Inkspot 90

Inkspot Presidential Palaver

Issue #90, Spring 2020 www.cartoonists.org.au

ACA Board Patron VANE LINDESAY

President JULES FABER president@cartoonists.org.au

Deputy President DAVID BLUMENSTEIN david@experienceillustration.com

Secretary STEVE PANOZZO steve@noz.com.au

Treasurer MARTINA ZEITLER treasurer@cartoonists.org.au

Membership Secretary PETER BROELMAN peter@broelman.com.au

Committee: ROBERT BLACK robert@robertblack.com.au

NAT KARMICHAEL comicoz@live.com.au

IAN McCALL mccallart@bigpond.com.au

JUDY NADIN judynadin@optusnet.com.au

CATHY WILCOX cwilcox@fairfaxmedia.com.au

Affiliated Organisations

National Cartoonists Society

President: Jason Chatfield www.nationalcartoonists.com

Cartoonists’ Club of Great Britain Chairman: Richard Skipworth www.ccgb.org.uk

FECO

President-General: Peter Nieuwendijk www.fecocartoon.org

Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation (PCO) Chairman: Clive Goddard www.procartoonists.org

Your Inkspot Team

Editor: Steve Panozzo

Contributors: John Allison, Matt Bissett-Johnson, David Blumenstein, Shelley Brauer, Peter Broelman, David Bromley, Gary Chaloner, Queenie Chan, Jason Chatfield, Jules Faber, John Farmer, Roger Fletcher, Peter Foster, Lindsay Foyle, Andrew Fyfe, Matt Golding, Christophe Granet, George Haddon, Alex Hallatt, Paul Harvey, Rolf Heimann, Judy Horacek, Edmund Iffland, Phil Judd, Fränts Kantor, Nat Karmichael, Fiona Katauskas, Helen Lindesay, Vane Lindesay, Eric Löbbecke, Ian McCall, Tim McEwen, Terry Mosher, Paul Newell, Peter Nicholson, Peter Player, David Pope, Dean Rankine, Glenn Robinson, David Rowe, Margot Saville, John Shakespeare, John Spooner, Vince Steele, Chris Thomas, Alex Thorby, John Thorby, Mark Tippett, Andrew Weldon and Cathy Wilcox

Cover Art: Vane Lindesay by Dave Dye

Inkspot is published quarterly by the Australian Cartoonists’ Association

Deadline for next issue is 14th NOVEMBER

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SOUTH TURRAMURRA NSW 2074

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Welcome to Inkspot. And what an issue!

As if 2020 hasn’t been the strangest year on record, it’s also thrown a few erratic curveballs to keep us on our toes. Our Patron, the eternal Vane Lindesay, turned 100 years old earlier this month, which is something incredible. Look as good at 100 you will not! Sadly, 2020 can’t give us nice things without taking other things away, and we were saddened to learn of the recent passing of James Kemsley Sr. and Ron Cobb. Both contributors to Australian cartooning in different ways, we were all the better for having known them. On 29th November, we’ll be having our AGM in Coffs Harbour, where a new Board will take over the running of the ACA. Having served the ACA as President since 2008 (but for a two-year stint as Deputy President under our esteemed friend and current NCS President, Jason Chatfield), I shan’t be running for office this time, so it occurred to me that this will be my last missive from the Big Chair. Twelve years feels like it has flown by and it’s been paralleled watching my daughter Mary grow up. I’ve served on the Board for almost her entire life. And this reminds me that people, like times, change. And it’s time for the ACA to change its leadership.

In the meantime, may I take this moment to thank the various Board members, both past and present, who have made me look good in the role, who have helped me go from a wide-eyed newbie to gathering the experience I needed to serve to the best of my ability. For the most part they have all been dedicated cartoonists and enthusiasts who have the good of cartooning in their mighty hearts.

Finally, thanks to you, gentle reader, for your membership of the ACA. It’s a good group, made better by good people, and it has been a genuine pleasure to serve you. We’re the oldest group of our kind in the world, and although it’s the job we love that keeps us together, it’s the people who make it not just a ‘thing for work’ but a ‘thing for mates’. I’ll be around, but so long for now.

Cartooning forever.

Editorial Notes

It’s a distinct honour to be able to say “Happy 100th Birthday” to the one and only Vane Lindesay. Our colleague. Our Patron. A legend in his own lifetime and a very good friend. There would be very few cartoonists in Australia for whom The Inked-In Image does not form the backbone of their reference library. As a continual source of reference, there are very few books on Australian cartooning that carry as much authority or are as frequently consulted. While the latest installment of Beyond Their Pens (page 20) will be the last, Vane assures me that he has at least 4 new articles locked and loaded for future editions of Inkspot. Thank you, Vane, for being so constant and enthusiastic!

This Inkspot has a cavalcade of cracking content packed into it, such as Margot

Saville’s enlightening Crikey! piece on the perils of publishing in the age of outrage. What is clear is that editors really need to start taking responsibility for what they publish when the trolls start attacking, instead of back-handedly throwing our cartoonists under the bus.

It’s been a tough year for us all, but - if you can - please consider joining us in Coffs Harbour for the Rotary Cartoon Awards and the ACA Annual General Meeting, where we will announce the Stanley Awards results, at Pacific Bay Resort on 28th and 29th November. Quality cartooning always thrives in times of adversity. If you ever needed proof, then read on...

Cheers From Canada

Thanks to you and Lindsay for the review of my book! Your copy should have arrived by now. I follow the ACA closely online – and read the Inkspot religiously when it arrives. There may come a day when I can return to Australia, Covid willing!

Terry Mosher MONTREAL

Offers, Credits and Whispers

I noticed on the official Stan Cross wiki that it says he was offered the job at Smith’s Weekly by Ernie Brewer - I see in your story it was Archibald and McKay that discovered him on a Perth pamphlet and offered him double what he asked. Is it something in between? Or was Ernie the HR bloke? Hope all’s well. Beaut write-up on the 100th by the way! I love reading this stuff.

Jason Chatfield

NEW YORK NY

Lindsay Foyle replies:

Jason, you are right - almost!

Ernie Brewer was the first advertising manager at Smith’s Weekly It was he who brought Stan Cross to the attention of JF Archibald and Claude McKay. It was McKay, the Editor-in-Chief of Smith’s, who made the offer to Cross.

Chipping Away

Sometimes, it seems like you have to carve what you want to draw out of the page in front of you. You have to fight it. You have to wrestle with the graphite. Get dirty with the paper and eraser. That blank piece of paper can sometimes seem like a block of marble and you have no chisel, no hammer... just a pencil, an image in your head and a mighty will to win out.

It’s a good fight (and I fight dirty).

Gary Chaloner

GLEN HUON TASMANIA

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

The Annual General Meeting of the Australian Cartoonists’ Association will be held at 9am, 29th November, 2020 at Pacific Bay Resort, Coffs Harbour, New South Wales

ALL FINANCIAL FULL MEMBERS ARE INVITED TO ATTEND

Please send Agenda items to: secretary@cartoonists.org.au

THE LIFE IN VANE

He’s the ACA’s Patron, a multi-award winning cartoonist and designer and now he’s a verified centenarian!

FATSO TURNS 20!

ROY & H.G. unleashed a controversial mascot for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, with the help of PAUL NEWELL

TOONS 4 WILDLIFE

A unique fundraiser for injured and displaced wildlife opens at the National Cartoon Gallery!

LIVESTREAM REUBENS!

It’s the Reubens, but not as you know them... NCS President JASON CHATFIELD brings us the inside story

BOHEMIAN SCRIBBLINGS

Who knew NORMAN LINDSAY was an avid model ship-builder? In Beyond Their Pens, VANE LINDESAY tells all...

THE PLAYER

Inkspot’s new cub reporter, GLENN ROBINSON, tackles the big question: is PETER PLAYER a lawless graffiti artist?

TALKING TABLETS

Wacom has competition, but are XP-Pen Display Tablets any good? VINCE STEELE casts a critical eye over them

THE RETURN OF TREVOR

There are Greener Pastures ahead for Trevor the Bull, as TIM McEWEN shows us his moves in My Process

REGULAR FEATURES

Ian McCall tracks down David Bromley

Vale

We farewell Ron Cobb and James H. Kemsley

VANE LINDESAY 100 at

VANE LINDESAY turned 100 years old on 2nd October. A practicing cartoonist for over 75 years, he is also an accomplished author, book designer and meticulous historian. He is a regular contributor to Inkspot and his latest installment of Beyond Their Pens is in this edition. Notably, Vane is the only Australian cartoonist older than Ginger Meggs!

LINDSAY FOYLE has assembled a special one-off book, a collection of 55 caricatures and cartoons of Vane in honour of his landmark birthday, some of which we are honoured to present over the next few pages as birthday tribute.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, VANE!

James Vane Crawford Lindesay was born in Glebe, New South Wales on 2nd October, 1920. Like many of us, he always had an interest in drawing and kept a scrapbook of cartoons from Smith’s Weekly, The Bulletin and other publications while growing up in Melbourne.

Vane left school at 15 and, after graduating from South Melbourne Technical School, worked for a short time on a building site as a brickies’ labourer. He then worked in the Radio Corporation factory assembling power transformers for Astor radios. Next, he took a job in a wool store carrying huge cane baskets of wool. It was as physically hard as it was monotonous. At night he was studying at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. It didn’t last; he couldn’t cope with the mathematics required in the radio course and dropped out. However, still keen on the practical workings of radio, he joined the Citizen Military Forces, enlisting in the 3rd Division Signals Corps. It was part-time and he was also working at W&G Dean, suppliers of art materials.

Vane joined the Army at the start of World War Two and became a signalman with a machine-gun regiment. He was in Darwin when it was bombed in 1942 and soon after he was transferred south to the Pay Corps after his health deteriorated.

It was around this time that Vane became a regular contributor of cartoons to SALT, an army educational publication, and soon joined the staff.

He stayed there for just over three years and held the position of Senior Artist when he was discharged from the army following the cessation of hostilities.

For a short time, Vane worked for The Herald and freelanced before heading to England in 1951, where he stayed for three years working and studying European cartooning. He returned to Australia in 1954 and took a job on The Argus, where he became Head Artist. He drew cartoons for the paper and contributed to Australasian Post where he had a cartoon or illustration in every issue for 44 years. When The Argus folded in 1957, he turned his attention to freelancing and book design.

In his capacity as author, Vane Lindesay has written extensively on Australian cartooning, with articles published in The Age, Overland, The Bulletin, The Australian, Australian Book Review, The Australian Dictionary of Biography and the Australian Encyclopaedia. He contributed more than 20 profiles to the World Encyclopaedia of Cartoons, which was published in 1976.

Vane’s first book on the history of Australian cartooning, The Inked-in Image, was first published in 1970. It has since become - alongside John Ryan’s Panel By Panel - the must-have premier reference work on Australian cartooning.

The Inked-In Image was followed by It’s Moments Like These... (1979), The Way We Were (1983), Noel Counihan Caricatures (1985), Aussie Osities (1988), Stop Laughing: This is Serious! (2001), Some Fragments Recalled: A Life So Far (2005), The Life and Art of William (WEG) Green (2010), Classic Australian Comic Strips (2014), Quirky Words (2016) and Literary Larks (2017).

ABOVE: Artwork by Andrew Fyfe

BELOW: Artwork by John Allison

ABOVE: Artwork by Cathy Wilcox

BELOW: Artwork by Steve Panozzo

ABOVE: Artwork by David Rowe

BELOW: Artwork by David Pope

In 1988, Vane was presented with the Silver Stanley Award to recognise his outstanding contribution to Australian Black and White Art. In 1991, he was presented with an Award of Honour by the Australian Book Publishers Association to honour his contribution to Australian book design and production.

In 1993, the Australian Black and White Artists’ Club was nearing its 70th birthday, yet little had remained of the Club’s history apart from various papers, letters, some photos and a lot of anecdotes. There was no permanent recorded history which put the previous 70 years into context, so Vane was commissioned to formalise the Club’s history. The result was Drawing From Life, which was published by the State Library of NSW Press and launched with great fanfare in time for the Club’s 70th birthday in July, 1994.

In fine ACA tradition, Vane was ceremonially “smocked” in 2004. That same year, in keeping with the level of respect he has enjoyed from his cartooning colleagues over many years, he was invited to assume the role of Patron of the Australian Cartoonists’ Association, a post which had remained vacant since the death of Jim Russell in August, 2001. In 2015, he was inducted into the Australian Cartoonists’ Hall of Fame.

Vane continues to write and draw, and was a regular attendee at cartoonists’ gatherings in Melbourne until the outbreak of COVID-19 earlier this year. In 2020, with diminshing eyesight and hearing, Vane agreed to move into the Montclaire Aged Care Home. However, centenary plans had to be quickly changed when he went into hospital due to dehydration.

A leather-bound volume of cartoons and caricatures, curated by Lindsay Foyle, was presented to Vane on 2nd. October to his absolute delight. According to his daughter, Helen: “Dad loved the book; he commented on the cartoons, the lettering on the front, everything!”

About the only honour left for Vane to receive would be the Order of Australia and it would be nice to think that isn’t too far off.

HORACEK PAUL HARVEY

GEORGE HADDON

Vane and his daughter, Helen, review

20 years of fatso the curious story of australia’s favourite olympic mascot

by PAUL NEWELL

and to make him a cheeky bugger. Once the design was settled, the next thing to do was create the animation. The idea was that he would walk across the bottom of the screen and do various things such as show surprise, approval or displeasure. The latter he would do by “laying gold bricks”.

20 years ago, I was sitting at the Sydney Cricket Ground, watching the Sydney Swans play. There was a group of us that that used to regularly go to the Swans’ AFL matches, including my friend Todd Abbott, who was a TV producer. At half-time, Todd turned to me and asked if I was interested in submitting a couple of character designs for a programme he was working on as part of Channel Seven’s broadcast of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, to be hosted by H.G. Nelson & Rampaging Roy Slaven.

The Australian Olympic Committee had commissioned three “official” Olympic mascots for the 2000 Games from Matthew Hattan and Jozef Szekeres: Syd

(a platypus), Olly (a kookaburra) and an echidna named Millie. As a response, Roy & H.G. wanted their own Olympic mascot as a part of the new show. This new character would be animated and Todd, knowing I was an animator, thought I could handle that side of the show as well. As I loved This Sporting Life, I said “yes”. This was my introduction to Fatso the Fat-Arsed Wombat.

That week, I drew up 4 or 5 designs and sent them off to Todd. One was picked that they liked, with some revisions. In the end, Fatso went through 15 different versions. The main request was always to, “make his arse bigger!” They also asked that he wear a pair of Dunlop Volleys, to give him a sporting aspect,

The idea with the animation would be that segments would be created so that they could be mixed and matched. Every segment had lead-in animation that connected each other in many various ways. I’d like to give a big “shout out” to the editor at Channel 7 that did so. That final shot where he put out the Olympic flame with his arse was absolutely brilliant!

One further point I should make about the animation is that, though it was digitally coloured and compiled, it was traditionally hand-animated by me, with an inbetweener to help fill in the gaps. It was one of the last jobs I did in that way. Once the animation was delivered that was my part finished... or so I thought!

The show went swimmingly, but tensions grew when Fatso was banned by the AOC. Two plush toys of Fatso had been created; one was in the Channel Seven studio, but the other was kept at the Olympic precinct and would appear with athletes and in various filmed segments. As the Australian men’s 4×200 metre relay team made their way to the dais to receive their gold medals, Fatso was thrust into the hands of Michael Klim and appeared in all the official photos... even on the official stamp. The outcry at the banning was immense and it was soon reversed, but the incident turned our little wombat into an Australian icon. Unfortunately, things got out of hand with “unofficial” merchandise being produced, so Seven quietly retired the “Battler’s Prince”.

Not bad for a fat-arsed cheeky bugger.

ABOVE: Paul Newell’s original design for Fatso

John Shakespeare’s take on the 20th anniversary!

Paul Newell reunited with Fatso!

Toons 4 Wildlife Opens With Star Support

“I cannot wait to see the exhibition,” said Delta Goodrem, “So I’m sending you all my love and light until then.”

Similar messages of support were received from seemingly everyone, as proceedings got under way at the opening of Toons 4 Wildlife at Coffs Harbour’s National Cartoon Gallery on 22nd. August.

The fundraising exhibition, orchestrated and curated by Mark Tippett, involved the work of 35 cartoonists who pitched in to raise funds for WIRES in the wake of the devastating bushfires that razed Australia’s east coast in December and January. The fires destroyed nearly 3,000 homes and destroyed the habitat of some three billion (yes, you read that correctly) native animals, pushing some species to the brink of extinction.

Fittingly, Shane Fitzsimmons was there as guest of honour to open the show. It was he who, as Commissioner of the

New South Wales Fire Service, exhibited a notable degree of empathy, solemnity and calm while directing fire-fighting operations against impossible blazes on all fronts during what has now been called Black Summer 2019. Now the Head of Resilience NSW, his passion and concern for the loss of wildlife was evident as he addressed the physicallydistanced throng at The Bunker. Many people are still feeling the stinging loss of life and property and he generously made time to speak to people one-onone throughout the night.

The Sydney Morning Herald’s Cathy Wilcox and ACA Secretary Steve Panozzo were at hand to enhance cartoonist numbers at the launch. The online charity auction of original art continues until 22nd November. For details on how to bid, visit:

www.charityauction.bid/Toons4Wildlife

Cathy Wilcox with her entry

Steve Panozzo and his entry

Mark Tippett making friends

Shane Fitzsimmons and his portrait by Mark Tippett

Margaret Cameron Shelley Brauer

Queenie Chan’s popular entry

STORY & PHOTOS by STEVE PANOZZO

Reubens 2020

It was January. I was sitting at my laptop, whilst also on the phone to my relatives in Melbourne asking if they could breathe through the thick plume of smoke enveloping their city. I recall very earnestly turning to Sophie and declaring that this year would go down as “the year of the Australian bushfires”.

I was about to hit ‘send’ on my email to the printers, with the finished Reuben Award brochure artwork attached. The very talented Tom Richmond had once again composed an iconic illustration with all of this year’s stellar guests that I had miraculously managed to cobble together for the National Cartoonists’ Society’s annual weekend in Kansas City, Missouri. We were to be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the biggest cartoon syndicate in the world, Andrews McMeel Syndication (formerly Universal Press Syndicate). Among the slew of prestigious guests I had somehow managed to rope into the festivities were Jim Davis and Garry Trudeau, who had agreed to join us for the celebrations. The fervour for this year’s event was at fever pitch (probably not the best term to use in the current climate).

As my finger hovered over the mouse to click ‘send’, another email plopped into my inbox from the President of the NCS Foundation, Steve McGarry. The ever-clairvoyant McGarry said, in no uncertain terms, that there was a very real chance that we, “may have to cancel or postpone this year’s Reubens if this Chinese virus thing gets any more serious”. I didn’t click ‘send’.

Fast forward to April. I’m shivering uncontrollably in a sleeping bag in rural

by JASON CHATFIELD

Oklahoma, clicking ‘send’ on an email to the membership of the NCS, informing them that we will have to cancel our beloved Reubens weekend for the first time in 74 years. Months and months of planning and tens of thousands of dollars invested all dematerialised before our eyes as hotels everywhere closed indefinitely. I then slipped into a fever dream about the dog from Frasier.

Over the ensuing months, I sounded out our initial slate of guests to ascertain their willingness to participate in a virtual iteration of the conference weekend that we had planned.

To their credit, nearly all of them said “yes”. I spent the next couple of months studying what San Diego Comic-Con, WonderCon, and every other online virtual replacement event in America was doing to see what ideas I could steal and, more importantly, avoid any mistakes they were making.

I teed up Zoom calls with all of the participants and either facilitated the sessions myself or had a facilitator run the session while I sat back and recorded the session. I then went in and spent weeks editing the sessions and adding in images, videos and audio. I also had to go about securing sponsors for each

of the sessions with the assistance of my NCS secretary, Joe Wos

I realised very quickly I couldn’t do this whole thing on my own, so I was very lucky to be able to engage the talents of several other cartoonists who helped pull the technical aspects of the virtual conference together to make it look respectable and run smoothly. By the time the day rolled around, everything had been tested and tweaked, and the sessions were streamed over Facebook Live, Periscope and YouTube Live simultaneously.

The live online viewership was more than quadruple what we had expected and the ensuing repeat viewership on the videos has been very encouraging. Depending on what flavour of apocalypse 2021 decides to be, we may well have to replicate this format, but we are hoping beyond hope that we won’t have to and can return to our in-person celebrations.

I think we made internet history since, despite streaming on three separate social media platforms over 9 hours, we didn’t get one bad comment or complaint! We are looking into this, and have already placed a call to the Guinness Book of World Records.

You can watch the entire 9-hour replay from start to finish, or just pick which individual sessions you would like to view, at NCSFest.com

Jason Chatfield is the President of the National Cartoonists Society and the cartoonist for Ginger Meggs. He is also past-President of the Australian Cartoonists Association which shows he is a) unable to learn a lesson the first time around and b) clearly a glutton for punishment.

ABOVE: Lynn Johnston (left) chats with Patrick McDonnell (centre) in one of the NCSFest’s highlights; 2020’s Reuben Award winner, Lynda Barry (right) with her cardboard replica Reuben

John Thorby’s

THE SHOOTING OF LEE HARVEY OSWALD

In around 1954, when I first joined the art department of John Fairfax & Sons, publishers of the Sydney Morning Herald, The Sun and The Sun-Herald, there were 2 classifications of artists on staff - the creative artists and the press artists. The press artists did the basic paste-up artwork, retouching photos, and so on.

Newspapers were rather crudely printed back then - a newsprint photo was made up of 65 dots per square inch, so the retouching was more intense. Nearly every photo that appeared in the paper was retouched. A good example of this was when Lee Harvey Oswald, who had allegedly shot President Kennedy, was himself shot by the gun of nightclub owner, Jack Ruby. You can see the photo online. Kennedy had been assassinated on Friday (Sydney time) and Monday was to be an early edition. In those days, we had daytime editions for both The Sun at Fairfax and the Daily Mirror at the opposition.

The picture of Oswald being shot came in about 8:30am for a 10:00am edition. This gave the NSW Lottery time to be drawn.

HEARTBREAK AS

The late, great Monty Wedd, who famously chronicled the exploits of bushrangers Ned Kelly and Bold Ben Hall in the 1970s, has had his extensive collection of military artefacts, colonial uniforms, rare comics, cameras and stamps ransacked by thieves. His vast collection is housed in the Beau Gestestyled Monarch Historical Museum in Williamtown, near Newcastle, which opened in 1998. Monty ran the place himself, until he died in 2012.

If you look at the picture you can see the gun area was really dark. Our paper said that gun had to have been an automatic, say, like a 45mm, so we got a gun picture from our photo library and airbrushed one in.

The first editions of both papers came out - we had the automatic and the Daily Mirror had a revolver! We must have got it wrong, so it meant a rush to the photo library with the Editor breathing down our necks to correct it. The next edition of The Sun went to press dutifully showing a revolver and, to our great surprise, the Daily Mirror had Oswald being shot with an automatic! Eventually, our 3rd edition got it right with a clearer photo.

THIEVES RANSACK MONTY’S LEGACY

Until recently, his wife, Dorothy, busied herself as tour guide, opening the doors for visitors. Now 95 and having recently undergone hip surgery, she is no longer living at the property.

“Very rare items appear to have been cherry-picked by the thieves,” said Justin Wedd. “They knew exactly what they were looking for and must have previously visited the Museum. We now have the place locked up like Fort Knox.”

The stolen items were rare and unique. Some were Monty’s favourite pieces.

“The missing items equate to over $300,000,” said Justin. “The theft was professional (no prints or DNA) and we believe the items were stolen to order and are now in private collections away from the public eye.”

Monty was inducted into the Australian Cartoonists’ Hall of Fame in 2014.

2

Comparison between airbrushed photo (below) with the original image (above)

FIONA KATAUSKAS (New South Wales)

DAVID ROWE (New South Wales)

CHRIS THOMAS (New South Wales)

JOHN FARMER (Tasmania)

CATHY WILCOX (New South Wales)

LINDSAY FOYLE (New South Wales)

South Wales)

compiled by steve panozzo

thanks to everyone for your amazing contributions!

NEXT ISSUE: Cruise Ships

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

CHRISTOPHE GRANET (New

CATHY WILCOX (New South Wales)

MATT GOLDING (Victoria)

JOHN ALLISON (Victoria)

GLENN ROBINSON (Victoria)

FIONA KATAUSKAS (New South Wales)

LINDSAY FOYLE (New South Wales)

Thorby a Finalist

Alex Thorby, talented daughter of former ACA President and News Limited Art Director John Thorby, has been selected as a finalist in the 2020 Archibald Prize. Alex painted Will Gollins, her daughter’s boyfriend (below).

“He arrived in Australia in April 2019 armed with high hopes and a chemistry degree,” said Alex. “The last thing he expected was to fall in love with my daughter during a pandemic.”

Congratulations on your selection, Alex. May there be many more Archibalds ahead!

Alex’s Fab New Books

Alex Hallatt’s latest project since returning to New Zealand was to create a series of books about bullying. The latest installment of these, FAB Club 3: The Big Match, is out now.

“When I was bullied at school, it was one of the most miserable periods of my life,” she said. “I wrote the books I would have liked to have read back then. They are stories that give hope and tools for standing up to bullying.”

FAB Club 3: The Big Match follows on, as the title suggests, from Friends Against Bullying (FAB) Club and FAB Club 2: Friends Against Cyberbullying. For this third book, it was time for the author to turn her attention to sport (and romance). You can read more about the books and access free chapters (and more!) by visiting alexhallatt.com/fab

A Dose of Puppy Love

Phil Judd (right) has illustrated a threebook series, Puppy Diary, with awardwinning author Yvette Poshoglian, which kept him rather busy over the past two years. Ranging from cover and character concepts to finishing more than 150 interior illustrations per book, Phil says the work was, “challenging but rewarding”. While the series has been discontinued, he is now working on a number of children’s books and a range of children’s comics. Luckily, through the connections Phil has made, he will be approaching publishers with these new projects in the near future.

How Good is The Scomo Diaries?

Our nation’s Great Leader tells all in this captivating (and completely unofficial) diary, as told to Mad as Hell’s Tosh Greenslade and award-winning cartoonist Andrew Weldon

This book chronicles Scotty’s first 18 months in his role as head honcho of the largest marketing firm in the country (the Australian Federal Government) as it unfolded, completely devoid of any self-aggrandisement, double-speak, sleight-of-hand or spin.

This candid, compelling and completely unofficial diary is your back-door key to the halls of power. With all that sweat, blood and cheers, who wouldn’t want a Hawaiian holiday?

Available from 17th November.

From a Dog’s Breakfast to Champagne With the Stars

The illustrious (and probably very tired) Matt Bissett-Johnson just keeps pulling rabbits out of hats! His latest short film, Dog’s Breakfast, has been a finalist in seven international film festivals, winning Best Animated Film at the Rocky Mountain International Film Festival and the Los Angeles Motion Picture Festival. And to cap it all, Sam Briggs of Frame Light reviewed Dog’s Breakfast and gushed over Matt’s musical accompaniment, saying, “the interplay between the animated antics before us and the confusing, lilting soundtrack that scores it are the film’s real triumphs. The music flits between many different influences and genres, forging something wonderfully original.”

Inkspot SPRING

Wilcox Votes For Her iPad!

The Sydney Morning Herald’s Cathy Wilcox has had plenty of book illustration work to fill in the time between daily cartoons (and time which might normally have been filled with outings to the theatre or with friends, pre-COVID). Earlier in the year, Cathy’s collaboration with neighbour and ABC broadcaster, Sarah MacDonald, So... You’re Having a Teenager: An A-to-Z of Adolescence (Murdoch Books), was released. “We were just getting into the swing of bookshop events and radio interviews when the pandemic shut things down,” said Cathy. The irony was, if anyone needed to know where to buy a book about understanding teenagers, it was now!

August witnessed the release of a children’s picture book on the unlikely topic of... preferential voting in the Australian electoral system! Vote 4 Me (Wild Dog) has been written by Krys Saclier, a children’s electoral educator, and illustrated by Wilcox, it’s had a very positive reception so far, lockdown permitting. “Most adults who hear of it declare that they’d like to read it first before giving it to their kid,” she said. “Cleared up a few things for me too!”

Richard Glover’s book, Love, Clancy (ABC Books) was released in October. It’s a collection of correspondence home to the farm from his Kelpie, Clancy. Cathy had the pleasure of illustrating that one, too.

The big difference between this year’s book illustrations and Wilcox’s previous book work is that she’s drawn them using an Apple iPad.

“I’m a late adopter and reluctant starter,” she confesses, “I’ve been happy with pen, ink, watercolours and pencils for so long.

“I began to feel comfortable on the device by trying out my daily cartoons on it. It’s quick, versatile, so much less messy and cumbersome to carry around, so - for now - I’m hooked.”

All three books are available now!

ACA Surgical Masks!

How’s this for putting a new spin on an old gag? You can be reasonably sure that Stan Cross didn’t have a worldwide pandemic on his mind when he created his famous 1933 cartoon, but the caption looks very at home on a reusable surgical mask, as modelled by Glenn Robinson.

“I had 20 of them made,” said Rolf Heimann, “But they’re all gone!”

Perhaps, if there’s another COVID outbreak, Rolf might be persuaded to get another batch made. Rolf can be contacted at: heimannrlf@gmail.com

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

Löbbecke’s Missing Show!

As part of his Masters of Fine Art research degree, Eric Löbbecke (right) has been initiating a series of interactive works, both as a regular online feature for The Australian and in a series of initiatives involving the viewing public. His latest exhibition, Missing (at Stella Downer Fine Art in Sydney in September/October), was in two parts: the first explored what was missing by way of inviting gallery patrons to contribute concepts to help create a finished work during the period of the exhibition. Second, Eric explored something fundamentally missing from his own life, namely his mother, with a digital painting based on a poem he wrote, called Mother Moon. Limited edition prints were created of the various stages of completion and an animated video augmented the exhibition.

Playing With Ponies and Poo

Dean Rankine has illustrated a spirited new series of kids’ books by Australian comedy royalty, Magda Szubanski, concerning the varied adventures of Timmy the Ticked-Off Pony (Scholastic Press). Book number two, subititled Bite Me!, was released in October. Thebooks are intended for people with a mental age of 6+, so they sound like something we’d all enjoy.

All Cats Are Players

Way back in 2014, Peter Player began a regular online series of cartoons called All Cats Are Evil, starring a preverted moggy called Fluffy, which has generated a loyal following.

“I think that the fact that you never get to see his face and that he appears to have no emotion makes him seem a bit more evil,” said Player. Fans will be ecstatic to know that the 2021 All Cats Are Evil Calendar has now been released. Here’s hoping it’s big seller. It’s available now at Peter’s website: www.creativesoulsessions.com.au

It’s Been a Harv Day’s Night

Paul Harvey’s been a busy boy, with two books featuring his amazing caricatures hitting the shelves. The first, Coodabeen Champions: 40 Footy Seasons (Wilkinson Publishing), celebrates a radio institution in Melbourne. Harv filled the book with cartoons and, on the back cover, put faces to the various characters who have called in to the programme over the years. The second book, The Idiot’s Guide to Anglin’ & Danglin’ by Drew Howell, is a self-published comedy fishing manual and features beautiful artwork throughout by Harv. AFL legend Terry Daniher and comedian Anthony “Lehmo” Lehmann are fishing “experts”, Barry and Roy, who serve up a hot parody of those great fishing guides found on many living room coffee tables.

Reviews Reviews

Australian Animation: An International History

by Dan Torre & Lienors Torre

Published

261 pages

by Palgrave Macmillan

Available from www.booktopia.com.au

RRP $134.56

ISBN 9783319954912

Reviewed by Paul Newell

Recently, this book came to my attention through a Facebook discussion between myself and a group of fellow animators. The National Film and Sound Archive has been uploading examples of Australian animation from throughout the 20th Century and we were interested in finding out more about companies from before our time and this book fitted the bill.

The book has been written by Dan Torre, a senior lecturer in the School of Design at RMIT, and Lienors Torre, a lecturer in the School of Communication and Creative Arts at Deakin University; both have previously worked in the animation industry and spent over a decade researching Australian animation.

The book begins with Alec Laing, Virgil Reilly, Harry Julius and their ‘lightning sketches’, a technique where a drawing would be slowly drawn and a frame of film would be shot for each line drawn. Stop-motion animation, in effect! Harry Julius would go on to form Cartoon Filmads Ltd, which would create animated advertisements & industrial films for both the local and international markets. The company would open studios around the world, creating animated ads for cinema screens during the silent film era.

We then go to Pat Sullivan and the creation of Felix the Cat

The chapter digs somewhat into the controversy of Felix’s creation and his rise to fame. Several animators are covered from the period of the 1940s and 1950s, including Will Dyson, (who dabbled in stop-motion), his nephew, Dick Ovenden, (of the Billy Bear comic strip), The Owen Brothers, (military training films) & Eric Porter, (creator of Bertie the Aeroplane and Aeroplane Jelly), amongst others.

With television appearing, several important studios get their own chapter, including Artransa (The Beatles, Cool McCool, Rocket Robin Hood), API (Arthur & his Square Knights of the Round Table), Fanfare Films (Adventures of Freddo the Frog), just to name a few. More substantial chapters discuss Porter’s Marco Polo Junior Versus The Red Dragon, Yoram Gross (Dot and the The Kangaroo & Blinky Bill), Alex Stitt (Life, Be In It and

Slip,Slop,Slap advertising campaigns as well as the feature films, Grendel, Grendel, Grendel and Abra Cadabra) and HannaBarbera Australia, before ending with the boom in Australian animation in the 1990s with both studio and independent animation.

Sadly the last two topics get the short shrift, with potted histories of Energee Entertainment and the (ill-fated) Magic Pudding, Anne Jolliffe, Media World (The Silver Brumby), Walt Disney Australia, Footrot Flats, Animal Logic, Bruce Petty, and much more, all jammed into two chapters!

Overall, the book is a great summary of the animation industry in Australia from the early decades of the 20th Century onwards, but there is a lot of meat missing off the bare bones at several points. There are times where a lot of inaccuracies creep in, or information is missing/glossed over, during the latter chapters, where the research could have been fleshed out a bit more. However the book is still worth a read and held my interest. I just wish more of the juicy stuff had been included.

PN

ABOVE: The Red Dragon (Kevin Golsby) threatens to sing at the Princess in Eric Porter’s Marco Polo Junior Versus The Red Dragon (1972), Australia’s first animated feature film

Beyond Their Pens

by Vane Lindesay

This issue: NORMAN LINDSAY

All that should be recorded about the achievements of Norman Lindsay has been - that he was the fifth of ten brothers and sisters, was born in 1879 at Creswick, a little township 12 miles from Ballarat and that he started his career in journalism at the age of sixteen when he joined his brother Lionel, to share a studio in Melbourne.

The young Norman, it appears, was, from the start, a humourist. Some of his first paid work was drawing Sunday-school texts for a religious-minded printer at two shillings and six pence each. These texts were not only

whilst Abraham was depicted, somewhat sportingly, in long checked trousers. Bowler hats, bowyangs and carpet bags were some of the other assorted anachronisms furnishing these texts.

Later, at the age of nineteen, he worked on lithographic posters, then followed a period as founder for the shortlived magazine, The Rambler. These occupations allowed him to make a living while he pursued his passionate dedication to the development of technical skills in drawing. Then aged twenty one, Norman came to national prominence when J. F. Archibald, the Editor of The Bulletin, offered him a staff position as an artist. The offer came as a result of an outstanding series of pen drawings that illustrated The Decameron of Boccaccio, which were exhibited at the New South Wales Society of Artists.

Norman moved on to Sydney to become, within a year or two, an internationally-known pen draftsman. But his talent did not stop there. He always had a love of old sailing ships, and, in his words, he explained:

“In a harried and harassed existence such as mine, which strove to define a concept in pictorial imagery, the one sure temporary escape from it was to make something with the hands which required expert craftsmanship. In such hours that I devoted to making ship models, I was immune from the malady of thinking.”

Together with his model-to-scale shipmaking, Lindsay was a prolific writer, producing over twenty books of fiction and non-fiction, including the Australian classic, The Magic Pudding, with storylines and illustrations. First published in 1918, it was reprinted seventeen times, until the 1963 edition was printed by the new offset lithography, which recaptured the freshness of Lindsay’s original colour and black-and-white illustrations.

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

Norman Lindsay pictured in 1920

The Magic Pudding was published 100 years ago and has never been out of print. Pictured here is a rare first edition from 1918.

Normans’ first commercially-published book was the rollicking A Curate in Bohemia (1913), based on the studio life of his artist friends in a period of carefree innocence.

‘The Curate’ was followed, in 1918, by The Magic Pudding. Published in many editions, it was adapted as a puppet show in 1960, for which Lindsay created 40 drawings. The book has since become treasured by children and adults alike, nationwide.

As for Lindsay’s other literary works, they ranged over fifty years, some based on the author’s boyhood. Three of these titles, Redheap (1930), Saturdee (1933), and Halfway to Anywhere (1947), could be read in succession, forming a kind of literary one-volume biography.

Lindsay’s The Scribblings of an Idle Mind (left), featured his thoughts as short essays. Some of these pieces, such as The Negro, The Catholic Church and Post Mortem[art] or Post-Impressionism are presented with a passionate mockery and rejection.

It is clear from these ‘scribblings’ that Lindsay’s thoughts on homosexuality, of Jewery and of modern art sail close to the fringes of fascism. Defiantly, he stated in his Scribblings foreword: “I have never made any concessions to popular opinion over my pictorial works, I have decided to abide by that rule in my writings and to publish this book.”. This leaves us to wonder if Norman Lindsay believed this to be a virtue. The Scribblings of an Idle Mind was to be his last published work.

Norman Lindsay died in 1969.

Then, in 1970, his wife, Rose, published My Mask: For What Little I Know of the Man Behind It, his most excellent autobiography.

Shortly after the publication of MyMask, Norman’s brother Daryl (later, Sir Daryl), wrote a letter to the literary magazine Overland, angrily protesting at Norman’s attack on their parents. This letter, of two hundred and fifty words, describes the good works of his father, a medical doctor, and of his mother, ‘a devout Methodist’ who showed a remarkable and human understanding of her temperamental brood of ten children. The full text of Sir Daryl’s letter can be found in Overland Number 45, 1970.

ABOVE: Two of Norman Lindsay’s books, dealing with humorous tales of his early life: A Curate in Bohemia was his first book in 1913, while Saturdee (1933) told stories of his many boyhood japes and scrapes

An illustration from Saturdee (1933)

His prodigious output, from The Curate in Bohemia, ranging over his Saturdee boys, The Magic Pudding, his other nine works of fiction, and those of criticism and philosophy, his fine art painting, his watercolours, his sculptures, his model ship building and his Bulletin cartoons pre, during and post-World War Two, places Lindsay, if judged aesthetically, with the creative masters who matter.

NOTE: The alert reader will notice the absence of women cartoonists from this series of essays. May Gibbs, Ruby Lind, Pixie 0’Harris, Mahdi McCrae, Mollie Horseman and Joan Morrison, as research revealed, were more likely concerned with domestic affairs with little or no time for literary pursuits.

Swaggie: “Any chance of a bit of meat, boss?”

Cocky: “Well, I can’t spare any meat, but I’m going to kill a pumpkin tonight, an’ you can have the innards!”

VL

“You’re Next!”

Ready Player One

PETER PLAYER was born in Tidworth, South East Wiltshire, in 1958. He arrived in Australia with his parents and younger brothers, NICK and ROB, in 1968 where they spent two years in a migrant colony in Wollongong.

After a stint in the army, Peter began contributing cartoons to Truth in 1989, before moving to Melbourne the following year. His work has appeared in a multitude of Australian magazines and newspapers since then and he was presented with Stanley Awards for Single Gag Cartoonist in 2017, 2018, and 2019.

GLENN ROBINSON caught up with Peter via the wonders of social media for a chat.

GLENN: Let’s go back to the beginning. Why did you want to get into cartooning?

PETER: I wanted to be a cartoonist since primary school. My Gran in England used to send out all the pommie comics and newspapers which were chocka with cartoons. I think she thought we weren’t getting a proper comic education here in the colonies. I bloody loved all the British comics and cartoons. My family life as a nipper was full of comedy on television with On The Buses and Steptoe and Son, not to mention all the Carry On... films. My old man used to dabble in sketching and he used to encourage me to draw. Back in those days, paper to draw on was a pretty rare commodity, so I used to draw on anything I could find; unfolded envelopes, butcher’s paper and so on. I loved reading Punch (although it was just for the cartoons) and I was a big fan of Andy Capp, MAD and, later on, Viz.

Was there a cartoonist you admired, or who influenced your style in those early days?

The cartoonists who had the most influence on me were the political artists who were around when I was a young bloke, such as Paul Rigby, Frank Benier, Pat Oliphant and Bill Mitchell.

What was your first published cartoon?

My first published cartoon was in Rugby League Week in 1977. I think I was about sixteen or seventeen. After that, I followed the same path as most Australian cartoonists and got a bit of work in Australasian Post. I had a bit of luck early on with a cartoon strip called Kelly, based very loosely on the infamous bushranger. It ran consecutively in The Courier Mail, Sunday Telegraph and The Herald. I did a few other strips as well (I can’t remember their names now). I was doing alright, but then came the recession “we had to have” and work started drying up, so I put the pens away and joined the Army.

I didn’t pick up my pens for another six years. After mastering the art of walking in a straight

Peter Player and Sandy De Luca

line and eating bacon every day for six years (not including ration-pack days) I decided to part ways with the green-machine. I took up the pens again and got a fair bit of work with Australasian Post and People. After a while, I got a call from Truth who were looking for a cartoonist so I moved down to Melbourne from Wollongong.

What was it like working at Truth?

Truth was a brilliant place to work. It was a weird group of journalists, all were bloody eccentric! Truth was very oldfashioned and all the writers seemed to have little black books chock-full of contacts, although maybe that’s a journalist thing. I drew lots of tits, a few boobs, and a couple of norks. I was there until its final edition (in 1995). Truth was taken over by a Greek millionaire after it went into receivership, who decided to cut costs by sacking as many people as he could, including me. However, whilst we were in receivership, I had to invoice the newspaper for my work so I hatched a plan to keep my job, gambling on the fact that the new owner didn’t seem too bright. I didn’t tell the remaining staff that I had been bumped so the sub-editors, still thinking that I was on staff, kept giving me stories to illustrate. I kept putting in my invoices and I stayed on for another year or so and they kept paying me - suckers!

I think that there was a bit of a feeling that, although there was a hundred years of history to the paper, we were still a bit of a minnow. Despite that, the journos were good at their job. I think most of them kicked on to good jobs when the paper folded. As a cartoonist, I had a pretty fair opportunity to do what I wanted. If I came up with a good idea they usually let me do it. One example was a full-page comic strip which ran weekly, called The Smoggies, which was about a fictitious AFL team based in West Melbourne. Basically, it was a cartoon that lampooned the AFL. It was probably the most fun I’ve had drawing a strip.

Where did you go after Truth ended?

I got a heap of work at Australasian Post, Australian Penthouse and a few others. I used to write letters to Post using fictitious names saying, “Gee, that Pete Player is funny. You should print more of his cartoons.”

I got a call from The Picture who wanted to use Coogan, The Cockless Detective and Pig Dog. I think Coogan ran for around ten years and Pig Dog ran for a few years longer.

Tell us about Fishman - the superhero you created...

Fishman came about because I simply wanted to write my own comic book. It was a sort-of spoof on “proper” superheroes. I started to ponder the question of “why can’t normal everyday people become superheroes?” Fishman had absolutely zero powers. The only “powers” he had were a dorsal fin and a loving of worms, which were caused by an incident at the invitro-fertilisation clinic.

Writing the story was a ton of fun, as was doing the illustrations. The hard part was selling the bugger. Only one comic shop wanted to sell it (Dees in Canberra). I sent copies to some others and didn’t even get replies.

There are a lot of variations to the linework in your drawings. It’s very distinctive. Was that something that developed over time?

Yeah, ever since I first started drawing I have always gone over every one twice. Then I discovered brush pens. I still draw the entire cartoon in finepoint and then hit it with the brush pen. I’ve tried a shit load of different pens and brushes over the years. I’ve even customised pens with blades prior to finding brush pens to get a thick/thin line. I’ve even tried calligraphy pens. I like to work quickly and a wee bit erratically so I was chuffed to find Tombo pens. They suit my drawing style. I’m back to square one now that I have gotten into acrylic painting and I’m now searching for a brush that suits my style. I generally use Gimp (a computer program, folks!) for my colour work. It’s nice and easy to use, and its free! I hardly ever use Photoshop. I suppose my style is nice and simple, not much need for layers. My colour palette doesn’t vary too much. I don’t have any hard and fast rules for doing colour work, as I try to keep it simple. As a rule, I generally steer away from bright tones and my light source is nearly always in the character’s face - even if two characters are facing each other. I like to sketch my cartoon first, as I enjoy the sketching process. I don’t particularly follow all the lines. I usually just do it to get the positioning of characters right and to “warm up” (I don’t want to pull a finger hammie!)

I’m assuming you studied extensively and attended the finest painting, water colour, and life drawing classes in Melbourne?

No, not once - I even failed art!

How do you approach the layout of your cartoon panels?

I try and put how I think people would react in different situations into my work. I guess they are sort of like little actors. I can be a bit pedantic with my drawings of characters and I guess a lot of cartoonists are. Even to the point of wanting the body’s positioning to suit the story. I don’t like to have a lot of movement in my cartoons. I think a lot of wacky stuff takes away from the gag so I try to keep the cartoon as subtle as possible with just enough movement and scenery to tell the story. Anything else, I feel, is a distraction. I like to keep my captions as dry and understated as I can. You, by reading a cartoon, are taking a peek into someone else’s world and, generally, what is happening in their world is quite normal.

Since your move from COVID Central (Melbourne) to Perth to be with your partner, Sandy De Luca, what has been keeping you occupied?

I spend a lot of time working with our art workshop business, Creative Soul Sessions. Sandy is the driving force - and the brains. I’m pretty much the knucklehead who puts nails in

things. Business is going pretty well, considering we’ve only just moved to our first premises. We’ve got our irons in a few fires; as well as art and craft lessons, we also do murals which is - thankfully - keeping us busy. Sandy also sells her own art as well as teaching.

I’m doing murals now, which are great fun. I love picking up the brush and whacking down the thick linework, although Sandy does a heap of the colour work. There always seems to be that feeling of “this is gonna be shit... this is gonna be shit...” when I’m working on the design. However, it all seems to come together when the black paint comes out.

You’ve won numerous Stanley Awards for your work. Considering being a cartoonist is all you wanted to be since you were a kid, how did it feel to win that first award?

I was chuffed to bollocks to win my first award - and the others. It’s a great honour to be selected by your peers. I was surprised as buggery to win the first one. I don’t know if I’ll ever get the feeling of having made it as you’re only really good as your last cartoon. And I reckon I’ve written my fair share of duds!

How does the future look for you? Will you and Sandy be collaborating on more projects?

Yeah, Sandy has written a children’s book which I am illustrating - she couldn’t find anyone else, and I work cheap! Plus, she has resigned from her full-time job to work full-time on our business. We’ve got two more murals coming up at the local primary school and I’m doing more original art. So yeah, life is good!

Thanks, Mr Player.

Cheers, mate!

One of Peter Player’s hilarious murals

LEFT: Cartooning compadrés Peter Player, Glenn Robinson and Paul Harvey at the 2019 Stanley Awards in Canberra

Would You Publish or Not?

by MARGOT SAVILLE

Imagine, if you will, that you’re the editor of a major newspaper. Your cartoonist sends in a “racist” cartoon. What do you do?

What’s worse: publishing an allegedly racist cartoon, or censoring an artist?

MARGOT SAVILLE asked several prominent editors and cartoonists what they would do.

(This article appeared in Crikey on 21st August, 2020. It is reproduced with permission)

In August, The Australian‘s editorial cartoonist Johannes Leak drew a cartoon depicting US Democratic nominee Joe Biden describing his Vice-Presidential running mate, Kamala Harris, as a “little brown girl”. The outrage was instant and sustained.

All that day, social media was full of people condemning Leak as racist and the cartoon was referred for adjudication to the Press Council.

(Leak felt the need to close his social media accounts and go into isolation due to the threats he received - Editor).

In the aftermath, we asked several current and former prominent editors if they would have published the cartoon; only one went on the record. The Editor of the Sydney Morning Herald, Lisa Davies, was willing to weigh in.

“While these are incredibly vexed decisions, I don’t think the Herald would have published that cartoon,” she said. “I found it to be a clumsy attack on Biden’s announcement of a running mate, dismissing a significant moment as pure tokenism. That said, it’s a big call not to publish a cartoonist’s take and never one done lightly.”

The Australian‘s Editor-in-Chief, Chris Dore, told The Guardian that “Johannes was quoting Biden’s words” and pointed to a tweet Biden posted last Thursday.

In the tweet, Biden had said, “This morning, little girls woke up across this nation - especially black and brown girls who so often may feel overlooked and undervalued in our society - potentially seeing themselves in a new way: as the stuff of Presidents and Vice-Presidents.”

So I asked the editorial brains of Crikey, Peter Fray and Eric Beecher, for their views. Cartoonists and editors have ongoing dialogue, said Fray, former Editor-in-Chief of the SMH and Deputy Editor of The Australian

“Typically, the main editorial cartoonist will present options to an editor and there might be some discussion along the lines of, that’s good, not that one, oh, maybe tweak that,” he said.

“In this case, my first instinct would have been to ask, ‘what else you got?’ The Biden cartoon isn’t funny and it is offensive. Yes, he has a right to offend. But it’s a matter of fine degrees. This one crossed a line for me. It’s simply not his best work.

Of course, once published, an editor’s instinct is always to defend. In this case, Dore is defending a cartoon that many people see as inherently racist and inappropriate.”

Beecher, a former SMH editor and an Editor-in-Chief at the Herald and Weekly Times, added: “Of course, if you’re the Editor of The Australian, you publish. It fits every commercial criteria in your PD: outrage, getting talked about, social media traffic and absolute alignment with the prejudices of your core readership. Even better, your bosses love it when you tick all those boxes they created for you. And there’s no issue about ethical behaviour, because there’s no box for that at The Australian.”

So much for editors, what about cartoonists themselves?

As one of the country’s leading editorial cartoonists, Nine’s Cathy Wilcox is often asked for her views on the cartoons of her rivals. In 2016, when Johannes’ late father and fellow cartoonist Bill Leak was pilloried for racism over a cartoon, she said that she would not have censored it. Wilcox has always maintained that being an advocate for free speech means supporting the right to speak for people with whom she profoundly disagrees and evens finds offensive. Last Friday, Wilcox responded to a query about the Leak cartoon.

“I think the criticism is over the top. I think the cartoonist intended to criticise Biden,” she said. “[However] I think the ‘context’ - a Murdoch paper, with a track record of racist cartoons, and the particular heritage of the cartoonist - means there is no benefit of the doubt.

Cartoon by Johannes Leak

“That said, I think it’s a terrible take, as it reduces what is a hugely significant cultural moment to an act of tokenism, which I don’t believe it is.”

Yesterday, while pointing out that her “particular privilege means [she’s] not the best placed to judge what is racist”, Wilcox expanded on the topic, saying she “feared putting forth an opinion that differed from the unequivocal condemnation, even though [she] felt it imputed a much more malign motive to the cartoonist, and let Biden’s obvious record of racist mis-statements, creepy treatment of women and evident senility off the hook”.

To the charge that Leak took Biden’s words out of context, Wilcox said she did this in her cartoons all the time.

“It’s how I use the words of the powerful against them. I understood that the offence was in reducing a highly meritorious candidate to a token choice, but that was arguably Biden’s offence, not the cartoonist’s.”

On this, the Walkley Award-winning cartoonist feels torn. “Do I feel conflicted at not defending the free speech and the humanity of a colleague, no matter their dodgy track record and their own twisted cheer-squad?” she asked. “You bet I do!”

Jon Kudelka, editorial cartoonist for The Saturday Paper and The Mercury, says that he avoids drawing cartoons which require explaining.

“I’ve always tried to avoid getting too close to the editorial line of the paper I’m working on, as the danger is you’ll caricature something that’s already been a bit exaggerated for effect by the internal workings of the paper itself, which can lead to your cartoon requiring a few thousand words of explanation before anyone outside the editorial floor actually gets it.”

Social media has exacerbated this, broadcasting a cartoon far beyond the confines of its original masthead, he says. “Cartoons are by their very nature prone to interpretation, so if you’re going to push the boundaries, it’s probably better to have the explanatory thousand words ready to go. It is very easy to get your own head wedged firmly up your own arse as a political cartoonist and as the job is mocking other people with their heads up their arses, this is best avoided.”

Kudelka, also a Walkley winner, says that he holds himself to a loose code of conduct which stops him from going too far off the rails when it’s half-an-hour to deadline.

“This is all very boring, but shouting fire in a crowded theatre also gets quite tedious if you do it every day.”

Wilcox says that she finds the periodic episodes of outrage over cartoons very taxing.

“The extreme black-and-whiteness of the conflicts, the absoluteness of the judgement, the bloodthirstiness of the Twitter mob to verbally bludgeon the hapless person who erred and ‘school’ those who waver in their view, affect me deeply and induce fear lest I make such a ‘wrong’ take.

“Which. I. Inevitably. Will.”

Badiucao’s Archibald Adventure

by EDMUND IFFLAND

Driving into Canberra for the Stanleys weekend last year, I was excited as I had only just joined the ACA and was already feeling like a more grown up cartoonist (if that isn’t too much of an oxymoron). What a thrill to meet artists I’d only previously seen in two dimensions! Later, at the Stanley Awards dinner, I found myself sitting next to Badiucao ( the “Chinese Banksy”). After he deservedly won an international award for bravery in cartooning, and I’d had enough wine to muster up some bravery of my own, I asked if he would be the subject for my 2020 Archibald Prize submission... and he kindly agreed.

The portrait sitting took place just before Badiucao’s Melbourne exhibition, Made in Hong Kong, Banned In China. After many drafts, my final work was a woodblock print-turned-portrait (which itself still functions as a printing block). This referenced Badiucao’s art style which itself harks back to the printing technique of Communist propaganda poster design, alluding to the way in which cartoons can be quickly and broadly distributed and it’s also a nod to ‘wanted’ posters. Unfortunately, while I didn’t make the Archibald list this year, I feel I’ve captured the portrait of someone who deserves to be heard.

XP-Pen Artist 15.6 Pro Graphics Display Tablet TECHNOLOGY REVIEW

by VINCE STEELE

For many of us, Wacom are the gods of the industry when it comes to quality graphics display tablets, even with their higher price points, which puts them out of reach for a lot of starving artists. In fact, there haven’t actually been many real contenders when it comes to the high standards Wacom have created over the years, until recently, when I discovered XP-Pen’s Artist Pro models. Are these alternative brand graphics tablets as good as their more expensive Wacom counterparts? Good question!

About 5 years ago, I took the plunge into the world of graphics display tablets and I’ve never looked back. At the time, the only half-decent tablets I could find were from Wacom. So, after parting with about $3,000, I ended up with a 13” Cintiq Companion 2, and abused the hell out of it. Well... let’s just say I used it a lot and the screen eventually became extremely scuffed from regular use.

About a month or two ago, fellow Aussie cartoonist and Facebook buddy, Tony Davidson (Quick Scribbles), announced that he’d received a nice surprise present from his wife - a shiny new Artist 12 Pro graphics display tablet from XP-Pen. Apparently, XP-Pen has been around for 15 years, but this was the first I’d ever heard of them. After looking online, watching various YouTube reviews, and sussing out the specs on the XP-Pen website, I became intrigued.

Not only were they considerably cheaper than Wacom’s range, but they seemed to provide serious opposition, as long as you purchased the newer Pro models that a) come with a Wacom-style battery-free pen, and b) have a nice red dial sitting between a set of shortcut keys on at least one side.

Not long afterwards, my son mentioned that he’d like a graphics display tablet for himself. He had been using a standard drawing tablet for the last few years. I showed him what was available from XP-Pen and he decided on the 13.3” Pro model, which has a screen around the same size as my old Cintiq Companion 2, and is about a fifth of the price I paid for the Wacom model, thanks to a promotional discount.

As much as I’d loved my Wacom tablet, having a play around with my son’s new XP-Pen 13.3 Pro tablet while I was setting it up on his computer was enough to turn me. It was now time to upgrade my old worn out 13” Cintiq for a brand new 15.6” Artist Pro. Luckily, XPPen was in the middle of a 15th birthday promotion when I made my purchase and, even luckier, their Australian website was giving pretty good discounts on their various products to celebrate. I got mine with a 25% discount. Unfortunately, the celebrations ran out on 14th September, 2020. However, the prices are still pretty low when you compare them to the equivalent sized Wacom tablets. Importantly, I spent a little extra on the XP-Pen AC 18 Display Stand, the one that lets you adjust the angle to whatever’s comfortable, as the plastic stand that comes supplied with the tablet only has one position, which was a bit flat for my liking.

About a week later, both items arrived and it was simply a matter of downloading and installing the drivers direct from the XP-Pen website, then plugging the tablet in to my laptop via the supplied 3in-1 HDMI/USBx2 cable and I was ready to draw. Of the 2 USB plugs that are on the 3-in-1 cable, one of them must be plugged into the computer you’re using, while the other one, which is used to supply power to the tablet, can either be plugged into a spare USB port on your computer, or into a wall outlet via the supplied extension lead and AC adaptor plug. Make sure your laptop’s power supply is plugged in and switched on if you’re going to be using it to power the tablet though, so it actually gives the tablet some power to use, and make sure your computer or laptop has an HDMI out-port before you even purchase one of these, or you’re not going to be getting anywhere with it at all.

So, what’s in the box? As well as the tablet itself, you get a cleaning cloth; a one size fits all, two-fingered artist glove; a power adaptor with multiple adaptor plugs to suit whichever country you’re currently in; the 3-in-1 cable; a USB extension cord; the aforementioned stand which gives you one angle of use; plus a nice battery-free Wacom pen clone. Note that the XP-Pen’s stylus and Wacom’s stylus are not interchangeable! If you’ve used a Wacom battery-free pen before then you’re going to be very comfortable with the Artist Pro pen. The only major difference between the two is that the Wacom

ABOVE: The XP-Pen stylus

BELOW: The XP-Pen Artist 15.6 Pro Drawing Display in action

pen has an eraser function when turned upside-down, but who uses that? You get more control using the drawing nib in erase mode. Like the Wacom pen, the Artist Pro pen has a 2-button rocker switch which can be fully customised.

The pen itself comes with a nice cylindrical case which has a screw off cap at both ends. The larger cap comes off to act as a sturdy upright pen holder, while the smaller cap comes off to reveal 8 spare nibs and a small hole that’s used to take the old nib out of the pen if you ever need to replace it. Some people online have complained that the nibs make a bit of a squeaky sound when you’re drawing on the screen, but it’s no worse than the noise you’d get using a pencil on a hard bit of paperboard. The ready fitted screen protector on the tablet gave enough resistance that it didn’t feel like I was drawing on a smooth bit of glass, and the 8192 levels of pressure sensitivity gave me full control over my line work. The pen also supports up to 60 degrees of tilt.

Calibrating the pen with the screen was simple enough, and once you’ve gone through the process, you’ll find that the curser goes pretty much exactly where the pen touches the screen. The screen has a full HD native resolution of 1920x1080 pixels, which seems to be the standard for a lot of graphic display tablets nowadays. Nothing looks pixelated with my tired old eyes, even with my glasses on, and I found it very easy to work at this resolution. The colours are rich and vivid and actually look a lot better than on the Cintiq! Make sure you go through a colour calibration when you first connect the tablet up to your computer as it makes a difference and you’ll only need to do this once. On the side of the tablet you have a USB-C input for the pointy end of the 3-in-1 cable, a blue illuminating power button, and buttons to control the brightness of the screen itself.

On the front side of the tablet there are 8 vertically aligned shortcut keys, with a red dial in the middle. If you’re not happy with them being on the left side of the screen, you can always go into the tablet settings and flip the screen 180°. The dial itself can have up to five different functions assigned to it, while all the buttons can be set to emulate whatever key or function you prefer. I have the dial set for three functions. One to zoom the canvas in and out, one to change the size of the brush, and one to rotate the canvas about. This leaves me with 2 more functions spare in case I need them later on.

The Artist Pro models themselves come in 4 sizes to suit your budget and your work area:

• The Artist 12 Pro has an 11.6” display area, and retails for $459

•The Artist 13.3 Pro has a 13.3” display area and retails for $539.99

•The Artist 15.6 Pro has a 15.6” display area and retails for $739.99

•The Artist 22R Pro has a 21.5” display area, a set of 10 shortcut keys with a red dial on both the left and right sides of the tablet, giving a total of 20 shortcut keys and 2 programmable dials, and retails for $1099.99. Beware the Artist 22 Pro model though. It doesn’t have the shortcut keys, the dials, nor a battery-free pen, so make sure you get the Artist 22R Pro and not the Artist 22 Pro if you’re looking at getting the bigger model.

So, is it as good as a Cintiq? As far as I’m concerned, yes! Plus. having hardly any parallax between the on-screen cursor and the pen nib, with the added shortcut keys and the rotary dial on the side of the tablet, it’s even better. I seamlessly adjusted to using the XP-Pen model within seconds after 5 years of using nothing but a Cintiq. For my money it does the exact same job that my old Cintiq does, with no reduction in quality or productivity whatsoever.

Would I recommend spending an extra $69.90 on the XP-Pen AC 18 Display Stand? Well, it’s a big improvement over the plastic stand that comes with the tablet, and you can adjust it from 10° to 65° in 1° increments. It serves its purpose and does it well, but it can be a bit fiddly trying to access the release button on the base. Once you have it at your preferred angle, you’ll probably not be in a hurry to change it to a different one. If you get the Artist 22R Pro however, then don’t buy the stand, because the 22R Pro has one built in to the back of it that’s already fully adjustable.

Overall, this is a more affordable graphics display drawing tablet, which works just as well as the more expensive Cintiq models. It’s a good price to pay for a feature-packed tablet which you’ll be happy to use on a daily basis, and they’re pretty light in the weight department, without feeling like cheap toys. Am I happy I purchased it? Absolutely! As much as my old Cintiq has served me well for the past 5 years, this new drawing tablet is going to be my new workhorse.

For more information about the XP-Pen Artist Pro tablets, head on over to www.storexp-pen.com.au then hit the Graphics Display option at the top of the screen. Make sure you only go for the Pro models, or you’ll be stuck with a pen that has a battery in it, and you’ll be missing out on the shortcut keys. Oh, and for the record, XP-Pen wouldn’t have a clue who I am, so there’s bugger all chance they’ll ever be paying me to say all these nice things about them.

Visual comparison between Cintiq Companion 2 (left) and XP-Pen Artist 15.6 Pro (right)

MY PROCESS... Tim

McEwen

I’m Tim McEwen, one-time ACA Board member, current Director of The Ledger Awards, freelancer (cartooning, illustration, storyboards), tertiary educator, and comics creator.

In the 1990s, Michael Michalandos and I self-published an award-winning (and internationally-distributed) comic called Greener Pastures. It’s star - Trevor Bovis, a walking, talking bull, straight off the farm - was our vehicle for satire and social commentary. Trevor has grown a lot since then and so have we, his creators. We’re about to launch a serialised graphic novel of the new adventures of Trevor as he is now: a middle-aged, unhappy and guilt-ridden tax lawyer. Still a wonderful vehicle for satire, social commentary and adventure.

The art process for this issue of Inkspot is for the cover of Adventure Illustrated #1, in which the new Greener Pastures adventures will be serialised. It’s an anthology comic published by Gary Chaloner and will also star his wonderful Jackaroo and Flash Damingo characters (among others). Check out the Kickstarter campaign for it here: www.kickstarter.com/projects/garychaloner/adventure-illustrated-1

BEFORE YOU START: Drawing Tools

STEP ONE: Thumbnails

STEP TWO: Rough Layout

Tools:

2B pencil, super blunt Material: Strathmore Bristol 300 Series, 270gsm, A3

Here I try to transfer not just the design of the chosen thumbnail, but also the life and verve. I like to be as loose as possible at this stage: standing at the drawing board, drawing from arm’s distance so that I don’t get caught up with details, but rather the big shapes and the overall design and balance. This means the image is mostly lacking in any real detail.

Tools:

2B mechanical pencil

Material: Template printout on 80gsm bond

I don’t usually do thumbnails in this fashion: using a template for the cover’s shape and logo dressing. Normally I would sketch freely on an A3 page, just letting the ideas come, but for some reason I decided to use a template this time and it had the ideas flowing pretty quickly.

STEP THREE: Pencils

Tools:

4B Mechanical pencil

When pencilling I try to make sure all the characters are ‘on-model’, and emoting and posing correctly. I also try to make sure there’s enough detail to guide my inking, but not so much that I’m only tracing. For example, the hair of the character bottom centre: there is a large area marking out where his hair will be darker versus lighter, and some indication of the general direction of the hair, but almost no actual hair drawn in.

STEP FOUR: Inks

Tools:

Chinese calligraphy brush

G-Pen dip pen

Koh-I-Nor Rapidograph technical pens

Staedtler Mars plastic eraser

Chinese ink

The Chinese calligraphy brushes I use are designed to hold a lot of ink, meaning that once they’re ‘fully charged’ I can ink for much longer periods without having to re-dip. They’re extremely versatile, enabling very fine lines as well as quite thick strokes. The dip pen I use – the G-Pen – is made for manga artists. It’s strong and flexible, meaning it will get reasonably wide/thick line.

I used the brush for the bulk of this illustration, doing the thick organic lines. The dip pen is used for the organic lines that need a little more control. The technical pens are for the hatching and crosshatching.

I erase all the pencil work before I do the final filling in of the solid blacks – it stops me from accidentally smudging the ink.

STEP FIVE: Colours, Design & Layout

Tools:

Epson Workforce WF-7710 MFC

Apple iMac

Wacom Cintiq 16

Adobe Photoshop

I still struggle with employing sound colour theory, and the whole colour process (creative and technical) seems to take twice as long as all the other steps combined!

In the end though, I’m pretty happy with the result here. I tried to separate the image into three distinct planes: the supporting cast in the foreground plane; Trevor in the central plane, and; the background in the furthest plane.

The final layout for the cover (below) was done by the inimitable Gary Chaloner, who also designed the super swish logo!

... And That’s a Wrap!

Feel free to connect with me on social media. Check out the Greener Pastures website. I’m happy to take commissions too – email me!

www.instagram.com/timmcewen/ twitter.com/TimMcEwen67

www.facebook.com/timmcewen

www.greenerpasturescomic.com/ tim@unrealism.com.au

where are they now?

The tenth 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 BROMLEY

When I began collecting original cartoons, I was lucky enough to get a copy of The 102 Collection of Australia’s Leading Cartoonists, which was published by the ACA in 1984. Amongst the cartoonists included was one DAVID BROMLEY.

A few years later, I was walking in Chapel Street, Prahran, and there was a large shop full of work by ‘David Bromley’, so I went in and was chatting to the staff about the art. Naturally, I asked about his cartoon work. They said that David didn’t draw cartoons.

A few years later, I came across David on social media. We started chatting and I realised that this was the cartoonist in the book. I decided to call in to see him whilst on my way to Coffs Harbour.

We had a lovely chat and he explained that there were TWO David Bromleys: “One is an artist and the other is me, the newspaper illustrator!”

Ian McCall

The first cartoon I got published was when I was sixteen in the Mudgee Guardian

The head teacher at Mudgee High School told us at assembly that, unless the school got some temporary accommodation, that classes would have to be held in the school incinerator. I drew a picture of the school incinerator building with kids crammed in it and a sign outside saying, ‘Do not incinerate when class is in session’. I took it to the local paper and they ran it with a story, gleaned from me, that the school was actually holding classes in the actual incinerator. This was slightly different from the truth and I thought I’d get expelled for lying to the press. In fact the head teacher complimented me!

The cartoon was terribly drawn but I was offered a weekly cartoon strip. I honed my skills over the next year or so. I drew a character called The

Cudgegong Kid who tackled local issues. I drew one strip about the particularly unpleasant Mudgee police who targeted me, as a P-plater, driving an old car belonging to my father. They would drive one metre from my rear bumper whenever they had the chance. I drew The Cudgegong Kid in that car, numberplate visible, being tailgated by the the police. The police smashed into the back of the Kid’s car when he braked. The last frame was the kid booking the police. I wasn’t sure what reaction it would get but I soon found out. Shortly after the strip was published I was driving down the main street of Mudgee which was completely empty except for me and a police car coming in the opposite direction. As they passed me I saw them pointing at my car and numberplate and looking very angry and waving their arms. I braced myself for the encounter but it didn’t happen and I was never stopped again. I thought I had discovered, in a minor way, the power of the press! The editor of the

Mudgee Guardian at that time was Gil Wahlquist, a name very familiar in journalism. We stayed in touch for many years, even when I lived in London. He had winery in the Mudgee region.

On leaving school I studied Architecture part-time and worked for a practice that was eager to flatten The Rocks, Victoria Street in Kings Cross and Blues Point and replace what’s there with high-rise. There were plans to flatten the Queen Victoria Building as well. I drifted away from architecture and started getting cartoons published in university student newspapers and also in a left-wing weekly called Nation Review. They had Michael Leunig as a cartoonist.

Eventually I had a one day a week spot in The National Times, a Fairfax paper, and this soon became a few days a week, followed by full-time for them and the Sydney Morning Herald The National Times was exposing serious wrongdoing at the time and we worked

David Bromley at work on his latest project: a mural in Urunga, NSW

to a background noise of police and political corruption, assaults, secret tapes and murder. The National Times was a weekly paper, so there was only one deadline in the week. This meant there was time for long lunches. These became legendary. I won a Walkley Award at the age of 24 for an illustration in The National Times.

I worked for the Sydney Morning Herald throughout the eighties. I preferred to be in the newsroom amongst all the buzz. My artwork was on scraperboard, because colour printing was expensive, paper stock was poor and reproduction of black and white was the norm. Even black and white was bad by modern standards, but my artwork printed well with the technology of the time. I enjoyed my days at the SMH but I decided to go to London for a year.

In London, the town of my birth, my scraperboard style was well liked and I was instantly busy. I was taken on by an artists’ agency and I’m still with them to this day. I worked for all the major UK quality newspapers; The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The Times, Sunday Times, Independent, Observer, the various Times supplements and others.

I worked for the Financial Times from the first day I walked through their door until recently. I worked in their building with the small group of talented FT illustrators and we were good friends. Through my agent I worked in advertising and book publishing. Advertising clients included Fortnum and Masons, Harrods, Sainsbury’s, Laphroaig Scotch Whiskey and Barclays Bank among

many others. I did a full page ad in European papers for the opening of the Channel Tunnel. I’ve seen my work on billboards on London’s Underground stations and I’ve done quite a few wine labels. I’ve also illustrated many book covers for leading publishers in the UK.

My “one year away” from Oz plan had slipped out of view and, early on, I bought a house in Chiswick in West London. A big attraction to stay in the UK was travelling to other European countries and also further afield. I speak four languages. I took Spanish lessons in lunch hours at the Financial Times I went to Ecuador several times and to Spain quite a few times on my BMW motorbike. I won a Gold Award at World Press Cartoon in Sintra, Portugal. I don’t speak Portuguese so I made a speech on stage in Spanish!

One time, I was invited to Paris by the newspaper, Courrier International. They hosted cartoonists, les dessinateurs, that they used in their publications at an impressive event at Les Invalides. This included lunch in the large room where Napoleon dined with his officers. I have a lingering memory of looking down a long line of cartoonists and seeing some very tall, white chef’s hats wobbling in the distance. There was an animated discussion with some wine buffs about which wine to serve. I sensed we were in for a real treat. I sat opposite a woman who was the organiser of the cartoonists’ event at St Just-le-Martel in France; Le Festival International de la Caricature et du Dessin de Presse et d’Humour. She invited me to the event.

At the event, someone mistook me for a representative of a classic car magazine, Retromobile. We got talking and he had a very rare 1965 Mercedes Coupe for sale and I bought it. It now resides rurally on the Mid North Coast of NSW. It’s left hand drive, and it’s a reminder of the times I had away from Australia. I’ve been back in Australia for more than 12 years now. We brought over 200 boxes, a motorbike, a classic Mercedes, two printing presses and two cats.

I abandoned scraperboard many years ago and now do all my illustrations digitally. I also paint and I’m a printmaker; I make linocuts and wood engravings. I have an Albion Press from Fleet Street, London, probably from the early 1800s. I have another smaller, but very rare Albion press and a roller press.

I have been painting a large mural in the centre of my local town, Urunga, using tromp l’oeil effects and the mural is three shopfronts from circa 1910 with shop windows, people and a few surprises!

A typical day, at the time of writing, is standing on an aluminium work platform from Bunnings, with a paintbrush in hand answering questions and acknowledging kind words from the public. I’m sometimes asked if I’m an ex signwriter. I say I’m not: I’m actually an illustrator and I’ve spent my life doing finely detailed, small images of two, three or four columns width, not finely detailed murals 27 metres wide!

David Bromley

Scraperboard illustrations by David Bromley , Sydney Morning Herald, 1993

Vale Ron Cobb (1937-2020)

One of our more revered Stanley Awards guests of honour, Ron Cobb, passed away on 21st September, 2020, which happened to be his 83rd birthday. He was born in Los Angeles, but moved to Sydney in 1972 after meeting Robin Love and the two later married. In recent years, Ron had been suffering from Lewy Body Dementia. And extensive interview conducted by Jules Faber, including an overview of Ron’s amazing career achievements, can be found in Inkspot #65 (Autumn, 2011).

Ron Cobb’s work was woven through my childhood without me even being aware of it. One of my first short animated films was inspired by one of his cartoons I saw in my teens. He was everywhere and inspired me, without me even knowing about it for the longest time.

He started his career inbetweening on the Disney film, Sleeping Beauty, but found animation too slow, so he moved into environmental cartoons for the LA Free Press. A stint in the military (initially as a courier for Army Intelligence, then later as a draughtsman in the Signal Corps in Vietnam), led to a tour of Australian universities, marriage to his Australian guide, Robin Love (who was the cultural representative of the Australian Union of Students) and eventually a son, Nicky. He ultimately decided to call Australia home.

Soon after settling here, however, he was called back to Hollywood to work on a film for an up-and-coming new production. He’d helped the fledgling John Carpenter and Dan O’Bannon work on a student film called Dark Star, and once it had taken off, O’Bannon wanted him back on his newest production, another space epic, entitled Alien

Alien led to other film work where Ron really excelled. Iconic designs for films such as Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Back to the Future, Conan the Barbarian and Total Recall (among myriad others), established Ron as a dynamic force in concept design.

I was fortunate enough to be a guest in Ron’s house prior to our ACA Stanley Awards in 2011 and I was transfixed by this humble fellow with a wealth of stories about his time in Hollywood and his anecdotes about movie folk, not to mention being allowed to trawl through multiple shelves of his original artworks. There are a handful of ‘magic days’ I’ve enjoyed throughout my life, and this rides high among them.

Ron’s talent seemed limitless but he wasn’t big about it. It was just the thing he did. It was a job. That his work could influence and inspire so many others is the real testament to the man, especially given how humble he was about it, telling stories as if he were on the periphery watching rather than in the thick of it. Ron leaves behind a legacy of work which will inspire generations to come. A concept artist, writer, director, production designer and environmental cartoonist, he could do it all effortlessly. When they talk about the real deal, well, that was Ron.

ABOVE: A tribute to Ron Cobb by Fränts Kantor BELOW: Among the myriad achievements of Ron’s career was this: the concept design work for the DeLorean Time Machine in Back to the Future (1985)

Vale James H. Kemsley (1924-2020)

James Herbert Kemsley, father of James and grandfather of Jed, Hywel and Seb Kemsley, was born on 26th August, 1924 and passed away in Yarram, Victoria on 2nd. October, 2020, aged 96. A decorated veteran of World War Two, his tales of life in New Guinea proved to be the perfect foundation for an adventure comic strip, and working alongside the brilliant Peter Foster, Ballantyne was born!

James H. Kemsley was the father of the late James L. Kemsley, one of the many artists who wrote and drew Ginger Meggs. James (Senior) became my writing partner for the making of the adventure strip, Ballantyne. How that came about was when James (Junior) was delivering his threetiered Ginger Meggs strip to the features editor of the SunHerald for the front page of the Sunday comics liftout.

The editor told him they were dropping Mandrake, the twotiered strip which ran under Meggs, on the grounds that it was too old-fashioned. Jim immediately piped up with, “Now’s the chance to put in an Australian strip”, to which the editor replied that he did not know anyone who could do it.

“Well, I know who could do it; my Dad for the writing and Peter Foster for the art.”

His dad and I, who didn’t even know each other, had no idea that this proposition was being made. So strongly did Jim Junior sell the idea, that the editor agreed to see a sample of what it might be about and what it might look like. We were given three weeks to come up with something. Now, some comic strips can take up to ten years to secure their unique style!

Jim Senior was in the army. After his honourable discharge he stayed in New Guinea, taking on the job of a Patrol Officer (Kiap) with the Australian and New Guinea Administrative Unit. His many extraordinary experiences in this job gave him loads of material to allow a long life for our strip. Jim Junior arranged for his Dad and me to meet over the phone. We seemed to hit it off with each other; even over the phone. Deep within me I felt we could be brothers.

Jim Junior suggested we call our hero Ballantyne. He was to be our Kiap! In another phone call Jim Senior said to me, “I’ve written a novel and countless short stories but how do I write for an adventure strip?”

My answer was, “Imagine you have five or six frames in a two tiered strip. The first frame is only for the large title, our trade mark and composite signatures. For the dialogue, use no more than eight words in a balloon... less if possible.”

Our example to submit to the features editor consisted of about four pencil roughs and two finished art strips. Jim Senior’s first draft had twice as much material as it should, so I said to him (still over the phone), “Your first script will be right for the first two weeks. He caught on and everything fell into place from then on. The editor approved.

Our first four or five Sundays were a little awkward but we gradually setted down. The first story was based on his book, Where Hidden Rivers Flow, turning it into a graphic novel. I also turned it into single-tier dailies without the title. The newspaper client would title it in their own type above the strip.

The Kalgoolie Miner was the only Aussie newspaper to buy it. The editor was known to reject the idea of syndicated American strips, despite their cheapness. When he had gone through all eleven stories available, he started them all over again. That’s a good Aussie for you!

Ballantyne ran for eleven-and-a-half stories in the Sun-Herald. They dropped us half way through the twelfth without any explanation. It had run for six and a half years. We decided to finish the rest of the twelfth anyway. I’m glad we did, because I later on revamped the art into A4 pages to make books for each story, coloured in Photoshop.

That’s when Matt Emery of Pikitia Press sought me out - out of the blue - and published all twelve, one at a time, and sold them through his website. It didn’t make me much money but I can’t help feeling that God was in charge.

There are now ten Ballantyne books out there.

Peter Foster

The Foster-Kemsley partnership in action at the 2006 Stanley Awards in Ballarat

PHOTO: JASON CHATFIELD

COMIC ART WORKSHOP TO get your book into shape

Pat Grant and Elizabeth Macfarlane created Comic Art Workshop in 2015 as a triple-shot comics residency for people working on graphic novels (long comics, in book form). The second and third events were held in 2017 and 2019. Hosted in remote locations, CAW is mysterious and exciting-sounding, but what’s the benefit of holing up with a bunch of other artists to workshop your comic?

I asked current CAW director Josh Santospirito why artists would want to go on a retreat for a couple weeks with only other cartoonist types for company.

“Total rewrites have happened as a result of CAW,” he said. “Plot-heavy genre pieces that rely heavily on character motivations and decisions have been given a thorough shake-up through our workshops. People working on nonfiction projects have also focused their work a lot.

“Strangely, CAW also ends up workshopping our broader arts practice and even workshop our personal lives that support that practice. It can be kinda emotional at times for everyone.”

CAW will return in 2021, albeit without the arts funding it received in 2015 and 2017, so if you’re working on a longform comic, keep your ears peeled for when applications open up. In the meantime, they’re trying to raise some

money to support the next residency by selling beautiful jigsaw puzzles. If you want one delivered by Christmas, go here before the end of October:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/comicartworkshop/ the-comic-art-workshop-puzzle

For more about Comic Art Workshop, point your browser at: https://comicartworkshop.com.au

David Blumenstein