In the Cabinet?

Titanic-like developments in the cabinet whilst the Captain is otherwise engaged?

Resolutions c,2011

Too hot for creative cartooning today, so here's what I had in mind on this day in 2011... supported by the original blog text. A week earlier, our old hacienda had been battered by a freak xmas day storm which included a TORNADO and cricket-ball sized hail.

Today's news contains many of the same elements.

Resolutions.

By rim on 30 December 2011 - 10:44am

In the midst of our storm-influenced gloom at the moment, I was wondering what 'old nick' has in store for all of us next year ... or next week ... or, maybe, even tomorrow?

Best we don't know, I guess.

The BLUE Planet?

With all the tribulations currently plaguing our Earth, wishing fellow inhabitants a 'happy new year' may be the most futile statement you will make during 2015,

Sunday Strips

A spot of fantasy in this episode... but none of the industry jargon kind.

Why 'Boxing Day'?

Here's another of the 'toons held-over because of a 2012 web-site outage during the xmas-new year season.

Oh! the merriness of it all.

This little piece was done for a past blog of mine just before xmas 2012. It was never published because  the gods of the internet chose to take an early holiday that year... and this kind of salutation tends to shed its meaning somewhat if paraded outside of its specialty season.

For the full experience, just imagine you're 3 years younger.

Xmas must be coming?

An oldie... but the celebration doesn't change much as the years unfold.

Kim Beazley

Imminent changing occupancy of the Washington ambassadorial deck-chair has coincided with the surfacing of a 2007 caricature of Kim Beazley about the time his parliamentary career reached its conclusion. At the time he was reckoned in some circles to be 'the best Prime Minister we never had.'

Apparently, I was traversing my 'cross-hatching period' when this B & W scribble was done. I've added colour to this rendition simply to ease the boredom of empty space.  

Sunday Strips

More of Small Potatoes. A small note about abbreviations/jargon in the travel industry c, 2004.

GDS... Global Distribution Systems variously titled Sabre, Amadeus and Abacus et.alia.

Donald Trump for President?

Donald Duck might be a more congenial and intelligent candidate?

Xmas prompts 2

On the same theme of garbled carol lyrics...

Xmas prompts

Any port in a storm for 'toon ideas when you are hot, tired and washed out...

Wormy thing?

The federal budget is revealed as a can of worms?

Sunday Strips

Small Potatoes 'One way' ... from 2004.

No contest?

Years ago I read an article about how the allure of US basketball and perhaps other professional sports (like Big Bash) was beginning to act as a conduit channeling the interest of West Indian youth away from their traditional sport of first class cricket.

Looks like the dire predictions embodied in that report have come true judging by the very green players representing W.I. in the current test series against Australia.

Aborted take-off

This cartoon remained un-finished yesterday because I was all but laid low by a monster bout of Hay-fever like symptoms,,, runny nose, sore throat and head-ache through-out most of the day.. Likely the revenge of the tree I severely trimmed and later spent a fair amount of time chopping up for compost earlier in the week (?)

I had intended to finish it today.  However, upon  opening the Age as a mid-morning coffee excuse, I noticed that Ron Tandberg's page 8 take on Bishop the elder's decision to remain in parliament because of the threat of terrorism was almost identical to mine. Onya Ron!

Recently, there was a discussion among up and coming cartoonists about the fear of being dubbed a plagiarist if an innocently published 'toon closely resembled the idea of a fellow artist. Well... not necessarily. I'm only putting this on my blog to demonstrate to the younger fraternity that similarly oriented minds DO (in isolation) sometimes think very much alike.

Nickel plated?

Is Clive broke,,, or just 'going for broke' to protect his solvency?

Fall-Guy?

Well, no... but almost!

For some time past I have been 'circling' the task of removing tree branches which have overgrown our roof to create havoc with guttering at this time of year. The tree is a mass of small flowers which, during spring and early summer, deposit heaps of very fine petals or pollen which easily penetrate fine mesh gutter-guard to cause blockages during heavy rain-fall. Worse, if not removed quickly, the material accelerates rusting of the actual guttering.

At 80, I'm not as agile on the roof as I used to be. Not fearful, but ultra-cautious. This morning was warm but overcast with no breeze whatsoever. I determined this to be perfect for the task... so gingerly ascended the ladder along with trimming gear and a crab-like scuttle from point of roof entry to the scene of the over-growth. As usually happens... nothing untoward occurred during the actual operation. Except frequent calls of 'are you OK?' from my wife through the kitchen window immediately below my work-space. None of those entreaties broke my concentration until the last one which came shrill and unexpectedly as I was reversing off the roof with one leg tentatively trying to feel for a foot-hold on the penultimate rung of the shaky old ladder made by my Dad c.1930s(?) Startled, I was immediately seeking non-existent hand-holds in excess of the two I already had a firm grip on... whilst the ladder drunkenly sought to substitute stability for an onset of the wobbles.

All ended well. However, on any future expeditions to the hacienda heights my good lady is instructed to assist my safe return to earth by holding her tongue and the bloody ladder at the same time!  

Sunday Strips

From the trenches, Small Potatoes c.2004 marches on...

Saturday Double-dip (2)

Here's the focus on this day in 2013...

Murdoch                    

By rim on 5 December 2013 - 4:12pm

The megalomaniac Rupert chose to become a U.S. citizen so he could better prosper in his insatiable drive for power.

OK! Stay in the 'States and annoy the hell out of your friends of choice Roop. Leave this country, its people and valued institutions (eg, the ABC) alone.

I assure you, you'll not be missed for one nano-second!

Saturday Double-dip.

The long awaited summer has finally reached us south of the border (temporarily anyway?) with 4 days in a row expected to reach 30C or higher. Downside of the heat is that it adds to the normal languid state of this elderly cartoonist who, having mowed the lawns earlier this morning, now cannot even bother checking breaking news reports to see if there is anything screaming to be lampooned.

Sooo... why not raid the archives to chronicle what was occupying my attention on this day in (firstly) 2012?  The original blog text is included to illuminate the thrust of the subject, BTW,,, this was from the 'postage-stamp' sized cartoon repro sizes era, so I've bumped it up to 20 x 20 cms and changed the speech balloon colour in the interests of clarity.

Israel in the news again ...

• 
  

By rim on 5 December 2012 - 2:20pm

... both of them, that is.

On the one hand, you have Israel the country 'white-anting' international efforts aimed at facilitating an atmosphere conducive to building a lasting peace between Israelis and their Palestinian neighbours. As a step in that direction, the UN no sooner elects Palestine to non-member status, than the Israeli government announces their intent to establish more settlements on the west bank in the sure knowledge that such a move is akin to a sharp jab in the Palestinian eye with a burnt stick.

At the same time, Israel Folau the multi-code footballing identity suddenly announces that he will abandon salary settlement talks with Parramatta Rugby League club, instead, deciding to switch codes yet again by joining NSW's Waratahs Rugby Union side.

Cartoonists sometimes attempt to combine separate items of contemporary news in one drawing, often presenting viewers with a tenuous hope of 'connecting the dots' as it were. However, the co-incident word associations and end-games encompassed by yesterday's similtaneous ISRAEL reports almost beggar belief. Talk about 'planets lining-up' ...  

Blind-man's Brough

What a tangled web we weave...

Climate change 'change'?

The PM announces a $1 billion gift to help pacific island nations combat climate change. WOW! That's a wonderful gesture for a nation whose leadership is continuously portraying the national exchequer as virtually empty.

I suppose Malcolm DID mean he intends to pony-up the gift in Australian Dollars?

Shock Treatment?

News today that electricity charges are increasing at an alarming rate throughout Australia... and the hardest hit consumers are here in Victoria,

So much for the con that privatization of electricity production and distribution would lead to reduced prices for consumers. We are being ruled by complete wankers at all levels of administrative government. Worse, the electorate keeps falling for the bullshit promises peddled by these layabouts!

An oldie, but a goodie!

With neither inspiration nor inclination to draw an original cartoon today, I've fallen back on the bludger's routine invocation of 'this day in .... '(fill-in whatever year is appropriate to your post).

In this case it will be 2011 when I was doing postage stamp-sized illos to support a daily blog. I even have the blog entry which explains the cartoon background.

Tributes.

By rim on 30 November 2011 - 5:54am

Last night I was browsing through the monthly magazine published by the Apple Users Society Of Mellbourne (AUSOM, a pretty clever anagram if nothing else) ... and, came across a letter to the editor on the subject of Steve Jobs recent passing.

Apparently, the member had been in South Africa on business when Steve died. He was intrigued by a large number of tributes in the form of 'sticky notes' which he noticed adorning the front window of an Apple Centre close to his hotel. He reproduced a number of them as attachments to his letter. The one which amused me the most forms the meat of today's cartoon.

I hadn't seen it before. Hope you haven't either.

Sunday Strips

Here's the third instalment of my Small Potatoes strip which appeared fortnightly in TravelWeek c,2004.

Scott Morrison

Until recent years when he ascended to the federal government ministry... I thought I had never really heard of Mr. Morrison as a national identity. Wrong.

A week or so ago I was going thru some old TravelWeek archives when I caught sight of a vaguely familiar face. None other than the c2005 version of S.M. in his then role of Tourism Australia Managing Director... and caricatured by me as the Cover Story subject in the TW issue dated January 19 of that year,

I may have the hide of an elephant,,, but evidently not the memory.

Shirt-fronting

You've talked the talk Tone. Now let's see you walk the walk.

Better still... just WALK!

Boats NO! Boots YES!

Presumably Tony's boots were NOT 'made for walkin'?

Yobbos!

Australia was never owned by, nor meant for, the rough-neck renta-crowd idiots demonstrating and creating chaos in country Victorian towns about issues which have absolutely nothing to do with them directly.

Crawl back to the rat-holes you apparently emerged from!

Sunday Strips

Last week I posted the 'pilot' of Small Potatoes, a strip in 'sunday' format which ran in the magazine TravelWeek on a fortnightly basis for approx.12 months c 2004-5. It replaced a single panel op/ed cartoon titled 'Mason's view' which had lampooned the travel industry from the B & W days of 1979 and in colour from 1993.

I relished the change because it afforded the opportunity to introduce mini story-lines into the act of lampooning.

Here's the lead-in 'trailer' dated April 14 2004.

Friday Doodle

After tossing and turning thru last night's latent heat... then being suddenly awoken by a single clap of thunder rattling our tiles at 5.30am, I was feeling a bit wobbly for the early part of the day.

The future of understanding I.T.

Lost most of yesterday due to having the car serviced early in the afternoon. That, the heat and other trying circumstances combined to extend my lack of cartoon ideas malady until the onset of a mild cool change late this arvo.

Last 'Mason's View' in TravelWeek.

I intended to post this cartoon yesterday as a comparison with the 'Strip' version of the same subject posted on Sunday.

However, the only digital file I could find in the 2004 archive refused to open correctly so I.ve had to revert to scanning the actual printed op/ed page of the TW issue.

Brett Godfrey, then CEO of Virgin Blue, had made an apparently 'off the cuff' remark that he would be prepared to give away 'free seats' if it would encourage 'Joe Public' to patronize Virgin rather than Qantas in a fierce fare-war  in train at the time.

Sunday Strips

My comic-strip out-put suffered a decade of severe drought from the demise of Rarebits during 1995 to 2004 when it was decided that I could substitute a 'Sunday' format strip for the op-ed type single panel type of cartoon I had been doing for TravelWeek for years.

Here's the prototype I ran past the editor to show the difference in approach between the two formats. (A traditional single panel 'toon ran in the TW issue of that date... but this sample gained the green-light for the change to be adopted in subsequent issues.)

The 'Stans'.

This week-end the Australian Cartoonists' Association is holding its annual Stanleys* awards conference in Melbourne.

* named in memory of the late great cartoonist Stan Cross

The Oracle.

This character was invented to serve up witticisms for my original 2011 blog. In the event, he only contributed once ... so here's another of his previously un-published professional secrets of success.

Remembrance?

November 11th. A fateful day in the calendar of many.

























november 11th.

Gotta start somewhere.

In the beginning it is wise to lay down a basic parameter for the task at hand...

Young Guns beware...

... the woods are full of predators just waiting to suck you in, feed off your talent, then offer only a one-finger salute (if that?) in recompense.

Back in 1989, ABWAC was approached by a supposed regional media figure seeking contributions from pro-'toonies to illustrate a comical book about wedding day tribulations. In those days, ABWAC (fore-runner of ACA) could only pass-on job-ops. to members by 'snail'-mail or irregular issues of Ink-spot. Certainly, e-mail was still in the future for most (if not all) of us! Whatever, I learned of the requirement from our association so thought it must be 'cosher'. I immediately scribbled out a few roughs plus my contact details and a 'per cartoon' quote on a single A4 sheet of bond paper (land-scape) using a Rotring-type cartridge pen... and off it went to the seeker of help.

Months passed and a follow-up letter to the commissioning personage remained un-answered so I figured the job had been grabbed by other 'toony' brethren,,, and. good luck to them. Some time later, I was in Sydney to finally wind-up my 'real job' career with Qantas when I strolled into a COMIC shop in the CBD precinct to kill time with a bit of a browse. (Don't know if it was the one Comic Kingdom lately reported to be closing down, but that event certainly prompted this memoir.) In the remaindered book section, I came across THE bloody book! Both the front and back covers where adorned with the 'roughs' I had sent off as EXAMPLES of my work only. The book itself had a large quantity of work by other well-known 'toonies' ... and, I assume they were paid the same amount as me *Zilch*?!

Did I buy a copy of the 'book'? No fear! Why would I want to contribute more to the coffers of this thieving bastard?! I reported the event to ABWAC who I think had, by then, been acquainted with the rip-off. If memory serves...I think I also sent off a par for Ink-spot.

The cartoons in question are rearranged in the piece accompanying this, Only my contact details have been dropped.

Be very careful out there comrades, The same thieves are still at large... but now shielded by 'social media'?

Sunday Strips

The conclusion of this series of strips also reflects the real end of Rarebits during 1995 when the publication Pacific Computer Weekly surrendered... not the comic strip,

The Excision re-visited.

Another day of clashing commitments has precluded a new cartoon post... so, back into the archives to see what was grabbing my attention on this day in 2012, I'm also posting the accompanying blog text from 3 years ago.

Nothing I am aware of has happened during the interim to change my opinion.

Excision.

By rim on 4 November 2012 - 12:02pm

If ever we needed a concrete example of the moral turpitude inherent in contemporary Australian politics, the excision of our country from the so-called 'immigration zone' is it!

If I had the power to do so, I know what I'd excise from our legal an cultural landscape!

And, should Australia ever find itself in circumstances similar to those currently blighting countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, Sri Lanka, et.alia ... no prize for surmising who'd most likely be first 'in the boats', if there were no other ways out of the fix.

Fascinations?

This is a re-run (pun intended) of a 'nag-gag' from my blog in 2011.

Meat lovers special?

I used to like Bacon n Eggs...

Sunday Strips.

Long, long ago in a place far, far away...

Halloween.

I realized today that I am almost totally ignorant of the meaning or origin of Halloween.

Hence this cartoon.

Dutton v. Amnesty

Gee, I'd love to offer my support Peter but...

Stopper?

So... our former PM is now lambasting European leaders about their folly in not closing borders against the avalanche of displaced refugees from the Middle East and North Africa. Like, his experience with  control of asylum seekers trying to enter Australia and the largely bogus schemes he launched to incarcerate those unhappy souls makes him some kind of world authority on how to deal with the european crisis. It's just laughable.

Then again, his much publicized pep-talk was apparently aimed at an audience of mostly Thatcherite Tories... so I guess he was preaching to fellow travellers much of his own ilk?

Speaking of travel. Wouldn't it be marvelously ironic if Mr. Rabbitt tried to re-enter Australia by boat?  

Triple-Header

An alignment of varying circumstances have succeeded in diverting my attention away from cartooning, this blog and other social media for almost all of the past 3 days. 

So, here's today's cartoon inspired by the recent 'me' Bank TV advertising blitz. It's followed by an October 27th., 'this day in 2011' comment on a former Victorian premier's effort to avert police industrial action. Finally, a recent scribble meant to tweak scanning of pencil roughs so they look as if they are pen-drawn (thus obviating the need for 'inking' final art pieces which will be processed thru' a computer anyway).

See, you haven't really missed anything!? 

The pictures