Black hole theory?

Well, fancy that. The election is still four and a half months away, but the post-poll scope for aghast exclamations of "We had no idea!" is beginning to shrink already.

Could this be a cunning plot to rain on the opposition's seemingly inevitable victory parade?

Message terminated early?

R U 4 or X M8?

Sunday comic

Here's episode three of the web comic Birds of a Feather first published in the now defunct E-zine Bonzer! This one was the start of a mini-series about 'Trot' the flying pig.

Clive's new vessel?

Has Clive abandoned the grand plan to build a replica of the Titanic? Latest news from planet Palmer seems to indicate he is now in favour of raising the wreck of the good ship UAP which went down during WW2. Most of you might recall that the UAP was not a victim of enemy action ... but rather, was scuttled to make way for a newer vessel to be manned by Capt. R.G. Menzies and his crew.
Since the UAP was out of date in 1945, what makes Clive think it would be any better than a rebuilt Titanic?

I wonder if it was equipped with deck-chairs as well?

Tiger consumed.

Yesterday we learned that Virgin has absorbed the ailing Tiger as another element in John Borghetti's re-structuring of Australia's second biggest commercial airline.

Today's cartoon depicts JB 'caught in the act', as it were.

I admire this bloke for the way he has made it to the top of the ladder in aviation administration. Our paths once crossed during the middle of my 32 year Qantas career which ended in 1989. Though I was almost entirely an airport person, I spent about 2 years of that time in sales roles split over two stints. I recall JB was just starting out as a junior in sales during one of those tours of duty.

He's certainly made every post a winner since then. Good on him.

ANZAC day.

Now that all the marching, speeches, boozing and big-time 'commemorative' sport etc. is out of the way ... the big question remains unanswered. What was the compelling reason that tens of thousands of young Australian lives were carelessly and often wantonly wasted in the WW1? We know what was lost ... but, what was gained? (and, please, nobody tell me 'our freedom'). Understand, I'm talking only about the 'war to end all wars' primarily, because it was the one which spawned the ANZAC legend ... and, unlike WW2, there was no credible threat whatsoever, to the Australian homeland.

I started asking this question when I was +/- 8 years of age. At 78 I'm still waiting for an acceptable answer which doesn't involve white-washing of imperialist motives.

Nonetheless, I hope you all enjoyed the holiday in whichever way you chose to spend it.

Swash and Buckle.

Very busy day Wednesday. Only got around to updating the blog around 11.30pm. Sooo ... today's belated offering is strip#2 of the Birds of a Feather collection.

Infinite options?

Yesterday, The Age came out with an advertising 'wrap-around' featuring the usual mast-head and  headlines including the Grattan institute forecasting  budget deficits escalating up to $60 billion per annum among  combined Australian governments over the coming decade. The top story lead was accompanied by a small picture of Wayne Swan sporting a quizzical look. The rest of the wrap-around was devoted to announcing a new motor-car range now available in Australia. 'INFINITI'.

It struck me that the Automobile company name associated with a story about a rapidly increasing monetary loss, could've been construed as either a wry comment on the potential deficit ceiling ... or a hint that the budget might be improved by privatization along with everything else in sight?

Dizzy in Brissy?

 Still from a new soap opera in the Banana-land.

Birds of a Feather cont/d...

Here's  the first B.o.a.F. strip published in Bonzer! E-zine.

Birds of a Feather ... the strip

As I've mentioned before, authoring comic strips used to be my favourite element of cartooning. Over many years I've come up with a lot of ideas for strips, but only one could be termed successful. It was a weekly feature titled Rarebits carried by an I.T. oriented magazine for over 10 years bridging the mid 1980s/90s. I retain many of the original strips (all hand-drawn and lettered in B & W), but haven't gotten around to digitizing any of them for archiving or electronic publication purposes.

One of my most recent strip efforts was devised and published during 2011 in a Melbourne based international  E-zine titled Bonzer! Below is the character outline which comprised part of the original scenario. Sadly, only a handful of single story strips and one complete multi-episode story-line were published before the 'zine was closed down earlier this year after being published monthly since 2001.

Pork wings

During the preparatory work for this blog I was toying with several 'off the wall' titles including Pork wings for xmas. Perhaps an allegorical reference to the prospect that the project might never get off the ground?

Whatever, I drew a possible cartoon logo to accompany the title under consideration. Of course, it didn't make the cut ... but, I think it's worth publishing because of its 'sans out-lines' construction, a style of cartooning I like, but have never employed to any great extent.

Black Caviar retires unbeaten

What a magnificent animal. Whatever is next for her, I feel reasonably confident she will remain a stranger to knackers' yards and/or glue factories.

Still, with the chicanery recently uncovered in Europe ... and her name ...

News confusion?

The major news items being covered by local (Victorian) media this morning were the tragic event in Boston (US) and the angst being suffered by officials, players and supporters of the Essendon (AFL) football club over an on-going investigation into possible wide-spread use of illicit drugs. Over the past couple of days ... the head-coach James Hird has been in the spot-light.

Though the gravity (and importance) of both stories differ greatly ... there are coincident elements of each which could confuse people interested vitally in one of the stories whilst, perhaps only vaguely aware of the other. I can imagine it may also be a challenge for newspaper writers charged with composing terse key-word headlines ... especially if the stories are slated to appear on the same page.

Both are principally concerned with Bombers. On the one hand the term applies to criminal terrorists(?). The other concerns a club nickname. Both involve sport. A marathon foot-race in the US ... and, a football code which ranks as a religion among welded-on local enthusiasts. Finally, both have generated relatively large investigations by appropriate authorities with a view to exacting heavy punishments on parties found to have broken the law.

It so happens that being able to combine two or more current events logically in one cartoon is one of a political cartoonist's most prized aspirations. It will be interesting for me to see if any of our local well-known practitioners are brave enough to tackle this particular 'alignment of the planets'.

'Our' Adam

There's no doubt about it. It just took winning the 'big dance' in golfing circles (the US 'Masters' at Augusta) for plain old journey-man Adam Scott (who?) to instantly transform into 'OUR ADAM'!

It's the Australian way.

Emu-bobbing for health.

Another community service announcement. During November last year (on my previous blog), I mentioned a couple of ladies who could be encountered every morning between 6 and 7am patrolling the streets of Keilor picking up and bagging litter dropped by neighborhood slobs. They were doing it in a voluntary fashion without pay or perhaps, the knowledge of the municipal council whose minions should be carrying out the work. After congratulating them for performing such an unusual community-spirited task, I asked what prompted them to do it. They responded with ... "We only do it to keep fit ... and, it's much cheaper than Gym. fees." Sense of humour as well. I liked that!

I caught up with another lady doing the same thing during my 'constitutional' walk under a heavily overcast sky, oozing drizzly rain this morning. In this case, the diminutive middle-aged lady doing the 'emu-bob' confided that she has a back complaint which requires regular bending from the waist ... a boring manoeuvre for her when done in isolation. Sooo, she took to doing it publicly with the added benefit of feeling she is doing something worthwhile for the community.

Almost unbelievable in this day and age. Heart-warming nonetheless.

'Paper-boys'

The above title is probably redundant ... because I suspect newspapers are rarely delivered door to door by kids on push-bikes nowadays. I'm an early morning walker, but haven't actually seen the daily newspapers being delivered for years. When last witnessed, the method was an adult driving a motor vehicle. Because of right-hand drive in this country, the driver was obliged to throw the rolled-up paper right-handed over the cab of the vehicle in the general direction of the intended recipient address on his left. A feat requiring more than a modicum of skill, one imagines.

Every day I do see the result of the phantom 'paper-boys' work though. I have to say the standard of their output is (broadly speaking) pretty appallingly bad. Rarely seen is a newspaper lying conveniently within the (presumed) destination property. Partially hidden in shrubbery, lying on public footpaths, nature-strips, gutters (often water-filled) and, on the adjacent roadway itself.

The accompanying cartoon endeavours to categorize in mock sporting terms the perceived skill of these mystery night-creatures.

And, in case you're wondering ... the additional image posted today is actually a corrected version of the 'toon I posted on the 12th. Only this morning I noticed that I had 'scalped' Mr. Turnbull. Somehow in the production process, a small area of grey hair colouring disappeared into the ether ... probably because dumbo rim omitted to save the element before finalizing the graphic. Trouble is, I haven't yet located a delete and replace mechanism in the blogger engine ... otherwise this disclaimer wouldn't have been necessary.

'Tin ears'

So, according to Mr. (yesterday's man) Crean ... Ms. Gillard isn't listening to messages from Labor MPs about party ills, spills and dills or whatever. Are you simple Simon? Though people outside the ALP may agree with the thrust of your complaints ... they are not the ones you have to convince.

A short time ago, a majority of your caucus colleagues endorsed Ms. Gillard's leadership resoundingly for the third time. Were you not listening Mr. Tin Ears?

As they say ... it takes one to know one.

What the hell are 'tin ears' anyway?

Doctoring the NBN?

We all need as much fibre as we can get ... no matter where it comes from.

Vale Maggie T

This is the 'toon I had in mind for yesterday, but couldn't get it done because of other events and obligations.

I can't say that I was a fan of Mrs.Thatcher when she was alive ... and, that opinion was kinda  confirmed when I visited Newcastle upon Tyne during 1996 to see first hand the depressing fruits of her labours. I was also surprised by the un-sought invective directed towards her by almost everyone I met and spoke to in the north and midlands of England during a month-long journey through the country.

This is a cartoon comment on her perceived legacy ... not a reflection on her character.

Cheating

Today's cartoon was originally prepared on December 8 last year as a contemplation on whether or not my blog's previous web-site was going to survive mounting troubles. I've recycled an amended version to illustrate what peering into the abyss of mental-block feels like when umpteen distractions have conspired to wipe-out an entire day's work plan. Like happened today (oops!) now yesterday.

Waiting for GOTto

GOT is short for Good Old Talk, a Queensland-based 'not for profit' over-50s chat site which has hosted a blog of mine for the past 2 or 3 years. It crashed in February this year following an ostensibly successful renovation exercise and, only came back on-line yesterday after being inaccessible for +/- 7 weeks. The site's logo is a black on white capitol 'G' from an old Gothic font.

As some of the deprived 'GOTchas' (as I call site members) have perhaps followed me to this blog ... today's cartoon is meant to parody the return of the site with an unlikely bit of conjecture about the recent withdrawal of service. It's usually a quip I reserve for greeting my dentist whenever he returns from any extended absence from his chair.   

Candidly ...?

Politicians seem adept at getting themselves into unnecessarily controversial situations ... presumably because they either simply don't think about the consequences of their actions ... or, they simply don't  understand the baggage of notoriety.

Last Thursday, there was a big 'nosh-up' in Melbourne to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the (ahem) right-leaning Institute of Public affairs. Lots of 'big wheels' were there including Gina Rinehart, Rupert Murdoch and political aspirant Tony Abbott. In today's Age newspaper (business section) there is a candid pic of 'Mr. Rabbit' kneeling alongside Roop's chair apparently carrying on a jolly conversation. Except, that the split second frozen by the camera shutter has Roop looking up at the ceiling in a vaguely bored fashion. Probably not true in fact, but there it is ... in the public domain for anyone to ponder their own interpretation of what was happening.

My own cartoonist brain immediately conjured an obedient lap-dog buttering up its master for a treat ... albeit crumbs from the banquet table, as it were(?)

Steaming Rollers!

Now that the Minister has explained the main thrust of changes to Superannuation ... let the howling commence!

Pulp fiction?

A couple of days ago, I posted an example of my 'biggest ever' comic strip. In case anyone's interest was excited ... here's the programmed sequel which didn't make the 'cut' for display on the large out- door billboard. Indeed, if memory serves me correctly, this is the first time it's been published anywhere.

Shrinking Super?

No yachts, private jets or 'Rollers' ... but, my moderate super pay-out in 1990 has seen me through until now without need or desire to blow the lot in favour of the OA pension.

Must say, my heart bleeds for the heavily topped-up super aspirants whose clever Super-based tax-dodges now stand in jeopardy.

Just have to make do with a 'Merc' I suppose?

Becoming UN-funny.

At first, the antics of the North Korean leadership reminded me of the Iraqi Information Minister 'Comical Ali' trying desperately to make the best of a bad situation as the war to overthrow Saddam Hussein was winding down to its inevitable conclusion.

However, these clowns seem to have lost the plot in their comedy of bluffs. As a result, they may be pushing the gag a little close to the edge of the abyss into which they (and their hapless population) will disappear if their supposed nemesis misreads the performance as that of madmen ... rather than just opportunistic adventurers who are prepared to go where others fear to tread?  

Billboard

Incidental to yesterday's post, I mentioned the comic-strip format of cartooning. Of all the forms of comic doodling I have undertaken, strips are my favorite medium of story telling. My most successful effort was a send-up of the I.T. industry titled Rarebits which ran weekly in a trade magazine (Pacific computer weekly) for over ten years bridging the 1980s/90s.

However, my BIGGEST strip (literally) was a single episode of a web comic called ANTipodes which occupied an entire 3 x 1.4 metre bill-board attached to a Pub in the inner-Melbourne suburb of Richmond for a month or so during the latter part of 2009. It was part of a year-long exhibition promoting the work of Melbourne-based cartoonists. The theme was historical Melbourne, so I chose it's discovery by John Batman inter-twined with a then current event (yes folks, the 'stop the boats' slogan aint new) ... being acted out in the parallel universe of ANTS.

Birds of a Feather

This is a web comic title which was published occasionally on a now defunct web-site (Bonzer!) during 2011-12. It originally appeared in strip form, but I've adapted some of the ideas to panel format for this new cartoon blog.

If nothing else, it adds a little difference to the daily current affairs grind.

April fool's day

Hope you all had a happy day ... and, weren't embarrassed by being caught out too many times.