Busy 2013 for Hagen Cartoons

Well, 2013 is almost over, and it is time to reflect on the year to date. As some of you may know, I am not a full time cartoonist and rely on my busy but satisfying day job to feed the family (thank goodness for my day job!).

To date, I have drawn 316 cartoons in 2013, that's 0.866 cartoon per day, for those of you, like me, mathematically inclined... Not bad for a non-pro...

As for the newspaper industry, the prospect of my cartoons appearing again in newspapers is pretty grim, despite the efforts of my agent in Australia, Auspac Media. I am now in only two Saturday papers ("The West Australian", Perth, Australia and "The Port Moresby Courrier", Papua New Guinea), whis is better than nothing, but a bit disheartening.

Cartoonstock and Jantoo however have managed to sell a lot more of my cartoons this year, but unfortunately, this is still not enough to make up for the lost income of having lost a number of newspapers in 2011. On Cartoonstock or Jantoo, you can do an advanced search by artist and select "Hagen" to review my cartoons.

Very few sales on Zazzle or Redbubble this year, which is also quite disappointing...

In 2013, I've put together cartoon eBooks on Amazon.com with, it must be said, very limited success with only a few sales and a few "borrows" so far. As I am useless at advertising or promoting myself, I am not all that surprised, but it would have been nice to see more sales now that I have 19 eBooks for sale.

O well, let's see what 2014 has in stock for cartoonists...

Hagen Cartoons: http://www.hagencartoons.com

Stanley Awards Weekend (Part 3)

Saturday night, 26th October 2013: Stanley Awards

The night of night of the Australian Cartoonists' Association is the Stanley Awards dinner and ceremony. Once again, the Stanley's Committee did a great job at organizing the evening, with pre-dinner drinks at 6:30pm for a start at 7pm.

The MC for the night was Peter Berner, a comedian and TV personality (in Australia) who also happen to be a cartoonist and member of the ACA. Coincidence? I think not as Peter was at the Stanley Awards as a guest like us last year! He did a great job as an MC.

Below is the official list of nominees and winners (in Bold) for each of the Stanley Awards categories:

Illustrator nominees:
Pat Campbell, Anton Emdin, David Follett, Eric Lobbecke, Levent Efe

Comic Strip Artist nominees:
Jason Chatfield, Gary Clark, Allan Salisbury, David Follett, Tony Lopez

Single Gag Cartoonist nominees:
Luke Watson, Matt Golding, Dean Alston, Judy Horacek, Glen Le Lievre

Caricaturist nominees:
David Rowe, Tom Richmond, Judy Nadin, David Pope, Terry Dunnett

Editorial/Political Cartoonist nominees:
Ron Tandberg, Mark Knight, Bill Leak, David Pope, David Rowe

Comic Book Artist nominees:
Josef Szekeres, Anton Emdin, Dave Emerson, Tim McEwen, David Blumenstein

Cartoonist Of The Year nominees:
Peter Broelman, Pat Campbell, Glen Le Lievre, David Pope, David Rowe, Anton Emdin

If you can count, you'll notice that Anton Emdin snatched three, that's THREE, Stanley Awards!

It was a great night and many congratulations to all the nominees and winners!

As usual, there was a silent auction to raise money for the ACA and I managed to snatch an original "Swamp" strip. I just love Swamp! Gary Clark was awarded a special award on the night to celebrate 10,000 (yes ten thousand) Swamp strips, not including Sunday strips! What an achievement!

Below are some photos on the night:

Rob Feldman and Tony Lopes

Lovely branded balloons

Peter Berner admiring Swamp original strips

Peter Berner and Gary Clark

Jenner

Silent Auction artwork

Silent Auction artwork

The original Swamp strip I managed to snap

2013 Stanley Award Winners

Standing, left to right: Glen Le Lievre, Tom Richmond, David Rowe, Jules Faber,

Russ Radcliffe, Peter Berner

Kneeling: Gary Clark and Anton Emdim

Once again, congratulations to all nominees and winners!

It has been announced that the 2014 Stanley Awards will be in Sydney in November 2014.

Don't miss it!

Stanley Awards Weekend (Part 2)

Saturday 26th of October 2013:

As usual, I got up at 6am and since the breakfast bar was not going to be open until 7am, I went for a nice walk around the resort, see photos below:

Pacific Bay Resort

There were lots of Bush Turkeys running around

The small beach at the end of the resort

During the summer, they have a Circus School on site

After a nice buffet breakfast, it was time to attend the annual General Assembly of the Australian Cartoonists' Association (ACA). Members of the Committee, lead by Jules Faber, current ACA President, told us how the club was going and presented us with the financial audit of the club. Everything seems in order. After this official business done, the Committee answered questions from the ACA Members present. At 10am, it was time to start the ACA Conference itself.

First to speak was Jules Faber who gave the Presidential Welcome.

Brian Cook, a literary agent, showed us some typical costings for book publication and advertising and how much return an author and/or illustrator is likely to get. That was a bit disheartening to see how little royalty most authors get back.

Tom Richmond, Guest of Honour this year and President of the National Cartoonists' Society (USA) gave us a short course on caricature. Boy Tom is amazing! Basically, Tom talked about the art of caricature, what to look for in a face and asked the audience to practice with him. On the screen were projected some famous models and we were invited to draw at the same time as Tom. I suck at caricature, so my efforts were abysmal. Some of the other guys and girls though did some amazing work. It is easy to spot the real caricaturists! Below are a few photos:

Jules Faber introducing Tom Richmond

Caricatures of the models on the screen that Peter Byrne did during Tom's tutorial: Great stuff!

Another Peter Byrne caricature and some from Dave Blumenstein

This was followed by a short talk from volunteers of the Coffs Harbour Bunker Cartoon Gallery.

At lunchtime, it was time to buy second-hand books to raise money for the Bunker Cartoon Gallery as well as Tom Richmond's book and signed prints:

Tom Richmond signing his book for me: Yeah!

Straight after lunch, Tom Richmond, Anton Emdin and Dave Williams (editor of the Australian version of MAD Magazine) gave us an insight on how things work at MAD Magazine:

Tom Richmond, Anton Emdin, Dave Williams

Tim McEwen and Dave Blumenstein then gave us a "State of the Comic Nation". Tim showed a vast number of examples of emerging comic-book artists while Dave concentrated on explaining the development, ups and downs of Squishface Studio in Melbourne.

Jason Chatfield, Dave Blumenstein, Tim McEwen

Jason Chatfield then told us about the importance of being online. Jason talked about why you should check that your website is user-friendly when used from a mobile device and brushed on the importance of knowing how to work with Social Media to build more traffic and business.

Jason Chatfield

Last but not least, Russ Radcliffe, editor for "Best Australian Political cartoons" showcased his favourite cartoons from the past ten years...

This concluded the official programme of the 2013 ACA Conference, and it was time to get ready for the 2013 Stanley Awards...

(To be continued)

Australian Cartoonists' Association: 2013 Year Book

View the 2013 Year Book

Each year, ACA Full Members can display artwork in the "Year Book". The book is then compiled, printed and sent to all ACA Full Members along with a voting form. Each member can then vote for their favourite cartoonist in each of the categories. An independent company collects and tallies all the votes and the awards are announced during the Stanley Awards' weekend.

Why don't you have a look at the amazing artwork in the 2013's Year Book...

See the latest work from our members in the annual Stanleys Year Book, download it to your smart device, computer or laptop now as a PDF.

ACA 2013 Year Book