Stumbling around in various full-time employment -clerking, admin and even security patrolling, I recognised, at last, that my first love was cartooning and I needed to develop that, my strongest talent, instead of repressing it. So in 1976, (age 41) I set myself five (5) years to get a full time job in the business.
Within 3 years the goal was achieved, albeit temporarily (again!!). Those 3 years I label my "wilderness" years - my Part-time Freelance/Training years, up-skilling in cartoon illustrating without knowing where it would lead in the end (does anybody?), following whatever leads presented themselves, applying for a few positions advertised locally, which offered related work.
It mainly involved creating as many single-panel gags as I could for submission to magazines that seemed suited to the topics: Australasian Post, People, Racing Car News and Motor Manual. They also included three series: On Course (golfing), Biased (Bowls) and Dizzy Daisies.
Many were published at that time. The Dizzy Daisies was expanded a few years later and published a second time, in the Townsville Bulletin. More on that in a later post.
