Born in the wilds of suburban Sydney in a time when men were hairy and wore long socks with unnaturally short shorts, Dave ‘Cartoon Dave’ Hackett is a cartoonist who can draw a nine-headed granny riding a flying disco-pig faster than anybody.
Dave is also a children’s author, a television personality and a not-very-awesome ukulele player, who has been a fixture on too many Aussie TV shows to mention (Disney Channel, Toasted TV, It’s Academic, CheeZ tv…).
He has taught his ‘No-Rules’ brand of cartooning for the past twenty-something years to over 250,000 children in schools, libraries and festivals across four continents (only Africa, South America and Antarctica to go…).
He is the author and illustrator of twenty-one picture books, cartooning books, and novels for all ages and has spent more time drawing bums than probably anyone else on the planet.
Dave divides his time between the Subtropics of Queensland and the south of France, with the nicest lady on the planet (to whom he is also married), and together they own two cats, one of which is called Fredrick FatPants.
The other is not.
NEW! Check Out Cartoon Dave's Daily Cartooning Videos at:
https://www.youtube.com/user/cartoondaveweekly
Testimonials
Dave was a delight and had the children in fits and giggles the whole time! They were inspired by his simple illustrating tips, and I have seen Hackett style drawing all around the school since his visit. He appealed to all ages, from prep right through to year 6. He was also flexible, relaxed and easy to deal with from an organisational point of view. I would highly recommend him to any primary school.
Moorooka State School - August 2019Dave was a huge hit with our visiting Year 3 students. The students were completely and utterly enthralled and the staff were raving about him afterwards so much so that a visiting Principal booked him on the spot to visit their school this year.
St John Fisher College - August 2018Dave's sessions in the workshop were great! The students really enjoyed the opportunity to learn new skills and to leave with some great sketches. Would gladly recommend him to others and book him again.
Glasshouse Christian College - Nov 2017Dave was brilliant, the students loved him. They have an art show next week and some will be doing cartoons - they were so inspired by him. Would definitely recommend him to others and he more than met our expectations.
Kuraby State School - August, 2017Dave went well beyond expectations. He was enthusiastic and energetic and connected with all students from Prep right through to Year 6, engaging them throughout the whole presentation.
The workshops were effective and useful for the Year 3 – 6 students. They learned many new things and have been utilising skills and techniques within the classroom already.
Dave Hackett - Cannon Hill Anglican College, September 2016
Sumo Granny Smackdown
Hamilton's Handstand
Fab Face Freakout
No-Rules Cartooning
Norman Enormous
UFO (Unavoidable Family Outing)
UFO in the USA
UFO Afloat
The Bum Book
The Summer of Kicks
Unstoppable Brain Spin
Hands-on Cartooning
Cartoon Your Big Slimy Brains Out
M.A.D Cartooning
Time For Bed, Daddy
Queensland
Speaker type
- Author
- Illustrator / Designer
- Cartoonist
Links
Featured Speakers
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Welcome to Term 3
Hurry, hurry, hurry! If you don't have your speakers sorted for Book Week, please get in touch and we will be happy to provide recommendations for your school.
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New Releases See all books
Touring Speakers See all tour dates
Speaker | Location | Tour dates | Book now |
---|---|---|---|
Northern NSW | 04 Nov - 08 Nov 2024 | ||
Wellington | 06 Nov - 12 Nov 2024 | ||
Brisbane | 24 Feb - 28 Feb 2025 | ||
Brisbane | 25 Mar - 28 Mar 2025 | ||
Brisbane | 21 Jul - 25 Jul 2025 |
What people are saying
Cori was a hit amongst our boys. The boys loved listening to her read her books and talk to them about some of her favourite books. As a school, we were lucky enough to have Cori for three days and she visited all classes from Prep to Year 3. One of the activities that Cori did with our boys was to write a continuing story. At each classroom she visited, she added to the story. We are planning to read this story on assembly to the whole school. Also, before leaving our school Cori gifted us a [...]
I loved how relatable Michelle was for our students. She spoke about struggles she had during primary school and still achieved her goals as an author. This is so important for all our students to hear, especially our support students. Michelle seamlessly adapted her author talks to each year level and all students were engaged. The small group workshops were a hit also as Michelle was so encouraging and her tips and tricks were easy for any student to enact.
Thanks for organizing the author talk yesterday. Our girls had a lovely time and left feeling quite inspired about writing. I really appreciated the opportunity to attend.
'We always receive positive reviews from participants after Julie's training sessions. She is consistently organised, well-presented, professional, and engaging.
As always the service provided by Speakers Ink was second to none and I will always contact you as my first port of call for future bookings.
I thoroughly enjoyed Juliette's visit. She was bright happy and energetic and honest. We all loved her sense of humour. I loved the way she opened up about a writer’s life and her family, the children could really identify with her. Room 3's eyes were alight when she read the book we had focused on. It was great for the students to have Juliette explain how she created 'Gwendolyn' as that was the book that was assigned to our class. It was particularly great for the children to see how an auth [...]
Our visit from David Lovegrove was very well received by our students. They thoroughly enjoyed his workshop.
Very authentic and honest approach to Aunty Rhonda's story and an engaging performance with elements of storytelling, puppetry and music.
Gregg is so enthusiastic and passionate about sharing his work. He gave everyone not only a behinds the scenes and personal reading of his book My culture and Me, but he also shared songs and language in a way that was perfect for young people.