Illustrators Also Need A Little Nurturing
The Age
Saturday November 22, 2008
THE idea of Melbourne in the southern hemisphere complementing Edinburgh in the north as a centre for books, writing, and ideas is worthwhile, but it would be even more worthy if it also acknowledged this city's cartoonists.
If there really is to be combined public and private funding of up to $20 million available for Melbourne's aspiring and established writers and poets, then it would be of tremendous cultural value also to direct a few of those dollars towards maintaining and encouraging aspiring and established cartoonists.It has been a great pity that despite Australia - and Melbourne in particular - having produced many of the world's best cartoonists for a century (I go back to the brilliant Kiwi cartoonist David Low who came to Melbourne in 1911 before a stellar career in London for 40 years), they have received little public acclaim.Each year there are numerous writers' festivals scattered around the country but only on rare occasions have our wonderful cartoonists been featured. In Canberra, there is an end of year exhibition of political cartoonists and Scribe Publications in Melbourne puts out an annual collection of the best Australian political cartoons. But this exposure of our best and brightest remains limited by comparison with the constant spotlight given to writing of any quality.Deserving of much more publicly funded support and recognition include Ron Tandberg, Michael Leunig and John Spooner of The Age, Matt Golding of The Age and The Melbourne Times, Mark Knight of the Herald Sun, Peter Nicholson and Bill Leak of The Australian, Cathy Wilcox of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, Alan Moir of The Sydney Morning Herald and David Rowe of The Australian Financial Review.The highly talented list is endless and is supplemented every year as newspapers encourage and publish the best new cartoonists who can produce a satirical twist in line and drawing that will keep the paper's readers amused for at least a few precious seconds before returning to reports of the international financial crisis and the cricket.Of course, the best cartoonists are writers as well as illustrators and analysts of the appearances and behaviour of our politicians and serious civic leaders. They are always looking for the distinguishing feature and are often heartbroken when a Billy McMahon or Bob Hawke or Jeff Kennett departs the scene.As Melbourne-based David Low wrote in his autobiography while working for The Bulletin: "What is it that makes a man good material for caricature? Billy Hughes had it. Picturesque appearance? That of itself is never enough; but he had plenty of it. Five feet high, thin body with spidery arms, wisp moustache. Ability, energy? There was always something doing when Billy was about. As the dynamic policymaker for Labor the little man with the sharp tongue, waving arms and hearing-aid box that was also an aid to deafness when he didn't want to listen, was always an arresting figure."In recent times Billy's ears, Hawkie's Aussie persona, Jeff's quilled hair, and John Howard's endlessly marching tracksuit have all been mercilessly pinned down by our cartoonists. Both Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull are presenting more of a challenge.But whether it is the Tandbergs or the Pettys or the Knights knitting their brows each morning as they work on a face for the next morning's paper, it is also the rising sketchers already practising their craft on the kitchen table and hoping one day to be published who need to be encouraged in Melbourne and around Australia.If only a small back room in the fine new Centre for Books, Writing, and Ideas was given over to "Aspiring Cartoonists Only" and equipped with a drawing table, paper, pens, pencils, and computer, it would dramatically help and encourage one of Melbourne's finest long-standing cultural traditions.But don't expect them to be nice to politicians in return. -- Barry Donovan is a Melbourne writer.
© 2008 The Age
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