Inkspot 62

www.cartoonists.org.au2

Hey there gang! Welcome to the latest edition of Inkspot, the hand-crafted magazine envied by the rest of the world’s cartoonist organisations. As usual, this issue is brimming over with articles, useful information, photos, cartoons and that good old fashioned STUFF that we just love to read about in our mag.

By now of course, everyone is aware that the Stanleys are to be held in Melbourne on November 5-7. What you may not know is the awesome line-up of entertainment we have by way of a Conference this year. Sure we’ve got the international big names in Jason Seiler and Stan Goldberg, but don’t forget we love our Aussie cartoonists just as much! This year we’re also very lucky to be able to attend talks and demos by amazing Aussie talents, such as Leigh Hobbs and Ron Tandberg among others. All-in-all, the weekend is packed full of quality content and is not to be missed! And for a mere $110 (inc GST) you can enjoy it all across two giant days.

Another thing we’re very proud of at present is the introduction of a brand new Stanley Award! Acknowledging the amazing and diverse field of comics, we’ve introduced the Stanley Awards for Comic Book Artist. There has been a lot of excitement in the Australian comic book community regarding this, not the least of which was during its announcement at the Sydney Opera House’s recent Graphic weekend. Throughout the festival

I was speaking with people about the new award, people who were excited that comic book art was being recognised in Australia for all that it is. The ACA now offers the most prestigious award for Comic Book Art in Australia and that is something we can all be proud of.

Speaking of Graphic, it was a fantastic weekend and I was made to feel very welcome by the organisers. For those who aren’t aware, Graphic was a new comic book convention held at the Sydney Opera House for the first time on August 5-6. After meeting with the organisers, we both realised we

Number 62, Spring 2010www.cartoonists.org.au

1300 658 581

--- ACA Board ---

PatronVane Lindesay(03) 9523 8635

PresidentJules Faber

[email protected] President

Jason [email protected]

SecretaryKerry Anne Brown

[email protected]

Grant [email protected]

Membership Secretary Peter Broelman

[email protected] Presidents

Steve Panozzo (NSW/ACT)[email protected] Heimann (Vic/Tas)[email protected]

Gary Clark (Qld)[email protected]

Simon Kneebone (SA/NT)[email protected]

Mick Horne (WA)[email protected]

ABN 19 140 290 841Inkspot is produced four times a year by the

Australian Cartoonists’ Association.PO Box 318 Strawberry Hills NSW 2012

ACA AFFILIATED ORGANISATIONSNational Cartoonists Society

President: Je" Keane Secretary: Rick Kirkman

www.reuben.org

Cartoonists’ Club of Great BritainPresident: Terry ChristienSecretary: Richard Tomes

www.ccgb.org.ukFECO

President-General: Marlene PohleSecretary-General: Peter Nieuwendijk

www.fecoweb.orgAustralia Post Registration PP 533798/0015

Inkspot Editor: Steve PanozzoEditorial Team: Jason Chat!eld, Jules Faber,

Lindsay Foyle, Christophe Granet,Rolf Heimann and Mick Horne

Many thanks to all Inkspot contributors!

Artwork by Grant Brown

president’sparlay

The new Mr. and Mrs. Faber (and daughter Mary) brought the Co!s Harbour Botanic Gardens alive on 28 May 2010, as did Jules’ customised Converse All-Star Hi-Tops!

www.cartoonists.org.au 3

What a wonderful lot of people you are! Mr Squiggle was thrilled with the #at-tering pictures of him and he thought it was particularly nice that I was included. Mr Squiggle and I have always been very fortunate. We came to cartooning and to television at just the right time (the beginning) and we all know the impor-tance of good timing. So again, thanks to all Inkspot cartoon-ists.... and remember, as Mr Squiggle says, always draw the line somewhere! All the best

Norman HetheringtonMOSMAN NSW

Many thanks for sending the copies of Inkspot. They make great reading and I thoroughly enjoy catching up on the Aussie Cartoonists hijinks. Sadly the ranks are thinning but I guess we can’t go on forever.

That harbour cruise must have been a real blast.

Kind regards

John DixonBONSALL CALIFORNIA

have much to offer each other and so will be teaming up to deliver even more in future as Graphic becomes a yearly event. It’s hoped that, from now on, the ACA will have a presence at the Graphic festival and, in return, Graphic will be visible at our annual Conference.

Congratulations to ACA Member Pat Campbell for taking out Cartoon of the Year at the 22nd Annual Rotary Cartoon Awards in Coffs Harbour recently! Congratulations also to the many other ACA Members who picked up a gong in this illustrious competition. It’s always encouraging to see such an ACA presence in the Awards each year.

Finally, one thing we notice a lot at the Conference is how friendly we all are to one another and what a good time we have together. This can continue all through the year on our ACA Forum. If you haven’t been there yet (or you’ve been away for a while), there’s never been a better time to come back and enjoy the company of your fellow cartoonists. Want a genuine critique on your work or some tips on software? Need advice on charging for a job or help with looking for cartooning work? Or maybe you just want to discuss something unrelated to “work” with friends. The Forum is a great place to talk over all things cartooning with people who’ve probably already dealt with whatever it is that’s troubling you. I like to think of the ACA as a family and part of that is to help each other out. Come over to the ACA Forum soon. You’ll be surprised how awesome it is these days.

That’s it from me for another issue. So why not kick back, put yer pen down and take a little time to enjoy the lovingly hand-crafted goodness you now hold in your hands.

Cartooning forever!

mail

In your Face was the title of a magni!-cent exhibition put on by the Fine Arts Gallery in Ballarat between 11 June and 8 August, the same venue that co-operated with ACA when the Stanleys were held in that city in 2006.

On a previous occasion, Melbourne cartoonists had the opportunity to check out the black and white treas-ures held in that gallery’s archives.

It is truly a pity that Australian gal-leries hold artwork that seldom sees the light of day, and curator Gordon Morrison and his team are to be con-gratulated for opening their !les to the public (plus borrowing other items)

resulting in one of the best exhibitions we have seen in recent years.

Apart from the aesthetic pleasure, the displayed works provided us with fas-cinating history lessons, starting from Hogarth, Gillray, and others which bene!ted from the brief annotations, right to the present-day, with works by Spooner, Nicholson, Tandberg and Leunig.

The exhibition was opened by Ranald Macdonald who regaled the open-ing crowd with anecdotes from the cartoon world.

Vane Lindesay

Showing their Faces (l-r): John Ditchburn, Rolf Heimann, George Haddon, Gordon Morrison, Vane Lindesay, John Spooner, Ranald Macdonald

In Your Face

Letters for inclusion in Inkspot are always welcome - please email

[email protected]


A Winning StreakTo celebrate the 10th anniversary of Insanity Streak, creator Tony Lopes has published a collection of his work, Insan-ity Streak - Striving for Quantity.

It’s Lopes’ !rst comprehensive collection of the multi-award winning feature. This hardback collection includes over 400 strips, a foreword by the artist and feed-back he has received from readers over the years along with other goodies.

RRP is $29.95 and is available from all leading bookstores, or direct from the author at www.stoneytoons.com.

Tony encourages all members to get out and buy a copy of his new book, not because its a good read, but because he and his wife are expecting their second child at the end of the year.

“After pulling out my hair with two screaming kids around, I’d really love to be able to pay for a transplant.”

Here is the NorseWA member James Foley has scored his !rst picture book illustration gig with Fremantle Press. The book, The Last Viking, has been written by the award-winning (and appropriately-named) Norman Jorgensen.

The story follows the adventures of Josh, who is afraid of everything. He hears about the Vikings - those mighty warri-ors from hundreds of years ago, afraid of nothing - and he decides to follow their example. He takes on the Viking name “Knut’” makes himself a costume, and sets sail in his home-made ship. When bullies threaten Knut, he must !nd courage. Luckily for him, the Norse Gods have been watching and are willing to wage war for their newest follower.

James and Norm will be documenting the book-making process on a blog, which runs until the launch of the book in mid-2011. Check it out at www.knut-thelastviking.wordpress.com.

Judy’s in the Hot Seat

Judy Horacek’s beautiful and brilliantly funny observations are modern icons. Ac-cording to the publisher of her new book, Judy’s cartoons “celebrate human creativity and resilience and are permeated with a concern for justice and a desire for laughter”. And how can we not agree?

“ It will be out at the end of September,” said Judy, “and will be published by Scribe. It’s called If You Can’t Stand the Heat and it looks really great.”

After being launched in Melbourne on 29 September, If You Can’t Stand the Heat will be the star of a second launch on 21 October at Electric Shadows Bookshop in Canberra. It will, of course, be available for purchase from all discerning purvey-ors of fine publications. Naturally.

Leigh’s MenagerieGood heavens. Mr Chicken is now (at last) on the loose in Paris - and he’s a certified success, according the Bloomsbury’s man in France, Jean-Luc Morel. who has suggested that his Victor

Frankensteinesque creator, Leigh Hobbs, get moving on a sequel!

So, Hobbs is zipping over to Paris to do signings for Mr. Chicken Goes to Paris, before running two cartooning workshops at the “posh” Cheltenham Literary Festival in England in early October (Dame Judy Dench being the patron). He’ll return home in time for the Stanleys Conference in November, which now looks to be a fascinating “show and tell” session!

From 30 June to 9 July, The Alliance Fran-cais de Melbourne hosted Mr. Chicken - From Paris to St. Kilda, a celebratory ex-hibition in honour of Hobbs’ latest crea-tions and an array of paintings, drawings and sculpture. Among the attendant throng was ACA Patron, Vane Lindesay, who was entranced by Mr. Chicken:

“His spontaneous, subtly-coloured pen drawings of “Monsieur Poulet”, visits the Tour Ei"el, the Musee du Louvre, the Chateau de Versailles and many other famous Parisian landmarks. Amusingly Mr Chicken re-enacts Quasi Modo the Hunchback of Notre Dame in the bell tower.

“Essentially a children’s book (short-listed by the Children’s Book Council of Australia and the Prime Minister’s Book Awards), there is a charm that appeals also to adults, evidenced by the huge attendance at this exhibition launch.Less whimsical, were a series of noc-turnal-theme oil paintings of familiar Melbourne sites. Hobbs included in his retrospective 16 original drawings in colour and black and white from his Old Tom series of books. His latest, Mr Chick-en Goes to Paris, will further enhance Hobbs’ international status in the !eld of children’s illustrated books.”

To top it all off, Allen & Unwin has unleashed Leigh’s latest creation, Mr. Badger, in two new books: Mr. Badger and the Big Surprise and Mr. Badger and the Missing Gorilla.

PARZ!


This series features a certain Mr. Badger as the manager of Boubles Grand Hotel (pronounced ‘Boublay’). According to the publisher, there’s something very gentle and touching about Mr. Badger and his world. We shall see.

Sprod on Show - again!

A modi!ed version of the “Cartoons by That Odd Mr. Sprod” exhibition was on show at King Cross Public Library in Syd-ney during September. The exhibition formed part of History Week. Accord-ing to George’s nephew, curator David Sprod, the venue was “very !tting”, given that George spent a large proportion of his life living just around the corner and the fact that he made a signi!cant contribution to the local culture. The library building itself opened in 1939, the year George arrived in Sydney, and is diagonally opposite one of the bronze street plaques in Darlinghurst Road that quote him.

Vane’s Tribute to WEGThe indomitable Vane Lindesay has just released a beaut little book. WEG: The Life and Times of William Ellis Green is a wonderful tribute to one of Australia’s more legendary cartooning figures. WEG was an inspiration to many aspiring talents and a Victorian institution in his own right. Recipient of the Jim Russell Award in 2004, WEG made headlines in 2006 when he helped nab a bandit by submitting a caricature of the crook to police.

The book is only $45 a copy and ALL proceeds from book sales go to the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne - a generous gesture by anyone’s stand-ards and an incedibly worthy cause. Please see Inkspot’s “Reviews” section for purchase details.

...and it’s ta-ta to CathyCathy Guisewite’s comic strip Cathy, which has chronicled the life, frustra-tions and swimsuit season meltdowns of its namesake for 34 years, is coming to an end. She said that deciding to end the strip was “excruciating.” Cathy won her the 1992 NCS Reuben and an Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program in 1987. At its height, Cathy appeared in 1,400 papers.

Guisewite started writing comic strips at the urging of her mother, with the !rst Cathy strip appearing in 1976, distrib-uted by Universal Press Syndicate. Cathy will run in newspapers until 3 October.

Shit-Stirrer Takes On Election PestIn the lead-up to the Australian Federal Election on 21 August, failed Labor Party leader Mark Latham, in his guise as a “reporter” for 60 Minutes, made a point of turning up to election rallies and intercepting both Labor and Liberal Party leaders, leading at least one TV news program to describe him as an “election pest”.

The Daily Telegraph’s Warren Brown thought he’d do something similar, turning up at Mount Hunter Public School at 8:05am on the morning of the election as part of his cartoonist’s eye view of election day. Latham had turned up a minute beforehand, of-fering a few choice words to an ALP volunteer with how-to-vote cards.

“When he saw me, he accused me of being ‘a cartoonist - a shit-stirrer. What sort of job is that? Making fun of peo-ple’,” Warren said.

“Then he said: ‘Why don’t you go home and draw a cartoon?’ I said I would, and here it is.”GEORGE HADDON

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r Badger is in charge of special events

at a splendid old London hotel. When he

and his assistant, Miss Pims, prepare for

Miss Sylvia Smothers-Carruthers’ seventh

birthday party, little does Mr Badger know

just what is in store for Sylvia, and for him…

and the


Before the 2010 Rotary Cartoon Awards could even get a look-in, “Neil” was the word in Co!s Har-bour - both before and after the opening of his exhibition at the Bunker in July.

The media coverage was widespread, especially in Co!s Harbour terms, with both local newspapers running numerous stories and coverage on both local ABC and 2CS radio stations. It seemed that Neil Matterson was even bigger than Master Chef - a full page in the local TV guide was dedicated to the man and his work.

There was a sizeable show of people at the opening night function and all enjoyed a good laugh at Neil’s 140 brilliant works on display - most of which came from the Bunker’s extensive collection.

Eventually, the exhibition was bumped out in August, but only for a very good reason... the 22nd annual Rotary Cartoon Awards were upon us...

Saturday evening, 28 August, saw a large jovial crowd gathered at the Bunker Cartoon Gallery in Co"s Harbour for the announce-ment of the 2010 Rotary Cartoon Award winners.

While everyone was applauding the win-ner of “Cartoon of the Year”, Canberra Times cartoonist Pat Campbell (for his entry in the political section, “Ambitious Immigration”), Pat remained unaware of his good fortune. Due to the recent arrival of his second son, Sam, he was unable to be in Co"s Harbour on the night. ACA President Jules Faber came to the fore to accept the prize on Pat’s behalf saying, “I wish it was mine”. Jules has now been forced to relinquish his grip and the plaque and cheque have winged their way to the ACT.

Although Campbell took out the night’s top prize, Mark Lynch managed to top a couple of categories, including winning the International section. Lynch is one of

the competition’s more proli!c entrants and has twice won the Rotary Cartoon of the Year.

Beaming !rst-timer Peter Byrne picked up !rst prize with his Best Sports Car-toon, edging out Rotary veteran Matt Adams who took on the controversial subject of Tiger Woods.

However, Co"s Harbour own gagsters were not to be out-shone, the audience cheering wildly when Hec Goodall took out the !rst prize in the open section for his cartoon “Bloody Peeping Toms”. His cartoon, naturally, featured whales.Goodall is acknowledged as one of the foremost authorities on marine animal behaviour in the world and is regularly consulted by government departments, universities, scienti!c institutions and animal welfare organizations, both locally and overseas. In 1971, Goodall set-up the award-winning Pet Porpoise Pool Oceanarium in Co"s Harbour for

Rotary Win Helps Pat Beat the Baby Blues

BELOW: Pat Campbell’s Rotary Cartoon of the Year

RIGHT:Dee Texidor’s new, refreshing logo design for the Bunker Cartoon Gallery

FAR RIGHT (from top):Mark Lynch picking up his annual pay cheques at the Rotary Cartoon Awards in Co"s Harbour;Peter Byrne receives his Best Sports Cartoon prize from Café Aqua’s Steve Hadler;Local legend Hec Goodall fronts up to Co"s Harbour’s Mayor, Keith Rhodes


the rehabilitation of injured marine mammals.

Jules was runner-up in the comic strip section with Swamp cartoonist, Gary Clark taking !rst prize in this category.

Following on the popular trend towards the Japanese-originated Manga style of cartooning, this new category for the Rotarys attracted entries from a younger breed of cartoonists. The winner of this section was another Co"s Harbour local, young artist Quentin Jones.

Best caricature was awarded to another regular entrant and 2010 Bald Archy Award winner, Judy Nadin, with her hilarious image of singer Beccy Cole and Chris Kelly was runner-up for his take on Julia Gillard.

Over 500 entries were received this year, from cartoonists in 10 countries. This year marked the 22nd year of the Rotary Cartoon Awards and due to the

large number of entries, the cartoons are being shown in two exhibitions. All the award-winning cartoons and other en-tries are currently were on display at the Bunker until the end of September; the second showing opened on 1 October.

The organisers of the Rotary Cartoon Awards sincerely thank all of the car-toonists who participated in this year’s competition, as well as all members of the ACA for their on-going support of the Bunker Cartoon Gallery. There is an important date to mark in your 2011 diaries …

The 23rd Rotary Cartoon Awards will be presented on Saturday 23 July.

We hope to see you at The Bunker soon!

Fran Stephenson

(02) 6651 4061 or 0409 716774Email: [email protected]

The Co!s Scorecard...Pat Campbell was this year's big winner, taking out Cartoon of the Year and a cheque for $3,000. Reassuringly, Mark Lynch was back in top form (2 merits and a category win).

The categories and winners were:

Best Political CartoonFirst prize: Patrick CampbellMerit: Mark Lynch

Best Sport CartoonFirst Prize: Peter ByrneMerit: Matt Adams

Best CaricatureFirst Prize: Judy NadinMerit: Chris Kelly

Best Cartoon - Open ThemeFirst prize: Hec GoodallMerit: Mark Lynch

Best Comic StripFirst Prize: Gary ClarkMerit: Jules Faber

Best MangaFirst Prize: Quentin Jones

Best International Theme: "Social Networking"First prize: Mark Lynch (Australia)Merit: Guibao Gai (China)

Cartoon of the YearPatrick Campbell

Turn of Le PageIN May, Ellenbrook Gallery held a private opening of The Weird and Wonderful World of Graham Le Page for friends and family. Members of the ACA’s WA Chapter attended to view examples of Graham’s work and support his wife, Sue. Phil Faigen gave a short speech to welcome the crowd and o$cially open the exhibition.

I’d never seen so many examples of Graham’s work in one place, and the breadth of his talent was awe-inspir-ing. He experimented with many media - scratchboard, pencils, coloured inks; he painted beautifully with acrylics. He even experimented with silver wire, putting it into a pacer pencil and sketch-ing as if it were graphite. And of course, there were many examples of Graham’s incredibly detailed, stippled ink drawings.

Graham’s shameless sense of humour came through in each work, even the ‘serious’ acrylic paintings; Car & Bike on Old Bay Road is a good example. It almost looks abstract- it’s all mottled pale blue and yellow. The scene begins to appear - it’s daybreak, and you’re in a boat on the Swan River, some distance from shore, looking towards Mounts Bay Road as it winds between the water and the Kings Park hills. It’s a masterful painting - but where are the car and bike from the title? Hang on. When you look closer, you can just make out three tiny yellow dots at the base of the hill. The dots are the headlights of a car and a motorbike. I can imagine Graham smiling to himself as he came up with the title, and gleefully watching as people tried to !gure it out.

Graham never made a fuss about his limitless talent. If he had been at the opening, he probably wouldn’t have understood what all the fuss was about.

He found joy in his art, and I think it was the process that always interested him more than the accolades. His work will keep inspiring me, as I’m sure it will for others who knew him.

James Foley

FAR LEFT: Phil Faigen, Jan and Dave Gray, and Sue Le Page surrounded by Graham Le Page’s prestigious creativity;

LEFT: One of Graham’s highly detailed pieces, “Middle’n’Leg, Please”


For Cartoonists, Gillard Wins By a Nose

At his recent book launch, Alan Moir analysed the physical attributes of Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott and pondered the approach of the political cartoonist when depicting the nation’s leaders.

“It seems a bit unfair to pick on people, but that’s the way it is. You could draw (Gillard) as a very slender, slim thing, but it wouldn’t be true. People wouldn’t be convinced by it.”

In July, following Julia Gillard’s assumption of the Prime Ministership, The Australian’s Sally Jackson asked several cartoonists what they thought...

JULIA Gillard is a welcome gift for cari-caturists. Her hair, her nose, her neck, her chin. Even the “bizarrely-shaped” lapels of one of her out!ts. For newspaper car-toonists, there are just so many reasons to love Julia Gillard.

Whatever voters thought when Gillard kiboshed Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister almost two weeks ago, “the cartoonists of Australia heaved a collective sigh of relief”, says The Australian’s Bill Leak. “She is really good to draw. And com-pared to Rudd, who was almost irritat-ingly bland, she’s a gift.”

Indeed, Gillard’s wealth of striking ana-tomical attributes is almost too much of a good thing, says Cathy Wilcox of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Sun-Her-ald. “She’s got so many features that if you just go for one, it isn’t enough. The challenge is how to get all those things in there without her head being enor-mous.”

Since Gillard took power, editorial artists have been studying her face with the obsessiveness of a lover, poring over photos and freeze-framing the TV to parse her every angle and expression.

Australia’s !rst female Prime Minister, seen through their eyes, has a “striking head of hair”, “incredibly beautiful skin”, eyes that manage to be simultaneously “squinty” and “big and distinctively shaped”, “chubby cheeks” with “pro-nounced cheekbones” and a mouth that “sits small and low” above “a small chin that tucks into an incredibly long neck”. Not even her earlobes escape attention.

And who else but an artist would notice that the new PM has “a reasonably am-ple bottom in relation to her head”?

But there is one facial feature in par-ticular about which they all rhapsodise: Gillard’s “pointy”, “assertive”, “wonderful” nose. A nose, as Leak puts it, “that looks like you could chop wood with it”.

Fiona Katauskas, freelance cartoonist and producer of the Talking Pictures seg-ment on the ABC’s Insiders, says Gillard’s nose is a de!ning feature that artists can utilise to express her character, just as the jutting lower-lip of former PM John Howard came to represent his determi-nation, or obstinacy.

“I will take a punt and say Gillard’s nose will become the equivalent of Howard’s lip,” she says.

However, the nose does pose a technical challenge, says The Australian’s Peter Ni-

cholson. “It’s hard to draw someone with a very long nose from the front because it’s foreshortened towards you,” he says. “That’s why everyone’s drawing her in pro!le or from a 45-degree angle.”

Also keeping cartoonists on their mettle is Gillard’s habit of frequently tinkering with the cut and colour of her hair, per-haps at the hands of her partner, former hairdresser Tim Mathieson.

“The hair keeps changing and when I do a more detailed caricature I’d want to get the latest style,” says Matt Golding of The Sunday Age and the Melbourne Times.

“That is one gender di"erence; males don’t really do much with their hair.”

A gifted cartoonist articulates with a pen-stroke what can take a writer 2,000 words to report, but getting to know a subject intimately enough to con!dently pen that stroke can take months. A truly accurate portrait of Gillard will evolve as her character and leadership style emerge, says The Age’s John Spooner.

“The only justi!cation for caricature is if it’s in the service of some idea, going beyond just representing a person in a humorous way,” he says. Successfully tackle thorny political issues and Gillard “will start to look more and more like a crusading Joan of Arc !gure”. Whereas if she turns out to be just a party appa-ratchik, “that mop of red hair might start to obscure her face”.

For some, portrayals of Gillard represent more than just a person. Alan Moir of

In many respects, it may well have been one of the blandest political contests we’ve seen in years, but for us, it meant the long-awaited return to the spotlight of easily caricaturable faces. How did cartoonists cope with the

return of big noses and small chins to the political front bench?


The Sydney Morning Her-ald believes “the leader personi!es the govern-ment”.

“Because Rudd was im-perceptible, really, you couldn’t pick what the government was doing, where it stood,” he says.

“Whereas (with) Gillard perhaps they will be easier to personify. Not because she’s a woman. Because she’s a fresh face and a stronger personality.”

“Julia is a fairly self-con-trolled, but very sharp person, so I pick on her nose.... so to speak,” he said later. “She has a rather strange shape, her eyes are always closed. Of course, we’ve got a big mop of red hair, so you know underneath

she’s got a red-headed temper. She has quite - I think - an odd-shaped body, but that’s just a matter of opinion”.

And Tony Abbott?

“I like to start with his eyebrows,” Moir con-cedes. “There’s a little hook nose. He was a boxer, so he likes to clench his teeth a lot. Big ears I’m afraid.”

Sean Leahy, editorial cartoonist at Brisbane’s Courier-Mail says wom-en tend to be harder than men to caricature because “usually they aren’t as strong-fea-tured as Julia. (Sports Minister) Kate Ellis and (Health Minister) Nicola Roxon are hugely chal-lenging”.

“But thankfully (Queensland Premier) Anna Bligh has a huge set of teeth.”

Wilcox believes that, in the past, car-toonists also hesitated to draw an ugly caricature of a woman because they worried they would be criticised.

“People are more sensitive about depic-tions of women because they’re instant-ly judging whether you’re drawing them as being attractive or not, whereas that’s a non-issue for men,” she says.

“Back in the days of (former Democrats leader) Natasha Stott Despoja, you were much more concerned about a depiction (being seen as) trivialising or bimbo-ising or whatever -- how that would go down. But I don’t think that’s going to be an issue with Julia. You have a feeling she’s going to be a good sport about it.”

Sally Jackson

Sally Jackson is a Media writer with The Australian. This article is reproduced with permission.

The 26th Annual Stanley Awards would not be possible without the generous support of our sponsors, so we’d like to take a moment to acknowledge them here...

The Stanleys. 5-7 NOVEMBER, Rydges Melbourne. See you there!

Prime Minister Julia Gillard as seen by Australian cartoonists (LEFT to RGHT): Stephen “Zeg” Gunnell, Peter Nicholson, Peter Broelman, Rob Carter, Alan Moir, Lindsay Foyle, Bill Leak and Mark Knight. The two views of Tony Abbott are by Alan Moir (top) and Bill Leak.


Christophe’s Sautée - Olivier Cadic

Q: Olivier, can you please describe in a few words what Cinebook is?

Cinebook (www.cinebook.co.uk) is the leading “9th Art” publisher, which boasts the most extensive range of the greatest comic book titles available. We carefully select and translate into English some of the !nest bestsellers from France and Belgium. These out-standing titles entertain and enlighten all age groups, the young and young at heart as well as older readers.

We also represent “rising stars” in the comic book world in their !rst English editions and also o"er classic titles that most parents (and grandparents!) will remember from their youth.

Q: So basically, you’re on a mission to provide the English-speaking world with access to what we, French children, have grown up with and enjoyed for decades?

Yes. As you know, for many English-speaking readers, knowledge of Europe-an comic books is limited to the popular characters like Tintin and Asterix. Our aim is to introduce to the rest of the world the other popular characters such as Lucky Luke, Iznogoud, Blake & Mortimer, Thorgal, Largo Winch, Spirou & Fantasio, Billy & Buddy (Boule et Bill), Yakari, the Bluecoats (Les Tuniques Blueues), Yoko Tsuno, Buck Danny and Cedric. These European comic book characters, who have already sold more than 300 million copies, are now featured stars in Cine-book’s catalogue.

Q: What is the long term goal of Cinebook?

Since the end of 2005, Cinebook has worked to become the premier pub-lisher of the Franco-Belgian “Ninth Art” in English in markets dominated by American superhero comics and Japa-nese Manga.

In 2008, almost half of Cinebook’s album sales were in Europe (46%) and one-third in North America (31%). Cinebook, which is established throughout the world, also sells in the South Sea Islands (10%), Asia (10%) and Africa/the Middle

East (3%). We started in 2005, publish-ing eight titles; in 2009, 38 new titles were introduced. In 2010, Cinebook will publish 47 new titles and launch 5 new characters or series.

Q: How do you select which series you are going to publish next?

Cinebook selects series and individual titles based on a number of factors in order to please a wide range of readers - factors such as geographic settings, protagonists’ ages and gender, historic themes, genres, etc. After having built a wide base of child-friendly series, we introduced a new line in 2008, namely a number of graphic-novel series target-ing ages 15 and up.

Q: I know the answer, but for the bene"t of Inkspot’s readers, can you explain the “9th Art” tag used on your website?

The comic book and its close relative, the graphic novel, are part of a highly respected art form in France, Belgium and the rest of Western Europe. So well regarded, that Cinebook takes its tagline (“The 9th Art Publisher”) from the clas-si!cation of comic books as No. 9 on the list of plastic arts in Europe (Plastic Art list: 1st-Architecture; 2nd-Painting; 3rd-Sculpture; 4th-Engraving; 5th-Drawing;

6th-Photo; 7th-Cinema; 8th-Television; 9th-Comic books). In fact, one of every eight books sold in France is a comic book.

Q: How did Cinebook get started?

A few years ago, I pooled my earnings from the sale of my electronics-related companies in France and England, started up Cinebook, and published eight popular Franco-Belgian comic books in English. Since 2005, Cinebook has been steadily purchasing rights to publish top-selling Franco-Belgian authors and series in English. Below is a small sample: René Goscinny, co-creator and writer of the Asterix series, has sold 500 million books. His Lucky Luke, a cowboy charac-ter dubbed “the man who shoots faster than his own shadow”, has sold over 250 million copies in multiple languages and is popular with all ages.

Along with Lucky Luke, Cinebook released in 2008 Goscinny’s hilarious character, the grand vizier Iznogoud, who wants to become Caliph instead of the Caliph in old Baghdad. Edgar P. Jacobs (Blake & Mortimer) and Roger Leloup (Yoko Tsuno), both of whom worked with Hergé (the father of Tintin), have sold, respectively, 12 million and 6 million copies.

Jean Van Hamme is one of Belgium’s most successful contemporary novelists and comic writers. Thorgal, his exciting fantasy series with Rosinski, and Largo Winch with Francq (which was adapted to the big screen in 2008) have sold, re-spectively, 13 million and 10 million cop-ies. At the end of 2008, Cinebook added Lady S, Van Hamme’s espionage series with Aymond, and The Francis Blake A!air with Benoit, based on the Blake & Mortimer characters of E. P. Jacobs.Raoul Cauvin excels in humorous adventures and visual gags for all ages. His Bluecoats (Les Tuniques Bleues) with Lambil, starring two soldiers in the U.S. Union Army during the Civil War, and his Cedric with Laudec, about an eight-year-old boy, have sold, respectively, more than 15 million and 8 million copies.

Christophe Granet continues his series of enlightening interviews, uncovering the world of Bandes Dess-inés and the wonderful world of European comic books and graphic novels. In this issue, he chats with

Olivier Cadic, owner of “9th Art” publisher, Cinebook


Stephen Desberg, an American living in Belgium, is one of the most successful new-generation comic writers for young adults (15 and older) and adults. His IR$ series with Vrancken stars a special-ist from a little-known branch of the Internal Revenue Service. The Scorpion with Marini is a cape-and-sword thriller series set in the mysterious shadows of the 18th century Vatican. Each series has sold more than one million copies.Francis Bergèse, a pilot and aviation enthusiast, is the most reputable il-lustrator in the area of aviation art and was chosen to be in charge of the new Buck Danny adventures. This series, the creation of Georges Troisfontaines, Vic-tor Hubinon and Jean-Michel Charlier, has sold 15 million copies. Bergèse also adapted into graphic novels some of the Biggles novels of Captain W.E. Johns.

Leo, creator of The Worlds of Aldebaran, takes the theme of the colonisation of space further than most sci-! comics. His series has sold more than one million copies.

These titles were joined in 2009 by two legendary series of the ninth art. Billy and Buddy (Boule et Bill), about a lit-tle boy and his canine best friend, and Spirou and Fantasio (created in 1938) have respectively sold 25 million and 20 million copies. Cinebook is also introduc-ing the young, beautiful and… naughty Bellybuttons coming from Canada. Orbital and The Chimpanzee Complex en-rich our science !ction section. Pandora’s Box and Insiders are added to the lineup for ages 15 and up.

Q: I have the full collection of Asterix in both French and English and am always amazed at the work the translators have done to weave into the English transla-tion, allusions to Shakespeare or redo the jokes that were too “French”. Who does the translations for you and how much work is involved to translate a new album?

We work with a team of four translators. Three translators are working together on every translation. Usually the process is 1) !rst translation from UK, 2) review from US and 3) review from a French person in the UK to check if the original sense has not been lost.

Q: Some of the titles you are producing were drawn and published before the age of computers. Can you explain the proc-ess of taking an old album in French and insert the text in English? I am assuming everything is done digitally now, right? How much tweaking is required to ensure the speech bubbles accommodate the English translation?

All our titles are bestsellers in France. The French publisher has digitized all these titles.

Q: I have lived in Australia for 18 years now and I was amazed to realise, when I arrived, that it was pretty much impossible to get Bande Dessinées here. You have now two agents in Australia. Can you let us know if sales are pick-ing up here and if you are targeting Australia as a potential market?

One of our goals was to allow Bande Dessinées to be available in English all over the world. Australia is de!nitely important in our eyes.

Q: Is the printing a “print on demand” situation or, if not, how many copies of say, the "rst Largo Winch or the "rst Yakari did you print? I am asking about Yakari as I’ve seen you are already reprinting numbers 2 and 3. I am curious to know the number of copies in the "rst run...

We print from 3,000 to 8,000 copies for the !rst run. Yakari Vol.1 was reprinted last year. Lucky Luke: Billy the Kid has been printed 3 times and we plan to do a fourth print run by the end of the year. Blake & Mortimer Vol.1 – The Yellow M third print was just launched this month. The !rst print run was 5,000 copies.

Q: Are you purely an online publisher or are you dealing with bookshops around the world?

We have set up a network of local distributors to supply bookshops and online book traders around the world. Distributors and bookshops are part of our success.

Q: Are you open to suggestions from read-ers as to which series you should add to your catalogue?

I receive suggestions every week! They help me to understand better our read-ers’ expectations. Some of our series were chosen based on suggestions. Eve-ry month we receive email asking us to publish XIII; readers were disappointed because the previous publisher halted the series after Vol 3. It also helped the French publisher decide to sell us the rights for the XIII series.

Q: The ACA is having its annual conference in November 2010 in Melbourne. Since you have a distributor close to Melbourne, any chance of having him/her drop by with some samples of your books for our members to peruse (and buy at a discount price)?

I’m sure our distributor will be happy to support the ACA!

Q: How many people are currently working directly with Cinebook and how many agents/distributors do you have around the world?

Ten people are working with Cinebook and 14 agents/distributors.

Q: Olivier, you are listed on the list of au-thors for the Queen Margot series. What was your contribution? I’m the script writer. I received an award for the series from the Book Festival of Orthez (South West of France).

Q: And "nally Olivier, any hint as to which series is coming in 2011?

A: We are !nalizing our discussions about new series and we’ll announce them during the Frankfurt Book Fair next October.

A panel from Raoul Cauvin’s Bluecoats (Les Tuniques Bleues)

“One of our goals was to allow Bande Dessinées to be

available in English all over the world.

Australia is de!nitely important in our eyes”


SP: First of all, thanks for coming to Aus-tralia. It was fantastic to meet you.

DG: Fantastic to meet you, too. I had a really good time - thanks to everybody.

I’m sure Supanova would have been an experience. Do you have any observations after your visit, and do comic book fans di!er from country to country?

Not really. I don’t think people vary much from country to country these days. We all seem to dress the same and share pretty much the same culture with a few endearing little di"erences. Like in Australia, they say “ta”, which I like. Everybody I met was very enthusiastic. I have a little bit of a feeling that, because you’re a little bit further away from the “centre of things” that you know, you do

value guests a little bit more. I’ve found that even in England - when you go up to Scotland, you know they really ap-preciate people making that compara-tively short trip. It was a great pleasure to come to Australia - hopefully I’ll do it again before too long!

One of your duties in Sydney was to attend the Phantom dinner. You... well, confessed that night (bravely, I thought) that you have never been a big Phantom reader, yet you managed to pull o! a couple of draw-ings for auction, which was very generous of you. Do you have any impressions of the night?

It was a great night, we were beat and didn’t really want to go out... I would have sooner crashed in our room or just had a drink at the bar, BUT that mood

lifted almost immediately and we had a really great time - the “Phantom Phans” are a really fantastic group of people and treated me with great hospitality and generosity. it was great to meet up with you guys, particularly Antonio because, you know, he was very kind to my son when he was a medical student in Australia and it was great to shake him by the hand.

Did you know that the auction that night raised $8,700 (just over £4,328)?

Yes, I heard. I was particularly pleased to have been a part of that, particularly because it was a charity that was close to Antonio’s heart.

Dave, you are obviously hot property right now, particularly in the wake of Watch-

With comics titles such as Superman, Green Lantern, Give Me Liberty, Rogue Trooper, Dan Dare, Doctor Who - and the seminal, Hugo Award-winning Watchmen - under his belt, it’s no wonder that Dave Gibbons has been hailed as one of the most in#uential comic book artists of the last thirty years. Gibbons visited Australia last year

to attend Supanova and to guest at a charity dinner hosted by the Lee Falk Memorial Bengali Explorers Club (an informal, and quite lively, group of Phantom fans). He kindly agreed to chat to Inkspot about his career, his

in#uences, neat handwriting and sex in comics...

Interviewed by Steve PanozzoWith many thanks to Jules Faber, Antonio Di Dio and Richard Fry

Watchmaster


men. You must be bombarded with a gazillion requests for interviews, conven-tion appearances, autographs, etc. Are you having trouble actually "nding time to draw?

Yes I am! I haven’t done any what I call “proper work” for a very long time. I’ve done bits and pieces, covers, pin-ups and little bits of writing to keep my hand in, but I’ve really got that restless feeling that I ought to be doing something. In fact, I think this is going to be my last week of generally fussing about and tidying stu" up, returning phone calls and doing interviews like this - I’ve no complaints at all; I’ve really enjoyed myself with all the Watchmen circus, though. I’ve been really well treated, people have been really, really nice to me. It’s been a good one.

As a young person who always drew, I turned to comics for inspiration. In my case, it was Iron Man and the Fantastic Four, and in general the work of people like Jack Kirby and Mort Drucker, that got me "red up. Who or what inspired you to pick up the pencil?

Superman comics, which were printed in those Ballantine paperbacks, comics in general - I mean, whenever I make a list of people I always leave someone o", but yeah, it was those kind of people.

Did you study art?

Not in any formal or organised sense, I suppose I always copied from comic

books and other drawings... well, when I was a kid, up until I was in my mid-teens. I would copy other people’s stu" and kind of learn to make the marks, and when I got into comics professionally, I realised I was going to have to brush up on my anatomy and perspective so I sort of studied those in my own time. I a great book lover - I’ve got shelves full of books on how to draw anatomy, per-spective and cartooning in general, so that’s really how I learnt to draw.

In my case, there’s a family history of artis-tic talent. Some very successful cartoonists have no artistic lineage. What was the case with you - did you inherit your artistic talent, or are you a one-o!?

Well, my dad was always drawing plans. He worked in the architecture and town planning !eld, but when he was young-er he moved around the country with his dad, who was a customs o$cer, and they actually had a lodging house that they stayed in in Dundee, which was the home of D.C. Thompson, one of biggest

British comics publish-ers - then, anyway. And there was a D.C. Thompson artist called H.M. Talentine who also lived in that boarding house and my dad was clearly very struck by him. And he was given a paintbox by Talentine, which I’ve still got, and my dad would draw cartoons as a kid. He did a comic at school - a kind of a magazine that his teacher would let him pin up on the

wall. I unearthed some wonderful letters that he wrote to my mum during the war shortly after they were married which had little strip cartoons of what they had been doing and he was a great doodler. I remember him bringing home Eagle comic and particularly MAD Magazine when it !rst came out, on the pretext that it was for me, but I think he used to look at them himself - so although he wasn’t a practicing artist, he had de!nitely had an artistic bent. my two grandfathers, as well, used to send me comics, both American Sunday newspa-per sections gleaned from US airforce bases in Norfolk and also my maternal grandfather worked in a newsagent’s shop and he would send me copies of the Superman family from time to time.

One often hears stories of being discour-aged from pursuing artistic careers in favour of “a proper job”. Were you encour-aged or discouraged by your schoolteach-ers, parents, etc.?

Well, I school I went to had no real facility to pursue a career in art. You do art lessons up until about 3rd form as a diversion - something to do, a bit of “culture”, but there was never ever taken into further exams. Only one bloke at my school, I remember, only ever took an A level and I rather envied him; but he was rather a dreamy, typically “artistic” type and never good at anything else. I’ve always been quite good at exams and things, so I was doing quite good at oth-er stu" and the general feeling was that, although drawing was a good hobby, it wasn’t a feasible career. I think my mum had once lived next an artist who was always broke and drunk, so I think my parents gently discouraged me and I can see why they did, and if I had been in their place I probably would have been the same. I remember my dad, when I was about 14, took me to see the local artist - and I was asked to bring along what I was working on - and I was copy-ing, line for line, a Superman/Batman story from World’s Finest Comics, and he went o" into the corner for a little “con-#ab” with my dad and - although I didn’t hear what they said - I imagine he would have said to my dad, well, “he’s obviously quite industrious but this is clearly cop-ied, so he clearly hasn’t got the original talent for a career in art”. Unfortunately I never got a chance to ask my dad, however in later years, before they died, my parents did see me become, you know, quite successful in comics, so it all worked out OK in the end.

“I think my mum

had once lived next

an artist who was

always broke and

drunk, so I think

my parents gently

discouraged me

and I can see why

they did”


What was your "rst gig?

My !rst paying gig was a page of letter-ing for a magazine called Cor!. A friend of mine gave me a page to letter - it was an appalling job and I’m amazed he didn’t get sacked and that I ever got any work after that.

You seem to enjoy drawing big scenes with lots of complex machinery - are they tax-ing to draw?

No, I quite like drawing machines. In a kind of way they’re easier than drawing people - I’ve always kind of liked making up devices and machinery. I suppose that’s why, with the Watchmen movie, that the Owl should be so particular. A thrill for me, because I more or less drew blueprints for it when I designed it, so yeah. I enjoy machinery.

Your work also displays a dynamism that isn’t always as prevalent in the work of other cartoonists - lots of action, move-ment that’s almost balletic - do you make a concerted e!ort to push boundaries, or does it sort of just... happen?

No, I think you have to introduce action. You know, there’s always that tendency to draw things straight up and down. But because you’ve got a grid - a rectlin-ear grid (on a comic page anyway) - you need to try to get away from that with curves and diagonals and so on. In the case of something like Watchmen, that was deliberately very formal. Interesting-ly, I was just through the Collected Mar-tha Washington and I’m amazed at the kind of dynamic way it’s drawn. I’m very pleased to have it out, because for people who are very familar with Watchmen, it shows that I can do

more than just showing people standing on street corners, or the kind of fairly sombre and, as I say, formal approach that there was in Watchmen.

What materials do you use?

Well, in my time I’ve used everything. I normally draw on Bristol board, or though you don’t have to do that obviously with the computer nowadays. You only only have to survive from the drawing table to the scanner. I used to use Winsor & Newton series 7 sable wa-tercolour brushes, but they’re not really very good these days - and very, very expensive. Same with dip pens; I used to use Gillott nibs, like (for instance) a 404, but with rare exceptions, dip pens are not made with very good materials nowadays. So, more and more, I’m using !ne-line markers; I like Faber-Castell and Pitt pens for laying in blacks and heavy lines these days. And I am increasingly moving towards working digitally using a WACOM Cintiq tablet, which is one of the LCD screens, which is pressure sensi-tive, where you actually draw straight onto the screen. And I’ve done all sorts of variations of printing out; pencils are done on the screen and inking-in traditionally, or scanning in pencils and inking them in digitally. So it’s a real mix of the two now. But I am moving more

and more towards digital.

Your lettering is incredibly consist-ent. Is that typeset, or do you do your own lettering?

No, I’ve always done my own lettering. That’s what I did when I broke into the !eld. And even before that, I used to letter plans for my dad, so I guess that how I !rst got happy doing that. I have had a font made of my hand lettering by Richard Starkings of Comicraft, and that’s a great boon. It means I can now do everything digitally, although I used to quite like the lettering stage. It’ a nice craftsman-like pause between the creative demands of pencilling and the sort-of hand-to-eye question of inking. I always !nd lettering a easy and relax-ing thing to do. And it’s nice because it gets an ink line down on the page whcih removes the indimidating blankness or greyness of it.

A lot of cartoonists get together or at cartoon festivals, which seem to be quite prevalent in Europe and the UK. In Aus-tralia we have an annual weekend which incorporates awards and a conference. Do you take part in events like this, or are you a “loner”, preferring to keep drawing as a “job”?

No, I’ve got lots of very, very good friends in the comics business. We have two conventions over here, one in Bristol in the spring, which I always try and get to and I really enjoy that as it’s a great

“ I think Judge

Dredd was

absolutely

inspired and it

is one of the

great comics

creations of

all time”


chance to catch up with everybody. Also, one in Birmingham in October, which is newer, but that’s also going well and I do like to go along there. One of the things I probably don’t like about being a cartoonist, and I am a very gregari-ous person by nature, and I do like to socialise and I do tend to do a lot of that online now I suppose and I do try and get out from time to time and meet up with old chums in the business. Al-though, coming back drawing as a job, I trend to draw very little now unless I’m sat my studio earning money from it. It’s from so many years of drawing to order and drawing to a brief, that I never re-ally draw much. But I have made a New Year’s resolution, that I haven’t really kept up to, that I’m going to have to do more life drawing so I’ve bought myself a nice moleskin notebook and I’m going to start drawing people at the bus stop and stu" like that.

Are you a disciplined artist, or do you need someone to be on your back all the time? Do you have a muse?

Well, I used to be very disciplined when I was on a weekly deadline. I would crank out four to !ve pages a week, week in and week out without fail. And there was always a certain bus I had to catch every Tuesday morning to get to the train sta-tion, otherwise everything would have gone terribly wrong. And I never missed that bus. I do !nd having a deadline helps - I tend to leave things until they become urgent. Do I have a muse? Yeah, I think the muse really is that you have to sit down with a pen or pencil in your hand (or a stylus) and you have to start working. The most di$cult thing I !nd is to actually start working - I think once you’ve started, then you’re into the process, but it’s getting into the process, I think. Probably a lot of people read-ing this know how procrastination kind of goes. I always work regular hours, though - I never, never work through the night. I always work kind of nine in the morning until six at night, and have an hour for lunch. If I have to work more to meet a deadline I tend to come in early rather than stay late. I don’t like working weekends, although I will if I have to... and I do like vacations, so I make sure I get plenty of those!

It’s 1977. Tell us about 2000 AD.

2000 AD was, I suppose, a real crystalliz-ing point for the British comics industry. Certainly a lot of us who had grown up

together as fans found an arena for our talents and it was a wonderful feeling of esprit de corps and shared purpose. Much as I imagine it must have felt like to work for the Marvel Bullpen or EC Comics, or something like that. It was given tremendous energy, mainly the through the two writers, Pat Mills and John Wagner, who were there at the very beginning and who have gave it a burst of energy. Very, very fond memories of 2000 AD. And I do return occasionally - about once every ten years to do something for them!

It featured futuristic sports heroes, (Harlem Heroes), a resurrected space colonel (Dan Dare), a hard hitting satire on the American judicial system (Judge Dredd), genetically-bred infantrymen (Rogue Trooper)... the list goes on. Some amazing concepts for comics. Amongst them, could you pick a favour-ite?

Well, you know, I’m not a great sports lover, Dan Dare (even though I was involved in it on 2000 AD) was so much better the !rst time around and to an extent it was a character made-to-order and frankly I never really liked the stories I was given, despite my best ef-forts to try and change them. So I think it would have to be Judge Dredd. I mean, I think Judge Dredd was absolutely in-spired and it is one of the great comics creations of all time. At least, he can stand next to Superman, Batman, The Spirit, Dan Dare, Tin Tin, whoever you like - The Phantom! - I think Judge Dredd is of that stature.

DOCTOR WHO

It’s not widely known that Doctor Who Magazine has been in regular pub-lication since 1979, ini-tially as a weekly. You drew Doctor Who for 67 issues over a period of three years, which is pretty impres-sive. How did you score the gig?

A friend of mine, Dez Skinn, had been taken on by Marvel UK and he had plans to do a Doctor Who magazine with a comic strip section it. And he asked me to come along and ink the pencils of an artist called Paul Neary, who himself is now best known as an inker for Bryan Hitch and others, but who at the time was the kind of art editor at Marvel UK. The idea would be that he’d pencil it


and I’d ink it, but that gave me an odd amount of work - it wasn’t really a week’s work doing only four pages, so I said I’d like to draw the whole thing. And Dez was sort of alright with that. And then I happened to know that Pat Mills and John Wagner had done some Doctor Who proposals for the BBC TV series which had gone nowhere, so they had these stories ready and waiting to go, so I spoke to Pat and John and they came on board, which was quite a coup and I got to work with them (which I’d always wanted to) and it meant that Dez had a couple of 2000 AD’s top writers and - you know, in all modesty, one of their top artists - so it was rather good. I’m being objective there! And that’s kind of how it happened and I enjoyed drawing the Doctor, because they were good scripts and it had everything I liked - it had ad-venture, it had a change of locale once in a while which stopped you getting bored, it had humour, so I enjoyed that. Although, frankly, I’d never been a huge Doctor Who fan.

The Doctor Who audience is a very de-voted one - how did you "nd the relation-ship between you and Doctor Who fans? Are you a fan of anything yourself?

Well, I’m kind of alright with the fans, I can see why they love it, I can see what there is to love myself. I think it’s not anything - you know, with a lot of these franchised characters that go on and on... you sort of care most about the one that was in place when you !rst saw them. So, I’m old enough that William Hartnell was my original Doctor Who, so I just love that creepy Victorian feel that he had and everything else, frankly, isn’t really Doctor Who. The same with James Bond - you know, Sean Connery is the man and that’s all there is to it! So... am I a fan of anything myself? I presume you mean by !ctional characters? I cannot think there’s any one that sticks out as being something I’d collect and pursue and really have to have everything of. I like di"erent eras - as I say, I like the William Hartnell Doctor Who, the Sean Connery James Bond, or I like the Alan Moore Swamp Thing or the Frank Miller Batman. You know, the Frank Hampson Dan Dare, the Carmine Infantino Flash... so, it’s like that.

Marvel Comics in America decided to release a limited run of your Doctor Who work in 1980 (Marvel Premiere #57-#60), followed by a regular series in 1984. How did the comics perform in America? Was

that the breakthrough that introduced you to the American market?

I think the comics did OK, I don’t think Marvel would have published them all if they hadn’t done OK. They had all been paid for already by Marvel UK, so it didn’t cost them a great deal, other than I was paid a royalty in error. I had been paid a royalty by Jim Shooter and he paid me, then discovered that he shouldn’t have been paying me a royalty - but because he had promised it to me, he arranged that it would be a kind of “ex-gratia artistic assistance” payment, so I have to say that Jim, who gets a very bad press did treat me well there. But that wasn’t the breakthrough that got me into the American market - by then, I was already working for DC, I believe. It was

just a nice thing to do on the side - DC didn’t have a problem with me doing it (I was really only dressing up work I had already done), but it was nice exposure and I’m really pleased with some of the covers I did. They gave me a chance to look back at my earlier work and sort of do something really juicy and !nished based on those often rather hurried strips.

In the wake of Watchmen, Panini UK have now compiled and repackaged your original Doctor Who comics and released them as “graphic novels”. What do you think of that? Is it about time, or was it just an attempt to cash-in the “graphic novel” presentation of Watchmen?

No. I’m sure Watchmen doesn’t hurt, but I’m very pleased actually to see those Panini graphic novels. It’s really just nice to have all the stu" collected in one place. They’ve done a really good job on them. I’m not sure if they have, or IDW have - I know IDW have kept all the chapter headings on them. What happened when we did it for the Weekly was every four pages we had to have a little logo on it saying “Doctor Who” with a recap of the week before. But we did that as separate artwork, so when it was printed (as had always been intended) as an American comic book, you didn’t have that “Doctor Who” logo every four pages. I know IDW have the logo every four pages, which I think spoils the #ow of the story. But they’ve done a nice job of it and I’m very happy to have them on my bookshelf as a record of what I did on Doctor Who.

Were you “typecast” as a Doctor Who artist (in much the same way as the actors from the TV series), or was it easy to move onto other projects?

After about some 20-odd issues, Doctor Who went monthly, so I went back to 2000 AD and did work for them so I was working on Rogue Trooper and other stu" even while I was doing Doctor Who, so I don’t think I ever really got typecast. A lot of artists have drawn Doctor Who - I wasn’t the !rst or the last... just the one in the middle!

WATCHMEN

You met Watchmen writer, Alan Moore, at a comic book convention. Tell us about your "rst impressions of the man and whether they changed when you started working together?

“I’ve bought my-

self a nice mole-

skin notebook

and I’m going

to start drawing

people at the bus

stop and stuff

like that”


Well, he was introduced to me by his friend Steve Moore (no relation) - I just registered him as being a lanky, long-haired guy in a slightly too-small suit carrying a plastic bag full of comics. He was very polite and pleasant to me. You know, I was mildly famous by then because I’d sort of got onto being in the profession a few years before him. And I got to know him more as we worked for Doctor Who and we belonged to a thing called the Society of Strip Illustration and we used to meet up once a month and I got to know him and could tell he was very intelligent, very commit-ted, very, very creative and... we tried to get a few things going for DC because we wanted to work together after we’d done some issues of Future Shock. No, I can’t say my impression of him changed - I just got to know him better.

Dave, more than a few people have commented to me that, in their opinion, Watchmen is the “greatest graphic novel of all time”. What is your reaction to that?

Well, thanks very much! It does seem to be a commonly expressed opinion. I don’t know whether it’s true, however I think we’re probably the best-selling graphic novel of all time by now. And I suppose being superheroes, it’s some-thing people easily graduate on to. I mean, I’ve read some great graphic nov-els recently - I read a thing called Alan’s War; David Mazzucchelli’s new thing, As-terios Polyp, is a fantastic piece of work; The Photographer, also, by Emmanuel Guibert is brilliant. You know, there’s so

much stu" out there and I’m so close to Watchmen that I can really have no objective opinion on that. Certainly, when Alan and I were doing it, we were just doing a series of comic books we would have liked to read, we didn’t ever calculatingly set out to do the greatest graphic novel of all time.

Big news in July this year was that Watch-men WASN’T the best-selling graphic novel in US bookstores the previous month. Apparently it was the "rst time it had been knocked o! the top spot since June 2008. How have you coped with that tragic news?

I sense your irony. Well, it had to happen - I mean it has sold consistently over the years. That fact that after all that time it was on the best-seller list at all was amazing. The fact that it was on for so long was incredible! Yeah, it’s slowly sliding down the charts, which I would expect, and we’ve done nicely out of it and I’m hoping it will revert to it’s kind of “constant presence”, rather than it’s pin-nacle-scaling recent performance.

More seriously, do you believe that Watch-men, or even your work itself, has in#u-enced other artists and writers, or at least inspired them to get into the business?

Again, in trying to be objective, I’m sure it has. Certainly people have told me that and my work stands to them as the work of people like Wally Wood, Will Elder or Frank Hampson - I’m not equat-ing my talent with theirs, I’m only saying my position in the !eld - stood to me when I was growing up. So, yeah, I think that with the exposure that Watchmen and my other work has had, it’s inevi-table that people would be in#uenced by me. I’m particularly #attered when artists, who I consider to be better artists than me, say something like that. I think, for instance, of an artist called Chris Weston who’s an amazing draughtsman and he calls me “The Guv’ner”, which I take as a great compliment, so... thanks, Chris!

In relation to The Black Freighter, whose idea was it to do the “book within a book”?

That was Alan’s, really. I came up with the idea that there might be pirate comics in the Watch-men universe, but it was really Alan who turned that into some-thing far beyond anything I ever could’ve imagined. You’ll notice in the very !rst issue of Watchmen, in one of the opening pages we have a kid reading a pirate comic, but at that point, it was just a throw-away detail or the sort that I imagined it would always be, but it’s with issue three that I think Alan got interested in using the comic-within-a-comic as a com-mentary on the comic. And we got really interested and absorbed in the actual form of the comic.

One of those enjoyable artistic tricks is to stick in visual references which one might pick up in each re-read.

“When Alan and

I were doing it,

we were just do-

ing a series of

comic books we

would have

liked to read;

we didn’t ever

calculatingly

set out to do the

greatest graphic

novel of all time”


Were there any visual “nods” in there?

I wouldn’t know where to start. There’s all kinds of stu". And there are people on the internet who have annotated it all and even found stu" that we didn’t put in there that we’re quite happy to take credit for, obviously. I mean, I love packing in detail and I loved artists like Will Elder on MAD Magazine who was famous for his, what he called, “chicken fat” which was all the background detail. but again, much like Will Elder, the most important thing to me was the composi-tion of the panels and the page and the storytelling, so any little nods, or Easter eggs (or chicken fat) was secondary. And it was usually not at random; it was usu-ally related to what was going on.

Lots of adult allusions and themes are in the book - sex, violence, nudity, etc; all very commonplace these days, but probably quite risqué in the mid-1980s. Were you concerned about any trouble with censor-ship?

Not really, it was a direct-market book. it didn’t have the “Comics Code” on it. Really, the level of nudity in it is pretty pedestrian; there is full-frontal male nudity with Dr. Manhattan wandering about all over the place, but we were very careful about how we introduced his nudity and it occurs at a point where actually I think people read a few panels past it before they realise, “Oh God, he’s naked!” And it was for a very good story purpose as well. So there was no level on

which what we were doing wasn’t com-pletely defensible if we’d ever had to. And I think sex in the book is treated in a very human, every-day and very kind of caring and realistic way, so it was never really a worry to us. The language is ac-tually quite mild, isn’t it? You can hear far worse in a primary school playground.

Post-Watchmen, you worked with another legendary comics writer, Frank Miller, on the four-issue mini-series Give Me Liberty (and it’s resultant sequels and spin-o!s). Tell us about how that came to be and what it was like.

Well, in the course of doing Watch-men, and Frank doing Dark Knight, we got to know each other quite well. We were sort of both at the middle of the same whirlwind. And, as tends to happen when artists and writers who know each other get together, and they have a liking for each others’ work, they go, “wouldn’t it be good to do something together?” and Frank and I had a conversation along those lines. I didn’t have any idea of what Frank was going to come up with, and he sent me this fragment that was about this black female US cavalry o$cer riding through the Mojave Desert on the way to the underground complex run by an evangelist Elvis impersonator, who had nuclear weapons.There were elements of what it came to be in there, but it wasn’t all there in the !rst story. It was a much more organic thing than working on Watchmen; fragments of story would go backwards and forwards, and frag-ments of artwork and we’d add pages in and take sequences out. It was really enjoyable after Watchmen and it was really very bold I think on Frank’s part - you know, not to do another superhero book. Over the years, I’ve really got to love Martha as a character - Frank and I both, in the collection that’s just out (The Life and Times of Martha Washington in the 21st. Century), which is this huge cinder-block of a book from Dark Horse, bid her farewell with a tear in either eye because she’s a character who really came alive for us and we really enjoyed it. And again, for me, a real contrast to working with Alan.

You’ve taken to writing comics yourself. Is it a vastly di!erent experience and was it an easy transition? Do you illustrate your own scripts, or do you perhaps use mental “storyboards” to help you write?

No, when I wanted to get into the busi-ness - as a kid particularly - I had no idea

“I think that with the

exposure that Watchmen

and my other work has

had, it’s inevitable that

people would be

influenced by me”


that the writer and artist were two sepa-rate people anyway, so I always drew comics, I always drew stories, I never drew individual pictures when I was a kid. It was always continuity so I was quite used to !lling in the captions and the word balloons. But I always wanted to write, and on the success of Watch-men I was given the chance to do that. And that was fantastic and I’ve been so lucky with the artists I’ve had - people like Mike Mignola, Steve Rude, José Luis García-López - so I’ve really enjoyed writing comics. I don’t !nd it particularly more di$cult or easier than drawing. I do !nd writing and drawing for myself a rather solitary experience - I’m really glad I did it, but I really like collaborat-ing, so that’s what I like about writing. I never, as a point of honour, draw anything when I script, because I can see the page in my head anyway, and I think that to send the artist a drawing or a sketch or a plan is a failure of your writ-ing ability, plus, also as an artist whose had that happen to, once you’ve seen someone else’s version of something it’s very hard to “unsee” it and it rather

cramps your style.

Tell us about your involvement with computer games, and do you have any observations on digital media? What does the future hold for comics?

I !nd computer games good fun be-cause they are collaborative and there’s a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of skills I have - design, story and action - are applicable to computer games. Digital media is the “coming wave” guys, and I’m very interested in exploring that and ways, again, of using the particular skills I’ve got and delivering the work digitally.

What does the future hold for comics? Well, hopefully more comics! Hopefully more nice collections of comics. Prob-ably a transition to digital delivery on computer screens and hand-held de-vices. I think, at the moment, we must be in the “Golden Age” of comics because, you know, there is all the wonderful new stu" coming out - some incredible writ-ers and artists working in the !eld. I’m sat here looking at Al Williamson’s Flash

Gordon and I’ve got Frank Bellamy’s King Arthur and his Knights. You know, wonderful reprints of fantastic work that’s gone before. So i just think there are going to be wonderful comics of all sorts. I hope so.

Smith Micro Software recently released Manga Studio Ex4, which they’ve billed as the “number one” comic software world-wide. What do you think of it?

Manga Studio is fantastic software; much, much better than Photoshop for producing inked artwork. In fact, I was just in San Diego at the Comic-Con for the express purpose of promoting it!

More importantly, what does the future hold for Dave Gibbons?

I’ve got plans to do a creator-owned series with Mark Miller; I’m going to be doing some more writing and draw-ing for DC; I’m going to be involved in designing and contributing to a compu-ter game. I’m writing some animation as well, so, just broadening my range and using my skills.

Dave Gibbons, thankyou very much.

Steve Panozzo, you’re very welcome. I will see you soon... hopefully!

ABOVE: Dave hard at work, signing copies of WatchmenLEFT: Artwork for The Tides of Time (Doctor Who Monthly, 1982)


GB: Hi Jason, thanks for your time today. What are you working on at the moment? JS: Man... that’s a loaded question! Hee-hee! I’m always working on something, and it changes from week to week. On a weekly basis, I illustrate for magazines such as The Weekly Standard,The Utne Reader, The Wall Street Journal and so on. But I never know who from, or if the work will even come? It’s the nature of freelance. Every now and then I get a call from a new client as well, so you never know!

I’m working on something a bit new and I’m not really sure how it will turn out. It’s a Sarah Palin plush doll for a small company who is also new in making plush dolls . . . So this could be interesting to say the least. I may be doing a couple pin-ups soon for IDW Publishing, through my friend Menton who illustrates regularly for them, but again, I’m still waiting to hear more on that.

I also teach a course for schoo-lism.com which takes up nearly two days a week, critiquing and grading. I have an agent in New York who I am developing new portfolio pieces for and I am also working on a “secret” project with a fellow artist which promises to be very di"erent to the norm. It will be an awesome collection of original art when all is !nished. I’m very pumped and excited and cannot wait to share with eve-ryone what this project is. I may give you all a sneak peek at the Stanleys, but we’ll have to see...

I understand "ne art runs in your family with your father, is that right? Did he teach you how to paint? Yes, that is correct, my dad is an amazing artist, but no, he didn’t teach me how to paint. Of course, ! was really in#uenced by my dad, but as I grew older I sort of blew him o" and did my own thing. Ididn’t want anyone telling me how to do anything . . . . So for years and years, I went to the “school of hard knocks”.

I was self-taught and working profes-sionally until the age of 26. By this time I had already worked for clients such as Kraft Foods, Universal Pictures,

Cracked and TIME. I knew that I needed to improve in almost every area, so I studied at The American Academy of Art for nearly three years, getting as much out of drawing and painting from life as I could. I also took some serious anatomyclasses which were by far the hardest classes I’ve ever taken, but also one of the most important classes. Near the end of my schooling, I became very busy and decided to stop school and work full time, and I’ve been pushing ahead ever since.

My dad continues to be an in#uence on me and every time I can, I get together with him and paint - or at least watch

him paint! I wish I paid more atten-tion to what he had to say when I was younger, but that’s just how it goes sometimes, isn’t it? Sometimes you need to !gure things out for yourself and learning the hard way can actually be an importantlesson.

Who were some of the great artists and caricaturists that in#uenced you? When I was !rst interested in cari-cature, I was only 9 or 10. The !rst artists that in#uenced me were the artists of MAD Magazine; artists like Mort Drucker, Jack Davis, Drew Friedman and Don Martin.

My dad noticed that I really liked caricature and drawing people in general, so he picked up Lenn Redman’s book on caricature. I still believe it’s the best book out there on caricature. It has everything in it you will ever need to know, anything more will come with putting

Among the honoured guests at the 2010 Stanleys will be the incredibly-talented American illustrator and caricaturist, Jason Seiler.

“Jason who?”, we hear you ask. Quite rightly so. He’s hardly a household name and at 32, he’s probably still wet around the ears - but seems to have carved for himself a reputation akin to that of an Old Master. So who is he

and where did he spring from?

Grant Brown went in search of the answer...

Seiler’s portrait of "lm director Quentin Tarantino


in time and by working hard.

Early in my professional career, I wasin#uenced by artists like Tom Richmond, James Bennett, C.F. Payne, Roberto Parada, Daniel Adel, Jan Op De Beeck, my friends Fred Harper, Sam Sisco and the late Ismael Roldan. I was really close to Ismael, he really took me under his wing. He was a good friend.

Before I began to work professionally, I had this vision in mind of the kind of art that I wanted to create. It was caricature,but more than that, it was art. Then when I was maybe 20, my dad gave me Stars, my !rst book by Sebastian Kruger. When I saw his work for the !rst time it was exactly what I had envisioned for my art; exactly what I wanted to do. This man had already reached the goals I set for myself. Dang! I was both discour-aged and inspired at the same time. I began to teach myself by studying Kruger’s work, then later the work of Jan Op De Beeck.

Years later I started to notice the art of

Thomas Fluharty. He was on the covers of several di"erent magazines - I seemed to see his work every time I went into a book store. I !nally sent him an email, just saying that I liked his work a lot and would love to talk some time. I received an email back from him but all it said was, “Jason, call me. Tom”. At this time, I was horrible at talking on the phone, talking to art directors was intense and scary for me at the time and talking to an artist like Tom was nerve-wracking as well. It would have been so much easier to communicate through email. I even-tually summoned up enough courage tocall Tom, and I’m glad I did because it changed my life and my career.

Tom was super nice, we talked for nearly two hours and during that !rst conversa-tion, he gave me some of the best advice I had ever received. He told me that I was talented, that I had the potential tomake it as an illustrator, but that I had not yet discovered myself artistically and that I was looking at the work of other artists way too much. He told me that it was obvious to him that I looked at

Kruger’s work - and probably too much? He said that I hadn’t yet become “Jason Seiler” and that I needed to close my Kruger books and focus on my own strengths. He was right and I can honestly say that I did just that. I still like Kruger’s work and have nothing but respect for his abilities, but I am no longer in#uenced by his work (or for that matter the work of any caricaturist). I put in years of studying the greats, but came to a point where I realized that Ineeded to move forward, I needed to soak everything in and !lter it out through my eyes and release it through my !nger tips.

I still enjoy the work of Tom Fluharty who has since then become a great friend of mine, as well as the work of my friends Fred Harper and Hermann Mejia ... and there are a few others that I just enjoy looking at. But for the most part I’m really not “into” caricature art and I try not to be in#uenced by other caricature artists. One of my all time favorite artists is the great Norman Rockwell, but I am also in#uenced by J.C. Leyendecker, John Singer Sargent, Phil Hale, Peter De Seve, Jeremy Geddes, Sean Cheetham, Sam Weber, Richard Schmid, Lucian Freud, Jenny Saville, to name a few. My favorite living artist is the amazing James Jean, who I think in#uences memore than anyone would realize. Our work looks nothing alike, but something about what he does really speaks to me, his work excites and inspires me to move forward with everything I’ve got!

You’re considered a master of your profes-sion and at such a young age of 32, you have an extremely enviable portfolio with your work appearing in TIME, The New

“If done correctly,

a good caricature

can capture a

person so

accurately that it

can sometimes

look more like the

person than a

photo ever could”


York Times, The Wall Street Journal, GOLF magazine, Guitar Player, The Weekly Standard, Business Week, MAD Maga-zine and the Village Voice. How old were you when you started caricature? I started drawing caricatures when I was 9 or so. I wasn’t serious about it though until I was around 11 and at that time I didn’t even know it was called “carica-ture”. All I knew is that it was how Ipreferred to draw people, it really came quite natural to me.

You started out colouring mainly with pencils and were initially afraid of transi-tioning to paint, but you started painting in unusual circumstances I believe - is that right? My wife went into pre-labour and was with a friend in our bathroom. They were trying to determine if it was really time. I knew they were going to be in there for a while. It was then that I began to freak out! I began talking to myself, saying things like, “I’m not ready to be a father, I haven’t read enough books, I don’t know anything”. I also thought to myself that I would never be able to support my family if I didn’t learn how to paint, and I mean really paint, so that night I did my

!rst “real” painting and haven’t stopped since. I couldn’t just sit in the apartment while my wife and her friend did theirthing. I know now it was my way of deal-ing with the intensity of having a baby.

Your painting skills are enviable and you have done a couple straight portraits with no exaggeration in your ca-reer, what attracted you to producing caricature portraits rather than just straight "ne artportraits? I love painting both, but if I paint a straight portrait, I feel as though I need to do something creative with my brush-work, otherwise in my opinion, why not just use a photograph? And I say “straight portrait” because I don’t call what I do “caricature”. I believe everything I do is “portraiture”, some is more exaggerated than others. What I really care about is capturing

character andessence and sometimes there is no need for exaggeration. I think what attracts me to exaggerating more is that for me it is how I really see people. I feel that unconsciously we all see and remember people in exaggerated form. I feel it’s how our brain remembers people, ithelps us remember one person from another. I think because I have been doing this for so long that I have trained my brain to see people di"erently. Every single person is a unique and special character.

It’s wonderful sometimes to just go for a walk and just watch people, it’s more entertaining to me than going to a zoo!

What is the key to capturing someone as unique character, do you think? If possible, observing them from life is unbeatable . . . or watching videos of them. It’s important to capture head shape, as well as body shape and pos-ture. Next I would say it has to do a lotwith capturing the person’s eyes and mouth. When we talk with one another we tend to look into each other’s eyes and watch each other’s mouths while we speak. Because of this, it is even more important to get these features 110% correct. It is important to also know what to exaggerate and why to exag-gerate. This comes with time. Teaching caricature is very challenging because it is ultimately trying to teach people to see as you do, and that is not easy.



Your work is famous for its exaggeration and be-ing quite photo-realistic, how do you achieve such intricate and photo-realistic results? Oh that’s easy, I just do it! Seriously though, I’m nearly 33 years old, and I’ve been working hard and passionately for most of my life. I may spend 14 hours on a deadline for The Weekly Standard, and it may shock people that I can do what I can do in that amount of time. You may wonder, how it is even possible? Some peo-ple will see a painting and ask, how long did that take you? I like to smile andsay, “nearly 33 years”. It’s funny, because it’s true. Your eyes deceive you all the time. For example, if I look at a piece of work that I did years ago that I then thought was super realistic and detailed, I will most likely see so much more today that can be done to improve the piece, and it will also not look as detailed or realistic as I once thought it was.

A good example of this is if you look at the work that Sebastian Kruger did in his book Stars, or Stones and compare to the work in his most recent book, Faces. You will see a huge di"erence. If you compare the three books together, his older two books look amateurish in comparison to Faces. Sure, his painting of Arnold Schwarzenegger in Stars is still a masterpiece and it’s still amazing, but look at what he is doing now. When I !rst looked at that Arnold painting, I thought it was so photo realistic, I couldn’t “see” or “understand” what it was that I was seeing. Now, when I look at that painting, I can deconstruct it. I can see the brush work, and I now know how he did it. Make sense?

It’s the same for me and my work. There is no magic, it’s just that my eyes and brain have adjusted and matured. I believe the eyes need to be trained how to see and what to see . . . and the brain needs its exercise, it needs to work out, and after hundreds of paintings, itbecomes easier to overcome things that used to be hard; things that used to really push and challenge. But as you

continue, there are new challenges and new things that become hard to “see” and “understand”.

Wow, this was a long and weird answer. Sorry, I’m trying my best to answer in a way so that you can know where I am at today with my studies. The short answer to your question is that I focus on get-ting the values to look right. The details I add are like icing on a cake, they come after the drawing and the correct values are established. In the end, what I create are illusions; they’re not real, just draw-ings and paintings.

Do you mainly work electronically on a WACOM Cintiq these days, or do you still use paints and brushes for a lot of your work? Which method do you prefer?

For all of my editorial work, I paint digit-ally using a Cintiq. The reason is that it’s quicker and easier to meet deadlines. I taught myself how to paint digitally as I did traditionally and I paint in pretty much the same way. I try to not abuse the computer, I think of it as a tool to create art with and nothing more. I still paint with oils, acrylics and watercolour, but mostly on my own and for myself.

I am working on some personal projects now that will have both digital and tra-

ditional painting. I prefer painting traditionally, but I’m not as fast and it can be a hassle sometimes. Tra-ditional work needs to be scanned or photographed and then colour corrected, and it never looks as good as the original and never reproduces right in print. This problem doesn’t re-ally exist when painting digitally. And when I put a colour down digitally, it doesn’t dry a di"erent colour, it’s whatever colour I put down. There’s also the issue of not having as many original paintings but in the end, I feel that painting digitally is smart for editorial work; it just

makes sense. I love draw-ing and painting. It doesn’t really matter what medium I use, I enjoy both digital and traditional painting.

Are there still some faces that you have di$culty with, or

have you found someone di$cult to cap-ture? If so, how do you overcome this?

No. I don’t think there’s anyone out there who can’t be drawn or captured. There are some people that may be more challenging then others, but that usually has to do with bad reference. It’s important to have good reference to work with. A good way to overcome that problem is to do many sketches and thumbnails. If you really study the person, it will be that much easier to capture them.

Regarding Imaginism Studio’s Schoolism course on caricature, how do you "nd the teaching side of things? What is involved in the course? I enjoy it and I’m going on my 11th or 12th semester (I’m losing track!). It’s a challenge - I mean, how do you teach others to see as you do? I do my best to teach what I know. The class is a carica-ture class, but more than that. I believe it’s a class about drawing and painting,seeing and recognizing shape and rela-tionships between shapes and muchmore. The class covers likeness, exag-geration, drawing techniques, painting, values, colour, the skull, and creating an original and publishable image.

“Norman Rockwell is by far one

of my favorite illustrators of all

time. His work inspires a lot of

what I do, he was the man”


You also released a DVD‚ Sketch-ing with Jason Seiler. How was that process? How was creating the DVD? It was crazy and stressful! I worked on the DVD with my friend Nathan Cameron. It was hours of !lming and drawing, all in between my normal work load. And after the !lming and so on, we spent days editing and re-recording vocals, and thenrecording music and editing that into the DVD. We watched it over and over again to make sure everything was just how we wanted it. In the end it was all worth it; I’ve had a lot of great feedback from it.

It’s helped and inspired a lot of people and that’s what I was hoping to do. I’m very grateful that it’s done so well. Nathan and I are planning on doing another DVD soon, this one on painting.

You recently branched out into character design, working on Tim Burton’s latest "lm‚ Alice in Wonderland. Can you tell us how that came about? And how was the experience dealing with a big movie studio? That was great, it was very exciting to be a part of it and was amazing to see my characters alive on the big screen. I was subcontracted by Imaginism Studios and so I didn’t have any direct contact with the “big studio”.

The way it came about was that I was asked by Imaginsim if I’d like to help them work on character designfor the !lm? I said yes and that was it. I worked on the Tweedles, the Red Queen, the Bandersnatch, the March Hare, and the Executioner.

For some of the designs I was !rst given rough pencils and notes saying things like “these shapes are desired”, and then was asked to take it to a !nish. I had ar-tistic freedom to do what I wanted withthe shapes that were given to me but had to stay within a desired palette. My friend Bobby Chiu did many of the char-acter designs that you see in the !nal !lm, and I worked with him on a few of my characters. The designs of mine that survived and made it onto the !lm were the Tweedles and the Bandersnatch. The

Red Queen looked a lot like my design as well, but I don’t think mine was the !nal. It was a great experience and I’d love to be involved in another !lm sometime. We’ll see...

You’re obviously obsessed with George Lucas. You’ve painted him a number of times, including your impressive poster for the upcoming movie, The People Vs George Lucas...

Ha ha . . . I just love his face and charac-ter! He interests me. I grew up watching Star Wars, the “original” Star Wars, and so I think George has been a big part of my life, of my childhood for sure. I actually just did another little watercolour of him too. Hee-hee... maybe I need a restrain-ing order? I think what I enjoy drawing so much when it comes to George is his hair. It’s an amazing thing to look at. George looks like a Star Wars character, he’s like a mix of Jabba the Hut and a grey-haired Wookie!

Besides being presented with awards too numerous to mention (that is, apart from the “Gold Nosey” and “Master Caricaturist” from ISCA), you were recently selected to

appear in the Society of Illustra-tors show in New York. That must have been an honour... Yeah, 2010 has been a great year for me. I’ve entered shows for years and only every once-in-a-while get in one. This last year I made it into every show I entered. My work was ac-cepted not only by the Society of Illustrators New York, but also by the Society of Illustra-tors L.A., where I was honoured with Silver for Entertainment/Visual Development, so that was pretty cool. I was also lucky enough to make it this year in the 3x3Illustration Directory! I’ve been blessed and honoured. After so many years of working so hard, it’s really nice to see it pay o". What excites me about this sort of thing is not the awards or being in the books, it’s being in the books or shows with so many other amazing artists and then getting to meet them. It’s great to hang out and chat with other artists, and most of them create work very di"erent from me, and that interests me. As I said earlier, I’m not into the

kind of work that I do, but I love other kinds of art!

We’re really looking forward to you visiting our shores in November for the annual Stanleys weekend. Is there anything you’re looking forward to seeing while you’re out here? Thank you for inviting me. I am extreme-ly honoured and excited to be coming to Australia! This is humbling to say the least. I’m really looking forward to hang-ing out with all you folks there down under, and to see the art that you are so passionate about.

There are many talented Australian art-ists - I’m excited to see everything! On adi"erent note, I’m also really into sharks, I mean I really love them and hope to see the ocean and who knows what else? All in all, I’m really looking forward to it and I hope everyone enjoys my class!

Thank you for your time today, Jason! See you in November! The feeling is mutual. See you soon!


The eldest of two boys, Graham Le Page was born on 18 March, 1945, with a pen in one hand and a Giles cartoon in the other. Knowing what was good for him, Hitler surrendered almost im-mediately.

Graham studied art at an early age; by the time he was ten, he had painted a picture of his father wearing a beret, which was hung by his art teacher as testimony to Graham’s skill. Later, Graham attended Wool-wich Polytechnic and drew cartoons for the sta" maga-zine at the Board of Trade (where his mother worked).

At his !rst job, as a messen-ger at an advertising agency, he was asked to deliver a package to the Daily Express. Having a quick look inside, he was amazed to !nd a Giles cartoon! Graham considered keeping the cartoon, but he delivered it instead; he was captivated by the artwork (it wasn’t a “straight” cartoon, but made up of sub-plots, each a cartoon in their own right) and decided then and there that he had found his vocation in life.

While he pursued cartooning in his spare time, he worked as a !reman in London (for six years) in the early 1970s, followed by a couple of years with a !re brigade in Upper Hutt (Wellington), New Zealand, before arriving in Perth in around 1980.

His talent quickly earned him a spot with the Sunday Times as Editorial Cartoonist. His highly detailed technical drawings il-lustrated many “would be” inventors’ de-vices for the Perth Patents O$ce. he also taught animation at the Fremantle Film Institute and drew maps and designed logos for wineries and breweries in West-ern Australia’s South-West. He designed

animation for overseas customers, his work managing to !nd its way around the globe; his most recent commission was from China!

Whilst with the Sunday Times, he used his !re brigade knowledge to draw a strip called Rome 62AD (about a Roman !re brigade), which was later published in book form in 1996.

A funny story - a few years ago, Graham and his wife, Sue, were invited to a dinner/awards night in Perth, includ-ing a night in a “#ash” hotel. Being a connoiseur of !ne dining and big, cooked break-fasts, this appealed to Graham. However, in the early hours, he was called home because his security alarm had gone o". because the police were in attendance and Graham had consumed a fair amount of Guinness and other plonk, he decided to wait until the

police had left before driving back to the hotel - JUST in time for breakfast! The cause of the alarm? A spider, which had broken the magic beam. One thing Graham didn’t mention about the evening was that the dinner and award were in his honour - he had received an award for excellence in techni-cal illustration!

All this goes to show is what a humble, unassuming man Graham Le Page was. He was enthusiastic about cartooning and was an avid Goon Show fan (much of the humour of our generation came from that era). The phone woud ring and a Bluebottle-type cackle at the other end would announce. “I thought I’d just give you a rinje”.

Graham was passionate about many things - pistol shooting, !ne dining, cartooning and illustration, watercolours - in

fact, painting of any type.

The sad thing is, on the eve of retirement and being able to paint, paint, paint, Graham’s life came to an end. For such a wonderful personality to be taken in such a manner makes one question the reason for it all.

Rest in peace, mate. You will live long in the hearts and minds of a lot of people.

Dave Gray

Goodbye, Old MateWhen Graham Le Page passed away last year, we lost not just a generous, talented colleague, but more than a few of us lost a close friend. One of those was WA stalwart Dave Gray, who penned this tribute to his friend.

“Sweet, lingering bouquet indeed... last year’s vintage was that dry, it would drag the tail of yer shirt up yer backside!”

Our mechanic thinks your on-board computer has malfunctioned and shut down your reactor... either that or your wick needs a trim!”


Alan is Moir Relieved Than Ever by Book TimingDuring the break between Ward O’Neill’s talk and Pat Oliphant’s tutorial at the 2009 Stanleys conference, Russ Radcli"e approached Alan Moir suggesting it was time for Scribe to publish a book of Moir cartoons.

While at the time there was no particular theme, over the next couple of weeks they worked out a general topic based on Kevin Rudd. It was intended to loosely cover his time as opposition leader and then as Prime Minister. The thought was that there would probably be a Federal elec-tion around November 2010, and they intended that the book would be on the shelves well before then.

Both would have thought they were on a winner after getting Bill Leak’s quote to use on the back of the book, “Apart from being our best caricaturist with the ability to sum up complex political situations more precisely, concisely, and amusingly than any other Australian cartoonist, there is really nothing much to admire about Alan Moir.”

Leak clearly ignored the fact that Moir was born in Hawera, a little town near New Plymouth in the North Island of New Zealand and grew up in Dunedin in the South Island. It was in his last year of primary school that Moir started draw-ing cartoons and continued at Kaikorai Valley High School. He moved back to the North Island to live in Napier in his last year of school but still managed to qualify for university. He attended Elam Art School for a time before taking on a few odd jobs to earn money so he could go overseas.

Despite living in Australia since 1972 he still supports the New Zealand All Blacks rugby union team. He started contributing to The Bulletin in 1973 and in 1979 moved to Brisbane to become the editorial cartoonists on The Courier-Mail. In 1984 he was appointed editorial cartoonist on The Sydney Morning Herald and he moved back to Sydney.

Moir spent a weekend making a choice of about 200 of his cartoons from what had been published in The Sydney Morn-ing Herald which he thought could be

suitable for the book. This was edited down to about 185 at High Horse Books where the book was produced for Scribe. Then the cover illustration was !nalised in the middle of April and soon after, everything was sent to the Opus Print Group in Singapore.

“Alan has long been one of my favourite political cartoonists, and it’s been a great privilege to have worked with him on this book,” said Radcli"e. “His cartoons are funny and brilliantly drawn, but just as importantly for me they are de!ned by a strong ethi-cal sense and informed by a deep knowledge of the operations of power.”

Bruce Petty is quoted on the back of the book saying, “Nobody uses so few lines to convey so much politi-cal mayhem as Alan Moir.” Petty did not know when he wrote those words just how good Moir was at creating mayhem. It was in late June, when the books were on a ship heading to Australia when, to the horror of everyone involved in the book, the Gillard coup happened. To add to the timing kerfu%e, Gillard then an-nounced the Federal election would be on 21 August and the book was not due to be launched until 10 August. So much for forward planning.

But it worked out quite fortuitously with the cover showing Gillard and Rudd on horseback with Gillard in the lead and Rudd as the passenger. Even the words on the back seemed to have been writ-ten with a full expectation of the events that had not happened, including the

announcement of the election:

“From the heady enthusiasm and promise of Kevin Rudd’s elec-tion victory over John Howard’s Liberals in 2007 to the slightly less enthusiastic election of 2010, Alan Moir is the perfect guide to conservative politics and the (not very) epic journey from era of contemporary politics to an era of, well, slightly less conservative government.”

The title, Are We Nearly There Yet? An Epic Saga of Courage Amidst Turmoil, !ts nicely into the endless electioneer-ing and the contents based on the Rudd Years, and sums up the confusing era of Howard, Rudd, Nelson, Turnbull, Abbott and Gillard, which still seem to have no particular end in sight.

Are We Nearly There Yet? An Epic Saga

of Courage Amidst Turmoil by Alan Moir (ISBN 9781921640667) is available now with a RRP of $29.95.

On another (but related) topic, maybe with a little luck Russ will not run into the same timing problems with the Best Australian Political Cartoons 2010, which will be published in full colour this year for the !rst time and should be in the bookshops by mid-November. It should be just in time for Christmas or the next Federal Election, given the state of poli-tics in Australia at the moment.

Lindsay Foyle

Former NSW Premier, Bob Carr, launches Moir’s new collection at Gleebooks, Sydney in August


It’s reassuring to know that after plying my trade for more than 20 years, I can !nally score a junket.

In January, I attended the 11th annual RIDEP (Rencontres Internationales du Dessin de Presse, or International Meet-ings of Press Cartoonists), by invitation of the mayor of Carquefou (a couple of hours west of Paris by TGV).

Along with Environment and Press Freedom, one of this year’s themes was “Women” – both work about women’s issues and also, but not exclusively, car-toons by women. I felt amply quali!ed to attend.

I was one of 24 invited cartoonists, men and women, whose homes would have spanned !ve continents if Gabon hadn’t cancelled at the last minute. Europe was well represented, South America sent one cartoonist, as did the USA. But the meeting was most interesting for the presence of three Iranian cartoonists – one a woman – and a woman cartoon-ist from Saudi Arabia.

Interpreters were provided for all who needed them, so from our !rst press conference in the Paris bureau of Am-nesty International, it felt rather like the UN. Women made up more than a third of the cartoonists there – far more than a representative sample in this profession – and this made for a di"erent dynamic to the usual at cartoonists’ gatherings. We’re more used to being part of a very small minority, obvious by our di"er-ence. Instead, we were kind of normal, and could all be di"erent without feeling we represented our entire gender. We held diverse views on many issues, and it was fascinating to be part of these dis-cussions where nationality, culture, age and experience all had a role in shaping us distinctly.

We were most curious to know what it was like for a Saudi Arabian and an Iranian woman to work and live in societies where they didn’t enjoy many of the freedoms we took for granted in the West. And I admit we were curious, perhaps beyond reason, about the head

coverings. Hana, the Saudi woman, always wore the hijab in public. She was about 30, single and was chaperoned by her much older married sister. She didn’t hang around with the rest of us at mealtimes, which added to her mystery. Firoozeh from Iran – a smart, funny woman of around 40 – wore no head-scarf but always had a shawl around her shoulders for the times she was required to cover her head in Iran.

I found out more about these women during a panel discussion. Hana is a rare bird indeed, being the ONLY female Saudi cartoonist. Her cartoons highlight-ing gender inequalities or questioning

the power of beauty over merit for work-ing women may indeed be brave, but the frustrations and struggles depicted resembled those of Western women from the 1950s, doomed to be house-wives, who tended and humoured their oa!sh husbands. I wondered if a hus-band in Saudi Arabia would support his wife challenging the system and being strong, outspoken and funny.

Hana told us that from when she was young, her father would slip the morn-ing newspaper under her door in the morning, then quiz her about its contents in the afternoon. She quickly became an avid follower of the news. (Of course, whether that press was free is another matter…).I confess that this bowled me over. It challenged the stereotype I held of the repressive patriarch and the submis-sive woman kept in ignorance in a strict Muslim society, and I wanted to hug her father for encouraging his daughter to live by her intellect. (I wouldn’t say that’s universal in our culture either!).

I’m reminded of the animated movie Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi, an Ira-nian woman cartoonist who now lives in France. The life she depicted, through the years of Iranian revolution, was a kind of double life: a vibrant, intellectual, free-thinking interior life, contrasting with a life outside of fear and repression,

The Danger of Expressing Veiled OpinionsCartooning under a hijab takes courage, but we also have our taboos in the West. Cathy Wilcox went to France

to meet with some remarkable women.

“Later, they

explained to me

that what could be

said privately and

publicly were very

different things,

and they never

knew who might

be watching.

Even in France”


where people had to hide their beliefs or be arrested and punished by the state.

This double life was most starkly demon-strated in an encounter with the Iranian cartoonists. Of the three, one spoke more English so I couldn’t wait to grill him about his life and work. It was true, he told me, that there were things they couldn’t say in cartoons. They would avoid religious criticism (of Islam, at least) and risked arrest or worse if they were critical of the regime. People were regularly arrested and newspapers shut down for defying these limits. They mar-velled that I could have worked for the same newspaper for 20 years, on salary!He joked about how “small” his own personal religion was, and congratu-lated me on wearing green, the colour of Iranian resistance to the Ahmadine-jad regime. Some hours later we were assembled for a press conference. On the topic of press freedom, I piped up about the relative freedom I enjoyed in Australia compared to my colleagues from Iran, who risk dire consequences for even criticising the… And over there, I saw my Iranian colleagues, including their interpreter, waving and gesturing madly at me to shut up! Stop! Which I did. A reporter asked what the problem

was, and the interpreter explained that the Iranians were fearful that these things would get back to Iran and cause trouble for them – so could we choose another topic?

Later, they explained to me that what could be said privately and publicly were very di"erent things, and they never knew who might be watching. Even in France. And who’s to say whether these fears are real or unfounded? Cultivated by a repressive regime, they work.

The topic of those in/famous Danish cartoons arose often. It was interest-ing to watch us situate ourselves on a spectrum of attitudes between claiming absolute freedom to say anything with-out fear of retribution, and the notion of religion being a no-go area and that to touch it is unnecessary provocation. My impression was that the people who had the most to gain by having those kinds of freedoms increased, were those who most !rmly urged respectful silence on the topic. Personally, I believe no draw-ing is worth taking a life.

And freedom in Australia? We cartoon-ists have it good, and can say pretty much what we like. But we have editors

with masters to serve; editors who are worn down by highly organised lob-bies who annoy them, just enough, so it becomes more common to have a cartoon refused publication because it’s “not worth the trouble” to the editor, or it “might o"end”.

The French have the strongest tradition of upholding press freedom. With so many publications of so many stripes, there’s always one willing to publish what another won’t. But guess what? Some of their cartoons o"end me! I see some of their more vulgar, usually sexu-ally explicit cartoons (this is France we’re talking about) and think “we’d never print THAT where I come from!”

Then I think of how normal our own freedoms and repressions become. And after a while, you’re protecting the editor from unwanted harassment by not even submitting that cartoon that “might o"end”.

Cathy Wilcox

Inkspot thanks the Walkley Magazine for permission to reproduce Cathy’s article.

Phil Faigen’s generosity and enthusiasm are hard to contain at the best of times, and 17 enthusiastic and budding West-ern Australian cartoonists bene!tted from it at a full-day cartoon workshop held at his Applecross art gallery in July.

The magni!cent gallery dominates the front section of the second #oor of Phil’s recently completed “mansion”, the walls covered with an impressive collection of framed cartoons by Australian cartoon-ists. Phil also provided tables and chairs, tea and co"ee, a whiteboard and a projector. Unfortunately, the projector decided Sunday was its “day o"” and refused to work. Despite the gallant ef-forts of co-convenor, James Foley, noth-ing could get the projector working.

The workshop was intended to extend the skills and knowledge of existing ACA members, and to present non-members with an insight to the ACA and the car-tooning world. Participants varied from the novice to the experienced, from the young to the not-so-young, and all took advantage of the networking opportuni-ties the day a"orded.

After a short morning tea break, The West Australian’s Dean Alston presented an enjoyable and entertaining potpourri covering some of his experiences with pol-iticians, Premiers and Prime Ministers. He then took us through various aspects of editorial cartooning, before imparting a few drawing techniques and an overview of caricature basics which set the theme for the next session.

The group then launched into a carica-ture attack on one of Phil’s friends who had kindly agreed to sit and model (fully clothed of course), resulting in a vast assortment of amusing and brilliant portraits. Greg Smith, editorial cartoon-ist for Community Newspapers, joined Alston in a casual stroll around the room, proferring constructive (and tactful) critiques.

After lunch, Gary Young gave an in-depth talk on the origins of cartooning and comic strips, using the work of

famous cartoonists, adventure strip and comic strip artists as visual aids. He left the audience in awe when he let slip he had hand-drawn each example!

Gary’s session was followed with more caricature work, with Phil as the sac-ri!cial lamb, concluding the day in an appropriate manner.

One highlight of the workshop was the awarding of prizes for artistic e"ort dur-ing the day. Among the prizes were gift vouchers, generously donated by Blue Moon Realty and The Art Shed, which were very much appreciated.

Mick Horne

Phil’s Not-So-Sheltered Workshop Reaps DividendsBudding artist Dean Alston (left) having his work assessed by Senior Lecturer Phil Faigen


Nine Decades On and Still So Much To Do

Vane Lindesay is Ninety!He was born in nineteen twentyAnd of hardships he knew plenty.Sydney town, that was the placeWhere he joined the human race.Moved down South as little lad.Sydney born, but Melbourne bred.Sydney’s loss was Melbourne’s gain.Yes, his name was Lindesay Vane.Naturally they called him Bluey,Cause he’s Ozzie through and throughly.Loves his footy, sauce and pies,True to the Australian ways.Here’s an image which I findVery touching. In my mindI see Vane on one occasionUndergo an operation;Hardly yet a teeny bopperKnee-high to a grassy hopper;See the hospital dismiss him,And his loving mother kiss him(I imagine day was dawning,Cold and misty was the morning)…Bless her working mother’s heart,She had brought the Billycart!Not by taxi, tram or bus,!ey went home true working class.Well prepared she had come,With a pillow for his bum.Vane had talent. From the startHe was leaning towards ArtHe was not like other boys.Pen and ink, these were his toysAnd he did, a little laterEven join the New !eatre.How he set the girls aswooning!But his strength was in cartooning.Crisp and lively were his lines;Won awards for his designs,Brushed his teeth and ate his spinach,Gained acclaim for “Inked-in Image”(One of many publicationshe produced with skill and patience).Author, expert, book designer,As cartoonist there’s no finer.Faithful Hazel by his side,He’s respected far and wide.!e cartoonists of this nationO"er their congratulation.HEALTH! SUCCESS! PROSPERITY!To Vane Lindesay (with an “e”).

In October 2010, two of the ACA’s most senior members hit a new high note, and not from just sing-ing Happy Birthday to each other.

Tony Rafty, easily Australia’s oldest practicing cartoonist, turns 95 and ACA Patron, Vane Lindesay, achieves nonagenarian status and joins an elite brotherhood of Aussie cartoonists with his characteristic grace and elan. Clem Seale, at 95, is still chugging along as well.

As Inkspot goes to press, Rafty is still gol!ng every other weekend - the only concession he seems to make to his seniority is that he’s not getting as much distance out of his shots. He has only just acquired a walking stick.

He’s going to miss this year’s Stanleys, but only because he’s #ying o" to Sura-baya, Indonesia in November for He-roes’ Day Commemoration Ceremonies. Whilst working as a war correspondent, he met Sukarno during Indonesia’s revolution of independence, eventually becoming a friend of the former Indone-sian President.

Vane is still writing and designing books - his recent biography of WEG being only the latest in a batch of recent projects.

Why do cartoonists generally seem to have the uncanny ability to knock around for so long? Apart from the occasional tragic circumstance of those passing before their time, cartoonists are in general a hardy bunch.

Jim and Dan Russell, Eric Jolli"e, George Finey, May Gibbs, Norman Lindsay and Les Dixon were all profes-sionally active into their nineties. Many, many others quite comfortably cruise into their late eighties, still scribbling away. Perhaps one’s frame of mind - inhabiting a world of light and laughter - does make a di"erence after all.

Hot on the heels of our two birthday boys are Monty Wedd and Norman Het-herington, both looking forward to the big nine-oh in 2011.

Some of our Victorian brethren, by way of celebration, have composed a ode to our venerable Patron, which we are delighted to print in it’s entirety (right), whilst serial scribbler Lindsay Foyle (who only looks ninety on his o"-days) has also submited a contribution.

The world’s oldest practicing cartoonist, by the way, was Boris Ye!mov. At the time of his death in 2008, at age 108, he was still working as chief cartoonist for the Moscow high-circulation daily newspaper, Izvestia. So Rafty still has a bit of work to do.

Steve PanozzoVane Lindesay in 1952

Tony Rafty in 1938


Time Capsule... 1993

The venue was the The Big Banana in Co"s Harbour, and the oc-casion was the presentation of the 5th annual Rotary Cartoon Awards, on 16 October, 1993.

Hosted by the the Rotary Club of Co"s Harbour City, the competi-tion has just celebrated it’s 22nd year and Mark Lynch is still win-ning prizes.

Pictured are, left to right: Mark Lynch, ABWAC President Steve Panozzo, Tom Hamilton-Foster, Louis Postruzin (kneeling), Glen Le Lievre, Peter Lewis and John Champion.

If frequent #yer points were currency, Rolf Heimann wouldn’t have to worry about working for a living ever again.

In August last year, Rolf and Jim Bridges travelled to Guiyang, China (at the invitation of the China Artists’ Association Cartoon Committee), where Victorian cartoonists contributed to an exhibition on the theme of “Water” and delivering a stack of books for their #edgling library.

Earlier this year, Rolf zipped over to Korea, where Victo-rian cartoons were displayed at the Bucheon Cartoon Museum. Again, a stack of books was donated for their library.

In September, George Haddontook o" with Rolf on a trek to Dongguan, where the ACA had a double stand at the China Animation 2010 fair. With the help of Peter Viska, a 5-minute DVD has been prepared to be shown on a loop, consisting of cartoons in the shape of Australia morphing into each other. Other material screened included animation by Victorian animators (mainly students) and short !lms about Victorian car-toonists that Rolf has made over the years. Stan Cross’ “For Gor’sake” cartoon was to be displayed large, with other cartoons and cartoon books on display.

George’s ”live” caricatures, with proceeds going to #ood victims in Southern China, was, according to Rolf, “the most popular attraction”.

“The queue to his table needed several lightly-armed people to control,” he reported. “My speech went well - all the equipment worked!”

Not everything went according to plan. On a bus tour, on the duo’s single “day o"”, Rolf suddenly fell violently ill with a stomach bug, vomiting into a shopping bag the moment the bus started to move o". George suf-fered a similar experience on the trip - but without the convenience of a shopping bag.

Rolf and George and The Great Stall of China


ReviewsInsanity Streak -Striving for Quantityby Tony LopesISBN 9780646533346 $29.95

The Oxford dictionary says “insan-ity” means not of sound mind; mad; extremely foolish; or even irrational.

As for “streak” it is claimed to be an ir-regular line or band, a strain or element in a person’s character and other things.

So what are we to make of a book that contains collection of cartoons drawn by Tony Lopes, made up from a comic strip called Insanity Streak? A normal person might come to the conclusion that maybe, just maybe, whomever drew the cartoons and published the book Insanity Streak: Striving for Quantity, with over 300 cartoons in it (with almost 70 of them in colour), might be a little on the mad side. Mad or not, it’s a solid, square-bound, hard-backed book (225 mm x 255 mm) with 150 good-quality pages.

When looking at the contents you’ll discover a diverse range of topics that include a homing pigeon who is having problems leaving home, an air-guitar discovered in a lost and found office, a fat Elvis singing ‘Return to Slender’, a small medium at large, a dung beetle complaining about having to eat crap, an exercise cow that produces low fat milk and that Lopes tests his cartoons by showing them to hyenas. There is also

the inkblot cartoon supplied by his son Isaac and the parking lot cartoon sup-plied by his wife Lori. However he does not make it clear if these two cartoons had to pass the hyena test too. All of this would tend to give weight to the argu-ment that the Oxford dictionary is not a book of fiction.

Like many cartoonists, Lopes developed a passion for cartooning as a child, sitting in his bedroom studying what some people loosely call “art” and others “cartoons”. Parents call it wasting time.

He sold his first cartoon at the age of 16 to a niche publication called Sky & Space. The editor at the time, Jonathon Nally, recalls the meeting: “He was a nervous, pimply and kind of dorky teenager, but I used his cartoons anyway.”

Lopes studied fine arts before beginning the arduous task of making cartooning a career. It proved difficult at the start and he supplemented his career by becom-ing a wedding photographer. Clearly he did this for the money as there is not one wedding photographer joke in the book, but there are 14 relating to poo. However, it was while he was working as a photographer that he developed the idea for a single panel, floating theme cartoon that became Insanity Streak. He commenced drawing it and mailed out countless samples. Obviously he was dealing with editors and he now owns a file containing well over 200 rejection slips.

Lopes lives in one of the southern suburbs of Sydney and when he is not busy working on the strip he enjoys photography, cricket and soft cheese. While firmly entrenched in his career of making people laugh he can still be seen observing human nature and Lori – the similarities, he claims, are uncanny.

Which brings us to the question: is Tony Lopes mad, just his cartoons, or both? Clearly his cartoons are and that is what makes them so funny. But is he mad? Well like the old saying goes, cartoonists do not have to be mad, but if they take it on full time it helps.

Copies of Insanity Streak: Striving for Quantity can be ordered by either writ-ing to Stoneytoons Pty. Ltd., P.O. Box 380, Southgate, Sylavania, NSW, 2224 or by vis-iting the website: www.stoneytoons.com

Lindsay Foyle

WEG: The Life and Times of William Ellis Greenby Vane Lindesay$45

Australia’s leading writer on cartooning, Vane Lindesay, has written and published 200 copies of a book on his long-time friend Bill “WEG” Green, one of the best-known cartoonists in Australia.

It’s a double act that would be hard to beat, anywhere. And while there are many who would say WEG’s contribution to cartooning deserves a bigger book and a bigger print run, they might not understand the importance of this book and where it fits in Australian publishing. Short-run collectors’ edition books about cartoonists have a long and valued his-tory in publishing in this country.

One of the first collector’s books pub-lished in Australia was Caricature by Low, of which 250 copies were published in 1915 by Tyrrell’s. There is also Caricatures by Lionel Coventry, published in 1936 with only 120 copies being printed. These books are obviously very rare and eagerly sought by collectors. They also show work that a publisher seeking a bigger print run might gloss over in search of more “popular” content.

Only 200 copies of Thirty Years of an Artist’s Life were printed. Written by Amy Lambert and published by the Society of Artists 1938, it started out as collec-tors’ edition and became even moreso when a large number were lost at sea whilst en route to England during the Second World War. Original copies now sell for over $200.


James Kemsley enjoyed collecting books and published a few too. He printed 15 copies of The Stanleys 1989 and ten of the The Stanleys 1990 and both would be hard to value because so few were printed and fewer have ever been sold second hand.

The WEG book is A4 in size, square-bound, on very good-quality paper and beautifully printed. It starts with a biography written by Lindesay detailing WEG’s career. Green’s interest in cartoon-ing was stimulated by the cartoons in The Bulletin and Smith’s Weekly - in partic-ular the “powerful portrait caricatures by George Finey.” As Bill is quoted, “Finey’s drawings lit the fire!”

He drew cartoons while serving in the army during the Second World War and later contributed to Man magazine. After the war, he contributed freelance cartoons to The Herald in Melbourne and in 1947 joined the staff. Lindesay points out that William Ellis Green - who soon became known to the many thousands of readers of The Herald as WEG - was “an artist of exceptional talent, and popular-ity.” His career lasted over 40 years and he became synonymous with The Herald. Unfortunately there is also a detailed account of WEG’s departure in 1986, which was not one of the high points in Australian publishing. As well as the biography there are also over two-dozen photos, more than 200 cartoons, lots of caricatures and about 20 images of WEG’s famous footy posters.

If WEG had not been famous for his

cartoons he would have been for his posters. He started drawing them in 1954 to celebrate the winning team of the Victorian Football League (which evolved into the AFL) and continued uninterrupted for over 50 years. Each year, about 100,000 copies were sold and all the proceeds were given to the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne. All up it has been estimated WEG’s efforts raised over $2 million. A mammoth ef-fort which has not been lost on Lindesay, with all the proceeds from this book also going to the Royal Children’s Hospital.

Lindsay Foyle

Moll Perkins in Americaby Dave GaskillPublished by Tucann BooksISBN 9781873257968£7.99

I’ve always considered Dave Gaskill an “honorary Aussie”. We first met when he was working on The West Australian in 1986, in tandem with Dean Alston, before Gaskill flew off to work for the New Zealand Herald.

Other memories include us both doing a London pub crawl in 1997 and cavort-ing in Shrewsbury in 2006 with Gaskill, Alston and James Kemsley.

Dave’s style has always been richly detailed, ebullient and visually laced with in-jokes and sly references. There’s not so much attention to detail as there is the evidence of painstaking research. His backgrounds look “real”. He knows his stuff; whether it’s brickwork, animals, clothing, cars, ships or telegraph poles, everything looks “right”.

And so it is with Moll Perkins in America, a “shrewd and zany caper set in 18th century England and America”, about a buccaneering barmaid and her friends. The settings compete with Belgian and French comic books for authenticity and you can almosty taste the atmosphere. There’s no real computer trickery here to help it along - Dave has hand-drawn

and hand-lettered almost all this stuff. Clearly a labour of love, the period detail is incredibly complex throughout. Only the colouring is computer-assisted, but remains eminently painterly.

Indeed, Dave’s mission in producing Moll’s adventures is to take on the pro-ducers of the “9th Art” full-steam (and single-handed) in the name of Great Britain and I think he largely succeeds. The characters include the occasional recognisable public figure (such as Charles and Camilla as patrons of Ye Sotted Sow). Even Elvis is in there. There are visual nods to Heath Robinson, from wonky buildings to the intricate fruits of inventors, Newt & Wott. The scenery shifts and changes, through an imagina-tive and dynamic layout of panels, from Georgian England to the storm-laden highlands of Scotland, the open expanse of the Atlantic Ocean, the icy wastes of the Arctic and the frantic rivers of Alaska, before ending up in frontier America.

From an illustrator’s viewpoint, this is an immensely satisfying and inspirational product, with Gaskill handing down the gauntlet to his fellows. The next book in the series is, somewhat appropropriately, Moll Perkins Down Under where we can be certain Dave will be on a sure footing.

Steve Panozzo


The ACA is saddened to announce the sudden and unexpected death, in September 2010, of well respected Brisbane car-toonist Gerard Piper.

Gerard was probably best known for his comic strip, Trevor. He was 44 and is survived by his young son, Finn.

Piper began his career as a newspaper press artist at Brisbane’s Sunday Sun and Daily Sun in 1983. He joined the sta" of Disney TV Australia in 1990. There, he worked on TV series suck as Darkwing Duck and Winnie the Pooh. He worked as a layout artist for the Yoram Gross feature !lm, Blinky Bill, before work-ing on the ABC-TV series of the same name. He co-created the Sunday strip, Beyond the Black Stump, with Sean Leahy. After that partnership dissolved, he began Trevor in partnership with John Lee in 1996, which is seen in Australia, Hong Kong, England, Malaysia, Canada and Vanuatu.

“I actually remember thinking at age 6 that I wanted to draw for a living and make my career out of it,” Piper once said in an interview. “I couldn’t think of anything more marvellous than to draw your own characters, be creative AND to entertain people. I’m sure it’s vocational.”

David Swain was born in London on 17 December, 1923 and “survived the British Army” before emigrat-ing to Australia.

After graduating with a BA and Dip Ed in Melbourne, he spent three years teaching in Heidelberg, Victoria, then worked for 13 years with the Technical Education Department in Sydney. Then followed 15 years as a senior lecturer in Professional Writ-ing at the Canberra College of Advanced Education.

During his 30-year freelance career, Swain produced cartoons, verse and prose for Punch, The Bulletin, The Australian, The National Times, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Canberra Times and ABC Radio and Televsion. He also wrote several books,

including The Cantbeworried Tales, One Thing and Another and 200 In the Shade.

Swain was a regular attendee at ACA functions and regularly submitted entries to the Stanleys Year Book, but was not a big fan of the Stanley Awards themselves. He was an avid propo-nent for the establishment of a national cartooning museum. In 1992, he wrote to ACP publisher, Richard Walsh, suggesting the money spent by The Bulletin sponsoring the Stanleys could be better used to establish such a venture. It was a suggestion Walsh did not take up, but, regrettably, it added to his decision to stop The Bulletin’s involvement with the Stanleys.

“Dad continued to be the most delightful, kind, humorous man for his whole life,” his eldest daughter, Sally, wrote in an email soon after Swain had died. “He was mainly in good spirits and even joking with the nurses the same morning that he died. Each day for several days beforehand I had a lovely conversation with him by phone between Melbourne and Sydney. In one of those conversations, we made up a story about a speckled hen called Belinda. In another, we had a chat about balance and composition in drawings and I reminded him how he introduced me to Beardsley and Heath Robinson. In other conversations, we sang together. He was particularly brilliant at providing the bassline, with tiddly om pom poms. He was the most wonderful father anyone could ever wish for.”

Swain and his wife Iris lived in Bondi until 2005, when the on-set of dementia demanded a move to Melbourne and the as-sistance of daughter Jennie, where he unexpectedly became a delighted grandfather.

While in Melbourne he did not take part in ACA functions but he did mix socially with cartoonists, including Rolf Heimann, who found him to be “a good artist, a good writer and a good conversationalist, erudite, well informed too. And he did have a sense of humour.”

Swain died 27 July, 2010. He leaves behind wife Iris, daughters Sally and Jennie, granddaughter Ruby, sister Lilian and two sons-in-law, Stuart and Nick.

ValeGerard Piper(c.1966 - 2010)

David Swain(1923 - 2010)

A panel from Trevor

David Swain (centre) with Norman Hetherington and Jim Russell at the ACA’s OzCon booth in 1993


CLOCKWISE (from top left):

Two Steaks Please! - Geo" Richardson, thumb frozen after hitching lifts all the way through the City to Surf, trades yarns with Bruce Petty at the James Squire Bistro, King Street Wharf in Sydney;

Liquid Launch - Alan Moir helps himself to the plonk at the launch of Are We There Yet? in Sydney;

Deaded Again - Tony Kentuck receives a time-honoured, traditional family greeting from Pat Milligan, usually reserved for BBC executives;

Uncanny Resemblance - Anton Emdin and his role model !nally meet at MAD Magazine’s New York City o$ces (more next issue!);

Wonderwall - Pamela Monteith and Neil Matterson at the Car-toons on the Wall exhibition at the Woodend Winter Arts Festival in Victoria - curating’s never been so much fun!;

Scenes from a Pub - Peter Byrne, Graeme Biddle, Brad Wight-

Snap-Happy Shutterbugs:Peter Byrne, Anton Emdin, Lindsay Foyle,

Rolf Heimann, Neil Matterson and Steve Panozzo

man, Peter Lewis, Anthony Pascoe, Tony Kentuck, Stanley Toohey and Steve Panozzo recover at the Friend in Hand Hotel after a hard day drawing dogs and their owners at Bark in the Park in Sydney;

Hat’s Aboy! - Rob Carter at the James Squire Bistro in Sydney;

Happy Anniversary! - Tony Lopes in formal cartoonist attire at his Insanity Streak 10th Anniversary exhibition at Hazelhurst Regional Gallery in Sydney;

Alices in Wonderland? - Joanne Brooker, Michelle Baginski, Alex Hallett and Rolf Heimann checking out the Tim Burton exhibition at ACMI, in Melbourne;

Always the Groomsman... New husband Jules Faber looks so smart, he almost turns Jason Chat!eld’s head at Co"s Harbour’s Botanic Gardens


Many thanks to everyone who contributed cartoons. The next issue’s topic is...

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Inkspot 62