Spring in the air?

Back in 2006/7 I was in the midst of a fairly traumatic sequence of 6 major abdominal surgical procedures required to overcome a severe dose of twisted bowel syndrome. The procedures stretched from late 2005 to the first half of 2008 with collateral damage including the virtual termination of my professional cartooning career due largely to frequent sessions of recuperative hospitalization making it impossible for me to meet publisher's deadlines... together with the co-incident demise of two magazines which accounted for the lion's share of my income.

However, I used to scribble voraciously during 'home leave' between operations in an effort to dismiss the 'blues' generated by the whole episode. Some of the output was a realization of cartoon ideas I had been harboring for years waiting for opportunities to arise in which they could be meaningfully employed. Much of the work subsequently became disposable scrap, but one 'pilot' for a proposed web- comic strip titled 'Googs" (based on multiple-meaning English words) must've been digitally 'finished' in 2009 and stored for later attention. It has survived to surface only a few days ago whilst I was searching computer archives for something else.

With today's news a bit on the boring side... and Spring officially supposed to start tomorrow... why not fill a gap with something which is relevant and, has been waiting to see the light for +/- seven years?

An un-saleable idea?

Good on him for trying(?) to engineer a special advantage for his members (I'm one)... but this idea had as much chance of happening as pork-wings being on xmas dinner menus. Totally unfair, even if it wasn't already in direct contradiction with every doctor's oath.

Low flyer?

In recent years, after each exceedingly poor result announced by Qantas, the CEO's mantra has been 

"Don't worry, tings will get better from here." And, they clearly DON'T!

What is it about this bloke that apparently convinces people he is up to the task?

Chaplain funding

High Court decisions dealing with constitutional compatibility notwithstanding... the 'Abbot' presses on.

The 'fear card'?

Noble sounding words. Why weren't they saying them before the opinion polls went south for the government?

This mob are so predictable!

Biting off more than you can chew?

Ah well... a man whose fortune is based on digging holes for himself... no surprise there!

Mining boom windfall?

What happened to the proceeds of the mining boom? According to the Reserve Bank, we blew the lot on importation of cheap Cars, household items like White goods, TVs, electronic gadgetry, Clothing and Food etc. as well as Communication in the form of telephony and the internet.

Ah well, I suppose most of it will end up back in the ground... closing the circle in a manner of speaking(?)

Old stuff

All through my career as a cartoonist, I've never been consciously hell-bent to develop a 'style' of drawing which could be readily associated with my work. I think I realized early on that such things cannot be 'forced', because slavish attention to the 'look' of a drawing cancels out the freshness of allowing lines to go where they may on the paper (or, latterly, on a digitizing tablet). As a result, my ragged 'archives' of published and un-published work can be roughly categorized into 'periods' like ''big noses', 'big feet', etc. which I've mentioned here in the past. Usually, those influences were derived from the passing parade of other well established 'toonies' whose proclivity for such anatomical oddities could be taken as a 'saleable' feature of cartooning rather than distinctive styles of drawing.

My main search has always been to achieve clarity of line and brevity of execution. Sadly, the combination doesn't materialize very often, so examples of my personal cartooning nirvana are not thick on the ground. However, I came across this one in a folio of c.2006/7 'roughs' which were simply initial realizations of ideas for cartoons. This one was a 'quickie' sketch of messrs Howard and Costello who had an axe to grind through-out most of Mr. Howard's political ascendancy. It was scribbled on a fragment  of thin layout paper using a standard 'Sharpie' marker with a hasty flesh-coloured ink wash added via some kind of brush. 

I reckon the whole thing would've taken only a couple of minutes from go to whoa... yet, I am stunned today that the minimal lines were all perfectly placed needing absolutely not a jot of correction fluid or overdrawing. I don't think I've ever  done anything even close to it in the personal satisfaction stakes! If the idea was ever published... I failed to keep a record of it.

That's the only reason it is being 'aired' today.

Relative burdens

So. Scott Morrison is not unaware of the Moral Burden attached to his dictates as a minister of state?

In the case of 'boat' children policy... precisely WHO is bearing the greatest load is a moot point. Being a politician, Morrison's moral chagrin will probably last a nano-second after he surrenders office either by choice, or as a result of the people's judgement on his administrative record.

Truckin' on?!

What the truck is Cardinal Pell going on about?

Homework

The quality and value of homework tasks currently set for Victorian primary school children is under a microscope to determine if it advances learning enough to compensate for consequent dilution of other equally important leisure-time activities.

Whatever the bona fides of this move, I bet it will be popular with most kids under grade 6 level! 

Promises, promises...

It's all so unfair... politicians should be able to say what they like, do what they like and not be always on the back foot fending off awkward questioning about justification for their thoughts and deeds!

It's a wonder they don't seriously consider not standing for re-election ever again.

We wish!

Clive v. China?

Now Clive really has emerged as a puppy.

Staple diet in China I would imagine?

Why there's no 'I' in Team (OZ)

More nonsense-babble from our 'steamed' leader about joining his fictitious 'Team Australia' being the thing middle Australians and new-comers should really want to do.

Really?

What do angry Scots do with 'Logs'?

Having done his utmost to annoy just about everyone in Australia in one way or another... Mr, Rabbit moves on to the greener fields of Scotland.

Hope he's treated like the 'tosser' he has become!

Long and winding road?

So, Joe Hockey has apologized for the harm some of his recent public utterances and antics may have caused to his own standing and the fortunes of his party in government.

Sorry mate. That wont go far towards diminishing the wide-spread public perception of you as a demonstrable non-achiever and general buffoon, who perhaps should never have been elevated into the high office you now occupy. Question is... is that view shared by many of your party colleagues who were visibly reluctant to lend support during your recent self-generated tribulations?

The Truth Fairy?

Who's the 'poor' man now? Joe's gob has virtually isolated him from the government side of politics. Even fellow front-benchers can't find any efficacy in his policy support pronouncements (ala the fuel tax affect on 'poor' folk).

His statements are largely based on 'Horse Hockeys' as Col. Potter (of M.A.S.H. fame) would describe them.

Plight of the August Loon?

Joe Hockey says the public are becoming 'hysterical' over his repeated gaffs in policy pronouncements.

Half right Joe. That's Hysterical  LAUGHTER mate!

Iraq 3?

Mr. Rabbit is reported to be looking at possible involvement of Australian ground troops yet again in Iraq.

Is it not possible for our politicians to grasp the lessons of previous interventions such as Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq itself?

They should be enforced to lead any further overseas military adventures in person! Being in harm's way themselves may belatedly instill some wisdom into their otherwise vacuous brain spaces?!

Devine Humour?

Sad to hear about the passing of great comedian/actor Robin Williams in the U.S. overnight.

I think he is the most consistently funny human being I have been aware of during my lifetime. His unique form of hilariously frenetic comedy always caused me to be struggling to maintain regular breathing whilst his 'machine-gun' delivery of gags damned near paralysed my entire mental processes.

Only 63 too. What a tragic loss for his family, fellow performers and a host of dedicated fans world-wide?!

Super-mooned?

Phenomenal stunt?

Marching to a different beat?

What is it about the Liberal party's breeding ground? Two endorsed candidates for the upcoming state election dumped because of unworthy public out-bursts... and now the Melbourne Uni. young Liberals also in deep poo for reckless social media tirades against feminists, muslims et al.

Elite students mouthing-off like complete morons! Doesn't do much to advance Liberal party fortunes... let alone clouding the perceived worth of tertiary education in general.

Loser cannons?

When does a 'Loose Cannon' become a loser Cannon?

When it habitually fires blank rounds or squibs which have to be embarrassingly re-loaded in public.

Asset sales?

With the government busily back-sliding on almost all of their controversial legislative plans, the budget in tatters and a heavy shortfall in revenue on the scope, pressure to sell 'government' (aka as 'our') assets will increase.

Yesterday, Fairfax ran a story about a survey of Canberra MPs who are also substantial property holders. Apparently, the probe found that the 'average' MP owns 2.5 properties. At the top of the league table was a Queensland appointed LNP senator (Barry O'Sullivan) who possesses 50 such assets  worth an estimated $300million! Which indicates nothing except, perhaps, that some Queensland representatives at least must have an delicate task balancing pecuniary interests stemming from their private and legislative lives?

Still, 'it's an ill wind...' as they say. With the government's urgent need for some 'readies', why not see if any of their property nabobs would like to franchise public edifices (like parliament house) into multi-purpose self-sufficiency revenue spinners... like a casino for instance? Games of chance would not be that far removed from activities currently carried on within the precinct(?)
 

Gaza

Over the past couple of days, a top columnist and a couple of cartoonists have been in 'hot water' over supposedly unwise references in work commenting on the terrible conflict over relationships between Israelis and Palestinian residents of the Gaza strip.

Well folks, innocent people and children in particular are being killed willy-nilly in a shooting war that, like all such conflicts before it... will prove absolutely nothing about right and wrong... but kill and maim an awful lot of non-combatants along the tortuous route to that inevitable conclusion. Through the blood-shot prism of excess hubris, the wild-eyed instigators of this disaster should remember the old adage about 'sticks and stones' and, seriously get to a negotiated end to their difficulties before they reach a situation from which there is no going back.

Bullets and bombs are unforgiving.

Trams

I've always loved Trams... for as long as I can remember anyway. Being born and brought up in Melbourne no doubt had something to do with this predilection for urban transport of the rail variety.

Over the years I've scribbled many 'toon depictions of the venerable 'rattlers'... something I was reminded of this morning by a news report that Bendigo, in the heartland of central Victoria's historic goldfields, is considering restoration of commuter tram services after having terminated them some 40 years ago. Fortunately, they have a basis for the project in a working tourist line that survived the closure of most of their original network in the 1970s.

To celebrate the trend reversal, here's a little tram caricature of uncertain date which I found in a pile of scrap paper lightning sketches. It was pen and ink roughly coloured with brushed inks. The background street-scape was computer generated after the sketch was scanned today.

WW1 Anything learned?

In broad terms, nothing of real and/or lasting value was learned from the dreadful destruction of life and limb during the obscenity of WW1. From the square one titling of the conflict as 'the war to end all wars'... surely the most tragic joke ever played on mankind?... it seems we have gone on triggering ever more disastrous wars just because we humans cannot help ourselves eradicate the multiple drives of lust for expansion, hubris and racial hatred from our basic make-up?

One thing I've learned... the first shot in that horrible cock-up was probably fired from Fort Nepean in Port Phillip bay around noon on this day 100 years ago. It was sent across the bow of a German cargo ship (Pfalz) trying to leave Australia the  day after formal declaration of the war. I understand it 'hove to' and was captured.

Doesn't that make you just proud as punch... NOT?!

C'wealth Games cost in the balance?

Apparently the nabobs in charge of funding the various elements of our Commonwealth Games team are a good deal less than impressed with the return on investment (aka medal haul).

Since I was a kid, sport in almost every form has become so nakedly professional... it might as well be trading shares on the stock exchange. Whatever happened to the concept of sport being a 'fun' way of making friends whilst keeping fit?

Global warmth?

Though the sun is shining in an almost cloudless sky as I write, this morning was the coldest Keilor residents have experienced for a long time. I don't know what the overnight temperature low was in our postcode... but nearby Essendon airport (somewhat closer to sea-level than we are) recorded -1.7C!

Plenty of frost about on roofs, shrubbery and parked cars. Snowing on Mt. Macedon and even on the streets of Ballarat I hear on the news. Brrrr.

Roll on Spring!

Indian Giving?

I'm a bit late getting into this controversy... perhaps, because I'm not a denizen of Twitter or other social web sites.

My question is what are we supposed to do for India as a quid pro quo? Obviously, a presentation cricket bat or two endorsed by bowlers aren't going to 'do it'. And, a bit late for 'the Don' to step up to the crease.

Ricky Muir stranded?

Aint the twists and turns of politics priceless?

The local branch of the party represented by senator Ricky Muir has reportedly voted itself out of existence, which leaves the new MP and the senate in a very unusual constitutional situation.

The soap opera continues...