Inkspot 91

Inkspot Presidential Palaver

Issue #91, Summer 2020/2021 www.cartoonists.org.au

ACA Board

Patron VANE LINDESAY

President CATHY WILCOX 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: JUDY HORACEK judy@horacek.com.au

NAT KARMICHAEL comicoz@live.com.au

IAN McCALL mccallart@bigpond.com.au

DAVID POPE info@scratch.com.au

DEAN RANKINE deanrankine@gmail.com

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

Contributors: John Allison, Marcelo Baez, Tristan Bancks, Daniel Best, Shelley Brauer, Peter Broelman, Margaret Cameron, Gary Chaloner, Jason Chatfield, David de Vries, Antonio Di Dio, Christopher Downes, Jed Dunstan, Jules Faber, Lindsay Foyle, Christophe Granet, George Haddon, Judy Horacek, Phil Judd, Nat Karmichael, Steve Keast, Melinda Lawrence, Peter Lewis, Glenn Lumsden, Andrew Marlton, Matthew Martin, Ian McCall, Anne-Maree McEwen, Tim McEwen, David Miller, Judy Nadin, Dillon Naylor, Valerie Parv, Gerald Peigneux, Glenn Robinson, Christopher Rowland, Ariane Rummery, John Shakespeare, Ian Sharpe, Chris Thomas, John Thorby, Stuart Thornton, Mark Tippett, Peter Viska

Cover Art: David Rowe by Judy Nadin

Inkspot is published quarterly by the Australian Cartoonists’ Association

Deadline for next issue is 14th MARCH

PO Box 5178

SOUTH TURRAMURRA NSW 2074

ABN 19 140 290 841

ISSN 1034-1943

Australia Post Registration PP 533798/0015

Boy, was I glad to see the back of 2020! No more bushfires, floods, pandemic, no more crazy narcissistic fascist dictators… Oh. Oh well, if 2020 taught us anything, it was how to manage down our expectations. 10 people to a wedding, 4 metres apart?! Party on! Another extreme weather event? Give us your worst! Trump a sore loser? Tell me something new!

So what about the ACA? - what are our expectations for the year ahead? Let’s not manage them down just yet!

To begin with, I am honoured to take on this role (if a little terrified - I’m much more used to being a sole operator!). I am incredibly buoyed by the goodwill and energy expressed by the ACA Board, both old and new, and members I’ve spoken with. I very much look forward to your input in making the ACA an organisation that is contemporary, useful and relevant to you..

2020 was, in many ways, a stark lesson in dealing with change. A large part of that is learning to accept new reality, no matter how much we wish things would go back to the way they were. Change is hard, it forces us to confront our fears and limitations, but it can also be incredibly invigorating and productive.

Our industry is changing dramatically - that’s nothing new to say. I don’t think I’d advise any kid to aspire to newspaper cartooning these days - I’m not sure that will still exist as a job in a decade or so. Prove me wrong!

But there are practitioners of “cartooning”, broadly speaking, which I’m only just learning about - in web comics, graphic novels, event drawing etc, and connecting with and recognising these will be part of broadening our membership, while finding common purpose. As Dave Blumenstein said to me recently: what we have in common is that we’re storytellers and communicators. These are pretty big things to have in common, so we might also find that we have a lot to learn from each other, as well as from those who’ve gone before. We might not be back to “normal” in 2021, but let’s see what we can make of it anyway.

Thanks to Steve for producing the magazine. Enjoy the read!

Editorial Notes

Another intense awards season gone and, despite COVID-19, Inkspot has it all covered. It doesn’t happen by magic, but the work is easy when you have such amazing contributors sending stuff for inclusion! Heartfelt thanks to Judy Nadin for our stunning cover - she knocks it out of the park. Every. Single. Time.

It’s worth noting that, within the space of 30 days at the end of 2020, there were six major awards presented for our craft. The need for critical analysis has, clearly, never been greater and it’s wonderful to see it acknowledged.

Highlights in this issue include a celebration of Christophe Granet’s 5,000th It’s a Jungle Out There. Christophe is, of course, characteristically humble about this rather momentous achievement, so we’re

happy to embarrass him a little. Many thanks, too, to Daniel Best for his “COVID in review” article. 2020 has indeed been a tough slog and getting a handle on how much we have been compromised is the first step in working out what to do next.

Thanks to Nat Karmichael for supplying our surprise insert in honour of the late Ian Eddy, who passed away in October, aged only 61. Our sincere condolences go to his family.

Finally - a massive congratulations to Cathy Wilcox on her appointment as ACA President. We should all have every confidence that the ACA will be going places with her at the helm.

JOHN SHAKESPEARE

Wildlife Wrap

Thank you for the coverage of the Toons4Wildlife show in Inkspot

It’s a pity that the show wasn’t mentioned at the AGM, considering the exhibition’s industry-raising awareness for the ACA (and our members) at the National Cartoon Gallery.

I know it’s on the periphery of normal ACA activities but it did coelesce the group during Covid and it got the artists involved in a community-based effort. Good for the craft, I thought.

Mark Tippett

ENGADINE NSW

Publish and Be Praised

It’s a fantastic magazine, thanks so much Steve. So pleased I could contribute something {“Would You Publish or Not?”, Inkspot #90) and I’m enjoying having a physical magazine in my hand!

Margot Saville

4 8

STANLEYS 2020

Our first (and hopefully last) COVID Stanley Awards meant no glamour, glitz or pizzazz... but we did get brekkie!

THE NEW ACA BOARD

You voted for them, and now we’ve got a new President and fresh new ACA Board - get to know them!

BEHIND THE LINES

If you thought 2020 had been a dog’s breakfast, then the annual Behind the Lines exhibition confirmed it!

THE LEDGER AWARDS

Stanleys Voting Order

ROZELLE NSW 12

If I may make a suggestion (for the Stanley Awards voting form): put the awards list to be filled in the same order they appear in the Year Book. It would help people like me getting confused (as you can see from the mess I made in the first box). Yes, I know, it would help if I read the listing properly (LOL). Anyway, great field of contestants and very hard to choose. Well done! Excellent Inkspot, by the way.

(Name and address not supplied)

Vane Praise

To those kind ACA members from Canada, Victoria, NSW, Western Australia and Queensland, my grateful thanks for your tributes to celebrate my 100th birthday and for the superb book of caricatures, the concept of Lindsay Foyle.

Vane Lindesay

BRIGHTON VICTORIA

The new ACA Board met for the first time on 10th December via Zoom. Here’s a group photo of everyone being thoughtful! Missing in action are Martina Zeitler, whose iPad’s battery gave out, and Peter Broelman, who had tendered his apologies.

11 30

Join TIM McEWEN as he takes us through this year’s Ledger Awards results and makes one or two big announcements!

ROTARY CARTOON AWARDS

The Rotary Cartoon Awards had real, live people accepting actual awards. All the fun from Coffs can be seen here!

INTO THE JUNGLE

CHRISTOPHE GRANET celebrates his 5,000th It’s a Jungle Out There - here’s his remarkable story...

CREATIVITY IN COVID

How have Australia’s comic book artists kept going through the pandemic?

DANIEL BEST shares his findings...

HALL OF FAME 2020

Meet CEC HARTT and DOROTHY WALL, the latest two inductees into the Australian Cartoonists Hall of Fame

Stanleys 2020

Earlier this year, the ACA Board had grand plans for the 2020 Stanley Awards. By March, it became clear that this year’s event would instead be defined by the onslaught of COVID-19 and the those plans were shelved. What eventuated at the end of November was rather a muted celebration tacked on to the Rotary Cartoon Awards (which were able to go ahead in Coffs Harbour), with the Annual General Meeting augmented by Zoom conferencing software.

It was certainly an unusual experience. On the weekend of 28th and 29th November, around 25 cartoonists (mostly from New South Wales with a couple of Queenslanders) were able to escape the shackles of coronavirus confinement and make their way to Coffs Harbour for a combined celebration of the Rotary Cartoon Awards, the ACA’s AGM and a new culinary experience - the first-ever Stanley Awards Brunch!

Disappointingly, owing to lockdown restrictions, most members were only able to participate remotely, looking on via Facebook Live or Zoom. With the Rotary Cartoon Awards being staged at the National Cartoon Gallery the night before, it was an opportunity to both capitalise on ACA members being in the one location and help boost numbers for the Gallery by scheduling the ACA meetings for the next morning. Thanks to Pacific Bay Resort (and the ever-attentive and thoughtful Tanya Watts), we were able to organise discount accommodation for members and a venue for the AGM and the Stanley Awards announcement.

With technical help from Steve Keast, our Zoom link-up worked a treat for the AGM and it’s wonderful to know that it will be a permanent feature at future general meetings. The Stanley Awards announcement went out on Facebook Live and - despite early sound problems - the reaction from viewers has been positive.

THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

There’s nothing more galvanising than an election amid a pandemic! The prospect of a new President seems to have given ACA members the incentive to put pen to paper and risk Australia Post’s new-found reluctance to deliver mail. A new-look ACA Board for 2021-2022 was declared:

PRESIDENT: Cathy Wilcox

DEPUTY PRESIDENT: David Blumenstein

SECRETARY: Steve Panozzo

TREASURER: Martina Zeitler

MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY: Peter Broelman

COMMITTEE: Judy Horacek, Nat Karmichael, Ian McCall, David Pope and Dean Rankine

Immediate past-President, Jules Faber, will remain on the ACA Board in an advisory ex-officio basis as per convention. Jules was given a round of applause for his decade-long Presidency, a well-deserved accolade indeed.

In his final President’s Report, Jules was reflective of his time as part of the Board, which he joined in 2008, grateful for what he saw as a learning experience.

“I’ve enjoyed a vast majority of my time in office, and I hope

Photos by LINDSAY FOYLE, NAT KARMICHAEL, TIM McEWEN and STEVE PANOZZO

The Future?: The 2020 AGM underway

I’m leaving it in a state that the new Committee can continue on with smoothly and continue to do good work, taking the ACA to great and strong heights as we approach our century,” he said.

“Thank you to everyone who has made this journey so much fun and one in which I’ve learned so very much. Thank you.”

Cathy then assumed the mantle, steering proceedings with confidence. While our AGMs only run for sixty minutes, we used the time wisely, managing, for the most part, to swiftly move through a number of issues of concern to members.

Christophe Granet tabled several motions. His first, that the ACA should instigate a junior tier of membership, met with general approval. While the motion itself was withdrawn due to a technicality, it’s a topic that will be explored by the new Board in 2021. His other motions - that virtual participation in the AGM be made a permanent fixture and that new members be formally introduced to the wider membership each quarter - were enthusiastically adopted by the meeting.

Stuart McMillen voiced his concerns about the structure of the Animator category in the Stanley Awards, which was

met with a plea for tolerance as the new category continues to find its feet. With that, proceedings were adjourned for another year and everyone relocated to the Bayside Bar and Grill for the big Stanley Awards reveal.

THE 2020 STANLEY AWARDS

The formality of the Annual General Meeting now over, it was time to order a belated breakfast. Those of us in Coffs Harbour ambled from the conference room to the Bayside Bar and Grill, while everyone watching at home went to find a coffee and switch from Zoom to Facebook Live.

As our newly-installed President was polishing off her eggs benedict, Peter Broelman began drip-feeding voting results to her mobile phone. Steve Panozzo began the Facebook Live coverage by chatting to various attendees, however much of what people had to say seemed lost in the open space of the bistro, forcing Keastie to once again save the day by providing a plug-in-microphone.

A new category made its debut at this year’s Stanleys: Event Cartoonist. While most cartoonists still work in a studio setting, either at home or in an office, there has been an

The Stanley Awards: Brekkie Edition

David Rowe has a GREAT suggestion...

Tony Lopes and a rather wet trophy

Melinda Lawrence and Judy Nadin

increased prominence of artists working “live” at corporate events and conferences, drawing caricatures or performing scribing/graphic recording duties. After much deliberating, it was felt a new category was required to cater for this dynamic, evolving offshoot.

Three of this year’s Stanley Award recipients happened to be present, so acceptance speeches were amusingly conducted as “fireside chats”, which made for a wonderful break from convention.

Cathy Wilcox’s first chat was with Judy Nadin, accepting her award for Caricaturist, who revealed her excitement at receiving her award in the company of “her hero”, David Rowe, and fellow nominees Paul Harvey, Fräntz Kantor and Simon Schneider who she described as “amazing”.

Tony Lopes, described by Wilcox as being present “in actual physical person”, was awarded Comic Strip Artist. Lopes professed that, while it certainly wasn’t his first Stanley Award (it was his twelfth!), it was definitely the first tme he’d seen everybody sober.

Rowe was on hand to accept his award for Editorial/Political Cartoonist. In what was somewhat of a surprise to many, this marked only the second time he’d been awarded a Stanley in this category. He offered thanks to Scott Morrison and Donald Trump, who made everyone’s job a little “too easy” this year.

Additionally, Lindsay Foyle was on hand to give us some background to our two Cartoonists Hall of Fame inductees: the ACA’s first President, Cec Hartt and the creator of Blinky Bill, Dorothy Wall Panozzo was honoured to briefly speak in praise of Jules Faber, this year’s recipient of the coveted Jim Russell Award for Significant Contribution to Australian Cartooning.

Cartoonist of the Year was awarded to the ever-popular Rowe for the third consecutive year. While the world was going to hell in a handbasket, he obviously revelled in the chaos, with his work a clear stand-out among his fellows. Wilcox - in the absence of an actual award to present - offered Rowe a silver tea spoon. Eschewing the spoon, he took a shine to a nearby silver water jug (considering it “better”), with Wilcox immediately dubbing it the “Silver Jug of Glory”.

After a round of photos (where everyone brandished silver water jugs in place of Stanley Awards), the gathering parted company. While the ACA hopes to present next year’s awards in the usual manner, the unique character of these COVID-era Stanley Awards has ensured that they will be remembered for many reasons. Not the least being that they stand as testament to the indestructible and indomitable character of Australian cartooning.

The FINALISTS!

(recipients in bold)

ANIMATION CARTOONIST

Matt Bissett-Johnson

David Blumenstein

Harry Gold

Eric Löbbecke

Peter Viska

EDITORIAL/POLITICAL CARTOONIST

Peter Broelman

Mark Knight

David Pope

David Rowe

Cathy Wilcox

COMIC STRIP CARTOONIST

Jason Chatfield

Gary Clark

Ian Jones

Tony Lopes

Mark Lynch

ILLUSTRATOR

Tony Bela

Anton Emdin

George Haddon

Eric Löbbecke

David Pope

SINGLE GAG CARTOONIST

Jason Chatfield

Matt Golding

Andrew Fyfe

Judy Horacek

Peter Player

CARICATURIST

Paul Harvey

Fräntz Kantor

Judy Nadin

David Rowe

Simon Schneider

COMIC BOOK ARTIST

Stuart Hipwell

Glenn Lumsden

Paul Mason

Tim McEwen

Dean Rankine

BOOK ILLUSTRATOR

Anton Emdin

Paul Harvey

Leigh Hobbs

Dean Rankine

Cathy Wilcox

EVENT CARTOONIST

Paul Harvey

Steve Keast

Steve Panozzo

Anthony Pascoe

Danny Zemp

CARTOONIST OF THE YEAR

Paul Harvey

Mark Knight

Judy Nadin

David Pope

David Rowe

Cathy Wilcox

JIM RUSSELL AWARD FOR SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTION TO AUSTRALIAN CARTOONING

Jules Faber

AUSTRALIAN CARTOONISTS HALL OF FAME

Cecil Hartt and Dorothy Wall

The Juggernauts: Judy Nadin, David Rowe, Tony Lopes and newly-installed ACA President, Cathy Wilcox

And It’s Goodnight From Me... President’s Report 2020

Allow me to open by underscoring the obvious - 2020 has been unlike any other. A lot of our members have felt the sting of lost work and opportunities and we all look forward to the return of a healthy economy. Our industry isn’t large, but it is mighty, and if COVID-19 gave us anything, it was fuel. Between that and the US elections, we’ve had a bumper year of material to draw upon (no pun intended). Ours was perhaps one of the best-suited professions to survive this pandemic. Many cartoonists already work-from-home, so we have been training for lockdown for years, if not decades. Hopefully, we’ve managed to get ourselves through to the other side now.

There’s much to look forward to as we re-emerge into society. Ginger Meggs will celebrate 100 years next year and the rejoicing will be long and loud. This will hopefully see the return of our friend (former ACA President and current National Cartoonists’ Society President) Jason Chatfield to our shores, for a visit at the very least. Further afield, the ACA looks forward to its own century in 2024 and preparations are already underway for major events around the country.

John Kolm and Victor Perton approached the ACA this year with the idea of showcasing optimism and this has now grown into a potential cartoon exhibition which will partner us with the NCS in a joint international show.

Inkspot, our in-house magazine, has returned to it’s four-issues-per-year format, thanks in no small part to the editorship of both Nat Karmichael and Steve Panozzo. Inkspot is the envy of cartoonists organisations around the world and rightly so - it looks great, it’s regular and there’s always great content. Keep up the great work, Steve and the team.

Finally, this is my final year as ACA President. I have proudly served since 2008 as either President or as Deputy President (as I did from 2010-2012). As I step down, I’m enthusiastic about the ACA’s future, but I know we still have a way to go to improve, especially in achieving a more equal balance of men to women, of young to old and encouraging more diversity among our ranks. If there’s one thing I’ve always believed, it’s that cartooning is for everybody and anybody can do it.

As I depart the Big Chair, may I take this moment to thank the ACA membership for my time in office. It started out as a wild ride and, thankfully, settled down into doing good work over time. I started off assisting with our annual conference to planning and hosting it, then meeting and befriending all the wonderful cartoonists along the way as well as those who, while not cartoonists themselves, are sympathetic to our cause.

I will miss engaging with Board members during our regular meetings (which used to be four weeks apart until I realized we were doing more than ever so made them three weeks apart, where they remain today). I have enjoyed making appearances at public events to help further knowledge about the ACA, and continuing to build new relationships with people outside the ACA who didn’t know about us, as much as building on the strong relationships we already enjoy with our friends at the National Cartoon Gallery, the Rotary Cartoon Awards, the Australian Cartoon Museum and the Museum of Australian Democracy.

I’ve enjoyed the vast majority of my time in office, and I hope I’m leaving the ACA in a state that the new Board can continue on with smoothly, taking it to greater heights as we approach our century. Thank you to everyone who has joined me on this journey, as it’s been so much fun and one that has taught me so very much. Thank you.

Jules Faber

2009: With honoured Stanleys guests, the Oliphants

2008: El Presidente

2009: Commanding the Royal Harbour Cruise

2017: Stanley Award recipient

your new board

Following a nationwide ballot, a new ACA Board for 2021-2022 was unveiled at the 2020 Annual General Meeting. While some faces are familiar, there are several eager young space cadets keen to make a difference. Let’s meet them!

CATHY WILCOX, President

Cathy is an editorial cartoonist who has been drawing for the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and the Sun- Herald for over 30 years. She has received several Stanley Awards, a Kennedy Award, three Walkley Awards and has thrice been named Political Cartoonist of the Year by the Museum of Australian Democracy.

She has illustrated dozens of children’s books and been shortlisted and honoured by the Children’s Book Council. She is a representative of the MEAA’s National Media Section, a member of Cartooning for Peace and the local representative for Cartoonists Rights Network International (CRNI) and the Cartooning Global Forum.

She is interested in issues of free speech, press freedom and democracy. She has been a Board member of the ACA for 4 years, and wishes to help make it a truly useful and relevant network for working cartoonists, illustrators and comic artists, fully mindful of the rapidly changing media landscape, the digital universe and the increasing diversity of practice and practitioners in our field.

DAVID BLUMENSTEIN, Deputy President

I’m a designer and comic artist based in Melbourne. I’ve been Deputy President of the ACA for the last couple of years. I conducted a survey for the ACA in 2019 which gathered info and opinions from 250 illustrators and cartoonists, both members and non-members. My interests as DP are to push ahead with the stuff people said they wanted from the ACA: get artists paid, more input from & involvement of members outside Victoria and NSW, more content delivered to members online, a wider understanding of what a “professional” artist is and culture change allowing for a more diverse membership.

My self-published comic, Free Money, Please, won a bronze Ledger Award in 2020.

STEVE PANOZZO, Secretary

Steve has been drawing cartoons and caricatures professionally since 1984. His first newspaper job was as Artist-in-Residence at The Manly Daily in 1985, after which he worked in Perth for a spell. He joined News Limited in 1987, drawing chiefly for The Australian and The Daily Telegraph in Sydney, where he remained for ten years. He has been the resident cartoonist for The Australian Journal of Pharmacy for 14 years.

Steve joined the ACA in 1986. He has been serving as Secretary since 2016 and resumed the editorship of Inkspot in 2019. Prior to this, Steve was ACA President in 1992-93 and 1997-99. In 2010, Steve was awarded the Jim Russell Award for his significant contribution to Australian cartooning. In 2020, he won a Rotary Cartoon Award in the Sports category.

MARTINA ZEITLER, Treasurer

While Martina is an engineer by trade, she is a cartoonist by good fortune and, since putting her hand up at the 2017 AGM, the ACA’s Treasurer. She figures it was a combination of her two professions that offered the potential for creative accounting solutions.

At work, she has managed to incorporate cartooning into her day job, creating visuals for presentations, training and internal communications. She publishes her single panel cartoon, Just Outside the Box and created Cosmic Caboodle, a kid friendly educational website all about space and cartoon aliens. Somehow, she manages to squeeze in family time with her two daughters and practice for her umpteenth black belt in Tae Kwon Do.

PETER BROELMAN, Membership Secretary

Peter (“Broels”) is a freelance political cartoonist, beginning his career at The News in 1990. He thinks he’s been involved with the ACA in various capacities since then, but it’s all a bit of a blur. Along the way, he’s edited Inkspot, worked on the ACA website, licked stamps, stuffed envelopes, served as the ACA’s Vice-President (SA/NT) and Secretary. He even served a stint as President between 2006 and 2008. Since 2018, Broels has been the ACA’s Membership Secretary.

Broels has been the recipient of several Stanley Awards, taking home statuettes for Editorial/ Political Cartoonist in 2004, 2005 and in 2009. Additionally, Broels was voted Cartoonist of the Year in 2005 and 2009.

THE COMMITTEE

JUDY HORACEK

I’ve been a freelance cartoonist for over three decades, working both on major newspapers and on smaller journals and progressive causes. I came to cartooning because I love what cartoons can do to show us who we are and how they reflect our society, both good bits and bad.

The nature of the profession has changed over these years, because of the changes in the mainstream media and a number of other factors. I would love to help address what that means for us as cartoonists and for young people coming up wanting to work in the field, to try and work out how we can best support them and each other through our professional body, the ACA.

NAT KARMICHAEL

Over the past decade, Nat has self-published ten books on Australian cartoonists. He was Editor/Publisher of Oi Oi Oi! - the last nationally-distributed comic book of original cartoons to ever appear in Australian newsagents. He edited Inkspot for 14 issues from late 2015 to 2019 and has been serving on the ACA Board since 2015.

Nat is presently working on two new books: one, a collection of Emile Mercier cartoons for the National Cartoon Gallery and another about the 1970s comic strip Iron Outlaw for his Comicoz imprint. Nat lives in Margate with his wife Carlene, and together they have fourteen grandchildren.

IAN McCALL

I have been passionate about cartoons since I could pick up a pencil. Since the 1980s, I have collected over 1500 pieces, all stored archivally. This has connected me with cartoonists of all stripes.

I have been involved on the Board of the ACA for many years and regularly contribute to Inkspot, help organise the annual Stanley Awards, cartoon exhibitions and Melbourne dinner gatherings, often with guest speakers. I am passionate about preserving our history, such as the ACA’s 100th anniversary, as well as looking forward to the new world.

DAVID POPE

I have been drawing political cartoons since the mid-1980s, freelancing for many years before becoming a staff artist for The Canberra Times, now part of Australian Community Media. I was roped in to some minor ACA work back when the great delegator, James Kemsley, kept the show afloat at it’s lowest ebb, but since then my involvement with the ACA has been minimal, beyond attending the annual conference every second year. I’ve spent more time in recent years helping out overseas cartoon groups, and the campaigns of the Cartoonists Rights Network International around Atena Farghadani (Iran), Musa Kart (Turkey), and Saba’aneh (Palestine).

Our work is mad, and earning a living from it is tough, so my expectations of the ACA and its volunteers have always been modest. The thing I value the most is the space the association provides to share tips and advice and talk about this strange craft with people who know what you mean. As we approach our centenary, I am interested in how to talk honestly (without guilt or defensiveness) about the history of racism reflected in and reinforced by Australian cartooning (including my own, I’ll tell you that story) without it being seen as woke bullshit or an attack on individual cartoonists.

DEAN RANKINE

Dean Rankine is a Ledger and Stanley Award-winning comic book artist, best known for his work on Simpsons Comics. His other credits include Bart Simpson, Futurama (Bongo), Rick and Morty, Invader Zim (Oni Press), Oggy and the Cockroaches, Underdog, Rocky and Bullwinkle (American Mythology), The Hellboy Winter Special (Dark Horse), Skottie Young’s I Hate Fairyland (Image), The Beano and The Dandy (DC Thomson), Australian MAD (Next Media) and Itty Bitty Bunnies in Rainbow Pixie Candy Land (Action Lab).

Dean is currently illustrating Timmy the Ticked-Off Pony series - written by Magda Szubanski. Among his other credits, he illustrated the A Funny Thing Happened to Simon Sidebottom series (Scholastic) and the Stuff Happens series (Penguin Random House). He wrote and illustrated Baby’s First Exorcism, My Dad is an Animal (Popsicle Press) and Be Batman (Shooting Star). He is the co-creator of the UpBeat Geek mental health card set with Dr. Janina Scarlet (Pop Culture Hero Coalition). And (would you believe) he’s one of the massive group of artists who currently hold the Guinness World Record for the “Most Contributors to a Published Comic Book”.

When he’s not drawing, Dean likes to eat pizza and watch cat videos.

Cartoon by GLENN ROBINSON

2020 BEHIND THE LINES THE DOG’S BREAKFAST

Cathy Wilcox has been named the Behind the Lines Cartoonist of the Year. A delighted Wilcox was on hand to accept her award from Daryl Karp, Director of the Museum of Australian Democracy, at the opening ceremony in Canberra on 20th November.

Each year, the Behind the Lines political cartoon exhibition offers up a neat satirical summary of events. Given the slow-moving trainwreck that was 2020, summing it all up in a neat package was no easy task. A dog’s breakfast? You bet.

Among the myriad social complications laid bare by COVID-19, it seems that aged care was the sector most ravaged by the pandemic. If it wasn’t because our elderly were so vulnerable to this virus, or that this industry’s management structure was so unfit to cope with such an onslaught, it was the brutal tragedy of people, unable to comfort dying relatives in locked-down homes, being forced to play out their frustrations and anguish as the rest of us watched on that tore at our collective heartstrings. Fittingly, the cartoon labelled “2020’s best” got straight to the heart of this issue.

Behind the Lines curator, Holly Williams, said that Wilcox’s cartoon stood out among all others.

“Many cartoons in 2020 featured the Grim Reaper,” said Williams. “This one stands out though.”

Wilcox said she knew it was worth running with the cartoon when it struck her as a particularly thorny subject. So thorny, in fact, that The Age did not publish it - it only ran in the Sydney Morning Herald

“I want to be honest with myself, not be shy of saying things that I think are important to address,” Wilcox said. “It was also about old people dying in homes and it was too much for the Melbourne newspaper.

“They felt it was going to be too upsetting for readers who were suffering from that particular event at the time, but I maintain that it was a strong, but worthwhile, statement to make because I was discussing privatisation and a system that was leading to this terrible outcome.”

Among other subjects covered in the exhibition was Australia’s devastating bushfire season, which made international headlines, and the Sports Rorts affair that felled Federal Sports Minister Bridget McKenzie and brought about an inquiry into how grants were managed from Parliament House.

Behind the Lines: The Year in Political Cartoons 2020 is on now at the Museum of Australian Democracy, Old Parliament House, Canberra.

Representing Talking Pictures were Fiona Katauskas and Mike Bowers

Winners are grinners

On Friday evening, the 4th of December, the 2020 Ledger Awards for excellence in Australian comics and graphic novels were announced. This is the seventh annual awards since the Ledgers were rebooted in 2014 and, although they were announced a lot later in the year than usual, the awarded comics are a wonderful selection as always.

Held totally online for the first time ever, the ceremony was streamed live from Kings Comics in Sydney, compéred by the inimitable Bernard Caleo and announced by Ledgers Director Tim McEwen and founder Gary Chaloner, with Nat Karmichael announcing the Ledgers of Honour. The stream was produced by the amazing Nathanael Hopkins-Smith of the Kapow Comic Book Show on YouTube.

The Ledgers Hall of Fame awards – the Ledgers of Honour – were the first to be announced. The very worthy recipients were Peter Foster and the late Keith Chatto

The highest Ledger award for comics is the Gold Ledger, followed by the Silver and the Bronze. This year, there were four Gold, six Silver and 10 Bronze awards. The total of 20 awards speaks volumes for the healthy state of Australian comics, be they graphic novels or mini-comics (or anything in between): high in both quality and quantity. The deserving recipients are listed on the right.

The final award for the night was the Platinum Ledger for contribution to Australian comics. This went to The Comic Art Workshop – an artists-in-residence program for graphic storytellers, providing artists with the opportunity to work alongside some of the world’s best comics educators to develop ambitious Australian comics stories.

The Ledger Awards will move into a new phase in 2021 as Tim and Gary step aside from being the organisers. They are both eager to spend more time at their drawing boards, creating their own comics projects for the foreseeable future. There are exciting times ahead as fresh faces take the reins and as Tim and Gary make fabulous new comics.

THE LEDGER CLASS OF 2020

GOLD LEDGER recipients

The Adventures of Anders, Gregory Mackay (Allen & Unwin)

An Interior Life, Bill Hope (self published)

Chinyere, Claudia Chinyere Akole (self published)

Witchy, Ariel Slamet Ries (Lion Forge)

SILVER LEDGER recipients

A Visit From Midnight Mummy, Tatiana Davidson (self published)

Good Boy, Kim Lam/dangerlam (self published)

Haphaven, Norm Harper and Louie Joyce (Lion Forge)

Healing Is A Process, Sarah Winifred Searle (self published)

Silver Fox #1, Darren Dare, writer (self published)

Sincerely, Harriet, Sarah Winifred Searle (Graphic Universe)

BRONZE LEDGER recipients

Burger Force Vol. 4, Jackie Ryan (self published)

Deep Breaths, Chris Gooch (Top Shelf)

Drawing Power: Women’s Stories of Sexual Violence, Harassment and Survival, Rachel Ang, Sarah Firth, Meg O’Shea. Diane Noomin, editor (Abrams ComicArts)

Free Money, Please, David Blumenstein (self published)

Meet Me In The Pit #4, Chris Neill, editor (Blueprint Comics)

Mini Mel & Timid Tom, Ben Hutchings (Squishface Studio)

Self/Made, Mat Groom, writer (Image Comics)

Shadow Portrait, Rachel Ang (World Literature Today)

Storm Clouds Collected, Ben Mitchell (self published)

The Phantom: It Tolls For Thee, Paul Mason (The Phantom 2019 Annual: The Phantom At War, Frew Publications)

Story by TIM McEWEN

Ledgers power couple, Gary Chaloner and Tim McEwen, announce their amicable divorce

David Rowe Wins Walkley Award

The 2020 Walkley Awards for Excellence in Journalism were announced on 20th November. The Australian Financial Review’s David Rowe was announced as the winner of the Walkley Award for Best Cartoon, with his “dramatic” and “cleverly realised” cartoon, Thoughts and Prayers. Rowe’s entry was selected ahead of fellow finalists, Glen Le Lievre and The Age’s Jim Pavlidis

“The response to the cartoon was pretty immediate,” Rowe said. “I don’t draw for social media responses as such - I draw emotionally most of the time if I can.”

“It was quite apprent early on that lots of people were finding resonance with the drawing,” he added.

Great stuff, Dave!

Christopher’s Cook Cartoon

Claims Kennedy

Cartoonist at Tasmania’s The Mercury, Christopher Downes, has won the 2020 Kennedy Award for Outstanding Illustration or Cartoon at the 9th annual NRMA Kennedy Awards. The awards, presented at Sydney’s Royal Randwick Racecourse on 6th November, began in 2012.

Named in honour of the late journalist Les Kennedy, the awards recognise and celebrate excellence in journalism while raising funds for the Kennedy Foundation, a registered media charity designed to assist professionals in hardship.

The award for outstanding illustration or cartoon is named in honour of the late Vince O’Farrell, the Illawarra Mercury cartoonist who passed away in 2015.The other finalists this year were Eric Löbbecke and Cathy Wilcox

POLLY CRACKS CARTOON OF THE YEAR AT ROTARY CARTOON AWARDS

John “Polly” Farmer has taken top honours at the 32nd annual Rotary Cartoon Awards with his cartoon, “The Invitation” (left), which was awarded Cartoon of the Year. This is the thrid time Farmer has won the title. He also won the Political category for the fifth time. The awards were presented at the almostrenovated National Cartoon Gallery in Coffs Harbour and early arrivals were treated to a guided tour of the building site by Gallery Chairman, Paul McKeon

The perennial Mark Lynch won in Comic Strip, Steve Panozzo scored a trophy in the Sports category and Judy Nadin was the victor in Caricature with her portrait of British PM, Boris Johnson. George Haddon proved he’s still got it by nailing the Special Category, “Crisis, What Crisis?”, accepting via video from Melbourne. The Rotary Cartoon Awards exhibition continues until 28th February, 2021.

Photos by SHELLEY BRAUER, LINDSAY FOYLE, NAT KARMICHAEL, MELINDA LAWRENCE and TIM McEWEN

David Rowe brandishing his two Merit Awards

Judy Nadin and the National Cartoon Gallery’s Shelley Brauer with Judy’s winning caricature, Boris

Steve Panozzo collects his trophy for Best Sports Cartoon

2020 Rotary Cartoon Awards: The Winners!

Open

MERIT: George Haddon, “Free Range Eggs”

WINNER: Chris ‘Roy’ Taylor, “Covid Dog Walks”

Sports

MERIT: Pat Hudson, “Government Approved Social Distancing”

WINNER: Steve Panozzo, “Formula One”

Comic Strip

MERIT: Tony Lopes, “Rapunzel’s Brother”

WINNER: Mark Lynch, “Late Start”

Political

MERIT: David Rowe, “USA Burning”

WINNER: John ‘Polly’ Farmer, “A Big Job”

Caricature

MERIT: Michael Breen, “Gladys Berejiklian Crisis Cluster”

WINNER: Judy Nadin, “Boris”

Special Category: “Crisis, Which Crisis?”

MERIT: David Rowe, “World Pool Leader”

WINNER: George Haddon, “Wildlife Crisis”

CARTOON OF THE YEAR

John ‘Polly’ Farmer, “An Invitation”

Peter Byrne, Steve Panozzo and Tim McEwen in crazy shirts

Ian Jones and Nat Karmichael: Solo Men

Tim and Anne-Maree McEwen

LEFT TO RIGHT (BACK ROW): Alex Thorby (judge), John Thorby (judge), Peter Byrne, Steve Panozzo, Tim McEwen, Tania Breen, Judy Nadin, David Rowe and Lindsay Foyle, Nat Karmichael; (FRONT ROW): Steve Keast, Tony Lopes, Jock Brodie, Cathy Wilcox (judge) and Mark Lynch

Your View On...

PETER LEWIS (New South Wales)

CHRIS THOMAS (New South Wales)

GLENN ROBINSON (Victoria)

JOHN ALLISON (Victoria)

GERALD PEIGNEUX (France)

STEVE KEAST (New South Wales)

thanks to everyone for your amazing contributions!

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

compiled by steve panozzo

STUART THORNTON (Northern Territory)

MATTHEW MARTIN (New South Wales)

PHIL JUDD (Queensland)

JED DUNSTAN (South Australia)

GEORGE HADDON (Victoria)

PHIL JUDD (Queensland)

AMA Jolly Good Fellow

Better known as our dynamic Stanley Awards auctioneer and unabashed fan of The Phantom, Dr. Antonio Di Dio spends most of his waking hours as one of the country’s more celebrated, and selfless, General Practitioners. So it would come as little surprised that he was recently elevated rank of Fellow of the Australian Medical Association. Since 2018, Antonio has been serving as President of the AMA’s ACT Branch and was only this month hailed by The Canberra Times as “the voice of reason”. Congratulations, Antonio!

Looking Sharpe

Ian Sharpe, formerly of The Canberra Times, has, since leaving the paper in 2012, turned his talents to acrylic landscape painting with great success. His painting, Path by the Queanbeyan River, was recently awarded First Prize (Acrylic) at the Artist’s Society of Canberra’s Spring Exhibition.

Having recently returned to painting after a long COVID19 winter in Canberra, Ian says an award like this is “very encouraging.”

Have a Horacek New Year!

Since 2017, Blue Island Press have been producing Judy Horacek Wall Calendars, with a different cartoon for every month. For 2021, they are producing two calendars: a general Horacek calendar and one with an environmental focus, called “Gentle Reminders from the Planet”.

The calendars are available in selected bookshops, including the National Library of Australia Book shop and the Brunswick Bound bookshop in Brunswick, Victoria. For online purchases, Judy favours Paper Parrot, which she loves due to their emphasis on promoting Australian artists and designers.

First Dog’s First Novel Saves Us All

Andrew Marlton (aka First Dog on the Moon) has, with the help of Allen & Unwin, released his first graphic novel. Ambitiously titled The Carbon-Neutral Adventures of the Indefatigable Enviroteens, the book has been described as “a hilarious, illustrated and environmentally-friendly adventure from the country’s enormously popular and only marsupial Walkley award-winning cartoonist and soon to be beloved children’s author”.

Greta Thunberg meets Homer Simpson* in this hilarious, illustrated and environmentally-friendly adventure. (*They don’t really meet. This is just a saying)

Meet our superheroes:

• Binky aka The Monotreme, who has all the powers of a platypus and an echidna combined!

• Worried Norman, who was bitten by a radioactive croissant and now has the power of 1000 toasted burger buns!

• Letitia, an occasionally bossy sciencewombat and genius inventor. Together, they are The EnviroTeens and they are about to get very, very angry. Singleuse Brendan may have an evil plan to destroy all the world’s turtles, but there is something even more evil. Climate Change. The EnviroTeens will do anything to stop this impending disaster. But to really fix the planet, will they have to rid the world of the adults who started it all?

It’s a comic graphic novel about a group of fast-talking and fast-thinking carbonneutral climate activists who are determined to clean the planet and clear the air. For ages 10-14, it’s out now!

ISBN 9781760526122, RRP $16.99

Ginger’s Century Celebrated with New Book

In November this year, Ginger Meggs turns 100, making Ginger the world’s most senior 12-year-old. Premiering in the Sunday Sun on 13th November, 1921, the soon-tobe-renamed Ginger Smith made his first appearance in a new comic strip called Us Fellers, the brainchild of J.C. (Jimmy) Bancks

A century later, Tristan Bancks has crafted a set of brand-new adventures for his great great uncle’s cartoon character, replete with a bunch of new illustrations by Jason Chatfield. “I have been a Ginger Meggs fan since childhood,” said Tristan. “My familial connection to Jimmy Bancks was my greatest source of schoolyard pride and has been key to me pursuing a career as a storyteller.”

The Ginger Meggs 100th Anniversary Book features 4 new, original stories

Inside, Outside and On the Wall

Matthew Martin’s latest solo art show, Inside and Out, was held at the Shapiro Annex Gallery in Chippendale. Featuring 40 illustrations created both in his studio and out and about, the opening on 20th December was held under strict COVID-safe conditions. It didn’t stop a steady stream of admirers and art lovers from visiting the small annex gallery in inner-city Sydney. Born in Broken Hill and raised in Adelaide, Matthew began full-time cartooning at the Sydney Morning Herald in 1981, won Stanley Awards in 1987 and 1988 for Single Gag Cartoonist and earned a Walkley Award in 1988. In 2007, he was a finalist in the Dobell Prize for Drawing with his ink and brush drawings, 100 Views of Wylie’s Baths.

and will be published by Penguin Books in hardcover on 4th May. ISBN 97817608994818, RRP $24.99

Weird News for Jules

Young readers either have great taste, or they have a soft spot for ponytails! At the recent Kids Own Australian Literature Awards (KOALAs) Jules Faber picked up an Honours Book Award (i.e. 2nd place) for illustrating Weirdo 12 (right). This was the seventh year in a row Faber has won a KOALA for the WeirDo series, written by author Anh Do WeirDo 12 also recently earned Faber a second Young Australian Best Book Award. Decided by young readers in Victoria, the YABBAs only award a winner (no second prize!).

It’s pretty clear Australian kids have weird taste in cartooning!

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

John Thorby’s the trouble with retouching

In the 1950s and 1960s, in The Sun on Thursdays, we had a special women’s section with fashion and social pages. The day before, The Sun’s photographers would roam Sydney’s restaurants looking for (mostly) Eastern Suburbs socialites having lunch. These lunches were usually charity tax writeoffs for their businessman husbands, so they were very popular. Mostly the wife was president of a charity and very well known. These photographs would come through the art department for a bit of a retouch and sent on for publication the next day.

One day I had a bit of time on my hands and a photo of a very well known socialite came my way. She was very elegant and in her 50s. I thought I would give her some special attention, so my retouching took 20 years off her age.

Next day, the woman had her help come into the photo sales department to purchase the photo that was in the paper. Apparently, there was a great stink made by the husband, as it was not the picture that was in the paper but the original photo that was taken at the restaurant. So there was a call to the editor for an explanation and I was sent back to the art department with this photo. I had to work back an hour just

to do new retouching. This had to be more delicate, as the pic was then rephotographed and this enhanced photo was presented to the lady concerned. All happy.

Another retouching experience concerned market prices for food. There was a journalist who did this, Cliff Ryan, who was billed as “The Housewife’s Friend”. Now, Cliff was a bit heavy around the chin, so when I did the blurb for his column I trimmed him up a bit. The next week, Cliff turned up at my desk and said, “Can you put my double chin back? They’re laughing at me at the markets.”

A bit of spit on cotton wool soon fixed that.

SQUIGGLE’S OUT OF THIS WORLD

It’s long been the view of many sciencefiction fans that Mr. Squiggle - who famously lived at 93 Crater Crescent, The Moon - was Australia’s first astronaut. This considered opinion has now been given a degree of real-world credibility by the National Archives in Canberra. Their new exhibition, Out of This World - which runs until 14th March - explores Australia’s role in the space race, culminating in 1969’s historic Moon landing. Examining cutting edge scientific research, design, the history of the

Woomera Rocket Range and futuristic architecture, the exhibition includes a section on television, featuring our own “Man From the Moon”, who left our TV screens in 1999 after 40 years on ABC-TV.

Mr. Squiggle was created by the late Norman Hetherington in 1959, cleverly combining his two passions: puppetry and cartooning and Mr. Squiggle’s cultural influence persists to this day. A seven-coin collection was released by the Royal Australian Mint in 2019.

Ian Eddy

This issue of Inkspot contains a minicomic, Remembering Ian Eddy, as a way of commemorating the Australian comic book pioneer who recently passed away.

Sadly, publisher Nat Karmichael has advised us of a production error which lists Ian as having being born in 1960. This is incorrect - he was born in 1959. We apologise to Ian’s family for this error.

Bill Steamshovel, Mr. Squiggle and “Miss Jane” Fennell in 1975

Ian Eddy pictured in 1989

Adventure Illustrated Launch

Words by TIM McEWEN

Photos by MARCELO BAEZ and ANNE-MAREE McEWEN

On 5th December, history was made and re-made at Kings Comics in Sydney. History made… as Kings hosted the first comics signing in their glorious new Clarence Street store. Gary Chaloner, Tim McEwen, Michael Michalandos and Tad Pietrzykowski signed copies of the debut issue of the Cyclone Comics publication Adventure Illustrated for eager fans old and new, mature and young. The three hour long signing session flew by as the comics creators signed, sketched and chatted.

History re-made… as, 30 years previous – to the very day! – Gary had signed at Kings Comics’ first EVER such event, back in their original store, along with Dave de Vries and (American) Mike Grell

The comics anthology Adventure Illustrated features superhero shenanigans in the form of Flash Damingo and The Jackaroo’s Cyclone Force, middle-aged satire and biblical armageddon from Greener Pastures and pulp adventure from Red Kelso. With the second issue due early in 2021, you can still catch up with the first at Gary’s or Tim’s online stores: ownaindi.com/garychaloner ownaindi.com/timmcewen

ABOVE (top): The three variant covers for Adventure Illustrated #1

ABOVE (centre): Michael Michalandos, Tim McEwen, Tad Pietrzykowski and Gary Chaloner at Kings Comics, Sydney in December

BELOW (left to right): Covid gathering rules didn’t deter crowds; Tim McEwen hard at work; flashback to 1990, with Dave de Vries, Mike Grell and Gary Chaloner

Valerie’s Parv to Success

For me, the hardest part about writing a memoir was deciding where to start.

I didn’t want to ferret around in my childhood, yet readers expect some connection with your origins. It wasn’t until I was at a writers’ conference and wandering around Sydney, that I found myself on the George Street side of what had been the headquarters of Nock & Kirby’s hardware chain. The handsome facade remains but the interior now houses many smaller businesses.

When I started work there as a junior copywriter it was one company, best known for TV pitchman, Joe Sandow (aka Joe the Gadgetman) and his catch phrase, “Bring your money with you.” Joe became a friend whose office was adjacent to the senior layout artist, Paul Parv. If you’d told me Paul and I would be married for nearly forty years and he would illustrate some of my non-fiction books, I’d have laughed. I planned to become a famous writer, with marriage not even on my radar. But there was something about this crazy artist with the thick European accent that caught my attention and never let go. Plus I thought his surname would look cool on my books.

His idea of courting was to leave handdrawn cartoons on my desk, and gifts like a long-necked water tortoise in a jar. Most of the cartoons now reside in the Mitchell Library at the State Library of NSW, where they collect what they grandly call my literary papers. I named the tortoise Herbie, who grew to a healthy size and took food from my hand.

Standing in front of the old store, awash in nostalgia, I realised this was where my writing journey truly began. Retail advertising was also a great teacher. If the crowds weren’t lined up waiting for the store to open next day, I hadn’t done my job. Having left school at fourteen with no qualifications, I signed up for an advertising diploma, generally a three-year course which I finished in one, beneficiary of a long commute that I used for studying.

To celebrate, Paul took me fishing. I was with N&K’s for the next few years, having married the layout artist before opening a freelance office in Crows Nest. The work was hardly glamorous, but I was earning a living with my words. Being commissioned to write a book about plumbing made me desperate to write something I could

enjoy. Since Mills & Boon were looking for new writers, and I’m a romantic at heart, this kicked off a writing career of more than ninety books published in twenty-nine languages and for Paul to become known as “Mr Valerie”. He didn’t care, being my biggest supporter until the day he died. And I still like seeing his name on my books.

Valerie Parv’s memoir, 34 Million Books: Australia’s Queen of Romance, shares her life and writing tips. It’s out now in ebook and paperback with purchase links at www.valerieparv.com

Toons4Wildlife Helps WIRES

The National Cartoon Gallery in Coffs Harbour recently hosted Toons4Wildlife, a unique fundraising exhibition featuring the work of ACA members with a focus on the devastating bushfires that gripped Australia at the end of 2019 and early 2020. Aussie cartoonists rallied to contribute to the exhibition, which raised funds for WIRES and our furry friends. The response from our cartoonists was heartwarming, with over 90 works. The exhibition was augmented by the addition of an online auction, and came to a close on 22nd November, resulting in a donation of $1,300 for WIRES. Congratulations to those who contributed original pieces for the show, notably Peter Byrne’s The Lucky Country (left) which went for $165 to a plucky local. WIRES has expressed thanks to all involved!

Mark Tippett

JUNGLE Welcome to the

In 1999, Christophe Granet began drawing his panel cartoon, It’s a Jungle Out There. In 2020, this quiet little cartoon notched up it’s 5,000th instalment which is quite an achievement. Christophe offered to share his amazing story with Inkspot readers.

I joined the Australian Cartoonists’ Association in 2000 as an associate member and was elevated to a full membership status in 2004. I am mostly known within the ACA’s ranks for drawing a single-panel cartoon series called It’s a Jungle Out There! (IAJOT). Outside the ACA, I’m pretty sure I am basically unknown. However, having reached the milestone of drawing my 5,000th IAJOT cartoon, I thought it may be a good idea to provide Inkspot readers with a “warts and all” account of how I got there.

First, a bit of background. As a (mostly) non-professional cartoonist, I thankfully have a day job that has kept me out of poverty for the past 28 years. The short story of the “real” me is relevant, so here goes...

“Dr Christophe Granet is an award winning antenna scientist with over 25 years experience in the design, manufacture and testing of high performance reflector antennas and feed systems for satellite communications, radio astronomy and scientific applications.

He was the recipient of the 2001 HA Wheeler Award from the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society, and has published over 160 peer-reviewed scientific papers and co-authored two book chapters on antenna design.

“From 1995 to 2008, he worked as a Principal Research Scientist at the CSIRO Radiophysics Laboratory, then in 2008 left to join BAE Systems Australia as a Senior Antenna Specialist. In 2015, he left BAE Systems to start Lyrebird Antenna Research Pty Ltd.”

To keep my professional life separate from my aspiration of being a cartoonist, I adopted the nickname of Hagen (as I am called by my friends in France) as the pen-name for my cartoons (why “Hagen”? It’s a long story!). Hagen Cartoons began in September 1999, but I only registered as a sole trader in 2005 when I started to receive some income from Cartoonstock and Auspac Media for my cartoons and therefore became of interest to the ATO.

As a scientist, I am attracted to numbers

and I like to analyse things while referring to graphs and numbers. I thought I should do this now and apply the scientific process to dissecting the notso-highs and lows of Hagen Cartoons reaching 5,000 IAJOT cartoons.

The three questions one might ask are:

1. Why so few cartoons? You started 21 years ago!

2. Why so many cartoons? Don’t you have a full time job?

Caricature by TERRY DUNNETT

3. Why do you bother? Your cartoons are not even famous or really funny! Well, let’s talk numbers, as this is something I do well and numbers can help make things clear.

IAJOT cartoons No. 1 and No. 2 have a significant place in the story. In the winter of 1999, I attended a five-week cartooning course run by the Australian College of Journalism. It was basically an introduction to cartooning for five two-hour sessions on Thursday nights. I cannot recall the name of the teacher, but the assignment for the last session was to create two single-panel cartoons. When I showed the teacher my two cartoons, he was quite pleased and after the class, when it was time to leave and say goodbye, he asked me to stay a few minutes and he told me that the two cartoons were quite nice and that I should try to draw a few more for practice’s sake. He also suggested I get in contact with the Australian Black and White Artist Club (ABWAC) if I was interested in learning more about cartooning in Australia.

Well, I drew a few more, and then more, and the year-by-year count is shown in Figure 1 (we’ll get back to this figure later). I even did a bit of digging online and got in touch with ABWAC, now the ACA, and joined.

IAJOT Cartoon No. 747 is also worthy of note. Until then, I had drawn my single-panel cartoons in the traditional

“square” format with a caption below the drawing. A request from Auspac Media came at that point (in 2006), asking if it was possible to create my cartoons in a “strip format” as well to increase my chances of being picked up by newspapers; so I devised a technique that allowed me to make only one drawing and then generate the cartoon in both “panel” and “strip” formats (see Inkspot #89), a system I use to this day. I must acknowledge here that Peter Broelman was kind enough to review this first attempt at switching to “strip-format”, which helped me a lot.

IAJOT Cartoon No. 2,000 was yet another milestone. I am reminded of it every day by a drawing from Jason Chatfield, featuring Ginger Meggs congratulating me on this achievement, proudly displayed on the wall next to my office, so I see it every day.

If we look at Figure 1 (below), we can see a flurry of activity to finish 1999, with a total of 48 cartoons drawn, then 2000 saw a drop in production to about 2 cartoons a week. Well, it was a busy year, not only professionally, but I got married as well. There’s another year of 2-a-week in 2001 when my daughter was born, a push to about 3-a-week when my son was born in 2003 and then gradually a push to try to draw one a day when I was home from 2010 onwards.

Now, you’ll notice that 2015 is the odd

year out, where the bar goes above the red line target corresponding to a cartoon a day. In 2015, I was made redundant from BAE Systems Australia and started my own consultancy company Lyrebird Antenna Research. That year was very stressful as there was not much paid “antenna” work, so I drew more cartoons to increase my chances of earning more from cartooning.

Thankfully, my new day job started to bring paid contracts and since then, I got back to trying to draw a cartoon a day when I am home and not under pressure for work, reaching an average of 6 cartoons a week. Basically, that answers questions 1 and 2 like this:

1. Demanding full-time career, married, with two kids.

2. Well, it’s been 21 years, so that’s about 238 cartoons a year on average, or 4.6 a week. Yes, I have a full time job, but I am also quite disciplined. So, if I am home, I draw either very early in the morning or late at night before or after my “day job”.

The answer to question 3 is a lot more complex and it has to do with the ACA and my love of cartoons, comic strips and bandes dessinees (BD), i.e. graphic novels. I grew up in France, reading and collecting BDs like Asterix, Tintin, Lucky Luke, Gaston Lagaffe, Spirou, etc., so I spent a lot of time drawing and copying the BD masters. As a young boy, I was even contemplating becoming a professional BD artist. I remember a meeting at high-school with the career advisor who basically told me that it was not a career I should pursue based on my academic results. Although I resented it at the time, he was right. So I forgot that unrealistic dream, but held on to the idea of drawing cartoons for fun again at some point in time. Life got in the way and, as explained earlier, I picked up my pencils again only in mid-1999.

My very first in-person contact with the ACA was a meeting at a pub with Lee Sheppard and Steve Panozzo. My wife, Nerolie, came with me and she was heavily pregnant. We had a lovely evening and Steve drew a caricature of Nerolie with the caption, “To Nerolie and ?, Love, Panozzo, 2001”. That drawing has been proudly displayed at our house for now 19 years and “?” is now a lovely girl called Sarah. What an introduction to the ACA!

A year or so later, after Sarah’s birth, we

Figure 1

were invited to our first official ACA function at the house of ACA legends Roger & Marie Fletcher. What a night that was as well. We were made to feel so welcome by all there. Kerry Millard was hilarious, we met Jim Russell and many other ACA artists too numerous to name. Our hosts were just such lovely people. It was a really humbling experience and one that I still remember fondly. At some point, I was talking to a new ACA member like me and he said to me, “no fancy gold watches, no fancy cars parked outside, looks like there’s not much money to be made in Australia from being a cartoonist!”. Which brings us to “money” or lack thereof for many artists.

Obviously, my cartoons are not famous and, while they will never bring me enough money to resemble a living wage, the joy of compound earnings can be pleasing to see in the long run. My main source of cartooning income comes from two places: Auspac Media and Cartoonstock, while I run Hagen Cartoons with as few expenses as possible. Expenses are mostly paper, pens, ACA Membership and Stanleys weekends. So let’s have a look at Figure 2, which shows the finances of a small cartooning business like Hagen Cartoons. It may be be encouraging to some ACA associate members to see these numbers, but may dismay others as well, as it shows that cartooning is definitely not a get-rich-quick scheme... well, not the way I write and draw cartoons at least.

Figure 2 (left) shows a breakdown, as submitted to the ATO, of every financial year for the income, expenses and profit of Hagen Cartoons. The best years were between 2008 and 2012 when IAJOT was, thanks to Auspac Media, in a number of weekly newspapers and one daily newspaper. I felt the demise of newspapers acutely in 2013 when my runs in newspapers started to dwindle and, since then, Auspac Media has only been able to keep me in 2 weekly papers. The income peaks in 2016 and 2017 are due to royalty payments that I received from the NSW scheme of copyright for educational use of my cartoons. These payments were very nice surprises but have only happened twice to date. So, looking at the compounding income over the past 16 years, we reach close to $115,000 for a profit of close to $79,000. Not bad overall, but spread over 21 years, it has not been a great money-making machine!

So, the answer to question No 3 can be a long one, but in summary, it could be:

* Because I enjoy the process of finding the idea and drawing the cartoons even though I know they will only be seen by a very small number of people and enjoyed by even fewer of them;

* Because the small amount of financial income still proves that someone, somewhere thinks that some of my cartoons are worth paying a bit of money for;

* I’ve met some amazing people through the ACA and can call some friends;

* In a very small way, I’ve achieved my childhood dream of being paid for creating art.

So, there you have it: the story of a very small cartooning business that has been struggling along for 21 years, but it’s 21 years of brushing shoulders with amazing people at ACA functions, Stanleys Weekends and meeting some fabulous overseas cartoonists through ACA events. I think the ACA has been a catalyst for me and my desire to remain an ACA member pushes me to draw as many cartoons as I can fit into my busy life. I’ve even heard that a couple of my cartoons are funny, which is always a bonus!

Christophe Granet (aka Hagen Cartoons) www.hagencartoons.com

2020 A year of comics, cartoons and covid

Words by DANIEL BEST

It goes without saying that 2020 will go down in history as being one of the most difficult years in living memory. Australia began the year with bushfires, then floods and, if that wasn’t enough, Covid-19 emerged. Covid-19 brought a whole new set of challenges and issues with it, not the least being our States and cities going into lockdown. Jobs that were there one day were gone the next. Jobs that had been in the works, and lined up, vanished.

Artists, and others in similar roles, such as musicians and actors, were hit the hardest. Artists, much like writers, are solitary creatures; often nocturnal, they live from day to day, job to job, only leaving their houses and drawing boards when necessary. Most are quite content to exist in such a manner as they love what they do and it has become a job, and existence, of their choosing. Art is a lifestyle that many aspire to, but few actually make a living at. But what happens when that living is threatened by an outside force, in this case, the pandemic known as COVID-19?

We know that some artists, predominantly newspaper and editorial cartoonists, are still out there, doing their thing. But what of the comic book artists? Those who rely upon publications appearing on a regular basis, or who publish their own work? How does an artist get their work before the people and, more importantly, sell that work, in a time when lockdowns equate to storefronts being closed (sometimes permanently) and people are out of work, which means less money to spend? What happens then? Well, for some artists, life has carried on as usual. Nothing has changed, other than dealing with children being at home more than usual. Work is still there, but a lot of artists are now relying upon the incomes that their significant others are able to bring in. Day jobs have dried up for many.

Glenn Lumsden was gearing up for the winter AFL season and the income from his family business, Haddo’s Hotdogs, when the pandemic suddenly struck. Once the AFL season was suspended and restrictions upon public gatherings enforced, Haddo’s was defunct for the duration, leaving Lumsden with thousands of dollars worth of perishable supplies. Gary Chaloner found himself wondering what to do when MONA was forced to close, leaving him housebound. Some have been fortunate enough to take advantage of the various Government income replacement schemes, but others, whose art is their living, have found the Government to be of no help. I asked a number of artists how they’ve managed to survive in this new world. What was happening with them, how they were surviving and how, if at all, COVID-19 was affecting their lives and art.

“To fully explain how the pandemic has affected me, a bit of background is necessary,” said Glenn Lumsden. “About 6 years ago, I wanted a change from being a full-time commercial artist and to just go back to where I had begun, doing comic books. The eternal problem with comics is, that it’s hard, time-consuming work that pays little, and I didn’t want a repeat of my past comics career, which was an endless cycle of rushed, sub-standard work done under relentless deadline pressures.

“To solve the cash flow conundrum, I started a food trailer business called Haddo’s Hotdogs, which operated for the most part at big events on weekends, generating enough income to leave the bulk of the working week free to pursue my comic book passion, but at a leisurely pace free from money worries. It was a cunning plan, and it worked beautifully until the pandemic came along and cancelled all major public events. Overnight, my Haddo’s income went to zero... into the negative if you factor in the thousands I had tied up in stock for events that no longer existed. But out of the blue, some old clients from my previous life as a commercial artist

BELOW: Lockdown-inspired brilliance by Glenn Lumsden

contacted me with some jobs they needed doing, throwing me a lifeline which I happily grabbed.

“I cannot explain, after so long not doing commercial work, why some clients from the past randomly decided to contact me just then, when all looked lost, but who am I to question the grand scheme of the Universe?” he said. “Between the odd commercial art job, Jobseeker payments and comic book money, I have been able to hold up my financial end of the household, but I don’t kid myself - it is due to my wife’s regular income that I feel any kind of security.”

Others have managed to pick up other work and have remained positive. “As for artistic/creative impulses being affected,” says Mark Sexton, “I’ve not had any time to do my own stuff - been insanely busy with film work! But there are always ideas buzzing around in the subconscious; this is just being added to the mix. Basically I’ve been extremely fortunate.”

“Like a lot of freelance kind of guys,” says Dillon Naylor, “I watched gigs I was lined up for evaporate overnight, including a very nice position I had been lining up for all year but luckily, new things did occupy that vacuum, quickly as some businesses shifted from doing to planning and needed visuals. I was fortunate enough to be selected to create a commissioned graphic novella (right) that had to be some kind of response to the pandemic. This was the kind of immersive project that is perfect to get lost in, keeping my sanity distracted. Having a property big enough to walk around and sit quietly and sketch was also an important factor for maintaining concentration and shifting work hours to night-time was the best way to finish it.”

“To be honest, coping with Covid-19 hasn’t affected me as an artist much at all,” says Tim McEwen. “As an introvert, working freelance from my home “studio”, a week could easily go by without me leaving the house for anything more than my morning walk or checking the mailbox anyway! In a deeper way though, the whole situation is very affecting, on a global

and emotional scale, so yes, it does affect me in that way, but in the sense that I think you’re asking, it hasn’t really affected me much, no. Personally, I, like many, am really missing the camaraderie that isn’t available to us so much now. There are no comic conventions, zine fairs, or exhibitions and book launches, and I miss them greatly.”

Working from home has had almost no effect upon a group of people who have pioneered the practice from the moment they picked up a pencil or pen (or a stylus, depending on their preference). New software rollouts of programs such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams, as well the usual Skype and Messenger have been a godsend.

“Honestly, the pandemic has barely changed anything for me as a working artist,” said Sexton. “I was already working from a home office and have been since 2011. My client meetings have been generally via Skype/Zoom/etc. for years, face to face meetings have been a rarity. The film illustration work I do has been done solo for years and I’ve only had need to work out of a production company’s offices twice in the last five years. I like to joke that the only real difference has been that my sound-cancelling headphones couldn’t block out the sounds of home schooling - but there’s rather a lot of truth in that.”

It would appear that comics artists have adjusted and adapted to the challenges that COVID-19 has brought with it. While some are struggling, others are thriving and yet more are finding no change whatsoever. Cartooning and art will survive this pandemic, no matter how long it may last.

Daniel Best

Graphic novella art by DILLON NAYLOR

Art by GLENN LUMSDEN

the ART in animation

by PETER VISKA

One of the most exciting stages during the development of a new animated series is the almost magical realisation of the visual imagery from the written word. This unique task is the work of the concept artist. The images and worlds created by the concept artist determine the look, feel and mood of a show and are key to gaining interest from buyers, investors and co-producers.

Daemion Georges-Cox (Daemo) is one such artist and has the extraordinary ablity to create universes, locations and characters. He’s actually entirely selftaught and hasn’t formally studied at any art institutions at all! After his discovery on Facebook (of all places) by Walt Disney Animation Studios in Los Angeles, his skills have taken him to China, Japan and Canada, as well as working remotely for studios throughout Europe. To date, he worked with Warner Bros, Disney, the BBC, Entertainment One, Moose Toys, Spinmaster, and numerous others.

Daemo uses his honed drawing skills, Photoshop and a range of specialised brushes to create sublime images of structures, landscapes, textures, flesh and vegetation. These examples demonstrate his conceptual range; more can be found at www.daemiongeorgecox.com

Peter Viska

This issue, Peter Viska shifts focus from pitching animation shows to the process of creating them.

where are they now?

Although David Miller isn’t a cartoonist, I felt that once you had seen his amazing 3D paper sculpture constructions, which he produces for his books, that you would want to know more about him and his amazing work.

I first met David in about 1985, when I joined the local Country Fire Authority as a volunteer fire fighter. While we sat around chatting, I discovered that he worked as a graphic artist for On Being and Scripture Union magazines. I moved to a new location and a few years later we caught up again at a large disaster recovery weekend in Benalla. Again we chatted about his work.

In 2007, the ACA had a meeting at Dromkeen, which was a Children’s Literacy Museum in Riddell’s Creek, run by the publisher, Scholastic. This was a very important visit, as I had a chance to talk with the curators about preserving my collection of original cartoon art. The exhibition that we were looking at was a set of cartoon/graphic novel art, on the subject of immigration, by Bruce Mutard and Shaun Tan. Dromkeen had another workshop going on in another studio and it was David Miller, launching his children’s book, Lofty’s Mission, about a pigeon being used in the war as a carrier pigeon. What was amazing about this book was that David had developed every illustration as a 3D paper sculpture. The book featured around 14 individual 3D sculptures and each one was completely different.

I recently caught up with David again as I wanted to show some of his amazing work. After moving on from magazine illustration, David began his 3D work by creating a text book called How to Make Paper Sculptures. This inspired Hodder Publications and he was invited to illustrate his first book in 1996, Boo to a Goose by Mem Fox. This book is still in publication.

He has now created something in the order of 22 books and written most of them. The 3D sculptures takes a lot

of time and may take up to 8 months to create all of the work for one book. They are made by building a 3D form in foam. Then he starts to create each individual piece of paper which is then glued on. When David created Pigeon in Lofty’s Mission, it was covered in feathers. Each feather was cut delicately with frills to ensure that the feathers seemed real.

David was born in 1943 and is married to Silvia. They have 3 children and 3 grandchildren. He is still involved in art and paints and recently created a 3D sculpted eye for an exhibition in Healesville, where everyone is painting eyes.

Ian McCall

The latest 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: DAVID MILLER

AUSTRALIAN CARTOONISTS HALL OF FAME

Cecil Lawrence Hartt

Born: Prahran, Victoria 16th July, 1884

Died: Moruya, New South Wales 21st May, 1930

By Lindsay Foyle

Cyril Lawrence (after his mother) Hartt was born to James and Alice Caroline Hartt (nee Lawrence) on 16 July 1884, in the Melbourne suburb of Prahran. The formal sounding Cyril never stuck. He was always known as Cecil, or the very informal Cec, as his friends called him. Not long after Cec was born, his father took a job as a bookkeeper with the Billson’s Breweries in Beechworth. However, in 1906 the family moved back to Melbourne after James lost his job.

At first James Hartt’s decision to move to Melbourne seemed to be working well. Then things went downhill. On Wednesday morning 1 June 1908 he committed suicide. It was a gruesome death. Hartt deliberately put his head on the rail line as a train approached. His headless body was taken from under the rear carriage. A gold watch, two pence and some letters were found in his possession. The police had to track down the family and Cecil was called to identify his father’s mutilated body.

At the time, Hartt was working as freelance artist. He contributed cartoons to the Melbourne weekly, Comments, The Clarion and the Sydney magazine The Comic Australian, published between 1911 and 1913. He was also getting cartoons into The Bulletin where he specialized in drawings about offbeat characters and down-and-outs.

He soon moved to Sydney where he became good friends with Henry Lawson. The friendship was unusual, as Lawson did not normally take to artists, believing them to be inferior to literary types. However, Hartt did enjoy a drink or two and that may have given Lawson a reason to think kindly of him. Cec was also good friends with Billy Hughes who was Prime Minister from 1915 to 1923.

By 1910, Hartt was living on Pittwater Road in Dee Why, a Sydney northern beaches suburb, which was home for many artists. Hartt enjoyed the bush setting and there were several active sketch clubs in the area. The First World War began in August 1914 and, at the age of 31, Hartt joined the 18th

Battalion of the New South Wales Australian Imperial Forces in March 1915 at Liverpool. He embarked for Gallipoli on 25th May. While in the army he regularly exchanged letters with Lawson, who delighted in reading excerpts to anyone who would listen. Hartt kept a copy of The Australian Soldiers Gift Book with the inscription “To my old pal Cecil Hartt from Henry Lawson” dated Sydney 25th June, 1918.

Severely wounded in the right hip and ankle in August 1915, Corporal Hartt was transferred via Alexandria to Harefield Hospital, England to convalesce. Official war records show he was discharged from hospital in September and returned to the front in France only to be wounded again in October 1915. He then returned to England and the Horseferry Road Barracks in London. There are no records of active service after that. While convalescing he contributed cartoons to Bystander, Passing Show, London Opinion and other papers. He was also working on a collection of cartoons about Australian soldiers in London. In 1917, he published Humorosities, a book of these cartoons with over 60,000 copies being sold in Great Britain at a shilling a copy. Most of the drawings related to what could be described as larrikins and may represent the first time this Australian trait had been used en masse in one publication.

To Hartt’s surprise, Humorosities brought him considerable notoriety and he was presented to King George V. In return, Hartt presented to the King a copy of Humorosities. On 15th February, 1918 the King’s librarian, J.W. Fortescue wrote to Hartt thanking him on behalf of the King for the book and asked, “Have you an original sketch or two that you could let me have for the King’s collection of drawings?” In reply, Hartt sent what he could.

Promoted to Sergeant in 1917, Hartt returned to Australia in April 1918. Discharged as medically unfit in July, he returned to work, contributing cartoons to The Bulletin. Hartt was lured by the flash of a chequebook to become the first artist to work on Smith’s Weekly when it started in March 1919.

Cecil Hartt pictured in a colourised photo from 1925

The founding editors, Claude McKay and Robert Packer, were keen to make the most of Hartt’s popularity, generated by his larrikin cartoons in Humorosities. Hartt’s 1919 follow-up was called Diggerettes, a collection of Digger cartoons from Smith’s Weekly, which was, in 1920, succeeded by another volume, More Diggerettes.

The second artist to join Smith’s was Stan Cross; he and Hartt shared a studio in Somerset House where Smith’s Weekly was briefly produced. Lawson was a frequent visitor, looking for a chat and a sixpence for refreshment. Hartt was always ready with both.

For Smith’s Weekly, Hartt drew caricatures, political and Digger cartoons and - for a short time - a comic strip called, Ask Bill, He Knows Everything. It was said of Hartt that if there is such a thing as an Australian face, then he drew it. He also seemed to be friends with almost every soldier who had been in the AIF; upon being discharged, many called at Smith’s Weekly seeking out their “good old mate Cec Hartt” to share a drink or two with. Hartt, considered to be as good with a glass as he was with a pen, was happy oblige.

Hartt became Art Director of Smith’s Weekly in 1922, following the death of Sass. Soon after, Hartt married Iris Katherine Brewer, known to everyone since early childhood as “Biddy”. As she grew-up the name was shortened to Bid. She was a keen ballroom dancer and would not let an opportunity to go dancing slip by. Cec had a problem dancing as the injuries he received to his ankle in the war had left him with a limp. However, Bid did not let that stop her from teaching him to dance and, from then on, nobody seemed to notice the limp.

Cec brought into the marriage his love of hunting and when he was not drawing, dancing or having a drink or two, liked to take the family camping. Not possessing a good sense of direction, he often took a wrong turn. Bid always knew where she was going and would tell him he’d gone the wrong way. He would invariably reply, saying “No”, but an hour or so later he would have to admit he had got it wrong and they had had to backtrack. On one trip away, Cec and Bid walked into a hotel to find the walls covered in Cec’s drawings from Smith’s Weekly. Cec was reluctant to let anyone know he was the artist who had drawn the cartoons. But Bid let the cat out of the bag and they became instant celebrities, spending the rest of the day drinking while being entertained by the patrons.

SUB-LIEUTENANT: “Don’t you know what to do when you pass an officer?

You’re a soldier are you not?”

PRIVATE ANZAC: “No - I’m a farmer!”

The group had high expectations, but it struggled to achieve most of them. The members managed to create a 48-page souvenir magazine to commemorate the visit of the American fleet to Australia in July, 1925. It contained cartoons by 25 cartoonists then working in Sydney and sold for a shilling, and made a profit. The publication also promoted the Black and White Artists’ Ball to be held in the Sydney Town Hall, similar in style to previous bohemian revelries.

On 17th July, 1924, the Society of Australian Black and White Artists was formed in Sydney and Hartt became the founding president. The concept for the society had been discussed in Gayfield Shaw’s studio, and, soon after, the newly-formed body met in a room in the Royal Arcade between George and Pitt Street. It was not far from the Sydney Town Hall and only a block away from the Imperial Arcade where Smith’s Weekly had its office. It was the first association for newspaper artists in Australia and possibly the world; like most other artists’ associations, it operated a sketch club too.

One of these, staged before the Great War, had seen the Sydney Town Hall decorated with paintings and posters produced by artists which included Norman Lindsay and D.H. Souter The ball didn’t conclude until daybreak, with most attendees walking home in full fancy dress; on the way, a coffee shop in Elizabeth Street was invaded by a huge cat, several tubes of paint, the Czar of Russia and the aboriginal King Billy of Mucketybudgereenorah, all demanding coffee. A slight problem arose when a policeman in Oxford Street considered the procession of fancy-dressed revelers to be in breach of the peace. He attempted to arrest the Czar of Russia and was in the process of leading him away when the other members

of the procession persuaded him it was not in his interests to do so. Nobody ever explained whether it was logic, force of numbers or financial inducement that won the day.

Despite the 1924 ball having, “generated widespread community condemnation of the disgraceful widespread scenes of drunken riot and licentiousness”, all seemed to have been forgiven by 1926 and the Black and White Ball was staged in the Sydney Town Hall as had the others. As before, the walls were decorated by posters drawn by the members of the Society of Black and White Artists and it was fancy dress. Bid was due to give birth the following day, but she attended dressed in a spiffy ball gown with a crinoline over her baby and, much to Cec’s consternation, danced all night. He spent the night following her around.

Their daughter, Diana Cecillie (after her father) was born on 15th August, 1926. From her father she inherited his height, good looks and strong nose; from her mother, she inherited her love of dancing.

Those who attended the 1926 ball considered the event a success and it even showed a profit. Money was raised at an auction and was donated to the Red Cross, and Francis De Groot was the auctioneer. The authorities at the Sydney Town Hall didn’t look kindly upon the evening and the fledgling society was banned from having further events there. One of the reasons might have been the near-nude journalist Dulcie Deamer - also known as the “Queen of Bohemia” - who came in a leopard skin which only just covered her all-but-naked body.

In 1994, the now-national Australian Black and White Artists’ Club returned to the Sydney Town Hall to conduct the 1994 Stanley Awards and to celebrate it’s 70th birthday. Lord Mayor Frank Sartor attended, enjoyed the evening and assured everyone the club was welcome and the activities of previous events had been forgotten. Guest of honour was Diana deBring, Hartt’s daughter, who travelled from California to represent her dad.

Hartt stayed president of the Black and White Artists’ Club until his death on 21st May, 1930. He had been missing for several days and his body was eventually found in his car on a mountain near Moruya on the south coast of New South Wales. He had a wound to the head and a shotgun beside him. The tragedy was never explained and it came as a shock to friends, family and the public. Most likely it was the result of post-traumatic stress brought on by his war injuries. Cross took over Hartt’s role of Art Director at Smith’s Weekly and as President of the Black and White Artists’ Club.

Hartt had been a popular member of the staff at Smith’s Weekly and many did not want to believe he was dead. There was no note or explanation as to why he had taken his own life; while there was some speculation, nobody claimed to know the reason. According to Diana, Cec had told Bid that he “needed a rest” and was going on holiday. Hartt had been to the doctor shortly beforehand, but never explained why or what had been said. He was also privately worried he was losing his drawing skills, but that was a personal demon and not one anyone else had seen any evidence of. He had always taken cartooning seriously and as soon as one cartoon had been passed for publication he would immediately begin

hunting for a new idea. Cec and Bid had shared a loving marriage and whatever the reasons Cec had to take his own life remained a mystery to her.

Adam McCay wrote in an obituary that he was not dead, just missing, and added, “Perhaps he has just slipped across the road to see his old mate Henry Lawson about something.” Lawson had been dead eight years by then. Stan Cross said, “He was nearest of all his contemporaries to the Australian tradition, as far as humorous art can expound it, and we practitioners, as well as Australian comic art in the abstract, owe him a lot.” George Finey said, “A big slice of humour had gone with him, never to be replaced.”

There are several stories about Hartt’s ashes and, for reasons that are long forgotten, the funeral urn containing Cec’s ashes were said to have been kept at Smith’s Weekly. One story goes on about them being placed on a ledge in the art department. Whenever the artists headed to the pub for a drink or two they took Hartt’s ashes with them. The urn would be placed on the bar and every time a round of drinks was bought, a drink would be placed next to the urn. After all the artists had bought a round there would be a line of drinks next to Hartt’s urn. As it was by then Hartt’s turn to buy a round, those in the group would pick up the drinks and toast Hartt. This happy ritual was played out many times until one afternoon after they had returned to the office (probably after one round too many) someone noticed the urn was not on its ledge. They had come back from the pub, leaving it on the bar. Everyone rushed back to retrieve the urn, but it was too late - it was gone. Nobody ever found out what happened the ashes nor the urn.

Jim Russell, who worked at Smith’s Weekly, was good friends with Hartt and affirmed the veracity of the story. Cross was also a good friend and said it was not. He contended the urn in the office, which was believed to contain Hartt’s ashes, had never been taken to the pub but had, in 1935, been taken by some of the artists who left to work at the Australian Women’s Weekly. However, there was never a rumour about the urn at the Weekly. So that story might not be true.

There was a third story about Hartt’s ashes being kept at Smith’s Weekly. This rumour had the ashes in the urn, being kept by the Literary Editor, Reg Moses, in his office. On one occasion, when he was on holidays, a woman and her daughter called at the office and asked if they could see the urn. Moses’ office was searched, but the urn could not be found. Eventually it was assumed to be in a locked cupboard, and nobody could find the key. The woman and the girl then knelt in front of the cupboard, prayed and then headed off. When Moses returned from holidays he was told what had happened and he opened the locked cupboard and showed everyone the contents: a pile of dirty shirts. A minor problem with this story is that in1930, Moses was Editor, not Literary Editor, of Smith’s Weekly. He left in 1935 to work at the Australian Women’s Weekly.

The only thing about these stories is that, true or not, Cecil Lawrence Hartt would have enjoyed telling them if he had lived.

Lindsay Foyle

HALL OF FAME

Dorothy Wall

Born: Wellington, New Zealand, 12th January, 1894

Died: Sydney, New South Wales, 21st January, 1942

By Lindsay Foyle

There is quite a bit of information about Dorothy Wall at the State Library of NSW. The library has a large number of letters she and her publisher exchanged, from which it is possible to piece together some of her life. She is not well remembered for her cartoons but her illustrations and children’s books are an integral a part of Australia’s humour and art. The first illustration that she had published was in The Lone Hand, the same magazine in which May Gibbs got her big start.

In 1921, she had her first book illustrations published in The Crystal Bowl by J.J. Hall. The drawings of pixies were very different to the style she used when drawing Blinky Bill. But it was her books about Australia’s best-known koala, Blinky Bill, that made her a celebrity when he first appeared in 1933. Four more of his adventures soon followed.

Dorothy Wall was born in Kilbirnie, a suburb of Wellington, New Zealand on 12th January, 1894. Her father, Charles William Wall had been born in London in 1858 and worked as a designer and draughtsman. Her mother, Lillian, came from Sheffield, England, and was born in 1872 of French parents.

In 1905, they moved to Christchurch where Dorothy attended East Christchurch Primary School. She was keen on art and wanted to be an artist from her early days. In 1906, at the age of 12, she started at the School of Art at Canterbury College (now the

School of Fine Arts, University of Canterbury) on a scholarship. When her family moved to Wellington she transferred to the Wellington Technical College where she completed secondary school and art classes.

In 1912, Dorothy took a job with Pringle’s Art Shop in Wellington, but was restless and began to make plans to move to Australia. In 1914, at the age of 20 and already a chain smoker, she headed to Sydney. Once there, she constantly moved from one boarding house or flat to another. She made a living supplying freelance drawings for newspaper catalogues and advertisements.

At some point between 1912 and 1921, she produced a book called Horrie Kiwi and the Kids but wasn’t able to find a publisher for it. The manuscript and drawings were found in the archives at Angus & Robertson in the early 1980s, but nobody knew how or when they got there. The book, which was clearly aimed at a New Zealand audience, was published in 1983, almost 40 years after she had died.

Possibly because she didn’t find a publisher for Horrie, or perhaps because she thought a small printer would give a better return, in 1920 she used Triumph Printers for her second book, The Story of Tommy Bear and the Zookies, along with postcards and other gift items. Merchandising is often thought of as being a modern invention but it was in full use 100 years ago. May Gibbs had produced bookmarks and greeting cards for her Gumnut Babies during the First World War. Dorothy, always keen on making the most money she could, would not have let this opportunity pass her by. She had already been selling bookmarks, handmade greeting cards and other items through the Sydney stationers, H.C. Swain. Wall and Swain were personal friends and this may have influenced her in how her work was sold. But with no big publisher to push the book, illustrating clothing and household utensils continued to be her main source of income.

Dorothy Wall pictured on her arrival in Australia in 1914

Wall was living in a flat in Bomera, an old house in Potts Point that had been converted into a number of self-contained flats. In another flat was Andrew Delfoss Badgery (known as Del). The two became romantically involved and married on 4th November, 1921.

Badgery had been a pilot and flying instructor during the war and at the time of the marriage was working as a clerk at State Parliament. He had moved into Bomera in 1920 being invalided out of the AIF after being in hospital with a persistent bronchial complaint a few weeks before the war ended. Back in Australia, he built his own aircraft and D.H. Souter painted a mascot on the tail, which was said to be a cat but looked a lot like a fox.

In the first two years of married life, Mr. and Mrs. Badgery lived at 21 addresses in Sydney’s east, near Bondi and Coogee. In 1923 they bought land in Dee Why, on the northern beaches. The area was sparsely populated and the bushland environment suited Dorothy and she found it an ideal place to work. She was still illustrating and drawing advertisements as she had been before being married. She also wrote and illustrated Bridget and the Bees while living there but it wasn’t published until 1934. Their only child, Peter, was born at Wyuna Private Hospital, Manly on 6th July, 1925.

Wall returned to New Zealand in 1938, hoping she would do better financially than she had in Sydney where she had been struggling to make ends meet. Back in New Zealand, she worked as a newspaper illustrator and cartoonist and seemed to be doing much better financially, but moved back to Australia in 1941, encouraged by the success her book, The Complete Adventures of Blinky Bill. Angus & Robertson had published the book in 1939; it was a huge success then and is still a bestseller to this day. Despite this apparent success, when she died in 1942, aged 48 (after developing pneumonia complicated by pleurisy), she was in debt to her publisher. Dorothy Wall was buried at North Ryde.

FOR GORSAKE! IT’S A SERIOUS PREQUEL!

So, this is interesting! A full thirteen years before Stan Cross drew For Gorsake Stop Laughing, This is Serious! and created a legend, this cartoon by Cec Hartt appeared on Page 9 of Smith’s Weekly of 17th July, 1920.

It’s often been said that there are only three or four basic jokes and everything else is just another iteration of one of them. It does make one wonder how long this basic concept had been bouncing around the Smith’s Weekly office in one form or another before Stan Cross refined it into the form we know so well today?

Many thanks to Lindsay Foyle for sending it in.

Reviews

Australia’s First Comic Book: A Problem of Definition

by Roger Morrison

Published by InHouse Publishing, 2016

Available from amazon.com.au

$29.99

407 pages

ISBN 9781925388824

Reviewed by Lindsay

Foyle

This book has been around since 2016 and has avoided most book reviewers. One probable reason is that the subject is not something many are interested in. Also, it is a particularly unexciting-looking book on a subject which relies entirely on imagery to make its impact. It is a big book. It weighs in at just over 400 A4 pages - all text, set in 12-point and double spaced – and reads as if it is something from a university.

The National Library of Australia claims, “There has long been disagreement over which publication should be recognised as Australia’s first comic book. This disagreement is largely due to the absence of a definition of an Australian comic book. In this volume, an examination of the history of comic strip compilations in Australia, Britain and America helps provide a definition; a definition that determines which publication may rightly be regarded as Australia’s first published comic book.”

All true, but, while there is a vast amount of information in this book, it does read as if Morrison had already formed a view on the subject and set out to prove it right. In it, Morrison defines what in, his view, a comic is and concludes by claiming that, “The Sunbeams Book: Adventures of Ginger Meggs, published in 1924, is Australia’s first comic book”. Perhaps he is right, but maybe he isn’t. It was, after all, only a collection of Us Fellers comic strips from the Sunday Sun in Sydney. But there is a lot in the book and it is obviously the end result of extensive research.

Australia’s First Comic Book can be purchased through Amazon ($29.99), where it is described as, “A comprehensive examination of the comic book histories of America and England for the purpose of formulating a definition of an Australian comic book; a definition that hopefully resolves the controversy over which publication was Australia’s first comic book”.

Best Australian Political Cartoons 2020

edited by Russ Radcliffe

Published by Scribe Publications, 2020

Available from booktopia.com.au

RRP $32.99

192 pages

ISBN 9781922310019

Reviewed

by

Steve Panozzo

As editor Russ Radcliffe opines in his introduction, “where is that bloody vaccine?”, it’s difficult to know whether he is referring to COVID-19 or some kind of innoculation for the whole of 2020. It’s possible it could be both! Even a cursory flick through the latest edition of Best Australian Political Cartoons is exhausting; so much seems to have happened throughout the course of last year. It’s quite emotionally draining as the reader relives some traumatic experiences through the cartoons.

From the frustration at seeing our Prime Minister cavorting in Hawaii while the country burned to Black Lives Matter protests, China, Trump, the embarrassment of a toilet paper roll panic and the ensuing series of border closures and lockdowns, it was a year full of unforeseen events - wonderful for cartoonists, but devastating for anyone’s state of mind. COVID-19 and it’s malignant after-effects threw everything we knew under the bus. For cartoonists, 2020 became a challenge of unpredictability and cartooning, once described by Paul Keating as “recessionproof” in 1990, sadly became, for some, financially untenable as the arts copped a hiding. Nevertheless, Radcliffe has selected works of 30 cartoonists from around the country, arranged into categories. As a permanent record of how we collectively lurched from unprecedented event to unprecedented event, this year’s annual might well be the most important keepsake of all 17 volumes thus far.

Vale Diana DeBring (1926-2020)

On 29th October 1994, the annual Stanley Awards celebrated the 70th birthday of the Australian Black and White Artists’ Club by returning to the Sydney Town Hall, the venue for the classic Artists’ Balls of the 1920s. Our special guest was the vivacious and celebrated Diana DeBring, née Hartt, daughter of the Club’s first President Cec Hartt, who was warmly welcomed into the extended Australian cartooning family.

Diana DeBring was born Diana Cecillie Hartt on 15th August, 1926. Her grandfather, John Russell, was a wellknown 18th Century portrait artist in England, Her father, Cec Hartt, was hired as the first artist at Smith’s Weekly, creating the character and archetype of the Aussie “Digger”. He used his work to satirise the Government’s response to the needs of returning war veterans, in particular the neglect of treatment for shell-shock.

Sadly, her father suicided when she was three years of age. Diana’s mother Iris (known as Biddy to friends and family) also seems to have had the showbiz bug. Early photos show her in various outfits, always wearing an endearing smile. Soon after Cec’s death, she married a ship’s captain from New Zealand, Frank Smart. Diana’s childhood was filled with artistic training; she began studying ice-skating and operatic dance when young and, at 17, received her certificate from the Royal Academy of Dance. It was the year before, however, at the age of 16, that she began working at Sydney’s Tivoli Theatre. She loved the extravagant costumes, the laughter and joy of being on stage with her friends, entertaining all of the “gorgeous American soldiers”. This was 1943, with war in the Pacific in full swing. She was young, confident, well trained, vivacious and doing what she loved: dancing and being in the spotlight.

The most defining experience of her long life came on the night of Saturday, 1st September, 1945, when the Tivoli caught fire. As the show continued in the theatre her closest friend June McKenzie and 15-year-old Phyllis Haines were in the dressing room, awaiting their next performance. The night was cold and they had a radiator in the cramped space as their only source of heat. In an instant, Phyllis’s highly flammable costume caught fire after brushing against the unprotected heater. As she screamed and ran around the room Diana and June also became engulfed in flames.

Several girls escaped the inferno by leaping out windows and hanging onto a water pipe. Tex Glanville, the Tivoli’s roping artist, used his lasso to rescue them from falling. That rope now resides in the Australian Performing Arts Collection at Arts Centre Melbourne. As the fire raged backstage, the audience in the main auditorium laughed and applauded at a man being sawn in half as the show went on. The next thing Diana recalled was waking up in hospital, her mother at her bedside, smiling and telling her that she would be fine. She spent the next six months fighting for her life. These were the first headlines she would garner as the Australian press became enamoured with the story of the beautiful showgirl burned by the negligence of the theatre operators.

If it hadn’t been for the discovery of penicillin and its use with burn victims in 1942 (proven by Australian scientist, Sir

Diana Hartt in 1944

Presenting the Gold Stanley in 1994: (from left) Bill Leak, Patron Jim Russell and Diana DeBring

Howard Florey, she was proud to say) she would have died. She was given over one million doses of the infection-fighting drug. Months into Diana’s convalescence in hospital, it was finally revealed to her that her two friends had died within days of the fire and that their injuries had been as severe as hers. Biddy rarely left Diana’s bedside, releasing sprays of perfume to mask the smell of putrefying skin from both visitors and her daughter.

The her lawsuit filed against the Tivoli, one of her doctors stated: “It is, I think, fair to assume that her value in the marriage market has fallen very considerably …” The fire had left her unable to carry children to term and this was, sadly, reflective of society’s assessment of a woman’s worth in 1946.

She received £20,000 from the theatre for her trouble. As she wasn’t yet 21, he court determined that the money would be held in a trust until she came of age. Over the next year, she worked as a spokesperson for Australia’s fight against tuberculosis and remained a darling of the press, often making headlines with one of her closest friends from the Tivoli, Patti Morgan. Patti had left for London in 1946 and, soon after she received her settlement from the Tivoli, Diana and her mother booked a world tour on the steamship Orion, following her friend. The media covered her departure.

They travelled across the Indian Ocean and via the Suez Canal, arriving in England in time for Queen Elizabeth’s Royal Wedding. They then headed to Canada and the United States, where Diana would meet her first husband.

After returning to Australia (minus the husband), Diana embarked on the next phase of her career. Her worst injuries were to her mid-section and left leg, which left her with a pronounced limp (she called it her “drop-foot”). Dancing was no longer a career option, so she turned to modelling and singing. Her face had been untouched by the flames and she was strikingly beautiful. Photographers used trick lighting and well-placed clothing to hide any scars.

Diana returned to the US with her mother and married for the second time, settling in Los Angeles. She began studying French and Italian at night as well as formally training as a singer. She made several trips back to Australia to perform

on radio and at venues across the country. As her voice and artistic training developed, her marriage fell apart, again leading to divorce.

Back in the United States, she met the love of her life, Don DeBring. The year was 1963 and, as he had been sent to Vietnam, she “married his mother” in Las Vegas. Apparently, you can get married by proxy, which she did. It would seem that her value on the marriage market was higher than the medical profession reckoned. Reinventing herself again, Diana studied operatic singing with Belgian oboist Henri de Brusscher and began performing as the lead soprano for the Santa Monica Opera Company in California.

She returned to Australia in the mid-1960s and toured local venues throughout the country as well as making several TV appearances on Don Lane’s Tonight Show, Adelaide Tonight and Tonight With Stuart Wagstaff. She also performed with the Sydney Metropolitan Opera Company as Siebel in their 1967 production of Faust. She and Don returned to the US in the late 1960s, where she continued to perform over the next 20 years. In the early 1980s, her husband became the fastest man in the world on land; in his self-built turbo-charged vehicle Longshot, he claimed world records at the Bonneville Salt Flats, reaching speeds in excess of 265 mph. In 1988, the couple retired to a small farming community west of Los Angeles, called Camarillo. Over the next 30 years, she survived breast cancer, a hip replacement and a few “touch-ups” along the way.

In May 1994, a contingent of Australian cartoonists travelled to La Jolla, Calfornia for the NCS Reuben Award weekend. A trip along the USA’s west coast followed, including an invitation to breakfast at Diana’s home, brokered by ABWAC Patron and tour organiser, Jim Russell. This led directly to Diana’s invitation to attend the 1994 Stanley Awards as guest of honour, representing her father as we celebrated the thenABWAC’s 70th birthday. She accepted without hesitation.

Don passed away in 2002, after 39 years of marriage, but Diana was never alone. She had helped to form a social club of Australian and Kiwi expatriates, called The Down Under Club, and her circle of friends was her extended family. Her neighbours regularly gathered for cocktails and Vegemite and Diana frequently gave singing lessons. Her prized silver Jaguar sported personalised licence plates that read ‘“Diva Di”.

In her final days, she had been having trouble walking and the crushing weight of Covid-19 had its effect on her. Quarantine became a slow torture for her active but ageing mind and she suffered badly from the isolation forced upon her. Though friends and distant family kept calling daily and checking up, her will to live began to decline. Diana passed away on 1st June, 2020, aged 93, at home with close friends and beloved dogs Sam and Lola by her side. She is survived by her step-granddaughter Katherine King and extended family throughout the world.

Many thanks to Diana DeBring’s friend and neighbour, Christopher Rowland, for permission to quote heavily from his eulogy.

Breakfast at Diana’s, Camarillo, 18th May, 1994

TOP: Rod Emmerson, Paul Dallimore, Peter Foster and Gary Clark

SEATED: Steve Panozzo, Diana DeBring and Jim Russell

Vale Yaroslav Horak (1927-2020)

Australian comic book legend, Yaroslav Horak, the artist behind Andea, The Skyman, Jet Fury, The Mask, Captain Fortune and - most famously - the James Bond comic strip for the Daily Express, passed away on 24th November after a nine-year battle with dementia at the age of 93.

Yaroslav “Yaro” Horak was born in Harbin, Manchuria on 12th June, 1927, the son of a Czech father and Russian mother, the family migrated to Sydney just prior to World War Two. Beginning in 1948, Horak began a stellar career as a comic book and strip artist, which eventually took him to London and the world of British Secret Service agent, James Bond 007. Talking with Steve Panozzo and Mark McHugh for Inkspot #59 (Spring 2009), Horak went into a great detail about his life and career in what turned out to be his last interview.

The family emigrated to Australia in 1939, settling in Paddington and supported by the local Czech immigrant community. At age 21, Horak’s started receiving £2 per page working for H. John Edwards publishers, with his first accepted comic strips being Rick Davis (a detective adventure) and The Skyman (a mysterious costumed flyer).

Work for Syd Nicholls followed, who doubled his salary and for whom Yaro drew Ray Thorpe and Ripon - The Man From Outer Space

“Syd was a genuine innovator,” recalled Horak in 2009. “He gave us all the breaks - it really started my career.”

After drawing Jet Fury for Pyramid Publications, which folded, Horak shifted to Melbourne, where he began working for Atlas Publications, drawing an Australian version of Brenda Starr. In 1954, he created The Mask - The Man of Many Faces, which was a result of a late-night flash of inspiration. It was a huge success for Atlas, until the Queensland Government banned the comic, considering a full mask as “evil”.

Disillusioned, Horak returned to Sydney and drew a comic strip adaptation of the popular children’s TV programme, Captain Fortune, for the Sun-Herald and Mike Steele - Desert Rider for Woman’s Day, where Horak’s distinctive drawing style began to emerge. He moved to London in 1962, where he began producing three-page adventure stories for D.C. Thompson and war comics for Fleetway, working from supplied scripts. In 1966, Horak was working in a studio on Fleet Street, in a building he shared with Modesty Blaise creator Peter McDonnell, who suggested him for the James Bond strip, taking over from John McLusky.

Working to scripts by American writer Jim Lawrence, Horak’s first James Bond strip was an adaptation of The Man With the Golden Gun. Lawrence said, in 1989, that his characterisation of Bond was shaped by the way Horak drew him. While the strip was commissioned by the Daily Express, it was later

resident at the Sunday Express and the Daily Star. Some strips were created specifically for syndication throughout Europe.

Having serialised all of Fleming’s novels, as well as Kingsley Amis’ one-off hit, Colonel Sun, the James Bond comic strip took on a life of its own. In 1968, Horak began drawing the first of 28 original Bond adventures written by Lawrence. Except for a four-year break (during which the artwork was again handled by McClusky), Horak continued with the strip until 1984, when it was abruptly terminated by the Daily Star

During this time, Yaro and his family moved to Spain, then to Holland and finally back to Sydney, where he set up an art studio at the Argyle Centre in The Rocks. In 1980, Horak was commissioned by the Sun-Herald to write and illustrate a comic strip adaptation of the popular Crawford Productions

Photo courtesy of GRAHAM RYE.

Yaroslav Horak in 2005 at a 007 event in London

police drama, Cop Shop, which he drew until 1983.

“Although I didn’t write the TV series it was based on, the strip and the script for it were all mine,” Horak said.

Horak famously eschewed the use of light-boxes and shortcuts when drawing vehicles, buildings, and other objects, instead working from model references or his own photographs, preferring the authenticity that came from the process.

Also in 1980, Horak was given the opportunity to write and illustrate his own strip for the Daily Mirror. Andea was a science-fiction serial about a glamorous, 400-year-old female extra-terrestrial who looked like she was 24 and who had travelled to Australia from the distant planet Xavax. Andea was a wonderful showcase for the full range of Horak’s story-telling and artistic abilities, running for seven years.

At the time of launching Andea, Horak met the woman he would later marry, Jacie, who survives him alongside their two children, Damon and Natascha and an older son, Anton, from his first marriage to Maggie.

In 2018, Horak was awarded the Ledger of Honour in recognition of his outstanding contribution to Australian comic books. On hand to accept the award on his behalf was Jacie and their chldren.

Horak’s constant companion in his later years was his dog, Dax. Astoundingly, his four-legged friend passed away the day after his owner, on 25th November, at the age of 15 years.

Signing at OzCon 7 in 1997

With Dax in 2009