Sweet and Sour is a children’s story by David Novak – A Telling Experience. He brings his story to life in his wonderful way. The illustrations were first drawn as cards to tell the story using a kamishibai, a Japanese paper theatre stage. The story was inspired by the stories David read to his son Jack, ‘especially the tale of Momotaro and the evil Oni (ogres)’.
I met David Novak at the 2016 Sydney International Storytelling Conference and we met up again in 2018. We talked about a simple animation of one of his stories. It was only recently, with the help of a grant David received for the kamishibai stage and pictures, that we got it together.
The Storytelling Conferences are wonderful events attracting storytellers from around the world – creating a feast of stories and presentations. And great inspiration for pictures! I have cartooned at a number of the conferences – see posts from 2025 and 2016.
As designed by William Light Adelaide was a city surrounded by wide parklands – parklands for all. Over many years they have been encroached upon by various developments, and this has ramped up under the Malinauskas government, encouraged by various influential groups, developers, lobbyists and more – as detailed by the Adelaide Parklands Association.
AUKUS – the incredibly expensive trilateral defense agreement between Australia, the UK, and the US, hasn’t actually given us anything. We are not consulted, have no valued voice … but then, we are very compliant … and complicit …
This is an impression of Jack and Ella Thomas’s yard, Lancelot Terrace, Moonta Mines, drawn in the 1980s. Jack (known as Janna) bred and raced champion pigeons. Ella raised goats. She was very cluey. Both were so Cornish.
Jack could just remember the end of the mines 60 years earlier. The mine owners blew up many of the mine buildings, he said, so the now-jobless families wouldn’t be able to use them.
At election times the Moonta Mines polling booth would be the only Labor booth on the Yorke Peninsula. Ella Thomas handed out the Labor ‘How To Vote’ cards and made sure you knew how to make your vote count.
The remains of a structure on the left in the picture once supported a wind generator that charged batteries which powered the lights in the house. When mains electricity reached Moonta Mines residents were not able to connect to the power until they had dismantled their wind generators.
Photographer Peter Richards lived next door and here are two of his beautiful photos of Jack and Ella, taken back then.
Some of the illustrations for Simon Betts/Soul Trader’s new songs. The first song Alright in the end has been released with more to follow. Eventual ly the illustrations will be used on the album cover.
Simon Kneebone - cartoonist and illustrator 