CARTOONIST Malcolm McGookin, best know for his political satire in The Sunday Mail during the Campbell Newman era, has won two national awards.
The Alexandra Hills local scored top prize in the specialist category and a merit award in the sports section at the annual Rotary Cartoon Awards for his satirical depictions of the FIFA administration and a dinner date.
Mr McGookin has a storied past, having worked as an animator on kid's television show Danger Mouse and The Big Friendly Giant feature film while living in Manchester, England.
The Scottish born cartoonist, who quit his job as a supermarket manager to follow his cartooning dream at college, immigrated to Australia in 1995 where he worked on The Adventures of Blinky Bill and other Sydney based animation projects.
"I moved to the Redlands in 1997 and have been living here ever since," Mr McGookin said.
"I worked for The Sunday Mail for two-and-a-half to three years doing a little political strip and that was great.
"...My departure coincided with Campbell Newman leaving.
"I remember because my final cartoon was him sitting on the end of a splitting branch and in the middle it said 'snap' (for the snap election).
"I am not saying it was deliberate, but it was like if Campbell's going, you're going."
Mr McGookin, now a full-time disability support worker at Wynnum, said cartoonists needed a thick skin to deal with rejection.
"I usually send off to places like Private Eye, Prospect and The Spectator Magazines in the UK.
"Every now and then you score one but most of the time you don't.
"Cartoonists know all about rejection.
"They are afraid of nothing."
Mr McGookin said his passion for cartooning began during his childhood while travelling around Europe with his father who was in the military.
"Almost as soon as I was old enough to hold a pencil I was drawing cartoons through comics," he said.
"Then when I was 16 I started selling gag cartoons to local newspapers."
Mr McGookin said he continued to draw cartoons for children's books in his spare time.