A seasick stork, hundreds of mischievous mice, and a sleepy rabbit are just some of the characters artist Peter Woolcock uses to illustrate the ?Early Days of...? about the struggles of people like the Wright Brothers and Alexander Graham Bell.

The drawings are full of action and detail, and are designed to covertly educate. Although the designs feature whimsical animal characters, Mr. Woolcock?s machines are as accurate as possible. For the piece, ?The Early Days of the Printing Press?, he went to St. George?s to draw the printing press there. ?Where else was I going to find a printing press?? he said with a laugh.

The drawings are amusing, but the captions play it straight with interesting information about the lives of inventors and the early days of things like the telephone and steamship travel.

For the ?Early Days of Commuting?, a caption explains that in 1785 a coach ran from Bristol to London at seven miles per hour, and people worried that such high speeds might bring on illness.

Mr. Woolcock was inspired to make the drawings after he did a series for a magazine about the lives of inventors.

?This gave me the idea to do some more about the early struggles and ridicule suffered by early inventors,? he said. ?I began doing further ones. I did them in the 1980s. I did about 12 or 13 double spreads. But all this was set aside owing to the pressure of other work. I ended up doing it for my own personal enjoyment. The idea for the exhibition was based on this.?

When the Bermuda National Gallery held an exhibition of local animator?s work, Mr. Woolcock approached them with his inventors. They said they couldn?t use it for that exhibit, but they could give it its own small show.

Although Mr. Woolcock is well known locally for his political cartoons, he actually worked for 38 years for the Amalgamated Press in England drawing hundreds of illustrations for children?s books and magazines including ?Look and Learn? and ?Treasure?. These were comically instructional.

He also illustrated the Amalgamated Press? version of ?Wind In The Willows? and then the ?Further Adventures of Mr. Toad? for 25 years. He even drew ?101 Dalmatians? before the film came out .

?They sent me the model sheets and I worked from those,? he said. ?I don?t know how I did it. I churned it out. I worked from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. six and a half days a week. I would do a double spread with all the characters from Disney. That was fun.?

He was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina to English parents. In some ways, Mr. Woolcock can identify with the early struggles of the inventors.

?I was always doodling,? he said. ?I was a lonely child during holidays because all my friends lived far away.?

He loved art, but he said in those days you didn?t say you were going to be an artist. ?If you did, people would say, ?I mean a proper job, what proper job??? Mr. Woolcock said. ?So I worked in an accounts department of Lever Bros. that produced soaps and perfumes. I hated it.?

During the Second World War, Mr. Woolcock volunteered for service and was stationed in Germany. He was amongst the troops that liberated Belsen, and he was in the third tank to reach the river Elbe. He was still doodling when the tank reached the boundary of Denmark.

After the war, he returned to Argentina.

?During the war, I fell in love with things European,? Mr. Woolcock said. ?I found there was more of a market for my type of stuff in Europe than there was in Argentina. Finally my wife convinced me to give it a chance. We didn?t have any money to spend, so I worked my passage to Europe on a cargo ship carrying 169 horses.?

The horses were destined for consumption when they reached Dunkirk, France. It was one of the last cross-Atlantic shipments of live horses. Mr. Woolcock?s job was to ?feed one end and clear up at the other?.

?My moment of truth came in 1953,? he said. ?I was hanging onto the outside of the ship with one hand. With the other I had a broom and I was sweeping under the horse. I said to myself, ?what the devil are you doing with your life??

?A voice came to me, ?you are trying to find out if you can make a living with your drawings?. I always remember that moment. I was so down.?

He went to work for the Amalgamated Press.

?The idea that I could earn a living from my hobby was extraordinary,? Mr. Woolcock said. ?I couldn?t believe that one could actually enjoy one?s work.

?There is this boundary between your job and your work. Job satisfaction is a precious commodity. Sadly, not everyone has it. It must be hell on earth to go to a job you hate.

?When I told my brother I was drawing for children he said he couldn?t imagine me being ?Uncle Peter? to children,? he said. ?But I surprised him by doing it for 37 years. At the Amalgamated Press I was typecast as being an animal artist.?

Mr. Woolcock came to Bermuda with his family in 1981.

?I realised there was nobody doing political cartooning,? he said. ?When I asked about it, I was told by well meaning friends that Bermudians didn?t have a sense of humour. So for two years I held off.

?Then in 1983 there was a general election. The situation was so irresistible that I brought some samples to show then editor of , David White. That is when it all started.

?I found in fact, happily, Bermudians do have a glorious sense of humour. I have been bowled over by the way people reacted to my drawings.

?In 21 years I have had three phone calls of complaint, which I suppose is not bad.?

Mr. Woolcock has worked at home now for 51 years. He and his wife, Ethel have one daughter, Diana and one son, Robin and two grandchildren. They are expecting a great grandchild.

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