Times cartoonist Smithy describes inspiration at book release

Our Times cartoonist once drew his science teacher to rapturous laughs from classmates.

‘It was a great way for an introverted little kid to get attention,’ Smithy said at the launch last week of his book.

‘The feeling was very addictive and I knew then that cartooning was for me.’

He watched his commercial artist father draw and ‘practised day in, day out, studying any cartoon book I could lay my hands on’.

‘Mitchell, Pickering, Oliphant were my heroes,’ he said.

‘I spent hours in the State Library drooling over Paul Rigby’s Daily News cartoons.’

Eventually his break in newspapers would come with us two decades ago in testament to persistence and hard work paying off.

Congratulations Smithy!