Arthur Bray, TNT Director

               

My return to clerking after a short stint as a Commercial Artist with Graphic Advertising in 1957 eventually took me to the Yeerongpilly, Brisbane terminal of Thomas Road Transport in 1962 as an accounts clerk. The company was just about to expand and I seemed to be in the right place at the right time, aged 26.

I had parked my artist brushes and pencils and found myself  positioning for a role in administration as the business developed quickly from operating a Road Transport service to creating a huge network of Road and Rail haulage terminals and warehouses throughout Australia as Thomas Nationwide Transport (TNT).

Within a year or two, I had graduated to Office Manager of the newly built Brisbane warehouse, directing the recording of stock movements, through the warehouse, of several Australian businesses to whom TNT was contracted. My work with TNT continued there for 10 years, the last few as Brisbane Warehouse Manager.

Along the way, my cartooning was not to be entirely subdued. there were opportunities to use cartoons as teaching aids for staff (storemen and drivers) as well as illustrating the company's staff newsletter. It took me a while to reconcile the two interests of Art and Stock Control. Eventually, I came to see the link of design and order in both. 

The man who started up the Brisbane newsletter was Arthur Bray, Queensland Manager at the time and a vibrant, much-loved individual, concerned for the welfare of all his employees. He was energetic and fun-loving, friends with everyone. Below is a caricature of him, printed in the newsletter, TNT TOPICS, issue No.1 in 1965.  Arthur was appointed Director of Western Australian operations around 1971 and moved to Perth. Sadly, he died there from a heart attack in 1979. Under the illustration is a link to a Rotary Club Memorial established in his name and funding worthy needs of others, such an appropriate project in Arthur's memory.

A few other cartoons will be found on my page: TNT- after hours 1962-1972 when I get to it.

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 https://portal.clubrunner.ca/7992/SitePage/arthur-bray-memorial-fund

Ron Clark Productions 1953-1957

     
      RON CLARK PRODUCTIONS- 1953-1957

In 1953, a year after I finished 2 years of Secondary School, I came across a tall fellar, Ron Clark, one year older than me, a mutual friend of a fellow ex-student of BSHS, Frank Moss, at the latter's 18th. birthday party. Ron was a current art student of International Correspondence Schools (ICS) and was also intent on starting up an animation studio under his mum's house. I eagerly agreed to join his animation project as we were both admirers of Disney and the other studios of the day and could not see why we could not master the art ourselves. We engaged in that for four years, part time. Ron and I both worked as clerks in different departments of Brisbane City Council. 

We learned a lot and gained some drawing skills but did not exactly master the art. I do attribute my early simplified cartooning style to that required for animation and developed in those years (more on that in a later post). My first marriage in September 1957, however, put an end to a young man's spare evenings on such a concentrated pursuit and I moved on to a varied career, although a temporary one before my ART called louder.

Ron and I caught up again only in our retirement years -in 2012. Sadly, Ron passed away in December 2018. Head over to the RON CLARK PRODUCTIONS page for photos and sketches of some of us involved with the studio. There is some artwork there, too, including Stills from our epic production. Meantime, here is a photo of Ron and me in 2012.

Morty - 1957

One of the people I met during my animation days at Ron Clark Productions was Peter Donnelly. He came along by invitation of, I think, Harvey Collins and was starting up his own Advertising Agency, Graphic Advertising. Being under the impression that I was a capable artist, despite my lack of formal training and on the basis only of what he saw me doing at RCP, Peter convinced me to join his agency as a commercial artist.

WOW! Fulltime employment as an artist at 22 years old! One of those life-changing decisions to change employment, leaving behind 5 years as a clerk with the City Council (and the prospects of a lifetime career there) all the more significant because I had recently married a heap of new responsibilities.

It did not work out! I was far too slow and really needed that missing training. After only about 3 months, even Peter came to recognize my inadequacies and started looking for a replacement artist.
Meantime, I had been pursuing the idea of drawing comic strips and had worked up a sample strip called, "Morty". Unfortunately (?) by the time Peter had found his substitute artist, I had grown disillusioned with the whole Arts scene and my sensitivity was showing. So,when Peter saw my Morty strips and proposed that I try swapping jobs with the new man and take his place as Press Artist on the Brisbane Telegraph, I was not optimistic and declined his help, returning to "safe" clerical work.

So I will never know what course my career may have taken if the "Morty" artist had found favour with the newspaper editor and had gained a foothold into the door of Newspaper work at that time. It was to be another 24 years and a different career path before I found myself drawing regular cartoons and illustrations for a newspaper, albeit on a part time basis.

Here is my very first "Morty" strip. The rest can be found on my Morty page (see pages list to right),

if I get to post it there.