home coming" after spending 11 years in New York City, where one is besieged by baseball and basketball. A native South Australian, his home-bred devotion to AFL was evident as, childlike, he watched the game with rapt, undivided attention. For Patrick Cook, the Bulletin's resident cartoonist, this was his first visit to the hallowed Sydney Cricket Ground. Host (and unabashed St. Kilda fan) James Kemsley was aghast, and nearly choked when Cook admitted that he prefers to watch the matches on TV, claiming that it seems more "action-packed" that way. When it was suggested that it was the sheer buzz (and off-key chanting) of the crowd that made the trek worthwhile, all were as one. Steve Panozzo

INKSPOT September 2003

meet the cartoonist...

ACA JOINS

PANPA

Having just finished enlightening editors on the benefits of the editorial cartoon, the Daily Telegraph’s Warren Brown (right) joined fellow cartoonists Brett Lethbridge and Rod Emmerson (centre) on a panel to enlighten them on the further benefits of the ACAat the August Panpa Conference in Brisbane. he ACA as a body of cartoonists, who in the main are involved in the Newspaper Industry, chose to do something to align itself with that industry. Panpa is an association of Newspaper Publishers and associated industries. The ACA through its membership will represent that body of cartoonists directly , listen and learn and also to contribute our own unique perspective. There are opportunities to do this regularly through Panpa's Monthly Magazine , it's annual conferences and trade show, and through personal association with other members.

tine on the history of the importance of Cartoonists. The initially stunned audience of Newspaper industry delegates, eventually caught up with Warren and enjoyed the experience after a long day of weighty sessions. Following this masterful intro, Warren joined Rod and Brett to form a panel and opened the session for a brief time of questions. This was mostly light hearted and the questions asked ranged from 'Do you think we're over paid and over rated?' to the more serious question regarding litigation issues. A cocktail party and dinner were also attended by our ACA reps. further developing our place of belonging among other allied Newspaper Industry sectors represented. Overall a 40 minute session of a three day Conference doesn't sound like a whole lot. But it was a beginning,and I'm not one to despise the day of small beginnings. It was a beginning we can now build on. Gary Clark

The Club’s official involvement with Panpa has begun Warren Brown, Rod Emmerson and Brett Lethbridge represented the A.C.A. at the recent National Panpa Conference in Brisbane 5th August. Warren lead the way in the session allotted to us with a brilliant A.V. display and virtual stand up rou-

News from W.A he WA club had their first exhibition of the year in June. The "Cartoon Central" exhibition featured an open theme of works from local members. It proved a success in both profile and sales for the club, and seems to be growing in popularity every year.The next exhibition is planned for early October during the Spring in the Valley wine festival.The theme is wine, but there is concern members are doing too much research on the subject. The club's cartoon workshops at the local childrens' hospital (Princess Margaret) are continuing on a bi- monthly basis,the workshops have been well received by the kids, and members have found the involvement very rewarding. That grand old master of cartooning Paul Rigby is due back in Perth in October.Paul and wife Marlene are back in Florida tying up loose ends, before returning to W.A and settling in Western Australia’s Southwest's wine country.

The shape of things to come The local comic book artists are taking to the net their own brand of heroes. There is Killeroo by Darren Close and Red Kelso by Western Australian Gary Chaloner. Close has come up with a novel idea for a web

INKSPOT September 2003

competition. Competitors have 24 hours to create an original, 24-page comic. Interest in the competition "just about melted my server" Close told a reporter of a major paper, The contest resulted in 30,000 visitors in one day with more than 40 entries competing.

CARTOON COMPETITION Trento International Exhibition of Satire and Humor ADDRESS: Andromeda-via Malpaga 17 Trento, 38100, Italy

CONTACT: Giorgio Rasera FAX: 0039-461-235194 FIRST YEAR: 1979 FREQUENCY: Annual ELIGIBILITY: Open international CLASSIFICATION: Political/Social CATALOGUE: To 500 best entries THEME: Dear us!!! NUMBER OF ENTRIES: Free MAXIMUM DIMENSIONS: Free DEADLINE: September 30 EXHIBITION: November AWARDS: 1,000,000 Lira; 800,000 Lira; 500,000 Lira; All three will be invited to be a member of next year’s jury. ARTWORKS: Will be returned

Don’t forget to drop by The Stop Laughing This Is Serious Gallery in Blackheath.(You’ll recognise the cartoon by Judy Horacek, Judy is one of the artists whose work in stock on a permanent basis). As well as a changing exhibition programme the gallery has work by John Tiedemann, Eric Loebbecke, Sturt Krygsman, Caroline Magerl, Cathy Wilcox, Phil Sommerville, Bruce Whatley, Emma Quay, Kim Gamble, Maggie Renvoize and a range of other illustrators. The gallery is keen to take work by other illustrators and cartoonists on consignment and to accept exhibition proposals. The Gallery is at 3 Hat Hill Rd Blackheath and is open on Weekends, public holidays and by appointment (ph 47877533 or 47875601) The website is www.stoplaughing.com.au/gallery

Don’t miss our monthly meeting of the CBC Writers and Illustrators Network. Our guest this month is the the publisher Mark McLeod.

INKSPOT REVIEWS Kicking Behinds

Reporter

Cartoonists at the footy Ficate Ponti Kicking behinds in football is better done by cartoonists than footy players, because when cartoonists really kick behinds they achieve their highest scores! Paul Harvey ( sports caricaturist extraordinaire ) has cleaned honed and edited thousands of footy cartoons that Jim Bridges supplied from his Scrooge Mc Duck sized cartoon archive vaults. Together they have created one of the most substantial cartoon books on a single theme ever published in this country. Aided by the terse verse of John Ross, ( sports writer and publisher extraordinaire) this book attempts to explore the usual sport book issues such as sexual politics, sociology, MelbourneVS Sydney, and of course religion. With chapters like The sacked coaches club , Dial M for merger, Doing a hammy and pulling a groin, Sacred sites, and The meat market...all aspects of our national game, come under a James Joyce like scrutiny! It’s very funny and informative, and even if you can’t stand the game, there is enough critical cartoons to poke more than fun at footy to satisfy even the bitterest anti-football card carrying members. It is published by Penguin so it will be widely available. Jim tells me that he has enough material to do 4 books...then this trio of Bridges, Harvey and Ross will start on cricket. Anyone for tennis?

plaque on his shoes marking him as a living treasure. I could not imagine the legend of Australian Football without the images Weg created over the years to give footy clubs identity and raise money for charity with his premiership posters. Puffing Billy’s Fabulous first day is one of those books that children will cherish, It is large, colourful, full of action with an activity section at the back.It is written by Don Richards, edited by Lee Tindale.

Paul Harvey has also launched a book with a very striking cover on Ted Whitten the AFL Bulldog legend, The book follows his illustrious career with newspaper clippings. It contains some caricatures and cartoons by Weg, Jeff, John Rogers, Pete Player and LLoyd Haggar. All books are on sale around Australia.

PUFFING BILLY’S FABULOUS FIRST DAY This book features two Melbourne institutions, Puffing Billy and the WEG cartoon, and both are unstoppable.With William Ellis Green turning 80 in August this year as his book hit the bookstores. I wouldn’t be surprised if the National Trust puts a

INKSPOT September 2003

News FOSTER’S NOTEWORTHY CAREER CHANGE For years now we have all been talking about the kind of software that has been helping us with our graphics Photoshop, Pagemaker or Quark Express, Illustrator, Colorize, Painter and what ever has been relevant or helpful. Peter J Foster, (Ballantyne, Sports Inc., Orion, Local Guvmint) has been wearing his eyes out on two other digital tools, namely Micrologic and Sibelius. Both of these marvels are to do with music. Yes! Move over Beethoven, Peter J. Foster, (notice the addition of the ‘J’, to distinguish his cartooning name from his composing name) has burst into the field of musical composition. Well not exactly burst.more like evolved! Peter has been composing from about the

can hear it back instantly, giving you total control over the result. It is, however, very painstaking. But still easier than writing a score onto the paper and imagining the resultÖwhich is what all composers did before the digital explosion. Sibelius is the software that gives Peter the best result in printing out a proper, professional score. He has currently entered the 3MBSReadings Books annual orchestral composition competition. Roughly fifty people enter each year. There is only one prize, which happens to be $6000 and a recording of the work by Orchestra Victoria, made at the public performance of the work at the Melbourne Concert Hall, sometime in September. His work is entitled, Goldtown. Peter has just finished writing the music and some of the lyrics for a musical play entitled Call at Guadalupe, a play written by John Lee For, who is, himself, a painter, poet, playwright and a one-time cartoonist. Peter played a tape of his Big Band Boogie Boveration to his Melbourne colleagues at Il Gamberos, and was chuffed to receive an enthusiastic response. He has written over a hundred songs, at least 50% of which are Christian songs or sacred texts and settings for liturgy. These, often in a jazz idiom. Says Peter, “What a dill I was to wait until I retired to do this full-time!” When asked how could he possibly give up cartooning, he replied, “One has to draw the line somewhere!”

THE SAVAGE CLUB CARTOON COMPETITION RESULTS age of twelve. Now that he is seventy two, one can imagine that he has picked up a thing or two about the activity. What is more, now that he is retired, he can devote a lot more time to it. Micrologic AV is a great home recording program, which allows one to compose, arrange and orchestrate, using MIDI, which is the acronym for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. The program allows the user to record music into the computer, by playing an electric musical keyboard and then assigning the result to whatever orchestral instrument he may have in his library of samples or digital sounds. The user can write anything from a simple song to a full orchestral canvas. The editing tools allow him to be precise in pitch, rhythm, volume and expression. Of course, in the same way Word Perfect wonít write a thesis for you, Micrologic wonít write you a piece of music. You, naturally, have to think up the ideas. But, once having recorded your ideas, you

INKSPOT September 2003

Imagine a black and white art prize with 15 artists (Mostly cartoonists)entered, entering 30 works, in 3 different categories- sport, politics and open, with $ 2.000 prize money in each category. There in a nutshell, you have the Melbourne Savage Club 2003 Black and White Art Prize. John Allison (A.C.A. member) won the sport prize with a great jockey gag. James Money (Mug Club member) won the politics prize with a caricature of Les Patterson, and Dale Cox won the open section with an elephants head on the back of a truck. The Savage Club is one of Australia’s really great palaces of black and white buried treasures. Four levels of Victorian

club atmosphere with more black and white gold hanging on the wall than in books on the subject. All the artwork was/is specifically done for the club over the years... Dysons, Lindsays, Unk Whites. Afl Vincents. David Lows ...all there smothering the original Victorian wallpaper. Its time machine experience, standing in darkened leather studded chaired rooms with blaring fires reflecting off seemingly hundreds of native spears, clubs, knives, axes and heads, juggling for your attention with all the truly magnificent original artwork! The club holds the competition every three to seven years and it is by invitation only. One more than suspects, that women need not apply!? And the fact that moved the goal posts after the ball was kicked in the political category, tells that the Savage club are a law unto themselves. We all had a stunning night caught up in this strange and worldly experience. Like Enid Blyton’s lands at the top of the faraway tree, we will no doubt wait until this strange and enchanted night comes around again. Jim Bridges