Elf~Fin Leaks & Peeks 12

And here's some more (my, how Jozef is spoiling you!). That's Kraygon and Hyfus in these panels.

Elf~Fin Leaks & Peeks 11

New snapshots for everyone! Characters from left to right – Kraygon and Hyfus (background); Pekti, Ponji, Lyban and Fillayne (foreground).

Stanley Award Winners!

Jozef and I attended the Australian Cartoonists' Association Conference, as well as the 25th annual Stanley Awards dinner during the weekend of 13-14 November 2009. We had presented a 30-minute talk two years ago at the Wollongong conference, but this was our first time attending as delegates.

We had a fabulous time. The cartoonist contingent was warm, funny and exceptionally clever. We even got dressed up for dinner – Jozef in a black jacket, a nice snazzy crushed white shirt and black patent and gold Dolce and Gabbana sneakers (no jeans or hoodie in sight). I wored black satin pants with a crushed black blouse with pink and blue embellishments and my new black suede 1950s-style pumps, which were surprisingly comfortable despite the heel height. Dinner consisted of mixed canapés – Vietnamese rice paper rolls, salmon gravlax, panko bread-crumbed chicken drummettes and Japanese gyozas (all served with their individual sauces). The main was a choice of beef or pumpkin risotto, and the dessert was a berry meringue tart. The table centrepieces had Ferrero Rocher and Lindor Balls secreted away inside them, but I have an uncanny knack of sniffing out hidden chocolate so we found them even before dinner had commenced. Needless to say we got a huge sugar shot on the night.

The company was terrific and our raucous laughs could be heard every few minutes. The actual dinner was held at one of the rooms in the Darling Harbour Convention Centre, which had a wonderful view of the harbour and a Sydney-scape full of night lights.

But the most important part was the actual Awards themselves and we were lucky to have been seated at the table with freelance political cartoonist, Adelaide-based Peter Broelman who picked up two official awards on the night – Cartoonist of the Year and Editorial/Political Cartoonist of the Year. Broelman acknowledged the global financial crisis, the swine flu outbreak, and the asylum seekers in his speech.

Other Stanley Award winners include – Gary Clark (comic strip Swamp), Matt Golding (single gag cartoons), Anton Emdin (illustrations), David Follett (media graphic artist) and John Spooner (caricatures).

During the actual conference, Jozef and I sat near a cultured elderly man with a white mop of hair. We offered up our seats to who we thought was his wife, but she declined. Later on we found out that this gentleman was no other than Mr Squiggle creator and former Bulletin cartoonist 88-year old Norman Hetherington, who was awarded the Jim Russell Award for outstanding contribution to Australian cartooning. Mr Hetherington was met with a standing ovation during his speech.

We also had an opportunity to have a chat with MAD Magazine caricaturist Tom Richmond. I told him a story of my travels through the USA during the late 70s when I was a kid. My family had gone on an overseas trip for six months and we had finished our US leg in New York City. I was buying gifts for all my school class mates and I bought up ten MAD books for the boys. Needless to say, my love affair with MAD began at that moment – I loved the books so much I kept them and indeed still have them. There's nothing like the film parodies or Spy vs Spy to keep you laughing. When Jozef and I had the good fortune to be given a tour of the DC offices after the 2007 New York ComicCon, the bit I loved seeing the most and which brought back the nicest memories was the MAD offices.

During the Stanley Award presentation, our FaceBook friend and now real-life friend Jules Faber announced the first inductees into the Hall of Fame. These honourees were Ginger Meggs creator, Jim Bancks, Stan Cross, Will Dyson, Percy Leason, Norman Lindsay and Pulitzer Prize winning Australian political cartoonist Pat Oliphant.

It was a fabulous night and we thank Jules Faber for helping make it happen.

For more information about the Australian Cartoonists' Association check out their website.

Comic Strip Superstar Winner Announced

Amazon.com has announced the inaugural Comic Strip Superstar Grand Prize winner – Dana Simpson, creator of the delightful Girl. Dana's prizes include a publishing contract with Andrews McMeel Publishing, a development contract with Universal Uclick and syndication on Gocomics.com. Congratulations!

Old Turtle Out; New Turtle In!

We've deleted one our initial first-run Undersea Black Mermaid™ (Turtle) design on the Black Mermaid™ CafePress shop and introduced a new one and added new products to the entire Undersea range. Hope you're feelin' it! Sometimes we'll let you know what our plans are and sometimes we won't so it's important to order quickly if you're a collector. Jozef's started his throw pillow collection and my mum's collecting the tile coasters. We've also talked to another buyer who's starting to acquire the large framed print series. If you're wanting turtles then CLICK here for Black Mermaid™ turtle goods galore.

Good Elf~Fin News Blog Post

The wonderful Colleen Doran has devoted an entire post on her A Distant Soil blog to our upcoming Elf~Fin series and added some very kind words indeed. Thanks, Colleen – we really appreciate your support and that of our readers who have been standing by for a long time to see this series come to fruition.

The Real Deal Little Mermaid Shiloh Dies

Shiloh Pepin, the 10-year old girl born with the condition known as Sirenomelia, otherwise known as 'mermaid syndrome' died recently on the 23 October 2009. According to Wikipedia, this is a "very rare congenital deformity in which the legs are fused together, giving them the appearance of a mermaid's tail". The condition is usually fatal within a few days of birth because of bladder and kidney complications. Despite having only one partially working kidney, no genitals or lower colon, Shiloh died from contracting pneumonia. Shiloh came into the media and public spotlight after an Oprah appearance. Unlike a handful of other children with this condition who survived surgery, she was not able to have an operation to separate her legs because blood vessels criss-crossing through her lower half would have been severed. We defy anyone not to shed a salty tear in veneration of this brave and wonderful little girl.