Jack Newnham

Q: WHY DO WE NEED FUNNY PICTURES?

A: BECAUSE STORIES TOLD WITH FUNNY PICTURES ARE HARD TO RESIST... A REALLY FUNNY PICTURE AT THE TOP OF A  STORY PAGE OR IN A COLUMN OF GREY TEXT IS A TREAT... NOT SURPRISING, SINCE INTUITIVE  CHILDHOOD DRAWINGS WERE OUR FIRST RECORDED LANGUAGE, READING, WRITING AND ARITHMETIC CAME LATER AND HAD TO BE TAUGHT.

My drawing of a naked man with a shotgun outside a chook house begs an explanation. 

It was commissioned to illustrate a yarn sent by a reader to 'OutBack' magazine's 'Laugh Lines', it's 'request for jokes' page. The yarn went like this... "Old Bill was having trouble with foxes raiding his chook house. This night, on hearing a commotion coming from the chook residence, he slid out of bed in the nude, grabbed his shotgun, pulled on his army-issue boots, and snuck stealthily down towards the shed, followed at a respectable distance by his old sheep dog Tim.

Arriving at the chook house, Bill bent over to peer inside, gun cocked ready to fire. Seeing his opportunity, the old dog stuck his cold nose in Bill's bare bottom for a sniff! Bill leapt in the air pulling the trigger as he went gunning down 20 chooks in the process. Next morning, Bill rang and asked if I could help him pluck a few chooks, but he did offer me two to keep."