Inkspot 52

The

Official Arthroscope of the Australian Cartoonists’ Association

Issue 52

AUTUMN 2007

www.cartoonists.org.au

National Museum of Australia Political Cartooning Award Cartooning in Indonesia Digital lettering PLUS

Ask the Doctor, Ask Lindsay Reviews Parz and more!

INSIDE! The 2006 Political Cartoon Poster

Number 52 Autumn 2007 www.cartoonists.org.au 1300 658 581 ACA Board Patron Vane Lindesay (03) 9523 8635 President Peter Broelman 08 8255 9939 president@abwac.org.au Deputy President - (NSW VP) Paul Batey 0414 857 996 nsw@abwac.org.au Membership Secretary Mick Horne (08) 9527 3000 treasurer@abwac.org.au Secretary Kerry-Anne Brown (03) 5446 2224 secretary@abwac.org.au Treasurer Grant Brown (03) 5446 2224 treasurer@abwac.org.au Vice Presidents Rolf Heimann (Vic/Tas) (03) 9699 4858 vic@abwac.org.au Sean Leahy (Qld) (07) 3325 2822 qld@abwac.org.au Dave Allen (SA/NT) (08) 8370 9010 sa@abwac.org.au Jason Chatfield (WA) (08) 9247 4087wa@abwac.org.au

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Inkspot is produced four times a year by the Australian Cartoonists’ Association.

PO Box 318 Strawberry Hills NSW 2012 ACA AFFILIATED ORGANISATIONS National Cartoonists Society President Rick Stromoski Secretary Rick Kirkman www.reuben.org Cartoonists’ Club of Great Britain President Terry Christien Secretary Richard Tomes www.ccgb.org.uk FECO President-General Marlene Pohle Secretary-General Peter Nieuwendijk www.fecoweb.org Inkspot Veteran: David Pope Inkspot Pofeeder: Steve Panozzo Inkspot contributors: Adam Bernstein Peter Broelman, Jason Chatfield, Pete Dredge, Lindsay Foyle, Rolf Heimann.

Chris Kelly, James Kemsley, Steve Panozzo, Lee Sheppard Ian C. Thomas

Cover David Pope

www.cartoonists.org.au

Peter Broelman

President’s Parlay

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he digital age is making it easier for your cartoons to be ripped off. Pixels have superseded photocopiers as the weapon of choice for those who don’t give a damn about your rights as a creative artist. Quite often we see our cartoons surface somewhere else other than the original intention. Blogs, websites and viral emails are common instances of infringements.

Cartoonists tend to be lousy business types. Often we are too engrossed in being creative rather than being savvy. I’m guilty of that. Legal issues tend to fall aside. Issues such as copyright can be easily ignored or put in the too hard basket.

Some brief points of copyright.

Copyright in Australia is automatic.

There is no registration process. If you created it, you own copyright and you own it for the rest of your life (plus 70 years after you cark it). Displaying the copyright logo © is not necessary in Australia BUT it can serve as a warning for those thinking about ripping off your cartoon. They may be ignorant of the law but generally they all know what © means. Often the perpetrators are just as protective about their own copyrighted material yet treat cartoonists with scorn. Copyright does not protect ideas, concepts, styles, techniques or information. Your cartoon idea can be re-drawn by another cartoonist but it doesn’t necessarily mean your copyright has been infringed.

There are two exceptions to automatic copyright – if you are an employee your employer owns copyright, or if you have created an illustration for a State, Territory or Federal Government they will usually own copyright (which is a disgrace!).

Generally speaking cartoonists license the use of their cartoons for the purpose for which they are intended (and keep copyright). Licensing may involve a contract or a description of use on your invoice to which an agreement has been reached (a gag cartoon for a magazine, a caricature for a website or an illustration for a newsletter). Your client does not automatically own the artwork just because they forked out for your expertise. This includes “gift” caricatures and live caricaturing. Your sketch doesn’t give them the right to use the image elsewhere. If they want to use your work for something else they have to pay for it. License forms are available from Viscopy.

You can sell copyright. Assigning copyright means you transfer

(hopefully for a fee if you play your cards right) all rights of your cartoon to your customer. For example your client may wish to register a trademark of a cartoon you have created for them.

They can’t trademark copyrighted material and can only do so if they are the legal copyright owners.

If your cartoon is ripped off you can go to a copyright lawyer (www. brennanlaw.com.au) or a copyright collection agency (such as Viscopy - www.viscopy.com.au - or Copyright Agency Limited – www.copyright.com. au). You can either demand your cartoon be removed or you can charge them for the privilege.

Cartoonists should regard their copyright as valuable property and deal with it professionally. This column only scratches the surface of copyright law. Please read up on copyright by visiting the Australian Copyright Council’s website - www. copyright.org.au. Be sure to reiterate your copyright on each and every one of your invoices so you can remind your client exactly what they have agreed to pay for. If you see your work infringed don’t be overawed by doing what you’re legally entitled to do. Protect your work. No-one else will!

Last year’s Stanley Awards cartoon auction enabled the ACA to donate $1200 to charities Clown Doctors and United Way Ballarat. The ACA is proud to contribute to worthy causes and we must thank all cartoonists who donated their original works for the annual auction and the lucky bidders who were able to support the ACA and collect some fantastic cartoons.

The ACA Board decided recently to not renew membership of PANPA (Pacific Areas Newspaper Publishers Association). I thank Gary Clark for all his efforts in promoting Australian comic strips via PANPA’s magazine and his attendance of the last PANPA conference. It was a hard gig and we all appreciate Gary’s enthusiasm.

The ACA is pushing ahead with an emphasis on marketing. A budget will be established by the Board to oversee promotional activity targeting editors and publishers on behalf of cartoonists. This also includes the ACA website which is in need of a bit of revamp. Marketing will be lead by South Australian Vice-President Dave Allen who is well rehearsed in banging drums and blowing trumpets. If you have any ideas please contact Dave on sa@abwac.org.au. Existing projects like the annual Year Book, Inkspot and the Stanley Awards are separate from marketing.

ACA President

Inkspot #52 Autumn 2007

of heavy industry.

“He thought political cartooning would be a piece of cake after all of those. ~ outh Australian cartoonists have been approached by a local Aldgate trader, Andrew Thomas, to exhibit their work as part of the SALA (South Australian Living Artists) Festival.

This is a state-wide event ‘celebrating the talent and imagination of visual artists living and working in South Australia’.

Last year the Aldgate traders put on a very successful exhibition of local artists, exhibiting works in shop windows and in the National Trust’s Stangate House.

This year’s cartoon exhibition will run from August the 3rd to the 19th.

Artwork can be for sale, there may be a small commission, and it will need to be framed or presented in some appropriate way to sit in shop windows.

It can be new work of any artwork done over the last 12 months.

If there is enough interest there will also be the opportunity for workshops with local school kids, at Stangate House.

South Australian cartoonists and illustrators wishing to get involved should contact Simon Kneebone at simknee@bigpond.net.au, or drop in at the weekly get-togethers for coffee at Rennies Café, in the main street of Stirling, Fridays at 10.30am.

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The Pull No Punches exhibition showcased over 120 original cartoons from (mostly) private collections of past and present politicians, selected paintings by the artist, photographs, letters, books and other memorabilia from the artist’s career.

In launching the exhibition Ipswich Councillor Charlie Pisasale noted that Wil hadn’t always been a cartoonist, despite pushing the drawing pen for 30 years.

“His past professions have included a professional croc shooter, wharfie, jack hammer operator, business owner (for two days), he built and lost an ocean going yacht and worked in the turmoil

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John Farmer

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olitical cartoonist for The Canberra Times, Geoff Pryor (pictured above left), has received the first National Museum of Australia Political Cartooning Award for his remarkable 30-year contribution to Australian political cartooning.

The award was presented by Museum Director Cradock Morton (above right) at the Canberra launch of the Museum’s latest exhibition of political cartoons, Behind the Lines.

Geoff began working for The Canberra Times in 1977, following the departure of fellow cartooning legend Larry Pickering, so 2007 marks his 30th anniversary as a national political cartoonist.

The Museum acknowledged Pryor’s contribution “in providing an ‘insider’s’ view of political life in the national capital”.

Behind the Lines opened in Canberra in December, before travelling to Parramatta in Sydney. It will also tour to the Museum of the Riverina in Wagga (April 26 to June 17) and the Constitutional Centre of Western Australia in Perth (July 1 to August 31).

A People’s Choice award worth $1,000 will be awarded to one cartoon at each venue, with a cartoon by Hobart Mercury cartoonist John Farmer winning the popular vote at the Canberra exhibition (pictured at right). ~ pswich Gallery has marked another 30th cartooning anniversary with a retrospective of political cartoons by Inkspot #52 Autumn 2007

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A play adaptation of Where is the Green Sheep? has toured nationally, and is now enjoying seasons in Minneapolis (May), Hong Kong (July) and at the Sydney Opera House (August).

Juldy has just returned to Australia from an artist’s residency in Switzerland.

An exhibition of watercolour monoprints from her residency was held at the Helen Maxwell Gallery in Canberra (check out a sample at http://www. horacek.com.au/noticeSkizzen.htm). ~ ichal Dutkiewicz has illustrated the final installment of his Lost in Space comic book series, written by Will Robinson himself, actor and musician, Bill Mumy.

The long-awaited comic book, Lost in Space: Voyage to the Bottom of the

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Soul, began life in 1993 only to be shelved after six of the planned 12 issues when the publishing company, Innovation, collapsed.

The 12-issue story arc has now been resurrected by a new company, Bubblehead Publishing, as a 360 page graphic novel and Michal has illustrated a mammoth 170 pages of new artwork.

You can buy the comic online by heading to http://www.lisvoyage.com/

Michal Dutkiewicz

Judy Horacek

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ALLARAT cartoonist John Ditchburn has won the Melbourne Press Club’s 2006 Best Cartoon award.

John won the Quill award for his cartoon take on the 2006 AFL Grand Final.

John told his paper The Courier that the award was a “real thrill”.

“Victoria has some of the world’s most talented cartoonists, and to have my work acknowledged in competition with cartooning greats like Ron Tandberg and Mark Knight is very satisfying,” he said.

“It’s also sobering to note that of all the winners in the different media categories this year, I was the only person not from the Melbourne metropolitan area to win an award.

“Not having the high profile that working for one of the major Melbourne newspapers gives you is an added hurdle to jump over, making the win all the more rewarding for me.”

Judy Green won the Quill for Best Illustration for an illustration drawn for The Age. ~ new children’s book written and illustrated by Judy Horacek, The Story of Growl, has been published by Viking/Penguin.

Growl is a littel purple monster who loves to GROWL, and is as sure to be as big a hit as Judy’s previous kid’s book, written by Mem Fox, Where is the Green Sheep?

John Ditchburn

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ictorian cartoonist (and ACA Treasurer) Grant Brown has illustrated a new book by Jennifer Harwood, The art of networking.

Published by Direct Incite, the book shares business savvy and gives the reader an insight into how to grow a successful business through networking. ~ leepers Publishing has launched a new book showcasing Melbourne’s illustrative comic talent.

Conceived on a Tram features 16 local artists including Andrew Weldon (Bulletin, The Big Issue, The Age) Trudy White (children’s book maker), Adam Ford (zinester, poet and novelist) and Mandy Ord. The book includes an essay on illustrators by funnyman Danny Katz, and Melbourne comic genius Shaun Micallef chucks in his two-bob’s worth when he re-thinks (and re-draws) an old Punch cartoon.

For more info go to www.sleeperspublishing.com ~ anadian cartoonist Lynn Johnston, creator of the popular comic strip For Better or for Worse, has decided to stop her characters aging, starting this September.

Johnston had originally intended to end the strip on it’s 28th anniversary

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Rolf Heimann

in order to make time to travel and deal with some medical problems as she approached 60.

Instead, to please her fans and her distributor Universal Press Syndicate, the characters in her everday Canadian cartoon family will remain their current ages and the strip will bounce back and forth between new plot twists and repeats of old strips.

Johnston origiinally studied animation and started off as a medical artist before turning to cartooning in 1972.

She spends 55 hours a week on research and drawing to produce a week’s worth of For Better or for Worse strips, and is hopeful the new hybrid strip will provide the downtime she needs while still satisfying fans keen to continue following the lives of the Patterson family. ~ eanwhile, back in Oz, colour daily comics are seemingly becoming the norm.

The Launceston Examiner kicked things off some years back and slowly but surely the rest of the Australian dailies are coming on board.

2007 has seen the 14 daily APN papers in NSW and Queensland go colour as has the iron City’s Newcastle Herald.

The Daily Telegraph in Sydney is running colour strips only on a Saturday... for the moment anyway. ~ he NSW coastal town of Bateman’s Bay has got behind a talented young local cartoonist to help kick start his career.

18-year-old James Canty is the town’s

June 5th is the date of the next meeting of the ACA’s Victorian chapter, and it promises to be a hit!

The chapter’s two Turkish members Levent Efe and Murat Top have agreed to prepare Turkish food and to talk about cartooning in Turkey.

The chapter is also hopeful of having the much-loved Malaysian cartoonist LAT as a special guest, who is due to visit around that time.

The event will be once again in Rolf Heimann’s house and it will be first-come best-seated. There are only 35 chairs in the house, so they may have to introduce not only bring-your-own-grog, but bring-your-own-chair.

Dream and Achieve winner, and plans to do a three-year course with the Academy of Interactive Entertainment in Canberra to train in cartoon and comic media.

The town organised a gala dinner in March to raise funds to help James on his way, following a display of his work in the local Stockland shopping centre.

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nd in brief...

Warren Brown’s cartoons are now on the telly. Check out Jeff McMullen’s A Difference of Opinion, 9.30pm, Mondays on ABC TV. You can also view his cartoons on the ABC’s website.

Christophe “Hagen” Granet’s cartoon feature It’s a Jungle out there! is now in strip-format in the Melbourne Herald Sun. The strips began appearing weekly in the Saturday edition from April 7.

Melbourne freelance cartoonist Baki Murat Top is preparing for an exhibition at the Anatolian Cultural Centre in Coburg, from the 9th to the 16th of June .

David Pope

Sun-Herald cartoonist David Pope was awarded third prize at the 2006 UN Correspondents Association Ranan Lurie Political Cartoon Awards in New York, for a cartoon drawn at the height of tensions between Washington and Tehran (pictured at left)

Inkspot #52 Autumn 2007

And don’t be surprised if the number of baby cartoons increases in Tony Lopes strip, Insanity Streak. Tony and partner Lori are expecting their first child at the end of this year! www.cartoonists.org.au

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ews News News News News New King signs Hallatt and Arctic Circle

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mosquito. Mosquito Man didn’t last the course and was replaced by a couple of other equally short-lived strips. When Hallatt graduated (in biochemistry) in 1992, she returned to New Jersey, where she had spent a year of her degree course.

She created her next strip whilst she was working as a waitress in a New Jersey bar, deciding on her future career (7 years of clinical research, as it happened) . It was called Polar Circle then, but it still had most of the same characters, including the polar bear, arctic tern, snow bunny and three immigrant penguins. After being rejected by the syndicates, the strip was put on ice for a few years and only resurrected properly for a run in the Regional Press in 2005. By then, Lenny the lemming, had completed the main cast.

Arctic Circle was described by Kennedy as being unusual because most comics launched by King recently have targeted a particular demographic, but Arctic Circle is written with no particular audience in mind. Reading Peanuts now (or watching cartoons like Bugs Bunny and Tom & Jerry) the cartoons still entertain as much as they did when Hallatt was a kid (if not more). She hopes that people like Arctic Circle, not because it is targeted at their demographic, but because they find it funny.

Hallatt is a freelance cartoonist and has been a member of the ACA since 2003, when she moved from the UK to New Zealand. She was part of the Inky Ladies panel at the 2005 Stanelys conference in the Blue Mountains.

Rubbery Figures on the web

eter Nicholson is now making an animation each week for The Australian’s website. Each animation is about 40 seconds long and takes two or three days to make.

Peter co-scripts the segments with Brendan Luno, who worked with Peter on the Rubbery Figures TV programs on the ABC and Fast Forward.

Another former Rubbery person, Paul Jennings, performs the voices, along with Peter’s wife Mary.

Musician and sound genius Markus Kellow lays and mixes the sound directly into the animation program, Adobe Flash.

Peter uses a tablet to draw straight into Flash - no need for scanning - and has to work fast to keep one step ahead of his animation team (Nick Kallincos, Michael Hill and Kate Cawley).

Peter says Flash is a marvellous tool, and is quite intuitive if you work at it obsessively for two or three years.

“It is designed to allow a few people to work simultaneously, swapping drawings and animation cycles, and cutting, pasting and editing at a great old speed.

“You can re-shoot on the spot and ask the computer to repeat little cycles just like pasting a paragraph into a Word document. www.cartoonists.org.au

The publishing of the work is the hard part.

To get the finished program into format for The Australian website is complicated and time-consuming.

Peter made the numerous pilots for the animation concept with his own money, but took a while to talk News Ltd into the idea. A change in the climate towards the web, and some quick footwork from Chris Mitchell (Editor-inChief) and Peter Wylie (then head of NWN) made it all happen. He is developing other web projects too.

To see Peter’s Rubbery Figures animations, go to The Australian’s website http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/ or to Peter’s own site www.nicholsoncartoons.com.au.

Peter Nicholson

Alex Hallatt

ing Features Syndicate is to launch Alex Hallatt’s comic strip, Arctic Circle at a sales conference later this month. The strip was picked up for development last November by Jay Kennedy, the late and sorely-missed Editor-in-Chief.

Though Hallatt had submitted Arctic Circle some time before (and received rejections from the other major syndicates), it was only when James Kemsley gave it to Ian Dale of Yaffa Syndicate to pass on to King that things started to happen.

Kennedy emailed Hallatt in September 2006 and wrote “I like your drawing style and humor, but not your lettering. It is too lax.“ Hallatt neatened up her lettering and re-submittted, twice, before Kennedy was happy and a contract was negotiated.

Hallatt has wanted to be a cartoonist since she was a kid. She was given her first book of comic strips at the age of six: an early collection of Peanuts, which was read dozens of times. Like most kids then, she also enjoyed a range of quirky, independent British comics like Whizzer & Chips, Oink! and Cor! Unlike most, Hallatt didn’t grow out of a love of cartoons and it was only when the hundreds of comics stored in her parents attic in a thatched cottage in Dorset were deemed to be a fire risk that she had to get rid of them. She sold most of them off at a car boot fair to a 9 year old boy who thought he had hit the jackpot.

The first strips Hallatt drew on a regular basis were for her university newspaper, about a character who was half man, half

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first met Jay Kennedy in 1999 in New York City.

Yet another Aussie knocking on his door with dreams, or at the very least hopes, of trying to crack the massive US market via the oldest and largest comic strip distributors in the States, King Features Syndicate. Kennedy expressed a genuine interest in Australian comics strips and his knowledge of that subject matter left me somewhat bewildered. I obviously wasn’t the first or last Aussie to take up his time. Since my King visit I’ve spoken to a lot of local colleagues who have made the same trek.

One special memory I have is spending a hot summer’s Sunday afternoon with Jay and John Perry, the King Features International Sales Manger, sitting watching fellow cartoonists play baseball on Charlie Brown’s ball park at the Charles Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa.

Following is the media release King Features Syndicate issued announcing Kennedy’s passing.

-James Kemsley

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ay Kennedy, editor in chief of King Features Syndicate, a unit of Hearst Corporation, died March 15, 2007, while on vacation in Costa Rica. He was 50 years old and lived in New York City and Orient Point, Long Island.

Kennedy joined King Features in 1988 as deputy comics editor and became comics editor one year later. He was named editor- in-chief in 1997.

From 1983 to 1988, Kennedy served as cartoon editor of Esquire magazine, also owned by Hearst Corporation. In addition, he was guest editor in 1985 for the European Humor issue released by the National Lampoon.

Kennedy wrote articles about the history of cartooning, and profiled cartoonists and contemporary comics for magazines including New Age Journal, Heavy Metal, New York, The IGA Journal, and Escape, an English bi-monthly. He was also the author of The Underground Comix Guide (1982). Kennedy’s interest in comics was worldwide and lifelong.

Kennedy once explained that he chose a life in cartooning because “in the fine arts, artists generally comment on the world only obliquely; and sadly, only those people who have the leisure to study art history can fully appreciate their comments. By contrast, cartoons are an art form accessible to all people. They can simply laugh at the jokes or look beyond them to see the artist’s view of the world.

Cartoons are multi-leveled art accessible to everyone at whatever level they choose to enjoy.”

He is survived by his mother, Jean brothers Bruce, Mark and sister Janet He was predeceased by his wife Sarah Jewler.

Johnny Hart 1931 - 2007

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ohnny Hart, 76, whose comic strips B.C. and The Wizard of Id used wisecracking cave men and h e n p e c k e d sorcerers to comment on modern life, and who attracted controversy when he introduced Christianity into his work, died April 7 at his home in Nineveh, New York, near Binghamton.

Hart recently completed treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and died at his drawing table after a stroke, said his wife of 55 years, Bobby Hatcher Hart.

Hart became one of the most popular cartoonists of his era, with a readership estimated at 100 million since starting B.C.

in 1958 and The Wizard of Id in 1964 (with artist Brant Parker). Creators Syndicate distributed both strips, each of which appeared in more than 1,300 newspapers.

For a strip whose tone was light-hearted, B.C. suddenly became controversial in the 1990s when Hart included themes influenced by his fundamental Christianity and literal interpretation of the Bible.

He did so sparingly, often around holy days, but its inclusion was perceived by many readers as making him far more frank about Christianity than any of his mainstream contemporaries.

John Lewis Hart, a firelighter’s son, was born Feb. 18, 1931, in Endicott, New York. As a child, he said he drew “funny pictures, which got me in or out of trouble depending on the circumstances.”

After high school, he served in the Air Force in Korea and produced cartoons for Pacific Stars and Stripes.

The Saturday Evening Post, Colliers and True magazines later published his freelance cartoon submissions while Hart worked in the art department at General Electric in Johnson City, New York. While at GE, he created B.C. and based many of the characters and their quirks on his friends and family.

“I tried to reduce my cartoons to the fewest words and the least clutter in the drawing,” he said in 1997. “The simpler you do things, the more genius is required to do it. I used to take ideas as far back as I could take them -- back to their origin.

So cave men became my favourites thing to do because they are a combination of simplicity and the origin of ideas.”

Besides his wife, survivors include two daughters; a brother; a sister; and two grandsons.

Adam Bernstein © 2007, The Washington Post.

Reprinted with Permission.

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EDITOR’S NOTE Eight days after Hart’s death his partner on the The Wizard of Id, Brant Parker, also passed away. He was 86.

Bruce Tinsley/Mallard Fillmore/King Featues

Photo- James Kemsley

Jay Kennedy 1956 - 2007

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Indonesia Maybe it up it’s up to cartoonists to drag our big nothern neighbour and Australia closer together.

ROLF HEIMANN puts the cards on the table.

www.cartoonists.org.au

an you picture a village where everyone is a cartoonist? It’s hard to imagine, but if you don’t believe it, check out a place called Kaliungu, in Central Java.

Indonesia is a country full of surprises. If all goes to plan, and if you’re interested, you’ll soon learn more about our big neighbour to the north. A new and long overdue era of co-operation is about to dawn between Indonesian and Australian cartoonists. For starters, see their invitation in this issue.

Despite all the changes since Suharto was discredited, it is hard for many Australians to shake off their prejudices.

Hearing the word “Indonesia”, many of us still think “corruption”, “mass killings” and “pollution”. Many Indonesians in turn think of us as arrogant, supremist, trigger-happy colonialists. If we were only half as bad as they think we are, we really ought to be wiped from the face of the Earth! We have to let them know how nice we actually can be and we also have to open our own eyes to their ways.

There are no better means of communication than cartoons. So let’s use them. Our exhibition Crossing Lines (about 200 cartoons that chronicle the troubled relationship between our two countries) is preparing to tour Indonesia and promises to cause lively debate, apart from promoting the medium. First scheduled gallery is in the old British Commission building in Surabaya, now administrated by the Surabaya Institute of Technology.

There have been concerns that Indonesians might not take too kindly to many of the cartoons insulting to their country. Professor David Reeve, who often used cartoons in his presentations, advised us that he did not find it so; Indonesians were highly amused by our (even anti-Indonesian) cartoons, though this may not be the case in all layers of society. There are Islamic groups that scan obsessively anything from the West for signs of disrespect, and in some areas the picture of a girl with naked arms is enough to give offence.

The animated film Aladdin is a case in point. Although Aladdin, as an Arab, was pictured as a hero, why did he (unlike the villains) have to speak with such a heavy American accent? The opening song had to be changed for consumption in SE Asia. Originally it went: “Oh I come from a land/ From a faraway place/ Where the caravan camels roam/ Where they cut off your ear/ If they don’t like your face/ It’s Inkspot #52 Autumn 2007

barbaric, but, hey, it’s home” The offending line was changed to: “Where it’s flat and immense/ And the heat is intense…” (Incidentally, pirated copies missed out on the change, that’s how you can recognise them.

These pirated copies cost Disney tens of million of dollars in Asia.)

Islamists also object to Moslem actresses not observing the aurat, the Muslim dress code, and princess Jasmine in Aladdin did not. Is an animated figure an actress? The debate continues.

Nobody who ever visited Bali will remain unimpressed by the artistic drive of this culture, by all that the playfulness and imagination. Much of it is of course now geared to the tourist trade (and I suspect that many of the Kaliungu cartoons are among them).

Indonesian cartoonists are aware of that development. The illustration shows a man performing the Balinese Barong dance, only thinking of dollars earned by the performance rather than of any original spiritual meaning (the witch he is trying to kill with his kris has magically turned the weapon on himself instead).

Decrying lost tradition is a common theme in Indonesian cartooning, and understandably so. Children no longer follow their mothers’ wish to help in the house, as seen in the other cartoon. Wayang kulit performances (shadow puppets) were once mass entertainment, now it is just art, and kids prefer to watch the PowerRangers etc. Wayang kulit were actually low-tech precursors of our cartoon films, with the heroes of the Ramayana close cousins of our superheroes. An interesting point: We have Islam to thank for the wonderfully bizarre un-human faces; as the koran forbids the picturing of humans, Inkspot #52 Autumn 2007

the puppets were given grotesque features that made them look more like fabled animals.

Political comment during the orde baru was limited; publications were simply banned if they overstepped the line. So cartoonists developed a more subtle approach. Panji Koming for instance (drawn by Dwi Koendoro) commented on present problems by transposing the scene into old Javanese culture. The excellently drawn Panji Koming is only one of many popular strips. Kompas also publishes other local comics of high quality. The much loved strip Pak Bei

by Masdi Soenardi would not be out of place in the world’s best papers, yet we never see it. Many tourists will have bought the magazine bog-bog in Bali, published by a group headed by Jango Pramartha, now head of the Indonesian Cartoonists Association.

Jango informs us that his organisation is an umbrella for numerous regional clubs, all very active. ome years ago the German Friedrich Nauman Stiftung sponsored exhibitions in Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta, Semarang, Surabaya and Denpasar called Cartoons for Democracy. Hundred of Indonesian cartoons were received.

In future we have to make sure that such events do not escape our attention. Compared to us, Germany and other European countries seem to have a much more lively interest in Asia. Can you imagine Australia sponsoring all-expenses-paid visits for foreign cartoonists, as Germany did? Our Australian governments look like a pack of stingy bastards that show no interest in what’s

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going on in neighbouring countries, unless it promises immediate profits for cronies.

A trivia question: How many political parties were formed after Suharto stepped down in 1998? Would you believe 148! Surely a sign of lively political activity. Cartooning is part of this new development. “A golden age of Indonesian comics is only just beginning to emerge,” writes Laine Berman (Inside Indonesia), “Unlike the past, every noted publishing house now has a section for comics…” The Indonesian Comics Society (MKI) organises a National Comic and Animation Week, with workshops and competitions. “Never before in the nation’s history had there been so much talent, variety and freedom for self-expressions,” writes Laine Bermann.

Many Indonesians tell us that not much has changed since Suharto stepped down, but at least you’re no longer thrown into prison for any criticism, and publications are no longer banned at the drop of a hat.

Michael Leunig, who already contributed to the Beach cartoon exhibition in Bali, writes: “…Bali taught me many lessons and I’m sure is always there in my art and philosophy. I think Mister Curly is part Balinese…”

The Sanur Festival in Bali, which takes place in late August will be a great chance for any Australian cartoonists to visit Bali, as special deals are being prepared, including discounts and side-trips in the company of Balinese cartoonists. Anybody interested can contact Rolf Heimann on heimann@ primus.com.au.

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ASK LINDSAY! ASK LINDSAY! ASK LINDSAY! Every week the ACA receives numerous enquires about cartooning.

It generally falls to cartoon aficionado and ACA comic historian LINDSAY FOYLE to supply the answers I am looking for information about Lionel Coventry. He drew allot of footballers and cricketers in the l940’s and 50’s. Any information would be helpful. I have discovered a caricature of his from 1954 about a footballer from l954. The nickname of the player is “Trusty”. Its a man with a ducks body... thanks..

Chuck Fayne

Harry Weston lived in Sydney for many years, but there is not a lot in the history books about him. Harry John Western was born in Hobart 1874. On leaving school he became a qualified architect and worked in the office of A E Luttrell in Launceston. After a time he moved on to work as a commercial artists in Tasmania and Victoria. He spent some time in Melbourne where he was on friendly terms with Lionel Lindsay. He was also a member of the prehistoric Order of Cannibals around 1893. He worked on the Examiner in Launceston and for a while in 1898 and lived in West Davenport. He also exhibited paintings with the Launceston Art Society. By 1901 Western had left Tasmania and had opened a studio in Sydney where he intended to draw illustrations and sell advertising space. He sold his interests in the Sydney studio in 1904 to concentrate on illustration and drawing posters. He also exhibited with the Society of Artists for some years. From the time it was established 1924 he was an active member of the

Australian Black and White Artist Club. He also illustrated several books. He contributed cartoons to The Bulletin as well as drawing old salts and waterfront characters. For many years he ran a correspondence course teaching drawing. And he was still exhibiting cartoons in 1964!

Hi, I am currently a master’s student in history at Victoria University of Wellington and I was wondering if I could ask for your assistance. My thesis examines the cartoons of the New Zealand Free Lance and New Zealand Observer. Both these publications modelled themselves on the cartoonists of the Sydney Bulletin and I was wondering if you could recommend any sources for further information on the Bulletin or its cartoonists. In particular I am interested in finding out more about Edward Brodie Mack, who appears to be the elusive Mack who contributed cartoons to the Free Lance between 1916 and 1918. Very little information is held in New Zealand concerning Mack and I would really appreciate any assistance you could provide, particularly in relation to him.

Kind regards, Sarah Whitehead I have struggled to find information about Brodie Mack. All I have is; Edward Brodie Mack- Born Wellington, New Zealand 1897 Died 19?? Brodie was only 18 when he worked as a cartoonist on New Zealand Free Lance from 1915 to 1916. He then worked in the theatre til he resumed his cartooning career in Sydney in 1919 contributing to The Bulletin, Smith’s Weekly, Sydney Mail and a number of other publications. For a time he was a sporting and political cartoonist on The Truth in Sydney and relieving political cartoonist on The Sun. He worked for the Daily Telegraph as political cartoonist from 1934 to 1936.

He spent an unbroken 26 years working for Australian Consolidated Press. He also dew for the NSW Bookstall Company. As for books on The Bulletin, The Journalistic Javelin: An illustrated history of The Bulletin, by Patricia Rolfe and published by Wildcat Press in 1979 is by far the best. Pat Lawlor’s book Confessions of a Journalist published by Whitcome & Tombs in 1935 has some good information about New Zealand Free Lance.

W.D.Edrich by Lionel Conventry

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For a man of enormous talent it’s surprising there so is little information about Lionel Coventry. He was born in Broken Hill, the son of a newspaper linotype operator in 1906. He was two when the family moved to Adelaide and in 1923 he became a cadet reporter on The News, but changed jobs because he was more interested in caricature than reporting. With the change in direction he took a job on the Register, a morning newspaper in Adelaide.

The paper went out of production in the depression and he started contributing to The Bulletin in Sydney. He freelanced with work being published in The News, The Advertiser and The Mail. He also had work published overseas and it has been estimated he had over 30,000 caricatures published. There are a few books of his work around but they are hard to find.

Hello, I am emailing from mid-Wales in UK. I have a framed page from The Bulletin illustrated by Harry J Weston. Are you able to tell me anything about it?

Many thanks Gwyneth Stephen

www.cartoonists.org.au

Inkspot #52 Autumn 2007

For the 2006 Stanleys the ACA produced a poster which featured Australian editorial cartoonists from each capital city, the major regional newspapers and Auckland. It was the first time in history that the country’s leading editorial talent had contributed to one piece of art. LINDSAY FOYLE has the details.

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hen the ACA (Black and White Artists’ Club) went national in 1984 one of the first things that was done was to collect some drawings by members.

All the artwork was drawn on the same size and type of paper. The acid-free sheets were posted out, drawn on and posted back. It was a massive task and a fortune was spent on stamps and follow-up phone calls trying to get everyone to return their drawings. Once all the artwork was collected it was bound together into a book. Very impressive.

The book was raffled and eventually ended up in the New South Wales Art Gallery. It is available to look at on request, but considered too valuable to be left on public view. Twenty years ago a buyer offered $10,000 for the collection and was knocked back. It would be interesting to know what value is placed on the book now. A cold-blooded valuer would take into account the uniqueness of the collection and that about 20 of the contributing cartoonists have died.

Why was it produced? It would be nice to say because it could be, but the truth is it was a moneymaking venture. As a fund-raiser it was a very successful enterprise, if the commercial value of the artwork is not taken into account. However the publication of the artwork in a book called The 102 Collection was a financial disaster. One reason was because it just slipped out into the shops and few knew it was there. Publicity would have helped. Copies can be found from time to time in second hand bookshops. A few years back a good copy would cost about $3, now copies are getting up around $5, which is 5 cents more than the original recommended retail price. Just think, in another 20 years those with original copies could double their money. Who said cartoonists don’t know how to make money?

The first commercial enterprise conducted by the Club was the publishing of the USA Fleet Souvenir magazine in 1925 to commemorate the visit of the American Fleet. It was 18.5 centimetres by 24.5 and there were 48 cartoons by 25 members of the Society of Australian Black and White Artists. Will Lawson contributed a poem and about 20 advertisers took space in the 52 pages. The book originally sold for a shilling (10 cents) and second hand copies can now be found for about $120. One copy - autographed by 12 of the cartoonists- sold a few years back for $350. The publication also promoted a Black and White Ball, which was to be conducted under strict supervision in the Sydney Town Hall. Luckily no mention of a date was included as the ball did not eventuate for over a year. However the book did make money, as did the many balls conducted by the Club from the 1920s til the end of the 1950s. The money made from these balls subsidised the operation of the Club till the 1980s. In some ways the old balls could be looked on as forerunners to the Stanley Awards nights.

Back in 2005 James Kemsley - who has been to all 22 Stanley nights - had the bright idea of getting about 36 political cartoonists to contribute one small drawing each on one big sheet of paper and auctioning it. Why? It would be nice to

Inkspot #52 Autumn 2007

say because it could be done, but the truth is it was again a moneymaking venture for the ACA. The poster had its birth in Melbourne with Victorian vice-president and Stanleys 2006 coorganiser, Rolf Heimann. He got the ball rolling and secured the cream of local editorial cartooning talent in December 2004, just after the Blue Mountains Stanleys. The sheet of A3 paper was then put into a tube and posted to cartoonists all over Australia (and one in New Zealand). A fortune was spent in stamps and follow-up phone calls trying to keep the drawing moving. The intention was to have the completed and framed artwork ready for auction at the 2006 Stanley Awards in Ballarat.

During its evolution the artwork travelled to Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane, Hobart, Sydney, Canberra, Newcastle, the Gold Coast, Wollongong and Auckland but did not make it to Ballarat, and was auctioned in absentia. Luckily Rod Emmerson had a scan done at the New Zealand Herald so potential buyers could know what they were bidding on. As a moneymaking venture for the ACA it was successful, but it could never be repeated commercially. All the contributing artists did so free of charge for the ACA. Had their artwork been costed at the same rates as newspapers pay for publication then the drawings would cost between $100 and $200, giving the poster a low starting point value of $3600 and a $7200 high. The accumulative value would need to be added, as well as the time and money spent in circulating the artwork which individuals mostly carried.

The finished artwork was scanned in Sydney (January 2007) and then dispatched to a framer in Bowral. It was early February when it was delivered to the highest bidder, David Spencer, who said, “There are a few creases in the paper, but considering where it has travelled that is not surprising”. He is happy and has no plans to sell the poster, which can be viewed hanging on the Wacom boardroom wall in Lane Cove, Sydney. It would be interesting to know what worth could now be placed on the artwork by a valuer, taking into account the uniqueness of the artwork and that one of the contributing cartoonists, Paul Rigby, has since died.

Now, a real moneymaking entrepreneur would have produced two instead of one.

Overleaf is a reproduction of the 2006 poster. The ACA thanks all those who contributed to this unique and historic piece of art.

Paul Zanetti, Geoff Pryor, Vince O’Farrell, Peter Lewis, David Rowe, Sean Leahy, Bruce Petty, Mark Lynch, John “Polly” Farmer, David Pope, Cathy Wilcox, Mark Knight, Greg Smith, Paul Rigby, Jason Chatfield, Geoff Hook, Matthew Martin, Rod Emmerson, Colin Wicking, Warren Brown, Bill Leak, Neil Matterson, Allan Langoulant, Peter Nicholson, Michael Atchison, Peter Broelman, Eric Löbbecke, Lindsay Foyle, Partick Cook, Matt Golding, Dean Alston, John Spooner, Bill “WEG” Green, Alan Moir, Ross Bateup and Jon Kudelka.

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Inkspot #52 Autumn 2007

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Inkspot #52 Autumn 2007

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Ask a UK cartoonist to contribute copy to a cartoonist newsletter and a certain amount of whingeing is almost inevitable. PETE DREDGE doesn’t disappoint...

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Pete Dredge

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hilst chatting over a pint or two the other week with a group of local Nottingham journalists, the subject of property prices somehow came up in the conversation. They were surprised to learn that I live in a largish, five- bedroomed house in a sought-after suburb of the city (most journos I know are divorced and have had to downsize as a matter of course). I was quick to apologetically respond, “Ah yes, but we’ve been there for sixteen years and there’s no way I could afford to buy my house today.”

This set me thinking. I’ve been a full-time cartoonist for thirty odd years but could I start from scratch again today? The answer, depressingly and most probably, would be “no”. A disturbing thought for a typical freelancer who continues to gingerly tread the commercial tightrope without the use of a net. I haven’t ‘fallen’ yet despite a couple of wobbles in the past, but this recent cogitation was the equivalent of “looking down”, something not to be recommended too often if equilibrium is to be maintained.

How did I start? In my early 20’s I was working as a graphic designer but nurtured a driving ambition to become a Punch cartoonist - not just a cartoonist but a Punch cartoonist. I loved the work of Mike Williams, Hector Breeze, Albert, Ed McLachlan, Bill Tidy, Larry and Honeysett and it certainly was a life-changing moment when I sold my first cartoon to the magazine in 1976, at my first attempt too (plenty of rejections since, I hasten to add!).

From that moment on I exploded onto the scene and all sorts of other cartooning doors opened for me. Most tabloid national papers carried a gag cartoon column and the “girlie” magazine market (Mayfair, Penthouse, Men Only, Fiesta etc) were using cartoons by the lorry www.cartoonists.org.au

load so it was quite possible to earn a reasonable living solely from the gag cartoon markets in those days. The exposure in Punch and later in Private Eye certainly helped to enhance my reputation as a gag cartoonist and this particular skill would hold me in good stead in later years when working for a wider range of clients in the advertising and PR world.

Things are certainly different now. Punch is tragically no more and premier-rate telephone sex ads fill the pages in the “girlies” where the cartoon slots used to be . I’m finding it increasingly difficult to offer any constructive advice to the wannabe cartoonists we all get button-holed by (“Don’t bother” is a touch negative, I feel!)

By the time Punch went to the wall in the 1990’s my career was well established and new markets continued to open for the seasoned pro but I feel that it’s demise has sounded the death-knell for gag cartooning in the UK. Private Eye, The Spectator and, to a lesser extent, The Oldie still provide a market but nothing like the space and opportunity that a specialist humour weekly like Punch used to offer. It’s a fading memory but cartoonists were given equal billing to the writers and also had the , now unimaginable ,luxury of being able to comment on topical subjects on half page, full page and double-page spreads not to mention the occasional colour cover slot!

It’s fair to say that Punch was not only a benchmark when it came to judging the standard and quality of gag cartooning but it was also an incubator for and nurturer of fresh talent. Poor management and misdirected marketing targets led to the inevitable demise of this once great British institution so what now for the future?

There’s always property development I suppose!

Inkspot #52 Autumn 2007

Federation of Cartoonists Organisations

The

www.fecoweb.org

FECO

ACA is a paid-up member of FECO, the International Federation Cartooning Organizations, which serves to maintain a global fraternity of cartoonists by exchanging news, tackling common problems and informing about upcoming events.

Every so often a fellow cartoonist is in trouble, and he or she is certainly comforted by sympathy from outside their countries. For instance I had written, on behalf of the ACA, a letter of support to South Africa, where ‘zapiro’ was being sued for satirising Zumo, another black politician who gives his kind a bad name and who publicly recommends showers and baby oil against Aids.

We are also currently in support of Huseyin Cakmak, FECO President of Cyprus who has been severely harassed on account of his work.

The Danish Mohammed cartoons are still making waves. Happily, the French weekly Charlie Hebdo which was on trial for reprinting these cartoons, has

just been cleared. The lawsuit had been brought by a number of French Islamic organizations. Charlie was backed by a long list of Frenchmen, among them some well-known figures, all of the opinion that religion should not be exempted from humorous attention. Surprisingly, to some, this list of supporters includes an enormous number of Arabic names.

This fact is a reminder that this ‘cartoon war’ was not simply a confrontation between the West and Islam; moderate Moslems count on our support to sideline fundamentalists, though they usually plead for caution when tackling sensitive issues.

FECO has a great number of countries amongst its members, and by contacting their presidents, Australian travellers can try to contact cartoonists in those countries. Most speak a kind of English, or other European languages.

You can try and check FECO out on the internet at www.fecoweb.net.

They also have a list of current competitions; click on the ‘International Cartoons Contests’ link, then go to the ‘Competition pages’ sub section. LOGIN: fecocontests. PASSWORD: andyslist Good luck.

Rolf Heimann ACA FECO president

Solidarity with our colleague from Cyprus: Huseyin Cakmak

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very day we receive terrible messages about violence and war trough the media (newspapers, TV, e-mail and internet).

And everyday we’re shocked and wondered again…

Besides that we notice that our work as free cartoonists with free minds has been attacked and particular when this concerns one of our colleagues and good friend from Cyprus, Huseyin Cakmak.

Than we got the feeling to sharpen our pens… Because we’re sad and angry.

Nobody has the right to silence somebody’s mouth!

Particular when it is somebody who has something reasonable to tell.

FECO want to express their feeling of sympathy, sadness and solidarity to Huseyin, his family and friends.

The freedom of speech and expression is a right for which we fight.

Marlene Pohle FECO president-general

TIME CAPSULE... circa 1925 15

Five founding members of the Society of Australian Black and White Artists around 1925.

(Left to right) Stan Cross, Lance Driffield, George Finey, Cecil Hartt and Syd Miller.

Inkspot #52 Autumn 2007

www.cartoonists.org.au

RESAMPLE ON

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So ‌

when it comes to resizing a picture, you are confronted with the fact that you can’t add any more original pixel information to your ďŹ le than what you already have. In most cases you will be adding new, ie invented pixels or discarding original pixels to meet the new ďŹ le requirements.

The trick is to try and minimise this as much as possible or to not push it too far. The back up position is to know when it doesn’t really matter a rat’s arse

/RIGINAL B

The Image Size Dialog Box RESAMPLE OFF: No resampling, therefore no pixels subtracted or added, therefore pixel information cannot be changed, therefore greyed out. Resolution and dimensions are linked. Increasing the resolution makes the dimensions smaller and vice versa. Make any change and all the other amounts change to maintain the number of pixels. Double the size halves the resolution and with resampling turned off, maintains the ďŹ le size RESAMPLE ON: You can add or subtract pixels now and the ďŹ le size will change. When scaling up, resampling will insert pixels to maintain the resolution. These will be computer generated, ie non-original pixels. When scaling down, resampling will delete original pixels to maintain the resolution. Either way, the image is no longer full of original pixels. It’s lost some integrity.

Scaling down is less of a problem than scaling up

Some File Quality examples:

a) GOOD: Make a ďŹ le smaller with higher resolution. Turn Resample OFF, Constrain Proportions ON and type in the desired height or width. This will give you all the original pixels in a smaller ďŹ le and therefore a higher resolution. If the size is right but the resolution is still not high enough, you’ll have to go back into the Image Size dialog box turn Resample ON and type in the desired resolution. A bit of extra work but at least you will have made the best use of your original pixels b) OKAY: Also at the acceptable end, it is professionally okay at the national

&OR MORE DETAILS FROM THE 0HOTOSHOP (ELP SCREEN x 4YPE h#HANGING )MAGE 3IZE AND 2ESOLUTIONv INTO THE 3EARCH l ELD www.cartoonists.org.au

A

/RIGINAL

B

RESAMPLE OFF

A

Resampling On: When scaling down. a) resampling deletes some original pixels (the white ones) to maintain the resolution. When scaling up, b) resampling inserts computer generated, non-original pixels (the grey ones) to maintain the ďŹ le resolution. Either way, the image is no longer full of original pixels and has lost some integrity

RESAMPLE ON

/RIGINAL

Dear Challenged, A cartoon’s ďŹ le size is determined by both it’s physical size (cms) and it’s resolution (aka pixels per inch) To resize a cartoon use Image>Image Resize.

The key to successfully resizing a cartoon lies in understanding what resampling is ‌

Resampling is simply the computer adding or subtracting pixels to adjust a ďŹ le’s resolution.

Resampling Off: No pixels are added or subtracted. In the example at left, pixels are neither added or subtracted, but just made a) amaller or b) bigger to ďŹ t the new size. Scaling down increases the resolution (ppi), scaling up decreases the resolution (ppi)

RESAMPLE OFF

Dear Doctor, When I have to resize a cartoon does size matter?

Yrs, Challenged

:

Q A

DOES SIZE MATTER?

newspaper where I work, to turn Resample ON and scale up a pic by a maximum of 20% c) NOT SO GOOD: Make a ďŹ le much bigger with larger dimensions, higher resolution or both. No choice but to add new, invented pixels. No choice whatsoever, so don’t stress out. The client may have asked for a 150ppi to 300ppi conversion simply because they have a rule that all pix are 300ppi.

Leave Resample ON and type 300 in the resolution ďŹ eld. Your ďŹ le will maintain it’s physical size, insert a lot of invented pixels, your client will be happy and noone will spot the difference

4ILL THE NEXT )NKSPOT THEN INFO CHRISKELLY NET AU Inkspot #52 Autumn 2007

Lettering is a vital part of our cartoons and comics, and an artform in itself.

Lee Sheppard made the decision to use digital lettering and interviewed renowned letterer and founder of ComicBookFonts. com Richard Starkings to find out more.

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EE: Why should someone use digital lettering?

RICH: I moved from Pen lettering to Digital lettering not just because it allowed me to maintain a high standard and work faster, but also in reaction to my experiences in regard to the demands of the international market.

When I worked at Marvel UK in London, I would often find myself working with strip material purchased from French or Italian publishers.

In those days we would be sent color comic strips as four sheets of film (CMYK) and the lettering on the black sheet would need to be stripped or masked out.

Unfortunately, this often meant that the balloons and captions that remained were either too small or not big enough for the English translation which we needed to drop in.

On one occasion, I lettered an Italian adaptation of Disney’s PINNOCHIO, in ink, on the black sheet of the film itself at reproduction size.

As I did so, I cursed the production process which forced me to cut and trim copy (or expand it) in order to make best use of the space available.

It also frustrated me no end that the Italian letterer had placed balloons and captions over figures and other important story elements and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it!

LEE: Who should use computer fonts for their lettering?

RICH: Well, aside from publishers with an eye on the global market, anyone who has terrible penmanship!

Inkspot #52 Autumn 2007

Bad lettering can ruin a great comic strip and, conversely, good lettering can make a bad comic strip look much better, even if it can’t save it entirely!

LEE: Is there a difference between your fonts in True type and Postscript formats? Is one format better?

RICH: Postscript fonts provide more accurate screen representation. Truetype fonts are easier to install, since a separate program, called ATMLite, isn’t required for Windows and Mac OS9.

Generally, graphic designers use PostScript and more casual users will go with Truetype.

They are both generated from the same source files, and provide the same final output.

We are currently working to convert our library to the newer Opentype format, which provides the benefits of both older formats, and is also both Mac and Windows compatible.

L

EE: What made you decide to sell your secrets to the trade by making and selling fonts and publishing a book on lettering? Didn’t that upset some of the pro’s?

RICH: The letterers and creators who encouraged me when I was starting out in England were as eager to teach as I was to learn.

The goal was always to make comics look good, not to corner the market.

When I moved to the States and pushed the industry to work digitally, I was widely regarded by pen letterers as The Anti-Christ!

Looking back I see that I was just a convenient outsider hand letterers

could use as a target for their anxiety and fears.

But comics are still here and thriving.

LEE: You’ve converted the handwriting/lettering of some of the big names in the industry, how do they feel about the selling of their signature letters as a font on your site for anyone to use?

RICH: The first artist we created a font for was Paul Smith, and, Yes, he has been wary about allowing people to use his signature font -- he paid for its creation and has not allowed us to sell it.

Jim Lee, Jeff Campbell, Joe Mad and Tim Sale were very happy for us to sell their styles commercially, particularly as it meant that we did not charge them for the fonts’ creation.

LEE: What do you find are the most common errors made by cartoon and comic strip letterers?

RICH: Caps lock “I” in the middle of a word or at the beginning of a sentence.

Too much air in a balloon. Too little air in a balloon.

Timid sfx [special effects]. Over confident sfx.

Titles that don’t suit the story being lettered. Fonts that don’t suit the art.

Fat balloon tails. Thin balloon tails.

You name it!

Lee Sheppard is a Sydney based cartoonist, animator and writer. You can read this interview in full on his website www.toonstudio.com.au Richard Starkings is founder of ComicBookFonts.com and President of Comicraft & Active Images

www.cartoonists.org.au

17

9OUR 6IEW /N

TRANSPORT

Clockwise from top left: Anthony “Slats� Slater, Christophe Granet, Sinann Cheah, Dave Allen, Dave Follett, George Haddon.

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Thanks for all of your contributions. The next YVO subject will be BEACHES, to coincide with the Bali-Australia International Cartoon Exhibition 2007. Please email all submissions at 300dpi RGB to inkspot@abwac.org.au.

www.cartoonists.org.au

Inkspot #52 Autumn 2007

Clockwise from top left: Rolf “Lofo” Heimann, Graham LePage, John Allison, Tim Mellish, Caanan, Mark Guthrie, Jack “Jed” Edmunds, John Martin.

Inkspot #52 Autumn 2007

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www.cartoonists.org.au

Inverloch, Volume 1 & 2

by Sarah Ellerton

A5 Colour 168 p. (each) Seven Seas Entertainment U.S., May & October 2006 ISBN 1933164131 & 1933164271 Reviewed by Ian C.Thomas

George Haddon’s Victoria sketchbook

by George Haddon ; edited by John Hall

RACV Sales & Marketing, Noble Park North, Victoria, 2006.

ISBN: 0646464760 Price: $34.90 (RACV members), $39.90 (non-members) Reviewed by Ian C.Thomas

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Reading George Haddon’s gorgeous new book is, in itself, a journey through Victoria, but it’s sure to make you want to visit many places again. It’s an excellent reminder of all that’s here, as well as a beautiful artbook in its own right.

For many years now Royalauto (the members’ magazine for the Royal Automobile Association of Victoria) has featured a luxurious centrefold featuring Haddon’s eye-catching ink and watercolour work. The recent series collected in the book follow on from earlier successful Haddon series in Royalauto – “On the Road Through” which was illustrated roadmaps, “Welcome to…” which travelled inside and outside Vic, and a 20 issue successful collaboration with Lawrence Money.

Here Haddon’s artwork takes centre stage to brilliant effect.

While the Royalauto reproductions were beautiful, the high quality ones in Victoria Sketchbook positively glow. Reproduced at A3 on high quality paper, Haddon’s pen and brush illustrations have the power to evince the tangible atmosphere of a place and time – the people, the buildings, the scenery, the activity.

Of course, Haddon has a long history of illustrating location sketchbooks, which informs the fullness and naturalness of his work here. Also, having long ago grown up on Haddon & Trengove’s Wonders of Wildlife in The Herald (and treasuring a book collecting those classic strips), it’s wonderful to have a new Haddon book to add to my collection!

Included is everything from the aquatic delights of Anglesea surf, Rosebud beaches, Murray riverboats, the bays of Lakes Entrance and Port Campbell; the historic townships of Beechworth, Clunes and Swan Hill; inner-city vistas of Carlton, St. Kilda and Williamstown; the heights of The Dandenongs, Mount Macedon and Mount Hotham; and the wilds of Marysville, The Grampians and Phillip Island.

Everywhere Haddon’s work is alive with observed people, cars and animals, whether it be at Auskick Training, a Car Rally or a Dog Show, visiting a Winery, enjoying Jazz on the Murray, or at the Melbourne Zoo. In addition, his lively hand-written notes fill in some important details and local knowledge.

As Royalauto editor John Hall says in the introduction: “George captures the essence of contemporary Victoria and its citizens.” This is a book of Victoria to treasure and to share, from an artist we are justifiably proud to call our own.

Available from RACV Sales and Marketing – (03) 9790 2821 to order, or send a cheque to: RoyalAuto Sketchbook Offer, RACV, 550 Princes Hwy, Noble Park North VIC 3174.

www.cartoonists.org.au

My youngest daughter had been asking for long comic tales to read and it was tricky finding some recent ones that I thought were worthwhile, suitable and well done (though there are some). She found my copy of the first Inverloch volume (while she was off school sick) and loved it!

This initial adventure presents a gentle and assured start to an epic series. Acheron is a member of a horned wolf-like race, the d’akor – always cute but also clever and dangerous.

Encountering Shiara, an elf-girl, Acheron finds himself drawn into her tale, and selflessly sets forth on a quest to locate another elf, Kayn’dar, missing for the past twelve years. While this first volume is less exciting than what follows, it is enjoyable and beguiling, and a perfect introduction to this world.

Volume 2 builds firmly on the first book, with a somewhat more serious tone and much faster pacing. Acheron wanders out into a world largely dominated by humans, where elves and d’akor exist on the fringes. The cast of characters fills out in the second book, with the gradual addition of three companions – Lei’ella, a disguised elf thief-catcher; Varden, a human thief; and Neirenn, a young elemental mage – each with their own motives for the quest.

It’s pleasing to see the proliferation of Australian fantasy comic series, such as Terinu, Deerflame, Azerath, The Crumpleton Experiments and The Dreaming. Inverloch itself began (and continues) as a popular webcomic, updated several times weekly, with word of mouth serving to increase its popularity. It fully deserves being picked up by an international publisher for release in these book collections.

The Internet showcases many artists, but Sarah Ellerton’s tale is a first-class webcomic - all the work of a single dedicated artist. Ellerton started drawing and showing fanart at various sites before beginning her own tale, and this has clearly served as a sound apprenticeship, with figures and landscapes rendered convincingly and expressively. Her sharply outlined figures against painted backgrounds is an innovative approach, reminiscent of animation, that well conjures up a different world. While the colours are somewhat saturated in print, this is consistent with the feel of the work.

Although Ellerton has admitted that she didn’t begin work with design and story details fully figured out, she has clearly worked to address this: Inverloch does read as a well-planned tale by an assured writer/artist. Within Inverloch there is some initial visual development, as is typical with most characters and strips. Ellerton chose to redraw the first five pages of Volume 1 – a flashback sequence - due to this development in style, but the work was always of a professional standard.

The Inverloch books are highly recommended for all ages.

I look forward to the future volumes!

See: http://www.seraph-inn.com/

Inkspot #52 Autumn 2007

Freaks Ahoy!

By Leigh Hobbs

Allen & Unwin Paperback, 104 pages ISBN: 9781741149838 Price: $12.95 Reviewed by Jim Bridges Leigh Hobbs knows his Ronald Searle.

He also knows his market, as he was held captive by Australia’s education system for over 20 years. By some miracle (and a lot of talent) he managed his Count-of-Monte-Christo-escape from what some see as the lowliest of Australian professions.

He’s been known to haunt second-hand bookshops all over the globe liberating copies of Ronald Searle’s books. Like those teachers who aren’t yet free, he passes these much loved and wellworn copies to people not yet enchanted by Searle’s wonderful scratchy and impossible-to-copy lines.

Hobb’s schoolkids are much more specifically caricatured, and are drenched in the “yuk” factor that kids love and live with.

Leigh gives them heaps of Yuk! As you feast your feelers on Hobb’s unmanicured caricatures, his devilish, dreadful and draconian freaks from 4F continually turning the tables on the shell-shocked teachers, you know that Hobbs is going further than Roald Dahl ever did.

If ever a book market was sewn up, and if ever there was a man who showed his scars from all those years of teaching, it’s Leigh Hobbs, who survived and is on top of his game. Just ask the readers.

But all those young and future cartoon connoisseurs will grow up loving his stuff forever.

to the irritating civil duty of laughing at jokes that broadcast the well-known punch line with the first ten words, and we’ve been annoyed by cartoonists who parade old hackneyed ideas as their own. Humour can be a drag.

Yet once in a while an original joker comes along, and Andrew Weldon is one of these. His genre of humour is not new, it is often called ‘New Yorkerish’, though it is by no means confined to that magazine. Michael Leunig, Larson and others have been practitioners in that field for many years. There is no gag as such, and no laying bare of an issue, just a kind of visual bon mot that touches on things that annoy or intrigue us in our daily lives: mobile phones, spamming Nigerian ex-Minister of Resources, ‘up-grading’, genetic engineering, odd sexual obsessions. His drawings match that type of humour, they are unpretentious, throw-away jottings, the quick-witted utterings of an inventive and playful mind that wishes babies had a snooze button, and that ponders on ways to stop dogs from humping your leg.

In a recent piece in the Melbourne Age, Andrew Weldon told (yes, he’s also a charming writer) of his long-held wish to be published in The New Yorker and the experience of his success.

I would say that his type of drawings find their rightful home there. Years ago Andrew was associated with undergroundish publications like The Big Issue, now he has truly entered the mainstream.

I doubt whether he took his most irreverent drawings to that office in New York. Religion is after all still a sacred cow in the US o f A and its tail must not be tweaked. Weldon stops at nothing, not even at 9/11 (a hot-air balloon on a first attempt at the World Trade Centre!). One of the social functions of humour is to help us to come to terms with the nightmare of awful things, and Weldon does that too, along with his light-hearted visual banter. Some of his stuff is brilliantly original; I looked for his worst cartoon, one which the editor should have dropped, and I could not find one.

Andrew has a penchant for closing his cartoons about outrageous products with lines like ‘In Supermarkets Now!’ I will follow suit and say that ‘If you weren’t a hedgehog…

If I weren’t a haemophiliac…’ is available in all good bookshops now. Ten percent discount if you can say the whole title in one breath (just kidding).

If you weren’t a Hedgehog…

If I weren’t a Haemophiliac…

250 cartoons by Andrew Weldon Allen & Unwin Paperback, 288 pages ISBN: 9781741750119 Price: $19.95

Reviewed by Rolf Heimann It has often been said that there are only half a dozen or so basic gags, and the thousands of jokes in circulation are only variations of these. We all have submitted at one time or other

Inkspot #52 Autumn 2007

www.cartoonists.org.au

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Ian C. Thomas is a regular reviewer for Inkspot. He currently draws Moth & Tanuki for Mania”magazine and OzTaku.

Jim Bridges is a longtime member of the ACA Victorian Chapter and a prolific cartoon collector and cartoon aficionado.

Rolf Heimann is the Vice-president of the Victorian Chapter of the ACA and a Gold Stanley recipient.

He cartoons under the nom-de-plume of Lofo.

Lee Sheppard is a Sydney-based freelance cartoonist, animator and writer. He is former Secretary of the ACA and NSW VP. His website is www.toonstudio.com.au.

News from the Bunker BUNKER CARTOON GALLERY COFFS HARBOUR

Dream On Silly Dreamer Not all Fairy Tales have a happy ending...

Reviewed by Lee Sheppard

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Dream On Silly Dreamer is a 40-minute film written and directed by former Disney animator Dan Lund and produced by veteran Disney visual effects animator Tony West.

On Monday March 25th 2002, Thomas Schumacher, then Disney’s President of Feature Animation advised more than 200 of the studio’s artists that they would need to look for work elsewhere as the feature animation studios were being closed.

DOSD enlightens viewers about that puzzling, frustrating decision and the moves that led to it. Captivating interviews with affected Disney animators (including Andreas Dejas) and a running logo unmistakably inspired by Disney films, this documentary brings insight to an otherwise little known experience of work at the Mouse House. In a mixture of live action and animated vignettes, the stories unfold the truth from an inside perspective.

What led to the D-Day at the studio? It was due to the strong theatrical performance of Fox/Blue Sky’s computer-animated Ice Age that lead to the abrupt “Tom Meeting”. With observations from staff who understandably feel cheated by having shortsighted business conquering art, DOSD paints Tom Schumacher and middle management as the villains of the piece.

The DVD does cover moments and memories of glorious years prior to the lay-offs. Lion King, the 1994 film’s success, we’re told was greeted with bonus checks that could buy a new car!

Bonus Extras include Farewell parties held at Florida and California locations from different departments. Surreal footage of the laid-off animators paying $1300 to Disney to take their special animators desks with them from the shuttered Florida studio. (I recall paying less than $200 for the desks at the Sydney Studio myself.)

DOSD goes above and beyond the call of duty with hours of material. Expanded sequences, videos on the film’s screenings and priceless home videos compliment the brief feature. Worthy of any aspiring artist or Disney aficionado.

Available from Amazon or direct from the website, RRP US$20 + $11 postage. Approximately AU$44 once converted. Two week mailing time. http://www.dreamonsillydreamer.com

www.cartoonists.org.au

W

e have been very busy at the Bunker lately with the fabulous travelling show the Bald Archy Prize, with 41 great portraits with an edge,political and humourous.

This is on till Sat 21st April and not to be missed.

The next exhibition is Danish Delights with two Danish artists now living in the area with a mixed show of landscape oils, abstract acrylics and some 3D and lots of colour.

Showing concurrently is Gary Wait with his meditative charcoal drawings called Shedraelites in the Foyer also opening on the same night is an exhibition to coinside with the Ulysses Bikers’ AGM. This exhibition has some cartoons from the archives and works from 6 local cartoonists on the theme of bikers called Get On Yer Bike. Opening Night 27th April at 6:00 pm.Get On Yer Bike runs through to 4th June.

Two new artists will come into the Bunker opening on 18th May with an exhibition of printmaking silk screen and etchings.

Lina Bluhm and Brenda Nunn with their exhibition of fine printmaking Bridging Memories will be showing till 4th June.

Micheal Hill a Sydney cartoonist will be showing in the Foyer with his slick images on education Comic Cuts also opening on the 18th May at 6:00 pm. till 4th June.

So lots on at the Bunker . Local artists coupled with cartoon images makes for a great visit and a few laughs.

Louise Rawson-Harris Manager/Curator.

CHANGED YOUR PERSONAL DETAILS ?

Has your email address been changed, or have you moved to a different cave?

Then make sure our Membership Secretary has your current information, or you may miss out on Inkspot, Newsletters and any other stuff (not money) which is circulated from time to time.

ACA Membership Secretary, PO Box 7142, Safety Bay, WA 6169 or email: membership@abwac.org.au

Inkspot #52 Autumn 2007

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Inkspot #52 Autumn 2007

www.cartoonists.org.au

Xavier Ghazi

Joanne Brooker is globetrotting again, following her visit to Iran during the height of the Danish cartoon controversy. Joanne will make another trip to Iran to exhibit her work and to talk about cartooning at Esfahan and Najaf Abad Universities.

She is also taking her cartoon roadshow to the highest city in the world, in Bolivia. Joanne will be recording her tours of each country with the cooperation of local journalists. Joanne’s caricature artwork is also travelling the world, in a unique exhibition Creative Woman and the Art of Comic/ Exposicin Las Mujeres Creadoras y El Arte De La Caricatura. This is the first time an exhibition has been organized to promote women caricaturists.

There are 34 professional female artists from 21 countries participating in the exhibition, with Joanne as the only Australian participant... ACA members Matt Adams, Judy Nadin, Simon Schneider and Steve Panozzo were among 41 finalists for the 2007 Bald Archy Prize, which was announced in Sydney on 6 March. Peter Batey, founder and curator of the Bald Archy, the satirical “evil twin” of the famed Archibald Prize, was on hand to present the $5,000 cheque to this year’s winner, Xavier Ghazi. Ghazi, who has won the BA competition twice before, was shocked and surprised at his win, which was for his portrait of Barry Humphries (well, half Humphries and half Dame Edna Everage). The Bald Archies exhibition will travel from Sydney to the Bunker Cartoon Gallery in Coffs Harbour, Tuggeranong in the ACT, Deniliquin and then Melbourne, where it opens on 30 June. The exhibition then travels to Bright in August and the tour ends in Adelaide in September. Go to http://www.wagga.nsw.gov.au/ museum/index.aspx?item=baldarchy for dates.

Invitation to the Australian Cartoonists’ Association to participate in a Bali-Australia Joint Cartoon Exhibition The Sanur Village Festival is an annual event held by the Denpasar City government to promote Sanur Village’s culture; it will be held in Denpasar – Bali. Sanur is a tourism destination which is famous for its preserved traditionalatmosphere beaches. This festival will feature several events, including shows in which the Indonesian Cartoonist Association is a part of.

The Indonesian Cartoonist Association cordially invites Australian cartoonists to participate in this joint exhibition entitled: Bali-Australia International Cartoon Exhibition 2007. Considering that Australia is the nearest country to Bali and has contributed the highest number of tourists to the island, we hereby hope to foster a better relationship between Indonesian and Australian Cartoonists apart from existing tourism.

Bali-Australian International Cartoon Exhibition 2007 Participants : Indonesian and Australian Cartoonists Exhibition Date : 15 th – 19 th August 2007 Venue : Segara Beach, Sanur – Bali Details: 1. Theme: Beach 2.

Artwork can be submitted via post-mail or e-mail 3.

Artwork through post-mail – dimension : A3 ( 297mm x 420mm ) Send to: BOG-BOG Bali Cartoon Magazine, Jl. Kedondong Gg I No. 3 Denpasar 80231 Bali – Indonesia.

4.

Artwork through e-mail – dimension : 800 x 600 pxl, 150 dpi resolution.

Send to: balicartoon@gmail.com 5.

Technique : free-style (digital technique is allowed) 6.

Each participant can send unlimited artworks.

7.

Include your short profile with photo and/or your face sketch in simple cartoon version to be viewed in the catalogue.

8.

For catalogue inclusion, artworks must be received by 15 th July 2007.

Artworks received after above date will not be included in the catalogue.

We look forward to the support from the ACA in fostering a relationship between cartoonists and making this event a success.

Regards, Jango Pramartha • President of Indonesian Cartoonist Association Putu Ebo Supardhi • Secretary of Indonesian Cartoonist Association PAKARTI (Persatuan Kartunis Indonesia Indonesian Cartoonist Association) Jl. Kedondong Gg I No. 3 Denpasar 80231 Bali Indonesia Tel. +62 361 235240 Fax. +62 361 237382