If you like your cartoon hairstyles sharp and your comic observations sharper, Judy Horacek is your cartoonist.
One of Australia’s most successful cartoonists (and one of our few female professionals in the business), her work ranges from wry political commentary to children’s picture books. Her nine cartoon books include children’s classics such as Where is the Green Sheep? and Good Night, Sleep Tight – both produced with long-term collaborator Mem Fox.
Random Life is the latest of Horacek’s cartoon books for adults. It’s a crowdfunded collection of her recent cartoons – most first published in the Age – and many of which riff colourfully and reflectively on themes of labour and fairness, feminism and everyday life.
For Books and Ideas at Montalto, Horacek will talk with broadcaster Serpil Senelmis about Random Life, her career in cartoons, and her uniquely pointy take on contemporary society.
Please arrive 6.30pm for a 6.55pm start.
Featuring
Judy Horacek
Judy Horacek is a freelance cartoonist, illustrator and writer. Her work has appeared in the Age, the Australian and the Canberra Times, and her pointy noised characters can be found on fridges and toilet doors all over the world.
Eight collections of her cartoons have been published. Random Life will be her ninth. Judy also creates children’s picture books – both on her own and in collaboration with Mem Fox. Together, Mem and Judy created the bestselling Where is the Green Sheep? an instant children’s classic. Last year, they released their fourth book together, Ducks Away.
Her cartoons often reflect her interests in feminism, the environment and social justice, and also quite often her interest in funny for funny’s sake.
She is currently published twice weekly in the Age, and has various other gigs and commissions as well. Major retrospective exhibitions of her cartoons have been held at the National Museum of Australia and the National Gallery of Victoria. She has been twice nominated for Walkley Awards for Cartoonist of the Year.
She has a range of greeting cards featuring her cartoons and she also regularly exhibits her limited edition prints and watercolours.
Serpil Senelmis
Serpil Senelmis is an Australian broadcaster with Turkish heritage. She is the co-director of Written & Recorded, a content agency.
The West Australian Academy of Performing Arts graduate has worked behind the microphone, in front of the camera and behind the scenes of radio and television programs across Australia. As a producer, she has worked with Jon Faine, Helen Razer, Derryn Hinch, Waleed Aly, singer Clare Bowditch, Jonathan Green, Patricia Karvelas and comedians Nazeem Hussain and Tony Moclair. She’s had a long working relationship with gonzo journalist John Safran and his co-host Father Bob Maguire. Her documentary work has covered the Turkish history at Gallipoli and a retrospective look at 1960s Turkish popular music.
In 2014, Serpil formed part of ABC Local’s broadcast team for the live coverage of ANZAC Day from ANZAC Cove and Lone Pine in Gallipoli. And in 2015, she returned to Turkey for the ABC’s broadcast of the centenary commemorations. In 2016 she presented The Sunday Sesh, which aired nationally on ABC Local Radio and in 2017 she hosted the ABC Local Radio national afternoons program during the summer line-up.