'dollar Bill' Artist Honoured For A Lifetime Of Creativity
Newcastle Herald
Thursday November 18, 2004
WILLIAMTOWN artist Monty Wedd has been honoured with a lifetime achievement award by the Australian Cartoonists Association (ACA).
He received the Jim Russell Award for "significant contribution" to the cartooning industry at the recent ACA Stanleys Awards conference before his peers at Bowral, in the Southern Highlands. Mr Wedd received a 30-centimetre-tall statuette of "Uncle Dick", one of the beloved mainstay characters of a popular cartoon series by the legendary Jim Russell. Mr Russell, who died in 2001 aged 92, was credited with making his series, The Potts, the world's longest-running cartoon strip. Mr Wedd's award for services to the cartooning industry was formerly known as the ACA's Silver Stanley Award. A former Sydney artist, Mr Wedd created many Australian comics in decades past, including Captain Justice, The Scorpion, and Bold Ben Hall.He and his wife Dorothy moved to Williamtown in 1986. They created the castle-like facade of the Monarch Museum, which is now a Williamtown landmark, off Nelson Bay Road. Mr Wedd drew the original Dollar Bill comics to publicise the introduction of decimal currency in 1966. He has been an illustrator since 1947. He started drawing before the days of television when comic books were a major form of entertainment. It provided him with a good income.Later, he won a 1966 competition for the design artwork for the decimal currency and found his cartoon character appearing everywhere from newspaper advertisements to drinking glasses. His Birth of a Nation newspaper comic strip later became hugely popular and by then he was fascinated by military history. He quickly became a "bower bird," starting his museum in a desperate effort to save valuable historical items from being lost.
© 2004 Newcastle Herald