Call Goes Out To Budding Cartoonists
The Age
Sunday August 14, 1994
CHOOSE your weapon: pencil, pen and ink, felt-tipped pen. The pen of a cartoonist is frequently mightier than a sword, or a word-processor.
`The Age' Young Cartoonist Competition for 1994 is on again, this time with cash prizes of $300 and the opportunity to have your cartoon printed in `The Age'.
Cartoons are an important part of the editorial image of `The Age.' From Les Tanner (self-described ``failed toilet seat maker") to John Spooner, `Age' cartoonists are identified closely with the newspaper's coverage of events. People who read the opinion pages in the newspaper will often read the daily cartoons for the deeper perspective they offer of the news.
Cartoonists can be very influential, sometimes on the basis of one powerful cartoon, sometimes by the image they present of a public issue or a public figure. All of them bring their own particular perspective and style to the coverage of issues and events.
To enter `The Age' Young Cartoonist Competition, send in a clean, finished cartoon on a subject that has recently been or is currently in the news. Send in a news cutting with your cartoon that may help to explain its context.
First, second and third prizes will be awarded in two categories - category 1: students in Years 7-9 (aged 12-15); category 2: students in Years 10-12 (aged 15-18). Each winner will receive $150 from `The Age'. Second and third prizes will be certificates signed by the judges (Age cartoonists).
In addition, winning entries will be published in the October editions of `Student Update'.
The competition will run until the end of third term - so make sure your cartoons reach `The Age' by Friday 16 September. Details from `The Age' Education Unit on 601 2819.
Alistair Paton won the Cartoon Competition in 1993 and now draws cartoons for `Student Update'.
`I didn't think that I would win a cartoon competition. I just thought it might be helpful if I got something published, something for my portfolio. There are no courses for cartoonists - you just have to keep plugging away.
`Not all the students who entered the competition were budding cartoonists. The thing about trying your hand at cartoons is that the skills you develop are transferrable.
`The best thing I've got out of the competition has been the job of drawing cartoons for Student Update. Since I was in Year 12 last year, I feel very close to readers of Student Update. It was a dream of mine to be a cartoonist. I keep thinking that now ... maybe I can do it.'
© 1994 The Age