Saturday Paper Pitch

Hi, I’m Wes Mountain, I’ve been a cartoonist and illustrator for almost 15 years, with work at Crikey, Junkee, the ABC and The Conversation.

My cartoons have been featured on Talking Pictures, in multiple years of the annual Behind the Lines exhibition at the Museum of Australian democracy and republished internationally. I have a recognisable and distinctive style, am adaptable and obviously very used to working to tight deadlines and with last minute pivots – in my time at The Conversation I covered multiply budgets and federal elections as both the multimedia editor and staff cartoonist. I have years of experience pitching and delivering on-time, every time and building an audience.

It’s long been my dream job to be the cartoonist for The Saturday Paper – I pitched Erik Jensen (with a comic cover letter) before the paper first launched, sadly after the wonderful Geoff Pyror was already onboard – and I believe I have the experience and chops to do it justice.

I’ve included a selection of cartoons across my career below and I can be contacted here (or on +44 7818 33791).

Recent work (2023 onwards)

Since May 2023, I’ve been the Digital Art Editor at The Pharmaceutical Journal in London, so my work has mostly been more editorial focused, but I’ve continued to do work for both The Conversation (with my 2023 Federal Budget cartoon being again featured in the 2023 Behind the Lines exhibition at the Museum of Australian Democracy) and my own socials.

The Conversation (2015 - 2023)

In December 2015, I started as the Multimedia Editor at The Conversation. In addition to data visualisation, general design, illustration and comics, my cartoons were also a feature alongside articles by Michelle Grattan, Peter Martin, Frank Bongiorno, Judith Brett, Anne Twomey, Alan Finkel and others, and appeared in various Behind the Lines exhibitions, on Talking Pictures with Mike Bowers, in classroom syllabuses across Australia and were widely republished.

I also continued to publish personal and freelance political cartoons (some of which are included below) which were also featured as above in their own right.

Crikey

In 2014, following the legendary First Dog on the Moon leaving Crikey, I filled in with a weekly cartoon for approximately 6 months. Many of these cartoons went (the 2014 version) of viral on #auspol twitter and Reddit, and one – iMalc, below – was featured in the 2014 Behind The Lines exhibition at the Museum of Australian Democracy.