Inkspot73

ink spot

THE OFFICIAL ACA MEMBERS MAGAZINE |

THE HOly gRAil!

newly ‘disCovered’ stan Cross treasUre Pages 2-4

A WORD FROM THE PREZ

President’s Parlay Page 1

sTAnlEys -A-gO-gO

info & rego form Pages 5-6

www.cartoonists.org.au

ISSuE #73

A FOnD FAREWEll

JOHN DIXON OBITUARY PAGES 11-12

A THEME WiTH A viEW

this edition: farmers Pages 7-8

gET visuAl WiTH iT book review Pages 14

President’sParlay

ink spot

Hey gang!

ISSuE #73

CONTENTS President’s Parlay

P1

Newly ‘Discovered’ Stan Cross Treasure P2-4 2015 Stanley Conference & Rego Form P5-6 your View: Farmers

P7-8

Question Time

P9-10

Hatch, Match and Despatch

P11-13

Book Review

P14

NAT KARMICHAEL comicoz@live.com.au

PRESIDENT JuLES FABER jules@cartoonists.org.au

NATIONAL CARTOONISTS SOCIETy President: Tom Richmond www.reuben.org

ACA AffiliAted orgs

DEPuTy PRESIDENT JASON CHATFIELD deputy@cartoonists.org.au SECRETARy PETER BROELMAN secretary@cartoonists.org.au TREASuRER KERRy-ANNE BROWN treasurer@cartoonists.org.au MEMBERSHIP SECRETARy GRANT BROWN membership@cartoonists.org.au Committee CATHy WILCOx cwilcox@fairfaxmedia.com.au MARK KNIGHT tim@cartoonists.org.au

CARTOONISTS’ CLuB OF GREAT BRITAIN President: Terry Christian www.ccgb.org.uk FECO President General: Peter Nieuwendijk www.fecoweb.org inksPot teAm EDITOR: Nat Karmichael and Phil Judd SuB-EDITORS/WRITERS: Jules Faber, Christophe Granet, Tim McEwen, Lindsay Foyle and Nat Karmichael

IAN McCALL rolf@cartoonists.org.au

LAyOuT ARTISTS: Chris Barr, Dave Emerson and Steve Panozzo

MIKE NICHOLAS mike@cartoonists.org.au

COVER: Nat Karmichael, Dave Emerson & Chris Barr

Inkspot is produced four times a year (or try to) by the Australian Cartoonists Association PO Box 318 Strawberry Hills NSW 2012 inkspot@cartoonists.org.au www.cartoonists.org.au Phone: 1300 658 581 ABN 19 140 290 841 Australia Post Registration PP 533798/0015

you. And you can help by letting us know what’s going on around you, wherever you are in this wide brown land.

I won’t keep on. This first rebooted edition is a short one and I don’t want to fill it with me going on. So kick back, put down your drawing equipment, and take the time to pore over this edition of the finest in house magazine any organisation in Australia can boast.

It’s your magazine. Enjoy!

Caricature by Chris Barr

ACA BoArd PATRON VANE LINDESAy

WELL, it’s been a while and for that we apologise unreservedly. Inkspot is such a great magazine it deserves to be out among you with far more regularity. And hopefully, with a new editorial team at the helm, it will be in coming months. Let me take this moment to thank outgoing editor Nigel Bell for all his good work and to Chris Barr for introducing us to affordable full colour! Chris has gone on now to manage the Bunker Cartoon Gallery as their Business Development Officer and we should all support him and the Bunker however we can.

As noted, it’s been a long time since we had an edition of Inkspot out and in our defense, it’s not been through want of trying. The unfortunate part of losing volunteers is we need someone else to fill the gap. And happily, that gap has been filled in Nat Karmichael and Phil Judd. This dynamic duo of Queenslanders is dead keen to build Inkspot back to its former glory so if you have photos, news or interviews, get it to them at the email address over there to the side. We’ve struggled in later years to meet our quarterly obligation for printing Inkspot but we’re more dedicated than ever to get it out there and to

A new era has begun!

WE ARE LOOKING FOR: •Cartoonists to hold workshops!

•Submissions for future exhibitions!

•Merchandise for our new Gallery shop!

New website: bunkercartoongallery.com.au New email: info@bunkercartoongallery.com.au New hours: Open 7 days 10am-4pm same address: John Champion Way, Coffs Harbour nsW 2450 same Phone: 02 6651 7343

specialfeature

THE HOlY GRAIl Of AUSTRAlIAN CARTOONING

By Nat Karmichael WHILE Australia’s cartooning fraternity were gathered in joyful celebration at the annual Australian Cartoonists’ Association’s Awards Night last November, there were a couple of Members looking forward to the following day. Not because they were bored with the proceedings, and certainly not because they had any cartooning deadlines to meet.

Members Rob Feldman, Lindsay Foyle and Nat Karmichael had simply kept an exciting secret from their fellowmembers for some months prior to the Awards Night. The following day, these gentlemen had arranged a secret meeting with a cartoon buff who believed he owned the original Stan Cross cartoon “For Gorsake, Stop Laughing: This is Serious”.

The cartoon, written and drawn by cartoonist Stan Cross, was described as “The Funniest Drawing In The World” by Frank Marien, the then editor of the Australian publication, Smith’s Weekly, when it was first published on 29th July 1933. The cartoon had indeed been so popular with the Australian public on

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publication, that a large number of high quality prints had been released and distributed around the world. “At the time, the staff of Smith’s had to employ full time staff simply to cope with the public demand for copies of the cartoon to be posted around the world,” Foyle said.

Vane Lindesay, cartoonist and long-time historian of The Australian Cartoonists’ Association, writing in The La Trobe Journal in 2000 (Number 65, page 55) reported that a national attempt to locate the original cartoon had been made in 1970. Appeals for its whereabouts were published in the Letters columns of interstate newspapers, and two former staffers of Smith’s, George (Remembering Smith’s Weekly) Blaikie and Mollie Horseman, undertook investigations without success. A similar unsuccessful search took place in the year 2000, with Lindesay concluding that the original drawing “must be supposed lost or destroyed”.

The cartoon’s cultural worth to our nation’s identity – even today – cannot be overemphasised. In 2015 the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, producing a three-part documentary program on Australian comedy and comedians, named their show Stop Laughing, This is Serious. And closer to our hearts, not only are The Australian Cartoonists’ Association’s annual

Awards nick-named the Stanleys, after the cartoonist Stan Cross, but their actual physical qualities are based on this cartoon in particular. (More information about this year’s Award Night a little later in this issue of INKSPOT.) Over the years, too, with thousands of copies of the cartoon in circulation, many people believed that they owned the original cartoon! Indeed, it was an awareness of this and the knowledge of the previous fruitless searches that ensured Feldman, Foyle and Karmichael exercised some degree of caution in prematurely announcing their ‘discovery’ last November. unfortunately due to work commitments the following day, Rob Feldman was unable to join in the official meeting with cartoon and cartoon owner.

“As soon as we saw it, we knew it was the original cartoon”, said an excited Karmichael. The drawing had been well-loved by the owner since they were young, and had taken pride of place in the home for years. The paper was yellowed from exposure to light, and it was housed in a thin black frame within glass; but there was no doubt this was the original cartoon. Pencil marks, and some white corrector markings (in the falling anvil in particular) were obvious. “I remember being stunned. It was like (continued on next page)

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specialfeature

discovering the Mona Lisa; the Holy Grail of Australian Cartooning was before me.” Karmichael said.

Since the ‘discovery’, Karmichael assisted in the negotiations with the owner in selling the work to the National Library of Australia. “Given that Stan Cross’ original cartoons were held by the Library, it seemed an appropriate place to house this masterpiece”, he said. Foyle, in the meantime, has been attempting to convince long-time Australian Cartoonists’ Association Member Tony Rafty to donate the cartoon sequel to the National Library of Australia as well. “Tony always said that when the original Stan Cross cartoon was found, he would hand over his Stan Cross original too. I don’t think he ever thought he would have to do so!”

At time of INKSPOT going to press, it has just been decided that the nature and circumstances that led to the ‘discovery’ of the Stan Cross original cartoon “For Gorsake, Stop Laughing: This is Serious” are going to be disclosed at a pre-Stanley workshop in Melbourne this November. That tale has yet to be told and that must now be another reason to attend!

“Cripes, that was a narrow squeak!”

“Yairs - we were luck to get out of it!”

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“Spare a coin for the Lord.”

“Mean to say dat feller’s broke agen!”

THE STORY BEHIND THE CARTOON

By Lindsay Foyle, Edited by Nat Karmichael IN 1933 Stan Cross, former Member and President of what is now the Australian Cartoonists’ Association, drew what is considered the funniest joke ever produced in Australia, “For Gorsake, Stop Laughing: This is Serious”.

Cross never intended to draw the cartoon. Frank Marien, the editor-inchief of Smith’s Weekly asked him to help a visiting 22 year old art student to draw a cartoon that would be suitable to use in Smith’s Weekly. The paper used to receive letters from readers with suggestions for cartoons, with a small fee paid to the readers for those used. Marian selected one from a Newcastle schoolboy. The suggestion was about two workmen who had slipped and were hanging from the guttering of a house. They were laughing and one said “What are you laughing for?” The other explained: “Well, you’re pulling my leg.”

Marien showed the art student’s attempt to Cross who said, “It was impossible as a joke block – there was not in the slightest bit of fun in it. It

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was not a bad illustration but certainly not a comic drawing.” The men were hanging on to the guttering were only a short distance from the ground, so there was no sense of danger.

At Marien’s request Cross began to rough out a new drawing on a large sheet of paper. Cross said, “Marian wanted me to show the student the sort of thing we want – how an idea must be thought over, the essence of its humour extracted and its presentation stage managed into a funny scene.” To add a sense of drama to their predicament Cross placed the men some distance from the ground.

He intended to start the drawing off and then let the art student finish it, but as he worked on the rough he became more and more engrossed in the drawing.

Skyscraper cartoons were topical at the time, as the 102-story Empire State Building had been completed a couple of years earlier in 1931. With the Depression biting hard, new buildings were seen as something promising for the future. Cross placed the two men on a skyscraper to add danger and replaced the guttering with a girder. He considered the caption and realised the leg-pulling joke was obvious, so decided on the line The schoolboy contributor was

journalist and author Lawson Glassop, best known for the book We Were the Rats. The art student became a most celebrated and successful modern Australian artist; his name was Donald Friend.

IllustratIons: Page 2 (left to right) - Stan Cross caricature by George Finey (about the late 1920s); Syd Miller caricature of himself (1927); Stan Cross caricature by Syd Miller (1927).

Page 3 (clockwise from left) - Editor Marian by Syd Miller (1927); Stan Cross cartoon (1935); The Sequel by Stan Cross (1933).

Page 4 (left to right) - Stan Cross cartoons (dates unkown).

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31st STANLEY AWARDS AND CARTOON CONFERENCE FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14

It’s the magical mystery bus tour!

First we’re going to walk down the road to Federation Square for a public (and media) caricature event with Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle and raise money for charity.

After the AGM how’s this for a line-up? The sensational Judy Horacek will talk about the Children’s Book industry and Gavin Aung Than and Frantz Kantor will each give a Masterclass.

Then it’s on the bus to Viskatoons where animation guru Peter Viska will give a tour of the home of his hugely successful Jarheads and more!

The Stanleys bus will then head to David Blumenstein’s Squishface in Brunswick to see Melbourne’s open comic arts studio.

Finally on Friday evening we’ll head to Canson Australia for a you-beaut tour and complimentary BBQ. Thank you, Canson!

LINEN ROOM @ ABBOTSFORD CONVENT

It was such a hit last year we’re doing it again Mike Bowers from Talking Pictures will moderate “State of Australian Political Cartooning” featuring John Spooner, Mark Knight, Oslo Davis, David Rowe, Ron Tandberg and more.

And then there’s more!

Stanley Awards Saturday night @ Rendezvous Hotel. Dress code: Lounge Suit/Cocktail Dress.

Master of Ceremonies: Bernard Caleo Post-awards entertainment with cartoonist band Stanley Steamers.

WHERE IS THE RENDEZVOUS HOTEL?

WHERE IS ABBOTSFORD CONVENT?

At 328 Flinders Street the Rendezvous is just down a bit from Flinders Street Railway Station. To book your accommodation see the details on the opposite page.

Just a couple of ‘burbs from the CBD, the convent is an arts, education and cultural hub and is home to our friends Illustrators Australia.

rendezvous.com.au

abbotsfordconvent.com.au

Artwork by Luke Watson

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REGISTRATION FORM 31st Annual Australian Cartoonists Association Stanley Awards Weekend 13th and 14th November 2015 Please print clearly. Your registration must be received by no later than Monday, 2nd November.

Member + 3 guests:

Full Package $250 p/p

Conference Friday+Sat* $75 p/day

Awards Dinner** $130

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$280 p/p

Non members:

$90 p/day

$150

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Friday Night BBQ at Canson Australia ACA Stanleys Bus

Bus departs and returns to the Rendezvous Hotel

Yep, count me in. Number of people attending:

Yep, I need a lift to the Canson BBQ. Number of seats required: Yep, I need a lift to the conference in Abbotsford. Seats required:

______ ______ ______

* All prices are per person, and inclusive of GST. The conference is on Friday (bus trip) and Saturday at The Convent in Abbotsford. The Stanley Awards dinner is on Saturday night at the Rendezvous Hotel. ** For special meal requirements, please circle Awards Dinner selection against that name.

Meal Requirements: .....................................................................

Total Amount: $.................

Rendezvous Hotel: To book your accommodation call reservations direct on 03 9250 1877 and quote the promotions code: 1659386 and event name (The Stanleys). The Rendezvous is at 328 Flinders Street, Melbourne (opposite Flinders Street Station).

Option 1: Register and pay online www.cartoonists.org.au

If you are paying by direct deposit please ensure you write “Stanleys +your surname” as the reference.

Option 2: Payment details by mail Your name: .......................................................................

Address: ........................................................................... ....................................... State: .......... P/Code: ...............

Phone: ..............................................................................

Mastercard

VISA

Cheque

Money Order

Name on Card: ..............................................................

Card No. .......................................................................

Exp Date: .....................................

Email: ...............................................................................

Signature: .. ...................................

Date: ..............

Remember the Stanley Awards conference is tax deductible. Make cheques payable to “Australian Cartoonists Association” and post to: ACA Stanley Awards, PO Box 277, Eaglehawk, Victoria 3556 or scan and email to: stanleys@cartoonists.org.au.

Additional registration forms are available at www.cartoonists.org.au

YourView:farmers

ANTON EMDIN (NSW)

DAVE EMERSON (VICTORIA)

ROy BISSON (NSW)

ANDREW WELDON (VICTORIA)

STEVE PANOZZO (NSW)

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COMPILED By PHIL JuDD

NIK SCOTT (VICTORIA)

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TONy LOPES (NSW)

ALEx HALLATT (SPAIN)

IAN JONES (QLD)

GARy CLARK (QLD)

AL ROSE (VICTORIA)

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Questiontime Question Questiont time

It is my great pleasure to talk to Glen Lovett, an Australian cartoonist now living in Canada.

Q: Glen, how old are you and where were you born?

A: I’m 54 (1960 model) and was born in Sydney, Australia.

Q: Did you study Art at school/Uni or are you a self-taught cartoonist?

A: I did do Art as a subject in High School. I didn’t go to uni or College but a few years after leaving High School I found a job as an animation cell painter (waay back in 1981 before computer paint programs) with yoram Gross Studio. I worked on one of their early Dot and the Kangaroo movies, “Dot and Santa Claus”.

Q: Where and what did you work on in Australia?

A: Cell painting wasn’t for me as I really wanted a job drawing.

Fortunately I was able to find work as an animation layout artist pretty quickly in 1982 and worked on a variety of TV cartoon productions for Burbank Films Sydney from ‘82 to ’86 and then Hanna Barbera and Disney TV Sydney from ’87 to ’89 followed by Mr Big Cartoons in Sydney from ’89 to ’93.

Q: Why did you decide to move to Canada and where do you currently live?

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By CHRISTOPHE GRANET

A: I met my partner Kay, also an animation artist and painter, in Sydney and we married in 1990. Kay is Canadian and grew up in Victoria BC. I visited Victoria with Kay and loved it! I also found there was a lot of animation work going on in Vancouver at the time, so we decided to make the move to Victoria on Vancouver Island in ’94 with our first Aussie Husky named Ruby.

Q: What type of work are you mostly involved with?

A: Since ’94 I’ve been working mostly as a freelance animation storyboard artist from our home based studio “Lovett Pictures” in Sooke, near Victoria. I’ve worked on countless animation TV productions over the years for many studios in Canada, the uS and Australia.

Q: Now, let’s talk “Bandes Dessinees” (BD) or Graphic Novel as they call them in Australia. I discovered your work through your two first volumes of “The Adventures of Jasper” (http:// www.jaspercomics.com ) and really loved it! Can you give us a bit of a background story on how Jasper’s adventures came about?

A: Thank you, glad you enjoyed the books! It all started when I discovered Tintin books in my school library when I was 9. I devoured them! I loved Herge’s realistic artwork and the humour in his characters. They

inspired me to create my own comics all the way through school. My early comic work helped me to find work in the animation biz. It wasn’t until we had moved to Canada and found a second Husky pup, named Jasper, that I got the idea for the Jasper comic. We quickly added to our team of Huskies and soon had a team of 5! Then added a dogsled ! Our adventures sledding with our dogs inspired my first book “Lost in Skookum Valley”.

Q: Your drawings and stories are reminding me strongly of the “European” graphic novels like Tintin, Asterix, Lucky Luke, etc... Were you influenced by the “European” Bande Dessinees?

A: yes, I’m very much a fan of the European clear-line style of comics.

Herge’s Tintin has obviously been a big influence on my work but I also love the work of other Euro artists like Moebius, Tardi , Chaland , Torres, Tillieux, uderzo. Even as a kid I wasn’t interested in super hero comics, with the exception of Batman and The Phantom, probably because those characters don’t have super powers.

Q: You are self-publishing your books, are you selling well this way?

A: I decided to self publish the books out of necessity more than anything else. I’m always on the lookout for a large publisher, but in the meantime

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I’m happy to self publish. Having full creative control is very important to me. As for selling them, that’s a whole other job! At the moment, I’m selling the books at local independent bookstores here in BC, the e-Book versions on Amazon and directly from my website. The e-Books have definitely helped attract new readers from here and overseas. Not huge sales yet but it’s growing, gradually.

Q: Are the paper copies selling better than the e-Book versions?

A: yes, I’m selling more of the paperback books than the e-Books.

Q: I believe your books have (or will be) translated into French to try to reach the French market or Frenchspeaking Canadian market. How is this going?

A: yes, reaching the French BD market in Quebec and in France with the translated Jasper books is the idea.

That hasn’t happened yet with the French version of “Skookum Valley”, but I’m hoping it’s just a matter of time. Once I’ve completed book 3, “The Solar Trial”, I’ll be working on formatting the French version of book 2, “Secrets of the Petroglyph”, which has been translated by our friend Francoise Keating. It’s a fair bit of work to format the books into French, as I have to go back into the photoshop art files to change all the hand drawn sound effects into French as well.

Q: The third adventure of Jasper is taking him to Australia. How much fun is it to draw sceneries and animals from your home-country?

A: As I’m still an Aussie, “The Solar Trial” has been a lot of fun to work on! Back in 1986 I did a drive around Australia with a buddy of mine and I’ve used many of the photos from that trip as reference for this book.

Jasper’s Aussie adventure is based

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on the real Solar Challenge, the solar electric car race that runs 3,000km through the outback from Darwin to Adelaide. I’m enjoying the complete change of scenery, colour palette and having fun with the outback characters Jasper encounters in this adventure.

Q: How long does it take you to write and draw an album and when can I expect to be able to order Book No3?

A: Once I have an idea for a story, writing a final story synopsis takes several months or more. Then I work on the rough pencil page layouts (48 pages), which takes about 2 years!

Then comes the line-work and colour process, cover design and preparing the book for print which will take another year. So that’s about 3 years altogether to create a Jasper book.

Waaay too long I know, but I’m working on the books in my spare time. If/when I can work on them full time the process will be a lot quicker!

Book 3 , “The Solar Trial” should be available sometime next Spring, 2015.

Q: What is your creative process? How do you get started with a new story?

A: Once I have an idea for a story I write a brief story synopsis which is about 3 to 4 pages long that includes just the main story points. I find writing the dialogue comes more naturally during the layout drawing process. The tricky thing is pacing the story to fit exactly into 48 pages.

In book 2 and 3, I actually roughed out my last pages first just to be sure I left myself enough room for the ending. I think a good ending is one of the most important things in a story, whether it’s for comics, books or movies.

Q: Your drawings are amazingly detailed. How much research do you do and how fussy are you to ensure that all the details are correct?

A: I check photos of just about everything that I draw in the stories.

From packs, boots, cameras and binoculars to animals, landscapes, boats, planes, vehicles etc... I used stacks of books and magazines for reference in book 1, but use Google images most of the time now, it’s so much quicker! Along with detail, continuity of the design and colour of every character, animal or object in the book is very important to me. I’ll constantly check and re-check every page as I work on them over the year.

Q: Have you won awards for your work?

A: “Lost in Skookum Valley” was a gold medal winner at the IPPy’s (North America’s largest Independent Publisher Book Awards) in LA in 2008.

“Secrets of the Petroglyph” was a gold medal winner at the IPPy’s in New york, 2011.

Q: Are you attending cartoon festivals and/or “Bandes Dessinees” festivals?

A: Actually, I haven’t attended many festivals or comic-cons, but hope to visit the Angouleme Comic Fest in France and a visit to the Herge Museum in Brussels is on the top of my list!

Q: Are you planning a trip back to Australia and if yes, will you tell us so that we can meet you?

A: I try to get back to visit family as often as I can. I’m looking forward to doing that again with the finished Jasper ‘down-under’ adventure, hopefully next year sometime. I’ll keep in touch and let you know when.

Glen, thank you for answering my questions, and be sure to contact the ACA when you next come to Australia!

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desPAtCH

Hatchmatchanddespatch

JOHN DIXON OBITUARY IN MAy 2015, former Stanley winner John Dixon passed away after a long illness. Here an edited Obituary written for the Media by his longterm friend and ACA Member, Nat Karmichael.

John Dangar Dixon was born on February 20th 1929 in Newcastle, New South Wales the youngest of three children. As the only boy, it was always expected of John that he carry on the family tradition of becoming an engineer, a surveyor or an adventurer.

His Great Grandfather, Robert Dixon, had been one of the first white men to explore the Goulburn Plains in the early 1800s, and a copy of Robert’s original plan to lay out the city of Brisbane remains in Queensland’s John Oxley Library.

John Dixon, however, always wanted to be a comic book or comic strip artist, and fell under the spell of the works of the American masters of

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the craft, Alex Raymond, Hal Foster, and most particularly Milton Caniff.

He first worked as a trainee window dresser before moving to Sydney in 1945. He was living in a hostel at the time, where he was encouraged by a mate to produce his own comic at a time when the local industry was just beginning to flourish.

Sydney publisher, John Edwards of Leisure Productions, offered John Dixon a full-time job, and so at 16 years of age, he created his first adventure character for his new employer – Tim Valour. The series ran for about 150 issues. Due to his speed at producing comic stories, before long Dixon created and was writing and illustrating a second comic: The Crimson Comet. These were the comics that John Dixon is most fondly remembered for, in what is now termed The Golden Age of Australian Comics.

That era ended in the late 1950s due to the lifting of import restrictions on overseas comics and the advent of television. John Dixon then created a Sunday newspaper strip Air Hawk and the Flying Doctor that took eighteen months before he could convince a newspaper editor to run the strip, and so the Perth Weekend News was the first Australian newspaper to run the feature in May 1959. Before

long, the Sunday newspapers began clamouring for a daily version of Air Hawk, so in May 1963 John began working on his adventure strip seven days a week.

However, the pressure to maintain his high artistic standards seven days a week became too much, so from about 1964, Dixon employed other Australian artists to assist. Michael Tabrett, Hart Amos, Paul Power and Keith Chatto all individually worked on the art for the Sunday Air Hawk adventures, until Dixon finally chose to discontinue the Sunday version in early 1980. This freedom to concentrate on his daily strip allowed Dixon to develop “a comic strip technique that was equal to any continuity artist in the world. Dixon continued to produce outstanding work and secured his place as the finest adventure strip artist Australia has produced.” 1 Air Hawk appeared in newspaper from New Zealand, Hong Kong, South Africa, Ireland, Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Sweden, Argentina and even to the united States of America.

By the mid-1980s, however, John felt that he was finding Air Hawk storylines harder to come by and was becoming “burnt out”, so in 1986, he took an opportunity to work overseas as Art Director/Illustrator on a magazine

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founded by an Australian called Defense and Foreign Affairs. While there, John met Sue, the magazine’s Accountant, and they married in 1989.

However, the magazine folded and from 1993 to 1995, John again worked in comics: illustrating superheroes tales such as “Eternal Warrior”, and “Solar: Man of the Atom” for Valiant Productions (based in New york).

To show his artistic versatility as an illustrator, he also worked on story board work for movies, short films and commercials. In 1993, John and Sue permanently moved to California and he worked on Secret Agent X-9 (Corrigan) for the European comic book market.

John Dixon’s life-long work began to be recognised towards the end of his life. He rated the winning of the inaugural Australian Black & White Artists’ Club Award for “Best Illustrated Adventure Strip Artist” in 1985 as one of the “high points in his life with Air Hawk”. 2 The fact that it was presented

by Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke, he considered his “proudest moment”. 3 He won the “Best Illustrated Adventure Strip Artist” Award again in 1986 (for Air Hawk), and in 1992 for his American comic book work. The Platinum Ledger Award for “Significant Contribution to Australian Comics”

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was presented to John in 2014 at a ceremony at the State Library of Victoria.

In his later years, John Dixon contracted Lewy Body Dementia. He passed away this year on May 7th.

In early 1990, I conducted an interview with John Dixon (from which many of the quotes in this Obituary have been taken). The interview was first published in 2002 (in Italian) in “Fumetto”, a high-quality magazine that specialised in comics.

There was one question (and answer) from that initial interview with John that I did not supply and that – until now – has never been published. It is: Q: “How would you like to be remembered?”

A: “Let’s see – I think I’d settle for being remembered as a story-teller with a tongue firmly planted in one cheek. To be remembered as someone who loved to share with others his fascinating world of imagination.” 4 John Dixon, in his Air Hawk series from 1959 to 1986, shared his wonderful imagination of the Australian Outback and the characters therein …not just with Australians, but with the world. With his passing, we have lost Australia’s greatest comic strip story-teller. He leaves behind his wife Sue, his children Andrew, Jaydi, Cindy and Anne, his sister Sheila,

his grandchildren Ben and Jake, his extended family, and his many Fans from around the globe.

IllustratIons: Page 11-12 (left to right) - Self-Portrait following his 1992 Stanley Awards win; John’s favourite adventure of his Daily Air Hawk strips (Decoy from 1985); Tim Valour cover #20 (from late 1940s-early 1950s); From his US Comics Valiant Productions (Eternal Warrior Special, February 1996) excerPts: Panel by Panel: An illustrated history of Australian Comics (1979: 90). Cassell: Sydney 2 Nat Karmichael interview with John Dixon, January 1990.

3 Nat Karmichael interview with John Dixon, January 1990.

4 Nat Karmichael interview with John Dixon, January 1990.

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HAtCH

Hatchmatchanddespatch

AuSTRALIAN Cartoonists’ Association Member Alan (Al) Rose, has produced the first book of his cartoon strip The Fabulous Bush Pigs, To Miss Them Would Be UNTHOINKABLE. The strip has been running in regional newspapers weekly throughout Australia.

Al has had cartoons and caricatures published for over thirty five years in such publications as The Melbourne

tHAliA follett hatched: Crawling Power: giggle Capacitor: daytime nap skills: singing dancing modulator: drawing ability: Cuteness attractor beam: awesome level: Parent satisfaction:

Herald, Australian Golf Digest and Australasian Post.

The Fabulous Bush Pigs is a trio of pigs that perform Country and Western/Folk music. They play a variety of instruments: bush banjos, bush basses, bog reed flutes, and drums made of rusty old tins. They sing through microphones made of old sewer pipes.

September 2014 4+ 73+ 7110+ 10++ Off Scale

Al’s book is a collection of 128 single strips, and 15 previously unpublished double decker strips. Don’t miss the adventures of these hip-swingin’ fleainfested swine! for more detailed information go to the fabulous bush Pigs blog hole: http://thefabulousbushpigs.com or phone al on 0403 173 400.

AS SEEN AT LAST YEAR’S sTANLEY AWARDS! Will we see you there this November? lllustrations from the frontline by danny Zemp

13

Inkspot #73

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Bookreviews

By PHIL JuDD

fRAmED INk

by Marcos Mateu-Mestre THIS is a recent book by Marcos Mateu-Mestre put out by designstudio press covering all aspects of inking traditional style.

The first thing you notice with the book is its beautiful presentation of deliciously inked images using brush and grey tone. To say the images are wonderfully expressive and creative in using black and white is an understatement. Marcos is a Spanish born cartoonist/artist and his style definitely reflects the great European traditions of narrative storytelling seen with such legendary cartoonists as Meobius (Jean Giraud).

To say this guy can draw is like saying Einstein had a few good ideas. He most definitely is brilliant at what he does. But his talent serves his storytelling and that is what he conveys to the reader. He encourages you to strive for better skills but always allow it to serve the message and story.

He goes into great depths demonstrating the use of placing black for shadow, grey tones, atmospheric and narrative effects. He often redraws the same image a variety of ways showing different approaches to using the brush and pen.

This book covers creating single images, composing narrative images, creating panel and story layout and putting it all together for a graphic novel. Marcos really emphasises the aspect of storytelling and that the images should serve that first and only that.

The first half looks at creating panels from a shot point of view. He covers a wide range of shots using perspective, angles, composition and atmospheric shadow, that wouldn’t be out of place with film storytelling.

The difference is he is one hundred percent focused on integrating it for cartooning work.

When showing beautifully crafted

Inkspot #73

panels all inked and ready for print he also includes thumbnail images showing the composition and flow of shadow to create the finished effect. These are particularly helpful in seeing what is behind the final work and how he translated simple concepts to complex looking finished work.

Towards the end he does a number of samples using written scripted briefs for a scene and shows how he would break them down into visuals and final inked images.

This book really inspires with the flair Marcos shows for creating tight yet expressive line work. His lines and shadow really conveys an energy and excitement in his work which is

infectious.

It definitely advocates the power of black and white as something that can stand on it’s own.

If you love traditional inking, brush or pen, then this book will definitely inspire and educate you. But whether you use paper or digital methods of drawing this book will definitely feed you great techniques on better composition, storytelling and using lovely juicy black lines in your finished work.

NExT IssUE: The Naked ed Cartoonist

by Robert Mankoff 14

Movies • TV • Comics • Anime • Sci-fi • Fantasy • Games • Cosplay • Wrestling • Comps • Fun!

Featuring: DAVE GIBBONS, co-creator of The Watchmen, Kingsman: The Secret Service, Rogue Trooper and more!* Also: Iron Man’s Bob Layton; fanatasy artist and comics creator Joe Jusko; heaps of Australian creators! Q&As, Supa-Star Sketch-Off, prizes, demos, signings, back issues, artists’ alley, and more!*

AdelAide ShoWGround • november 20 and 21 BriSBAne ConVenTion & exhiBiTion CenTre • nov 27, 28 and 29 ets r www.supanova.com.au Ticke dooh g h at rt throu o

*All guests confirmed health and other commitments pending. †Must be accompanied by a paying adult.

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