Aussie Comics & Cartoons in 1970s a very brief history. Part One

 

Aussie Comics & Cartoons in 1970s a very brief history.

PART ONE

AS IT WAS

The John Ryan penned Panel by Panel published in the late 1970s is a comprehensive and affectionate history of Australian cartoons and comics, that is till you reach the last chapter. It almost reads like an obituary as he brushes over the content creators of the 1970s and pins the future on collectors and fans, perhaps believing the local industry has surrendered to the high profile and vast quantity of imported US & UK publications.

Planet Comics published by KG Murray

In the 1970s Australian written and produced comics seemed to all but disappear from the scene altogether. The post-war boom had fizzled out for a myriad of reasons. From censorship, government policy changes and reader tastes among the many offered.  The readily available KG Murray (also published under a range of imprint titles including Climax Comics, Blue Star, Planet Comics and Murray Comic) DC reprints distributed via Gordon & Gotch were thick on the Milk Bar and Newsagent shelves, along with Grendown with their horror comics sourced from all over the world but packaged in Australia. Frew had never really ceased doing what they did best. Print Phantom comics verbatim. Later in the decade came the manic Maxwell Newton and his Newton Comics with their barrage of Marvel reprints. Which seemed to appear with gay abandon and with such regularity that it was impossible to keep up with releases.

Australian content can be described during the 1970s as “lacking”. Comics in the traditional 24/32-page issue seemed to phase out when it came to local talent with the aforementioned publishers filling the market with overseas products.

This did not mean that anything was happening. It just evolved in different directions and styles.

THE STREET & ALTERNATIVE PRESS

Geoff Hook of the Melbourne Sun

All through the 1960s and 70s editorial cartoonists became hugely popular in all states. William Green (WEG), Geoff (Jeff) Hook, Paul Rigby, Bruce Petty, and John Spooner became a major reason why some people bought the newspapers, and some artists like Larry Pickering and Patrick Cook were actually cited as increasing newspaper sales. We must remember this was when newspapers had morning and afternoon editions and Australian Television was just starting to escape its  5 AM to 11 PM daily constraints. These artists were continuing a long tradition of single panel cartoons that stretched back nearly a century with Smiths Weekly and the Bulletin.

Things were changing in Australia and the 1960s counter revolution was having a major effect on everyday life and the election of the first Labor government in decades gave the younger generation a new sense of freedom to explore and create. Comics in the traditional format may have slowed but new artists were lining up to contribute to the new alternative and street press that was having a major presence. Many of these publications appeared irregularly printed with no set release dates. They included inventive and distinctive graphics and designs as these papers encouraged new ideas and concepts and were a major drawcard for aspiring talent. One of the decade's very first papers was an offshoot of the popular music paper Go-Set called Revolution under the guidance of editor Phillip Frazer.

Revolution was a radical counterculture magazine published in eleven issues between May 1970 and August 1971. It was originally a rock music paper that included an eight-page supplement of the American music magazine Rolling Stone. It quickly morphed with the second issue into something more political after the Melbourne moratorium protest marches over Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam war and many music articles were replaced with political and social issues. Not to mention a fair bit of swearing and the odd boob and bum as well. This issue also had its first two-page mini poster by a young Michael Leunig. Martin Sharpe also makes an appearance along with Neil McClean, Bob Daly and Peter Dickie’s brilliant Zapeyes. With each issue, artists become more prominent in either set pieces (like Dickie) or accompanying feature stories. These artists would appear regularly throughout the decade in other publications, sadly so did many- I can assume unauthorized- cartoons by Robert Crumb. It was a time when it was so easy to appropriate others' works from another country when they had virtually no idea it was being used and few resources to stop it. Revolution was closed down by the new owners of Go-Set in 1971. Phillip Frazer then launched another Australian counter-culture magazine to succeed Revolution, called High Times which ran for

High Times replaced Revolution seemlessly.

ten issues between August 1971 and January 1972.  Frazer along with  Pat Woolley and Macy McFarland seamlessly morphed the two publications by placing the first cover of High Times over the last cover of Revolution. The one major difference with this paper was it came with Wooley’s Cobber Comix.

Cobber Comix was an anthology of unrelated cartoons and streams of conscience featuring Ernie Althoff, Neil McClean, Bob Daly, Adrian Frog, Mike Hassall and a lot of artists not credited or did not sign their artwork. But it was a true comic book. High Times #3 replaced Cobber with Chameleon Comix which ran exclusively Chris Grosz cartoons.

The demise of High Times was quickly filled by another Melbourne short-lived wonder but probably one of the best. Rats Satirical Magazine  (nine issues between November 1972 and July 1973) was very much like the nearly minted National Lampoon in the USA. With Photo Funnies (strip cartoons but using photographed models), magazine parodies, comics that ran for several pages, and prose including comedy and science fiction. The brainchild of Piotr Olszewski, Rats was a bright burning but short-lived star in a Melbourne waking up to years of 6 PM closings and barren city streets every Sunday. As a magazine, it was funny, insightful and provocative but more importantly gave comic creators a lot more space to show off their wares. It was not uncommon for comics to run up to eight pages  and run in consecutive issues. Artists included Laurel Olszewski drawing to her brother’s scripts. Neil McClean, D R Rigby, Andre Dzatiek and the mysterious and prolific MOLL. Colin Stevens’ Purity Pecker and Jon Parkridge’s WOMB-MAN ran in multiple issues as well as Gerald Carr’s Aussie Fan. A smarter version of Barry McKenzie whose hilarious adventures involved supernatural and Sci-Fi themes and was so very Aussie.

High Times demise was short-lived because Phillip Fraser released the similar The Digger

The Digger was a counterculture magazine published once again in  Melbourne in 48 issues between August 1972 and December 1975. It was a natural progression for the editor/publisher. The Digger was more political than the previous publications, whilst still addressing counterculture issues such as lifestyle and music with less emphasis on comics/cartoons. Sure there were the odd Ron Cobb and Peter Dickie editorial panels but the extent of new talent was lacking with the first two years only having a full-page comic drawn by Ian McCausland. This model was interrupted all so briefly when in issue #3 of 1973 a two-page cavalcade of comics appeared featuring Patrick Cook, Bob Daly, MOLL, Neil McClean, Peter Lillee and Ken Murray and a few more. This was never to be repeated. As it continued even the editorial cartoons vanished and it was reported that Neil McClean wouldn’t contribute due to the ”black ball” censorship of his work by the editorial group. Meaning only one had to disapprove and the work was rejected. After issue 19 McCausland no longer contributed and the final page comic was taken over by various artists such as Carol Porter. Neil McClean and Martin Sharpe made the odd appearance then Bob Daley who ran with it almost exclusively until the closure of the paper

Double page poster from LIVING DAYLIGHTS by Ian McCausland 

Another counter culture street press of the period, which many had high hopes for was Living Daylights, due to the involvement of Richard Neville and Martin Sharpe freshly back from finishing OZ Magazine in London. Returning home after a crippling court case for obscenity charges closed it down. The Living Daylights was a national paper that included a major capital city gig guide that was established also in Melbourne and only ran from  October 1973 till April 1974 but made better use of the talent available to other papers like The Digger. Martin Sharpe, Ian McCausland, and Neil McClean (all who left The Digger to work on the paper) supplied full page sometimes middle-page spreads of splash page comics which doubled as pin-ups. Martin Sharpe during this period would draw some of his iconic pieces. Eternity, Land of Sweeping Plains, and Bennelong’s Revenge. The paper also featured Peter Dickie as the editorial cartoonist whose work was becoming a cross between Gerald Scarfe and Ralph Steadman with his brutal caricatures and harsh bold pen work and was a highlight of the paper along with the wonderful poster work. For some unknown reason, the paper also featured one-offs in the early issues of a single-page horror comic by Dave Gibbons of Watchman fame and a random page from a  Gilbert Shelton Furry Freak Brothers comix from Rip Off Press.

The Living Daylights ceased when it was incorporated into the Nation Review which was its parent publication. Other papers of the time were Loose Licks a free press broadsheet that ran from Autumn 1975 till Spring 1976 by Rats creator Piotr Olszewski and featured a full-page comic by Ian McCausland.

Cane Toad Times No.5 The infamous 

Phantoad cover 1978

Meanwhile, in 1977 in the state of Queensland, Punk attitudes and the rule of Premier Joh Bjelke Petersen inspired writers and cartoonists to publish their own counter-culture/ revolutionary paper, The Cane Toad Times. The paper was named after an ugly introduced pest, which many associated with Bjelke Petersen who was born in New Zealand. Its first issue was a mix of reviews, views and cartoons. The comic section featured reprints of classic Krazy Kat and Robert Crumb strips. But also featured local artists Bill Thorpe and Matt Mawson. Just placed at the bottom of the page as a filler in this issue is a Gerald Carr half-page comic ridiculing Princess Anne and her then-husband Mark Phillips. He signed it “Gerald Carr Republic”. The trend of using US comics continued in the following issues with Zippy creator Bill Griffiths. By issue #3 things almost become anthology-like, with Bill Thorpe taking the lead with a six-page sequential story called Rugby League Uranium Match and Damian Ledwich and Matt Mawson running one-page comics. The paper became a tabloid-sized publication by its fourth issue in late 1977 and new artists and their works were aplenty. Most being single-page comics. Works by Robert Wyatt and Tim Low joined Matt Mawson who seemed to do most of the heavy lifting with three and a half pages. Just about every strip political in nature. The paper ran out of steam by late 1978 when main creative Matt Mawson left. The paper made a resurgence in 1983 and ran to 1988 folding after witnessing the fall of the Bjelke Petersen Government it rallied against so hard.

THE FUNNY PAGES

On the serious side of the daily newspapers, the editorial cartoonists were booming but it was not what the kids were looking at. During the 1970s the Australian newspaper comics held their own. Stacked neatly on top of each other in single rows of two or more panels Aussie strips were mingled evenly with syndicated giants such as Garth, Fred Bassett, Hagar the Horrible, Footrot Flats, Peanuts, B.C and the Wizard of ID.

Snake Tales by SOLS Sunday Supplement version Mid 70s

Mainstays during this period would include Basil by Gerrard Lants, Ben Bowyang by Peter Russel Clarke, and The Potts by Jim Russell in the Melbourne Herald.  Bluey & Curley by Les Dixon, Ossie by Geoff Augustine, Snake byAlan Salisbury (Sols) in the Melbourne Sun.  Lucky Cat by Theo Batten, the Warrumbungers by Ken Emerson in the Sydney Sun-Herald. The Digeridoos by Ralph Peverill and On the Rocks also by Ken Emerson in the Sydney Sun and Lafferty by Stephen Stanley in the Adelaide Advertiser. To name but a small few as the list is huge. Things even got better on Sundays when the funny pages usually became a four to eight-page coloured cartoon fest with extended panels for popular strips like Snake and the more elaborate comics like Monty Wedd’s Ned Kelly and Bold Ben Hall getting a run. Snake was so popular it had a successful run of collected works in paperback that sold massive amounts. It would be remiss of me not to mention the legendary John Dixon, whose AirHawk also was a major feature of the Sunday supplements. It was the strip that he left comic books in the 1960s to concentrate on.

Characters like Ginger Meggs, Bluey & Curley, and Ben Bowyang continued after their original creators either retired or died such was the popularity of the comic strip.

Whereas today newspaper strips have just about all but disappeared. Soon it may even be the newspapers themselves.

End of Part One

References at end of Part Two