Footscray cartoonist Oslo Davis turned editor for the one-off graphic newspaper Drawn From Life: Stories from the Everyday, which will be distributed later this month. 68145 Picture: DAMJAN JANEVSKI
By Charlene Gatt
IT’S the newspaper where you won’t find any doom and gloom stories, a lying politician or a page three model.
You won’t find too many words, either.
Drawn From Life: Stories from the Everyday, is a free graphic newspaper that will be distributed across Werribee, Newport, Frankston, Dandenong, Box Hill, Reservoir and Flinders St train stations on 25 August as part of the Melbourne Writers Festival.
Star took a sneak peek at the newspaper last week, which was filled with cartoons by some of Australia’s best cartoonists and graphic novelists, including Shaun Tan, Mandy Ord and Bruce Petty.
Their brief was simple: the contributors had to draw something personal about themselves or their lives.
“In the morning, everyone’s down and a bit blah, and I thought they should have something like the MX to read on the way to work,” Editor and Footscray resident Oslo Davis said.
“It’s just another way to tell stories.” Mr Davis came up with the idea for the graphic newspaper about a year ago and also contributed his own piece, an ode to pillow talk.
“I always loved those shows like Curb Your Enthusiasm where it’s a real slice of life story… you could have an episode where it’s about going to a store with your partner and you have a fight over something small.
“I’m very interested in jokes from real life.”
Other sketches featured in the newspaper include monumental life events like a birth to the mundane of walking a dog.
Mr Davis, who is a regular contributor to The Age and other publications, said it had been an interesting experience to be the editor instead of the cartoonist.
“Normally I deal with editors, so the boot was really on the other foot. I felt a bit uncomfortable at times, because I had to ask people to re-write or re-think their idea,” he said.
“It was good, but tricky.”
