Young Gary grew up in Brisbane, Australia, and there he found endless possibilities for adventure and fun in local natural and man-made environments including bushland areas, creeks, dumps, a tannery and a sludge pond.

As well as providing a childhood utopia, these habitats have provided rich inspiration for his enchanting cartoon strip Swamp.

Published worldwide since 1981.

“The creek offered eel fishing, swimming, rafting and catching tortoises.

The ponds also offered yabbies (crayfish) and on occasion quality goldfish for our own aquarium. The creek bank was where we had our cubby houses… and our private gathering place, the Mulberry Tree. Many a feast and fight of mulberries were had up in its branches.

The local dumps were a treasure trove, which we regularly scrounged through for the much sort after prize, a discarded bicycle frame or wheel. Once or twice these highly prized items were to be found there. The tannery offered an element of heart pumping danger. Once, we were chased by tannery workers wielding large knifes when we dared to trespass into their back paddock. Of course, the tannery also was the source of the smell that wafted into our homes, whenever the wind blew our direction or whenever it rained.

We once discovered the source of the smell one Saturday afternoon. It was a sludge pond, where the fat and by-product of the tanning process settled on its surface forming metres of a thick crust of green-brown foam… we were greatly impressed!!!

Little by little, as we grew up these places changed.

Our yabby pond was filled in to make way for an industrial shed. The tannery closed down. The ponds are gone and today the creek is a concrete channel. The rough bushland is now neat with trim tree-lined bicycle ways. The parks where we flew and crashed many a model aircraft are still there and most importantly, so are the memories. Somewhere embedded in every Swamp cartoon strip, the things that inspired me in childhood, still show through. For instance, every fly head first in a cowpat, every time Ding nose-dives into a crumpled wreck, every time a dump rat discovers new treasure and every off-beat character. They all have their origins with a bunch of kids… knee-deep in the wonderful world I call Swamp!”