Sam Orchard

YouTube video by Creative Australia Folio: Stories of Australian comics

Also - super interesting project: Folio - Stories of Australian Comics www.youtube.com/watch?v=orSH...

This is such a cool collection- check it out

This is tonight, btw

ILLUSTRATIONS — Limited Edition - Illustrated A3 Art Prints | Buganz83 — FAFSWAG

Dammm half of these sold within 24 hours. Y'all are amazing 😧😍 Thank you to those from Bluesky who made purchases. I fucking appreciate you. Das crazy and unexpected!! I am so grateful. 🙏🏽❤️❤️❤️

www.fafswag.nz/mketi/illust...

YouTube video by NZ Book Awards for Children & Young Adults Li Chen - Detective Beans and the Case of the Missing Hat (including activity and Q&A)

The delightful @exocomics.com did a great talk yesterday, including how to draw Detective Beans! You can watch it here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlRo...

Cartoon. Title: “Twist” Image in two frames. First frame: a girl with other children in the background, holding a tray of mince meat, with a green growth on top that spells “MOULD”. She’s saying, “Please, Sir, I don’t want any more” In the second frame David Seymour’s surprised eyes, and saying “WHAT! You refuse to eat your greens?!”

Olivia Twist and the School Lunches.
A Dickensian tale for our times.
My Stuff #cartoon today #NZpol #children

Blockers Banned Part 1 - Rooster Tails Oh. So. Ummm... I am officially winding this blog down. I did a little post about it and then there was an announcement about banning new prescriptions for puberty blockers. So - before this site's ho...

Awkwardly, as soon as I quit making comics like this... things happened and I made another comic.

Blame the people who decided to ban new prescriptions of puberty blockers.
Part 1: www.roostertailscomic.com/.../blockers...
Part 2: www.roostertailscomic.com/.../blockers...

The Mystery Note A lyric game in comic form

Inspired by @dylanhorrocks.bsky.social's 'Lonely Fun' zine - @taracomics.bsky.social has another RPG for you to enjoy taracomics.substack.com/p/the-myster...

EVERYTHING.
Miss Piggy's lilac shoes are specifically delightful. But. Also. Everything.

The Jim Henson Company 70th Anniversary Auction Julien’s Auctions is proud to present The Jim Henson Company 70th Anniversary Auction. Over the course of its 70-year history, The Jim Henson Com...

Oh noooooo.... www.juliensauctions.com/en/auctions/...

Puberty blockers banned: The reality of raising a trans child in 2025 A parent shares their experience and fears as public submissions are sought on the use of puberty blockers for gender-affirming care.

The studies they are choosing to ignore

France: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Australia: statements.qld.gov.au/statements/1... and www.saxinstitute.org.au/resource/evi...

USA: publications.aap.org/pediatrics/a...

From:

The Professional Association for Transgender Health Aotearoa (PATHA) condemns today's decision from Minister of Health Simeon Brown introducing a ban on new prescriptions of GnRH analogues (puberty blockers) for transgender children and young people who are not currently on them. This ideologically driven ban will have a devastating impact on the lives and wellbeing of our transgender and gender diverse young people. We know that children, young people and their whanau will be highly distressed by this decision. We also acknowledge health professionals' frustration at the way their expertise has been ignored and disregarded. "The ban will lead to a deterioration in mental health, increased risk of suicidality and increased dysphoria in gender diverse children and young people, and will put them at a higher risk of experiencing marginalisation and discrimination," says Dr Elizabeth McElrea, GP specialist in gender affirming care and PATHA Vice-President. "The prescribing of puberty blockers is always undertaken with the utmost care and consideration. They have been prescribed safely for decades for transgender children and banning their use will lead to profound distress in this already vulnerable group." This decision is not supported by the Ministry of Health's November 2024 evidence brief on this care.

This decision is not supported by the Ministry of Health's November 2024 evidence brief on this care. While the evidence brief identified some limitations in the academic quality of evidence regarding the risks and benefits of GRH analogues, limitations in evidence quality are common across a number of areas of medicine, especially within paediatric medicine, and do not justify a ban on access. "PATHA supports evidence-based medicine, which consists of three key components: academic evidence, clinical experience, and patient preferences and values," says Dr McElrea. "When the quality of available academic evidence is of lower quality, it's incredibly common for clinicians to lean on guidelines drawn from clinical experience." "Practising medicine, and paediatric medicine (not just within gender affirming healthcare), often necessitates providing care without a high-quality evidence base. The absence of high-quality clinical evidence does not mean providing this care is wrong." "Children benefit from innovative medical treatments that improve their survival and quality of life. Pediatric care would all but cease if physicians denied treatments for which the evidence base is imperfect." (McNamara et al., 2024, p. 15) 'An Evidence-Based Critique of "The Cass Review" on Gender-affirming Care for Adolescent

The new restrictions will be in place until the conclusion of clinical trials in the United Kingdom, which are not due until at least 2031. "In no other area of care would life-saving medication be withheld from a vulnerable population for six years. This will have a traumatic impact on a generation of transgender children," says Avery Zavoda, PATHA Executive Committee member. PATHA is strongly against the decision. It is a shocking act of discrimination against transgender children and young people. "That New Zealand First announced this news three hours before the Minister of Health shows the way this care has been politicised, and how politics have been prioritised over the wellbeing of New Zealand children," said Zavoda. "Banning puberty blockers will not prevent children from being transgender, despite the disinformation New Zealand First are promoting," says Jennifer Shields, PATHA President. "It's obvious that this has been a political decision made to appease a coalition partner based on an imported culture war, rather than a medical recommendation reflecting the expertise of NZ clinicians and researchers who have been working in this field for over 25 years." Identify, a 2022 New Zealand research survey on the experiences

Identify, a 2022 New Zealand research survey on the experiences of rainbow young people showed "the proportion of young people who wanted puberty blockers and were able to use them was nearly half the number of young people who wanted these medications but could not access them." These findings made it clear that the prescription context and existing regulations "did not result in the easy access to young people who wanted puberty blockers that some people have claimed existed. In fact, the results demonstrate a seriously constrained prescription context that urgently needs further attention to be more equitable." "We call on the Ministry of Health to publish their consultation report immediately, so that health professionals, trans people, and the wider public can see that this decision has been made by politicians rather than based on clinical experience," says Shields. "We also look forward to the Minister now immediately allowing the updated guidelines for gender affirming healthcare to be published." "We also call on Labour, the Green Party, and Te Paati Mãori to commit to reversing this harmful decision if they are elected into government next year. Our communities need the reassurance that this ban will not last." "PATHA is committed to ensuring all trans children and children experiencing gender dysphoria have access to the best quality care.

PATHA's statement has been published: patha.nz/news

We have been so lucky to have Gwenne Bregeon, a comics researcher all the way from France, interning at the Cartoon and Comics Archive, and finding wonderful things - here's a blog post that covers some of her discoveries: natlib.govt.nz/blog/posts/a...

Awww that's so sweet, thankyou

Thank you, yes indeed, I've still got some comics projects I'm working on, but 15 years of oversharing in this way just seems like enough for now. Hope you're doing well!

Time to go. | Sam Orchard Get more from Sam Orchard on Patreon

Just letting you all know that I'll be shutting down Rooster Tails in the coming months. I want to do some different creative stuff, and I have been wrestling with this strip for a while. So. I'm retiring Rooster Tails.

You can read more here:
www.patreon.com/posts/142559...

If you wanna come say hello and see what we do at the National Library of New Zealand - feel free to come along to this: natlib.govt.nz/events/natio...

I'll be there with some cool cartoons and comics

The National Library is 60 years old... come along to their open day to celebrate

If you book for a back-of-house tour you may even get me as your tour guide 😊

natlib.govt.nz/events/natio...

If you want to do a fun family friendly school holiday thing, then I'd highly recommend this: www.facebook.com/share/1BZi7z...

Cartoon. Image shows NZ Prime Minister Christopher Luxon in Gaza’s ruins, talking to a gaunt woman, huddled with her two children. He’s saying, “New Zealand is a very principled nation. We won’t be rushed”

New Zealand prevaricates on whether to recognise Palestine as a state, or not.
My Stuff #cartoon today #NZpol #Palestine #Gaza

Māui – Sun Catcher on Storytime by RNZ Māui the trickster and his brothers go on a very special adventure Music by Akash Dutta and Gus Reece

You can listen to the book on RNZ storytime - storytime.rnz.co.nz/book/maui-su...

But it's well worth checking out Zak's illustrations too so here's a video of Tim reading it and showing the illustrations: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mii8...

Modern take on Maui A west Auckland author is using the legend of Maui to inspire kids.

It's a modern retelling of Māui, using rhyme (in both Reo Māori and English - which I am truly impressed by) and illustrations that feel relatable and fresh. Tipene (Ngati Kuri and Ngati Whatua) says he wanted to create a character to inspire bravery www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/loc...

Māui - te kaihao i te rā (Māui - Sun Catcher) Written by Tim Tipene, illustrated by Zak Waipara, and reo Māori translation by Rob Ruha is the next book on our list. natlib-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/f/...

Yes! I feel like he's got such an incredible ability to bring a page to life - the colours and textures specifically are so wonderful and rich! Feels like something you can just sit and soak up for a long long time

YouTube video by NZ Book Awards for Children & Young Adults Gavin Bishop: Reading and Q&A session

And check out this lovely reading and Q+A: www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSYP...

He’s the man: Gavin Bishop cleans up at the children’s book awards Results and analysis of the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young People.

It was Bishop's FIFTH time winning book of the year. There's a nice little write up about the book awards here on the spinoff, which highlights Bishop's work: thespinoff.co.nz/books/10-08-...

Atua: Māori gods and Heroes - Māori author's efforts recognised

Gavin Bishop;s (Ngāti Pukeko, Ngāti Awa, Ngāti Mahuta, Tainui) Atua swept the CYA book awards in 2022 winning the Margaret Mahy book of the year AND the Elsie Locke Award for Non-Fiction AAAND the Russell Clark Award for Illustration.
www.teaonews.co.nz/2022/08/13/a...

It would be remiss of me to do a list of Māori comics and illustrated books (or other library items) and not mention Gavin Bishop. My problem is really which Bishop book to highlight! In the end I chose Atua: Māori Gods and Heroes: natlib-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/f/...

If you're not a Te Whanganui-a-Tara resident you can check out our online exhibition that some of my colleagues have put together showing some of the amazing photos and ephemera in our collection to celebrate 50 years since the 1975 hīkoi:

natlib.govt.nz/collections/...