Two Australian cartoonists, Judy Horacek and Alan Moir, have released books of their work dealing with the hot stuff: climate change and politics.
Climate change is no laughing matter – until you pick up Judy Horacek’s latest collection of cartoons, If You Can’t Stand the Heat (Scribe, RRP $29.95).
“It really does terrify me,” says Horacek. “I’m lucky I have this medium I work in that lets me channel that terror … and feel a bit more empowered, a bit less helpless.”
She specialises in extracting laughs from the foibles and dilemmas of modern life, but climate change has been on her mind for years. “The reason I became a cartoonist was to have my say about things that made me sad or upset,” she says.
Interspersed with touching/funny takes on the state of the planet are quirky observations involving stressed-out reindeer, paranoid goldfish, undead Elvis and Horacek’s trademark sassy women.
Publishing a book of political cartoons involves talent, foresight – and luck. Alan Moir’s Are We Nearly There Yet? An Epic Saga of Courage Amidst Turmoil (Scribe, RRP $29.95) was on its way back from the printers when Kevin Rudd was deposed as Prime Minister.
“I was just so relieved about the picture we had chosen for the cover,” says Moir, The Sydney Morning Herald’s editorial cartoonist since 1984. “It was pure luck Gillard featured on it with Rudd.”
Moir (who drew the current October cover for the Walkley Magazine) says Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard are a cartoonist’s dream: they hardly need to be caricatured. “Gillard is so calm and measured, she’s almost like a robot. And Abbott is so fiery, and prone to spouting nonsense at any given time, it’s great.”
Moir feels an obligation to “lampoon everyone equally”. But does he vote for those he would most enjoy subjecting to the ridicule of his pen? He laughs: “If so, Pauline Hanson might be PM!”
Cartoon by Judy Horacek
