A new card design for the Eight of Clubs, from a project a few years ago
New Zealand Indy Car driver Scott Dixon had a great week, winning the last three races in the current series, including back-to-back wins in last weekend’s double header in Toronto. That was his 32nd win in IndyCar.
Indy Racing League Championship, winning in 2003 and 2008. He is currently second in this year’s standings. His most memorable victory was winning the Indianapolis 500 in 2008 from pole position.
I sent a copy of my cartoon, published in the Southland Times, to Scott at his Chip Ganassi Team HQ in Indianapolis, which he signed and returned.
A timeless gag cartoon about politicians that I used on the the back cover of my ‘Twink and Ink‘ collection of cartoons in 2001.
Considered by many as possibly the greatest player of all time, Rod “Rocket” Laver is the only tennis player to win two Grand Slams (1962 and 1969). He signed my caricature at his residence in California in June 1994.
Edison Arantes do Nascimento, better known as Pelé, is regarded by most as the best football player of all time.
Nicknamed ‘The Black Pearl’, he is the only footballer to win 3 World Cup-Winning medals (1958, 1962, 1970) and was listed as FIFA’s Player of the Century in 1999 and Athlete of the Century by the International Olympic Committee.
From 1995-1998 the Brazilian government created the Sports Ministry specifically for Pelé and made him Extraordinary Minister of Sport. While he held that title, I sent my sketch to him at the government address, and it was returned, signed!
Eric Clapton played 2 concerts at New Zealand’s Supertop at Mt Smart in Auckland on the 7/8 November 1990. I sent this caricature to the promoter and ‘slowhand’ quickly signed and returned it.
He is the only three time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as a solo artist, and as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. A recipient of seventeen Grammy Awards, he is ranked second in the Rolling Stone Magazine’s list of 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. Eric is currently playing London’s Royal Albert Hall, until May 26th 2013.
New Zealand-born Russell Crowe returned to his hometown of Wellington in April 2006 with his band “The Ordinary Fear of God” (TOFOG) as part of a three gig tour. His former band “Thirty Odd Food of Grunts” dissolved and evolved into the new TOFOG the previous year.
In 2002, he won a Golden Globe for his performance in A Beautiful Mind, and went on to win the BAFTA, but missed out on the Oscar when Denzel Washington pipped him for Training Day. However, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association gave him the Globe, but didn’t have a gong for New Zealand’s big hope, Peter Jackson’s first instalment of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring.
I sent him a copy of an editorial cartoon I did back then to mark the event. He signed and sent it back – writing his name under his usual ‘Russell’ siggy, just in case I didn’t know it was his ‘graph.
A few wine ‘toons
Back in New Zealand in 2005 John Cleese premiered his latest stage show John Cleese—His Life, Times and Current Medical Problems at the Civic Theatre in Invercargill. This is my cartoon, published in The Southland Times to commemorate the occasion, and John was lovely enough to sign it for me and write a short note.
Just a few wine lines
ChicanePictures 