Alex

I have to admit that one of my daily checks on the internet is the Alex web-site!      This cartoon is published in the London Daily Telegraph and also in the Financial Review, but you can get the most up-to-date cartoon on the web-site (http://www.alexcartoon.com/ ).

Alex is a "yuppie", right-wing English investment banker, who is obsessed with appearances, displays of wealth and schemes to stay "one up" in the world of international finance.   In his world, personal status comes first, his work second and his family a distant third.

I find the strip's wordplay and twist endings very engaging, but sometimes you need to be a regular reader to understand the full significance of the humour because it frequently depends to an extent on the relationships between the characters.

This year, for the first time, the website has what is described as a 15 part feature over the Christmas period.  I'm not sure whether or how this is going to turn up in the AFR, but in the meantime it makes good summer reading!