Election Q.

The colour and excitement of election day descends on Queensland.

!YAWN!

Lil Duce's fears?

The Guardian on-line this morning had a candid pic of Q. premier  Newman. I know press photos are just a frozen split second in the subject's life... but, there was clearly fear in the eyes of the 'Lil duce'.

If a true depiction of mood ... maybe he is spooked by the possible (tho' almost unimaginable) loss of not only the election on the part of the LNP...,but also his own seat! Bearing in mind the dictatorial majority he enjoyed in the last go-round... even the possibility seems to be in Sci-Fi. territory!

Leap of faith 2

How to re-gather credibility and trust from the bottom of the barrel? I Dunno. Never been there.

That's PM Tony A's problem and he's welcome to it.

Butt of a Joke

Well... it's almost universal now. Even the arch-conservative of all conservatives (Rupe) has tweated that he considers Abbott a joke and an embarrassment. That ringing endorsement above all others should tell the Liberal party... this bloke is toxic!

Another opinion piece this morning implies that the prime miniature has not only given his own party a figurative one-finger salute in determining to do what he bloody-well likes no matter what... he has also 'mooned' the whole nation in careless fashion.

The tragedy hidden by this comedy act is that the bloke doesn't seem to cotton to the mounting dismay his antics have spawned. He thinks 2014 was  'a good year for the government'. Gawd help us if they have a 'bad' one in 2015!

The Gong Show?

Funny strange... not funny Ha! Ha!

Australia Day.

Sooo... like shoes and socks... someone pulls on the republic debate once again, This time, it's Bill Shorten...

Drawing collage

Today, as happens every day when circumstances allow, I practiced drawing for 10 to 15 minutes after breakfast. On this occasion I was concentrating on controlling the use of an 'el cheapo'* throw-away marker which just happens to produce a line suited to my current idea of simplifying both the production and look of my topical cartoons. The reason it's temporarily difficult to control is that I've always been partial to a stiff marker tip for cartooning purposes...and, this unit is unusually soft. It is also clearly intended for use on hot-pressed surfaces, whereas I'm wedded to heavy bond stock for hand-drawn art... (because I've got ream upon ream of the stuff to get rid of before 'I fall off the twig',  as it were).

Anyway, most of this practice stuff usually goes straight into the waste bin ... since there is normally no purpose in it other than to hone line-production. I was about to do the same with this group of unrelated 'mind wanderings' when I thought it might be interesting for someone or other to see my daily prep. doodles for once, So, this collage was pasted together on a single A4 sheet... then as an added bonus, I decided to spot colour some of the basic B & W drawings with some 30/40 year old coloured inks that are derelicts from the pre-computer colouring era.

The final act...?

And now, believe it or not... the final act on the program... HARI  KARI!

Chesty... but, not page 3 material.

Starring Tarzan played by Cheetah.

Foxtrot Compound at Manus

Of course, propaganda-wise the Manus Island 'facility' is technically the responsibility of PNG. However, the onset of self-harm by asylum seeker detainees in F (for foxtrot) compound... including the swallowing of razor blades... must be a bit of a worry for the new Immigration Minister... he having so recently been in charge of our Health department?

Promises, promises,,,Oh dear.

As part of his successful election campaign Dan (the man) Andrews promised to obliterate the grossly expensive (6 billion plus change) East-link road project which was a corner-stone of the previous government's policy. In fact, so confident were they of the correctness of their project, they hastened to sign building contracts right up to the eve of the election.

They lost.

Dan said all along the project was a white elephant which he promised to cancel immediately (if) elected. He was. That promise has been kept... believe it or not. However, Dan also promised that he would achieve destruction of the 'not worth the paper they're written on' contracts without incurring compensation at tax-payer expense... based on learned counsel he had obtained pre-election. According to media reports today, that undertaking might've been just a bridge too far for our Dan(?) It now seems there may be a prospect of the State incurring a $1.2 billion compensation bill if displaced contractor's
legal advice is less rubbery than Dan's!

NB. apart from the 'white elephant' ref, in the above text... it so happens that during October 2014 just prior to the State election, media were running once again the long standing story that evidence exists to confirm that Elephants can paint meaningful pictures given the necessary materials and a loaded brush clutched in the tip of their trunk. (Google 'elephant painting') Put that together with the oft-used modern term 'elephant in the room' ... and VOILA! you have today's cartoon!

Sussan Ley new Health Minister

G'day Sussan. A bit like the 'short straw' ritual? Only, in the case of the Health portfolio... perhaps 'bitter pill' might be more apt?

Medicare fiddle 2

A follow-up to my last current work post dealing with the government's shifty move to by-pass the recently abandoned GP co-payment flash of brilliant thinking with a back-door imposition on GP income. Yet another back-flip!

Why do this rabble even go through the motions of pseudo capable administration?

BTW... I've been fooling about with a simpler style of cartoon drawing in recent times. Thicker
outlines and leaner detail adaptable to both colour and B&W work. This is a sample.

Barassi # 2

The caricature of Ron Barassi posted yesterday was probably based on a mildly exaggerated depiction of the AFL icon commissioned in 1981 as part of a audio-visual presentation dealing with famous people in varying walks of life who also became well-known on the public speaking circuit.

Here's the earlier  12 x 15 cms cartoon originally rendered  in brush and india ink.

Barassi caricatures # 1

Ron Barassi was/is a giant among AFL footballing notables...both as a player and later coaching at the elite level. Back in 2003, I did a caricature of the great man which was a possible starter as an illo in a book titled Kicking Behinds, then being put together by ACA* notables Jim Bridges and Paul Harvey together with former Age football writer, John Ross. The comic survey of AFL football (warts and all) from a cartooning point of view was published by Penguin Books (ISBN O 14 300125 6,) the same year. A couple of my contributions made the cut... but not the 'Barassi'.

At last year's xmas BBQ the Barassi caricature came up in conversation. At the time I said the original work had thwarted attempts to find it among my hap-hazardly stored cartoon archive. Then, just yesterday, I stumbled over it whilst looking for something else (the essence of my filing system).

So here it is for those who may not have known what the Barby chatter was about. It is A4 size drawn and lettered using various sized markers.

Medicare fiddle... but, which one?

Once again an Abbott adminstration slick-trick (this time aimed at undermining the medicare health system to suit their view of the world) appears doomed to fail in the senate.

Their arrant stupidity in repeatedly pushing forward ill-considered and basically flawed legislation that has no prospect of support in the upper chamber... draws more attention to their fitness to govern the country than it does to the actual matters in hand.

Is that politic?

Coming on strong?

Camshaft Newbroom reportedly used the word 'strong' 29 times in response to a media question about the Queensland election campaign.

Emergence of the 'one-word' political slogan?

Henley on Todd?

Central Australia's mythical Todd river is flooded with (Shock- Horror!) actual water! Is this phenomena a result of Climate Change ... and if so, will it thus become necessary for this year's 'Henley on Todd' annual regatta to feature real Boats and/or other floaty devices?!

Luckily, there's +/- 8 months before the iconic event is due to take place. Is that enough time to build an up-stream dam to protect the unique nature of 'H o T'? Or will nature come to the rescue?

Stay tuned.

Clucky lot?

Andrew Robb's kinda 'out of step comment' on broadening the G.S.T. base has given me my first ever chance to depict him in a topical cartoon.

In this case, not 'feeding the chooks' as Jo Bj-P used to term door step comments. Andy appears to have  committed a 'fowl foul' himself in the eyes of other cabinet inmates?

The Shadow?

In Australian politics, birds of a feather don't necessarily flock together.

Je Suis Charlie.

Here's my belated response to the atrocious assault on cartoonists, journos and even a Muslim policeman in Paris. May the perpetrators meet the fate of all rabid dogs...

Leap of Faith?

The fore-runner of this blog was running on a website in Queensland when electors there suffered a collective brain-fade which resulted in a phenomenal land-slide win for Campbell Newman's LNP.

At the time, I said giving 'dictatorial' power to a virtually unknown politician might come back to haunt electors if performance during the first term proved to be somewhat less than they expected. Well, in a few weeks time we will have that verdict... and, amazingly polling indicates that 'Camshaft Newbroom' (as I unkindly(?) nick-named the new premier) might be in a spot of bother protecting his obscene majority at the up-coming election!

Blog-Strip test.

During the early1980s (long before the internet and it's personal communications revolution evolved), I used to amuse myself and colleagues by appending a daily humorous comment on items recorded in an airline operations shift log. It used a strip format and usually appeared in the blank portion at the head of each page.

It helped me to hone brevity of text, timing and gag construction later put to good use in a commercial comic strip which ran for 10 years in a computer interest magazine. After terminating my 4 year non-stop daily current affairs cartoons on new-year's eve... I've been mulling over a possible return to comic strips, my all-time cartooning favourite format, perhaps based on current events and their affect on a neighborhood of OZ characters. Today's offering is a tentative step in that direction... though the 'right' characters are still forming in my imagination.

Words that 'grate'?

No... I'm not reverting to daily cartoon posts. This confection was scribbled during the recent 2 day heat-wave but not fully processed for web publication until early this a.m. (which, I'm happy to report, is just sunny and mild after an overcast and drizzly night).

First new work for the year.

For the second day running, trapped in-doors by extreme heat (41c expected top), a gale-force northerly wind and the threat of bush-fires everywhere in the state. Nothing else to do but doodle something aimlessly... influenced only by an otherwise barren media fixated on trivia like New Year 'resolutions'.

Anyone ever consciously aware of anyone turning one of those flights of fancy into real tangible action?! Rank with political promises IMO.

In the beginning...

...to the fore-runner of this blog  and the start of the late daily posting odyssey which commenced on January 1st.,2011. Space allocated by the site-designer for hosted blog texts was more than ample. However, only one column (all of 8cms wide) was allocated for illustrations to the right of the text rubric. That cramped my drawing style greatly... it meant pics did not always publish immediately adjacent to the relevant text ... and, some of the +/- 700 mostly elder site membership expressed difficulty in reading the 'squished' cartoon text. About half-way through the little over 2 years the 'toon blog ran on that site, I discovered  some flexibility in the illo space capacity, so commenced creeping up the width of tendered 'toons until they were  at 16 cms by the time the site folded in Mar/Apr 2013.

After my brief holiday yesterday (mostly spent raking grass on my son's semi-rural property ahead of fire hazard restrictions)... today is being spent in-doors with the shade temperature outside on the cusp of 40C!  Mad dogs and englishmen country only THAT is!

So an earlier than intended return to the blog with first of a 2 part look at the first month of the 4 year daily marathon I terminated on New Year's eve.