Nik Scott

Osama

Fire

A cartoon drawn for Choice magazine (consumer advocacy) a couple of years ago.

Dubliners

I've just been re-reading Dubliners by James Joyce. This is an illustration from 'An Encounter' which is the second or third story in the collection. The story concerns itself with a couple of boys coming across a seedy gentleman in a field who regales them with his opinions of boys and whippings. He then goes to a far corner of the field and (arguably) masturbates before rejoining one of the boys much to said boy's dismay. I enjoyed the story as I clearly recognised the type of gent depicted. Most of us can probably remember meeting up with similar creepy characters.
Fellow cartoonist Rod Mckie
pushed me into reading the book and drawing this pic and I'm pleased he did.

Fear

We all, unless we're very skilled meditators, often find ourselves at the mercy of our emotions. Some emotions like hate and anger can slowly eat away at our serenity turning us into rabid obsessed sick little humans. Others like fear and anxiety can transform us into depressed nervous wrecks. I've known many many anxiety sufferers and can attest to the condition being epidemic. Obviously if at all possible the anxiety sufferer must take steps to attempt to transcend the condition. It's arguably true to say that you're either the master of your emotions or your emotions are the master of you. As a meditator i'm reasonably adept at transcending most anxieties and fears or at least in turning the torrent of panic into an irritating trickle but some fears remain constant and need to be attended to on a continual basis.
My wife is expecting our first baby in a couple of weeks. Our fear that 'something will be wrong with the baby' is intense. I'm reliably informed that once the baby is born that fear will be replaced with the fear 'that the baby will suddenly stop breathing' and that when the SIDS risk is finally put to rest all manner of other fears re baby wellness will raise their hands vying for the prestigious position of top anxiety. And from there the fear will develop into worrying that the toddler won't run into traffic, that the teenager won't be sexually molested by a teacher or that the young adult won't take some bad acid at a dance party.
So fear is never ending. Our ability to deal with with it is directly related to our sense of perspective and our meditational ability. The good news is that help is now out there and that the old remedy of throwing valium at people is fast disappearing. Many people these days tackle their demons with cognitive behavioural therapy. Here's a link to a story about actor Garry Macdonald and his own struggle.
Garry's story

Pavlov

Another reject from a psych book. I like this cartoon. I've never been able to understand how the torment of animals is rationalised by the supposed broadening of scientific knowledge. Hooking a dog up to an apparatus similar to the one in the picture seems to be unnecessarily cruel. The same goes for Skinner and his rats. A plague on all unthinking animal behavourists!

Memory

This was a reject from a recent psych text i was doing. The authors wanted a cartoon about memory loss but didn't think this one was appropriate. There have been several films about memory loss in the last few years. One that comes to mind is Memento starring Guy Pearce (or is it Pierce? google has listings for both names!)
I remember in the '70s when i was working as a psych nurse having to deal with patients with extreme short term memory loss. One guy had lost his short term memory from going on an intense alcohol bender over a period of 3 months after a domestic tragedy. He was suffering from 'Korsakov's syndrome' which is unfortunately irreversable. He'd continually want to know where he was and where his suitcase was! He was a charming man and it was sad to see him in this state. We left him all manner of notes in the various pockets of his dressing gown that explained the ins and outs of his situation but we always had to be around to say 'Check in your dressing gown pocket!'. Everytime his situation was explained to him he became distressed while struggling to put his mind around the concept. We were continually working out softer and softer approaches with which to comfort him. Poor guy. Every five minutes or so we repeated the same scenario. It's like being trapped in a time loop.

Peds

More peds than you can shake a stick at are being rounded up and imprisoned.
The internet has become a great place to catch them. Sadly, it also offers them easy prey.
I drew this cartoon for Netweek (Australia) about five years ago. Cute, isn't it?

Shake

So funny seeing Latham and Howard whoosh out from opposing corners and manfully chest up to each other. They seemed more like two little boys in a school corridor than adults hoping to be appointed leaders of a country. There was no grace. No diplomacy. Just two massive egos blown up to bursting point with spin.
They'll be beginning to count the votes in an hour or so. The polls have been predicting a Coalition win but they've been known to be wrong. They were totally wrong with Kennett and Bracks.

Bingo

Nothing too confronting here. No dismembered legs etc. Instead a simple biz cartoon from my Dogs with Jobs series.