Bushy Tales comic strip cartoonist Ian Jones brought his book I’M NOT LAZY! — I’m Just into Voluntary Inertia! to a visit to the Riv office. Photos: Emily Donohoe
Photo by
Emily Donohoe
The face behind the famous Bushy Tales comic strip called into the Riv office while on tour around Australia.
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Ian Jones brought Bushy Tales to life over 20 years ago, and it has graced the pages of newspapers nationwide ever since.
His cartooning days go back to Mr Jones’ time at teachers’ college in the 1970s.
“I discovered that it was always better to have people laugh with you than at you,” he said.
“I had a penchant for art and so that that seemed to marry well in the form of cartooning.
“I was first published in 1980 ... not with Bushy Tales, which is what I do now, and I love doing, but I’ve had a couple of other strips over the years.”
On the road with his wife, Mr Jones figured he would visit some of the newspapers that showcased his art.
Mr Jones’ comic strip Bushy Tales has been adored by newspaper readers across the country for decades.
Photo by
Emily Donohoe
Beginning in his home of Brisbane, the couple have headed south towards Tasmania, then back up through Victoria, before heading to South Australia, the Northern Territory and central west Queensland.
“I’ve called in on a few (newspapers) so far,” Mr Jones said.
“It is in quite a number of papers around the country, smaller ones now, obviously, because all the big papers have senselessly ditched their comic strips.
“But I just love the smaller newspapers that continue to support their communities, what the communities want in the paper and consequentially the cartoonist that provides some of that humour.”
While the Bushy Tales readers are different from one paper to the next, Mr Jones tries to create universally enjoyable stories in the comics.
“I just aim for good, relatable humour,” he said.
“It’s very anthropomorphic in that they’re dealing with the issues that humans deal with, and Doug the wombat loves coffee, he’s always sleeping and doing things that we’d all like to do.
“If you hit on something that readers can relate to and carry them along with you: amazing.”
Mr Jones thoroughly enjoys making Bushy Tales, and is grateful that papers such as the Riv have readers who enjoy it right back.
“It’s been a very wonderful journey,” he said.
“It's stressful, pressured and diminishing returns with major newspapers dropping all their comic strips and so on.
“But I love papers like the Riverine Herald that just continue to support and particularly Australian cartoonists ... I really appreciate them.”
Head to page 15 for Tuesday’s edition of Bushy Tales.
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