Memories Evoked on a Short Trip North of Brisbane...

20/9/2013

As I worked last Father's Day, yesterday I had an opportunity to visit one of my daughters (and her husband and daughters) and belatedly 'celebrated' the day. They live about a couple of hours north of my home in Margate, and it is always a pleasure to catch up with them. The trip home always evokes a lot of memories of days gone by (for more reason than I need to go into here). Some thoughts that filter through my mind include recollections of no less than three Australian cartoonists that live or lived and left a mark in their local communities.

Written and drawn by Doug Tainsh: I'm not sure who owns the Copyright presently. Maybe his family. Does anyone know?

Doug Tainsh moved to Noosaville in about 1970. Although born in Sydney on 13 June 1921 to a poet father and photographer mother - is it any wonder he would follow a creative muse? - Doug actually grew up in Melbourne. He joined the AIF and served in Borneo during World War II. He returned to Melbourne to study at the National Gallery of Victoria. It was here he met his wife Alice. Besides his well-known weekly cartoon about an Australian Swaggie Cedric (a sample is shown above), which appeared in the Australasian Post for many years, Doug was also a well-regarded television writer. He was credited with many episodes of police dramas, including Homicide and Division 4. I met Doug only on a couple of occasions (when attending the local Queensland chapter of the Australian Black and White Artists' Club) and found him to be most gregarious. It was only after he passed away (in March 2004) that I learnt that he also wrote comedy gags for greats such as Maurie Fields and Spike Milligan.

Ken drew it: Who owns the Copyright these days...??

Ken Maynard was another Australian cartoonist who submitted his cartoon (initially called Ned and his Neddy) to the weekly Australasian Post. Ken was born in the country town of Albury, New South Wales in 1928. Ken spent many years working as a Victorian police officer, and first submitted his cartoons to the magazine in the 1950s. The cartoon - eventually named the 'Ettamogah Pub' - was very popular, and related gags with an Australian humour that centred around drinking. It was an integral part of the Post until the magazine folded. I only met Ken once: he was a quietly spoken man. It was said that he was not a financially astute man: he allowed his creation to be used to create a chain of pubs based on his cartoon. I am not sure if he was financially compensated for this. Ken retired from the police force and moved to the Gold Coast, where he died in September 1998. The Ettamogah Pub is now a well-known landmark on the main highway to the Sunshine Coast, and some of Ken's original cartoons can be viewed inside the building.

Ken Dove is another cartoonist from this region of Australia and yet another who has had his cartoons published in the Australasian Post! I do not know when or where Ken was born. I do know he started late in the cartooning game! He worked for The Gympie Times, submitting a weekly cartoon to the newspaper for about 15 years (1982 to 1997). Ken also worked at Aussie World (funnily enough, literally just up the road from the Ettamogah Pub!). From 1989 to 2007 Ken reportedly drew 64,000 caricatures!

I have known Ken personally for almost 30 years; he is one of the kindest and most compassionate of men - and so remarkably talented. Many years ago he offered me some sage advice (that I chose to ignore). Ah, hindsight: it is a wonderful thing! But it is advice that I follow to this day: "Never take yourself too seriously".

In 1982 I published a comic anthology ('The Australian Comics Group') and was planning a second edition. (One day I shall have to talk about why it never came out.) Ken illustrated a super hero story that I had written ('Hero Australia'). I was going to enclose a page here, but I seem to have temporarily misplaced it. Instead, I shall enclose a copy of a caricature he did of me in 1993. I still love this illustration! With the upcoming Ned Kelly book, I was going to include a photo of myself within the book. However, when it came to choosing one I found there was not one that (I thought) carried my essence as much as Ken's illustration!

Ken now lives in retirement, with his wife Joy in Buderim. If you would like to learn more about Ken, please Click
Here...

2 Comments

Jackson W allace

26/9/2016 16:43:00

How sad that so much classic Australiana has been lost
A friend has just acquired an Ozzie Terrier, and I tried to explain to her about Cedric and his dog (whose name eludes me), and can find almost nothing about the iconic character anywhere.
Any suggestions?

Nat Karmichael link

2/10/2016 21:56:37

Hullo Jackson! Thanks for your comments. Here's some information to fill in some gaps...and an expansion of what I wrote earlier (above)...

Douglas Edward Tainsh (13 June 1921 - 30 March 2004) was born in Sydney, although grew up in Melbourne. His father William was a poet, and his New Zealand mother, Mina Moore, pioneered women's photography in this country. Doug served in the AIR during World War II. On his return, he studied painting for seven years at the National Gallery of Victoria, and it was here that he met his future wife Alice Drysdale.

The couple travelled to Europe, and it was here that he became known as a cartoonist, submitting work to PUNCH, LILLIPUT, THE STRAND and EVERYBODYS. It is not as well known that Doug was also a writer. He was quite adept at writing documentaries and Australian television serials like HOMICIDE, DIVISION FOUR, MATLOCK and THE SULIVANS. He wrote television gags for Spike Milligan, Jim Berenson, Arthur Askey and Maurice Fields.

In 1954, Doug teamed up with the well-known novelist and short story writer Alan Marshall to create the comic strip SPEEWA JACK. for THE ARGUS. Whilst initially a gag-a-day strip, the strip eventually evolved into a humorous story about gold miners and the bushranging days. It's one strip that I believe is fully deserving of being reprinted. It ran in THE ARGUS, until that newspaper folded in 1957. And although THE AGE carried it on for a short while, it was cancelled for being 'too un-australian'.

One Doug Tainsh strip that could not be called that was your favourite, Jackson: CEDRIC. This single panel cartoon commenced in THE AUSTRALASIAN POST in 1952 and ran weekly for an amazing 45 years. CEDRIC was Doug's most popular, and featured the tales of a battling swaggie, his old mate "Albie" and his little dog called.... "Digger".

Doug and Alice later moved to a place near Lake Weyba (near Noosaville), where they spent the remainder of their days. Doug was the first Queensland-based cartoonist to be 'smocked' by the then Australian Black and White Artists' Club in the Kookaburra Café at Paddington in (I think) 1989. (Gary Clark, correct me if I have the year wrong, please....)

Doug was a large man with a wonderful sense of humour. I met him for the first time (and his wife Alice) at that mentioned function. Although he invited me to visit him at their home, sadly, it was in the days before I had my car licence... so I never availed myself of that wonderful offer...

There you are Jackson. Just a few more things that you now know about Doug Tainsh....

Memories Evoked on a Short Trip North of Brisbane...

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