Copyright

Copyright law in Australia is pretty straight forward. If you produce an original piece of artwork, basically all rights remain with the artist unless surrendered in writing to another owner. You don't even have to attach the usual © symbol to establish ownership. Generally, freelance cartoonists never relinquish their rights to anyone without contractural benefit ... and, wont deal with publishers who demand ownership of copyright as part of 'payment for use'.

However, it is a fact of life that people consider cartoons as trivialities which are worthless except for (hopefully) an instant, but fleeting, laughter hit. They feel free to lift anything that takes their fancy for inclusion in secondary publications (newsletters etc.) with nary a thought for the welfare of the (perhaps) struggling artist ... a condition in which sadly, most wannabe cartoonists find themselves.
Remarkably, outright theft for gain only touched me once (that I know of) in a career spanning amost 30 years.

In 1989, with the prospect of soon going 'full-time' as a cartoonist, I responded to a well known NSW publisher's advert seeking submission of cartoons to illustrate a humorous book written by a former marriage celebrant and tentatively titled 'Wedding Daze'. I sent off an A4 page of rough samples together with a letter outlining fees I would require if selected for the job. No reply. Follow-up enquiries ... same result. I forgot about the project and moved on.

A year or so later I was in Sydney with my son. Whilst browsing through the shelves of a shop specialising in comic publications, I came across ... you guessed it ... a remaindered copy of 'Wedding Daze'! Not only was it replete with cartoons ripped off from many other cartoonists, my roughs were ON THE BACK cover! I took it up with the ACA (cartoonist's association) only to learn that they had much earlier pursued the publishing editor over a problem with their magazine production only to find that he had apparently done a bolt just ahead of angry creditors (perhaps including the author(?) whose name escapes me) and perhaps, the cops ... and, un-heard of since.

I've been very wary of publishers I don't know ever after! Whatever, I thought that, as I still own the copyright over those ancient cartoons, I might start a series of showing them in the blog from time to time. They are exactly as originally submitted, except that I have added background colour to obviate the otherwise boring black and white.

Enjoy.