Hullo!
I’m not a Cartoonist. I never have been. I won’t pretend to be one. But I am passionate about the cartooning medium in all its forms!
So much so, that in the past ten years, I have self-funded and self-published nine books on cartoonists: two on John Dixon’s works, two on Monty Wedd’s, one on Neil Matterson’s, one on Rob Feldman’s, one on Thomas Campi’s, an anthology of Australian comic stories, and a historical book detailing Australia’s comic book history from 1924 to 1965. I’ve also self-published nine issues of an Australian comic anthology series called Oi Oi Oi! that appeared on the national newsstands between 2014 and 2016.
I am telling you this, not to brag but to present to you my credentials. Because, like you, I am also a member of the Australian Cartoonists’ Association. You may have seen my name pop up once or twice in our Journal, Inkspot. I edited Issues #72 to #86. I was able to bring it back from the hit-and-miss venture it was when I took over the reins to a four-issues-a-year magazine worth reading. (Or, at least, that’s what I’d like to think!) I’m so pleased to see that current editor Steve Panozzo is maintaining this frequency.
In my working life, I am a Mental Health Clinician, working in the Psychiatric Emergency Centre of the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital. I have worked there for the past ten years. I am usually the shift coordinator, and sometimes the Nurse Unit Manager (when my boss goes on holiday). I know how to lead a good – and safe – team. Today, I am coming to you to seek your support to lead our ACA Team: I am going to nominate later this year for the ACA’s Presidency.
I understand that the Australian Cartoonists Association has always had a Cartoonist as a President, and there will be a reluctance to vote for someone who is not a Cartoonist in the position. Hang on! Jim Bridges runs the Australian Cartoon Museum – he’s not a Cartoonist! Margaret Cameron manages the National Cartoon Gallery – she’s not a Cartoonist! There are precedents out there!
What do I hope to achieve as President?

• Greater communication between Committee and Members. If you bestow upon me the honour of being your President, I plan to release a regular communique to all Members (either on the ACA’s Facebook page or in an email like this) detailing the decisions made by our Committee at all meetings.
• An earlier decision made on Stanley dates and venues. Members need to know when and where the Stanley Awards (and Conference) are to be held, to allow time to better prepare for the weekend.
• An independent review of the ACA’s finances. Did you know the Association has a bank account that charges $15 a month to keep the account running? The Committee needs to find better ways to spend our Members’ hard-earned dues! (To be fair, the current Committee has taken action to alleviate the hardships that some members have faced in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Did you know that? I want to be a President that communicates with you – and all members!)
• A plan to be put in place for the ACA’s 2024 Centenary Celebrations. It’s only a few more years and the world’s oldest Cartooning body – that’s us! – celebrates one hundred years of existence. What would the Membership like to see happen in 2024? Do we need or want greater community awareness of our Association?
• A vision for the future for the ACA. Presently, the ACA relies on sponsorship for major events like the Stanley Awards and the weekend conference. How do we learn to be more self-reliant in these days where sponsorship dollars are more difficult to come by? We need an Association able to articulate these plans!

What are some of the things I have been part of? (Without seeking to big-note myself!)

• I organised the Queensland membership group’s meetings when US Cartoonist Jeff Keane and Chilean Cartoonist Rodolfo Aedo visited Queensland. I was able to alert Ian MacCall of Rodolfo’s plans to visit Melbourne, allowing the local ACA group there to meet him too!
• I worked behind the scenes to negotiate the donation of thousands of cartoons by Emile Mercier to the National Cartoon Gallery.
• I have judged two Rotary Cartoon Awards. (I won’t tell you which ones, lest you blame me for your not winning that year!)
• I not only took part in the ‘discovery’ of the original Stan Cross cartoon that our Stanley Awards are based on, but also worked behind the scenes (again!) to successfully negotiate the sale of the cartoon to the National Library of Australia.
• I’ve been the Lead Judge in the Ledger of Honour Awards for the past four years.
• I supported Bill Leak, Mark Knight and Warren Brown when others sought to vilify them.
• I took to Facebook to lead the emails of outrage at Ginger Meggs’ dropping, and to sing the praises of Ian Jones’ Bushy Tales success in the Sydney newspapers.

When the time comes, please kindly consider my nomination: it would be a great honour if you would select me as your President of our Australian Cartoonists’ Association. 

Anyone who has been sneaking a peek at the internet lately, will see that the current Coronavirus is bringing creative people to the fore: there are many funny videos and cartoons to be found online, as people adapt to and make comment about our new way of living.

I went into Brisbane city on Friday afternoon after work to see if the local comic bookstore was still open. I was surprised to find it was, and even more startled to discover I was the only customer seeking to pick up my current favourite title (presently Daredevil). “It’s good to know that comic-retailing remains an essential service,” I quipped. The proprietor informed me that it wouldn’t be for too much longer, when he shared the most recent comic news – perhaps known to everyone but myself! – that Diamond had stopped distributing comics due to the COVID-19 virus.
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Diamond, for far too many years now, have had the monopoly in distributing comics around the world. That they had made the decision not to do so left me stunned. No comics? What is the world coming to? Of course, in my work environment, we’ve been preparing for when it really impacts on our health-care system and there have been some early effects of the pandemic. (I work in the Psychiatric Emergency Centre at the Royal Brisbane & Women’s Hospital.) And although I have been hearing the news of job losses in coffee shops and other retailer establishments, it wasn’t until I couldn’t get my comic fix that I really appreciated the impact this virus was having on the world economy!

The last time American comics stopped reaching Australian shores was back in the 1940s. In 1939, due to our increasing involvement in the Second World War, the Australian Government began enforcing the Import Licensing regulations. This controlled the amount of US dollars (then purchased from England) that could be spent on published comics and syndicated proofs of American comics. This led to a total ban by July 1940. Then, as now, creative people adapted to the current situation, and so was born the Golden Age of Australian comics.

Unlike the Americans, who had introduced the ‘production line’ of comic creating (that has continued to this day), the local comic creators did not have that luxury. Most of the comic artists in Australia handled the complete production of the creative process, apart from the publishing. In his some of his writings of the era, Australian comic historian John Ryan identified those he thought were that era’s “top comic book illustrators”: Monty Wedd, John Dixon, Hart Amos, Stanley Pitt, Vernon Hayles, Moira Bertram and Phil Belbin.

As Australian artists rose to the fore in the 1940s, I feel that now is as good a time as ever, to look at the silver lining behind COVID-19 and see if there are ways of adapting to the current situation and finding opportunities to again begin publishing great Australian comics.

Frew Publications, as the only publishing house still appearing on the newsstands today, is probably in the best position to do so, given that newsagents have not – yet? – been shut down. Frew is one of the publishers that first established itself in the 1940s when businessmen Ron Forsyth, Lawford ‘Jim’ Richardson, Jack Elsen and Peter Wilson formed the company. (The company’s name came from using the first letter in each partner’s surname.) While the company has been primarily been preoccupied with reprinting old Phantom stories, in recent years its owners (Rene White and Glenn Ford since 2016) have been utilizing many local artists and cartoonists for both cover artwork and internal stories, and have engendered much goodwill in the local comic scene.

A recent development in the comic medium has been the development of the online comic. While the comics available for purchase at my local comic shop were not as current as those found on Comixology, I’m not convinced that the major publishers, Marvel and DC, have really been interested in developing the online market. Perhaps that will now change; it’s too early to tell. My feeling is that the profit margins are not as substantial as the physical copies, which carry (for example) multiple cover alternatives that have appealed to the collector in preference to the longer-term benefit of seeking a newer and increasing readership. This, and the myriad of interconnected storylines, along with the practice of publishing multiple titles of a popular character, have for too long propped up the American industry. Perhaps the Coronavirus might bring along a market correction, longer term.

There have been few Australian creatives publishing online, but with physical outlets likely to close up shop (either due to the economic downturn or by Government legislation), and the populous becoming more socially isolated and needing new reading material, the opportunities are there for the taking. My favourite online comic is by a couple of Sunshine Coast creatives, Teloka Berry and Pricilla Wu. A Week in Warrigilla has been running for two years now, as engaging as ever, with over a thousand subscribers.
Here’s a link: https://tapas.io/episode/1008842  – do yourself a favour and check it out!

Comic one-shots and series are also able to be found via the various crowd-funding platforms available these days. Given the reluctance of most Australian comic stores to support the local creatives, many local self-publishers have been increasingly exploring this avenue. I feel that this will be another realm of the future post-COVID-19 comic medium. Dark Oz, run by South Australian publisher Darren Koziol for the past ten years, has been increasingly marketing his comic books by crowdfunding, allowing his comics to reach a greater world market. Here’s the link to his site:  http://www.darkoz.com.au/index.html    
   
The post-COVID-19 world is going to bring about the biggest social change we will have ever known, and it is difficult to predict what that world will look like. It’s my belief that the comic medium will be a part of that change, with creative storytellers finding new ways of sharing to those who want to read and listen. There are ways for local Australian creatives to become part of that change, and I have identified some of those opportunities available even today. Comic books and graphic storytelling will not die – they will simply evolve into this newer form and the history of this medium that we love shall continue.  

​One of the reason I am so enamoured with this volume is that it was coloured by Peter Ledger, an Australian comic book artist, who was then living in America. Yes, the same Peter Ledger that the Ledger Awards have been named after. How great an acheivement would that be: to colour the works of storyteller/artist Carl Barks?!

Speaking of the Ledger Awards, about the ONLY comic-related thing I have done this month (besides this posting) has been coordinating the judging of the Ledger of Honour Award. I can but won't tell you the sucessful recipients who will be acknowledged -- I have to let the organisers disclose them at a time of their choosing -- but I can say it was a close contest. In relation to other comic events, even Supanova has had to take a back seat. It was the first time in years, I have not gone to the Gold Coast leg. Why you ask? Well, mostly due to the COVID-19 preparations at work.

My boss went on an overseas holiday (to see her sick Mother, actually, so it wasn't really a holiday) and so I had to take the reins of the Nurse Unit Manager role. She's now returned and is in the two week period of self-isolating, so I have the role for another two weeks. Sure, Carlene likes the Monday to Friday aspect of the job, but I'm finding the 5 a.m. rises and very, very late finishes really tiring (and a little stressful), as we are all heading into the great unknown in relation to this contagious virus....

This weekend is the first weekend I have been able to peer into this book. Oh the joy of Carl Barks' drawing and storytelling. It's such a pity that today's young people cannot know these simple joys of Uncle Scrooge McDuck.