Inkspot 89

HOW TO BE A CORPORATE SCRIBE plus

Since 1924

also CLARK • CRICHTON McCULLOCH • STANLEY

Number 89, Winter 2020

Inkspot Presidential Palaver

Issue #89, Winter 2020 www.cartoonists.org.au

ACA Board

Patron VANE LINDESAY

President JULES FABER president@cartoonists.org.au

Deputy President DAVID BLUMENSTEIN david@experienceillustration.com

Secretary STEVE PANOZZO steve@noz.com.au

Treasurer MARTINA ZEITLER treasurer@cartoonists.org.au

Membership Secretary PETER BROELMAN peter@broelman.com.au

Committee: ROBERT BLACK robert@robertblack.com.au

NAT KARMICHAEL comicoz@live.com.au

IAN McCALL mccallart@bigpond.com.au

JUDY NADIN judynadin@optusnet.com.au

CATHY WILCOX cwilcox@fairfaxmedia.com.au

Affiliated Organisations

National Cartoonists Society

President: Jason Chatfield www.nationalcartoonists.com

Cartoonists’ Club of Great Britain

Chairman: Richard Skipworth www.ccgb.org.uk

FECO

President-General: Peter Nieuwendijk www.fecocartoon.org

Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation (PCO)

Chairman: Clive Goddard www.procartoonists.org

Your Inkspot Team

Editor: Steve Panozzo

Contributing Editor: Nat Karmichael

Contributors: Nancy Beiman, Matt Bissett-Johnson, David Blumenstein, Shelley Brauer, Jason Chatfield, Gary Clark, Anna Crichton, David de Vries, Jules Faber, Sandra Flett, Lindsay Foyle, Christophe Granet, Rolf Heimann, Ian Jones, Steve Keast, Johannes Leak, Vane Lindesay, Eric Löbbecke, Mark Lynch, Ian McCall,

Tim McEwen, Tim Mellish, Judy Nadin, Peter Player, Tom Richmond, Colin South, Stephen Stanley, Chris Thomas, Peter Viska and Danny Zemp

Cover Art: The Potts by Jim Russell (1952)

Inkspot is (usually) produced four times a year by the Australian Cartoonists’ Association in January, May, August and November.

Deadline for next issue is 14th SEPTEMBER

PO Box 5178

SOUTH TURRAMURRA NSW 2074

ABN 19 140 290 841

ISSN 1034-1943

Australia Post Registration PP 533798/0015

Well, for the most part, we’re still locked down, but fortunately there’s something decent to read - this newest issue of Inkspot! As usual it’s chock-a-block of awesome articles, stories and of course, cartoons.

Thanks have to go to our Editor, Steve Panozzo, who, while working tirelessly to maintain our socially distant four editions a year, has not only put them out regularly, but has filled them with great content. I think you’ll agree: mission accomplished.

Elsewhere, the fallout from COVID-19 is being felt all over for cartoonists and people in related fields. From regional newspapers closing, to the Arts being largely ignored by the government’s assistance packages, it’s rough out there for many people in our industry. So, remember, if things are feeling bleak, reach out to a friend. We’re all going though something and it’s important to remain anchored to what we know - good friends and colleagues who understand.

Meanwhile, if you are staying home, maybe use any spare time (whatever that is) to work on your opus, restump

the house, or build that new kind of nuclear device you’ve thought up. Either way, busy hands are happy hands.

Alternately, and I know I mentioned this last time (issues are coming out so regularly I’m struggling to not repeat myself), you can always come up with some amazing content for Inkspot. We rarely say no, because what matters to you matters to us, and we all love reading about cartoonist events, book releases, exhibitions or achievements. Keep that in mind as you read this issue – everything in it came from an ACA member just like you.

Anyway, that’s all from me for now. Stay safe, stay cartooning.

Editorial Notes

Hard to believe, but it’s been a century since The Potts was created! This issue also features Jim Russell’s first ever Inkspot cover, drawn in 1952 for The Potts Annual. I frequently study one of Jim’s strips I have on my studio wall. Apart from the priceless gag, the composition, fluidity and structure are masterful. Even now, the past informs the present.

Sadly, this wisdom would be lost on the current generation of News Corp’s bean counters. They axed 100 suburban and regional newspapers in June. It not only meant a sudden, massive loss of print opportunities for cartoonists, but also increased isolation for regional readers. Peter Broelman and Col Wicking are two cartoonists who have lost work as a result.

The purchase of Fairfax by Nine also ended in predictable budget cuts and cartoonists were among the first in the firing line: Andrew Weldon lost his spot at The Age and Ginger Meggs vanished from the Sun-Herald (but was later reinstated). COVID-19 has been the oft-quoted reason, but in truth, some publishers have never liked the uncontrolled, free-thinking honesty of satire.

On the other hand, the corporate world has embraced cartooning as an effective educational tool. Scribing (page 24) proves that cartooning still has a place in communicating ideas and distilling the truth. While some publishers may not respect us, it seems the rest of the country certainly does!

Thumping Thanks

A thumping heartfelt thanks for Lindsay Foyle’s beautiful and illuminating obituary for my cartoonist father, John Endean (see Inkspot #88).

Dad and I both sold gag cartoons to The Bulletin way-back-when* (for $20 per published pic) and Lindsay Foyle and staff cartoonist Ward O’Neill were the pen’n’ink blokes there and offered warm encouragement to this then-high school boy...

It’s lovely to see that Lindsay is still vividly of the True Faith and in your dazzling, entertaining Inkspot (I’d not heard of it! How do I receive more, please?) (* the early 1980s)

Arnum Endean TERRIGAL NSW

Redrawing The Potts

Over four decades of drawing cartoons, I was offered the chance to be the new artist and continue to draw two mainstream cartoon features. I turned down both opportunities. Why?

For differing reasons, I have always felt the creation of a cartoon strip and its relevant characters is best left alone when the original creator can no longer continue it. I have no criticism of those who have chosen to take on this task. It’s an onerous one. Some features have continued and adapted quite well to the new input while others haven’t weathered the transition to the same level that the original creator was able to bring to the uniqueness of the characters.

Not all, but often, the characters of cartoon strips are absolutely of their time. That is what made them successful in the first place. The Potts (the characters and writing) was for me one of those creations. I admired Jimmy Russell for the job he did both in quality and quantity.

Neil Matterson BYRON BAY NSW

COMING UP IN INKSPOT #90

• Happy 100th to ACA Patron, Vane Lindesay!

• Your View On... Protests!

While we always welcome contributions for Inkspot, the next edition will be special. If you have a cartoon or caricature of Vane, we’d love to see it! We also welcome your cartoons on the theme of Protests, which will be the topic for our regular feature, Your View On...

THE DEADLINE FOR CONTRIBUTIONS IS 14th SEPTEMBER

Please send to: inkspot@cartoonists.org.au

COVER STORY: THE POTTS

Australian cartooning’s first milestone anniversary - LINDSAY FOYLE takes us through 100 years of The Potts!

GINGER GETS BOWLED

GINGER MEGGS failed to appear in the Sun-Herald for the first time in June - what went wrong?

ALAN McCULLOCH

VANE LINDESAY looks at the life of ALAN McCULLOCH, a “cartoonist of distinction”, in Beyond Their Pens

LAUGH WITH LAFFERTY

The prospect of chatting with IAN McCALL didn’t scare off STEPHEN STANLEY, so he’s in the latest Where Are They Now?

GRAPHIC SCRIBING

What is graphic facilitation? Is scribing the same thing? DAVID BLUMENSTEIN demystefies and explains everything

MY LIFE AS A SCRIBE

STEVE KEAST takes us on his personal life-changing adventure through the world of graphic scribing

A JUNGLE OF FORMATS

CHRISTOPHE GRANET “révéler un secret” on how to draw for two cartoon formats at once!

LIFE’S A PITCH - PART 4!

PETER VISKA introduces us to Media World Pictures founder, COLIN SOUTH about pitching for overseas markets

to the inimitable (and formidable) Hazel Daniel

Years of The Potts

by LINDSAY FOYLE

The Potts, which turns 100 years old in this year, was Australia’s first continuing comic strip. Originally titled You and Me, it began life in Smith’s Weekly on 7th August, 1920. To a 21st Century reader, it would seem both quaint and archaic, but the strip reflected the domestic life of an almost forgotten era of Australian society. Readers could readily identify with it and it was immensely successful. LINDSAY FOYLE chronicles the life and times of the Potts family and the two artists who brought them to life every week for 81 years,

When Smith’s Weekly began publishing Stand Cross’ You and Me in August, 1920, it changed the way Australian newspaper publishers looked at comics and made Cross one of the best-known cartoonists in the country. If not for You and Me, Ginger Meggs, Fatty Finn and many other Australian comics may have never seen the light of day.

Originally, Smithʼs Weekly was produced from Somerset House in Martin Place, Sydney. Claude McKay was the Editor-in-Chief. Robert (R.C.) Packer was the Managing Editor. Joynton Smith, who had at one time been Lord Mayor of Sydney, was supplying the money and the name for the publication. Smith was rich and was said to be able to “smell a quid from a great distance”. Both McKay and Packer could too, so there was a level of equality about their association.

Smith’s Weekly was a broadsheet weekly newspaper and it contained a mixture of stories and cartoons. It was aimed at a mass audience with a little added appeal to soldiers who had returned from the Great War. Claude McKay wrote in his book, This is the Life: “On the day we started preparing our first issue I heard the lift door clatter outside my Somerset House attic, and the noise of a stick jabbing the floor approaching my door. The handle rattled, and in came J. F. Archibald, formerly the editor of The Bulletin.”

Coming straight to the point, Archibald said, “I thought you could fix me up with a table and chair. I want to see if the old mill can grist again.”

Archibald was full of advice for the inexperienced McKay, whose background had been more in public relations than journalism. “Train them in what you want,” he told him. “You get what you give. Print

STAN CROSS and JIM RUSSELL

Stan Cross working on Wally and the Major in 1950

rubbish and rubbish you’ll get. But print gems and they’ll shower you with jewels. You make your writers, and they’ll make your public. And always remember nobody can take your public from you but yourself.”

Fortunately for Cecil Hartt, Archibald advised McKay and Packer they needed cartoons in the paper, the best comic artists in Australia. They took his advice and were prepared to pay triple what other papers paid to guarantee they got the best.

Until the arrival of Smith’s Weekly, nearly every black-and-white artist of standing in Australia had first contributed to The Bulletin. McKay and Packer intended to change that. After hearing about Smith’s Weekly starting, Hartt took himself around to the paper’s office, and asked for a job. He was just what they had been looking for and became the first artist at Smith’s Weekly. Once established in the office, Archibald was given a desk, paper, a telephone and a title – Literary Editor. He set about soliciting drawings, stories and anecdotes and started sub-editing. Hartt was also given a desk in the second of the two rooms and soon started producing cartoons for the new paper. The first issue of Smith’s Weekly hit the streets on 1st March 1919.

Archibald, McKay, Packer and Hartt had worked through the night putting the issue together. On the morning it was published, Packer and McKay were on their way back to the office after a quick breakfast, observing people as they read the new publication. The first person they saw flipping thought the pages stopped and laughed when he got to a Hartt cartoon. They knew then that his cartoons had to be an integral part of Smith’s Weekly.

McKay once said he and Archibald, “searched every paper in Australia and New Zealand for promising black and white work. It was all dreadful.

“One day a Perth licensed victuallers’ journal, pamphlet-sized with a pink cover, was studied by Archibald and myself, said McKay. “It had a crude drawing by Stan Cross on its cover.”

Archibald said the line was comical and McKay took a chance, wiring the artist, asking him if he would come to Sydney on trial and at what figure. The reply was: “£2/10/- a week and two fares”.

McKay wired acceptance, for good measure doubling what Cross had asked for. In due course, Cross arrived. But, to everyone’s horror, his medium was ink-and-wash, which Smith’s Weekly couldn’t print. In desperation, they tried printing one cartoon and the result was appalling.

“All the lines had to be open,” said McKay. “We were printing on newsprint with a rotary machine”. Previously, Australian illustrators had drawn for reproduction on “flat” presses. Times were changing and everybody was being forced to adjust. So, McKay told Cross to switch to pen and ink line drawings.

Stanley George Cross had been born in Los Angeles, California, on 3rd December, 1888. His family moved to Perth in 1893, where Stan was to grow up. At the age of 16, he started work at the WA Railways Department as a clerical cadet. It was a job he took seriously and, in 1906, he passed an examination in shorthand. Soon afterwards, he began developing his drawing skills at the Technical School in Perth.

Cross was 31 when he accepted an offer to become the second artist to be employed at Smith’s Weekly. At £5 a week, it was an opportunity too good to turn down. Cross was not happy about being told to draw in pen and ink and had considered tossing in the job. But, as luck would have it, Alec Sass blew in, looking for work. He had been

SMITH’S ARTISTS TELL THE TRUTH ABOUT EACH OTHER

In the Smith’s Weekly edition of 25th December, 1937, the staff artists were tasked with telling the “truth” about each other, complete with descriptive caricatures:

“Just to prove that black-and-white artists are really human beings after all, Smith’s Weekly asked it’s art staff (world-famous, all of them) to supply their life stories in a few words.

“The catch was that no artist was allowed to write his own story - he had to operate on somebody else.

“So, for the first time, readers can gather the real truth about the people who set them chuckling each issue.”

Artists featured were Frank Dunne, Charlie Hallett, Jo Jonsson, George Donaldson, Joan Morrison, Virgil Reilly, Syd Miller, Mollie Horseman, Virgil Reilly... and Stan Cross and Jim Russell!

SYD MILLER on STAN X (yclept CROSS):

The appended photograph is no likeness. I mean his porkpie hat is invisible and silent as the “g” in stomach ache (in polite society). There is also a golden quality in the absence of pockets built to his own specification temporarily to lodge lobsters on the port side; and the complete works of Major Douglas, plus two volumes of elucidations, and a two-tier mahogany book shelf to starboard. His famous relative of the “X” clan, Madame, was his kindest critic until he put her in a Vaudevillians’ strip. Now he keeps away lest “X marks the spot” on the front page, in heavy, black letters. Gentlemen (and ladies should any be listening-in), I give you the King of Comics. May he never be an “ex.”

VIRGIL on JIM RUSSELL:

He came to us as a nuggety little lad. He has never grown up; only his face has got harder. He’s the original “little fixer,” and is game to organise anything from the office dance to the Centenary celebrations. He is modern to the finger tips. Keeps his records on squared paper graphs, wears dark shirts and light ties and uses an airbrush. Jim comes of a political family steeped in the radical tradition, and in his belief goes one better than the old people. His main avocation is coaching, the Davis Cup team (unofficially), and his hobby is drawing.

working in America, but suffered a serious nervous breakdown, forcing his return to Australia. In Sydney, he had found work with Smith and Julius, a graphic design and advertising studio.

Sass (or to give him his real name, Alexander Phillip Williams) was English and had been born in 1878. He came to Australia with his family in around 1885 and had taught Hartt drawing when both were living in Melbourne.

Sass produced a portfolio of his work, which showed he had mastered the technique of drawing for rotary printing presses. McKay and Archibald thought he was a real find. They put him on, expecting him to impart his methods to the younger artists, so he was installed as Art Editor. Sass soon convinced Cross that he could draw in pen and ink successfully. McKay looked at Stan’s contract and quickly disregarded it. His original finishing five-year term was to have brought him up to £10 a week. By that time, Cross was receiving a weekly salary of £40 and before too long it had climbed to £60 a week.

The first tragedy to strike those working on Smith’s Weekly was the death of Archibald at 7.30pm on Wednesday, 10th September, 1919. Archibald was only 63 but many people thought him to be much older. His obituary in The Bulletin said, in part, “He gathered round him, too, the nucleus of that great band of contributors who to this day make The Bulletin like no other paper anywhere, and he was able to inspire men to produce the best that was in them. That indeed constitutes his great service to Australian literature.”

For his contributions to Australia, Archibald was given a State Funeral and buried at Waverley Cemetery in Sydney’s east, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Soon afterwards it was discovered he had been buried in the wrong grave (in the Catholic section). He was quickly exhumed and reburied in the proper grave next to his wife in the general section.

Smith’s Weekly had been going for almost twelve months when one of the journalists on the paper, Errol Knox, suggested it would be a good idea to start running comics. It was not a novel idea, as comic strips had been an important part of many newspapers around the world for almost 30 years by then, but for some strange reason they had just not caught on in Australia. Cross was the one who was asked to take on the duty of drawing a comic strip. So, on 7th August, 1920, the first episode of You and Me was published. Originally, the strip was about two people - John Pot and his friend Whalesteeth - arguing about politics (for anyone with an interest in politics there never is a shortage of subjects to argue about).

Despite its initial success, Cross was asked to modify You & Me and make it more domestic. The American strip, The Gumps, was suggested as a guide. The Gumps had been first published in 1917 as a daily and a Sunday feature had been introduced in 1919. It was drawn by Robert Sidney Smith and was enjoying considerable popularity, which continued even after Smith was killed in a car crash in 1935.

In response to the request to soften You and Me, in November 1920, Cross introduced Mrs. Pott. John Pot had not only gained a wife, but he

had earned an additional “t” to his name! He had also acquired a son and a daughter, but they soon quietly disappeared; You and Me had begun its evolution into a domestic feature about a squabbling husband and wife.

In November 1921, the first episode of Us Fellers, drawn by J.C. (“Jimmy”) Bancks, was published. Had it not been for the success of You and Me, it might never have been launched. It evolved into Ginger Meggs and made Bancks one of the best paid cartoonists in Australia.

Towards the end of 1922, the circulation of Smithʼs Weekly had climbed to over 150,000 and the paper was making good profits. It had been in the Imperial Arcade for almost three years and towards the end of the year it moved into a specially-constructed building at 126-130 Phillip Street, Sydney (where it stayed until it closed in 1950). The Assembly Hotel was next door which was very handy. Across the road was another hotel, The Tudor, which proved to be very handy, too.

Those working on Smithʼs Weekly had barely enough time to unpack their bags when, on 1st December, 1922, Sass died in a private hospital in Mosman. There were obituaries run in many newspapers all over Australia, but strangely no mention of his contribution to Smith’s Weekly was made in any of them. Soon afterwards, Hartt was installed as the second Art Director of Smith’s Weekly

Smith was so happy with the way things were progressing, he considered buying half of the then-struggling Daily Telegraph for £300,000. McKay told him that he and Packer could start a new daily for far less. Smith took a little convincing before agreeing to let them. The Daily Guardian burst into life on July 2, 1923, with a team of journalists gathered from all over Australia and New Zealand. Most of the Smith’s Weekly artists were also contributing.

In 1924, 14-year-old Jim Russell began work as a copyboy on The Daily Guardian. As it was owned by Smithʼs Weekly, it was produced out of the same office and used the same art department. By 1927, The Daily Guardian and Smith’s Weekly were prospering. But success brought

conflicts at the top. The issue that caused the biggest problem was in reality a very small problem. The boxing reporter on Smith’s Weekly, Jim Donald, started writing that wrestling contests were phoney. Smith was not happy and wanted him to stop. McKay was happy and wanted him to continue. Packer was happy to stay out of the argument. Smith was so unhappy he offered to sell his shares in the organisation to McKay. McKay was unhappy he did not have the money to take up the offer, so he offered to sell his shares to Smith at the same price. The deal was done and McKay left after agreeing not to work in journalism for five years. It was not something McKay had on his mind. With his pockets full of what had been Smith’s money, he headed to the golf course to reduce his handicap and practice his swing on his front lawn.

Russell became Australia’s youngest political cartoonist when, in 1928 - at the age of nineteen - he started work at The Sunday News in Sydney. He kept the job until 1931 when the paper folded. Next, Russell briefly went to The Referee (owned by Smithʼs Weekly) as sports caricaturist until he re-joined Smith’s Weekly

In January 1930, Smith’s Weekly sold The Daily Guardian and Sunday Guardian to Associated Newspapers. After a dispute over finances, Packer followed suit in 1931. Noticing this, McKay returned to Smith’s Weekly. Neither paper lasted long. In February 1930, The Daily Guardian was merged with the Daily Telegraph Pictorial to form The Daily Telegraph and, in September 1931, The Sunday Guardian was merged with The Sunday Sun. Packer did not last long either; he soon departed his new job and died in 1934.

Hartt committed suicide in 1930. The reason was never discovered, but it was possibly post-traumatic stress due to injuries he had sustained in the Great War. He was only 45. Cross was soon made Art Director of Smith’s Weekly. By 1939, Cross was at the height of his career at the paper. He was even on the Board and seemed to be a valued member of staff, but the paper was in trouble and had been taken over. Suddenly, Cross resigned and never publicly explained why. Russell had gone on holidays just before the takeover and was in America when Cross resigned. He was telephoned with the news and was also told he would

be taking over as Art Director on Smith’s Weekly. Upon Russell’s return, Cross confided to him that he had resigned over the issue of holidays. Cross had always taken his break over the Christmas period and, when he booked holidays at the end of 1939, the new management claimed holidays accrued under the old management had not been transferred with the ownership of the paper. Cross felt so aggrieved, he contacted Keith Murdoch at the Herald and Weekly Times, who quickly offered Cross a job working for The Herald in Melbourne while allowing him to continuing living in Sydney. It was an offer too good to pass up, so Cross tendered his resignation at Smith’s Weekly.

Cross did not believe he had a claim on the comics he had been drawing at Smith’s Weekly and was of the impression they were the property of

the paper. He was not happy about this but thought there was nothing he could do about it. His last You and Me strip was published on 21st January 1940. With the departure of Cross, Russell inherited the job of drawing You and Me. His first strip was published seven days later, on 28th January. To signify the handover, the name of the strip was changed to Mr and Mrs Pott. Little else had been altered and the recipe stayed much as Cross had left it.

Soon after starting work at the Herald and Weekly Times, Cross launched a new comic strip, The Winks, which first appeared in The Herald on 20th April, 1940. It did not have the success Cross had hoped for, so he modified it and it became Wally and the Major on 15th July, 1941. Success followed.

It was hard going for Smith’s Weekly in the 1940s, with the paper only just managing to stay afloat. After Robert Menzies won the 1949 Federal Election, Russell said he became worried about Smith’s Weekly becoming too sycophantic to the government. He claimed it had always been a tradition of the paper to be on the side of the opposition. He spoke about his concern with the Editor-in-Chief, Edgar Holt. The response was simple: Russell was told to “butt out” as it was none of his business! Just as Cross had before him, he thought about the Herald and Weekly Times now that he was unhappy at Smith’s Weekly. Russell contacted Cross and asked if he thought Murdoch, then the Managing Director of the Herald and Weekly Times group, might be interested in him changing ships. Cross contacted Murdoch, who asked to see Russell, who in turn jumped on the first Melbourne-bound plane he could. Murdoch offered Russell a job, working for The Herald, which he accepted on the spot.

Once back in Sydney, almost as soon as he put in his resignation at Smith’s Weekly, it was announced that the newspaper had been sold to “new interests” and was to close in October, 1950. The last issue of Smith’s Weekly contained what Russell expected to be his last-ever Potts

ABOVE: Stan Cross and Jim Russell celebrate 50 years of The Potts at the Sydney Tattersall’s Club in 1970

strip. Russell’s only concern at The Herald was how to create a new comic strip, intending to produce something along the lines of Mr and Mrs Pott. It would have to be new, as he thought Smith’s Weekly - which was now controlled by Fairfax - still owned copyright. However, with Smith’s Weekly now out of production, Murdoch put the proposition to Fairfax that if the copyright was transferred to The Herald, Russell could continue to draw the comic. In exchange, The Sydney Morning Herald could have it for free for a few years. It was a sweet deal, especially since the real owner of the copyright was the person doing the work.

Before this latest incarnation of the strip saw print, there was to be yet another name change: this time to The Potts. Further, Russell now had to

draw it daily instead of weekly. The Potts was first published in The Sun News-Pictorial on 23rd January, 1951, and was soon appearing in most states of Australia with the Herald and Weekly Times syndicating it. To widen the strip’s appeal, Russell added a daughter (Ann), a son-in-law (Herb) and two grandchildren (Mike and Bunty). Russell drew most of his ideas from his own household or his neighbours.

“Usually, they spring from a complaint about how someone or other feels that he or she has been badly treated,” he said in 1951. “It’s quite a common thing to get ideas when among my friends.”

In 1953, Russell began drawing the Sunday version, perhaps because The Sunday Sun had merged with The Sunday Herald to form The SunHerald on 11th October, and there was a need to expand the comic section. Six years later, Russell introduced Uncle Dick as a genteel scrounger, after some complaints that the strip relied too much on domestic squabbling. Using Uncle Dick (Mrs. Potts’ uncle), Russell felt he could “sneak” into the strip the less attractive elements that had been excised from the main characters. Often seen as semi-autobiographical, Russell once admitted: “I’ve grown more like Uncle Dick and Uncle Dick has grown more like me. My wife says he is me”.

Somehow, in 1957, Russell was able to convince Arthur J. Lafave to give The Potts a run in America (Bancks had signed with Lafave in 1938 to syndicate Ginger Meggs). Bancks had introduced Russell - along with his brother Dan Russell - to Lafave in 1947. At the time, Lafave tried to convince Dan to draw a daily version of Ginger Meggs, but nothing came of the attempt. Lafave was reluctant to take on The Potts, believing the strip had limited appeal in America. However, he put it on offer on 3rd June, 1957, through his Lafave Newspaper Features service. Despite the small client list and the not inconsiderable work of translating the ‘Aussieisms’ for an American audience, Lafave turned things up a notch by additionally offering the Sunday page, starting 29th September of that year.

Like most comics foreign to America, The Potts didn’t find a particularly enthusiastic audience, but did make it into 35 American newspapers. In 1961, Lafave tried stirring the pot by renaming the U.S. version Uncle Dick, but it didn’t help. However, The Potts was already being heralded as an international strip, with an estimated daily circulation of 15 million, appearing in New Zealand, Turkey, Canada, Finland and Sri Lanka, along with the 35 American newspapers. The strip was offered once again to the American market by Creators Syndicate in 1999 but failed to find a single paper willing to take it.

Early in 1957, failing eyesight forced Cross to seek help to draw Wally and the Major. He approached Carl Lyon, asking him to ink in his pencil drawings. Gradually, Lyon became more involved with Wally and the Major and began to do some of the writing as well as helping Cross with the drawing. By 1964, both Cross and Lyon were signing the strip and

ABOVE: Jim Russell at work in his home studio in the 1990s

in 1966, Lyon had assumed total responsibility for the weekly strip as well as continuing his involvement with the dailies. Cross retired in 1970 at the age of 82 and moved to Armidale, where he lived until his death on 16th June, 1977.

Lyon continued to work alone on Wally and the Major ‘til he retired in 1979. For three years in the mid-1970s, George Haddon drew the Sunday strips. Then Vernon Hayles took it on for 12 months. But like most newspaper comics, Wally and the Major can only now be read in the history books.

When Russell reached the age of 65, he was informed by the Herald and Weekly Times of their compulsory retirement policy and was told he had to go. He did not want to and managed to convince them to keep him on for another year.

ABOVE: Jim Russell doing his best Uncle Dick as he recreates the cartoon for his stamp in Australia Post’s Living Together stamp series in 1988

RIGHT: Three of The Potts annuals from the 1950s (from top: 1955, 1953 and 1958)

BELOW: Lindsay Foyle’s cartoon following Jim Russell’s death in 2001

In 1976, he was told again that he had to go as his twelve-month extension was up. He pointed out that he still enjoyed drawing The Potts and there was no-one around to continue the strip. He suggested they give him the copyright and he would continue drawing it as a freelancer. Deal done, Jim settled down to retirement doing just what he had been doing before retiring, drawing The Potts seven days a week.

In 1985, Russell had been appointed Patron of the Australian Black and White Artists’ Club (now known as the Australian Cartoonists’ Association), a role he relished. That year, The Bulletin took on sponsoring new national awards for cartooning, which were soon named The Stanley Awards in honour of the outstanding contribution Cross had made to Australian cartooning. Those awards continue to this day.

The “Stanleys” were designed by sculptor Eberhard Franke, basing them on the central figures in Cross’ famous 1933 cartoon, For Gorsake Stop Laughing, This is Serious! Aside from the various bronze category awards and the gold-plated Artist of the Year, one of the awards - the appropriately-named Silver Stanley - was for an individual who has made a significant contribution to cartooning. Most fittingly, the first Silver Stanley was presented to Jim Russell. Both men had played a big part in the ACA over many years: each had served as long-term Presidents, Cross serving from 1931 to 1954 and Russell from 1955 to 1957 and again from 1965 until 1973.

Russell was still churning out The Potts and involving himself with cartooning events, including encouraging the latest generation of children to pick up their pencils. When real estate company, L.J. Hooker, began sponsoring a national schools cartooning competition in the late 1990s, Russell was onboard. He was enthusiastically looking forward to the judging of the 2001 competition on 14th August, confirming his attendance the night before, so it was surprising when he did not show up at Jannali Public School at the appointed time. The trouble was that he was at home, not feeling at all well.

Jim Russell died in the early hours of 15th August, 2001, of a heart attack, en route to hospital, aged 92. He had been drawing the one comic strip for almost 62 years unassisted, which he often claimed was

“a world record”. He had been drawing it so long, most people had no idea that The Potts had already been going for 20 years before he started drawing it. The Potts appeared for the last time on 1st December, 2001. It wasn’t long before there was a rumour going around saying Cathy Wilcox had been asked if she would like to take it over.

“I have no recollection of being asked,” Wilcox said. “The Art Department was always saying they wanted more strip cartoons. Brian Kogler tried for a while and it broke him - he gave up cartooning.”

“I remember old Jim and his slightly-too-friendly cuddles,” she added, “and his trousers done up with a safety pin.”

Following Russell’s death, the Board of the Australian Cartoonists’ Association resolved to honour Russell’s many achievements as both an artist and as an ambassador for Australian cartooning by restyling the Silver Stanley. From 2003 onwards, the award for Significant Contribution to Australian Cartooning would be known as the Jim Russell Award. The Australian Financial Review’s David Rowe was commissioned to sculpt the new cast bronze statuette and he could not think of a more apt figure to represent Russell than Uncle Dick himself. 2

How to Draw a Strip for 62 Years!

While he never said so publicly, Jim Russell freely admitted to cartooning colleagues that he repeated several gags in The Potts every two or three years (especially if they were good ones!). Even then, he was not entirely truthful.

Many of the gags were given another outing only months apart, as these two examples show, which is one of the reasons Russell was able to sustain The Potts for so long. His contention was that readers will rarely recall a joke from a week ago, let along a year!

This was cold comfort for Ken Emerson, who at one stage was struggling to come up with gags for his strip, The Warrumbunglers, while enduring cancer treatment. When he learned of Jim’s penchant for recycling old gags, he was shocked. It had never occurred to him as an option during 40 years of drawing his strip. Being able to draw inspiration from earlier Warrumbunglers strips ended up making life a little easier for Ken.

ginger bowled out ahead of century

by LINDSAY FOYLE and STEVE PANOZZO

On Sunday 14th June, 2020, something happened that caught everyone by surprise. Or rather, something failed to happen. After a solid 99-year run as a Sunday strip, Ginger Meggs did not appear in the Sun-Herald, which was a bit of a shock for readers. Worse still, it came as a complete surprise to the person who has been drawing Ginger Meggs for the last 13 years, Jason Chatfield.

Instead, readers were presented with Ian Jones’ Bushy Tales, a brilliant Aussie strip that had, until now, failed to secure a berth on home soil, despite having success overseas. It was wonderful turn of events for Jones. The usual behaviour of Australian papers is to axe strips, so for Bushy Tales to be given a four-week trial in the Sun-Herald, it was heaven-sent.

However, making room for new Australian strips should never come at the cost of other Australian strips, and this was the line that the ACA took in making representations to the editor of the Sun-Herald, Cosima Marriner. Particularly so, given Ginger Meggs’ dedicated following and heritage value, and that there were several syndicated overseas strips on the page which could have been dropped, holding neither cultural relevance nor emotional resonance with Australian readers. The Sun-Herald was deluged with letters of protest, talkback radio and breakfast television was awash with complaints and several cartoonists were interviewed.

By the afternoon of Friday 19th June, the Sun-Herald had finally emailed Chatfield and, after protracted negotiations, Marriner stated: “I can assure you we have not dropped Ginger from the Sun-Herald. He will appear in the paper as usual on Sunday - as will Bushy Tales.”

It was the best possible outcome and we applauded the SunHerald’s decision. But of course, Ginger has always courted trouble and, sure enough, a “production error” ensured that Ginger Meggs again failed to get a run on 21st June. Marriner admitted to being as flummoxed as her readers.

While Ginger finally reappeared in the Sun-Herald on 28th June, it would be reasonable to expect future “glitches”.

Ginger Meggs is an expensive comic strip to run and, in the wake of the sale of Fairfax to Nine Entertainment, the SunHerald is under pressure to slash costs. The strip’s affinity with the public and the character’s heritage value sadly mean very little to bean counters.

Since he sprang to life in the Sunday Sun in November, 1921, the life of Ginger has been replete with drama and intrigue. Back then, the strip was called Us Fellers. In 1939, Us Fellers was retitled Ginger Meggs and the power of the little redhead larrikin was formidable: at that time, around three million Australians were reading Meggsie’s adventures every week. In 1951, the editor-in-chief of Associated Newspapers fell out with Bancks, so Ginger Meggs moved to The Sunday Telegraph, taking 80,000 readers with him!

In 1977, The Sunday Telegraph’s comics liftout was revamped. While there was still almost a year to run on the Meggs contract, it was not renewed. Before the news even got out, Ginger Meggs had been offered to the Sun-Herald, which accepted the offer and Ginger has been appearing in the SunHerald ever since. Ginger Meggs is considered to be the third longest-running strip in the world, after the American strips The Katzenjammer Kids and Gasoline Alley. Let’s hope he sticks around for a little while yet.

ABOVE: Ginger Meggs by Jason Chatfield

BELOW: Bushy Tales by Ian Jones

CHRIS THOMAS (New South Wales)

PETER PLAYER (Western Australia)

CHRISTOPHE GRANET (New South Wales)

NANCY BEIMAN (Ontario)

LINDSAY FOYLE (New South Wales) MARK LYNCH (New South Wales)

compiled by steve panozzo

thanks to everyone for your amazing contributions!

NEXT ISSUE: Protests! Please send your contributions to: inkspot@cartoonists.org.au

STEVE KEAST (New South Wales)

IAN JONES (Queensland)

DANNY ZEMP (Victoria)

TIM MELLISH (Queensland)

MATT BISSETT-JOHNSON (Victoria)

MARK LYNCH (New South Wales)

Bloody-Minded Danny

If Danny Zemp ever looks like he’s about to pass out, there’s a good reason why. He’s made around 150 visits to the Red Cross’ Ringwood Donor Centre so far, drawing caricatures of the resident ‘vampires’ to pass the time.

“They’ve started to pin their caricatures on their lockers,” Zemp said. “At some stage I got told they change shifts to make sure they are working on the days I come in - I was taken aback by that.”

Danny started donating blood in Switzerland when he was eighteen, tagging along with his father.

“I tend to work in jobs that are not too well paid, but I like to help where I can,” he said. “So, instead of giving money to charities, I donate blood and plasma.”

Sandy’s Experiment

Sandy Flett has been busily illustrating a new book series, written by Charlotte Barkla for Penguin Random House, called Edie’s Experiments.

“I’ve always loved comic books and cartoons as a girl, so to be given the chance to illustrate something for children in a black-and-white-cartoony style seemed like the perfect job for me,” said Flett, “Especially a book with a full-on, smart and hilarious girl as the main character, like Edie.”

The first two books in the series, How to Make Friends and How to Be the Best are out now on the Puffin imprint, priced at $14.99 and available everywhere.

Gallery Fits the Bill

Few artists can claim to have traversed the disciplines of fine art and cartooning quite as successfully as the late and much-missed Bill Leak. At the end of May, Johannes Leak (right) launched the Bill Leak Gallery at Ettalong on NSW’s Central Coast, which showcases his father’s extraordinary career.

“I’ve always thought, wouldn’t it be great to have a permanent gallery devoted to Dad’s work,” Johannes said. “His work is worth that.”

The gallery will host a rotating roster of exhibitions, each focusing on aspects of Leak Snr’s enormous catalogue of art. Currently on show is a range of Leak’s caricatures of Australian celebrities and politicians, many of which are for sale. This will be followed by a selection of life drawings. The gallery is located at 366 Ocean View Road, Ettalong Beach and is open most days.

clark swamped with 12,000 dailies

It’s been 39 years since Gary Clark first gave Ding the Duck his L-plates. Since 1981, Swamp has notched up more than 1,900 Sunday strips and recently hit 12,000 dailies, which is an impressive feat in anyone’s language. Initially aiming at becoming a political cartoonist (despite not liking politics) Clark found himself drawing a comic strip which he says suits his personality perfectly and is “far more satisfying”. Congratulations on the achievement, Gary!

Crichton’s Dears in the COVID Spotlight

While the rest of the world waged war against COVID-19 with an arsenal of toilet paper, copious bottles of wine, 1,000-piece jigsaws and insane online purchases, Anna Crichton (below right) consoled herself by drawing a bunch of cartoons, which have been brought together in Dear Virus: A Cartoonist Chronicles Love and Life in the Time of Covid. The cartoons depict a couple, Mr and Mrs Dear, and chart their life in lockdown. It’s an endearing, often surreal, experience which - like all great fantasy - has its root in a variety of real events and lockdown longings. “It’s just a matter of letting your mind wander in the most strange directions,” Crichton explains. “Hidden behind the humour often are poignant, delicate sentiments that everyone has had.” Crichton, formerly an illustrator with The Australian and now firmly, and successfully, entrenched in her homeland of New Zealand, has won multiple awards for her work. 10% from all sales will be donated to the NZ Native Forests Restoration Trust. Dear Virus, published by Waywardworks, is NZ$15 + postage and may be ordered through www.womensbookshop.co.nz

AL JAFFEE FOLDS UP

Celebrated MAD artist Al Jaffee has retired at the age of 99. To mark the occasion, MAD is releasing a special issue on 10th June that will feature the last of Jaffee’s celebrated Fold-Ins. Born on 21st March, 1921, Jaffee has been working as a cartoonist since 1941, with his frst work for MAD appearing in 1955.

“I guess I’m childish in a way,” Jaffee says. “I’m living the life I wanted all along, which was to make people think and laugh.”

Fellow MAD artist Tom Richmond thinks Jaffee is the ideal blend “of genius writing, razor-sharp wit, seemingly endless creativity and ideas and brilliant art,” yet also believes he is underappreciated. “But among cartoonists or people who really know about the art form,” Richmond said, “he’s Zeus among the lesser gods.”

While MAD stopped creating new material in October last year, it made an exception for this special issue.

Boo Knocked for Six

Spare a thought for The Daily Telegraph’s long-time sports cartoonist, Scott ‘Boo’ Bailey, who is on the long road to recovery from a battle with double pneumonia that was so serious, it put him into an intensive care unit. Boo’s illness is not believed to COVID-19 related and after a knife-edge week off his feet, he is slowly regaining his health. After establishing his career at the Gold Coast Bulletin, he made the move to Sydney and The Daily Telegraph at the end of 1987, where he has since become a household name amongst sports fans (and especially NRL supporters). Get well soon, Scotty!

Top Teacher Tim!

Out of all Tim McEwen’s career achievements, being elected “Teacher of the Year” must be a most unexpected one! Tim, who moonlights as an animation tutor at JMC Academy, was cited as an “all-round great teacher”, an “inspiration” and having the ability to know “when to be strict but also when to joke around”. Congratulations, Tim!

MOVING HOUSE? JUST MOVED?

Then update your address with us - we’d really hate it if you missed the next Inkspot! Get in touch with the ACA’s Membership Secretary today… it’s easy: secretary@cartoonists.org.au

Beyond Their Pens

by Vane Lindesay

Of the many skilled cartoonists who have worked in Australian journalism, some becoming household names, none deserves more recognition and praise for his generosity and practical assistance to young artists than gallery founder and curator, painter and art critic, author and fine cartoonist of distinction, Alan McCulloch.

Alan McLeod McCulloch was born in 1907 in the Melbourne seaside suburb of St. Kilda. His family lived in Sydney for a time before returning to Melbourne, where McCulloch attended Scotch College from 1920 to 1922.

Before he became a professional cartoonist, McCulloch worked as a teller with the Commonwealth Bank, “hating every minute of it” and yearning to be an artist like his younger brother, Wilfred. Finally, after a frustrating eighteen years as a bank teller, he decided in 1943 to quit his job and become an artist. Early family encouragement had come from his father, a mining and ship’s engineer and amateur artist, and his brother Wilfred, who had introduced Alan to Arthur Boyd in the mid-1930s. Their meeting both boosted his enthusiasm to succeed in his newly-chosen profession and also led to a lifelong friendship.

McCulloch freely admitted that the greatest influence on his life as an artist was when Will Dyson, the renowned artist and cartoonist, was enticed back to Australia from London by Keith Murdoch in 1925 to work for the recently-revamped Punch and The Herald.

Writing the literary journal, Overland, in December 1981, McCulloch stated how Dyson was to present a lecture on the subject of pictorial satire and how the artist W.B. Mclnnes, Alan’s art tutor, gave him

a ticket for the lecture. McCulloch said:

“I didn’t know what pictorial satire was but I was in the lecture hall at the N.G.V. (National Gallery of Victoria) half an hour before the lecture started. That lecture changed by my life and Dyson became my hero. I was eighteen at the time... I was very impressionable and that night I walked through a succession of doors whose existence I never previously suspected”.

McCulIoch wrote that his greatest ambition then was to meet his hero. This he finally achieved. On his first visit, he describes Dyson’s house in Wallace Ave, Toorak, a fashionable Melbourne address, as a rather untidy white one with white shutters and red tiled dragons on the roof.

On greeting him, McCulloch could see that Dyson was apprehensive about the meeting. McCulloch noted that Dyson was careful to offer no encouragement about his talent revealed in the sheet of drawings that he had brought along for appraisal. But as McCulloch was leaving Dyson remarked, “It would not matter what I said about not being an artist - you’d be one anyway.”

The measure of Alan’s keenness can be appreciated when, on future visits to Wallace Avenue, he continued to tolerate Dyson’s fits of savagery.

This is the seventh in a series of articles on Australian cartoonists who have written published books, composed stage plays or have made a significant cultural contribution.

This issue: ALAN McCULLOCH

Alan McCulloch pictured around 1934

“His language was often appalling, and when it got too bad, I’d shrink behind a door, bookcase, easel, or perhaps the laundry mangle he had converted to an etching press.”

What moved Dyson to these fits of rage (and rightly so) was when some junior editor altered his cartoon captions or changed a work. The young McCulloch persevered, as apparently did Dyson.

“Sometimes,” McCulloch wrote, “he would be all kindness and those moments were sheer bliss. And how I learned. I could learn more from Dyson in half an hour than I could leam at the N.G.V. in six months.”

During these visits the young McCulIoch, watching as Dyson printed the first series of drypoint etchings that were so successful in New York, was inspired to also produce a drypoint he titled, The Coming Storm (right), a print of which joins other examples of his art held in the National Gallery of Victoria’s collection.

Whilst working as a bank teller, McCulloch had attended art classes at the N.G.V. and later at the Working Men’s College (now RMIT). During this period, his work was published in the ill-fated daily newspaper, the Star. In October 1933, The Argus decided to publish an evening paper to rival The Herald. However, the new paper was short-lived, ceasing publication in April 1936, believed by many as being due to industrial sabotage. It appears out of date or upside down weather maps, wrong captions under pictures, transposed headlines over news items and other damage was deliberately employed.

Around the time of his work for the Star, McCulloch published So This Was the Spot (1934), a souvenir of Melbourne’s centenary. In 1938, Ballet Bogies appeared, illustrated by Alan and his brother, Wilfred.

From these early publications Alan’s line drawing skills, together with maturity of style, are evident. Although he learned much from Will Dyson about becoming an artist, there is not the faintest of Dyson’s graphic influence in McCulloch’s approach or drawing style. His Guildabrandt wartime series for Picture News, and later the Australasian Post, were works drawn in the Art Deco Style, a vogue that declared a new refined approach: elegant, whilst angular and geometric with thoughtful placing of back areas.

Initially, McCulloch favoured the brush but his later work was drawn with the pen, the lines of fuse wire thickness predating George Molnar’s work a decade later.

Sometime during 1944, McCulloch was invited to join the staff of The Argus as an art critic. This organisation also published a weekly national magazine, Picture Post, to which Alan was also appointed as a cartoonist.

In this double role, McCulloch instigated two regular features, one of which was an “Australasian” version of Rube Goldberg’s “The Squawk Club”, in which he illustrated, in comic fashion, readers’ complaints and annoying domestic situations. The other wellsupported feature was the invitation to amateur and professional artists to submit cartoons for publication, thereby encouraging a new generation of cartoonists. However, he became, as did many others, an innocent victim of that dreadful era known as the Cold War when the management of The

Argus pressured him to ignore left-wing artists or write unfavourably about them. As a result, he was dismissed in late 1946 for being fair, honest and outspoken. Alan then, having saved and put aside some money, travelled to America where he married an Australian, Ellen Bromley.

He wrote a light-hearted account of their travels across that country, published as Highway Forty Later the couple travelled through Europe on a tandem bicycle from Paris through France, and on to Positano in southern Italy. This odyssey, Trial by Tandem, was also published. Both books were illustrated by McCulloch.

In later life, Alan McCulloch became a luminary figure in Australian fine art circles, researching and publishing his monumental Encyclopaedia of Australian Art and The Golden Age of Australian Painting, a major study of the Heidelberg School, amongst others in an impressive list of art books. In 1971 he founded the Mornington Peninsula Arts Centre.

For his achievements and scholarly contribution to Australian art, in 1976, McCulloch was made a member of the Order of Australia.

Alan McCulloch, the revered friend of many, died in 1992.

where are they now?

The ninth in a series of “catch-ups” with hard-to-find cartoonists as they sit down and have a chat over a cuppa with IAN McCALL. This issue: STEPHEN STANLEY

When I started out collecting cartoon art, I visited South Australia. While I was there, I came across a local comic strip called Lafferty in The Advertiser. I also discovered some beautifully-drawn puzzle books, so I contacted the artist, Stephen Stanley. I caught up again with him recently to find out more about him and his amazing career.

Stephen was born in Liverpool, England in 1950 and migrated to South Australia in 1966. He was one of those kids who, from an early age, knew exactly what he wanted to do when he grew up: to draw. He began sending cartoons off to various newspapers when he was ten years old and still in primary school. He never sold anything of course, but got lots of nice replies from editors. In high school, Stephen entered the South Australian State Library’s “Make a Book” competition. The idea was to produce something that looked as much like a real book as possible. His entry was a lavishly-illustrated Norse saga called Höder. He put more effort into the illustrations (and the drawing of the Viking longship on the cover) than the actual story, but it won a prize and the judge commented: “the illustrations are exceptional, showing imagination, are well controlled and beautifully executed. Stephen certainly has a future as a book illustrator.” Today, at the last count, Stephen has illustrated around 80 books.

Stephen generally found that his oneeyed enthusiasm for drawing wasn’t always appreciated by teachers. He

once got into big trouble for submitting his French assignment as a comic-strip rather than in written form. Stephen admits that a lot of it was his fault. He just wanted to turn everything into an excuse to draw, and spent most of his spare time turning out endless comics and such. The funny thing is, however, that when it came to art, Stephen was hardly top of the class. He liked English, although his teacher wrote in a school report that he’d never make it as an author. He wasn’t very good at mathematics, science or languages, mainly because he couldn’t relate them to his ambition to draw for a living.

In 1971, his first comic strip, Stan, began appearing in The Whyalla News. Three years later, he followed this with the long-running Lafferty, which ran in The Advertiser from 1974 until 1995, as well as other papers around the country. He drew several other strips, including 2088. Stan ended up running for 49 years, until The Whyalla News closed in April 2020.

He drew a lot of gags for Australasian Post, Playboy and Penthouse. One day, Stephen fell out of a tree and broke his drawing arm. It wasn’t fun, but after he’d recovered his sense of humour, he began to think about creating children’s books. The first one, Puzzle Planets, was released in 1993, and was followed by a whole series, such as Puzzle Body, Puzzle Worlds and Puzzle Animals. Most of his work now is illustrating books, a lot of which he self-publishes (you can see more at www.stancartoons.com). 2

Reviews

The World vs Todd McFarlane

by Daniel Best

Published by Blaq Books

206 pages

Available from www.amazon.com.au

RRP $30 ($11.99 for the Kindle Edition)

ISBN 9781796687002

Reviewed by David de Vries

The World Vs Todd McFarlane by Daniel Best is the story of comicbook creator Todd McFarlane: his life, his triumphs and the dramas that threatened to eclipse it all.

Best known as the creator of Spawn, Todd rose to fame as the artist of the Amazing Spider-man, turning it into one of the top selling Marvel titles of the early 1990s. Frustrated at not being able to draw exactly want he wanted, Todd quit Amazing Spider-man at its height to seek out a book that he could both write and draw.

Desperate not to lose their fan-favourite, Marvel immediately launched a new book, simply entitled Spider-man, with Todd as writer/artist.

As a writer... Todd McFarlane was an amazing artist. But that didn’t stop sales soaring. Before it was even released, Spiderman became the biggest seller of its day, a pre-order mega-seller with sales in the millions. And with that, Todd fled Marvel to create Spawn, his own creator-owned title, and co-established Image Comics.

From the moment Todd set out on his own, Spawn was central to his career and, to some respect, his sense of identity. Drawn heavily from his personal life, his loves and his childhood, Spawn was a deeply personal creation, and one Todd would defend to his last dollar. As Daniel recounts, during the ensuing years, Todd found himself under repeated attack by the claims of others, against the legitimacy or the purity of the Spawn title.

First, by Tony Twist, a Canadian ice hockey player whose name Todd borrowed for one of his more reprehensible villains, costing Todd millions and tying him and Image up in court for years.

Next, by Neil Gaiman, gun-writer for DC comics and a key player in the “British invasion”. Neil, having written episodes of Spawn, sued Todd for control of some co-created characters that, in Todd’s view, were they to appear elsewhere, would have diluted the Spawn brand.

And finally, by Al Simmons, a college friend so close that Todd named Spawn’s alter ego after him, a nom-de-plume that Al later traded for fame and cash, to the cost of their friendship and a legal response.

Daniel’s book weaves these tales (along with the ill-fated acquisition attempt of Miracleman and an Image managerial power- play) into a rollicking roller-coaster ride, following the rise to superstardom, the entrepreneurial triumphs, naive corporate ideologies, reluctant partnerships, self-interest and betrayal… with a shit-ton of cash thrown in.

It’s an enthralling story in the extreme, so much so, you don’t need to know the players going in. In an almost Tarantinoesque tour de force, Daniel jumps us back, forwards and sideways, talking time-outs and anecdotal asides to set the scene and place every thought, word and deed into a narrative context.

Blessed as I am to have been friends with Todd and Neil, I had a good idea going in of the players and the mechanics. But now, even moreso. I devoured this in two sittings, immersed in the drama, with the past springing to life.

I can’t recommend this book highly enough. If you love comics, legal fiction, or just eavesdropping in on some juicy

Professional Heckler: The Life and Art of Duncan Macpherson

by Terry Mosher

Published by McGill-Queen’s University Press

390 pages

Available from www.booktopia.com.au

RRP $75.90

ISBN 9780228001560

Reviewed by Lindsay

Foyle

Terry Mosher’s biographical book, Professional Heckler: The Life and Art of Duncan Macpherson, has 390 pages and in the paperback edition weighs 1.3 kilograms. By any measure, it is a big book. That said, it’s beautifully printed with wonderful reproductions of Macpherson’s artwork and a delight to read.

For Australians who do not have a big understanding of Canadian cartooning, Duncan Macpherson (1924-1993) is considered to be one of the greatest Canadian cartoonists to have worked during the last century. The book is full of his work and there are some fabulous drawings in it.

In his foreword, John Honderich says, “Cartooning, at its finest, is a rare art. Its practitioners are many, its giants are few”. He goes on to outline why Macpherson is one of the giants. It would be hard not to understand his point of view after reading Mosher’s book. While Mosher makes no secret of his long friendship with Macpherson, it does not impinge on the content of the book, but probably enhances it.

For his part, Terry Mosher is also a well-known cartoonist, working under the pen-name Aislin, and has written over 50 books. Professional Heckler is written with humour and affection and should not be missed by anyone with a love of cartooning.

It might be hard to find in Australian bookshops, however Amazon is selling the hardback edition at $241.61, or $84.00 for the paperback edition. Booktopia’s paperback price is cheaper at $75.95.

MEANWHILE, AT HOME... Jason Chatfield

What it is and How it Works

by DAVID BLUMENSTEIN

Many cartoonists would be great at graphic scribing (also called “graphic recording”, “sketchnoting” and probably a few other things). If you can draw quickly, aren’t worried about doing it in front of an audience, and you can listen to a talk, conference or other gathering while translating the important points into visuals, scribing’s for you!

Lots of big corporates and organisations are aware of scribing and see the benefits of it, but there are also many organisations of different sizes who’ve never heard of it – so there’s a lot of opportunities to find paid work doing it, or introduce it to your existing clients as a new service. Obviously all this has been complicated by the coronavirus epidemic we’re all dealing with, but I’ll get to that later.

The following illustrations are from a scribe I did at the Natural Capital Summit in Brisbane during 2019, part of Climate Week Queensland.

Trying Scribing

When I was getting started doing this work, my colleague, Gavin Blake suggested I find a little whiteboard and practice on TED talks. This is good advice; TED talks are short, honed to within an inch of their lives, and hew to a pretty standard format, where the point of the talk is reiterated constantly and sewn up with a pretty bow at the end. This won’t prepare you for scribing real conversations, though. They get messy. When you feel ready to get out there and scribe a real event,

offer your services for free to a local event, festival or conference. This is an especially good tactic if you wanted to go to the event anyway, but couldn’t afford it!

Scribing an Event

First of all, familiarise yourself with the run-sheet of the event. How many talks are you scribing? Are there breaks? What kind of talks are they? Keynote speeches? Conversations between multiple people?

Know what the outcome/outputs will be. Do the organisers want a lovely finished piece by event’s close? Are they keen for you to colour it later and provide it digitally? You may need a decent camera for documentation.

Get as much info as possible about the venue. You don’t want to arrive and find that none of the walls are suitable, or that the hotel won’t allow things to be attached to windows. Go there ahead of time if you can, or get photos and/or a venue map sent. Don’t assume the client knows much about how scribing works. Educate them about how best to use you, and make sure they know what you need, materials or workspace-wise.

If you have access to the material you’ll be scribing: you may want to develop a basic idea for the “shape” of the final piece (or pieces), including ways to fill out space if, or when, you suddenly run out of material.

Getting to Work

On my most recent trip, an Artline marker pen I had in my carry-on luggage leaked during the flight. Evidently the cabin pressure is a problem for fully-loaded pens (my flight had a lot of turbulence). Maybe keep your pens in checked baggage, or make sure they’re not full (or keep them in something leakproof!).

Make sure your paper/slate/whiteboard/ whatever isn’t positioned awkwardly. Too low and your back or knees will get mad at you. If you’re facing away from the action, or it’s too high, you’ll do your neck. Try not to let organisers place you over a floor-mounted light fixture, among a bunch of AV cables or in an egress path.

Bring multiple pens, and test them before you kick off. Not good to find you’re running dry in the middle of a piece. Which brings me to my next point: make sure you’re healthy, stretched and well hydrated before you kick off a full day of drawing while people watch you. Thirst, aches, pains and itches will stop you doing your best work.

Roll with changes. As much planning as you do, things will change on the day. “The stage has to be moved!”... and now, so do you. Maybe the paper they got you isn’t appropriate. Keep cool and find alternatives that’ll work for you and the client. You want to do your best work, but the scribe is not foremost on your client’s mind. They’re already freaking out over the stage, the tech, the speaker who hasn’t shown up...

While Sketching

Don’t feel you have to capture every word said. The goal is not transcription! Often everything is being captured by a note-taker or on video. Your role is to capture the mood of the room and the major themes of the talk/s. I tend to wait until a really interesting point is made, or one that lends itself

well to being visualised. These points are usually human truths, not jargon and acronyms.

If you feel things are moving too quickly to capture, have a pad next to you so you can take some quick notes; you can come back to draw those parts in when you’ve got more time. Plus, remember that people often consciously (or unconsciously) reiterate their points as they finish speaking, which is a good time to grab something you’ve missed.

If you’re drawing on a whiteboard, you’ll be able to erase mistakes and redraw parts to connect them more closely with each other. If you’re on paper, you’ll have to get practiced, and try to design your scribe so that you have devices (panels, borders, arrows, etc.) you can add in to help make connections to things said earlier.

Try to strike a balance between text and image. Ideally I’d manage to throw a few larger drawings into a scribe to keep the thing interesting. Try to strike a balance also between colours and black-and-white. I tend to use three colours at most in live scribes (usually black plus one warm and one cool colour, or black plus a lighter and darker version of the same

David Blumenstein (although he’s not a dentist, we can’t show you his face), in action

colour). Sometimes I’ll try to differentiate between “positive” and “negative” points (for example, “negative” points being drawn in red).

You can do more than stand at a board and capture pre-written keynote presentations. I suggest to clients that I spend time listening in on group discussions, or just chat to people during the lunch break, capture some of that talk on a sketchpad and then return to the scribe and add it in. Some of the most interesting stuff comes this way. If you’re scribing digitally, like on a tablet computer, have the cables/adapters you’ll need to hook up to the client’s screens, power points, etc. Have long cables if possible. Be sure your PC peripherals will hook up to their Mac stuff, or vice versa.

Remember to get photos. Good ones, if you’re able to bring a DSLR along. Take photos of the process. Ask a friendly staff member or volunteer to shoot some photos of you working. At the end, ask the tech crew to blast the lights so you can get the best possible pics of your work.

Um... The Virus

We’re not necessarily able to scribe in person at the moment because of the coronavirus epidemic, but some events are already starting to reschedule themselves back into existence; maybe for 2021, or as smaller events to comply with government regulations. The point is, we’ll be back at venues soon enough. In the meantime, use this “lull” to hone that live sketching ability.

If you’re tech savvy, or have a friend who is, you may be able to set yourself up to scribe remotely for online meetings and conferences. There are a few ways you can do this:

• One way would be to scribe digitally, on a tablet or computer, and simply share your screen with the online event. This will need some co-ordination with whomever is the “host” of the livestream.

• Another way would be to draw as you normally do, on paper or using an easel, but to do it live on your webcam, or recorded by your phone. I recently picked up an old photographic copy stand for $20 from a lady on Facebook Marketplace with the idea of screwing a DSLR camera onto it, hitting ‘record’ on the video and turning it into a video-scribing rig! The bonus here is that the video will be very high quality, and it’s easily sped-up by using video editing software. It can then be turned into a nice “speed-drawing” clip to share later with participants of the event (or on social media).

Good luck, and feel free to ask questions of myself or your other colleagues about the technicalities. Most importantly, just have a go!

DB

Here are some useful links:

www.visualfriends.com – they run regular meetups around Australia

www.vizconf.com – run by Visual Friends; this is their annual conference

www.camscanner.com – a great app for capturing and straightening up pictures of scribes and documents www.graphicrecorders.org.au – an organisation that now exists in Australia specifically for people doing this work

Scribing... And Loving It!

by STEVE KEAST

My Dad always told me, “find a job you love and you will never work a day in your life”. Growing up, I always wanted to be a cartoonist. I sold my first cartoon to my Dad’s mate, who was the editor of a Rotary Club magazine, when I was eleven years old. He, in turn, referred me to a mate of his, who edited the Parkes Champion Post, where I sold a series of 10 comic strips for the grand total of $2 each. I then resold these cartoons to a kids’ magazine, called KidsZone, for $20 each. Winning!

After this, high school happened. With the singular exception of a great little enterprise I set up (drawing pictures from Playboy for my mates’ older brothers), I didn’t really do too much with my drawing. I wasn’t bad at school but didn’t enjoy it, so when all my mates got apprenticeships as chippies, plumbers and sparkies, I did the most arty apprenticeship I could find - signwriting. I enjoyed it, but still loved the idea of being a cartoonist. The only problem was, it always felt unachievable.

Ten years passed. After a short stint as a builder’s labourer, I decided to see what I could do with my drawings and (I kid you not...) through a friend’s sister who worked with the wife of a guy that “did something vaguely around cartooning”, I was given the contact details of someone at Capgemini Australia, who invited me to do some contract work for them. This was a life-changing moment. Basically, the work involved being part of a team that supports workshops, and this is where I was introduced to graphic recording, or “scribing”.

For those that aren’t aware of what scribing is, it is the live capture of presentations, workshops, conversations or conferences in a graphic way. It’s not meant to be dictation, but

more a snapshot of what was said that can act as a visual reminder later.

I worked as a freelance scribe for around 8 years and with this work I was lucky enough to scribe some truly inspiring people like Cate Blanchett, Layne Beachley, Peter Garrett and Professor Genevieve Bell. My work sent me to some amazing places, such as the Cayman Islands, Paris, Mozambique, China and Mexico.

Around five years ago, I was working on a job in Shenzhen with a facilitation team from KPMG. After a few too many adult beverages one evening, a question came up: what would it be like to have a full-time scribe working within KPMG? From that conversation, The Articulators was born. It is now a team of three full-time illustrators who specialise in graphic recording, illustrated rich pictures, animated explainer videos, and, of course, the odd annoying birthday card.

In the 13 years that I have been doing this type of work, the growth in popularity has been amazing. Where the appeal comes from is, I think, a result of the simplicity of what we do. We take complex ideas and concepts and present them in an engaging way. So, with the arrival of COVID-19, we found ourselves in high demand. Consultants, used to face-to-face meetings, were scrambling to find a way to differentiate themselves from their competitors... Enter The Articulators!

Although digital scribing had been around for a while and was something we already did (especially for large conferences), it was still a bit of a novelty for smaller meetings. Now it was essential. After a bit of trial and error, and support from

the global network, we have managed to share our scribes live from our iPads through platforms like Zoom and Microsoft Teams... and I don’t even need to wear pants now!

Phrases like “the new normal” and “pivoting into the new reality” have been thrown around a lot lately, so I don’t like using them too much, but graphic recording has certainly stepped up to the mark. Its popularity keeps growing as people become accustomed to new ways of doing business in this strange new world that we find ourselves.

I’m happy to report that I love my job, which would have made Dad proud, and I do feel I have become a “real” cartoonist (perhaps of a new breed?). I just took the long way around to get there. All we need now is to get graphic recording across the line as a Stanleys category!

SK 2

Steve Keast (he’s not a dentist either, but we still can’t show you his face), strutting his stuff

It’s a Jumble Out There!

Christophe Granet’s feature, It’s a Jungle Out There!, has been running since 1999 under his pen-name, Hagen, and appears in newspapers in Australia and around the world. One of the peculiarities of strips and panels is that different formats are required for different publications and, more frequently these days, for smartphones and tablets. Christophe’s challenge, then, is to create format flexibility for his feature, allowing it to be reproduced as both a panel and as a strip, with one drawing accommodating both formats.

While the panel artwork covers a square area of 15cm x 15cm, the strip covers an area of 27cm x 8cm. Both gags need to work within a common area. The panel frame (right) is indicated by the lines top and bottom of the linework in these two examples. Using Paintshop Pro, Christophe crops his work as either a panel or a strip.

“By using a bit of planning,” he says, ”you can draw both a panel and strip format at the same time!”

ABOVE and BELOW: Christophe’s linework incorporates lines above and below to indicate the panel frame, while the strip borders are indicated by the points at either end. Action is concentrated at either left or right to allow space for the strip’s speech balloon.

Vale Hazel Daniel (1919-2020)

ACA patron Vane Lindsay’s companion, Hazel Daniel, passed away in May, 2020. Hazel was well known to cartoonists, as she had regularly attended the Stanley Awards and the cartoonists’ meetings in Victoria, save for the last couple of years when her failing health had kept her away. Not surprisingly, she had celebrated her 100h birthday last November!

Rolf Heimann

The following lines are excerpts from the eulogy given by her nephew, Dr.Andrew Merret:

Hazel was born on the 22nd November 1919 in Rockhampton. She was to be Syd and Mary’s only child. Hazel was christened a Methodist, largely by accident. This was the only Church open at the time, when the new family travelled into town by horse and buggy for the baby’s baptism.

In 1929, when Hazel was aged 10, her father Syd bought a fishery on the Herbert River, near Halifax in Queensland. There he ran four fish traps, catching barramundi and cod. Hazel recalled that, occasionally, a crocodile would become caught in the trap and would have to be removed. Syd used a 40-foot work boat to run the traps. A particularly frightening episode occurred when Syd stepped on a stonefish and refused to seek medical help. She was terrified that her father might die, however he eventually recovered.

At 17, she was asked to stay on at St Joseph’s School to teach the infant class and primary grades, aged 5 to 8 years. She was required to teach fifty “babies”. This was overtaxing and led to a nervous breakdown. After a short time she gave teaching away.

In 1942 by chance an opportunity arose to move to Melbourne, working for Harry White at Natham and White Cellars, a wine and spirit merchant business. She mentioned that, in preparing the brandy, the only difference between the premium and basic lines was the label. The customers, apparently, didn’t know the difference. She was not impressed by this practice.

Hazel and Mary lived at 45 Alexander Avenue in South Yarra. They nurtured a very special young tree on the corner. Hazel often mentioned that she would like her ashes to be put there (the tree is still there).

In 1945, at the age of 25, she met the man she was to marry: Ken Daniel. Hazel was briefly engaged, however she was unsure why. Her fiance didn’t smoke or drink and didn’t go to parties. “What a bore,” she told me. The engagement did not last. Over the next five years she enjoyed a close relationship with James Vane “Blue” Lindsay. They both enjoyed a drink and a laugh!

Through this period, she became a Communist Party sympathiser, but never joined, saying, “they had no sense of

humour”. In 1950, Ken had decided to take long service leave in Western Australia. He took her to dinner to say good-bye and in the course of the evening asked, “would you consider marrying me?” She was 31 and he was 45. They married on 10th August, 1951, in St Mary’s Church, Caulfield.

In 1953, after two years in Elwood, they settled in an apartment at 600 St Kilda Road. Hazel was, at heart, a city girl and enjoyed many good times there. She recalled one party evening when she noticed Ken’s nephew, Micky Agg, had holes in his shoes. Hazel felt this was completely unacceptable in a former RAAF Officer and fighter pilot and most successful business man. She took off his shoes and threw them into the fire! Micky had to go home in his socks.

In 1990, Ken died suddenly in Singapore. He and Hazel had visited Singapore many times and had come to love that city. The visits had helped Ken come to terms with the terrors of his time as a prisoner-of-war there. Hazel was always very proud of Ken’s service. After Ken’s sudden death, Hazel decided to return to the city. In 1991, a phone call allowed Hazel to meet up again with Blue Lindsay. Blue had lost his wife and they were both alone. As was typical of Hazel, no time was wasted in rekindling those happy times from the 1940s. Their loving friendship sustained each of them for the next 29 years.

By mid-2019, Hazel had become more dependent on the devoted care of Blue, Don Kerr, Lila Heimann, her neighbour, her God-daughter and her many friends. She hated with a passion the loss of independence. It soon became clear that she required 24-hour care and eventually moved to Montclair Aged Care. Hazel died peacefully in her bed in Montclaire at 9.20 pm on Monday, 11th May, aged 100 years.

She had been a primary school teacher, hairdresser, secretary, department supervisor, determined social campaigner, a dedicated daughter to her parents, devoted wife to Ken and dear friend and companion to Blue.

Vane Lindesay and Hazel Daniel, dapper as ever, at the 2011 Stanley Awards in Sydney

Life’s a Pitch 4 Getting Your Animation Series Off the Ground

by PETER VISKA

For this instalment of Life’s A Pitch, I asked Colin South, founding director of Media World Pictures, for his overseas pitching tips. I could hear my parents in what he sent back. Namely: “Do your homework!”

Now you’ve got some local interest in your project it’s time to pitch your TV show overseas. The main markets for kids TV in (sort-of)calendar order are: Kidscreen (Miami), MIPTV (Cannes), ANNECY (er... in Annecy, France), MIPCOM (Cannes), Screen Forever (Gold Coast), Asian Animation Summit (Bali).

So - where to go? This year, the COVID crisis has already made some choices for you, as pretty much all these events are in limbo. It’s a good time to do your homework; figure out which events offer you the best options to pitch your project to the right people. They all have useful websites. Looking at who went last year is always a good start! Ask around, you’ll find everyone will be helpful.

Because you’ve done your homework you already know a few things by heart:

• you completely know the underlying rights of the material you’re pitching;

• the age of your potential audience;

• its preferred length;

• its one-line pitch... (aka “strap line”);

• your great creative team: who created it, who’s going to write it, design it, direct it and who’s producing it;

• the number of episodes; and

• how you’re planning to finance it.

You also know something about the person/company you’re pitching to:

• their track record and background;

• the shows and projects they have done and do successfully;

• who the decision-makers are; and

• where your show or idea sits within their portfolio or schedule. And you know what you want from the pitch/ meeting: development funds, production funds, a sales agent and an end broadcaster. Perhaps all of the above?

You’ve also remembered some things not to say, for example:

• “this idea needs someone to finance it so I can make the show I want”

• “this idea will make you a lot of money from the merchandising”

• “I’m going to do everything on this show/idea as I don’t trust anyone else to do it justice”

You know when you’ve done a great pitch (more than you’ll know you’ve done a bad one). The initial meet-andgreet has gone well. Your prospective broadcaster, distributor or producer partner is attentive and interested in you, super keen to know what shows you have made before and the track record of the team. Now it’s time to pitch your project. Jeepers! You’ve used up 10 minutes and you’ve only got 20 minutes left to sell your idea! It’s all in the way the presentation has been received. Your audience of usually one will be engaged, they’ll laugh at your jokes and ask great questions. Like: what is the budget? Have you got any scripts? If not, when can you deliver some scripts? Who are your potential partners? What’s the proposed schedule? Is there a finance plan? You walk away from that meeting quite proud of yourself... thinking the deal is done. I answered all the questions. How easy was that!

Then a little later - maybe a great deal later - someone you’ve maybe never met, nor had any contact with, lets you know that yours is a great idea and thanks you for making the time to present it to them. Unfortunately:

a) the age range of your show is too old for them

b) the age range of your show is too young for them

c) they already have something quite similar in production

d) they already have something quite similar in development

e) we’d love to see the show when it’s completed for possible acquisition.

In the meantime, if you’ve got any other ideas or shows you’d like to present, please don’t hesitate to contact them. That is indeed what you plan to do... because next year, you’ll pitch them your new show... and they can’t say no. You’ve done your homework!

Colin South is co-producer of the Ludo Studio /Media World animated comedy series, The Strange Chores for the ABC

ABOVE: The Logie-nominated Dogstar for the Nine Network

Feature

Artist: Judy Nadin

Additional

Paul (Zoob) De Zubicary & Danny Zemp