Inkspot 96

Inkspot

CARTOONISTS FOR CHANGE

Inkspot Presidential Palaver

Issue #96, Winter 2022 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, Nancy Beiman, Daniel Best, Damian Castellini, Queenie Chan, Jason Chatfield, Gary Clark, Phil Day, Christopher Downes, Chris Durham, Danny Eastwood, Jules Faber, Max Foley, Lindsay Foyle, Christophe Granet, Paul Harvey, Judy Horacek, Ian Jones, Phil Judd, Fiona Katauskas, Chris Kelly, Peter Lewis, Glen Le Lievre, Vane Lindesay, Mark Lynch, Neil Matterson, Jakub Mazerant, Tim McEwen, Judy Nadin, Gerald Peigneux, Peter Player, Glenn Robinson, Alan Rose, David Rowe, Ian Sutherland, Deane Taylor, Chris Thomas, John Thorby, Peter Viska, Colin Wicking and Cathy Wilcox

Cover Art: Bagged by David Rowe

Inkspot is published quarterly by the Australian Cartoonists’ Association

Deadline for next issue is 17th SEPTEMBER

PO Box 5178

SOUTH TURRAMURRA NSW 2074

ABN 19 140 290 841

ISSN 1034-1943

Australia Post Registration PP 533798/0015

You wouldn’t think that so much could happen from one Inkspot to another. But somehow Steve has found another mountain of content to cram into this edition, which I have to read all in one go before it goes to print, but you can peruse at your leisure.

This is a magazine to leave lying around in the vicinity of the youngsters in your life.

Firstly, because many youngsters rarely encounter an actual printed magazine. And secondly, because, as they turn the pages, they can dive deeper and wider into the art of cartoons, comics, animation and illustration, from what’s happening right now (latest news), to what’s been happening for some time (interviews), then into the past, with stories and reviews of our artists and what became of them, and so many examples of their talent and expertise. And a spark might just be ignited in a young person’s imagination.

Looking at the animation backgrounds from Peter Viska’s Li’l Elvis, I recall a feeling I had some decades ago when, as someone who learned piano during childhood and dabbled now and then, I witnessed a concert pianist playing on a grand piano in her own apartment (she was a friend of a friend and I had just tagged along) - I thought: I don’t think I can ever touch a piano again! Her playing was so sublime, so awe-inspiring, I felt I should no longer insult the air with my lousy playing.

Ok, so that’s not the sound of a spark igniting - that’s one being extinguished in deference to a

blaze of brilliance. I gave up playing the piano. But I will muddle on with my drawing, even if it never reaches a standard of sublime. And meanwhile, I can still marvel and swoon at beautiful artwork. And maybe study it and improve my own, just a little bit…?

Before I leave you to it, I must remind you about this year’s Stanleys Conference and Gala Awards Night, in Coffs Harbour, 18th-20th November. Check your emails from us for the link, and please don’t forget to book your accommodation at the Pacific Bay Resort by 19th August!

Hopefully COVID and La Nina will give us a break, and we can have a great weekend!

Editorial Notes

Putting Inkspot together always reminds me of the well-worn metaphor of standing on the shoulders of giants.

Every aspect of this edition - from the gobsmackingly brilliant front cover by David Rowe to the crazily illustrated words of advice from animation supremo Deane Taylor on the back page - just oozes with expertise, the sort that only years of experience can offer. David’s cover artwork is, of course, part of the amazing Cartoonists For Change exhibition at the National Cartoon Gallery in Coffs Harbour.

Daniel Best tells the tale of an internationally-successful - yet forgotten - Australian cartoonist in John Richard Flanagan, whose work remains astonishing and easily comparable with the likes of Stanley Pitt and Norman Lindsay. It’s a warm “welcome back” to Phil Judd’s Inkspotlight after an extended absence and Peter Viska’s The Art in Animation celebrates 25 years of Li’l Elvis and the Truckstoppers by looking at the incredible scenic paintings of Richard Zaloudek. Now, that’s talent.

The other thing that comes from experience is wisdom. Cathy Wilcox’s cautionary tale (page 6) about being taken advantage of is always worth keeping in mind. Jason Chatfield’s rider, in which he evokes Jim Russell’s timeless advice, is also an invaluable read. No matter how many years any of us have been in this game, we are always learning.

This edition’s Your View On... looks at your take on “Holidays” and that’s on page 18. Please send in your cartoons for the next edition by 17th September - the theme will be “Dinner Parties”.

FLYING FRUIT vs. HORACEK

Watching her cartoons come to life onstage was a daunting, but rewarding, experience for JUDY HORACEK

THE CHARITY TRAP

Cartoonists are routinely asked to draw for free, but you can easily be taken for a sucker warns CATHY WILCOX

ACTION STATIONS

20 17

4 6 26

Cartoonists for Change at the National Cartoon Gallery celebrates our profession’s passion for truth and justice

INKSPOTLIGHT

PHIL JUDD shines a light on fellow Queenslander IAN JONES and his wildly popular comic strip, Bushy Tales

ANTARCTIC TALES

DAMIAN CASTELLINI’s first foray into the world of graphic novels was an icy, but rewarding,

COMICS PIONEER

JOHN RICHARD FLANAGAN was our first expatriate comics success story, so how is it he remains unknown, asks DANIEL BEST

IT’S A WORLD RECORD!

With 171 contributing artists from 34 countries, Pieces: Book 2 is an international graphic novel project with a difference

THE JOURNAL

Something to inspire us! We are proud to present DEAN TAYLOR’s new project, The Journal, musing on the creative process

REGULAR FEATURES

Flying Fruit Flies Spread

Having conquered Wodonga, followed by a regional tour, the Flying Fruit Fly Circus hits Melbourne in September for a series of performances of Girls With Altitude.

JUDY HORACEK describes the daunting and exhilerating process of working with the Fruit Flies to bring a circus show inspired by her work to life.

Way back before COVID was even a glint in a pangolin’s eye, I ran into Anni Davey at a writers’ festival. I have always had a huge admiration for Anni’s work, her years with Circus Oz and her many independent projects and performances. Anni told me she had recently been appointed Artistic Director of the Flying Fruit Fly Circus, the youth circus training school in Albury. I love circus.

‘I’ve been thinking about doing a Fruities show with a girls-only cast,’ she said. ‘And I’m wondering – would you like to collaborate? Make a circus show that would use your cartoons somehow?’

I don’t think that I’ve ever been asked a more delightful question.

I’ve been drawing cartoons with feisty, pointy-nosed female characters for over three decades, with messages about feminism, social justice and the environment. And a lot of just plain silly ones as well. My cartoons have appeared in newspapers, books, journals, on posters, on trams and buses, on mugs, aprons, even tea towels. Sometimes I feel like my ‘career’ has been a search for new places to put cartoons. Circus? Yes please!

One of the joys of this project for me was the opportunity to use my body of work as a resource to create something completely new.

It wasn’t like anything I had ever done before.

My working life has been spent almost entirely alone in a room. Contemporary circus is made by many, many people, with expertise in different areas – training, performing, OH&S issues, rigging, development of new ideas and skills, sound design, lighting design, costume design, organising of the venues, applications for funding plus many things I don’t even know about. For Girls with Altitude, there was a whole extra level of technology to allow the projection of cartoons and animation. It wasn’t like anything the Fruities had ever done before either.

I had two stints up in Albury working at ‘Fruities HQ’, which came with the added bonus of sparkling river walks along the Murray before work. Talking with Anni, looking at cartoons, thinking about what on earth we were going to do and how we were going to do it.

A lot of time was spent watching Anni working with the cartoons and the girls, most of whom hadn’t been aware of my cartoons previously, nor cartoons in general really. Luckily nearly all of them had grown up with Where is the Green Sheep?, my first and much-loved picture book with Mem Fox, so I wasn’t entirely without cred.

My cartoon characters have always flown, leapt into the air, climbed high. It’s how I show freedom, joy, escape. Metaphorically speaking, flying is how my cartoon characters defy the limitations that society imposes on everyone, and especially on women and girls.

Photos by IAN SUTHERLAND

Spread Their Wings

But it’s quite a different thing for people who actually fly or leap through the air. There are mechanics, logistics and practicalities associated with flying through the air in real life, with real bodies.

We had two starting points:

1. My body of work, the cartoons with their themes and ideas, and

2. The abilities of the girls, who specialise in different skills and different apparatuses – trapeze, German wheel, juggling, tumbling, bottle walking, silks, straps – not only the skills they already had (amazing), but things they would be able to learn to do across the development of Girls with Altitude (absolutely incredible).

Over time, we worked out the various ways we could show the cartoons and which cartoons we would show. A few cartoons began to take on more overarching roles thematically, and their visuals began to feed into the action and into the set design –stairs, boxes, post-it notes.

Other cartoons appear more briefly in the show in short slide shows, the captions and dialogue read out aloud by different girls. Some cartoons were gently animated – a character blinking or turning her head, a rocket ship shooting diagonally across the stage, a giraffe swimming across the cartoon frame. The animator, Bernadette Trench-Thiedeman, created composites from my drawings which we called ‘atmospheres’, designed to take up the whole stage: underwater, in space, a wild garden.

The political messages about the environment, feminism and social justice are all there, gentle but strong, along with sillier things – creatures such as the Mermonauts: half-astronaut, half-mermaid. Some characters from Where is the Green Sheep? even appear – well, why not?

After two COVID-imposed cancellations, Girls with Altitude premièred in Wodonga on 24th February 2022 and toured during March and April. I saw it five times in Wodonga alone! I’m one very proud parent.

I can’t imagine ever tiring of it, nor of having my breath taken away as I watch. My 2D characters combined with the real girls

of the Flying Fruit Fly Circus – who are as feisty as any of my cartoon figures, although not quite as pointy-nosed – have a magic that creates something that is very moving. And joyous –crazy-joyous.

The show opens with a projection of my Woman with Altitude cartoon, six metres high, the cartoon figure standing on top of a mountain, hands on hips, proud and independent. Her hair waves slightly in the breeze, small clouds drift past. The lighting changes and the cartoon becomes transparent, revealing a pyramid of real girls standing on each others’ shoulders, echoing the shape of the mountain. And then the girl on the very top lifts up her arms and flies away. Her flight involves rigging, belaying and a harness and I have no idea how that feels, and whether it is scary or not. But to me, sitting in the audience,e it certainly looks a lot like freedom.

This article was first published in ArtsHub in March 2022

The Flying Fruit Fly Circus, in collaboration with Judy Horacek, presents Girls with Altitude at the Arts Centre Melbourne on Friday, 16th September (6pm) and Saturday, 17th September (2pm, 6pm). For tickets and further information, visit: www.artscentremelbourne.com.au/whats-on/2022/ kids-and-families/girls-with-altitude

Cartoonists Are the Nicest People... Until They

Being charitable and generous can sometimes be a trap, warns CATHY WILCOX

Cartoonists and artists are the best, aren’t they? They do what they love for a living, and are therefore compensated by the pleasure of practising their craft.

So much luckier than people who have to do boring, tedious office jobs just to be paid a salary!

Since artists love making their art, they should be happy to do it for nothing, right?

Well, maybe - if that’s how you’ve decided to spend your time, and you have another source of income, or a wealthy spouse, or late rich grandmother…

But maybe, your art is how you make your living.

I was recently asked to contribute cartoons to a book aimed at raising money for a cause. Presumably, the inclusion of my artwork made it more likely to sell, and thus it would raise more money.

It didn’t seem like a big ask, even though I didn’t feel particularly invested in the cause. I eventually agreed, persuaded as I was by list of others who had agreed to contribute. I figured that, salaried as I am, I could afford the time to do something for no money, for a cause.

Some time later, I heard from others who had contributed, but hadn’t enjoyed the experience. They’d been asked to make changes, or had drawings rejected, which made them feel that the gift of their time and goodwill had been somewhat undervalued. They expressed resentment, and regretted the feeling that they had once again been “guilted” into doing something, and wished they’d “learn to say no” more often.

Does this sound familiar? The interesting thing, for me, was that these were not newbies having to weigh up what is and isn’t worth (say for the practice or exposure) their time and talent. These were mature (my age) professionals, accustomed to making a living from their work and having to put a value to their time and name - yet they still felt obliged to give it away for free!

A wake-up call for me was years ago when I was asked by a community organisation to come and give a dinner talk, and exhibit some cartoons.

I agreed to it, as I liked the organisation, and assumed that as they were not corporate, I must be doing it for free. When I realised I’d spent hundreds of dollars on framing my work and had no idea of what to do with it, it took an older, wiser friend to say to me: “but it’s your work. It has a value. You can’t be expected to do all that for nothing.”

They Die of Exposure

Not that I felt I couldn’t afford it. But that I just assumed that I couldn’t even ask for money to cover my expenses, even though they were getting my work, AND my time, to speak at a dinner which no doubt people had paid to attend, and would be paid to serve.

And if this is hard for people with a name and many years of experience, how hard must it be for those of you who are just starting out?!

I want to make it clear that I am not at all against artists doing stuff for nothing, if they choose to. But I think some of us could do with that wise old friend, to be reminded that:

• We should not be obliged to give our work and time away. Gauge the way you feel, and if resentment and stress is the feeling, say no.

• When we are asked to do something for a charitable cause, consider whether we are in fact in a position to give - are we giving them time and art we actually need to support our own livelihood? Are we expected to cover expenses too? Can we afford to? Is it something we particularly care about? Is our work the drawcard for actual wealthy donors?

• Look out for the signs that your goodwill is being taken advantage of. “We REALLY love your work but I’m afraid we just don’t have a budget. But the exposure will be great for you!” Tell them people can die of exposure. Ask them if they’re being paid. “You guys are all so lovely!” - ie, we love the way we can just ask you for stuff and you give it because you wouldn’t like for us NOT to think you’re lovely.

• You can make the rules for yourself. Think about what feels right for you, whether you decide “OK, three freebies a year”, or “only once I’ve covered my expenses for the month” or “only for causes I’m passionate about”.

Sometimes we even need to set boundaries for friends and family if we notice that we’re being taken for granted. Your own needs don’t have to be forgotten. Think of what you’d feel comfortable asking of someone else.

Remember that making a habit out of doing work for free, or cheap, in a field where others are depending on getting paid, serves to undercut your colleagues and devalue your own work. It can become self-fulfilling. If YOU don’t think your work is worth paying for, how do you convince others to pay for it?

Cartoonists and artists are some of the nicest people. But you don’t have to be a sucker, and you don’t have to undermine your own interests. The choices you make, personally and professionally, are what define you. Be your own champion.

Cathy Wilcox

You Know Those Times When Your ‘Yes’ Really Means ‘No’?

I remember Jim Russell telling a story that always got re-told at ACA get-togethers. It may not have been one of his own, but he told it well.

He had been approached by a company to contribute cartoons to a calendar project, gratis. When the request came in, he asked the fellow, “Is the printer getting paid?” He replied, “Well, yes. I mean he has to cover his expenses.” “And tell me this,” he continued, “The distribution company, the delivery drivers, the people trimming, and saddle-stitching, boxing up the finished calendars, will they be getting paid?” The reply came, “Well, of course.” He leaned in and added, “So why the fuck would you expect me to work for free?”

Just because someone enjoys their chosen profession, doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be paid for it.

To complicate matters, so many us live with the uncertainty of never knowing where our next rent payment is coming from, so we say ‘yes’ to everything. We then wonder why we’re up at 2am on Saturday morning trying to make a dent in the impossible pile of jobs we accepted. It’s a difficult balance to strike: you want to take the work while it’s there, but there’s the ever-present danger that you’ll take on too much and burn out.

To make things even worse, saying ‘no’ is already hard.

It’s especially hard when you’re a people-pleaser. You reflexively say ‘yes’ in the moment because it makes you feel good or avoids any confrontation, but then you have to sit with the knowledge that you just said yes to something you’re only doing to make yourself seem like a nice person. It doesn’t make future you feel nice for doing it - it makes you feel terrible that you now have to do it, and can’t go back on your word. The time for ‘no’ has passed. You dread it, you procrastinate, you keep worrying about it until the day comes that it’s time to deliver on your ‘yes’.

Over nearly 2 decades of freelancing, I’ve picked up a handful of tips on how to consciously assess opportunities as they come in. How to measure whether the work involved will give an appropriate return on the time invested, or should be politely discarded. In short, I’ve had to cultivate the ability to say ‘no’ when the need arises.

I put them all together in a series of 30 emails called The NO-vember Challenge. If you’ve read any of the above and nodded a couple of times, it’s probably worth a look.

Jason Chatfield

Life at MONA is Just The Pits

A Night in the Skull Cave Helps Kids in Need

For almost 25 years, a dedicated tribe of loyal Phantom fans and artists have gathered over dinner at irregular intervals to celebrate their favourite comic book hero. Co-ordinated by Phantom superfans, Richard Fry and Antonio Di Dio, the Lee Falk Memorial Bengali Explorers’ Club was formed following the visit to Australia by revered Phantom comic strip artist, Sy Barry, in 1997.

This year’s dinner, at the Deus Café in Camperdown, Sydney on 18th June, marked the 33rd time the eclectic group has met.

Around 65 guests (most wearing something in purple) gathered to hear guest speaker, acclaimed comic book artist Daniel Picciotto. Each of the attending artists generously donated artwork to the annual charity auction, which raised an astounding $8,100 for the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Foundation.

Tasmania’s Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) is known for employing many artists from all sorts of different backgrounds - painters, actors, musicians and... cartoonists.

Most of these artists will usually work front-of-house, watching over the artwork and sometimes have the opportunity to utilise their talents when MONA needs them. One local Hobart punk band, The Pits, has a few members who are long-time employees on the front-of-house roster. Also on this roster is Hobart cartoonist, Christopher Downes. The Pits are known for using local artists to make album covers for them, so it was inevitable that they would eventually ask Chris to come up with an album cover for them.

The title of the album was It’s Not a Race, referring to former Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s now-infamous comment on the vaccine rollout in Australia. Because of the political nature of this specific album, some of the members of the band, Peter MacPherson and Keith Churchill, specifically asked Chris to come up with the cover image. They gave him a lot of creative freedom (they ARE a punk band after all!) and the cartoonist came up with something appropriate for the title.

It’s unknown yet as to whether this album had any effect on the outcome of the election. Fingers are crossed that the album will be a hit, though neither Chris or The Pits are willing to give up their day jobs just yet.

ABOVE: Peter MacPherson and Christopher Downes at MONA with the new album by The Pits

FROM LEFT: Glenn Ford (artist and co-owner of Frew Publications), Jeremy McPherson (artist), Antonio Lemos (artist), Andrew Constant (writer), Paul Mason (artist), Duncan Munro (writer) and Daniel Picciotto

Manga Artist is Queenie of the Kids

Queenie Chan has a unique 6-page manga comic included with issue 19 of Kookie, a quarterly pre-teen magazine.

Called Sea Beastling, it’s the story of a musical girl haunted by a mythical Chinese beast and was co-written with musician Yunyu Ong

Kookie is a girl-led, advertisement-free, award-winning print magazine for “smart cookies”, aimed at readers aged 7 to 12.

Championing remarkable female role models of all ages, the magazine has been running since 2017 and “offers readers a rounded and optimistic sense of who they are and what they could become”.

www.kookiemagazine.com.au/store

Porsche Gets the Indigenous Touch

Since 1991, Danny Eastwood has been resident cartoonist on The Koori Mail, which is published fortnightly and distributed to 100,000 readers around Australia.

Away from the drawing table, Danny has enjoyed considerable success as a painter, being awarded National Aboriginal Artist of the Year, NSW Aboriginal Artist of the Year (twice), the NSW Parliament Indigenous Art Prize, NSW NAIDOC Award, the National NAIDOC Aboriginal Artist of the Year, Blacktown Aboriginal Citizen of the Year (2018) and first prizes in the NSW Parliament Award and the NAIDOC Poster Award.

Lately however, Danny has been tackling a rather unusual project - painting a vintage Porsche for international racing identity Ron Goodman in preparation for an upcoming charity car rally to aid sick children. Zoom zoom!

Continue to Hold: Clark’s New Book is a Tribute to Aviation

Aviation and cartooning have always intersected in the life and career of Gary Clark. First during his art school years, where he developed his cartooning skills and learnt to fly gliders, then later as the creator of Swamp, where the aviation theme emerged and grew mainly through the character of Ding Duck, the world’s worst flying student.

Clark’s transition from flying gliders to training for a private pilot’s licence opened up greater possibilities for aviation humour in the strip and saw the creation of new characters, including the air-traffic controller.

One of the richest sources of aviation humour comes from the communication between pilots and air-traffic control. This Controller, along with Ding, steadily grew an enthusiastic following worldwide among aviators and those who work in the broad range of professions that manage the safety of air traffic.

Clark’s new book, Continue to Hold, is a compilation of more than 450 Swamp aviation and ATC cartoons; it is dedicated to all those involved in aviation and those who keep them safe in the air. Continue to Hold (ISBN 9789490008260) is available now and is priced at $24.95. It can be found at:

swamp.com.au/shop

Gary Clark (in helmet as a passenger) flies in formation with The Roulettes

Fortune Swept Under a Ginger Rug

One of the nice things about being involved in the cartooning world is the support many people are willing to give to others. Recently, Trent Burton was asked by a client to remove some old furniture from her property. She was considering burning it all and was happy to see it go.

The unwanted furniture included a Ginger Meggs rug and an old chest of drawers, which Trent intends to fully restore. So, he got the lot for free.

Wondering about the history of the rug, Burton contacted Jason Chatfield to ask if he knew anything about the rug. Chatfield couldn’t help and referred Burton to Lindsay Foyle, who has been working on a book about the history of Ginger Meggs and his artists, due to be published later this year. The rug was new to him, so he asked for help on Facebook.

James Wakeling offered that Ron Vivian had designed the rug and that it

had been manufactured in Poland. Then Daniel McKeown searched around on Trove and found some 1953 newspaper advertisements for six different Ginger Meggs rugs.

It seems Sir Frank Packer requested Vivian to design the rugs, which were sold all over Australia, at twenty-six shillings and six pence each - just under $50 in today’s money. These rugs are now being offered for sale on eBay at a little under $400.

Warnie’s Ultimate Tribute

Shane Warne was captivating and outrageous, a once-in-a-lifetime genius. Warnie’s aura transcended cricket, bringing to the game a level of theatre never before seen. Like a rock star, he danced and cavorted, he challenged and flaunted. He texted. He was Australian sport’s ultimate headliner and nobody - not even Don Bradman - won more cricket matches for Australia.

On Ya Warnie: The Ultimate Celebration, written by Australia’s most published living sports author, Ken Piesse, and illustrated with gusto by Paul Harvey, celebrates the life of Australia’s ultimate celebrity cricketer, taken from us so cruelly before his time.

It features the yarns, the laughs, the flippers, the fancies and much, much more.

“It was fun to work with stalwart Ken on what must be his 1000th cricket book,” said Harv. “The cover celebrates all things Warnie: his kids, friends and work colleagues, vegemite, beans, poker, his beloved Saints and even cricket. It’s full of great stories and touching memories.”

On Ya Warnie (ISBN 9781922810076) is published by Wilkinson Publishing and is priced at $29.99. Available now!

www.wilkinsonpublishing.com.au/product/ on-ya-warnie

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

Federal Election Bonus for Fiona

In the six-week lead-up to the 2022 Australian federal election, Australian Community Media (owner of a suite of regional publications, including The Canberra Times) launched a national daily bulletin called The Echidna

Published each weekday morning, The Echidna began on 14th March and features musings of former Fairfax editorial director, Garry Linnell, and the whimsical cartoons of Fiona Katauskas

“(It) was only supposed to run up to the election, but it went really well and built up a bit of a community from around the country,” said Fiona, “so to my great surprise they extended it to become a permanent fixture.”

“I don’t know where the funding is coming from but it might be Meta/Google money as there seems to be a bit around,” she said. “If so, it’s great they spent it on a new cartooning gig!”

“Cartoons can shine a light on hypocrisy and show how power works in a way that engages the reader that an editorial on the same subject wouldn’t,” she says. “Cartoons, to my mind anyway, shouldn’t punch down but should focus on powerful people and institutions... and hopefully make people laugh as well.”

www.theechidna.com.au

Nancy Plans Retirement

After a career spanning 5 decades, esteemed animation director and regular Stanley Awards guest Nancy Beiman has announced her official retirement, effective 1st October, 2022.

Just a cursory list of her career achievements would fill a book - Nancy has designed, animated, storyboarded and supervised animation for television, games and feature films - including Bugs Bunny shorts for Warner Bros and, famously, Disney’s Hercules - even producing several films through her own company. She has written two published books on storyboarding and acting for animation and conducted animation masterclasses in the USA, Singapore, Taiwan and Denmark.

Nancy stresses that this is a statutory thing upon reaching a certain ageshe has no plans to stop living nor creating. Luckily, there will be boundless opportunities for further travel.

“Time flies when you’re having fun,” she said.

Bush Pigs vs. The Zombat

The Fabulous Bush Pigs burst out of their boghole in 2013 and creator, Alan Rose, has already steered the comic strip through four compilation books to date. Now, the motley crew is starring in their own comic book series!

A second comic, The Night of the Zombat (right), was recently unleashed by Reverie Publications, which includes the bonus story, Web Boy Focuses on Low Res Guy.

The Fabulous Bush Pigs #2: The Night of the Zombat is $9 (plus postage) and you can order your copy by emailing: harose@alanrosegraphics.com.au

Animal Act

Former NT News editorial cartoonist - and now wry observer of Far North Queensland lifestyle habits - Colin Wicking recently raffled off his final NT News cartoon, raising $5,000 for the RSPCA’s Darwin animal shelter.

Colin was on-hand in June to present the framed original to the winner, Kym, pictured here with Peter King, General Manager at RSPCA Darwin.

“No animals were harmed in the making of this raffle,” quipped Wicking.

While many of us tune into the ACA’s regular Zoom Coffee Mornings, others prefer to be a little more analogue - like Peter Player

“I found an old brown coffee pot at a thrift shop,” he said. A few coats of turquoise and a flying pig later - and who needs Zoom?

Alan Rose has curated the second in a series of online sports caricature exhibitions, called Sporticatures ‘22. The first focused on the work of Victorian caricaturists; this one - subtitled Past Greats of Sport - has expanded the field of artists to include interstate caricaturists such as Judy Nadin, David Rowe, Mark Tippett and Steve Panozzo, as well as impressive works by dearly departed colleagues Tony Kentuck, WEG and Tony Rafty (left).

Sporticatures ‘22: Past Greats of Sport can be viewed by visiting:

https://online.fliphtml5.com/ylltc/jyud

5,500 Strips in 23 Years and Counting: Christophe’s Remarkable Success

In June, Christophe Granet celebrated drawing his 5,500th It’s a Jungle Out There! cartoon (right).

It’s a Jungle Out There! appears in The West Australian every Saturday. It’s also held by online cartoon licensing agency, CartoonStock, where the popular panel is mainly bought for education purposes and book illustrations.

“Animals are used to depict the funny or absurd side of life,” said Christophe.

Christophe has been drawing the panel, using the pen-name “Hagen”, since 1999 and much of the appeal stems from its “G-rated” naiveté, appealing to readers of all ages.

“Even though the title includes ‘Jungle’, all sorts of animals are used: from kangaroos and koalas to ocean, farm or wood-dwellers and house pets,” he said.

“I draw It’s a Jungle Out There! in batches of 4, then scan, put in templates and apply colour,” said Christophe. “Of course, I keep the numbering system up to date.”

Congratulations, Christophe!

Fundraising Cookbook is a Recipe for Macabre Fun

With a focus on the macabre and recipes that, in the main, do not promote healthy eating, Death By Corrie is not your usual cookbook.

The brainchild of The CorriLee Foundation’s Tanya Lee, Death By Corrie combines her grandmother’s favourite recipes and Australia’s finest cartoonists in a fundraising initiative for the advocacy group, Dying With Dignity NSW, to raise awareness about their cause and keep the momentum moving to have voluntary assisted dying legislated in Australia.

Corrie’s recipes stem from a bygone era when sugar, salt and fat were staple ingredients and the food brought a smile to your face and comfort to your belly.

Instead of the usual meticulously-manicured food images you’ll find in most other cookbooks, the recipes in Death By Corrie are hilariously illuminated by some of Australia’s best cartoonists, with Peter Berner, Peter Broelman, Patrick Cook, Jules Faber, Matt Golding, Leigh Hobbs, Brian Kogler, Peter Lewis, Tony Lopes, Mark Lynch, Matthew Martin, Kerry Millard, Reg Mombassa, Judy Nadin, Steve Panozzo, Victoria Roberts, Buddy Ross, John Shakespeare and Cathy Wilcox among them.

Death By Corrie retails for $34.95 and is available by visiting: www. deathbycorriecookbook.com

ABOVE: Cathy Wilcox’s take on Jam Drops

ABOVE: Bread and Butter Pudding inspires a criminal investigation from Jules Faber

PETER LEWIS RETIRES... AGAIN!

Not many cartoonists get to retire, get rehired, then get given a second retirement - but The Newcastle Herald’s Peter Lewis has done just that.

“I got to have my cake and eat it too,” he says.

“When The Newcastle Herald made me redundant on St. Valentine’s Day in 2016, I’d been there thirty years,” he said. “So it was a generous payout and then, a few months later, I was rehired as a weekly contributor.”

The paper hadn’t counted on Lewis’ popularity amongst its readers, and he soon found himself back in print, drawing cartoons once a week for the Saturday edition.

“That sweet deal lasted six more years,” Peter said, “but my role as an editorial cartoonist has finally come to an end.

“I had twelve different editors, worked alongside some of Australia’s finest journalists, and saw the digital age rise up like a tidal wave before it swept away the old news industry.”

Along the way, Peter has earned several awards for his cartoons and caricatures, most notably 13 Rotary Cartoon Awards since 1993, including Cartoon of the Year in 1994 and 2002.

“It’s been quite a ride, not just for me but for all of us in the cartooning world,” he says. “Thankfully, it’s also brought many opportunities. Time to find a new adventure.”

A fresh-faced Peter Lewis in 1993...

TO BEE CONTINUED?: Lewis’ final cartoon for The Newcastle Herald (2nd July, 2022)

and in 2022!

The Rage For Change Still Inspires Our Cartoonists

The National Cartoon Gallery in Coffs Harbour played host to Cartoonists for Change in June/July, an exhibition that proved that, even in Australia’s coldest month, fire still burned deep in the hearts of Australia’s cartoonists.

“Cartoonists are truth-tellers who call out racism, inequality, advocate for peace, take a strong stand on human rights abuses, freedom of speech and equal rights for all,” said NCG Manager, Chris Durham.

“They were some of the first artists to highlight climate change some 30 years ago, drawing some of the catastrophic consequences we will all face if we ignore this issue.

“Cartoonists are political and social journalists who communicate their message through their art rather than words,” she said. “Their images inform the public and provide awareness on important issues to create change for a better society.“

Staged in the upstairs Gallery, the Cartoonists for Change showcased the work of numerous cartoonists who have, and do, champion for change. Their work speaks volumes, tackling serious global issues such as human rights, climate change, reconciliation and equal rights for First Nation people.

One of the highlights of this exhibition is the recent donation by the Cheetham family of The Sea of Satire collection.

This is a unique collection of political cartoons by some of Australia’s most celebrated political cartoonists such as Bill Leak, Judy Horacek & Eric Löbbecke, commenting on Native Title and Reconciliation. The works were created to raise awareness and funds for ANTaR (Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation) in 1998 and until now have been in the private collection of the Cheetham family. This was the first time these works had been publicly shown in a Gallery.

This exhibition was timed to celebrate NAIDOC Week 2022.

ABOVE: Calling Australia by Glen LeLievre; More of the Same!! by Chris Kelly BELOW: Help by Stewart McCrae; Where is the Sun? by Neil Matterson

Your View On...

MARK LYNCH (New South Wales)

ALAN ROSE (Victoria)

PHIL DAY (New South Wales)

LINDSAY FOYLE (New South Wales)

GLENN ROBINSON (Victoria)

GERALD PEIGNEUX (France)

compiled by steve panozzo

thanks to everyone for your amazing contributions!

NEXT ISSUE: Parties!

Please send your contributions to: inkspot@cartoonists.org.au

MARK LYNCH (New South Wales)

CHRIS THOMAS (New South Wales)

STEVE PANOZZO (New South Wales)

JOHN ALLISON (Victoria)

JOHN ALLISON (Victoria)

PHIL DAY (New South Wales)

IAN JONES

interview by PHIL JUDD

Ian Jones is no newcomer to the world of cartooning. His comic strips have been widely published in Australia and some international markets since 1980.

His comic strip, Pearly Gates, was published every day for more than 20 years. With his current strip, Bushy Tales, Ian believes he is doing his best work ever, which has been confirmed by its growing popularity and the recognition of his cartooning peers. After years of being a finalist, Bushy Tales

When did you first start drawing? Do you have a first memory?

I don’t remember a specific instance of when I started to draw, other than it was always something that I seemed to be doing from a very young age. I always thought of myself as having been blessed with an artistic gift, though it only developed a “cartooning” direction in my later teens.

I had always enjoyed being a bit of a clown and making people laugh and so, when combined with a bit of artistic flair, the result of this happy union turned out to be cartooning. I discovered in my years at teacher’s college that I could express myself quite satisfyingly through cartoons, much to the chagrin of my lecturers and the enjoyment of my fellow students.

What was your first break?

I do remember, in my first year out as a teacher, coming up with an idea for a comic strip which I was sure was going

won Ian his first award - Best Comic Strip at the 2021 Rotary Cartoon Awards.

A former schoolteacher, Ian is also the pastor of an international church in Brisbane. He loves travelling and has spent time with the people and cultures of more than 50 countries. He is also an award-winning photographer.

Ian has been married to wife, Robyn, for 44 years. They have 7 children and 9 grandchildren.

to be a world-beater. I called it Great Scott and I drew 250 strips in the late hours after a full day’s teaching. It was hard going, but I was on fire and Great Scott was going to be the pathway to fame and fortune! I sent off a dozen promotional packages to the syndicates, both in Australia and overseas... I was sure that there was going to be a bidding war between the syndicates for my strip. Anyway, it is now about 45 years later and I am still waiting on a reply from every one of those 12 syndicates!

I guess that was my introduction to the cut-throat and competitive world of comic strip cartooning. I must admit I was quite deflated by the lack of response... but not defeated. I put Great Scott aside, realizing that it was not good enough, anyway, and concentrated on my teaching career and my growing little family. However, I wasn’t done with cartooning, even though it seemed that it was done with me! A few years later I started working on another comic strip, this one was called Bunyip, and I sent samples off to the same 12 syndicates (whoever said that cartoonists tended to be masochistic was probably right!) and a couple of local papers. But, this time, there was a response... and a positive one at that!

The then-editor of the Gold Coast Bulletin, John Burton, contacted me and said that he would like to start running the strip. I was over the moon! And, shortly after that, Sol Shifrin, from Intercontinental Features (one of the original 12 syndicates I’d approached with Great Scott) sent me a telegram saying he wanted to syndicate me and my new strip! This was heady stuff for a young, naïve, cartooning wannabe.

Still, as anyone who has walked this path knows, there is no quick success story in the world of cartooning in this country. My initial three-year contract with Intercontinental Features ended up not producing any new papers for Bunyip (by now called Keg ), so I decided to leave the syndicate and try to self-syndicate the strip, along with a new feature I had developed, called Pearly Gates (above).

In the first year of self-syndicating, I was fortunate enough to sell my strips into several newspapers which was a great encouragement to me in my belief that I might have some sort of future as a cartoonist. And now here I am, all these years later, still with a head full of ideas and pen in hand!

What category of cartooning does your work cover?

What formats do you use?

Over the years I have tried a lot of the different cartooning genres but the one that I have always been most drawn to (pun intended) is that of the comic strip.

I reckon I’m a lousy caricaturist, and I don’t think I would enjoy the negativity of the political world on a daily basis, so the world of the comic strip is the one I think I’m best suited to. I think, also, I have enjoyed the opportunity over the years of creating my own little parallel universe, as it were... coming up with characters and storylines and so on.

Previously, I have had a couple of strips published (Bunyip/ Keg and Pearly Gates), but I do believe that my work with Bushy Tales is the best of my cartooning career... and getting better!

How do you generate your ideas?

When the Gold Coast Bulletin was getting ready to launch Bunyip, they asked me to go down for an interview. Being my first-ever interview, I was fairly innocent and readily answered all the questions as honestly as I could, including that most commonly asked question of all: “Where do you get your ideas from?”

Well, I answered quite sincerely, “Normally when I am relaxed... often when I’m in the shower, for example.” The interview was published in the Gold Coast Bulletin on the day my strip first appeared.

They sent me a copy and I was aghast and embarrassed to see the banner headline across the top of the page: “IAN STRIPS FOR STRIP IDEAS!”

I soon saw the humour in the headline, but I also learned to be a bit more guarded in my future answers!

Over the years I became a bit more disciplined in my search for the elusive idea... and I usually have a pen and notebook handy for when they come. I’ve learned that ideas don’t always come on command and can arrive quite unexpectedly from surprising sources, so you just have to be ready for them.

One of the worst feelings is to have a great idea and then not being able to remember it when you need it, so I like to write the idea, or even just a word, down for later reference. And, of course, one good idea can often spark more ideas, whether for a story arc or just for further individual strips.

What comes first - the drawing or the writing?

For me, definitely the writing. Even though I take great pride in the artistry of Bushy Tales, I do recognize that it is the gag that is the most important part of the product. I want readers to really enjoy the style and creativity of the strip (and, particularly, my depiction of our Aussie wildlife and bush setting), but if I miss the mark with the humour of the strip then I consider that the strip has failed.

What materials, technology and methods do you currently use to create your work? Any favourites?

When I first started out, I used the old bottle of ink and the dip-pen on thick paper or card. It was messy but it did give a beautiful result. Unfortunately, it was not the quickest medium to work with and so, over time, I started using other types of pens and paper.

These days, I still draw pen to paper... I guess I am a bit of a dinosaur in that regard, but I do love the feel of the pen on the paper. I draw on A-3 sized drawing paper (220gsm). After the drawing, I then scan the original and then colour and resize it in Adobe Photoshop.

With the Sunday Bushy Tales strip, I play around in Photoshop to produce two sizes/formats for publication... the original 3-deck strip and the smaller, 2-deck strip which runs in The Sun-Herald.

Have you ever won any awards for your work?

Just a few months ago the answer to that question would have been, “No”. However, I was fortunate to win the Comic Strip section of the 33rd Rotary Cartoon Awards (for 2021) held in February this year. Whilst I have not looked to awards (or the lack of them) as a validation of my cartooning ability or career, this was still a great surprise and was very much appreciated and valued.

Ian Jones receiving his Rotary Cartoon Award in February

Similarly, I have been very honoured to be a finalist for seven years in a row in the Comic Strip Artist of the Year at The Stanley Awards. Just to be in the discussion alongside cartoonists I have long admired and respected as some of the best in the business has been a huge thrill for me.

In all honesty, the greatest affirmation I have had in my cartooning career has been in the response from readers and the enjoyment that people derive from my work. That’s pretty affirming, I reckon.

What’s the best thing that has happened so far in your cartooning career?

I don’t think I can give a simple, or singular, answer to this question.

Looking back, there have just been so many wonderful things happen and wonderful people met. Maybe I could change the question slightly from “the best thing” to “the most surprising thing”?

I had taken a break from cartooning after Pearly Gates had notched up 20 years of publication. I was finding it more and more difficult to be fresh and funny with the strip and deadlines were becoming an increasing pressure. There were two specific instances where this hit home hard.

As a pastor, I was often called upon to deal with some very sad and challenging situations. I remember, on two separate occasions (one, dealing with a couple’s messy marriage breakdown and the other talking someone out of suicide), coming home completely drained and then having to sit down and draw something funny to meet a deadline. I needed a break and, so, I put down the pens for a few years.

Over time, I found that I needed, for my own sake as much as anything else, to pick the pens up again. I believe that a creative person needs to have a creative outlet! And, quickly, a new strip idea took shape in my mind centred around the iconic characters of the Aussie bush, with a wombat as the central character, based on a drawing I had done of a wombat some 20 years previous.

Perhaps Bushy Tales was a world I created for my own escape, but I also wanted it to be a beautifully-rendered cartoon version of the Aussie bush environment that others could enjoy and appreciate. And they did.

Over the first few years of producing Bushy Tales, it gained a bit of an online following and, then, in 2015 it was syndicated by GoComics (Andrews & McMeel) in the US... .and all without having found a home in Australia! I promoted the strip to newspapers here in Australia but rarely even got a response. This did not surprise me at all because, as we all know, the newspaper industry in this country has contracted and, whilst it has always been a challenge to break into the market, it has become exponentially more difficult over the past decade or so.

Still, I persevered because I believed I had a pretty good product (and, of course, the prerequisite masochistic streak, too). Also, Auspac Media had taken the strip aboard to see what they could do with it. At the same time, I was not holding my breath on anything happening.

Then (finally getting around to the revised question), one day, almost two years ago, I received an email from Auspac Media saying that The Sun-Herald wanted to take Bushy Tales on! Given the context of the newspaper industry and the fact that no new Australian strip had broken into a major metropolitan newspaper in this country for I-don’t-know-how-long... THIS was the most surprising thing that has happened to me in my cartooning career. This was BIG!

Obviously, the controversy that ensued with the iconic Ginger Meggs being the strip originally replaced, somewhat overshadowed this achievement but, to me at least, this was huge, and I am forever grateful for that opportunity (I am also very thankful of the help that Auspac Media has been to me in promoting the strip).

Since then, many other papers have taken Bushy Tales on and, hopefully, many more will do so in the coming months and years.

Any advice, tips or insights you could offer your fellow cartoonists or those aspiring to be?

I think most cartoonists will say very much the same thing... persevere! Keep honing your craft, even if there is no immediate return for it other than your own enjoyment. Work out what you like doing and work hard at doing it the very best that you can.

Keep learning. Even after all these years, I am still learning. One of my greatest thrills is learning how to draw my characters

in different positions and poses and perspectives. Never stop learning.

And, even though your expectations and goals might change over time (Great Scott never made a cent, let alone a fortune!), learn to enjoy what you do regardless of how others might define “success”.

Do you have any favourite Australian cartoonists?

I have many. I believe we have some of the world’s best cartoonists here in Australia. In my own field of strip cartooning, it has always been challenging and competitive. The US syndicates have always been able to get strips published cheaper here in our newspapers to the detriment of the local talent and, yet, we have some incredibly gifted cartoonists with long-running strips that deserve heaps of respect for their achievements. But there are also other cartoonists, not in the limelight and, sadly, not with the same opportunities, who continue to do what they do simply because they love it.

I reckon they also deserve heaps of respect, too.

Who would you say are your five favourite cartoonists that inspire you?

There are so many... not counting the Aussies referred to in the previous question, I look at the work of some of the early exponents like Walt Kelly and I am inspired. I think my friend, Brian Crane (Pickles), is one of the most consistent current cartoonists around. I always loved the simplicity and whimsy of Johnny Hart (BC) and the imagination of Jim Unger (Herman). And, of course, Bill Watterson with Calvin and Hobbes simply inspired everybody! But my favourite cartoonist I would have to say has always been Tom K. Ryan (Tumbleweeds).

Any obscure cartoonists you can suggest checking out?

A young cartoonist doing very well in the US is Will Henry with Wallace the Brave. He’s got quite a unique style and some engaging characters.

Where does your work currently appear?

As mentioned previously, The Sun-Herald was the first paper to take Bushy Tales on in Australia. It now appears in about 30 papers in Australia (Sundays, as well as daily and weeklies) as well as a handful of papers in the US.

Where can we find out more about you, your business and your work?

www.bushytales.com... although I do need to put a bit of time into updating the website!

What are you currently reading, cartooning or general wise?

I am an avid traveller (not a tourist) and have spent time in about 50 countries. I love history and spending time with people, learning their culture and appreciating their customs. When I am not travelling myself, I like to read of the travels

and adventures of others. I am currently reading On the Trail of Genghis Khan by Tim Cope

What music do you enjoy? Do you listen to anything while working?

I love music and often have some playing in the background when I am drawing.. though not when I am trying to come up with ideas!

Finally, Ian, do you have any other special talents besides cartooning? Or talents you’d like to have?

I have been married for over 45 years, have seven children and nine grandkids... I don’t think you can call it a talent, but I certainly call it a blessing. I love sport and enjoy golf, especially.

And I also love photography, particularly of the people and places I have come to love around the world.

“I guess I am a bit of a dinosaur in that regard, but I do love the feel of the pen on the paper”

DAMIAN’S ANTARCTIC

DAMIAN CASTELLINI’s first foray into the big world of graphic novels met

During the 2021 lock-downs, while introverts nestled and climate denial narratives abounded, I was approached by an Australian Geographic commissioning editor about collaborating on a cartoon adventure novel for kids. She’d seen my wildlife toons, and envisioned making a TinTin-esque book concerning the affects of climate change on the Antarctic.

Yes, please.

The story follows two Australian kids and a rescue magpie as they accompany their emergency response parents to the site of an oil spill in Antarctica. The protagonists are flawed, regular kids, and even the characters of the politician and their advisor are allocated depth, at least within the confines of a short tale. The progressive themes are woven in, with an illustrated glossary at the end to encourage self-directed learning, and ease uninterrupted immersion.

The collaboration itself was a learning experience. The proposed budget was unviable, even for a thrifty creative, so while I created characters, backstories, mocked up a cover and opening spread (on a tight advance), the co-creator at Australian Geographic, Martine Allars, hustled off to secure funding and write the story. To her credit she managed the former, but not the latter. As practice, I’d drafted a script that I offered nervously. She loved it. Huzzah!

Six months of dutiful comicking ensued. As I knew nada about penguins, Antarctica or climate change science, I crammed. Hard. Who knew that little adelie penguins dabble in the occasional necrophilia and transactional coupling, or that leopard seals skin their prey by vigorous shaking? Huh. Might save those fun facts for the sequel, eh? Equally, the contract negotiation was a finicky, oft-times aggressive, dance.

ANTARCTIC ADVENTURE

My partner and comrade of 15 years suggested a publishing lawyer, which cost a chunk of my advance, but secured a better margin on reprints, merch, and revised my cobbled legalese. I’d advise approaching them with a near-complete template, so you only need pay for the edits and imperious jargoning.

Leading up to deadline, the usual jack-in-the-boxes sprung their scope-creeping requests. Then, it was done, and for several months... nothing.

I was sure I’d irrevocably angered the art director on a disagreement about the cover, or that they’d simply changed their minds about this whole graphic novel business, and the book would be shelved, as is tradition. “Oh well, t’was fun, I’ve been paid. Moving on.” And though the coin was modest, it’d been a rewarding experience.

Thankfully, the book was published this year! Our region’s Councillors were supportive, approaching our libraries who stocked copies across Moreton Bay. Local media teams are running a few pieces, and it’s interesting to note that folks focus on the mantle of ‘local author’, and not ‘local cartoonist’. Either way, I’m hopeful that the format will be accessible to young readers, and perhaps encourage the pursuit of progressive causes and careers.

It was a good reminder that personal work opens unforeseen opportunities, and if you stick to your values when negotiating, groovy things can happen.

Haha, especially for local authors!

Damian Castellini

met with icy conditions, but the rewards proved to be worth the ordeal

John Richard Flanagan

Ask almost anyone in Australia who was the first Australian to work in the American comic book industry and they will invariably answer: “Stanley Pitt”. But was Stan Pitt really the first or was he the second?

What is now known is that there was another Australian who came before Stanley Pitt. A man who produced cover art for DC Comics thirty years earlier than Pitt in 1939.

His name was John Richard Flanagan.

Flanagan was born in Sydney, New South Wales, in 1895 and attended St Joseph’s College in Hunter’s Hill. His father passed away when Flanagan was only 12, leaving his mother to make a difficult choice. As Flanagan was the oldest male in the house, the burden of providing for the family would fall upon him. She duly enrolled him in an art course and set him on an apprenticeship with a lithographer. Art school was not easy for him.

“The first thing I had to sketch in art school was a skull,” he remembered in 1947. “When the teacher saw mine, he drew cross bones behind it, and it was then that he told me I’d never be able to draw. I vowed that I would make him eat those words. ”

Through persistence and determination, he came to the attention of Italian-born, but Sydney-based, fine artist Antonio Dattilo Rubbo, who was teaching art at the time. Although himself not a great artist, Dattilo Rubbo was a great teacher and he inspired virtually everyone who he taught, with a focus on Modernism. Dattilo Rubbo guided Flanagan to the Royal Art Society of NSW where he taught him for five years.

Norman Lindsay saw Flanagan’s work and arranged for the young Flanagan to join The Bulletin in 1915 at the age of 20. Arguably the most famous black and white artist of the era, Lindsay made a point of not taking on pupils officially,

but was always willing to encourage and assist new talent when he saw it. Such was Flanagan’s talent that he was handpicked by Lindsay to ‘stand in’ for him while he was farewelling his brother, Daryl, who was leaving Australia in January 1916 to fight in France. This was a prestigious, highly sought-after and daunting job, as Lindsay was producing some of his most famous works of the era and his name was synonymous with The Bulletin.

Flanagan’s fill-in editorial cartoon for The Bulletin, titled Coming of Spring, appeared on 27th January 1916, and proved to be a popular image, being reproduced as a print by The Bulletin. Flanagan would see this image reproduced in both

Canada and America when he eventually travelled there. The art showed a strong Lindsay influence, which was to be expected, but it was an incredible effort for a 21-year-old artist.

Upon seeing the work, Lindsay gave Flanagan the same advice that he had been given, and ignored, years earlier: go abroad. Lindsay had ignored this advice when Julian Ashton had given it to him in 1900, but Flanagan saw the logic and booked passage to America.

Although buoyed by the sight of Coming of Spring in Canada and America, he soon found himself having to work his way into the black and white art industry. Basing himself in New York, he adapted his technique and introduced new methods, working with wash and scraperboard . This extended his fine line by giving it white on black, as well as black on white, which was something that Lindsay had never used.

Those early days in New York were anything but easy.

“I had a helluva time at first,” he recalled in 1927. “My allegorical ideas didn’t go over. Book illustrating was dead. I found magazine illustrating was the money maker.

“My experience was curious. I had no letters of introduction. I had chucked myself, as it were, into the New York cauldron, and it looked as if I were going to be boiled alive when Bruno’s Weekly took notice of me. ”

His hard work and talent paid off and his work began to appear in publications such as Puck and Pearsons, along with newspapers.

DANIEL BEST did some digging...

John Richard Flanagan, pictured in November, 1947

He managed to illustrate The Story of the Other Wise Men by Henry Van Dyke. He also began to cultivate close friendships with Karl Schmidt who edited Puck and Guida Bruno, publisher of Bruno’s Weekly

“Bruno was a queer bird,” recalled Flanagan. “He edited and published his Weekly in a garret. He talked to me of an exhibition. I was just about worn out at the time, so I let him hang forty or fifty of my large pen drawings in his garret. That’s where my first exhibition was held. Bruno suggested that I do little drawings for his magazine. Sounded all right - but I found I could not get my pictures back from him. They sort of stayed put on his walls.

“But Frank Harris, the great writer and journalist, was running Pearson’s at the time. He saw my work in Bruno’s garret and tried to get in touch with me.

“Frank wrote three letters - they were… well, mislaid by Bruno. At last he registered a letter - and I received it. The dapper genius made me his Assistant Art Editor. My chief job was making sketches of New York night life. My salary was small, very small, as the great Frank himself absorbed most of the income from Pearson’s. However, Frank Harris gave me my real start.

“My first impressions of Frank Harris, surely one of the greatest figures in modern English literature, were received at his home in Washington Square. He struck me instantly as a man of great taste and refinement.

“His home was adorned with fine Gothic statues, portraits by Rothenstein and etchings by Zorn. Like Mark Twain, Harris worked mostly in bed in the mornings. He would dictate to a charming secretary and then meticulously go over the typescript prepared since the morning before. I have known him to re-write a story twelve times before he was satisfied with it.”

His work was being noticed in the highest possible places known, with then President Woodrow Wilson buying originals from Flanagan to hang in the White House.

As his fame grew, his work began appearing in more magazines, such as Cosmopolitan, Everybody’s, Colliers and The Delineator, as well as illustrating books by Arthur

Conan Doyle, Somerset Maugham, Queen Marie of Romania, Prince William of Sweden and countless others. By 1922 he had a studio on Broadway and was rubbing shoulders with James Montgomery Flagg and William Fisher

Maugham was so enthralled by Flanagan’s work that he sent a note of appreciation after being gifted a litho-stone drawing by Flanagan. “I will keep it and treasure it always,” he wrote. “It reminds me of a Rembrandt I once saw in a museum.”

A large part of Flanagan’s skill lay in the lessons he had learnt in his youth, both as an apprentice lithographer and at The Bulletin

“Ninety-nine percent of the American writers,” he told reporters in 1927, “know nothing of the methods of reproducing their pictures, knowledge which I gained here (in Australia). There is no apprenticeship system in America and that is something in which Australia is ahead of the United States.”

Believing that remaining in one place would limit him, Flanagan began to travel to Europe and South Africa. “I ran over to Europe as often as possible,” he recalled in 1927, “as I find it extremely necessary to get frequently out of one’s environment. I travelled and sketched all over North Africa, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and other Mediterranean countries. ”

It was during one of his visits to Europe that he met The Great Beast, Aleister Crowley

“Quite by the way I should like to mention a queer character who, I understand, has a little circle of followers in Sydney, and whom I met more than once on my travels,” he wrote. “Aleister Crowley is his name, and he is said to be the head of a cult of demon-worshippers. He has what he calls a monastery in Sicily... but it must be a monastery of a sort that would have been dear to the heart of Rabelais, that is, if the stories of fair ladies who take an important part in certain of Crowley’s ceremonies, are true. ”

When Flanagan returned to Australia in February 1927, he was being called the highest paid black and white artist in America. He came back to Sydney to host an exhibition at the Australian Fine Arts Gallery.

His visit was always going to be a short term one, catching up with family and friends such as Dallito Rubbo, and making money. “Yes, after my exhibition here, I shall return to America, where I shall devote myself to etching.”

The exhibition was well received, and he sold over £1,000 worth of art, which set a record for a private exhibition for the era. Amongst those who bought his art were the National Gallery, the Manly Art and Historical Society, the Mitchell Library (who bought a hand-bound volume of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam with original pen and ink illustrations).

Once back in America, Flanagan never left. His fame continued to grow as he illustrated more famous works, become known for his Fu Manchu illustrations in Sax Rohmer’s books. By 1938 he was illustrating historical works when he somehow found himself with a new commission – from Detective Comics Flanagan was known to the owners of Detective Comics. Indeed, he was one of the artists that Jerry Siegel had approached to illustrate the as-yet unpublished Superman strip.

“About ten or fifteen years ago,” he recalled in 1953, “I got a letter from a fellow named Jerry Siegel. He said he had an idea for a comic strip which he would entitle Superman. He wanted me to do the art for the strip, I thought he was crazy, and I still do – a million dollars’ worth.”

The timeframe of fifteen years or so previous places Siegel’s letter to Flanagan in 1937-1938. Siegel had approached others to either take over from Joe Shuster or assist him but was turned down. As it stands, there would have been no way that Flanagan would have turned down work to produce the number of pages required for a full comic book for less than he could make drawing a single illustration. In hindsight, it was easy for him to refuse.

In 1939 Flanagan illustrated six original covers for the company. These covers were:

• Adventure Comics, issues 36, 37, 38 & 39

• More Fun Comics 45 and 48.

His black and white line work for Adventure Comics #39 also appeared on an ashcan, Radio Funnies #1 . A 1940 comic, Double Action Comics #2, reprinted the cover of Adventure Comics #37.

And there it ended, but, from March to October 1939, John Richard Flanagan, also known as Jack Flanagan, became one of, if not, the first Australian artists to produce original work for an American comic book company.

ABOVE: Illustration for Caravan Treasure, in Blue Book (July, 1936)

ABOVE: Illustration for Part 5 of Sax Rohmer’s The Trail of Fu Manchu, in Collier’s (May, 1934)

He beat Stan Pitt by thirty years.

Flanagan moved to York, Pennsylvania after World War II; he married, settled down and began a family. He still gave exhibitions and produced work for newspapers and magazines. His son, Dennis, became the editor of Scientific American in the 1940s. It was his son who inspired him to continue drawing, and to continue to improve.

“Sometimes I like to look back over my work,” he said, “and I like to keep up with what Dennis is doing.”

He settled into a quiet life in York. In 1948, he became part owner in a company called Craftmen and began to design stained glass windows for the Rudy Glass Company. He also joined the Academy of Arts in York as an instructor in 1955. He remained in this role until his passing on 22nd December, 1964.

John Richard Flanagan remains largely unknown in Australia, but he was one of the most famous black and white artists in America between the two wars, and beyond. And he will always remain the first Australian artist to produce original work for the American comic book industry as we know it. That is a fine achievement indeed.

ABOVE: Illustration for Part 7 of Sax Rohmer’s The Trail of Fu Manchu, in Collier’s (June, 1934)

RIGHT: Comics covers from 1939

Student of Poison, an illustration for an Arthur Conan Doyle story, in Collier’s (c.1920s)

Comic Artists Pick Up the Pieces for a World Record

On Saturday, 18th June, comics artists, writers and fans gathered at Kings Comics in Sydney for the launch of Pieces: Book 2, a graphic novel with a difference!

The first volume, Pieces, was initiated in 2006 by Jakub Mazerant and involved 94 international comics artists in an experimental art project; working without a script, each artist progressively created a comic book panel and decided where the story went next. Pieces: Book 2 marks a continuation of the project, this time involving 171 artists from 34 countries, and has set an official Guinness World Record for “the most professional contributors to a graphic novel”.

“Pieces 2, like the first volume, Pieces, is a jam comic, with each contributor adding the next single frame in the story,” said Tim McEwen, one of the project’s contributors. “A kind of long-form exquisite corpse.”

Samuel McEwen has joined his age-defying dad as a contributor to Pieces 2, alongside such luminaries as Thomas Campi, Sarah Firth, Hayden Fryer, Eleri Harris, Reg Mombassa, Bruce Mutard, Dean Rankine and Lesley Vamos.

Pieces: Book 2 retails for $40 and is available at: www.kingscomics.com

Rob Feldman and Jakub Mazerant

Sam McEwen and Tim McEwen

Tim McEwen notices a bit he forgot to finish

Reg Mombassa

Reviews

Emile Mercier: A Selection of Cartoons

Emile Mercier

Published by Comicoz and the National Cartoon Gallery, 2022 Available from www.comicoz.com

$35

164 pages

ISBN 9780994362339

Reviewed by Lindsay Foyle

I’ve always enjoyed books full of cartoons, or books just about cartoonists. I do not know how many I have, but it would be well over 2,000. The bookshelf is a little over three metres wide and two metres deep. I have 14 books by Emile Mercier books in my collection... I wish I had more. Each one is full of great cartoons.

On the second-hand book market, Mercier’s books sell for somewhere between $20 and $250 each. Mine are all closer to the $20 range.

Last year, I was asked if I would write a short biography on Mercier to go into a new book of some of his cartoons. They were to be selected from a collection of almost 2,000 which his son, Michael, had donated to the National Cartoon Gallery in Coffs Harbour. Michael was to also contribute a short personal memoir about his father. Nat Karmichael was to be the publisher.

Karmichael sought help in getting the book published on Kickstarter and has listed all those who supported the project; a quick count of names reveals there were just over 100 backers. Give or take a few. He also enlisted help from Gary Clark, Dr. Richard Scully, Philip Bentley, Ian Jones, Phil Judd, PJ, Rosie and Elena in choosing which cartoons to place in the book. About 80 in total.

Most of the cartoons are in the book twice; once in rough form, scanned from the original artwork (including all the printer’s instructions, scuff marks and other bits of mess which accumulate around cartoon drawings during newspaper production). Then there is the cleaned-up version, reproduced as readers would have seen the cartoon when it was in the newspaper. For all those interested in how cartoonists used to present their work to editors, this is of special interest.

There has been a massive amount of work been put into this slightly-smaller-than-A4-sized book. It could be argued it is the best book of Mercier’s work so far published.

Is it perfect? No. There are a few minor things which could be adjusted.

Regardless of that minor quibble, this is a book which any collector of books about cartoons - or cartoonists - would be very pleased to have in their collection.

Lindsay Foyle

Part Five

On the flipside of cartooning, a series of “bits and bobs” about Australian cartoonists never before recorded

Mercier, Mercy Me

A quiet, reflective thinker, Emile Alfred Mercier was born in Noumea, New Caledonia, in 1901, the son of a French baker. He came to Australia as a youth, studying art at the age of eighteen with Julian Ashton in Sydney, where, in between various occupations as an office-boy, on coastal ships, and other jobs, he contributed his joke drawings to Smith’s Weekly, Punch, and The Bulletin in the 1920s.

“At that period, and for many years afterwards, I would have given my right arm for a staff job on a newspaper,” said Mercier, recalling those times, “but although I was selling joke drawings, no one would offer me a permanent job.”

Recognition came, however, and with it popularity, resulting in full-time work as a comic artist.

When Lennie Lower re-joined Smith’s Weekly in 1940, Mercier was one of the notable artists selected to illustrate his pieces. Joe Jonsson took over the illustration of this feature when, during the Second World War, Mercier was engaged by Truth as a political cartoonist.

During the 2015 Stanley Awards celebrations, Emile Mercier and his “gravy tins” were inducted into the Australian Cartoonist’s Hall of Fame.

LEFT: Emile Mercier pictured during the 1940s

Then followed a period drawing political cartoons for the Daily Mirror during the war.

From that period until his retirement in 1971, Mercier’s brilliance had delighted not only the readers of The Sun every day, but his fellow graphic humourists all over Australia.

Emile’s drawing talent reached a fine high point, demonstrated in a small edition of skilled etchings. Nowhere is it recorded how many etchings were produced but two brilliant prints have survived.

These two humorous prints were drawn with skill and delicacy and were printed on a flat-bed press, purchased with the profits from the 1926 Artists’ Ball. Classes were conducted by Henry Fullwood, another fine artist painter and black and white cartoonist to The Bulletin and other magazines of the time.

Mercier’s career was one of ups and downs, but finally it was a triumph. After forty years of drawing, Emile survived the editorial buffeting whilst having delighted newspaper readers and his fellow humourists.

When Emile Mercier died in Sydney during May 1981, Australia lost a comic genius.

Vane Lindesay

the ART in animation

If you Google “Li’l Elvis ABC”

by PETER VISKA

you will find a fantastic article written by former animator James Dunlevie, celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the TV series, Li’l Elvis Jones and the Truckstoppers.

In this issue we will jump in the ATM (Animation Time Machine) to explore some of the key points in evolving and developing the style and background art in Li’l Elvis. Although I was the initial creator of the concept, acknowledgement must be made to the team that helped develop the idea to what it became. Most are credited in the story.

After the initial idea of Li’l Elvis arriving in a guitar case and his parents finding him on the doorstep of the roadhouse started to gel, we needed to get serious and design the old roadhouse, the new roadhouse and the accompanying town called Wannapoo. At the time, I had driven with my family from Melbourne to Noosa via Goondawindi. The BP Truckstop was huge and able to deal with more than ten megatrucks at a time on a concrete apron spanning the size of the MCG. The town itself became my reference and away the development team went.

I remember gathering in a room with brilliant designers I had worked with before. Everyone got the general story premise and started using analogue pencils and paper to come up

with their idea of Grace and Len’s Old Roadhouse. Out of nowhere, Fil Barlow drew his version which curled the old corrugated iron up on the canopy to mimic Li’l Elvis’s quiff hairdo (see below left). BANG!! We were away.

ABOVE: Promotional image for Li’l Elvis and the Truckstoppers

That same design idea was echoed in concrete for the new roadhouse. Heartbreak Hotel quickly followed along with the mid-fifties design of the milk bar, and the main street. These designs were all done in black and white line art.

Next, enter The Master, Richard Zaloudek

Richard was shown the black and white sketches and asked to paint them to capture the vastness of the Australian outback and the intrinsic quality of rusted corrugated iron, red earth and the cobalt blue skies.

Keep in mind that these BGs (backgrounds) were hand-painted with water-washable acrylic paints. The paint was versatile and could be used gouache-like or thinned to be airbrushed.

As a creative director it is always “interesting” to open up the protectively packed artwork (on its Bainbridge Illustration Board Number 80 Cold Press Finish) to see the interpretation of your brief. I opened the parcel. It was too much to believe.

To me, Zaloudek’s work on the backgrounds was like looking at Michelangelo’s The Creation of Adam on the Sistine Chapel ceiling. It was perfect and set the scene for the rest of the show.

Richard worked tirelessly, but (of course) couldn’t handle every background, so he painted what we call the key BGs to set the colour palette and mood of the main locations. Layout artists would then use those keys to design BGs for specific shots within the area.

The BGs themselves were then painted by a team of twelve background artists, who Zaloudek taught to mimic his style and technique. The results are still outstanding. As all paint colours needed to be mixed, the background artists would be allocated backgrounds with similar colour requirements and then use the mixed colours for the sky, then the earth, then the building or room. Areas were masked before additional airbrush shading or texture was added and voilà, an offset hairbrush line was added to give the final touch.

Richard’s interpretation of my vision was spooky and although characters, stories, music and the animation added so much to the originality of the show, I forever thank Richard for his inspiring backgrounds that consolidated the Australian outback we love so much.

The Shrine and the King’s Sacred Hanky

Zaloudek’s Offset Line Work

Len and Grace

WHEN MAX MET MR. CAMPBELL

With my forty years in the area of press art , one gets to meet a lot of artists. My first 20 years was as a graded press artist on The Sun newspaper in Sydney. This was the afternoon paper owned by John Fairfax & Sons. In the newspaper industry, artists were graded differently to journalists and photographers. These employees were graded by the Australian Journalists Association (now the MEAA).

It’s

as Easy as A, B & C

Artists were divided into categories: creative artists (A, B or C grade) and press artists, who were on lower pay (again graded into A,B or C grade) and cadets.

Press artists were very much second class to the creative artists and the work was distributed accordingly. The range of work included retouching photographs, drawing maps and graphs and, in the case of a spectacular front page death, drawing the dotted line on the photo showing where the body fell from the high rise building, with a cross for the ‘splat’ where it landed.

One of the best jobs was filling in the black squares on a crossword. This might sound easy, but if you got it wrong and it was published, the backlash from the public went right to the editor and you received a ‘please explain’.

To get a start in the art department you usually begin as a copy person. The term came from journalists who, after writing or amending a story, written on copy paper, would hold their story in the air and shout “copy!” The copy boy or girl would run the story off to the sub-editors’ desk. Copykids also ran odd jobs, dashed between departments, collected dry cleaning, bought coffee and lunches, and so on.

One young bloke I got to know well was Max Foley. Max was a natural cartoonist and I remember one special moment was when we had a creative artist on our staff named Harry Campbell. Harry could draw serious artwork but was hopeless with cartoons. He would draw a realistic figure, but would disfigure the face with big eyes and an ugly mouth. One day, as a copy boy, Max was in the creative artists’ area (filling someone’s water jar, no doubt), when he came upon Harry

Campbell’s desk while he was drawing in his strange cartoon style. An innocent Max helpfully said, “Excuse me, Mr Campbell, why don’t you draw your cartoons more like this....” and he proceeded to give Harry a demonstration on how to draw a ‘proper cartoon’. A very loud yell of “GET OUT!” went right through the department.

Eventually, the grading for artists became the same for all and drawing and cartooning opportunities came the way of everyone. Max picked up some part-time work with The Sun-Herald, drawing comic strips, including Tibby the Lion and another that ran for a few years, called Max and Min: The Weather People. I am not sure his work ever got the praise it deserved.

John Thorby

ABOVE: Max and Min: The Weather People from The Sun-Herald, February, 1973

Max Foley and former Fairfax colleague Errol Nathaniel reunite at the 2003 Stanley Awards