I started drawing not long after I was born in Dunedin, New Zealand in 1961. A steady diet of Mad magazine, and Disney comics intercepted from the delivery truck on their way to the shelves of the family corner store, supplemented by Asterix books, convinced me at a very early age that cartooning was the best career choice for me.
I cartooned my way through school, creating simple characters I drew over and over again. In 1976 the first MONSTAs appeared on my schoolbooks. I drew more MONSTAS through my Waikato University days, and after two (very) short careers in economics and marketing, I started Monsta Mail Marketing in 1984, selling MONSTA Tshirts ( struggle was the top seller) at a stall at Victoria Park Market in Auckland, and around New Zealand by mail order.
From 1989 to '91 I drew a daily MONSTAstrip for the Auckland Star, and appeared live on TV3's children's show The Early Bird Show, drawing MONSTAS with a flock of bird puppets! The 1989/90 Whitbread round the world race stopover inspired me to draw a series on each yacht as they arrived in Auckland in my AucklandStar strip.  |
As a result of the response to the Star cartoons, I was appointed as the official cartoonist for the 1993/94 Whitbread race....I followed the fleet from port to port drawing cartoons for Whitbread, and TVNZ.
 I was official cartoonist for the Swedish Match team in the last Whitbread race in 1997/98. I followed the fleet again, scanning my hand drawn cartoons, and emailing them back to Sweden.
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 Between round the world races, MONSTAcartoons began to record the Louis Vuitton and America's Cups in1995 in San Diego.
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  I drew Prada's Louis Vuitton Cup win, and Team New Z'ealand's America's Cup defence in Auckland in 2000, and Alinghi's win in Auckland in 2003.
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