Inkspot77

the official aca members magazine

summer 2016/17

www.cartoonists.org.au

thepost-stanleysissue glen le lievre gets top gong - plus much more!

media SUPer iS a PrOUd SUPPOrter Of the stAnlEY AwARds

tO All thEE winnERs innER nERs s & nOminEEs s Celebrating OUr talented COmmUnity.

www.YEARBOOK.ms

1800 640 886 | mediasuper.com.au Print. Media. Entertainment. Arts.

Issued December 2016 by Media Super Limited (ABN 30 059 502 948, AFSL 230254) as Trustee of Media Super (ABN 42 574 421 650) (USI SUPER 42574421650001, USI PENSION 42574421650799). MSUP 51942

CONTENTS Post-Stanleys Feature

P1-14

News from Underground

P15-16

Your View: Christmas

P17-21

Opinion Piece: Bill Leak

P22

Hatch, Match & Dispatch

P23-24

My Thoughts: Sara Firth

P25-26

ACM Cartoon-bites

P27-28

New Ideas: Queenie Chan

P29

Bit o’ History

P30

Your View: Olympics Pt. 2

P31-33

Face Off!

P34

Inkspot: Your Magazine

P35

New Committee

P36

Comic Reviews

P37-38

Copyright Thoughts: Jason Seiler P39 Copyright Hunt: Lindsay Foyle NEW! ACA BOARD: PATRON VANE LINDESAY PRESIDENT JULES FABER president@cartoonists.org.au DEPUTY PRESIDENT NAT KARMICHAEL comicoz@live.com.au SECRETARY STEVE PANOZZO secretary@cartoonists.org.au TREASURER KERRY-ANNE BROWN treasurer@cartoonists.org.au MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY GRANT BROWN membership@cartoonists.org.au NEW! COMMITTEE: CATHY WILCOX cwilcox@fairfaxmedia.com.au PETER BROELMAN peter@broelman.com.au MARK KNIGHT markwarrenknight@gmail.com IAN McCALL mccallart@bigpond.com.au ROBERT BLACK robert@robertblack.com.au

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ACA AFFILIATED ORGS: NATIONAL CARTOONISTS SOCIETY President: Bill Morrison www.reuben.org CARTOONISTS’ CLUB OF GREAT BRITAIN President: Terry Christien www.ccgb.org.uk FECO President General: Peter Nieuwendijk YOUR INKSPOT TEAM: EDITOR: Nat Karmichael SUB-EDITORS/WRITERS: Jules Faber, Lindsay Foyle, Steve Panozzo, Gerald Carr, Grant Brown, Danny Zemp, Rob Feldman, Cathy Wilcox, Simon Grey, Margaret Cameron, Phil Judd, Bill Leak, Peter Viska, Sarah Firth, Chris Barr, Jim Bridges, Queenie Chan, Tim McEwen, Jason Seiler and Nat Karmichael LAYOUT ARTIST: Chris Barr COVER: Illustration of Glen Le Lievre by Judy Nadin

INKSPOT is produced four times a year 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

president’sparlay:

hey gang!

WELCOME to another sensational edition of Inkspot – the post-Stanleys issue where we have a whole bunch of pics from the weekend. As usual the weekend was jam-packed with plenty of great stuff. Everyone I’ve spoken to said they had a great time.

If you didn’t make it this year, maybe start planning for next year when we’ll be in Canberra.

We’ll be welcoming back to our shores former Disney animator turned pro-teacher and author, Nancy Beiman. Nancy hasn’t visited us in 20 years and is already keen to come and catch up with us all.

She’ll be doing workshops and discussing her career. I’m already looking forward to having her as our guest. We already have a few other surprises planned as well, but we’ll keep them under our hats for the moment.

I’d like to take the opportunity of welcoming the new Committee of Management, as ratified at the Annual General Meeting on the

Saturday morning of the Stanleys weekend. It’s a job that can be challenging at times – particularly as it is volunteer-based and we all have our own work to focus on – but it can be fun too. So thank you to our new (and old) Committee Members as they begin their two-year term in office.

I’d also like to take a moment to thank our sponsors. It’s an important role they play in helping us host the Stanleys each year and we couldn’t do it without them. They include KPMG, Officeworks, The Herald-Sun, Wacom, MEAA, Copyright Agency Viscopy, The Australian, Supanova, The Walkley Foundation and Media Super.

Okay, that’s it from me. We’ll return in another three months with another fantastic edition of Inkspot.

Just keep drawing,

Unflattering caricature by Danny Zemp

the official aca members magazine summer 2016/17 | www.cartoonists.org.au

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Merry Christmas & Happy New Year! from the entire team at Inkspot

coverstory

post-stanleys feature | stories by danny kemp & rob feldman photos by gerald carr, grant brown, steve panozzo and lindsay foyle

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A SLIGHTLY SLANTED VIEW words and illustrations by danny zemp THE STANLEY Awards were here again and what a surprise: they were in Sydney. That’s great. I hadn’t been in Sydney since…. Well, since the Stanley Awards were last in Sydney, a couple of years ago. Beautiful town; although the layout is a bit chaotic.

There we were at the Parramatta Novotel. Also a bit chaotic.

And the prices! They’d have sent me bankrupt if I had stayed there. I didn’t. I located a dump some five kays away, abutting some railway with a spotlight pointing at my window with the strength of a thousand suns, all night long. Seriously, it felt like 3 o’clock in the afternoon.

I digress. The Stanley Awards. I’ll get there! After all, we had all enjoyed a great couple of days beforehand. On Friday we got chauffeured around the back alleys of Sydney in a 70-seater bus, all the way to the national museum. The time it took us to arrive was the same time it took me to fly from Melbourne to Sydney and then catch a train to the Museum Station. I later found out we only travelled 30 klicks. One way.

But who cares? I had great company around me, with Harry Gold doing the best impersonation of Sleeping Beauty in front of me. Or was he counting his toes? Maybe he anticipated an imminent crash and was practicing the brace position. The crash never happened. We all arrived save and sound back at Parramatta’s Novotel Hotel, after some mind blowing minutes at the museum. There were piles of bicycles disguised as art.

Even matchboxes! I came to the sad realisation that my shed at home is full of Art. Oh, I’m off track again. The Stanley Awards night. Right, I’m on to it. How can I forget? Even the weather was like in

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Melbourne. Cold and miserably wet on Saturday morning.

The gale made me feel at home. Maybe Sydney isn’t so bad after all. We all enjoyed great sessions in the morning.

Everyone was scrambling for the coffee machine. Some coffee snobs didn’t like the supplied free space age coffee from the pods. It made me feel like Forrest Gump: you never knew what you were going to get. A couple of double doses kept me awake and alert, as I soaked up information like SpongeBob. Before we knew it – lunch time and 30 degrees outside. I told you: weather like Melbourne. It was time for a gaggle of cartoonists to waddle to the local comic shop for Russ Radcliffe’s book launch. I expected a launch pad and a proper countdown with smoke and fire. But no. It was a letdown in the action department. Gary Clark was pleased to find his Swamp comic books on the top of the shelves.

Just where you want to find them: amongst super heroes, and other weird and wonderful comics. To the delight of Christophe Granet and me, we found Asterix, Tintin and Lucky Luke. We were happy and easily pleased.

I know, I know: the Stanley Awards! I’m running out of space here. The night was fantastic. MC Rob Feldman kept us in stitches all night: what a performance! I doff me hat!

Congratulations to all the winners and grinners. The music, the entertainment, the company, the food, the drink – everything was just super-duper. And like the good old Groundhog Day movie, we’re going to do it all over again.

Next time in Canberra. It will be exactly the same, just different.

I’m looking forward to it already.

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stanleysworkshops&awardsnight 3

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stanleysworkshops&awardsnight summer 2016/17

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stanleysworkshops&awardsnight 5

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AND THE RECIPIENTS WERE WERE….

Cartoonist of the Year, Sponsored by the Herald Sun: GLEN LE LIEVRE LIEVRE, Anton Emdin, Christopher Downes, Mark Knight, Cathy Wilcox, Bill Leak.

Caricaturist, Sponsored by The Australian: JUDY NADIN, Rod Emmerson, Terry Dunnett, Anton Emdin, Paul Harvey.

Children’s Book Illustrator, Sponsored by Copyright Agency: LEIGH HOBBS, Peter Sheehan, George Haddon, Jules Faber, Andrew Weldon.

Comic Book Artist, Sponsored by Supanova: GLENN LUMSDEN LUMSDEN, Roger Fletcher, Dean Rankine, Rob Feldman, Gavin Aung Than.

Comic Strip Artist, Sponsored by the Herald Sun: CLARK, Tony Lopes, Jason Chatfield, Ian Jones, GARY CLARK Glen Le Lievre.

Editorial/Political Cartoonist, Sponsored by Media Super: GLEN LE LIEVRE, David Pope, Christopher Downes, Mark Knight, Pat Campbell.

Illustrator, Sponsored by Wacom: ANTON EMDIN, Pat Campbell, Glen Le Lievre, Warren Brown, Mark Sheard Single Gag Cartoonist, Sponsored by The Walkley Foundation/MEAA: MATT GOLDING, Cathy Wilcox, Judy Horacek, Andrew Weldon, Robert Black Jim Russell Award for Significant Contribution to Australian Cartooning: GERALD CARR Australian Cartooning Hall of Fame: GEOFF HOOK, KEN EMERSON, ERIC JOLLIFFE Cartoon on the Night: ROD EMMERSON And the venue for the 2017 Stanley Awards is: CANBERRA

AN MC’S EYE VIEW words & illustration by rob feldman THE EVENING was a great one! The crowd / audience / attendees were brilliant. You know who you are, attendees! I scored them: 9, 9.5, 10 and a 10 in that order. As MC I learned much of the inner workings of the Stanleys on the night.

Here’s what I learned. People worked VERY hard to bring us the 32nd Stanley Awards evening. Taeah Brown did an awesome job in making the actual presentation of awards on stage go seamlessly, like a well-oiled machine. Great work! Grant Brown took photos like there was no tomorrow, but thankfully there was indeed a tomorrow in which we could enjoy his smashing photos and will continue to do into the future. The Stanley Steamers arrived good and early, beginning what we musos call ‘a sound check’ and ‘rehearsal’. How they can meet ONCE ONLY to rehearse, up to the opening of the doors, and then – a few hours later – be playing a mix of Van Halen, Cold Chisel, Frank Zappa, The Platters, Split Enz, Guns’n’ Roses, The Bay City Rollers and AC/DC I will NEVER KNOW! And let me tell you about young Hywel Kemsley! An awesome Graphic Designer who also

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produces mind-boggling Audio Visual wizardry, Hywel thinks on his feet, even making rare technical glitches look like they were produced by Brian Eno. And Peter Broelman? He is the rock under the Stanleys’ sails, the wind upon which they stand! I learned that behind that calm and Steven Seagallike exterior lies a calm and Steven Seagal-like interior. He’s actually more Steven Seagal than Steven Seagal, without the trail of multiple casualties and bruised bad guys. Personal highlight for me? Chatting with Bruce Petty! I was speechless but not really. Chuffed plus! Finally, do I have any regrets from the evening? Just that if someone would have had the foresight to invite Grant Denyer to the Stanleys: we were perfectly set up to have the Foyle Family take on the Panozzo Family in the Stanleys’ own Family Feud! And finally, a big thank you to everyone ELSE I haven’t mentioned who were instrumental in bringing us the 32nd Stanley Awards at Novotel, Parramatta – I salute you, WE ALL salute you! Big congratulations to all presenters, finalists and award winners.

Deserving much. Wow!

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jimrussellaward

recipient: gerald carr | story by nat karmichael |illustratioins by gerald carr

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summer 2016/17

GERALD Carr, was born in Bendigo, Victoria in 1944 and studied art at the Bendigo Institute of Technology. He later moved to Sydney, where he entered into the comic book industry, working for Walter Granger Publications, which were the Australian distributors of the Disney line of comics, as a letterer (the imported comics were using Italian artwork but required English text).

In 1967 Carr returned to Melbourne, where he was employed by an advertising agency and a printing company. He had his first comic strip, Brigette, published in Go-Set magazine, between October 1968 and May 1969. Brigette was a contemporary Australian heroine, who was coming of age, in a time of changing social and sexual attitudes. Carr’s agent, Sol Shifrin, sold Brigette as a newspaper strip to Perth’s Sunday Independent and Brisbane’s Sunday Mail, commencing in both papers on 5 July 1969. The strip’s frank discussion of sexual freedoms and the occasional drug reference ran afoul of both readers and editors’ conservative tastes, which led to both papers dropping Brigette by August – September 1969.

The strip reappeared in the Melbourne Newsday paper in October 1969, running for five months before it was dropped as a cost-cutting measure. [In 2002, the Italian comics’ publisher, Fumetto, published some Brigette strips in a collection titled Eroine Di China, or Heroines of the Newspaper Strip.] During this period, Carr also created the satirical science fiction strip Fabula for Broadside, a left-leaning literary magazine published by the owners of the Melbourne Age newspaper. Similar in style to the sexy summer 2016/17

French science fiction strip Barbarella, Fabula was a thinly veiled commentary on contemporary Australian politics set in a futuristic world.

In the absence of locally produced comics Carr became interested in producing his own, and as there was a shortage of comic artists, he undertook all the writing and illustrating himself. His first self-publication was a oneshot comic title, Wart’s Epic, which was issued in 1970 and contained a mix of adult science fiction, violence, nudity and psychedelic artwork. The comic was distributed in Melbourne and by mail order to the US, and predates comparable ‘adult’ comics such as Star*Reach and Heavy Metal.

In 1971 he continued drawing the adventures of Devil Done, a James Bond-styled action strip, for the K. G. Murray Publishing Company, after original artist Hart Amos left to draw the Sunday Air Hawk strip for John Dixon. In 1975 Carr added more material and had his comic, Vampire! professionally printed for distribution around Australia.

Vampire! which ran for six issues between 1975 and 1979, was a black and white horror comic which capitalised on the popularity of similar American adult horror titles, such as Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella. The sixth issue ran afoul of Queensland strict censorship laws, making distribution of the title financially unviable.

In 1980 Carr produced Brigette for the Sun-Herald and also published three one-shot comic books, Brain Master and Vixen, Fire-Fang, about a Chinese vampire exiled to Australia’s gold fields in the 1800s, and Shock Raider, a 8

post-apocalyptic science fiction story that was published in full colour in the early 1980s. Gerald Carr is the link between the older Australian comic book writers and illustrators from the 1940s and 1950s and the newer wave that arrived after these self-published efforts of the 1970s and 1980s. I personally bought his comics as a teenager, and I know they influenced me in my decision to publish Australian comics. He influenced a whole new slew of locally-produced comics and illustrators whose comics followed: from Greg Gates and Philip Bentley with Inkspot, Richard Rae with The Greatest Super Hero, Dave de Vries, Glenn Lumsden, Gary Chaloner with the Cyclone comics line, Jason Hairbutt the Hippo Paulos, Bodine Amerika’s Niteside and the Rock, Steve Carter, Ian C Thomas, Ian Eddy, Fil Barlow, and many, many others.

Carr also worked on advertising and book illustrations. In 1992 Carr published Vixen, a superheroine he initially had created for Wart’s Epic, which was distributed nationally and internationally in America. Black and white comics were in vogue at the time. That year Carr also won the ‘Cartoon of the Year’ Award at the Australian Rotary National Cartoon Awards held in Coffs Harbour.

Gerald Carr created the comic strip, The Dirty Digger, a World War II adventure series featuring an Australian commando in the Z Special Unit, Major Lex Mainwaring. The Dirty Digger was originally published in 1994 in Australian War Stories (Southern Aurora). (It was subsequently issued as a one-shot comic in 1996.)

In 1995 Carr re-entered the comic book market, launching several new titles under his Meteor Comics imprint. This included a short-lived second series of Vampire!, which only ran for two issues, which reprinted the original Fire Fang stories from the 1970s, together with the reintroduction of the superheroine Vixen (two issues). Vixen originally worked in partnership with the enigmatic Brainmaster, as they

fought vampires, aliens, spies and other menaces through a succession of comics, including Vampire!

With the new Vixen comic, Carr shifted his heroine to the fictional American location of Pacific City. Vixen was also significant for featuring new stories by Carr starring Captain Atom (renamed ‘Atomic Warrior’) and The Panther, two Australian comic book heroes from the 1950s, which Carr produced under licence from their respective creators, Arthur Mather and Paul Wheelahan. Vixen nearly spelt the end of Meteor Comics, when Australian Consolidated Press launched legal proceedings against Carr to acquire the rights to the ‘Vixen’ trademark. Carr eventually defeated the court action, but only at considerable financial cost to himself.

Whilst Carr has not released any new comic titles since 1995, he continues to publish comic art in a variety of formats, including downloadable ‘eBooks’, and markets a range of merchandise featuring his comic book characters. In my view, Gerald has spent a lifetime making a significant contribution to Australian cartooning. He is passionate about Australian creators and their rights.

He is the next link from Syd Nicholls and Monty Wedd in his defence of Australian ownership of Aussie comics and characters and of creators’ rights. Just get him started about Felix the Cat if you need any proof.

Gerald will often go to the Australian Cartoonists’ Association’s Supanova stand in Melbourne and will sit there quietly drawing his comic characters, engaging any person who comes along, sharing his recollection of Australian comic history to anyone who will listen. He often brings his comics from the 70s and sells them to those who appreciate their place in Australian comic history. He is a quiet man, which belies his enormous influence on the local medium.

The writer acknowledges and thanks Graeme Cliffe, Matt Emery and Dr Kevin Patrick in the preparation of this article.

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OTHER AWARDS: GONGS AND BLING words by cathy wilcox THERE are a few awards going around for cartoonists besides the Stanleys and the Walkleys, most recently the 4th annual Kennedy Awards for Excellence in Journalism.

These awards were initiated after the death of beloved veteran Fairfax crime reporter, Les Kennedy, when the Kennedy Foundation was established as a registered charity that administers a benevolent fund for news media professionals facing hardship.

Of the 30-odd awards for various aspects of journalism, including photography, print, radio, TV and new media, there is but ONE highly-contested award for cartoonists or

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illustrators. This broad category makes it a pretty hard one to choose an entry for, and even harder to win.

This year the nominees were Eric Loebekke from News Limited, and John Shakespeare and Cathy Wilcox (myself ) from Fairfax.

Shakespeare won, with his big illo of Malcolm Turnbull as Superman, weakened by Kryptonite – to the obvious glee of Tony Abbott. Rocco Fazzari, a previous Kennedy winner, for whom the pleasure was less than sweet as he had not long since lost his Fairfax gig to the hungry redundancy monster after 26 faithful years of service, presented the award.

Small side controversy – these awards were held on the same evening as the News Awards – News Limited’s own in-house awards night. As I understand it, News considers

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the Walkleys and Kennedys to be monopolised by Fairfax and the ABC/SBS luvvies, so it’s taken its bat and ball and gone and made its own gala event. Bill Leak was proudly crowned Cartoonist of the Year in that arena, even if he’s been a little less celebrated in other parts of the media of late.

Ironically, there were still some winners of Kennedys from the News Ltd camp – some of whom had to get proxies to collect their awards, and others who had to make the dash across town – including Miranda Devine.

Let’s hope at next year’s Kennedys there’s an extra category to give more room to both illustrators AND cartoonists.

It’s to be noted that the illustration and cartoon categories of the Walkleys this year have introduced the possibility of submitting a body of three works if entrants wish, rather than just the one piece for the Kennedy Awards. Having

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clamoured for this change over the years, I must admit I was ambivalent when it finally came about, as I’m not sure I felt any more confident choosing three best pieces over just one.

It’ll be interesting to see how it goes down.

More awards ... This year Fiona Katauskas and I are among three judges for the Amnesty award for cartooning – part of the Amnesty International Australia Media Awards for the reporting of human rights issues. The nominees were announced in October: ‘Door’ by Glen Le Lievre, The Sydney Morning Herald; ‘The Long Road to Rome’ by David Pope, The Canberra Times; and ‘Wolves Everywhere’ by Christopher Downes, The Murcury. The winner is to be announced at a dinner in Sydney on 21 November, soon after the truly BIG night for cartoonists at the Novotel Parramatta and Inkspot’s bedtime!

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OTHER AWARDS: THE HISTORY OF THE GOLDEN STAPLER words by simon grey Format was a collective-run art space in Peel Street (Adelaide). The area hosted a band rehearsal and performance-party space in the basement, and from the street frontage there was a front room with a zine shop in front of a bar. In 2011, responsibility to manage the zine shop was passed to me. I decided to buy some party trophies from a nearby discount store to decorate the shop and to highlight some of the staff’s favourite titles to oftenconfused customers who were trying to discover zines, but were spoilt for choice.

The Golden Stapler Awards were an initiative I began, with similar intention of promoting zines for discombobulated punters, but with a wider, national scope. It was the only award available to the hobbyniche medium of zine making, providing emotional encouragement to new creators and vindication for the stalwarts. The diversity of the zine community in Australia had established in many an online discussion thread, far too disparate opinion-fields for me to believe such awards could be agreeably peer-voted, so I opted for a popular vote with available online tools, Google forms mostly.

Thus a zine popularity contest was established. It was not something that could be taken too seriously, but it was something, and now it needed some promotion.

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Fortuitously, I was contacted by The National Young Writer’s Festival in 2011 and asked to co-ordinate their zine fair in Newcastle. I agreed on condition they could provide space for me to host the inaugural award ceremony, and so the deal was struck. Back in the spreadsheets, nominations then votes began to tick over; and in keeping with the diverse fields of creativity already alluded to in Australia’s zine community, I hadn’t heard of any of the titles! Finalists were contacted to provide proof their zines existed and they weren’t just internet-ghosts pulling my leg.

Satisfied by their samples, the award ceremony went ahead. Nervous about audience expectations at the festival, I attempted a degree of showmanship for the first awards. I staged a bit of an Oscar night parody including red-carpet gossip, whereby attendees were invited to stand on a quickly-portable red bathmat and tell us what they were wearing. Award presenters were borrowed from the festival’s programme or members of the attending zine community. Apart from zine stalwarts, nobody came.

By 2011 the emphasis on zines at The National Young Writer’s Festival, once home to the nation’s largest zine fair, had very much shifted to budding journalism students salivating for professional development grants to get on TV. However, it was at this 2011 event I met Jeremy Staples,

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T S E O G R E L P A TH E G OLD EN ST

IDUAL: V I D N I N A Y B BE ST ZINE nd Th ick a t i h S m ' I s e m Someti I'm and Sometimes Jus t Sh it IE S: BE ST ZINE S E R t Gues t Informan H E YEAR: ZINE STE R OF T Sa mantha Riegl ATIV E ZINE: R O B A L L O C T S E B Wolf Pack

still excited to meet more of Australia’s zine community and create an event in Brisbane...

In 2012, I took the Golden Stapler Awards home to Adelaide and Format’s own festival. Having observed only in the first awards, I gave it a crack in entering and successfully campaigned to win the collaborative award for a title I’d worked on with Format festival founder, Joel Catchlove.

While I’ve nominated all my zine output since, I ease off on campaigning to win and help shepherd others into the awards. The remaining Golden Stapler Awards in 2012 were scooped up by Melbourne-based winners, associated with their city’s Sticky Institute zine shop.

Jeremy Staples contacted me in 2013, asking me to MC the opening night of Brisbane’s inaugural Zine and Indie Comic Symposium (ZICS) and bring the awards with me, red bathmat included. I explained the bathmat had been used for its intended purpose for about two years since its debut and had lost a bit of its lustre, but we agreed this would only be funnier as it continued it’s ‘celebrity’ red-carpet parody career.

Jeremy Staples’ event ambitions for Brisbane from 2011 had come to fruition!

Many of the Golden Stapler Award winners in 2011 were from Brisbane, so I met many of the past winners and got them to present the 2013 awards. However, most of the winners from that year hailed from Perth, making it the best non-attended winners’ ceremony the awards have yet had!

(Phoning absent winners has been an ongoing element of the awards each year.)

In keeping with Perth’s victories, I was intending to take

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the awards to Perth in 2014. Sadly, the committee that had put together some lovely zine fairs there a few years previously had drifted apart and nothing got scheduled for their November event. This meant the awards were presented twice in 2015. The 2014 winners were presented in Melbourne Town Hall during the Sticky Institute’s Festival of the Photocopier in February of 2015, in front of the biggest crowd the ceremony has yet seen.

It was back to Brisbane for ZICS in August for the 2015 Golden Stapler Awards. In 2015, Jeremy Staples put together the Copier Jam exhibition of Australian zine culture that is slowly being exhibited around rural Queensland galleries, and where donated Stapler-award trophies and the infamous bathmat are on display for visitors. It was also a year after Format in Peel Street and a few other zine-friendly venues closed their doors in Adelaide. The zine shop stock I was responsible for was finally retail-outlet-less and moved to my shed at home. Without an official venue behind me, I was wondering what life was left for The Golden Stapler Awards.

Thankfully the Zine and Independent Comic Symposium (ZICS) reached out and asked to have the awards again. [As reported in the last Inkspot.] So I administered and helped present the Golden Stapler Awards again in 2016, with ZICS the exclusive official body behind it. This included 3D printed trophies for the first time! In 2011, the trophies were staplers covered in glue and glitter; the 2012-2015 Awards were spray-painted, so this was an exciting new innovation. It was nice to keep the awards alive, even though Adelaide’s original zine shop is no more.

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THE OFFICIA L

2017 CALENDAR A 13-MONTH COLLECTION OF PREVIOUS WINNERS & FINALISTS FROM THE CARTOON COMPETITION (COVER) 2016 ‘OPEN THEME’ + ‘CARTOON OF THE YEAR’ WINNER: SEX EDUCATION TODAY

BY CHRIS ROY TAYLOR © CHRIS ROY TAYLOR

OF S TE S! DA IST TH N R TOO I B R ES CA UD US CL O IN FAM

PHOTOS (clockwise from top left): The gallery decked out for WRC celebration; The first-ever Rotary Cartoon Awards 20017 wall calendar; Ginger Meggs statuette given to a small boy in 1940 on loan for the exhibition.

newsfromunderground the bunker cartoon gallery | words by margaret cameron

AS 2016 draws to a close, there is plenty to reflect on from the past year and so much to look forward to for next year, in The Bunker Cartoon Gallery in Coffs Harbour. After a major makeover in the past 12 months, the Gallery has never looked better!

As has been reported previously, The Bald Archies, The Rotary Cartoon Awards, Grin Bin and our other exhibitions have been most successful this year, with visitor numbers steadily increasing.

Our school holiday workshops have continued to prove popular with the most recent in September featuring Jules Faber, creating a full house for all the children’s sessions.

More recently our exhibition, Horsepower, celebrated November as a month of racing. At the beginning of the month, as always, the Melbourne Cup, and later in the month for Coffs Harbour, the final event in The World Rally Championships. We drew on the massive collection held by the gallery to stage a very successful mixture of horse and car racing cartoons, which drew a great response from both locals and visitors.

A highlight of Horsepower was the Bunker being chosen as the venue for the official Welcome to Coffs Harbour for the many local and international racing officials, dignitaries and drivers, who were in town for the event. Around 100 people attended a cocktail function, and were welcomed by the Mayor of Coffs Harbour.

Our current exhibition is Ginger Meggs, the character who recently celebrated his 95th Birthday and is still going

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strong. Our collection, gathered over the past 28 years, includes many classics as well as more recent cartoons.

The current cartoonist, Jason Chatfield, has produced a further series of comic strips marking the occasion, which are included in our gallery display. We also send out a huge thank you to noted Ginger Meggs collectors, Peter Kingston, Barry Gomm and Peter Curnow, who have generously loaned us a fabulous collection of memorabilia including an original first Sunbeam Comic Book, some very old Ginger and Minnie statuettes plus much much more. Well worth a visit!

I’ve just read Jason Chatfield’s Discussion Piece from Inkspot #73, written about this time last year and found it a most enlightened and enlightening piece. I am happy to think that what we have now in Ginger Meggs is a fabulous collection of memorabilia, and it doesn’t seem to matter that some of the items had commercial origins, they still hold a fascination for amateurs and enthusiasts alike.

For the first time this year we have produced a calendar, drawing on works from finalists in the Rotary Cartoon Awards over the past 5 years. So far this has been very well received and is available from the gallery via our website.

Coming up next up is a Swamp Exhibition opening in early February, the Rotary Awards night is set for July 8th. In March we have some surprises in store with The Phantom travelling exhibition coming to town. More on these in a later edition of Inkspot.

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al in Australia?

A Cartoon Festiv

ies, of overseas countr r be m nu a in ul are successf ning festival? They oo rt ca a r fo y ad Is Australia re stival so why not here! ur thinks that a fe bo ar H s off C in toon Gallery rsary of the of the Bunker Car ith the 30th annive w am te de t ci en in co em ag to it an The m e to launch and we would lik is an exciting idea wards in 2018. sation have Rotary Cartoon A community organi r ou , 15 20 ly Ju e Bunker in ders. management of th e th er ov w firing on all cylin ng no ki is ta it d an After ry lle changes to the ga all made some major ars and they have ye of le up co st pa llery in the oon festival have visited the ga d the idea of a cart rs se be us sc em di M ve A C ha A e ere Around 20 wards and they w hat’s happening. W A w t on ou to ab ar C ic y st ar ia ot us r the 2016 R unker in been highly enth Coffs Harbour fo orkshops at the B in w e g er in w nn ho ru w ts as w tis r with the ar e. Jules Fabe keen to participat d an e tiv si po ry t idea. all ve festival was a grea a t gh ou th d an r deal.

Septembe s Harbour is a big off C in al iv st fe a cartooning e Bunker n the ACA and th oting and staging ee om tw pr , be e ng ur ni nt an ve pl t Obviously g is as a join as cartooning d see it happenin icipated in overse ul rt co pa e d w an ay to w ly en on be ve and what The ther, what works ACA Members ha ge y to an al M . iv st ry fe le a al of us g G in Cartoon t experience, none t’s involved in putt en ha em w ag ow an m kn t rs en be bers have ev festivals. Mem r committee mem ou of e m so le hi doesn’t. W . a cartoon festival ents from have ever been to eans firm commitm m at th d an s st ni ating cartoo eds lots of particip ne al iv st fe a ly ar n it’s on.

Cle Coffs Harbour whe in be to rs be em y Awards ACA M ersary of the Rotar iv nn A th 30 e th argaret incide with ker’s Manager, M e the festival to co un B lik e ld Th ou . w 18 e w 20 , r id be acted As we sa e and the idea attr ound July – Septem nc ar re it fe g on in C nn A ru C A ns and that mea al at the recent t a possible festiv ou embers. ab ed lk ta , on and individual m Camer rd oa B e th om fr t suppor look some enthusiastic t a festival should ha w ng ni an pl t we can star of a joint venture, rt pa . be to y pp ha sations would have ni ga If the ACA is or r ou of th lvement bo like and what invo Paul McKeon Chairman Gallery Bunker Cartoon

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GEOFF HOOK (VIC)

PHIL JUDD (QLD)

yourview

theme: christmas | compiled by phil judd

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GARY CLARK (QLD)

ROB FELDMAN (NSW)

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ALEX HALLAT (HONDARRIBIA SPAIN)

JASON CHATFIELD (NEW YORK USA)

PHIL DAY (QLD)

NEIL MATTERSON (NSW)

PHIL JUDD (QLD) 19

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ANTON EMDIN (NSW)

NIK SCOTT (VIC)

MARIA SCRIVAN (USA)

ALEX HALLAT (HONDARRIBIA SPAIN) summer 2016/17

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STEVE PANOZZO (NSW)

LINDSAY FOYLE (NSW)

IAN JONES (QLD)

CHRISTOPHER DOWNES (TAS)

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summer 2016/17

opinionpiece words & illustrations by bill leak

OPINION #1: No doubt about it, [my cartoon] Dear old Dad is having one hell of an impact. It’s pleasing to see that, finally, the virtue signallers are running out of abuse to hurl at me and the conversation is turning to the subject of the desperate plight of the little boy in the middle of it. The cartoon was supposed to be about him, after all. I grew up in Condobolin among aboriginal kids and when I went back there in 2001 (for the first time in over 30 years) I was shocked to see how much worse things were for the indigenous people than they were in the 60s. Intergenerational welfare dependency is like a slow working poison. Killing with kindness is just the ticket I suppose if, deep down, what you really want to do is discreetly eradicate a population while simultaneously parading your compassion and telling everyone how much you care.

OPINION #2: As a white, cisgendered Aussie male of a certain age, I could identify as a member of a persecuted minority myself and luxuriate in self-pity while being perpetually offended. Instead I find myself not only disillusioned but also frankly amazed that the contagion of political correctness could ever have spread to our shores.

Our legendary larrikin streak was one of our greatest national assets and, if it were still in good shape, would have made us immune to it. We used to be instinctively antiauthoritarian and cynical, which made it almost impossible to offend us, and was the reason Australia became a breeding ground for great cartoonists. But it’s not anymore because, instead of manning the barricades against this plague, our cartoonists, with a few honourable exceptions,

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rushed to embrace it. They abandoned a proud, national tradition of iconoclasm, wit and invective, and defected, en masse, to the purselipped prohibitionists and wowsers of the green-left intelligentsia.

It’s no wonder that so few of them have drawn a cartoon that was surprising, provocative or funny since. And how could they? As George Orwell said: “You cannot be really funny if your main aim is to flatter the comfortable classes.”

When he wrote that in 1941 the people who made up the “comfortable classes” weren’t the sort of climate change miserabilists with dietary requirements and ironic beards that comprise the establishment today. And you’d think the last people on earth who’d want to become part of a crowd like that would be Australian cartoonists.

But they do. They want to be cool, they want to be popular; liked on Facebook, followed on Twitter. So at a time when their duty to offend has never been more pressing, they go out of their way to appease the offenderati by making their cartoons as inoffensive, as insipid, as possible.

Islamists have declared war on our civilisation and the best our politically correct politicians can do is assure us that if we all delete the word Islam from our vocabularies the threat, along with the word, will somehow just magically disappear. And our cartoonists, whose job it is to ridicule politicians when they spout nonsense like that, are letting them get away with it.

Well, they shouldn’t.

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hatchmatch&dispatch dispatch - alex stitt: bigger than his giants | by peter viska

WHEN I was growing up in Perth the creative giant was Paul Rigby. With a little push from him I got into cartooning.

When I got to Melbourne the creative giant was the prodigious, tireless and brilliant Alex Stitt.

After a few years cartooning for The Sunday Observer and Nation Review, I called up his studio to try to get into animation. It was politely suggested I should study at the new animation course at Swinburne, which I duly did. As part of the course we went on a visit to his Al et Al studio.

Frank Hellard took the tour, as Alex was busy working on his next piece.

At that time in the late 70’s, the work of Alex was everywhere. He mastered the art of combining graphic design with cartooning whether it was a still or a moving image. He never stopped pushing the boundaries of character designs and their place within the compositions.

His output was amazing and covered the full range from logo designs to opening title sequences to stamps, books, text books, games, animated TVCs, calendars, toys, record covers, posters and animated movies.

I checked back over his mammoth, cleverly named book STITT Autobiographics and it all came back to me.

Everything he did was clever, very clever. Even his company name was clever.

After graduating from the animation course at Swinburne I set up The Mickey Duck Animation Co. with a few fellow students, namely Neil Robinson and John Dickson. Neil’s wife Maggie Geddes was head of Trace and Paint at Al et Al. 23

At that stage Alex, his head animator slash first lieutenant Frank Hellard and his brilliant crew at Al et Al were pumping out animated ads for health, religion and literacy. The most famous of those was the Norm character in the Life Be In It campaign and SID the seagull for the SLIP! SLOP! SLAP! skin cancer campaign. The literacy ad still runs.

David Atkinson, one of the brilliant young animators at Al et Al in its heyday, added, “When working back late I often wandered over to Alex’s desk to study his storyboards and sketches trying to discover how he could communicate so much with a few strokes of a pencil in a frame half the size of a cigarette pack.

“Alex was genius embodied. He was capable of integrating commercial or communal messages into an impressive body of work that exhibited an astonishing breadth of graphical responses ranging from the static page to the animated film. Alex had an effortless command of shape, form and line. However I always thought his greatest skill was his boldness in stripping away unnecessary visual information leaving just sufficient so that the central idea of the animation would shine; all the more amplified by this masterful simplification. A single Alex Still drawing could imbue your heart with its exuberance.”

Stitt’s design style was very original. It was international, leaning more towards New York than Europe and he bravely used space, bold colours, crisp design and handwriting to keep it fresh. Each had a happiness that was integral to the creation. summer 2016/17

Around that time, 1981, I was part of the Seal Club and asked him to submit a piece for an exhibition with Seals as the theme. Busy as he was, he sent in a great white seal complete with ink splatter and airbrushed shading.

Then, as if he wasn’t busy enough, he decided to create not one but two animated feature films. The first was Grendel, Grendel, Grendel based on Beowulf and the second Abra Cadabra.

Grendel was very stylised and graphically adventurous. In an analogue world, still using hand drawn images on cels, he decided to do away with key lines. It was a nightmare for cel painters using light boxes to follow the paint areas but the effect was stunning. His backgrounds were pure Stitt and the humour most upmarket. Samples of these cels are shown above.

Abra Cadabra was the first animated 3D film and needed a complicated scaling system to allow foreground characters to work within the background areas. It was similar in design to Grendel but came with its own technical complications and tough deadline. Not many saw it as disappeared into a vault with the Bond take-over of Kerry Packer’s Nine Network.

After stepping out of the limelight he continued smaller jobs, swapping his pens and inks for digital creations on his Cintiq.

Alex died in early October and fortunately for everyone involved in the cartoon and design industry took the trouble, with his wife Paddy, of collating his mind boggling body of

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work in his wonderful Autobiographics book STITT Autobiographics.

He showed me and the animation industry that, what we call limited animation - that is, not full Disney - could still cut through and be affordable when ideas and designs were intelligent and were more symbols of reality than reality itself.

We all miss you and your great mind. Thank you Alex.

For a more biographic read on his life and times there are links on the ACA website: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/11/09/ 1036308527172.html http://www.smh.com.au/comment/obituaries/alexander-stitt-creator-of-sid-theseagull-in-slip-slop-slap-campaign-20161010-gryphz.html

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mythoughts words & illustration by sarah firth

NO doubt you’ve heard how important it is to strike a worklife balance and manage stress. There must be people out there with straight forward lifestyles where framing life with this career-leisure dichotomy is useful. But for me, and the professional artists, carers and parents I know, life feels more like my drawings on this page.

During the Comic Art Workshop residency I was at last year, we had a group discussion on this very topic - because so many of us as professional artists were consistently struggling with the fullness of our lives - with working, tying to create some kind of financial stability, look after our health, raise children, nurture family and friends, take commissions, meet deadlines, sleep, learn, and still have time to write, research and make amazing art.

SAW Comic School husband and wife team (director Tom Hart and educator Leela Corman) were asked how they balance being parents with comic commissions, their own creative projects, while also running a school. Leela, who I might add is also a professional dancer on top of that list, sensibly said, “there is no balance. Just a constant process of navigation - involving perseverance, giving up, trying again, luck and asking for things. You need to value yourself and your time, and stand up for what you need.” Tom chimed in with, “the trick is to find a way to spin the plates without getting stressed.”

In a spot-on post continuing the topic, Leela wrote: “Something is bothering me and I think it bears mentioning, because I bet it’s bothering some other people I know, too: I am really sick of the myth of the workaholic artist, and the lack of understanding of what the life of an adult professional artist is like, specifically a female adult professional artist with a family. I’m tired of the young 25

single male artist being held up as the model for how we should all work.

I want to talk about what it is like to have an actual life, where others depend on you, and still make art that burns people, and still be devoted to your career and to your family, and what that is really like, in all its contours. I don’t hear that out there. I hear other things, things I find unfair and incorrect. The myth of the young self-made artist is toxic in so many ways.”

Margaret Hodge follows this thread in an article - How to stop wasting women’s talents: overcome our fixation with youth - we women are often “mothers or carers, but we also want to succeed in our jobs. Yet in a society that promotes the cult of youth that is hard. In so many fields of work, people are always on the lookout for the next generation of talent, the emerging youthful stars, the new and ever younger people whom they want to place on the top of a pedestal.

So people who want to succeed in their paid jobs feel that they can’t take time out for other things [like being an artist]. The obsession with youth means too many believe that if they haven’t made it in their career by the time they are 35, they have failed.

Nothing could be further from the truth. At a time when we are living longer than ever, we are being written off earlier. Of course we should promote young flair and new ideas but we should also value experience – and delight in talent and innovation at all ages.”

This cult of youth has a huge impact on the art world and in particular women. There are a range of mentoring and financial support opportunities for artists that are emerging (5 years out of art school) or under 35. However once you summer 2016/17

hit the mid to late-career phase, there is a scary drop off of opportunities.

This leads to many professional artists stopping their practice, because of a lack of financial returns from their creative work and a lack of time to make due to other pressures and responsibilities. In this mid-career phase, the standards of living can be stark. While a lucky few are able to sustain their careers with a hodgepodge of from commercial work, commissions, grants and prizes, for most it’s a struggle of trying to practice while working a day job, or dealing with the welfare system in order to try and afford time to make artwork. And that doesn’t involve the additional responsibilities that come with parenting, being a carer or supporting a family.

How can we improve this situation? Obviously creating more mid to late-career funding opportunities, exposing and smashing gender inequality, and creating a living wage for creatives would make a huge difference. But what else can we do at a community and relationship level? What informal support helps artists to flourish?

More thoughts from Leela on this, “a key issue I have with holding up this ideal of the Great Solitary Genius Artist is that, come on, no one does anything alone. People ask me, how do I manage my life? How can I work so much? Because I have a partner, who is also an artist mind you, who sacrifices his own time for me sometimes, and will make me dinner when I teach late, and took care of me when I was a new mom. Ask yourself, who is in your life, easing your path for you? And give them

thanks. And then look at the artists you love, and ask yourself, who is in their life, making their coffee, taking care of their kid or doing their laundry or just being there for them?”

This is so important to think about and recognise. Who eases my path and helps enable me? Like Leela, my partner does.

He supports me emotionally, technologically, strategically, domestically all while cheering me on, especially when my business or art projects ask 200%. Similarly, I step up for him when he’s under the pump. Of course sometimes we are both giving 200% at the same time - so we get takeaway and have a very messy house. He also contributes to our mortgage, which helps create some financial consistency and lessen the stress that comes with the peaks and troughs that come with freelancing, running a small business and making time for art.

My friends and family are also very important, who so generously give me their time, love and care. My comic community friends, with their wisdom, emotional support, project feedback, and for helping me develop as an artist. The wonderful network of clients I have who promote my graphic recording business via word of mouth. My business mentor, who gives me strategic tools, helps me grow emotionally and develop professionally. My graphic recording community peers, with their tips, tools, wisdom and sharing. My massage therapist, psychologist and other body work therapists for helping to ground and nourish my mind and body. I could go on and on.

So, who eases your path for you? Give them thanks.

No one does ANYTHING alone.

Sarah is an award winning artist, filmmaker, writer, creative entrepreneur and Member of the Australian Cartoonists Association.

Sign up to her newsletters here:http://eepurl.com/bcFaWD

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acmcartoon-bites cartoon-bites words by jim bridges

THE AUSTRALIAN Cartoon Museum wants to showcase Australian Cartoonists work to the world in a new and unique way.

The ACM now believes that the best way to get cartoons across is to turn them into slide shows that work as films (Cartoon Bites).

They are short (usually 15-25 cartoons) (3-5 minutes) and easily digestible and great for sharing on Facebook and other social media. Our market is mostly school teachers and students, as they act as perfect ice breakers and introductions to that particular subject.

They are all free, and we will be applying to Patreon to get some funding. We have plans for making longer films for specific markets and occasions and these we will be paid for, so will the cartoonists involved in these longer films.

There will be 3 types of films: Themes: Current Affairs and topical relevant subjects.

Cartoonists Profiles: potted histories of cartoonists and their work.

Australian History: a long series of short films that encapsulates our previous and ongoing history.

So in the rush for the internet to operate quicker, cartoonists are finally in the drivers’ seat to put this in place, so whether you do strips, gags, caricatures, comics, political, animation or advertising work, the day of the cartoonist has finally come.

It staggers me that most cartoonists don’t realise this, or their true potential. The work that they do is unique as they are visual thinkers turning their thoughts into graphic realisation.

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Cartoonists are special people with special skills who are going through a tough time in history. Nobody knows how things will be when newspapers finally dry up completely.

But movies can’t be made without storyboards, advertisements can’t be designed without visual designers who must think like cartoonists to get their ideas across quickly and succinctly.

Cartoons are the fastest vehicles for ideas and whether it’s a simple idea or complex. The cartoon in all its 7 genres can get even the hardest ideas across. i.e. Einstein’s theory of relativity has been turned into a graphic novel. In Japan whenever a new tax comes in or a new law arrives, it’s turned into a comic (Manga) so everyone can understand it and its relevance to everybody.

The ACM has plans for an on-line University where all levels of cartooning are taught and catered for and also to set up an on-line gallery to sell originals. We also want to act as a Cartoonists agency to get on-going work for Cartoonists. We basically believe that anything can be taught using cartoons. So we expect the future of Cartoonists to be a busy one.

The ACM is a not-for-profit organisation and at this stage receives no funding or grants of any kind. All monies are presently coming out of our own pockets because we believe in cartoons and Cartoonists.

We are collecting, archiving and showcasing your work and all Cartoonists living or dead. It’s your legacy, so get behind us as we intend to change the Australian Cartoon landscape for the better!

Join the cartoon revolution now!!!

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newideas

the bentonet | words by queenie chan

THE BENTONET (http://www.thebentonet.com/) is a website set up to help raise the profile of Australian comics in bookstores and libraries. It is an online retailer with a twist – it’s built to be an infinite bookshelf for independent bookstores. The BentoNet takes orders from its customers and funnels them to participating bookstores to handle, whether it’s a store pick-up or directly shipping to customers.

This has the effect of ensuring that bookstores can become aware of the books of small press publishers that are normally too risky for them to stock in their stores.

If you’re a self-publisher and someone buys your book through the BentoNet, a bookstore will become aware of your name and book.

The BentoNet runs entirely off IngramSpark’s print-ondemand service (http://www.ingramspark.com/). A copy of a book is printed only when it’s needed and paid for. This eliminates the need for warehousing and double-shipping.

The publishers are automatically paid through Ingram each time a book is sold.

I’m Queenie Chan, the founder of The Bentonet. I’m a manga-style comic book artist, whose first published work was The Dreaming was with TOKYOPOP in 2004. I went on to work with best-selling authors Dean Koontz on the Odd Thomas graphic novels, and with Kylie Chan. Right now, I’m working on my own fairy-tale inspired fantasy series called Fabled Kingdom. My website is http://www.queeniechan. com/ The co-owner of the BentoNet is Kylie Chan. Kylie is the best-selling fantasy author of the White Tiger series, with its

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9th and final book just published. Kylie and I first worked together on a comics-prose book called Small Shen that’s a prequel to her series. That’s how we got to know each other.

The BentoNet was originally created for the Comic Conversation Library Festival. This began in 2014 and now includes 14 libraries across Sydney, with Melbourne and Brisbane libraries expressing interest for 2017. It was started

by Ashfield Library’s Karen Dwarte, a big supporter of local comic creators. It’s been difficult getting the books of Australian comic creators into libraries because of invoicing and distribution issues, and The BentoNet was started to ease that problem.

It’s always been a challenge printing and distributing comics, and I’ve always wondered whether there was an easier way of getting books to people, whether it’s normal customers, bookstores or to libraries. Luckily, I stumbled on the concept of print-on-demand, a new technology that can do small print runs, including single-book print runs.

Through print-on-demand services like IngramSpark, creators don’t need to worry about printing 300 copies of a book, having them shipped to them, then storing it in their garage, and then shipping copies out again when someone orders one. They can now print and ship directly from IngramSpark. This makes it easy for booksellers and libraries everywhere to acquire a book, as IngramSpark is a global wholesaler that distributes to many major distributors.

If any Members of the Australian Cartoonists’ Association would like any further information, please feel free to contact me.

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PAUL HARVEY (VIC)

yourview

theme: olympics review part 2 | compiled by phil judd We had such a great response to our Olympics themed ‘Your View’ that we had way too much material to use for one issue.

So here is the rest of the fantastic material sent in by the members for you to enjoy. Thanks to all who submitted!

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IAN JONES (QLD)

TERRY MOSHER (CANADA)

ROBERT BLACK (VIC)

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JOHN ALLISON (VIC)

DAVID ROWE (NSW)

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faceoff!

rod stewart by judy nadin | compiled by phil judd

WELCOME to our new regular feature FACE OFF! Every issue we will feature a number of caricatures from one of the many talented caricaturists in the ACA ranks. To kick it off we are featuring the wonderful Judy Nadin who won this years Stanley award for Best Caricaturist!

If you are a carciaturist who’d like to feature or would like to suggest one please email your suggestions to Phil Judd at: inkspot@comic-express.com

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THIS was your page to tell all Members what you had been up to in the past three months. We all wanted to hear about it. It doesn’t matter how small or insignificant you thought it was. It wasn’t. So, make sure you fill this page in our next edition.

This is what we want to hear from you: A news article reporting on events or projects that you are doing, or a comic or book you have read and liked (or didn’t like). A comic-related event you took part in, or are planning on organising. Put them on a Word document. (Most important.) 200 to 400 words will give you a half page article, 480 to 520 words works out to be a full page article, and if you have a lot to say, then 1200 words will fill two pages.

With the article, please include an image or illustration (or many) to break up all the words. Or do it all in a cartoon format. Cartooning is a visual medium, after all. Make sure the images are no less than 300 dpi and about the width of an A4 portrait page. CMYK is preferred in jpg format please.

See, if you do that now, YOU will be the star of our next Edition. And I won’t have to think about how I have to fill this page of INKSPOT that was meant for you in the first place.

Thank you for reading, Editor Nat

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new newcommittee part 1 | compiled by nat karmichael

JULES Faber was inspired at age four to draw by watching Mr Squiggle on the TV. At the age of ten he realised he wanted to do it for a job when he grew up, even if he wasn’t any good at it yet. He kept practising though and in his career he’s worked as a writer, an animator for Disney, an editorial cartoonist, a live caricaturist and has produced award-winning comic strips and comic books.

He currently illustrates popular children’s books and his books have sold over 700 000 copies to date, He has yet to grow up, even though he draws for a job now.

CATHY Wilcox is a Sydney cartoonist and illustrator.

She was born in Sydney, gained a BA in Visual Communications at Sydney College of the Arts.

She lived in Paris, France from 1985-87 where she had some of her first published illustrations and cartoons. She also pursued further study in Literature.

She has drawn regularly for the Sydney Morning Herald and other Fairfax publications since 1989, and is a keen observer of society and politics.

She has published two collections of cartoons and illustrated numerous children’s books.

She has received several awards for her cartoons including two Walkey Awards and the National Museum of Australia’s award for Political Cartooning in 2009.

IAN McCall - My passion for cartoons, all started when I was a child. I loved to copy and draw the cartoons that appeared in the Melbourne Herald. WEG visited our High School and drew a caricature, which I proudly stuck on my door in my bedroom for years. I wanted to be a cartoonist, but dad said “No you have to get a real job.” So I started working for the Post Master General’s Department. Over time I met many people connected with cartoons and cartoon history. I joined the Black and White Artists Club in 1985. Someone mentioned that [there must be] a few cartoonists here in Melbourne. [So] in about 1985 we started having our regular cartoonists meetings and have continued ever since.

NAT Karmichael is passionate about Australian artists and cartoonists, having published 15 comics and comic-related books in the past five years (with more in the early stages of production). He is present Editor of Inkspot. In his secret identity, Nat works as a Psychiatric Nurse in a major Brisbane hospital, and lives at Margate, with his long-suffering wife, Carlene. They have more children and grandchildren than you would ever think possible, none of whom live at home. He cannot draw a straight line.

nextissue

The next issue of INKSPOT will contain many surprises for you to look forward to, including: • More background information about those on our Association’s New Committee • An all-new Process Page featuring Dave Dye • The Inkspotlight featuring Martina Zeitler • Reflections on Alex Stitt by his first Lieutenant, Frank Hellard • And much, much MORE!

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comicreviews

| by tim mcewen & rob feldman

the river

rachel ang. $5. 8pp. drawbyfour.bigcartel.com/product/the-river A DECEPTIVELY simple story of expectation, assumption, drive, determination and disappointment by the titular river. Plus a rather brilliant use of the ‘hamburger fold’ format to make a poster that’s half surreal illustration, half Al Jaffee Mad Magazine Fold-In. The art is roughly hewn in brush and some grey wash and totally suits the risograph printing method. Solid blacks for the story and blues for the poster. Not only does the art style suit the printing method but it’s a fine choice for this quiet and thoughtful tale as well.

All in all, a nice little mini comic art object.

catnapped (darcy duel no 1) andrew rolfe. halloween alley comics $7. 32pp. www.etsy.com/au/shop/halloweenalley THIS is a cute a pretty witty mystery with quite tightly packed pages of mostly a 3x4 panel grid throughout.

Lots of rapid fire dialogue and conversations help propel a story that never pauses.

Nearly naive (but maybe deceptively so), simple cartooning sits easily with the fun dialogue and characters.

The addition of water colour grey tones gives just the right amount complexity to the art.

Good fun and worth checking out.

the light

pat herbert and anthony calvert 24pp. available from the publisher: mail@anthonycalvert.com AN INTERESTING bit of biography done with visuals akin to modern “instructional graphics”. The tale is really quite enthralling and the art and storytelling are super modern, slick and highly accomplished. The whole story is told in double page spreads using diagrammatic-influenced imagery, boldly reversed in white out of black, except for one colour: green, meaningfully and deliberately used. There’s a freeform but very considered use of layout over these double page spreads, utilising the area sometimes with a large quiet space or sometimes filling it with lots of repeated, significant, agitated and energised detail. There’s a definite slowing of pace due to the double page spreads and lack of traditional panelling and page layout — a certain kind of languorous feeling to the telling of the story that, when coupled with its first person narration, makes it all the more solidly intimate and insightful emotionally. The recounting of events alone are interesting enough, but there’s definitely additional weight and emotion supplied by the telling in this graphic format.

To be honest I expected to be bored by the techniques and visual style employed in this comic — to be left cold — so it’s a pleasant surprise to be so captivated and involved in the story.

(Interestingly, this comic is an adaption of an animated short film: radiowithpictures.com.au/the-light)

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copyrightthoughts words & legitimate illustration by jason seiler

WHAT gives art value? Is art worth something only if the artist who created it is famous? Is it good because a famous artist did it? Or, does it have value because a skilled artist with years of experience created it?

I am an artist who believes that art has value and artists deserve respect. I have drawn and painted hundreds of caricatures and portraits for many publications. One of the best parts about the work that I do—besides getting paid to do it—is the respect I receive from art directors, editors, readers and fans. It’s a great feeling knowing that people value what I do as an artist. It encourages me to work harder to become the best artist that I can be.

Recently, a fan of my work sent me a link to an iPhone app on iTunes called “Trump Slots,” featuring an image of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. This fan sent this to me because they knew right away that this Trump image looked like a Trump I had painted for the cover of The Utne Reader back in 2010. I couldn’t believe what I saw. It was in fact my artwork, repainted but nonetheless, my artwork.

Hundreds of caricature artists could draw Trump and every one of them would be different. This was not a coincidence. You could actually lay the art on top of my original and see that the proportions are exactly the same, all the way down to his hair, which was painted that way for

additional humor. The “new” version even portrays sweat dripping down the side of his cheek, which was also my idea.

I have been working as a professional illustrator for long enough now to have developed a following. Many of my caricatures are known and recognized around the world, including my painting of Trump. So I find myself wondering, why didn’t they just hire me in the first place rather than steal my art for their profit? I find it very frustrating that a gaming company that employs artists to work for them doesn’t seem to value or respect an artist and their work.

Maybe you’re thinking, why is it such a big deal? Being an artist is not hobby for me: it’s how I make my living, how I am able to take care of my family. My art is unique and original. It didn’t come easy – it’s a skill that I have worked hard to develop. When a company so boldly rips off my work, I take it personally.

I believe to be successful in anything, you need to respect and value others and you have to also respect and value yourself as well. Clearly this company does neither. They had a dumb idea for a game and wanted to get it out in time for the Republican Convention so they could make a few bucks, while not having integrity enough to care about their image and what it might say about who they are.

This article was originally published in the New York Observer. Republished by permission of Jason Seiler; Edited by Nat Karmichael.

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summer 2016/17

copyrighthunt words by lindsay foyle

“There are basically two types of people.

People who accomplish things, and people who claim to have accomplished things.

The first group is less crowded.”

MARK TWAIN

NO cartoonist should have second thoughts about signing up with the Copyright Agency. They will help when people are trying to make contact and they will chase those who illegally use other’s work. It just might result in money changing hands.

They’ll also help if there’s a need to find a copyright owner, although that task is more difficult if the cartoonist wasn’t a member or their beneficiaries were unregistered.

Recently I wanted to contact the copyright owner of a deceased cartoonist. I knew his family, so I first communicated with them. They were unable to help, as they had never controlled their father’s copyright. They suggested it rested with the Herald and Weekly Times, as he had worked for them.

I followed their advice and contacted the Herald and Weekly Times in Melbourne. However, they suggested I deal with News Corp’s Head Office in Sydney, as it was there that they placed all copyright matters. However News Corp informed me they had contracted all copyright matters to the Copyright Agency and that I should speak to them.

The Copyright Agency knew nothing about taking on the News Corp copyright matters. It must have been a means of fobbing me off, so some minion in a back room did not have to deal with matters they knew nothing about. The Copyright Agency also said they had no records relating to the artist concerned, despite the fact he had been well known. Still, not all that surprising given the agency did not exist back when he was working.

I pointed out that I wanted to use the works in a book

and asked if newspaper publisher’s copyright extended to books. They said that copyright law was a little ambiguous.

Writers own all rights for books, even those employed by newspapers. Artists only might. Some legal advice agreed, others did not. Because the Copyright Agency had no records, they suggested I talk with the Copyright Council, as they might be able to help with further legal advice.

The Copyright Council told me they could do nothing until I contacted the copyright owner! However, they did say, “The copyright owner of an artistic work has the exclusive right to reproduce it (by photocopying or scanning, for example), to publish it (in a book or a newsletter, for example), and to communicate it to the public (via email or on a website, for example).” Another point they made was that until 2005 copyright in Australia lasted 50 years, and from that date it was extended to 70 years for everyone who still had copyright. It was good advice, but as the copyright was still valid it did not help me getting permission.

Added to that, the moral rights of the artist also needed to be taken into account. I was told it may be necessary to obtain written consent from the artist, separate from any arrangement with the copyright owner, if you want to do something with the artwork that may infringe the artist’s moral rights. It was suggested that I contact the Herald and Weekly Times, News Corp or the Copyright Agency who were “all better placed to help”.

So there you have it: a full circle!

Story edited by Nat Karmichael summer 2016/17

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It’s simple. Creators should be paid for their work.

We have been standing up for cartoonists and illustrators since 1974.

We will continue to fight on behalf of near 30,000 members to make sure original creativity is valued, respected and that a fair payment is made.

We do this to sustain Australia’s creative industries and encourage original expression of ideas.

Copyright is automatic and membership is free.

Find out more at www.copyright.com.au © Lindsay Foyle 2015, Australian cartoonist and Copyright Agency | Viscopy member.