Incisive Drawer Who Made The World Laugh

The Age

Friday November 24, 2006

ROLF HEIMANN

OBITUARIES - PAUL RIGBY, CARTOONIST, 25-10-1924 - 15-11-2006

WHEN fellow cartoonist George Haddon delivered Paul Rigby to Melbourne Airport last week, it was discovered, much to the amusement of young bystanders, that Marlene Rigby had put her husband's left shoe on his right foot and vice versa. Nobody laughed more about it than Rigby, and he made Haddon promise to do a cartoon on it for the cartoonists' magazine Inkspot.

Rigby, who had been guest of honour at the "Stanleys", the yearly awards night of Australian cartoonists, held in Ballarat, died of a heart attack not long after returning home to Busselton in Western Australia. He was 82.

In Ballarat, his peers awarded him the Jim Russell Award (also known as "Uncle Dick") for his contribution to Australian cartooning.

Aware that Rigby had been a tail-gunner in World War II, I decided not to pick him up from the airport myself; I half expected him to dislike my German accent, as so many old diggers of his generation do. Yet I was assured by people who knew him that he was one of nature's gentlemen - and he certainly proved to be so.

Paul Crispian Rigby was born in Sandringham and after studying art at Brighton Technical School and working briefly as a commercial artist, he joined the RAAF and served in Europe and the Middle East. After the war he returned to Melbourne to teach art.

In 1949, en route to Europe, his money ran out by the time he got to Perth, and so began his media career, first on The Daily News and Western Mail, which led to a stint in 1968 at the News of the World in London. His cartoons were also syndicated by the Springer Group in Germany, and soon were seen all over the world.

In 1974 he returned to Perth, but his cartoons continued to be distributed worldwide. In 1977 Rupert Murdoch invited him to New York for six months, but he stayed on. In 1984 he moved to The New York Daily News, and his old job at the New York Post was taken over by his son, Bay. Both papers proudly, loudly and correctly proclaimed to have Rigby.

About 15,000 cartoons by Rigby snr were published over 50 years, and his numerous awards included five Walkleys, Australia's top newspaper gongs, a New York Press Club Award, and in 1999 the Order of Australia.

Rigby retired in 2000, first to Florida, then to Western Australia, where he ran a small art gallery in Margaret River.

His trademarks were the little boy and his dog. In some pubs in London his cartoons were shredded into a hundred pieces, and a prize went to the person who drew the section with the dog.

When Rigby received his Jim Russell award in Ballarat, he recalled the words of Noel Coward: he did not deserve the prize, but then he did not deserve arthritis either.

In his later years he needed a wheelchair and a walking frame, and movement was obviously painful to him, yet he preferred not to be physically helped and always presented a cheery face.

Having made a number of short films about Australian cartoonists, I had heard more than once that Rigby was the one who inspired young artists to enter the field of cartooning. I was doing research to make my little film about him when the sad news arrived.

Cartoonists across the world loved his work, and those who knew the man loved him.

He is survived by his wife Marlene, children Nicole, Pia, Peter, Bay and Danielle, and five grandchildren.

Rolf Heimann is vice-president (Victoria) of the Australian Cartoonists' Association.

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© 2006 The Age

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