Inkspot 44

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Cartooning in the Northern Territory Foyle on Nicholls Moir in India... and more!

www.abwac.org.au

Number 44 Autumn 2005

www.abwac.org.au 1300 658 581 (02) 9601 7688 ACA Board Patron Vane Lindesay (03) 9523 8635 President James Kemsley (02) 4871 2551 president@abwac.org.au Secretary Steve Panozzo (02) 8920 9996 secretary@abwac.org.au Treasurer Mick Horne (08) 9527 3000 treasurer@abwac.org.au Vice Presidents Brett Bower (NSW) (02) 9589 4717 nsw@abwac.org.au Rolf Heimann (Vic/Tas) (03) 9699 4858 vic@abwac.org.au Sean Leahy (Qld) (07) 3325 2822 qld@abwac.org.au John Martin (SA/NT) (08) 8297 8516 sa@abwac.org.au Greg Smith (WA) (08) 9409 5026 wa@abwac.org.au ABN 19 140 290 841 Inkspot is produced four times a year by the Australian Cartoonists’ Association.

PO Box 318 Strawberry Hills NSW 2012

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ACA AFFILIATED ORGANISATIONS National Cartoonists Society President Steve McGarry Secretary Rick Kirkman www.reuben.org Cartoonists’ Club of Great Britain President Graham Fowell Secretary Richard Tomes www.ccgb.org.uk FECO President-General Roger Penwill Secretary-General Peter Nieuwendijk www.fecoweb.org Australia Post Registration PP 533798/0015 Inkspot Lord & master: Col Wicking Inskpot Prifroader: Steve Panozzo Inkspot contributors: Jason Chatfield, Gary Clark, Neil Dishington, Lindsay Foyle, Rolf Heimann, Mick Horne, Chris Kelly, James Kemsley, Steve McGarry, Alan Moir, John Moses, Steve Panozzo, Ross Sharp, Ian Sharpe, Dr. Leigh Summers, Ian C. Thomas, Brad Wightman

Cover by Col Wicking NT lizard logo by Jason Chatfield

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Brad Wightman

Presidentʼs Parlay

s you will see by this issue, Inkspot A has almost about made its way around the country. The Northern Territory joins five of the States and the ACT in having produced at least one edition of the mag. We only have two members in Darwin. One ranks among Australia’s “longest serving” editorial cartoonists, the NT News’ Col Wicking and the other, a true ACA devotee, Jack “Jed” Edmunds.

Page 6 profiles both scribblers and gives an insight into the profession at the Top End. Thanks for the effort blokes!

Most members know Inkspot is produced on a voluntary basis and is done on a rotation basis by each of the States. Generally the VPs and their committees oversee production of the mag so if you’d like to be involved in an upcoming issue give your guy a call or drop him an email.

I’m as pleased as Punch to be able to let you know the next issue will be edited and put together in New Zealand by the growing band of Kiwis who are part of our association. Again it will be a first for the ACA and promises to be a true collector’s item. Maybe the Australasian Cartoonists’ Association isn’t too far off?

Many years ago, ACA stalwart, the late Cole Buchanan, fought tooth and nail against red tape and bureaucratic wisdom, and finally caused the creation of a separate category for cartoonists within the Yellow Pages.

For a long time, ACA had been listed in most metro areas but due to financial constraints, we were forced to reduce our presence to Sydney only. We have now re-established ourselves with a listing within every state metro under “Cartoonists and Caricaturists”.

We also have a new phone national number. By phoning 1300 658 581 anywhere in Australia, you will be put in contact with the ACA VP of your State. The exceptions being Tasmania goes through to Victoria and NT dials up SA. This is costing us less than a third of what it used to cost 5 years ago, and we also get a free listing in the Sydney Business White Pages. So phone your State VP

and ask him when the next social event is planned.

The PANPA Bulletin is a widelyread and hugely respected media industry publication. In an effort to raise the profile of Australasian cartooning and cartoonists the ACA has negotiated with PANPA to publish a cartoon or comic strip in each issue under our logo and with a byline and contact details for the artist whose work is used. Gary Clark has been appointed PANPA liaison officer by the Board and will be responsible for culling and forwarding submissions. If you’d like the unique opportunity to have you work read by just about every editor in the South Pacific region, email your stuff to gary@swamp.com.au.

The Asthma Foundations’ Robin Ould passes on his thanks to the members who donated a piece of work for forthcoming Australia-wide exhibition and auction. In excess of 100 cartoons were received by the ACA’s current designated charity.

Details of when the exhibition will be in a capital city near you will be forthcoming shortly.

The 2004 AGM decided it was probably time the ACA changed its logo from the old B&W ink pot that has served the Club for many years. The new design is up to you - a variation on the old one or a completely new concept. Queensland VP Sean Leahy has been given the unenviable task of coming up with a short list which will published in Inkspot. The design chosen will win someone a pot full of kudos as well as a year’s free membership to the ACA. Email your entry to info@beyondtheblackstump.com.

Members who participate, or lurk, on the ACA Forum will know that Defamation Laws and Cartoonists has been a hot topic of late. For those not on-line or simply out of the cartooning loop, the Howard government is looking at changing the Libel Laws, which vary from state to state, to a national coverage. This may or may not affect cartoonists. There is a strong school of thought that it could.

The Board is in the process of seeking legal advice on whether action is needed on our behalf regarding this matter. Once the information is to hand you will be kept informed via email and Inkspot.

Creative scribbling,

Turkey’s War on Political Cartoonists

by MICHAEL DICKINSON

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hen I first came to live in Istanbul nearly twenty years ago there were only two television channels and a couple of radio stations, all state-run. Films were censored, and the Turkish music scene was conventional to say the least, with few pop stars under the age of thirty. People were drably dressed, and there wasn’t much to do at night but go to a smoky dingy bar or coffee house, where the clientele was strictly male.

The changes I’ve witnessed during my time here have been amazing. Now, apart from worldwide programmes beamed in from satellite, there are masses of Turkish channels ranging from excellent to tat; loads of radio stations to choose from, many featuring Turkish rock, rap and hip-hop belted out by energetic young singers who suddenly seemed to appear from nowhere in the nineties; the bustling streets are filled with trendily dressed folk on their way to smart bars, cafes and discos where males and females mix freely.

A remarkably liberal relaxation in philosophy and attitude. But even twenty years ago there were always the hugely popular weekly Turkish comics Limon, Girgir, Penguen outrageous and anarchic, often black and sick, but always very funny, pitilessly lampooning Turkish behaviour, no holds barred on sex, politics or religion. Armed with a dictionary they were my most enjoyable way of learning the Turkish language and culture. No President or politician escaped satirical scrutiny, the spotlight of derision focused on their foibles and corruption. These comics were a breath of fresh air, a genuine example of freedom of expression.

So I was dismayed to learn last week that the Prime Minister of Turkey, Tayyip Erdogan, who has long championed himself as an advocate of free speech, having been jailed himself in

1999 for reciting a poem deemed “antistate”, has declared war against the cartoonists.

After successfully suing the left wing newspaper Evrensel last year for portraying him as a horse being led by one of his advisers, in February this year he sued political cartoonist Musa Kart for depicting him as a cat tangled in a ball of wool (below) in the daily Cumhuriyet, claiming he found the cartoon “deeply humiliating”. Kart was fined 3500 dollars on charges of “assailing Erdogan’s hono”.

A second suit against a smaller newspaper for reprinting the cartoon was thrown out of court.

“People who are under public light are forced to endure criticism in the same way that they endure applause”, said Judge Mithat Ali Kabaali in his ruling, “ A prime minister who was forced to serve a long jail term for reciting a poem should show more tolerance to these kinds of criticisms.”

To show solidarity with fellow cartoonist Kart, the weekly satirical magazine Penguen devoted its February front cover to drawings of Erdogan with the body of a camel, a frog, a monkey, a snake, a duck and an elephant, under the title The World of Tayyip.

The incensed Prime Minister retaliated by filing a new lawsuit against the publishing house, claiming the pictures “attacked his individual

Broelman appointed to ACA Board

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n line with the newly adopted changes to the ACA Constitution, longtime Membership Secretary Peter Broelman (left) has been appointed to the Board of the ACA. Broelman kicked off his career at The News in Adelaide before venturing into the world of freelance, contributing to a host of publications that have included

rights” and demanding 30000 dollars in compensation for offending him.

“We were not surprised by the news,” said the editor, Selcuk Erdem.

“We printed the drawings as a message to say that cartoonists cannot be silenced.”

“This was a test of the sincerity of the prime minister who says he wants Turkey to be a member of the European Union,” Erdem said. “He has shown his true face.”

Turkey’s best-known political cartoonists gathered in Istanbul on Wednesday to protest legal action taken by the prime minister against artists who criticized him through their work.

Members of the Turkish Cartoonists Association accuse Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of trying to stifle free expression even as Turkey is preparing to launch talks to win membership in the European Union.

“We cartoonists have long faced pressure from politicians,” Metin Peker, the association’s president, said at a news conference.

“Just as we thought those dark days were over, we have been confronted with this.”

Although Turkey has been my home for the last twenty years I have usually avoided any comment of the political scene here in my own collage work, more inspired by the shenanigans of Bush and Blair and their cronies, but yesterday I decided to break that rule and show defiance to despotism and solidarity with the cartoonists of Turkey by adding to my site of collages this picture of Bush and Erdogan, whom he describes as a “personal friend”.

Michael Dickinson is a writer and artist who works as an English teacher in Istanbul, Turkey.

He can be contacted through his website of collage pictures at http://CARNIVAL_OF_CHAOS. TRIPOD.COM The translation of Kart’s cartoon is: “Bravo! You see? You can draw a man properly when you try!”

People, TV Week, Sunday Mail, MAD, Cracked, Reader’s Digest and Australasian Post, plus numerous trade and specialty periodicals. He has been a contributor to People since 1993 with his cartoon strip Ratbags which is also seen in Norway and Sweden after a five-year run in The Netherlands.

In November 2004 Broelman was awarded the Stanley for Editorial/Political Cartoonist. His editorials can currently be seen across Australia in Rural Press dailies and in the Adelaide Independent Weekly. Following two stints as SA VP, this is Broelman’s third term on the ACA Board.

He has asked Inkspot to inform members that despite his elevation to the dizzy heights of the Board, he still hates going over the line when he colours in.

www.abwac.org.au

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P a r z

discredit Sullivan and deny his authorship of Felix. Unknown to Messmer and Canemaker was the fact that Sullivan had submitted an animated cartoon, The Tail of Thomas Cat (the precursor of Felix), to the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress in March 1917.

Parz began last issue with news that the Herald Sun’s Mark Knight had picked up the 2004 Walkley Award for cartooning. So with a touch of deja vu we report that the Melbourne favourite has added another gong to his trophy cabinet by scooping the pool at the National Museum of Australia’s annual political humour competition, winning both the judges’ prize and the people’s choice award.

The cartoon was published on November 29 last year, two months before Beazley succeeded Latham as Labor leader.

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Knight collects $5000 for the judges’ prize and $1000 for the people’s choice award. The award gives him the trifecta with his Walkey and Stanley.

The exhibition remains on display in Canberra until June 13 before moving to Perth from July 1.

Longtime supporters of cartooning, the Media Alliance has devoted the current issue of The Walkley Magazine to cartoons and cartoonists. In fact they have sub-titled this edition of the prestigious industry publication, The Cartoon Issue - Media and the Mighty Pen. Peter Broelman, Joanne Brooker, Andrew Dyson, Rod Emmerson, Lindsay Foyle, Matt Golding, Judy Horacek, Darby Hudson, Fiona Katauskas, Chris Kelly, Mark Knight, Bill Leak, Michael Leuning, Alan Moir, Larry Pickering, Victoria Roberts and Peter Sheehan have all contributed to the must-read issue. Debuting is a new comic strip that will keep an eye on the media - The Daily Truth. Kicked off by Broelman, it is planned the strip will be written by various cartoonists including Jenny Coopes, Neil Matterson, James Kemsley and Foyle.

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Sixty people, including many Victorian cartoonists, assembled in Melbourne’s German Club Tivoli on April 15 for a German dinner and to celebrate the 173rd Birthday of the artist Wilhelm Busch (above). He is much loved in Germany where he is regarded as the inventor of the comic strip. An imitation of his Max und Moritz led to the Katzenjammer Kids in America and similar strips all over the world. German-born Victoria VP Rolf Heimann translated some of Busch’s poetry and despite a badly inflamed throat persevered in presenting a tribute to his hero Busch. Musical interludes were provided by composer/conductor Barry McKimm, supported by soprano Lesley Walton and other musicians.

The evening also witnessed the premier of the composition The Royal Flea by McKimm, based on one of the stories from Heimann’s book of the same name.

The NSW ACA chapter seems to have found a new watering hole thanks to the efforts of VP, Brett Bower. The James Squire Pub in Sydney’s popular Darling Harbour is now the place to see and be seen. It was the venue in March to entertain visiting Indian comic strip legend Pran Kumar, while April saw a gathering of ACAers enjoying the food, booze and surroundings.

The winner of the 2005 Bald Archy was announced at the QVB in Sydney on May 4, after Inkspot #44 had gone to print. The winner and pics will appear in #45.

HOWEVER - the Bald Archy will be exhibiting in Melbourne for the first time, opening on June 7, with the finalists showing at the recently renovated Gallery B in the extraordinary Meat Market Arts Complex, courtesy of the City of Melbourne. The collection of past winning portraits will also be featured in that exhibition.

Talking of Herr Heimann, he finally found the time to take the P&O cruise that was part of his 2003 Cartoonist of the Year award. With wife Lila they boarded the Pacific Sun in Sydney and travelled to Noumea and a number of destinations in Vanuatu. They enjoyed every minute of it! It didn’t matter they forgot their camera, Heimann took his sketch pad. Look for a full report with illos in a future issue of Inkspot.

Reclaiming Felix the Cat, a new exhibition curated by the State Library of NSW‘s Judy Nelson, opened in Sydney on May 2. The exhibition is an attempt to re-establish the intellectual property rights of Pat Sullivan, the Australian creator of Felix the Cat. Some 40 years after Sullivan’s death in New York in 1933, a campaign of vilification was waged by two Americans - animator Otto Messmer and author John Canemaker, who sought to

Jason Chatfield

Knight’s cartoon (below), In Case of Emergency, depicted a battered Mark Latham limping through a door, pausing to look at a chortling Kim Beazley inside a glass cabinet bearing the sign, “Break glass in case of leadership emergency”.

It was in 1923, several years after Felix’s films became popular, that the character made his comic strip debut.

During the mid-1920s, a new Felix film was being released every two weeks and the comic strips appearing in more than 60 Sunday papers in the USA.

Loveable ACA bulwark and legendary sandgroper member Dave ”Guinness guzzler“ Gray (above) celebrated his 60th recently with a surprise birthday bash in WA. Gray foxtrotted well into the night with family and friends complete with hospital gown and intravenous drip (topped-up with indian ink) which were presented to him on the night. Gray puts his youthful appearance down to copious pints of Guinness and a magnetic underlay.

Many happy returns “Dags”!

ART SHARPE IN THE ACT Generally regarded, and respected, as an illustrator and cartoonist, the Canberra Times’ Ian Sharpe has dipped his large toes in the world of watercolours and acrylics, to universal acclaim. So what prompted this shy and retiring ACA member to challenge the world of fine arts?

Sharpe put a few pixels on the LCD to give Inkspot the reasons

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arrived in Dubrovnik, Croatia in June 2004, the beginning of their summer, intending to stay for only a couple of days. My real destinations I thought were Prague and Budapest.

On the first day I became captivated by the charm of this ancient seaside fort and decided to stay an extra day. On the second day I decided spend the whole ten days I had set aside for Croatia – in Dubrovnik. They were ten delightful days. I stayed in a self-catered apartment and spent my days sketching in watercolours, swimming in the Adriatic and eating at any of the many seafood restaurants in and out of town.

On my return to Canberra I had the idea of maybe having an exhibition of paintings based on the work I did in Dubrovnik. By coincidence I bumped into my friend and Director of Canberra’s Multicultural Festival, Dominic Mico at a party. Before the night was out my exhibition had become part of the Festival and was to be held at the Croatian Embassy. All I had to do was to paint the paintings.

A week later I was thinking “what have I got myself into”. My little idea had overnight become a major exhibition without a painting in sight. I had the crude forms in my head but when I tried to put them down the results were less than desired. It occurred to me to bail out but then I thought “No.I’ve been waiting for this opportunity all my life” For seven months I pushed myself. Painting and discarding, winning and losing. My house became a shambles. My life became a shambles. But I produced an exhibition. 17 paintings including the feature piece – an abstract triptych – which I was prepared to own, to put my name to.

Then with the pressure off I repainted the triptych. This was the point where I crossed the line in my personal marathon. I went the extra yard and entered the promised land. Suddenly everything became clear to me. The rivers of fire and pools of light.

I wanted to repaint the whole exhibition there and then but it was too late. It will have to wait for another time and a time after that.

Edwin Huxley 1951 - 2005

dwin Huxley loved coming E into News Limited. An artist and illustrator for News Limited

in Sydney, he was in perpetual disbelief that he could be paid for what he loved doing - drawing and producing art that was a privilege to publish.

After three bouts of cancer, his desk is now empty. On Sunday February 27, Ed Huxley passed away at the age of 53.

He had been battling the disease since 2001 and, after twice returning to work, his third encounter proved unbeatable.

Ed was born to parents Jim and Lee Huxley in Lae, Papua New Guinea in 1951. From an early age he started to draw, showing the talent that would see him on his way to being an award- winning illustrator.

In 1965 Ed was sent to board at Waverley College to finish his education. The rest of the family also moved to Sydney soon after. He left school in 1968 and started his long career as an artist working beside some of Sydney’s finest press artists. He first worked at The Sun newspaper, then Country Life, moving to the Grace Bros art department and then back to Fairfax on The Sydney Morning Herald for many great years.

I first met Ed at The Herald. He was one of the first artists to show me what a great honour it is to be in our chosen field. He had great passion for art and especially illustration. He became a friend back then and remained one for 32 years.

After working at The Herald for many years Ed went freelance, then later joined News Limited on May 5, 1987 becoming full-time on September 11, 1995, joining his younger brother Quentin in the art department.

As an illustrator Ed did his best work in this period., winning a prestigious Stanley Award from The Australian Black & White Artists Club for caricature in 1990. He was a true character, some called him a rough diamond. He was known and loved by many people in the art community and the in the greater News Limited family from executives to copy persons.

Ed was a great illustrator, a passionate artist. He loved his family. He loved his Roosters football team, his music and a beer with his friends. He will be missed by all that knew him. He is survived by his former wife Marcia, his mother, Lee, and brothers, Nicholas, James and Quentin.

John Moses

Nationwide News art director

Caricature by Michael Perkins

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Life at the Top

Northern Territory News cartoonist Colin Wicking interviews himself exclusively for Inkspot.

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How long have you worked as a cartoonist?

Forever. My first cartoon was published in 1977 while I was still at school in Queensland, which eventually led to a job in the production department of our local paper, from which I was sacked twice. A�er that I dri�ed around country Queensland for a while before ending up in Darwin. I’ve been working full-time as the NT News editorial cartoonist since 1988.

How’d that happen?

Luck, pure and simple. I scored a two week spot filling in while the regular bloke was away, and they turned out to be very big weeks. Lindy Chamberlain’s conviction was quashed and she was released from Darwin Jail, and there was a fatal crocodile a�ack in a Top End river.

I linked the stories with a drawing showing the hunted croc blaming a dingo for the a�ack. The readers were suitably outraged, which the editor and general manager loved. It was that particular cartoon that landed me the spot fulltime.

How have you managed to hang on to it for 17 years?

By intentionally not doing the obvious. I don’t tend to do a ‘news of the day’ type cartoon, unless it’s totally unavoidable.

For instance, I’ve probably done about three cartoons on Iraq since the whole thing started.

I rarely tackle federal politics unless it has specific implications for the Territory (like the NTs euthanasia laws being overturned by the Feds) and, on average, I’d probably do just two or three local political cartoons a week. It’s likely I’ve done more cartoons about the weather up here than anything else, because it’s important to the people who live here. Darwin’s laid-back lifestyle tends to underpin everything else so I try to cater to that. Which means most of the time I’m going for a laugh, rather than foisting my own views on the readers.

It seems to be a winning formula.

So it’s all beer and crocodiles?

Not all the time. There are some serious issues floating around up here; racism, alcohol abuse and street violence are daily fodder, and I don’t mind tackling them when I see the need. Sometimes that’ll get me into strife, of course, but if you’re not causing the occasional stir there’s something wrong.

What makes the NT unique from a cartooning point of view?

It’s remoteness and its small population, mainly. There is a real sense of community here, probably due to the fact that we’re largely ignored by the rest of the country www.abwac.org.au

Wicking gets a gong in 2003 for being a nice chap from Darwin Lord Mayor Peter Adamson

It’s not all beer and crocodiles in the Northern Territory, although.... unless some tourist gets eaten.

The smallish population makes my job a lot easier; everybody experiences the same things at the same times, which means a decent cartoon will strike a chord with just about the entire population.

What’s been your favourite cartooning moment?

Hmmm. Being invited aboard the USS Houston is one.

It’s the American nuclear submarine that bursts out of the ocean at the end of ‘The Hunt for Red October’. The commander was apparently quite taken with a toon I’d done about their visit to Darwin. The highlight was being allowed to see a rather large missile with radiation stickers all over it. (Three weeks later a strange black hair sprouted from my right shoulder...It’s still there.) Also there was the time I was chased around the NT News carpark by an angry reader wielding an umbrella. That was fun. Oh, and picking up a couple of awards for my work in the Darwin community, which is no mean feat for someone o�en branded a racist sexist pervert.

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Federation of Cartoonists Organisations

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www.fecoweb.org

FECO

IDEP 2005 is the abbreviation of “6émes. Rencontres internationals du dessin de presse”, which was held at the Espace Culturel La Fleuriaye, Carquefou, France from January 21-23, 2005.

Whenever you want go somewhere in France you will have to go via Paris, so we took the opportunity to hold a small FECO-France meeting at the Café Le Madrigal on the Champs Elysées.

Ana von Rebeur, president of FECO Argentina, who had also been invited to the festival, was at last was able to meet our FECO French colleagues; the group exchanged ideas, talked about cartoonists ́ problems in Argentina, France and Germany and listened to new proposals for the future.

On January 20, the TGV took us to Nantes; then we were seen to our hotel at Carquefou. The main themes of the festival were: (1) Iran, under the motto “Today, the people of Iran are a modern nation, educated and open towards the world”; (2) Women as cartoonists.

It all started quite early on the Friday. About 9.00 o ́clock the rooms of La Fleuriaye were crowded with school children, who did not only look at and comment on the cartoons shown but also participated in the discussions and posed questions. There were different conferences were presided over by Sepideh, Farhad, Abbas and Touka, all of them representatives of Iran, or by Ana and Toshiko Nishida from Japan and myself, who spoke about cartooning from a womańs point of view.

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The large exhibition hall was well attended and very busy; a group of about 30 cartoonists were sitting at tables and drawing for the public – there were always long queues. Quite often it meant switching from caricaturing adults to drawing elephants, lions, clowns or oriental dancers for children or teenagers.

The exhibition, of the 400 works, was subdivided into individual displays of the artists invited but there was also a number of cartoons by schoolchildren of the region, who with a critical eye portrayed environmental and political grievances or the suppression of woman in many countries. In addition there was also a section of censored cartoons, which means works submitted to the mass media but never published, the so-called “Dessins politiquement incorrects” – certainly something that makes one think, above all because it happens in countries like France. Are we living in countries where the word “censorship” is still valid...?

Those were strenuous days; we answered lots of questions as best we could, yet, on the other hand, it was good to see our neurons work at full blast – after all, we wanted to make a contribution, fill up blanks, satisfy curious people and respond to the overwhelming cordiality and professionalism of the city, the organizers and the public. Friendship pays back with friendship, and once again France turned the best side of her character on us: fraternity – and sisterliness, of course.

Marlene Pohle

President FECO - Germany Translation by Frank Hoffmann

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Story and illustrations by

Alan Moir

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n the ‘70s and ‘80s groups of Indian ‘unqualified doctors’ such as medical students, nurses, midwives etc. went out into the vast and teeming interior of India to offer preventative medicine and basic first aid to the countless villages which seldom saw a doctor. It was a spectacular success and has been imitated in many parts of the third and developing world. These pioneers where nicknamed the ‘barefoot doctors’.

Over the last 5 or so years a group of young cartoonists and illustrators are following their footsteps, going out to these endless villages with their incomprehensible numbers to help bring a basic education about current health, environmental and political crises affecting these regional areas, which they, the cartoonists, feel have been bypassed by the national and state governments focusing too much on the economic boom sweeping India.

Originally based in Delhi the idea was developed by the free-lance cartoonist Sharad Sharma, who, along with other Delhi artist and journalistic colleagues, was frustrated by the way the Indian national press in particular was ignoring the ‘second India’, the masses still living in poverty and sometimes squalor. Like the press anywhere the newspapers focused on the middle class market with the disposable income to attract adverts. The artists had been finding it very difficult to get issues that might affect the poorer tribal areas published. And if they had it would be pretty ineffective as English is not widely spoken in the rural areas, which speak scores of different regional languages.

Sharad’s idea was to go out to the villages with comic wall-posters in the local language explaining issues of urgency, such as information about HIVAIDS, overpopulation, drug abuse, the environment, basic health, corruption etc., even posters about the practice still prevalent in some tribal areas of killing baby girls.

But the plan was not to do all this himself but to organize workshops to teach locals (remembering in India a ‘village’ may have 5,000 people) how to draw basic cartoons and to print comics and posters.

The idea has been a great success with workshops in many regions being attended by students, doctors, local journalists as well as the local amateur cartoonists.

The resulting posters are not ‘professional’ in the commercial sense as we know it, but are effective, as they address pertinent local issues, corruption being a popular subject.

Over the last couple of years these campaigns have mushroomed. In Jharkhand, in the north, for example,

the cartoon activists now regularly put up wall posters in over 1000 villages.

It was inspiring to meet Sharad in Delhi, this is the type of cartooning we in the western developed world have forgotten about. This was how our craft as we know it began, in London with the pamphlets and posters produced by artists like Hogarth and Gillray about city poverty and hunger.

These cartoonists are mostly not professionals or careerists, they don’t do drawings about global or national leaders, their cartoons are purely local but of far greater and lasting importance that most of the stuff we do.

Their drawings generally don’t look great, but they communicate successfully where other media fail.

Being Indian they have, of course, developed a web site www.worldcomicsindia.com They’d be delighted to hear from Australians, and if any of you have any cartoons on the types of subjects they print, I’m sure they would value them and translate them for the regions if they use them.

There was another curiosity I found in India. Most of their greatest nationally and internationally known cartoonists have come from the southern state of Kerala, down the pointy end of the sub-continent. This small state has a

population of about 35 million, about 3% of the national population, yet has produced about 70% of the country’s political cartoonists since India Independence in 1947.

It is a highly literate state, claiming a 100% literacy rate. Even if it is slightly less than this it is higher than most western countries. And Kerala’s politics have always been very independent and volatile. Perhaps these were the raw materials for producing the artists.

Most had to move to the major cities to make a living, Delhi, Mumbai and London in particular, but many move back to Kerala later, resulting in the establishment of the Kerala Cartoonists Academy in Kochi, India’s only cartooning association.

Most cartoonists in Kerala are ‘semi-professional’ and free-lance, but living off drawing is difficult as the usual payment for publication is 50 rupees (about $1.30c ), and that is if they eventually get paid.

So the craft is a labour of love, and of regional pride.

Alan Moir is the award winning editorial cartoonist for the Sydney Morning Herald. His last article for Inkspot was A Forgotten Star Frank Nenkivell.

www.abwac.org.au

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Fa�y Finn’s father

by Lindsay Foyle

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YD Nicholls used to say, “You’re never famous til you’re dead.” Well he’s been dead for over 25 years and it’s probably time for him to become famous.

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Not that he was unknown when alive, but it is reasonable to say he didn’t receive the accolades he deserved. He was a man of extraordinary artistic talents, and possibly the best comic strip artist Australia has produced.

However Sydney Wentworth Nicholls did receive considerable notoriety early on. Born in Port Frederick, Tasmania in 1896, Nicholls arrived in Sydney in 1910 to study art and try his hand at cartooning. A�er some success, the Industrial Workers of the World published one of his cartoons in Direct Action in 1915.

It was critical of Federal Government’s $20 million war loan with the caption, “Long Live The War! Hip, Hip, `Ooray!

Fill -`Em up Again!” There was an article too, by the editor, Tom Barker saying, “PM Hughes has offered another 50,000 men as a fresh sacrifice to the modern Moloch.

Politicians and their masters have always been generous with other peoples lives.”

Barker ended up being charged with Prejudicing Recruiting, convicted and fined £100 or 12 months jail while Nicholls’ cartoon was described as “piteously cruel”.

A�er Barker refused to pay the fine and his appeal was dismissed, he ended up in jail.

That’s the type of fame that can kill off any career.

Nicholls, who had served briefly in the army, was never charged with any offence and found it hard to get cartoons published a�er that.

Turning his a�ention to drawing titles and posters for silent films, he produced all the artwork and hand le�ering for The Sentimental Bloke in 1918. He was soon ge�ing work on other films, and some cartoons published in The Bulletin.

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His rehabilitation was completed in 1922 when offered a job on The Evening News. It was in a building in Castlereagh Street where the Packer Empire now calls home. It was an old, well established newspaper, started in 1867 as the first penny paper in New South Wales and had recently been edited by Banjo Peterson. Errol Knox had been appointed managing editor in 1922 and was intent on revitalizing the paper and ridding it of its nickname of the Evening Snooze. He knew what he was doing and doubled the circulation in less than a year. It was the same newspaper that Lionel Lindsay had been drawing political cartoons for since 1903.

In 1923 Nicholls started drawing a comic called Fat and his Friends to compete with Ginger Meggs. But Fat had few friends, was a nasty schoolboy and looked like a Billy Bunter.

Not a good start. The comic was transformed in 1924, Fat’s name was modified to Fa�y Finn, he lost weight, gained a boy scout uniform, a dog called Pal, a goat called Hector and lots of friends.

Much be�er drawn than Ginger Meggs where the figures o�en looked brutal and clumsy, Fa�y Finn with clean simple anatomically correct drawings soon became one of the most popular comics being published in Sydney. That’s Syd Nicholls almost enough to make any comic strip artist famous.

Tal Ordell, a wellknown actor, approached Nicholls in 1927 about making a film about Fa�y Finn.

Shot on the streets of Woolloomooloo it reached a climax at racecourse in Rockhampton with Fa�y winning a billy cart race. Kid Stakes was the first film made based on a comic, became a box office success and is recognized as one of the great Australian films. That should have been enough to make Nicholls famous.

In 1928 Nicholls introduced a four-week dream sequence

Syd Nicholls

in 1928, 1929 and 1930. There might have been more, but a�er a number of newspaper mergers Fa�y ended up in Sunday Sun, the home of Ginger Meggs and the annuals were dropped.

At the time Nicholls was on leave in America, freelancing while looking for a publisher for Middy Malone. It wasn’t a good time to be in New York, the depression was biting hard, and for a while all the work he found was ghosting Li�le Orphan Annie.

Nicholls said, “Any time I tried to compete with the local boys I found it was a closed shop. They would say: `When are you going home, Bud?’” For a few weeks Nicholls thought he’d found a syndicate to take Middy Malone at $500 a week.

However they changed their mind, fearing legal action from a radio program with a pirate theme.

Nicholls retuned to Australia embi�ered about syndication and continued to draw Fa�y until 1933 when he was sacked for no apparent reason. Conspiracy theories abounded. Was he sacked for being too le� for the editor Eric Baume, who had been linked with the New Guard or was it because Fa�y compared too favourably with Ginger Meggs?

William (WEP) Pidgeon, who was working for Frank Packer, told Nicholls not to worry because he would soon get an offer for Fa�y. It came from Packer, who wanted Fa�y for the Women’s Weekly. Nicholls had li�le trouble turning the offer down as it was only for a quarter of what he had been ge�ing.

Out of work, Nicholls launched The Fa�y Finn Weekly, Australia’s first comic book. The eight-page penny publication, with all -Australian content went on sale in May 1934. That should have made him famous. But it struggled for circulation and when in November, Nicholls realized he couldn’t keep it going he sold it to Packer, who folded it in 1935.

A founding member of the Journalists’ Club in 1939 Nicholls freelanced from a small studio in the same building in Phillip Street that was the home to the

George Aria

involving pirates to the full broadsheet page comic of Fa�y Finn. Fa�y was drawn as he always had been and the rest of the comic was drawn in adventure comic strip style with dramatic use of thick and thin lines and areas of black to emphasise the drama. Also included were pen and brush drawings of sailing ships that couldn’t have been more accurate if a navel architect had drawn them. At the time there were no adventure comics published, the first Buck Rodgers and Tarzan didn’t appear until January 1929. It should have brought Nicholls lavish praise as he was pioneering a new and dramatic direction for comics.

But the editor of The Sunday News contacted Nicholls, and explained in words that le� no room for misunderstanding he wanted Fa�y to return to the original format as fast as Nicholls could get him there.

The pirates returned in 1929 with Nicholls convinced adventure comics had a future. Again he was told to remove them. He did what he was told and started developing an adventure comic; Middy Malone with spectacular action and beautifully drawn sailing ships. It didn’t do him much good as Australian editors weren’t interested.

But life wasn’t all doom and gloom. The Sunday News capitalized on Fa�y’s fame and published Fa�y Finn Annuals

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11

Syd Nicholls

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club, not far from St James Church. In 1941 he returned to publishing with a Middy Malone comic using his 1929 drawings and sold over 80,000 copies; not too shabby considering the population was around 8,000,000. The Phantom Pirate followed in 1942, again with spectacular action and beautifully drawn sailing ships. There were other comics too and in 1947 a book, About Ships also selling over 80,000 copies. For these publications Nicholls only used Australian content, and paid his contributors twice what other publishers paid while insisting they retain control of their copyright. That made him famous back then.

Nicholls was involved in the Australian Journalists’ Association ba�le against American and English syndicated features being sold into Australia. While questions where

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asked in both Houses of Parliament, the government put the problem into the too -hard basket. With the lack of help, combined with a down turn in the economy, Australian publishers couldn’t compete. Nicholls closed his business in 1950.

Nicholls was approached about pu�ing Fa�y Finn into Sunday Herald at 25 pounds an episode in 1951. He took the offer and said, “drawing a weekly comic is like being a prize fighter. You’re in there on your own. Nobody to help you.”

Fa�y survived the merger of the Sunday Herald with the Sunday Sun and continued in the Sun-Herald. Nicholls continued to freelance and had success with cartoons, illustrations and some architecturally perfect pencil drawings of sandstone buildings that had all the detail of a photograph. There was talk of the drawings being published in a book, but it remained talk.

In the mid 1970s Nicholls’ health declined and in 1977 his eyesight deteriorated to the point where he could hardly see.

Old Fa�y Finns were being run in the paper because he could no longer produce the drawings. Worried he was becoming a burden to his family Nicholls decided to take his own life. He was still being paid the same for Fa�y Finn as he had been in 1951 when he fell to his death on June 3, 1977 with only his Journalists’ Club badge on him for identification. The following month Fa�y Finn disappeared from the Sun-Herald.

Fa�y Finn became the only comic character in Australia to have inspired the making of two films when a second Fa�y Finn film was made in 1980. It helped to keep the memory of Fa�y Finn alive. It should have made Nicholls famous.

But it didn’t.

Lindsay Foyle is a cartoonist at The Australian, a respected comic historian and a regular contributor to Inkspot and The Walkley Magazine. He is a former ACA president and recipient of the Silver Stanley Award.

F

CHRIS KELLY

article #3

rom Brad Wightman. The T difference between layers, masks & channels?

We’ll begin with some definitions followed by a some examples of how the three work together. (read also Inkspot #42). This article is about Photoshop, but if you’re using Painter, the definitions still apply. Painter converts masks to selections & channels differently at times, but knowing what each is supposed to do will help understand the Painter approach.

Layers: Allow you to work on one element of an image without disturbing the others. Layers contain the color information that make up your picture. In addition to the basic layers there are other types such as adjustment layers that allow you to further modify your artwork.

Masks: Let you isolate & protect areas of an image as you apply color changes, filters, or other effects to the rest of the image. When you select part of an image, the area that is not selected is “masked” or protected from editing.

Channels: Channels are grayscale images that store different types of information: There are two main types of channels 1. Color information channels are the ones you see when you open a new image. An RGB image has four, one for each of the red, green, & blue colors plus a composite channel used for editing the image. A CMYK image has five, one each for cyan, magenta, yellow, & black colors plus a composite channel.

The channels are similar to the plates in the printing process.

A Grayscale image has just the one channel.

2. Alpha channels you create to save & load selections as grayscale images. Use alpha channels to create & store masks to manipulate, isolate, & protect specific parts of an image.

When a channel is selected in the Channels palette, foreground & background colors appear as grayscale values.You can edit Alpha channels using any of the editing tools, brushes etc. Black areas of masks or channels will completely protect your artwork from changes, white areas will allow full changes to your artwork & gray areas will allow partial changes.

layer

layer mask

layer-layer mask link click to delink

layer mask channels

A B C D E F A: New D: New selection from channel D ew layer mask B: New ew adjustment layer E: Save selection as new channel C: New ew layer F: New channel

I

n the Layers palette above, we have a layer & a layer mask linked (by default). Here the mask icon shows a mask that is half white & half black. The effect is shown in the RGB channel in the Channels palette. The black part of the layer mask is masking (hiding) the right hand half of the color information on the layer. Do this by marqueeing the left hand side of the layer & then pressing the New Layer Mask button.

Click the chain icon between the two to delink the layer & it’s mask. Select the mask icon & the Move tool & you can move, scale or rotate (etc) the mask independently of the layer contents and vice versa. Click to relink.

In the Channels palette we have the four default color channels & the channel storing the information for the Layer 1 Mask.

This channel only appears when this layer is selected. If you want to save it for later use on other layers, drag the Layer 1 Mask in the Channels palette onto the New Channel button.

A

nother way to complete a layer mask is to start from scratch. Select the layer with the artwork you want to mask & press the New Layer Mask button. At his stage you won’t see anything, but select a hard or soft brush & begin painting with black. Where you paint with black, your image disappears. Where you paint with grey shades it partially disappears & where you paint with white, the image will fully reappear. This is a much better way of removing unwanted parts of an image than using an eraser because if you make a mistake, you can restore the image by painting in the mask with white.

To check what you have actually masked, press the ‘\’ key.

A red overlay appears over the masked areas. Press ‘\’ again to remove the red overlay and continue working on your mask.

You may find that when you have finished, you have created a fairly complex mask & the thought may occur to you that this mask could be useful to constrain your brush strokes when working on other parts of your image or indeed on another document.

If so, repeat the process as above by dragging the Layer Mask in the Channels Palette onto the New Channel button

S

o. you’ve moved to a new layer. You want to use the new channel to mask the work on a new layer. How to do it?

Using the Layers Palette only: 1. select your working layer, then place your cursor on the layer mask icon you originally created & drag it down to the New Layer Mask button. A new layer mask appears on your latest layer. Do the same process holding down the Option/Alt key & you’ll create a reverse mask.

2. Alternatively, select your new working layer, press Command/ Control & click on your original mask icon. The mask icon will generate a selection marquee that you can use to constrain your brush strokes OR you can now press the New Layer Mask button to convert this selection to a new Layer Mask on your working layer.

With both Layers & Channels palettes open: Press Command/Control & click on the desired channel. This will generate a selection marquee that you can use to constrain your brush strokes OR you can now press the New Layer Mask button to convert this selection to a new Layer Mask on your working layer. Press the Shift key as well, click on any other channels you have (including the color channels) & you can create a selection based on the information from several channels.

Between documents: If you have created a cartoon character in document A & copied it to document B, you might also want to copy the complex mask you created & saved as a channel in docA to docB. With both docs open, select the desired channel in the Channels palette for docA & drag it onto the body of docB. The channel will now appear in the Channels palette for docB.

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o summarise, a layer contains color information. Masks & channels contain information to allow you to decide how & whether this color information is revealed. Selections define the editable area on a layer & channels are also used to store selections for later use. With a little practice, you’ll be moving back & forth between all four features as easily as George Bush moves between reasons for attacking Iraq. An exciting prospect.

Questions to the Doctor at <info@chriskelly.net.au> Till the next Inkspot. Cheers. Chris

www.abwac.org.au

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Your View On...

Peter Broelman , SA

Richard Jones , NSW Tim Mellish , QLD Ian C. Thomas , VIC

15

Thank you to everyone who contributed to YVO. as is usually the case we’re unable to use everything but hope you will enjoy those that made the cut.

The subject for the next issue will be

“Winter sports”. please email to inkspot@abwac.org.au

Jack “Jed”Edmunds , NT

Rolf Heimann, VIC

www.abwac.org.au

SCOTTSDALE REUBENS 2005

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artoons... you find them,most days,in papers and magazines. But seldom do you have the opportunity to see the real thing. That,s why our organisation “Willemsfonds Kruishoutem” decided in Spring 1978 to let people in on Cartoons and now 27 years later The Euro-Kartoenale has become a famous contest. More than 662 artists from 65 countries are represented in this year’s Euro-Kartoenale, with theme “The Housepainter.” Out of 2500 cartoons, the Jury selected 200 works for the exhibition, part of which is reproduced in the Catalogue” This is the forward in the Catalogue for the above exhibition held this year, written by Rudy Gheyses the President, and he has done the same thing for 27 years! I have been to several of these festivals, but this must rank as the best, certainly one of the most professional, and certainly the most enjoyable! The hospitality is wonderful, and the standard of work is excellent.

Meeting and exchanging views with cartoonists from China, Bulgaria, Italy, Poland and Greece, to name a few, is certainly a real pleasure. you get to realise most of us are on the same wavelength, but it is still surprising to see many cartoonists come up with the same idea! I really thought my lighthouse gag was original!

Why are cartoonists so kind and generous? I have always found this to be the case, perhaps the nature of the job?

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One thing that continues to puzzle me how come such a small country Belgium can put on a show like this and here in England we cannot. I say this with due respect to Roger Penwill in Shrewsbury, Pete Dredge in Nottingham, and John Hamilton in Ayr. All these people have worked incredibly hard but still two of these Festivals are not taking place this year, mainly due to lack of sponsors, I believe. And yet the people in Belgium never have that problem.

The CCGB has 150+ members.

We, the committee, very rarely see most of the membership. We try to organise things but get little support from the rank and file.

The British Cartoonist Association has over a hundred members, and meets about twice a year, fair enough, it is a social club.

The Cartoon Art Trust puts on excellent exhibitions, the latest being a Rupert Bear Exhibition. The Trust has an excellent archive, books, prints etc. but again lacks real support, they are, at this moment looking for new premises. This is a real problem in London.

This is a country of 60 million people, and, to all accounts, a rich country. A country with heirs such as Hogarth, Rowlandson and Low. Hundreds of magazines and newspapers. Perhaps the British have lost their sense of humour.

You have to laugh......

luxury and service that are required for a hotel to earn the coveted AAA Five Diamond Award, and the Scottsdale Princess does not disappoint. And figure on bringing the kids, because the resort’s extensive children’s program is complimentary!

Plan on arriving Thursday and leaving Monday, because this will be a jam-packed program. Or stay even longer, and take in the Grand Canyon!

All major US airlines fly in there, and there are incredible deals to be had on the likes of Southwest and America West. If you are driving up, parking at the hotel is complimentary.

This will be the fourth Reuben awards weekend that I’ve helmed, and as the final act of my NCS Presidency, I wanted to go out on a high note. With my winning combination of boyish charm and steely resolve, I’ve managed to negotiate a rate of just $US149 a night for this fabulous hotel, and I think I can promise you that this weekend will be even more lavish and entertaining than any that has gone before it.

In the meantime, enjoy a sneak preview of the hotel online at: www.fairmonthotels.com/scottsdale I look forward to seeing you in Scottsdale in May! Fraternally,

Bucky Jones

urn to the month of May and circle 27 - 30, for the 59th annual Reuben Awards Weekend at the fabulous Fairmont Princess Resort in Scottsdale, Arizona.

It’s the second time that the NCS has descended on beautiful Scottsdale, and veterans of the 1993 Reuben Awards Weekend will testify to the desert city’s charms.

This time, we are staying at the AAA Five-Diamond Fairmont Princess, one of the most luxurious resorts in the world.

Spread over 450 acres, the hotel boasts five restaurants and seven bars and lounges, five heated swimming pools, two family water slides, a fitness center and a world class $14 million spa. There are seven floodlit tennis courts, and one of the resort’s two 18-hole golf courses is home to the PGA Tour’s FBR Open. Spacious guest rooms offer oversized bathrooms with large dressing areas, separate shower and large, soaker bathtub, double sinks, hair dryer, make-up mirror, iron and ironing board, bathrobes, refreshment center, wet bar and a charming patio with a table and two chairs – perfect for capturing a breathtaking Arizona sunset.

Those of you who joined us in Cancun know the incredible standards of

Steve McGarry

UK-EUROPE: State of the art CCGB committeeman Neil “Dish” Dishington laments modern-day cartooning Britain

Neil Dishington

T

News from the Bunker BUNKER CARTOON GALLERY COFFS HARBOUR

Every February and August, VISCOPY swings into action to do that which it was specifically established to do – distribute royalties to our members. With over 5200 members, it’s always an interesting exercise to discover who’s getting what and how much of it and where it comes from.

This time, VISCOPY’s royalty payout was an exceptional 57% increase over the previous period for June 2004.

Over $198,000 was distributed to our Australian artist members and $100,800 to our international affiliates.

For the December 2004 period, 362 VISCOPY members received a royalty payment – amounts ranging from $10.00 to over $12,000. 22% of recipients were indigenous artists. Income has also been flowing to our members via our international affiliates and represented 3.9% of the total royalties we collected.

In the royalty world, it’s uncommon to see a greater amount going to local artists than international ones – think of the music or publishing industries for example. The bulk of royalties generated goes to non-Australian creators because the bulk of what is released within these industries in any given period originates overseas.

However, it’s a very different story within the visual arts world – the majority of our clients continue to choose work by Australian artists when reproducing artwork for their projects, and the artist continues to benefit from the royalties passed on to them.

With 66% of the total royalty distributed to Australian artists, 19% went to UK artists, 8.5% to France, 4.2% to the U.S. The remainder was paid out to affiliates in Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy and Spain.

Our primary licensing activities continue to account for most of the royalties generated (89%), with only 6% of income derived from “statutory licences” covering educational copying – this is what ACA members are registered with VISCOPY to receive. Due to the random system of sampling used to determine educational copying (only 2% of schools are surveyed in any given period), who receives this income and how much it is each time does tend to ebb and flow and remains maddeningly unpredictable. Some ACA members received statutory income from us this time around, but certainly not as many or as much as we’d like to see!

On other matters, VISCOPY have recently concluded affiliation agreements with Aboriginal Artists Agency and Desart which will ensure that another several hundred indigenous artists will have access to additional income streams through primary and statutory licensing. We’re also in the process of expanding our current newsletter (more a news slip at the moment) into an 8 page quarterly publication. Contributions from our members are most welcome.”

Till next time,

Ross Sharp

VISCOPY Membership & Distribution Manager

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alling all cartoonists! An excited note to let you know that preparations for the 2005 Rotary Cartoon Awards are well under way. The Awards, with their 4 star FECO rating, attract attention from artists all over the world, and this year we anticipate hundreds of great entries. The Awards, which have been so brilliantly organised by Tom Hamilton Foster and his Rotary colleagues in the past, are now managed by a group of cartoon enthusiasts drawn from Rotary stalwarts and members of the Board of the Bunker Cartoon Gallery. Entry Forms are currently being devised and will be on the net by the time this bulletin goes to press. The Awards, are accompanied by great prizes of both cash and medallions. The Award night promises to be a glittering affair drawing cartoonists and their families and friends from all over Australia. So sharpen those pencils guys and gals! We are so looking forward to seeing your hilarious, incisive, brilliant works soon. Check www.rotarycartoonawards.com.au for details or email me at bunkergallery@bigpond.com and I will send entry forms your way. For those who donʼt have email access I can be contacted on (02) 66517343 and will be happy to send hard copy entries.

The Bunker Cartoon Gallery has had an eventful beginning for 2005 with lots of opening nights and public programmes with many more planned for the ensuing year. Work by caricaturist Judy Nadin and cartoons by Tony Lopes have been a great success thus far. Readers of our local paper The Advocate have beaten a path to our door to view Tonyʼs hilarious Insanity Streak exhibition, while two of Judyʼs superb caricatures (one of the bootilicious Kylie Minogue, and another of a very dissolute Russell Crowe) have already been snapped up by local collectors. Both artists attended opening night functions and each spoke brilliantly about their work.

Another current exhibition featuring Syd Nicholls continues to attract cartoonists, historians and the general public to the Gallery. This exhibition features not only Nichollsʼ wonderfully evocative Fatty Finn cartoons, but also showcases his Middy Malone and Phantom Pirate characters as well as line drawings, illustrative work and images of the man himself. Works for this exhibition were loaned to the gallery

by Nichollsʼ daughter Robyn Gillette who attended the opening night bash, driving from Sydney to do so. Lindsay Foyle kindly supplied the Bunker with biographical information and a rare video copy of the silent movie Kid Stakes, which was based on Fatty Finn. The video, which begins with rare archival footage of Nicholls at his desk, has entertained visitors of all ages.

Exhibitions planned for the rest of the year are extremely varied including Sex and Sin in the 60s, more exhibitions drawn from the archives, and Nik Scott appearing as featured artist in May. If readers are interested in profiling their work in the Bunker Cartoon Galleryʼs featured artist space please do not hesitate to contact me. Spaces are available on this and next yearʼs exhibition calendar. There is no cost involved for the artist.

Finally I hope all readers have a moment to see the new Bunker Cartoon Gallery web site located at www.bunkercartoongallery.com.au We love it and hope you do too.

Bye for now,

Leigh Summers (02) 6651 7343 bunkergallery@bigpond.com

www.abwac.org.au

17

PANPA

He Died With a Felafel in His Hand

by John Birmingham. Illustrated by Ryan Vella 76pg A5 B&W Duffy & Snellgrove Potts Point, NSW, 2004. ISBN 1876631953 Reviewed by Ian C. Thomas

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T

his ten year commemorative edition of John Birmingham’s book could well be regarded as the definitive edition, and that’s a huge achievement for a graphic novel! The full text of Birmingham’s sardonic observational novel on share house life is included, here adapted by Ryan Vella into comic form. Apparently, this inspired collaboration – resulting in a perfect match of text and art - came about from a chance meeting between author and artist.

Although presented as a novel, this is an eclectic chronicle describing the exploits of the abundant denizens of many share-houses. While there is one central character narrating throughout, he also recounts tales from friends and acquaintenances, and these are often absurd, bizarre, and even shocking.

The subject matter does mean that the appropriate audience is definitely adult (late teen and above).

It’s no secret that the vast majority of these stories were adapted from real life events. As Birmingham himself says in the Preface to this edition, “the weirder the story, the more likely it is to be a digital clear reproduction of what actually happened.”

And this is where Ryan Vella’s dark, gritty artwork is so important: it puts the reader on the ground in these locations and lets the stories unfold in front of us. With such a shifting range of tales, Vella’s consistency helps to bring it all together and, I think, adds considerably to the appeal of the whole book.

Bookended by the sad felafel incident, we meet a seemingly endless rotating cast of eccentrics, relentlessly partying, drinking and taking drugs, eating bad food and having sex, along with occasionally chain-sawing the walls, burning the furniture, attempting suicide, and far, far stranger things.

Vella’s visual realisations of this huge cast gives just enough detail to render them as believable and familiar, but not so much that any of them take over.

Birmingham’s wryly humourous text is perfectly complemented by Vella’s images. While Vella uses a stark, minimalist black-and-white style, he experiments with a variety of techniques – brush and pen-work, photocopying, splattering, hand and computer lettering – creating a lot of texture with few panels on the page.

While the film - loosely adapted from the original book – follows a stricter narrative trajectory and works with a more limited cast, this graphic novel adaptation works best at capturing the essence of the text, which is always about character and not at all about a cohesive, ongoing plot. Australian publisher Duffy & Snellgrove are to be commended for choosing to publish a graphic novel, and it’s wonderful to have a novel length comic work with such a strong local flavour. Hopefully, this is the start of a trend!

Ian C. Thomas is a regular reviewer for Inkspot.

He currently draws serials for The Ink and manga comic Xuan Xuan. He also contributes to Sporadic and Oztaku.

www.abwac.org.au

PACIFIC AREA NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS' ASSOCIATION

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ccording to the latest Roy Morgan Research readership figures covering the year from September 2003 to September 2004, NSW has seen one of the largest readership downturns in the country, particularly on weekends. By contrast, all major Victorian metros showed readership increases, and Fairfax’s The Age had cause to be pleased, with a 5.53 readership increase for the Monday – Friday editions (up to 725,000 from 687,000) and a healthy 6.32 gain for the Sunday Age. Norske Skog’s regional marketing manager, Julian Roscoe analysed the results in its NewsHound. “During weekdays the Victorian papers have responded as we would expect to the main driver – leisure time,” he said. “Not so in NSW where despite virtually constant leisure time the readership has fallen steadily for over a year.”

“We are all keen to understand the problem but we do need to be careful that supposed explanations are supported by the facts… The internet has also been painted as the potential villain but again we have to be careful any theories do fit the facts.” He said a major part of any explanation would come from rigorously exploring the different composition of the populations in both states in terms of their media usage.

“The BDA media types group people with similar media usage habits. The two big states are quite different. Victoria’s largest single type, and growing, are ‘Self Development’ – those who read papers intensively but also use the internet.

The second largest type in Victoria are ‘Mainstream Net’ – those who use the internet regularly, and are average users of most other media with the exception of newspapers – their least preferred media. So ‘Self Development’ are our friends whilst ‘Mainstream Net’ offer untapped potential,” he said.

“However in NSW the reverse is the case. Mainstream Net are clearly the largest group and Self Development second (and falling). The other types that form the core of newspaper reading are ‘Heavy Newspapers’ who read newspapers intensively but don’t use the internet and ‘Filling Time’,” he said.

“Heavy Newspapers have been falling much more rapidly in NSW than Victoria whilst ‘Filling Time’ are reasonably consistent in their fall in both states.”

However News Limited remains concerned about the discrepancies between key circulation data and readership in other markets, particularly NSW, where the survey sample was reduced a year ago. News Limited has asked Roy Morgan Research to urgently evaluate and change its methodology in consultation with the publishing industry. News Limited advertising director, Ray Atkinson, said News Limited newspapers continued to deliver editorial and advertising that attracted a growing audience with high spending power. Meanwhile, Fairfax was pleased with the Victorian results. Newly appointed editor-in-chief of The Age Andrew Jaspan said the newspaper had recorded its largest weekday readership in 10 years.

In other states readership levels were reasonably steady, up or down within two per cent. However, Queensland also reported some heavy losses. The Cairns Post Saturday edition lost 15,000 readers, a whapping 12.6 per cent decline (down from 119,000 to 104,000). Its weekday edition also lost ground by 6.8 per cent, down from 88,000 to 82,000. The loss of 12,000 readers also saw the Monday –Friday editions of The Gold Coast Bulletin drop 11.43 per cent (down from 105,000 to 93,000).

The ACA is an associate member of PANPA. The above article is reproduced from the PANPA Bulletin by kind permission of the publisher.

PANPA website www.panpa.org.au

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www.abwac.org.au

After eight years gracing the pages of People magazine, Peter Broelman’s Ratbags - Scud and his offsider Chook, has bitten the dust. Broelman said it was time for a change and what better way than to create a new comic strip, Starlet Harlot, based on the Paris Hiltons of the celebrity world. “It’s a nice change drawing a voluptuous female character rather than two ugly blokes.

20

After 550 strips I was getting a little bored”. Starlet Harlot is Broelman’s third comic strip with People since 1991 which included Ratbags and Wildlife.

He is yet to admit what he does part-time to his grandmother...“The travelling exhibition of 100 years of Western Australian Cartooning” - aka “art-ooning” entertained Geraldton from January until Easter. From all accounts it was as successful as Perth’s opening. Arrangements are in place for the upgraded version to re-open in the Heathcote Centre in September. A feature of the Geraldton exhibition was the children’s competition which generated wide interest from the local community. Prizes included books Melbourne cartoonist and author John Kolm has had great success with his book on happiness at work for Penguin, Crocodile Charlie and the Holy Grail. Written and illustrated by Kolm, it has sold very well in Australia and has now been picked up by eleven other countries in eight languages. Charlie will be on the shelves of major book US chains Barnes & Noble, Borders, Waldenbooks, Wal-Mart, Books A Million and on-line with Amazon.

The book has broken Penguin’s two-year record for rights sales in its genre, and a sequel is presently being written for publication in 2006. Well done JK! www.abwac.org.au

by WA’s Paul Rigby and Allan Langoulant, personally signed by the legends, and art-related encouragement material. Thanks go to Jackson’s Drawing Supplies, Langoulant and Rigby as well as the staff of the Geraldton Regional Art Gallery who did a splendid job in assisting with arrangements and hanging of the cartoons...The New Zealand Heraldʼs Canvas editor has shown inspired judgement with her decision to publish Alex Hallatt’s wonderfully whimsical feature Sweet as... (above).

Wonder how long before an Aussie editor has the same attack of good taste... Books, books and more books! Members of the ACA are having a busy 2005 when it comes to publishing their work, not only locally but also overseas. Tony Lopes has just released his second Insanity Streak collection, No Intelligent Life Here, in Australia and the UK; Kodansha, Japan’s largest publishing company, have published a 90 page comic album of Gary Clark’s Swamp. As is common with foreign cartoon books, English word balloons are kept while Japanese subtitles run under each strip. Rolf Heimann’s new book of humorous children’s short stories is in bookstores, titled The Royal Flea, it’s with Little Hare Books. At just $11 by a former cartoonist of the year, we think it’s a bargain; Leigh Hobbs’ naughty schoolgirl Harriet, returns in Hooray For Horrible Harriet (above) through Allen and Unwin...