Some more cartoons from the Mercury

I've been really slack with posting my cartoons from the Mercury. Each time I do one, it's a bit of a day marathon effort of reading the news, deciding what story to play with, coming up with a joke, coming up with a few back-up jokes, sending off sketches to the newspaper, getting a reply and then actually starting on the inking/colouring. By the time I send the damned thing off, I'm ready to sit in front of the TV and just turn myself off.

"But enough crying, Christopher Downes!" I can hear the hordes of my fans crying out, "Just show us the cartoons!"

Alright, jeez. Keep your knickers on.

The Go Ahead with the Bypass

I don't know if you remember the massive post I did of my first cartoons for the Mercury. One of the cartoons was on the Jordan River Levee where there were ancient Aboriginal artefacts buried beneath the soil; amazingly important for any descendants of Tasmanian Aboriginals. Well on the eve of Reconciliation Week, the construction for a bypass through all of this was given the go-ahead to finish and the protesters had to leave and call it a sad defeat.

This cartoon was my way of trying to find some humanity in this atrocity. (To be honest, I never even realised there was a need for a bypass.)

How To Celebrate a Queen's Birthday

Ash clouds are everywhere these days. And the real shame about it is that we can't play the global warming card on all these volcanoes erupting. They're just the Earth's acne.

During the Queen's Birthday three-day weekend, there were thousands of grounded tourists stuck in Tassie. And there's nothing like celebrating a royal holiday in an airport with a bunch of bored, cranky tourists who were expecting to be home by now!

This was my first attempt at using a watercolour type brush in Photoshop. And I used a paired back palette, too! I'm so proud of myself.

Calling William Shatner and John Lithgow...

While we're on the subject of planes, did you hear the one about the naughty Tiger airline pilot who was caught flying waaaay too close to the ground before landing? He got the entire airline company grounded. The result was a sort of deja-vu here in Tassie; more stranded tourists, but this time for a completely different reason.

I used this story as an opportunity to pay homage to one of the greatest TV shows ever to grace the cathode ray tube.

And to draw a tiger.