Challenging, hilarious, occasionally tragic and always thought-provoking, these wonderful cartoons provide a snapshot of where women are today and encourage us all to keep fighting the good fight. This fabulous new and expanded edition of Judy Horacek’s I am Woman Hear Me Draw contains a whole chapter of new cartoons, a new introduction by the cartoonist (and the old one as well) and is now in glorious full colour.
About
The original I am woman hear me draw began its life as the catalogue to my exhibition of the same name at the National Museum of Australia in 2002. It then took on a life of its own, selling as an independent book, and the Museum has kept it continually in print for all this time. When Julie Ogden, the publisher at the National Museum of Australia contacted me and asked if I would be interested in doing a new edition of the book, I was delighted. When she told me the new cartoons could be published in colour, I was even more pleased. And then she said if I wanted to, as many cartoons as I wanted could be in colour. Many of the cartoons in the first edition only existed in black and white line art versions, but you don’t knock back an offer of colour! So I set about colouring some of them, giving a whole new life to the cartoons. I had originally intended to do only select cartoons, but as it happened, they all demanded to be selected. So now the book is completely in colour – you can see old friends in new clothes.
From my new introduction:
It is particularly wonderful that this new edition is being published now, at a time when it seems to me, and to many others, that there is a renewed feminist spirit in the air, a new spark of inspiration and determination. New publications, new voices, new platforms, new activist initiatives and generally a greater awareness. That’s not to discount the legions of wonderful women who have always maintained strong feminist principles and activism. However for many people, and certainly for large sections of the media, there has been a sense that perhaps feminism wasn’t quite as necessary as it had once been. That’s apparently a familiar tactic of conservative resistance – first something isn’t needed, followed by ‘It’s not needed any more‘. But now, for reasons both good and ill, it is clear that we need feminism as much as ever. The old enemies haven’t been vanquished, they were simply regrouping.
Availability
Out of Print (can sometimes be found in secondhand bookshops and online)
Editions
National Museum of Australia 2002, 80 pages ISBN-13: 9781876944100
National Museum of Australia 2013, 96 pages, ISBN 978 1 921953 18 7
Other covers
